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Part 1: Meditation, Theory and Practice Ya Devī Sarva Bhūteṣu Śānti Rūpeṇa Saṃsthitā | Namastasye Namastasye Namo Namaḥ | Ya Devī Sarva Bhūteṣu Mātṛ Rūpeṇa Saṃsthitā | Namastasye Namastasye Namo Namaḥ | Salutation to the Cosmic Mother. She is mercy. She is kindness. She is our wisdom and our strength. She is peace, and she is our mother. My adoration to the Cosmic Mother. Within that Cosmic Mother and Cosmic Self there is no duality. You may call it God or Mother. May she bless us all. Good evening, dear sisters and brothers. In the presence of the Cosmic Light, I welcome you and bless you in the name of the Cosmic Self. All my dear sisters and brothers around the world—spiritual seekers and practitioners—a beautiful good evening. This blessing is coming to you from our ashram in the beautiful city of Brisbane, Australia. Perhaps you have morning there. Good morning, and God bless your whole day. Peace be with us. The subject: Meditation, Theory and Practice. After many years of practicing meditation, after practicing many yoga postures in daily life, after long and systematic step‑by‑step practice of the breath exercise of prāṇāyāma, it becomes clear what it means to be human. In the morning when we get up, we open our eyes and see some holy pictures of God—whomever you believe in. God has no name, God has no form. He is omniscient, omnipresent, but we humans gave him name and form. So it does not matter which God you believe in. Or if you do not believe, then see the beautiful faces of your parents, your loving child, or look to the beautiful flowers in the garden—some harmonious, peaceful symbol. You may not have a garden; you may live in a high‑rise building, but you can have in your sleeping room some harmonious picture. That will immediately give positive energy. The first impression will guide your day and your evening. Very important is what you see when, after sleep, you open your eyes. Second, think—just for a few seconds: I am human. What makes me human? And then you step out from your bed. Before you step on this Mother Earth: “My salutation to thee, O Mother Earth. Give me solid and sure ground, and lead my each step towards love, peace, and harmony. May I walk so that each step is as if I walk to my God—whether to my temple, ashram, church, mosque, wherever.” The holy friend from Assisi said, “Lord, make me an instrument of peace, that I may bring peace where there is unhappiness.” May I bring happiness, may I bring the certainty we feel when we step out of bed. Mother, allow me. These are the thoughts that make humans alert, aware, happy, and free from anxiety. Mother, may I not be a burden upon you. You go to your bathroom, or perhaps first to your coffee machine. When you touch water for the first time in the morning, say, “Thank you, God, for this water element.” How beautiful it is when you take water in your hands and wash your hands or your face. It is beautiful. Then you do whatever you do—taking a shower, shaving, putting on makeup, so many activities. What makes me human? What are the human qualities? We have two kinds of qualities within us: Devī Śakti and Āsurī Śakti—the divine energy and the negative energy, like devas and asuras, what some call satanic. Where the divine energy awakens, the devic energy, you have understanding, love, kindness, clear thinking, positive thinking, positive will. If the negative energy awakens—both are inside—you become angry, jealous, greedy, proud, with dominating feelings. These are waves of energy that pull us, like wind pulling a boat in another direction. They are two mighty horses pulling the coach of our consciousness, the coach of our intellect. Now, how to cultivate, how to awaken that energy which will make me happy and others happy, keep me healthy, and let me live in harmony and peace without anxieties? There are many techniques given to humans by God, holy incarnations, and holy saints, no matter which country. In every holy book it is written about love, service, kindness. No holy book will say, “Hate others, be jealous, be angry.” No. There is oneness in everything. How to purify those negative energies? First is prayer. When you pray, you have direct consultation with your God. God listens to you—carefully, He listens. Prayer means surrendering. It is easy to bend the knee, but very hard to surrender the heart. Prayer should be from the heart. With what love? Like the love of a father or mother feeding milk to a newborn child only days or weeks old. Similarly, God takes care of those who surrender through prayer. Second, do good things. Help. A helping hand has more value than merely folded hands. That will create positive energy and positive feelings within you. Practice your mantra, practice your yoga exercises with the feeling that you are giving to the world. It is not that you need the world, but the world needs us. It is not that your family loves you and needs you—no, we need the family. We need the tree. We