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Part 1: The Contented Self and the Power of Intellect Those who possess this knowledge are called Tṛpta-Ātmā. It means the Jīvātmā has no more desires, that the Jīvātmā has no ambition, that the Jīvātmā is one with its divine self. Out of 8.4 million different creatures—Yalchar, Thalchar, and Nabchar—from all this, the one with intellect is the human, which has a very strong, very clear Vijñānamaya Kośa, the intellect. In a certain way, every creature has a kind of intellect, but just to survive. The human’s intellect, however, is one of the most powerful tools through which the human works, in which the human is creative, and through which the human can achieve life’s goal. This individual soul and Ātmā are different. Ātmā is one. Ātmā is eternal. Ātmā is the universal one. But as Jīvātmās, we are all different. This Jīvā, from ages and ages, flutters on the waves of time, through the entire universe, sometimes through darkness and light, experiencing pain, pleasure, happiness, sorrows, and so on. But finally, by the mercy or Kṛpā of the Paramātmā, the Supreme One, this Jīvātmā received a most beautiful body that’s called the human body. Regarding the human body, it is said in the Veda, "Yatha Brahmāṇḍe Tatha Piṇḍe." What exists in the universe exists in the human body. And what does not exist in the human body does not exist in the universe. All the visible and invisible elements have their own qualities and their own effect on the different parts of the universe. Some we understand, some we still cannot understand. Similarly, this body, the individual phenomenon of the human, is endless too. When we speak about astral traveling, when we speak about meditation, and one goes far to different Lokas, it means first within our self. Do not limit your body, do not limit yourself. Just as this body can be 1.8 meters or less, or can be 2 meters too. The human phenomenon is very wondrous, miraculous, and it has all. Yatha Brahmāṇḍe, Yatha Piṇḍe. In the universe there are all kinds of forces, Āsurī Śaktis. They are also concentrated in the body, the hidden powers in humans. In certain parts of the body, in certain Cakras, in each and every tissue of the body, there is immense power, immense energy in the human body. And all this is influenced, first, as we spoke, by our physical nourishment, the solid and the liquid nourishment. "Jaisā khāyegā an, vaisā rahegā man." What kind of food you take, like that your mind will act. But in the food, there should be the Sāttvic qualities. Though in our body, the three Guṇas are always present: Tamas Guṇa, Rajas Guṇa, and Sattva Guṇa. These three Guṇas, these three qualities, are influencing all five Kośas at all times. So you cannot get rid of them, and it is not good to get rid of them. Even the Tamas Guṇa is very important for our existence. Otherwise, God would not connect the Tāmasic Guṇas with our body or with our Kośas. But the Yogīs used to say, "Which Guṇa is dominating in you?" That is very important for both parts of our physical body, mental body, and subtle body. When we speak about bodies, there are four different kinds: the physical body (Sthūla Śarīra), the mental body, the subtle body, and the causal body. These are the four different bodies, but one within these is that called, when we come to the Kośas, then there is a Vijñānamaya Kośa too. Vijñānamaya Kośa purely speaks about the intellect, and the intellect is dormant power. In a human, the intellect is dormant. It needs education, it needs training, it needs experiences. Certain animals also have these abilities; you can teach them, you can train them, but a human’s intellect is endless. You can develop and develop. What we see, "Jaisī dṛṣṭi, vasisī dṛṣṭi." What kind of visions you have, what kind of objects and colors you see, what you see with your eyes—Jaisī dṛṣṭi. Dṛṣṭi means our look, what you see. Like that, gold will appear to you, because in our Dṛṣṭi there is one tendency, and that tendency is called interest. That interest is something you are longing for. You would like to know what that is. If I tell you now, "I have something in my fist, something beautiful," then everyone will look toward my fist, but you do not know what is inside. And you will ask me, "Swamiji, please show us. Please show us what is inside." And that is only for me to know, or God knows. For you, it is an interesting subject. But when I open my palm and show you what is there, then you will say, "Oh, this we know." So we are curious about this. There is a