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My dear brothers and sisters around the world, good evening. Blessings are coming to you from Viśwa Gurudev Āśram, Jaipur, in Holy Bhārat. Welcome, dear spiritual seekers, practitioners of Yoga, and practitioners of spirituality in daily life. Today, we are again very happy and blessed that among us is our dear friend and brother, respected Dr. Gulābjī Kothārī. On the first day, he gave a lecture on expectation and disappointment—what expectation creates in us and what creates disappointment. The next talk was about being like a tree that bears fruit, where a seed multiplies into the numberless. That seed, which will multiply, has to turn into its guṇa parmā. The seed has to die, but it doesn't die; it gives its life to all. That is the sound. Yesterday we had wonderful questions and answers, and the chief of the imam was here. You can also see that in the webcast. Finally, in the Vedas it is said—and Gulābjī is going to give his thoughts and explanations about that nāda, the sound—that Nāda Rūpa Parabrahma Bhagavān kā svarūpa va nāda hai, va dhvani hai, va āvāj hai. I wish you a very pleasant and good evening. I will come to you, dear brothers and sisters, after Gulābjī's talk. Thank you, and all the best. Enjoy. We are discussing the purpose of life: how to make this life purposeful, peaceful, and on a pure humanitarian level. Let us start from when there was nothing on this earth, in this universe. What was there? Sometimes you might have seen those calendars where Viṣṇu is lying on the Śeṣanāg, as Śeṣaśāyī in the Kṣīrasāgara. Lakṣmī is sitting close to his feet. Nārada, some of the ṛṣis, Garuḍa—they are all standing side by side. This is pure. If you decode this, you know what was there in the beginning of the universe. This whole sky contains water. We call it Soma. And Viṣṇu is the Lord of Soma, the main prāṇa. These names are given just to identify one prāṇa from the other. But the main prāṇa of this sky, which contains water—those fine particles of water—is Viṣṇu. That means this is a fact: this universe is created out of Viṣṇu, by Viṣṇu. And the prāṇas, the ṛṣi prāṇas, are there to help this universe take a form. In the beginning, the form is very tiny, so tiny you can't even see it with any microscope. This first form, we say, is where Māyā—the energy—takes a portion from the sky, or the matter in the sky. This matter is called Brahma. Māyā encircles it, covers it, creates a center, creates a periphery, a limit, a form. This first creation of this universe is called Avya Puruṣa. When Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Gītā that He is the Avyākta Puruṣa, He is that first creation, the first form, because the sky is formless. We say Ṛta. From this formless, the first form is the avyākta puruṣa, and the first characteristic of this avyākta puruṣa is ānanda. That's why Kṛṣṇa says Kṛṣṇa is synonymous with ānanda. Vijñāna, mana, prāṇa, vāk—these are all its five characteristics. How to identify this avyakta-puruṣa with these five characteristics? We can identify this, and in day-to-day life, this is termed as the five pañcakośas, the five levels within our body. First, this body is called the annamayakośa, the gross body. Number two, inside, is the prāṇamayakośa. Then manomayakośa, vijñānamayakośa, and ānandamayakośa. Just in the center, the deepest core, is the Ānandamaya Kośa. This is the same Ānandamaya Kośa from the Avaya Puruṣa. There is a principle: manas, prāṇa, and vāk always remain together. You cannot separate them; they are inseparable. So when this mana has a desire—I told you in the beginning that the place of desire is only the heart, mana, nowhere else—when you have knowledge, desire needs knowledge. Without knowledge, there can be no desire possible. When I have the knowledge of something, then only I can desire that thing. Otherwise, it is not possible. But from where will this knowledge come? It will come from akṣara, śabda, language, sound. We call all this creation vāk, matter. Matter is known as vāk. So what is there? The gross, whatever you see in the universe, is all vāk. But let us see how this vāk can affect us, and how we can use this vāk to make this life purposeful. The characteristic of the sky, as I said earlier, is the nāda, the pure sound. This nāda has no form at all; it is also formless. From this formless, the same tiny first form we call is bindu. So whatever is created from this sky takes two roots. There are two categories of Vāk, two categories of matter. This is really important for us, all practitioners or aspirants. If we understand one category of this Vāk, we can understand the second category. Now, every day we talk about meditation, prāṇāyāma, āsanas, bhakti, devotion, desires. This is one worldly phase of this life, and we always find it difficult. Yesterday there was a question: one tries again and again in meditation but can't concentrate. It is the most difficult area, but there is a very simple area also, working on the same principle. And this is the area of sound. So, in the universe, there are two categories of matter before us. One we call it earth vāk, the material substances which we can see, feel, and use—gross matter. It all comes under Goddess Lakṣmī. The same Lakṣmī we see sitting