need the water. We need. But not only that: they need us too. Therefore, “Lord, each and every breath I breathe is for you. Every drop of blood exists to serve others.” That is the feeling when we do things positively. That will awaken the positive energy. That is the way we become a holy saint. That energy in your hands will be healing energy; your words will be healing words; your appearance will be like a light in the darkness. Mahāprabhujī kī Karatā Mahāprabhujī kī Karatā… What is for a human to do? I am human. What makes me human? That I am kind, helpful, forgiving, understanding. Then our life becomes very comfortable, very easy—though we live in a world that is called a troublesome world. Nowadays, to live spiritually in this world is like living in a lake full of crocodiles. To work for spirituality, we have to live like a tongue between teeth. Yes, we see throughout history that those who work for spirituality or peace often become victims. But later, all remember and weep. See, it had to be so—what were the last days of Jesus? Now we cry for him, now we feel pain, but at that time we too were human, ignorant. So meditation brings us to our self, that our self may understand the divine self, and that divine self will bless us to become one with the divine. Practicing in a group is more important than just practicing alone at home, on the beach, or in the forest. For example, imagine a piece of magnet and a piece of iron. The iron is not a magnet, but we want to make it a magnet. We bring the iron and touch it to the magnet. It gains the energy, the power of the magnet. Has it become like a magnet? Now, to test, we take a needle and touch it to this magnetized iron. Will the needle acquire magnetic energy and remain hanging? Yes. So it is when we come to a harmonious place. “I lead my spiritual life. I must always”—because of my experience—when I come to the ashram, or go to church, temple, or any holy place, I feel there is a magnet, and that magnetism comes to me. I become like that. There is a small story: there was a statue made of salt that wanted to know how deep the ocean is. Someone said, “About fifty meters.” Another said, “If you go half a kilometer far, you will be nearly two hundred meters deep.” Someone else said, “Two kilometers deep, two thousand meters.” The salt statue said, “I cannot understand. Everyone has a different opinion.” And this is like what Hinduism says, what Christianity says, what Islam says. Sometimes we are confused. They are all telling the truth, but we cannot accept it. Then a wise man came and asked, “What are you all discussing?” The salt statue replied, “My friend, I would like to know how deep the ocean is.” He said, “Yes, my dear. The best way to find out is to jump in yourself. Go to the bottom and then come and tell us.” We are all still waiting on the beach for that salt statue to come back—because it melted into the ocean. Similarly, when we go to that divine consciousness within us, suddenly there is no difference. It is said, “When I was here, he was not here.” He is here, but I am not there. Why? The street of love is so narrow that two cannot walk together. Two must become one. When this oneness develops in our heart and consciousness, our intellect becomes one with that. And that develops the divine qualities within us—what we spoke about the chakras. In the body there are thousands of energy centers. According to yogic science and yogic anatomy, there are 72,000 nerves in this body. Each nerve has an energy point, like a chakra—thousands of them. This morning I gave an example: in acupuncture, when a needle is placed at a point called a reflex zone or power point, you see on a monitor the other needle moving. If the correct center is not found, the needle moves only forty percent. Then the acupuncturist leaves the needle in for a while and sends extra energy; you will be surprised that the needle then goes down one hundred percent. That is because the point he was touching—perhaps on the ear, face, or finger joints—was dormant, blocked. Energy was not flowing freely. So the prāṇāyāma breath technique is that subtle energy that flows through the body, and the subtle centers responsible for it I call cakra. Chakra means a cycle, a circle, a wheel. Energy always moves in a circle. Everything is like a zero. As you have seen in the video, energy is moving throughout the whole body. In the Vedas, the Holy Vedas, among the first scriptures existing in human societies on this planet, “Veda” means knowledge. It says, “Yathā Brahmāṇḍe Tathā Piṇḍe.” What exists in the entire universe exists in the human body. Astral traveling—first you have to travel through your body. We know only ten percent about our body; ninety percent of its mystery, its divinity, we do not know. Meditation will guide you, and you will enjoy making your astral traveling within your body. Suddenly you will not know whether you are beyond Jupiter or in your body. It becomes one; there are no more boundaries. It is beyond