story which I told you sometimes; you may remember. There was one master, a schoolmaster, a teacher. We call school teachers also Gurujī. Guru means your teacher. Guru means darkness, and Ruh means knowledge. The person who leads you from the darkness of ignorance and awakens in you the light of knowledge. Suppose you cannot ride a bike, and someone will teach you how to ride the bike. After one or two days, oh, you know how to ride the bike. You are the same person: two legs, two hands, one head, two ears, two eyes, one nose. Of course, if you fall down, then your nose will be damaged. But what changed in you? No one can see how this dormant ability of riding a bike awoke in you. That was the work of the Master. Now, further is your duty. How you will ride, how careful you will be, the Master told you. If you follow the principle, the discipline, then you will be safe. And if you do not follow, you will have an accident. Therefore, Patañjali Ṛṣi said, "Aṣṭāṅgayogānuśāsanam." When you begin from learning, first day, first hour, first minute, it is a now, and now, and... now begins discipline. Do not say that tomorrow I will follow the discipline. No, you cannot be successful. Aṣṭāṅgayogānuśāsanam—discipline. So, what would you like to see that makes you curious? So one student, always in his class, was a little bit angry. He was always a little bit jealous of his master. It is possible that he knows everything. He is teaching us so much, and whatever question we ask him, he answers. Anything I ask, he knows. The student was thinking one day, "I will ask my master one question tomorrow, and I am sure he cannot answer." Well, there are, like, these students, you know. Maybe some of you are like that. No, you are not like that. Are you? No. The student caught a small, beautiful bird, and he took the bird in his hand. Hands were on his back, walking in the classroom, and he looked to his master and said, "Good morning, sir. Praṇām, Gurudev." What will Gurudev say when you say Praṇām? Gurudev always says, "Bless you." He is obliged to give you the blessings. Your mother, your father, anyone you say Praṇām to, their answer should be, "Bless you." And that is how we can get the blessings. About this story, I will tell you tomorrow in our program. All the students were sitting there. This one came a few minutes late. And he said, "My dear Gurudev, I love you. You are a great teacher, a great master. Master, I have never seen such a thing. I am proud of you, Master, because you know everything." And the Master knew something was going on in his mind. Something is going on in his Vijñānamaya Kośa. "But Master, I have one question today. Kindly answer me." Master said, "Go ahead. Yes, please." Now he is asking, "Gurudev, do you know what I have in my hand?" Gurudev said, "Yes, my son, you have a small bird in your hand." How does he know that I have a bird? I told no one. No one has seen, and my hand is behind my back. He was so angry, jealous. A jealous person is angry, but the surface is very polite. "But, Gurudev, I knew that you know how stupid I am, that I think such things that you do not know. I am so proud to have such a master. Thank you, Gurudev. But still I have one question, Gurudev. Answer me." This boy, the student, was thinking, "I will ask Gurudev if this bird is alive or dead." A dead bird, a dead bird in my hand, or alive? If Gurujī will say the bird is alive, I will clench my fist and the bird will die. And I say, "You are wrong, sir, it is a dead bird." If he will say it is a dead bird, I will open my palm and the bird will fly, and I will say, "You are wrong, sir, it is born alive." It means, Gurudev, you do not know everything also. He put such a question to his master. He said, "But sir, I still have one question. I know that you know everything, but how stupid I am." Again, he said, "I am asking you a question." And all the students said, "What have you? Crazy boy, sit down." He said, "Moment. Sir, the bird which is in my hand, is it life or death?" Gurujī said, "My son, this answer I cannot give you." "Why not, sir? You know everything." He said, "I cannot." "Why not?" Guruji said, "My son." We call all disciples son and daughter. Here, we call all small children like sons and daughters. We will say, "Betī, betā." Betty is a girl, beta is a son. "I cannot give you an answer because the life of the bird depends on your hands." Then he said, "Thank you, sir." And he let the bird fly. Our Vijñānamaya Kośa tells us the situation. If you will come to Self-realization or not, if you