by the side of Lord Viṣṇu near his feet. She is the goddess of matter, the earth vāk, the material world, which has no life. It's all dead. But when you talk, there is another parallel universe: that of śabdvāka. We call it śabdvāka; you can just say it is the akṣara universe. In translation, akṣara means something that does not destroy. Indestructible is akṣara. This material world is also created from akṣara. Akṣara means the same prāṇa. Akṣara means the same as deva; they are all synonymous. So Goddess Lakṣmī is also Akṣarā, the Goddess, and that gives you one lineage of matter, gross matter. Goddess Sarasvatī is also Akṣarā, and she gives us another lineage of the spoken matter, you can say. It is a spoken universe controlled by Goddess Sarasvatī. Akṣara, Brahma, Akṣara will also come under the category of a human being. I will also tell you: Akṣara of our creation, all the souls that work within us, they are called Akṣara. They don't say it; their level is the same. The principle of work is the same. It is the same śraddhā, which is the creation of letters. After Avve Puruṣa, the creation of letters is formed. Akṣara Puruṣa is formed. Sūrya is the addition of our creation of letters. And from that creation of letters, the creation of words is formed. What is the difference? In Śabda Sṛṣṭi, from Bindu to Nāda—Nāda means formless sound—and from that formless sound, sound will be made. You see, a small child is crying; you cannot make a word out of it. There cannot be any form of it; only sound will be there. If there is electricity, you cannot see any form of it. This is called Anāhata Nāda. From this formless sound, we proceed to vowels and consonants. You see, our universe is created from duality: one on the masculine side, another on the feminine side. We say Agni, the fire, on the masculine side, and Soma on the feminine side. In the same way, these vowels, we call it Svarāj. Svaraj is all masculine side. Vowels and consonants, they are all on the feminine side. It is not possible to create any consonant without the help of a vowel. This is the first law, and if we understand this process of sound, I think we can get rid of most of our problems in moving towards liberation. This simple principle. How? Now let us see how it all happens. Inside our body, when you are creating a sound, trying to speak something, how does it happen? First, you want to speak because you have some information in your mind. Your mind, then your heart, desires to pass its sound. The first vowel we call 'A'. In English we say 'A'. Let us concentrate only on this one vowel, the first vowel in the alphabet. Can we feel from where this sound moves up and reaches the lips to come out? When a child is in the womb, from where does the child listen or get the sounds or the vibrations? There is no sound; we say vibrations from the navel. The child's navel is connected with the mother's navel. The navel is the center of getting all vibrations from around the universe, even until we die. You can test it anytime. Whenever you want to speak something, your sound starts from the navel. It doesn't start from anywhere else. It has to start from the navel, and then it moves up to the throat, where it forms the first vowel. That first vowel we call again the Avayā Puruṣa or Kṛṣṇa, whatever name you give it. This is the first vowel. This air from your throat, your voice box, goes and strikes upwards, either in the brain or in the mouth. Accordingly, there will be the pitch of the sound; all the dimensions or forms are taken after that. And when, after hitting all those areas, the same sound enters the mouth, then again we have five places where the tongue can touch inside the mouth. We create five into five, twenty-five types of consonants. From the same single vowel 'A', whole alphabets are created in every language, because language is not just a medium. Language is pure science, working on the laws of nature. And the same laws of nature create the universe, all human beings, and all other lives on this earth. In this form, let us understand that we have four levels in our life, in our body. We call Adhyātma: body, mind, intellect, and soul. Therefore, sound also has these four levels. We call them Parā, Paśyantī, Madhyamā, Vaikharī. What we are speaking, which is audible, is Vaikharī, connected with the body. But when it starts from Mūlādhāra, Parā is something we cannot even think of, imagine, or describe. It's beyond all. But Paśyantī, Madhyamā, and Vaikharī all can be described, measured, and analyzed. In Vaikharī, what we see, the words and their meanings are separate. In Madhyamā, there are no words. There is no sound as such—again, you have only Anāhata. When you go to Paśyantī, there is no sound at all. Only visuals, only the light, when the meaning and the word become one. That is the stage we want to attain. But let us see how this sound works in life. How can we use this, which is the simplest thing? If you understand sound, you don't have to be literate. Even if you don't know how to read or write, you can use sound better than any literate person. You don't have to learn any meditation, āsana, or prāṇāyāma. Without going to all those complex things, if you learn these small principles of sound and practice them, you will see a