everything: happiness, joy, freedom, no fears. Out of these 72,000 nerves, three nerves are balancing, guiding, or governing the entire body’s function, and these energy centers recharge the tissues with cosmic energy. I chanted at the beginning, “Yā Devī Sarva Bhūteṣu.” This Devī means God, Mother God. Yā Devī Sarva Bhūteṣu: Sarva means everywhere, Bhūta means in every living being and in every element. She is everywhere. Where there is energy, there is everything; where there is no energy, there is nothing. When energy and consciousness come together, life begins. Then come the five bhūtas or tattvas: space, ether, fire, air, water, and earth. On this planet where we are living—a living planet—the five elements are alive: fire, air, water, earth, and space. That cosmic mother, this Devī, is in everyone. How? “Dayā Rūpeṇa Saṃsthitā”—Dayā, mercy. We say, “Holy Mother Mary, Thy mercy.” Jesus, Thy mercy. Krishna, Thy mercy. Or you can say your parents, your friends. When your friend is very angry with you and asks, “What do you want—your mercy?” then all ego, all temperament, all anger fall into the water. So it is. But for meditation and all this development, you need a master. Even for driving a car you need a driving instructor. Learning electrical work, you need an electrician who can explain. Any profession in this modern civilization requires a professor or a teacher. That is why we created schools, high schools, colleges, universities, and higher education. Why? Suppose you have a book written by a world-famous surgeon, describing how to perform a heart bypass. Yet you still need a teacher to guide you practically. Likewise, for the inner journey, a master is essential. Part 2: The Spiritual Science of Meditation and Selfless Action Very clearly, the instrument and the picture and everything. Now you read it—very good. You go to the medical shop and buy the tools and instruments, and come home and tell your father, “My dear father, I know how to do a bypass. Will you let me do it?” Your father will say, “Yes, my dear child, but I think this time we’ll let it be made by the surgeon.” Similarly, the same thing applies to spirituality. If you don’t understand, if you don’t practice, then different energies awaken in your body. And that’s the cause that many people who begin to practice—though they are practicing 10 years, 20 years, 50 years—do not understand what it is. So, there is one more story. Can I tell you one little story? I think if you have children at home, they will be happy. They will tell you, “Mom, what story did Swamījī tell you today?” There was one man who took his small boat and went out on the ocean. But before going to the ocean, he met a very wise person, a person who had a lot of experience in life and some siddhi, some powers, like our Dhanamarāj is sitting here. So he said, “Where are you going, my friend?” He said, “I am going sailing on the sea, and I decided to be there for ten days.” “Okay, take enough water and take some food, and so on.” He said, “Yes, this and that, I have everything.” But he said, “I give you something. May you will need it.” He said, “Yes, what is that?” “This little machine, a grinder, you know, that all the time with the hand you were grinding the coffee, fresh coffee beans and seeds. If you need something, you try to turn this grinder and tell the grinder, ‘Grinder, give me this, I need it.’ And it will go then automatically, and it will produce bread, butter, cheese, everything.” “Oh, that’s fine, thank you very much.” He took it. After five days, he was somewhere in the middle of the ocean, and he had bread and everything nice he wanted to eat, to make a picnic. But he wanted to put some salt on it, and there was no salt anymore. So he took this machine, coffee grinder, and said this mantra: “Grinder, grinder, please produce some salt.” And the machine begins to produce the salt. Now, but he did not get a mantra on how to stop. So he’s producing salt and producing salt, and that’s how the ocean became salty. Till today, that is producing salt somewhere. So, when you practice something—exercises, meditations—then you should know how to complete, how to stop. And for that we need a master. We should know our border, never overdo. We should know our limitations. And so, in meditation, when we sit, we just become aware of our being. And we get motivation in our life to understand the world. And that’s what all holy saints did, they went to the monasteries, ashrams, or the caves, sitting and meditating. They do not make a lot of imagination. We are making imagination because we try to bring our thoughts to one point. We sit in meditation, and we are thinking differently. There was one man, and he was meditating every day. One day, he was late to meditate, so at 9:30 he went into his meditation room for a one-hour meditation. And he told his daughter-in-law, “Please, there will come one man. I give appointment to meet me at 10 o’clock. But I am late, I have to meditate, so give him a cup of tea or something, good hospitality, and tell him that in half an hour I will be with him.” So he was meditating, and after half an hour, the man came. He rang the bell, she opened the door, he asked for her father-in-law. She said, “Yes, please come in, take a seat. Where is your father-in-law?” She said, “Yes, he went shopping. He wants to buy shoes.” Purījī, Purījī... She said, “Excuse me, Father, but at that time you were thinking and searching the shoe market, wondering which shoe is better for you.” He said, “Yes, you are right. But how do you know this, that what I was thinking? I am meditating every day, and I don’t know what you are thinking. Which techniques did you do? What are you practicing?” And she simply answered, “Father, I practice yoga and Delhi.” So that’s how someone is fighting for power, siddhis, but it comes from itself. So practice, practice, practice makes the master. No expectations. When you have too much expectation, then expectation leads to disappointment. Just do it. Just do your Seva. That’s all. Karma kī jā phala degā bhagavān, ye hai gītā kā jñāna. Karma kī jā phala degā bhagavān. Go ahead, do your service. The fruits will give, God will give you the fruits. This is the teaching of the Bhagavad Gītā. Do the seva. Do not expect the fruits. They will come. God will give you everything. Just be the tool in the hands of God. So, how can we meditate and find our inner peace and achieve everything in our life? So when you get up, greet and take permission from the holy Earth, the holy Mother. Then you go to the water, you feel this divine element of the water. Can you imagine life without water? Be gentle to all elements. You don’t know how much strength every element has. The water begins to move. The flood can wash away or damage your whole house. You had a very nice flood this year, no? Many people were experiencing how to walk in the water, or hurricanes, or tsunamis. What is that? These are the imbalances in the elements. But such a tsunami also exists within humans, sometimes in their heart and in their intellect. That’s called destructive power. There are some people who like to make problems. I call them problem makers. They cannot sleep unless they have created some problem for someone. There are, and if they didn’t find someone to do some problems, they will dial some numbers, and some night at two o’clock, someone answers. “Yes, sir, who is speaking?” “Don’t ask me who I am speaking to, stupid, bloody man. Go and sleep.” And he put it down. “Now I have created power. Now I can sleep.” There are people; this is the satanic power, disturbing, troubling. So it is said that if you cannot clean the thorns from the path of all, at least don’t plant the thorns there. This is our entire being. So this is the science, the spiritual science for humans to achieve the final goal of human life. So, my dear sisters and brothers, this is today’s little theory, and now we will do some, okay, āsana. So, we have a five or ten minute interval. So, if someone wants to wash their hands or something, you are welcome. In ten minutes we will begin. And until then, our dear brothers and sisters in different parts of the world, I don’t think they will take an interval. So, we will play for you bhajan and sing for you bhajan. Okay, remain with us in nine minutes. I will be with you. Adió. Please sing the bhajan. So, will you point the camera to the singer? Please. Thank you. Dīpa Nirañjana Sabādhukabhan Prabhudīpa Nirañjana Sabādhukabhan Isī Mantrase Hove Mana Mañjana Isī Mantra Hove Mana Mañjana Śrī Dīpa Nirañjana Sabādhukabhan Prabhudīpa Nirañjana Sabādhukabhan Isī Mantra Se Prabhudīpa Nirañjanā Sabhā Dukha Isī Mantra Se Prabhudīpānirañjana Īṣī Mantra Se Prabhu Dīp Karatā Mahāprabhujī Dīp Karatā He Kevalam This is a spiritual lecture about Yoga in the Indian tradition. Thank you, Hari Om. So, we will have a few minutes of meditation. Adjust yourself in such a comfortable way that you will not feel discomfort during the meditation. We will chant Om one time, and close your eyes now, please. If it is not necessary, do not open your eyes. Remain with closed eyes during the whole meditation. Be aware of your breath. Feel the breath, and during the chanting of the Aum, withdraw yourself from the external world and become aware of your being here in this hall. We will chant Aum once. Deep inhale and relax. Relax your breath process. Be aware of your being here in this hall. Relax your body. No tensions. If you want to change your posture, you may do so. But during the meditation, make sure that you do not feel discomfort. Relax. Feel your whole body, from the toes to the top of the head, and from the top of the head to the toes. Relax your neck, relax your face muscles, relax your eyelids, relax your jaw, relax your fingers and elbows, so that your shoulders are also relaxed, and try to relax your stomach muscles. Feel your body, that your body is relaxed and comfortable, and feel the motionlessness of the body. When your body is