lot of gain, a lot of benefit. Not only benefit, but you can achieve with minimum effort. What is needed, as I said, is commitment, continuity, and faith. These three factors. If we maintain them, we can use this sound—as I was talking to Dr. Sāhab yesterday—to attain our liberation, ātmā sākṣātkāra, in just one life. What he said yesterday was that you need somebody or some guru, even if you are committed to devotion. And what he just said: he just puts a word, a mantra, we call it. Why do we call it a mantra? Any word which is uttered at the sāttvic level, not the rājasic or tāmasic level, if it is uttered at the sāttvic level, then it becomes a mantra. We call it a mantra, which has a definition: a word that takes you, that clears all your problems away. You can sail through all difficulties, so it is, say, your bodyguard for this hundred years. But I say it in a different manner: when a guru gives you a mantra, the vibrations need to be felt. It is not the sound of the world. I told you that we have 33 alphabets and we have 33 gods. Each god has one alphabet, and this alphabet is called a Bīja Mantra. Bīja is seed. Bīja Mantra means this is the seed of one particular God—or God means one particular Prāṇa, the Akṣara Prāṇa. First, you have to be sure of all the characteristics of that Prāṇa which you are trying to achieve. If I have decided to take the Bīja Mantra of Gaṇapati but don't know the characteristic of Gaṇapati, I will not reach anywhere. Whichever God you select, you should know the form and characteristic of that God, because it will help you in your progress. And that mantra, when the Guru monitors that mantra, what we do—what you are all doing, chanting that mantra with that mālā, rosary—what is the effect of this chanting? From today onwards, spend 15 minutes. Last time I requested you to spend 10 minutes talking to yourself about yourself. Today I request you to spend 15 minutes only on chanting. There are three levels of chanting—chanting, we say japa in Hindi. One is, again, vācik, the spoken word which you say, "Oṃ, Oṃ..." which can be heard by somebody else. This we call vācik, spoken. The second is upāṃśu, which you just murmur. Only you can listen; nobody, even sitting side by side, can hear it. That we call Upāṁśu japa. The third one is Mānas, internalizing the mantra without any effort. You can still listen to the sound of the same mantra inside your body. You see, effort is also a big obstacle. Sometimes we try our best to keep quiet, silent, and that becomes a major obstacle to becoming silent. But when you start your mantra, your chanting, in the first five minutes, just by watching, make it vācik. Speak loudly: "Oṃ, Oṃ, Oṃ." For five minutes, just watch. In the second five minutes, go for Upañchu. There is also another support. If you are not able to concentrate, you can take support either by the picture of the God. You can close your eyes and see that picture of Gaṇapati, or whatever God, and chant your mantras, keeping that picture alive so you can concentrate on it and feel your mantra reaching the picture. It becomes meditation automatically. The second thing is, if you don't know the picture of God, then concentrate on the word mantra itself. Listen to that mantra yourself in your own ears. You say "Oṃ"; it should go in both your ears inside. Feel that you are listening to it, and then concentrate only on this mantra. You will feel that during Upāṁśu you get lost. Your breath has cooled down; it has become very slow because in Vācika your prāṇas are moving from your Iḍā and Piṅgalā, from both the nāḍīs. All the five prāṇas are working in the body: prāṇa, apāna, samāna, vyāna, udāna. So there is no difference you can feel. But when you come to Upāṁśu, suddenly you will feel a big change in your body. The body is becoming still, like in meditation, like your Śavāsana; it doesn't move. Slowly, it becomes motionless. So does your breathing; it also becomes very slow. Slowly, you may not know whether it is 5 minutes or 2 minutes. It depends only on your concentration. You will enter into Mānas Jap. In Mānas Jap, you will realize your body's nostrils are no more working. All the prāṇas now have entered your suṣumṇā, the central nervous system. All your gross breathing, all your five prāṇas are still, quiet. Your body is quiet. All your thought processes, you will see, also do not disturb you. In the next five minutes, you can see what life looks like at that level, because you are now in Paśyantī. When you are reaching the Manas Jap, you are in the Paśyantī. There is no sound. There is only Nāda without efforts. That is Anāhata Nāda, and we are now experiencing that Anāhata Nāda, which is so close to your self-realization. Because then Nāda automatically turns into the same tiny dot we call Bindu, and it merges with the universal center from where we started. Now, either you select this part of lifestyle where we learn about life, the body and thought, mind, intellect, spirit, study all those things and Aṣṭāṅga Yoga, or we learn this. Any of these two. Wherever you are stuck in one discipline, you can compare what you are missing. But I can tell you, through this chanting, regularity with full faith and commitment, most of us can achieve what we are aspiring for. Because, as I