motionless, then your prāṇa energy will move through the whole body easily. And now, bring your awareness to the breath. Become aware that you know you are inhaling, and you know that you are exhaling. Let it flow, the breath as natural as it is. Do not change the breath rhythm. I know that I’m inhaling, and I know that I’m exhaling. Concentrate on the deep. Siddhāra Siddhāra... Contraction with the breath rhythm. Be relaxed. Let your stomach muscles be relaxed. Just feel how breath is moving in and out. Descending breath and descending breath. Where the navel is, there is a seat of the Maṇipūra Cakra. Mani means jewel. It is the center of the jewel. This chakra is like a generator, which is generating prāṇa or hāṛā, the hāṛā energy. Imagine a disc which is rotating and producing the energy that is supporting your digestive fire, that’s supporting your solar plexus, that helps to distribute this cosmic energy through the whole body, as well as the physical energy which we consume through the nourishment, solid and liquid nourishment. During the time of the inhalation, your whole body is sucking in the cosmic energy. It is concentrated on the Maṇipūra Cakra, the navel, and then you let it flow. Then it flows into the different parts of the body—different organs, glands, muscles—the whole body relaxes. And now, bring your awareness to the center of the chest, where the heart, the Anāhata Cakra, is. Anahata means limitless, without boundary. Nada is the sound, the cosmic resonance. Through this cosmic resonance, energy flows towards your body. Not the Rūpa of Parabrahma. That cosmic resonance is the form of the Supreme, and that is resonating through that Divine Mother, Divine Energy. The energy is controlled and received through the solar center. It’s purified in the heart center in the form of Mother’s love. Purity, harmony, peace, understanding, and compassion. So sees the light and the goddess of our hearts. One who does not have mercy, love, or understanding, that means the person’s heart is like a stone. Energy purifies. Now, feel your breath from the throat to the navel and from the navel to the throat, ascending and descending, beautiful like a flow of light. It’s like the flow of very pure water, it’s like a stream or the... Flow of the oil, Viśuddhi Cakra. “Viś” means the poison, and “śuddha” means purification. That’s near the vocal cord, and that flows and purifies the thyroid gland. All our sweet and bitter experiences of life are harmonized and purified in the Viśuddhi Cakra. For a few minutes, let your breath flow as naturally as it is. You are inhaling through the nose and exhaling without sound through the mouth. Carefully listen, please, to this kriyā, this meditation technique. It will help you very much. Ascending breath, light flows in from the nostrils, comes to the Agñyā Cakra, goes to the vocal cord, down the heart, touching the heart cakra. And coming to the manifold expanding of the abdominal muscles or abdomen, and exhaling comes pure energy again. You exhale through the mouth, and you exhale, you feel the warm air on your lower lip. When you inhale, you feel very gentle air flowing through the bow nostril. You exhale, and it’s bringing all the toxins out through the exhalation. Three chakras or energy centers—the navel, the heart, and the throat—are near the vocal cords, the thyroid. In the next step of the meditation, this light will reach the Ājñā cakra, but you will not experience it as long as you have not purified these three cakras. Inhale and feel all the beauty, all the harmony of the universe and this world is within you and uniting in you. Exhaling, you let all purify. Maybe in some corner of your heart, or in your intellect or consciousness, maybe some dot of negative energy. Feel that you are the mother. All sitting here, male and female, in these minutes you are the mother, the giver of this divine energy to the world. And that consciousness which is dwelling in this phenomenon is the father, perfect harmony. Inhale normal and natural through the nose, and exhale through the mouth. Now, while inhaling, feel consciously the energy, the light, and while exhaling, try to give this light and energy to the world, pure energy. Again, exhale through the nose and inhale also through the nose. As far as you can think, around the whole world and all creatures, the entire vegetation, oceans, lakes, rivers, and ponds, the life of the ocean, the birds, animals, humans, and our dear ones, your exhalation is like your blessing. You are blessing the entire world. Yes, you can. This divine light which you have is not yours. It is God’s light. And with this, three times deep inhale and exhale, become extrovert. Deep inhale, and once we will chant “Aum” and three times the mantra “peace, prashanti.” Slowly move your fingers, open the palms, close the fists, open the palms, close the fists, and rotate your fists. Stretch your elbows and hold your hands, rub the hands, rub your palms, and place your palms on the face. Open your eyes.