said, sound travels in circles. So when we sit down in a satsaṅg, what happens? Everybody is thinking on positive lines, on sāttvic lines. So each person's waves are crossing the other one's. There are layer after layer of positive sāttvic vibrations. These vibrations are very important to clear all our coverings, clear all our negativities, because we are all helping each other with positive pressure. You can see how sound is a vibration, and we all also have auras. Those auras are also vibrations, so all our transformation takes place even if we do not talk to each other, just by the intent, the intention to become pure. This level of vibration again circulates back from the earth and from the sun to your body. It enters again in the form of those five prāṇas from your brahmaṇḍa inside the body, and this is what is responsible for creating new desires in your heart. When you were asking yesterday how these desires are created, these desires are created in the heart like this: by your own environment, by your own chanting of those things. You are controlling your own vibrational level, emotional level, intentional level, and your own commitment to yourself, to devotion, to humanity, to your brotherhood or sisterhood. But it is only the sound which can enable you to reach, to attain what you are looking for. You don't have to study all those śāstras. I think you go and see Indian village people, how their faces still glow without any training, without any education, only by single faith. And faith is what we were describing: the love. Love is also faith. There is nothing in love except faith. If there is faith, there is love. If there is faith, there is commitment. If there is faith, there is life. There is a course of life, there is a destination, and I am sure we can stop here. I welcome questions from the floor so that all those who couldn't clear it, some people did not get it in English, anybody might have some more queries. Question: At the beginning, you mentioned the kośas: the Annamaya kośa, the Prāṇamaya kośa. Now I would like to know, how are these kośas influenced by sound? And how does, like, good sounds, like singing "Oṃ," influence the kośas? How does it harmonize the kośas? And I would like to know something about the humming sound, not the ordinary. Answer: Let us be very clear that all our activities are governed by vibrations. Even our body is governed by vibrations. All the five pañcatattvas are governed by vibrations, and vibration is also expressed in the form of sound. So in my body, there is nothing but sound. When this sound travels to the intellect, it's only vibrations inside, traveling to my emotions, only the vibrations, to my soul, only the vibrations. So when we see from sky onwards till this universe is created, everything is transformed only by vibrations, vibrations of sound, nothing else. So when you talk about Ānandamaya Kośa or any kośa, there are only vibrations. Because there are two different worlds: one is your material world, which is forming the five kośas, and another is the other world, which is a spoken, vibrational world altogether. These two are overlapping. All the changes in the five kośas are created by these vibrations. We have different principles further up, like how the annamaya kośa transforms us. We say, "Jesā khāve ann, jesā..." Khaave man—that means our heart, our desires follow what we eat. That's why we say eat vegetarian food or sāttvic food, so that our desires remain sāttvic. If you take tāmasic food, our desires will become tāmasic. But how? Because of vibration. The vibrations of sound travel from the annamaya kośa to inside continuously. It's a continuous process; it never stops. That means all transformations between physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual bodies take place only through these sound vibrations. So you don't have to learn separately how it functions in the body, how it functions in the intellect. Definitely, there is a lot of material, but it will be difficult to reply in just a small span of time. I can make those materials available to you; enough material is available on those areas. About this humming sound you said: when you move deeper from Upāṁśu to Mānasajap, the same thing, when you make a sound bigger, louder, it becomes Vācik. When you go to Upāṁśu, and then it turns into Mānasik, the humming sound continues. You can experience it. Listen to, say, a guitar. It has some number of wires; every wire will give you a different frequency, a different sound, and there will be music. But close your eyes and listen. There is another sound which is passing through all these seven notes, which is not part of these seven notes. Seven notes form the music, but with this music, there is a small, different type of music passing through, which is formless sound. This is the crux of all sounds. So, this humming sound, what does it do? It actually penetrates deeper and deeper, so it helps you in becoming more concentrated. It takes away all the deviations; it stops all the obstacles because it keeps you in one thought. So, it is the best tool I can say to be very concentrated. You can try: if there is no humming sound, your concentration will be low. When you go deeper and deeper into this, even your mantra, when you go into manas, it turns into a humming sound because you are not speaking anymore, and there is no sound you are making. So it's an automatic production of that sound, anāhata. It is like the bee, the humming sound. And that only decides the future course; that humming noise only will merge in the parā. Question: How is chanting of mantras connected to Swara Yoga? Could you please explain how, where, and when to chant? Which swara should flow? Answer: I think there is a science of Swara Yoga. But in my opinion, don't think about it. Don't just think about it. You just see that when you are chanting, both your nostrils are working. When you are entering, the speed is becoming slower and slower. Slowly, you will see they are not working. If you can understand only this much, you can be sure you are on the right path. That's all; it's enough to understand. Otherwise, if you go into sun and moon and all those depths, it will create... because then your attention will go only on Svara—where I am, where it is going. So your concentration from chanting will shift to understanding this Svara. Don't shift to any other knowledge, any other subject, so long as you are chanting. Try to concentrate your best without deviation. I tell you, that is the only way. The more you know about different things, they will all divert you from the main object. This is what I want to say. So, Svara Yoga, I say no. I will not advise. Today the time is over. Thank you very much. It is like that: knowledge is endless. There is a story of one ṛṣi, very nicely put into a film by the late Sri Kapur. One ṛṣi was having his tapasyā in the Himalaya many thousands of years ago. Thanks to God, we have only a little less than 100 years now. Can you imagine thousands of years passing and still nothing achieved? In a thousand years, we will have fifteen births, I think. When he became very old and weak, still, Dharmarāja, the great saint, said he had made a lot of tapasyā and now should be brought to liberation, to heaven, to Brahmaloka. They came and said, "Ṛṣi, now you have to come with us." The ṛṣi said, "Please, no. Why? Still I have to study the Vedas." "How many years?" "Fifteen thousand more." So for fifteen thousand more years, he was studying. When finished, again Dharmarāja sent a messenger. He said no, still not finished. Once more, three or four times, he asked to prolong his life. Then Dharamrāj said, "Try to explain to him that he comes because he is so great, he achieved so many things." He sent the sandals. So again, Dharmarāja sent someone: "Ṛṣi, now is really time to go." He said, "I haven't learned all; there is so much to learn." Then Dharmarāja's messenger said to the Ṛṣi, "Now stretch your hands towards the mighty Himālaya." He spread his hands, and a strong wind came, and dust, like a sandstorm, and some grains of sand fell into his palms. The messenger said, "What is in your hands?" "Just a little dust." "From where?" "From the Himalayas." He said, "Ṛṣi, what you have learned in so many thousand years is only like a little dust. What you have to learn on this planet is like the mighty Himalaya. Therefore, just simple: one in all and all in one. So please come with me." He said, "Okay." Anyhow, there are signs, as he said. There are svara yogas, there are Iḍā, Piṅgalā, Suṣumnā, or sun, moon. Everything has its own subject. It takes time to understand first and to practice correctly. But in India we say, if one can die through the sugar, why do you give the poison? So don't create complication. Just receive the knowledge with positive vibration. What Gulābjī said in the beginning: there are three—if your master or teacher or anyone gives you mantra or advice with sāttvic quality, or rājasic quality, or tāmasic quality. Always the master, mother, father, and your best friend will give you sāttvic advice. It will calm down your brain, thoughts, your intellect, and your heart will be filled with love for the entire universe. That is the sattvic. If someone speaks to you and creates fire in your head, anger, hate, then it is rājasik. And if someone gives you thoughts and you become dull, manipulated, then you are only that dull, and you go round and round but can't get rid of those thoughts. Therefore, clarity comes from those sāttvic satsaṅgs. So, Gulābjī, thank you very much for such a beautiful explanation about nāda. And you know, the nāda is the entire universe. So now you have time to take off into the nothingness. Then, when you come back and say, "Gulābjī, but there is nothing," it was, "I told you there is nothing. Why did you try so hard?" Anyhow, thank you, Gulābjī, for giving your very precious time and your wisdom. And especially, my dear, our dear friends listening, all as parents, seekers of spirituality, practitioners of yoga and their life, or any path—all are welcome to our website, Yoga and Del Life, or www.swamiji.tv, where you can hear Gulābjī many times, not only from these last few days but from the last few years. On YouTube you can look; there are many beautiful lectures given by him in different parts of the world with me in different countries. Thank you very much for coming, and wish you all the best, good luck, and God's blessing. Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ,... Bhavatu, Hari Om.