will be successful or not, if you will achieve that highest consciousness or not, it depends on you. It depends on your Vijñānamaya Kośa, your intellect, which will guide you to do things, and maybe they are in the wrong direction. Wrong direction means again go back to the Chaurāsī Lakh cycle of birth and death. And right life means after this body, when you leave the five Kośas, the Jīvātmā merges into the Ātmā. Off we go to Brahmaloka. At that time, we were in Ānandaloka. So the intellect is that kind of power, that kind of tendency. That kind of energy which is within us is mostly located in our Ājñā Cakra: Mūlādhāra, Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata, Viśuddhi, and Ājñā Cakra. Then you come to Bindu, the Amṛta Sāgara. After that, we can achieve the door of Brahman, the Sahasrāra Cakra. Intellect can be trained limitlessly. One asks the student, "How many centimeters did you learn today, and how many kilos did you learn?" A student went to the master and asked, "Master, how many centimeters long is the knowledge you gave me yesterday, and how many kilos did you teach me yesterday?" Gurujī said, "My son, knowledge cannot be measured in centimeters or kilometers, and it cannot be measured in kilograms." Knowledge is Atulya, unmeasurable, limitless. Until the end of life, we still have something to learn. But there are some very rare, good disciples, practitioners, students—whatever you will call them: Yogīs, Sādhakas. If they achieve Turīya, Samādhi, where one becomes the knower of the past, present, and future. That time, it is still your Vijñānamaya Kośa going with you. Part 2: The Journey Through the Kośas to the Self The Manomaya Kośa, Vijñānamaya Kośa, and Ānandamaya Kośa—these three will accompany you through the entire universe, both in this physical body and in the astral body. The knowledge we are all learning is that which has been given by great saints, incarnations, scholars, and wise people. They brought this knowledge for the well-being of mankind, to protect themselves, to protect the entire creation, and to liberate themselves from this mṛtyu-loka, from the bondage of birth and death. At that stage, the experiences of the sādhaka go beyond the reach of the sun's light. But we are still very limited. Therefore, we need to practice. Regarding the intellect, it is said: "Jasa karega saṅga, vesa hi lagega raṅg." Whatever company or society you keep, you will develop those kinds of habits. There is a saying about a black dog and a white dog living together. The white dog cannot take on the black color, and the black dog cannot take on the white color, but habits can be transferred. Similarly, if you are always with persons who are alcoholic, one day you may become alcoholic. If someone abuses drugs, sooner or later, you may also begin to abuse drugs. Or, you may be strong enough to free the person from that habit. It depends on your vijñānamaya kośa; it depends on your intellect. Everyone has their faculties in different subjects, and they are trained accordingly. What is the training? The Vijñānamaya Kośa is most receptive to this. When you are a doctor, you learn the entire anatomy of the body, all the vitamins and minerals, the body's systems and medicine—and that is all. If you are told something different, you will not accept it. You will say, "No, that’s wrong." You might say, "I will take these herbs," and I will think, "I don’t want that. This is nothing." So when you are fixed on one thing, it is very hard to accept others. One is fixed on one culture and does not accept another. One is so fixed on one religion that when your own religious people meet, you are very happy. But when someone from another religion sits among you and you ask, "What religion are you?" and they tell you, immediately there is insight; distance takes place. That is called duality. Where there is duality, there is no reality. Therefore, it is said: "Jagat Mithyā, Brahma Satya." The truth, the reality, is the oneness of Brahman. Where there is duality, it is my culture, your culture; my religion, their religion; I am male, you are female; I am human, they are animals. Yes, the present situation is like that. But in reality, you are neither male nor female, neither human nor animal. You are Ātmā. You are not the body, not the mind, not emotion, not intellect—nothing. All these kośas, all the layers, will dissolve slowly, and you will come to the one thing called knowledge, the Ātmā. Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi—I am Brahman. In the morning, you take an airplane. You sit inside; there is fog, there are clouds, or it is raining. The airplane takes off, goes through the fog and clouds, and suddenly you come above them. You see a beautiful blue sky, clear and sunny. Nothing else. Everything else remains below. Similarly, when our consciousness rises to a higher consciousness, all this dirt, all these kośas, remain below. And you are in Brahman. Unconsciousness is a storeroom from past lives, what we call destiny, bhāgya. Our destiny lies dormant, and that is the level of unconsciousness from past lives. The subconscious is from this part of our life, from the beginning in the mother's body until today. Every minute that passes becomes the past. That is the subconscious level. When certain memories awaken or certain energies begin to function—whether from past life (the unconscious) or the subconscious—we do not understand what it is. Our dear doctors will tell us it is psychic illness. Psychic illness you cannot operate on; you cannot see it, even with a microscope. But there is a feeling; you may have schizophrenia, perhaps, but we cannot see it, touch it, or operate on it. That is a matter of the energy body, the prāṇa body, which influences the manomaya kośa, the mental body. And that is already the seed. In the vijñānamaya kośa, in your intellect—if the intellect is not capable of mastering or managing that situation—when something happens, all other bodies fall into imbalance. Any illness begins. First, it attacks our Annamaya Kośa; but before that, it attacks our Ānandamaya Kośa, Vijñānamaya Kośa, Manomaya Kośa, and then the energy body, and then, of course, this Annamaya Kośa. Sāṅkhya Kośa and Vidyānmā. Intellect is that steering power, that governing power. The intellect should be very clear. If the intellect is dominated by ego, by greed, by jealousy, by hate, then you become blind and do not see the positive side. You see only the negative side. No matter what you do, it becomes a destructive intellect. Therefore, the wise man says that before you use your intellect, you must come from here (the head) down to here (the heart). Color your thoughts. Color your Vijñānamaya Kośa with what? With love, with mercy, with kindness. Then, come back up to your intellect, and you will see everything in the intellect as different. Therefore, the Vijñānamaya Kośa contains both energies, both tattvas: Rajas Tattva and Sattva Tattva. If Rajas Tattva is not there and only Sattva Tattva is present, then the intellect gets thinner and thinner, like it is frozen. Intellect must be active. The creator in our existence is the intellect. Otherwise, you would not be able to decide where water is. You would not be able to decide if fire is hot or not. So activity, Rajas Guṇa, is very important. Rajas Guṇa masters our Tamas Guṇa, and Rajas Guṇa supports our Sattva Guṇa to exist, to act, and to be creative. But the quality of rajas should not dominate too much. Otherwise, again, desires, ego, hate, jealousy, and conflict arise. Kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, moha—these become the good friends of the rajas guṇa, and that rajas guṇa will destroy the sattva guṇa and also suppress the tamas guṇa. Therefore, it needs education. The best education for a human comes first from your father and mother. The best education is the mother's lap, the father's lap. Our lap has the right to hold our children. But now children are unhappy because you have another laptop on your lap. So children say, "Father, it’s my lap, not for this top. I am your laptop." But what do we say? "Moment to moment, you go and play. Let me see." So we reject the child. It means since the laptop came—and this technology is very good, I have nothing against it—but the children are suffering. Your partners are suffering. Your friends are suffering. Five members of a family are all at home, sitting and looking at their laptops. There is no time for such things. Second, education comes from our friends. When children go from their parents' lab to nursery school, kindergarten, and come home, their language has already changed. Their attitude has changed. At that time, children have a conflict with their parents. They say, "Father, it is like this, so why do we do it like that?" This problem is mostly for children growing up in two cultures. One says, "Well, that culture is like this, and our home is like this." Therefore, Sanātana Dharma says that you should unite, respect, and have knowledge of all cultures and all religions. We Hindus have no problems; we can also pray and adore Jesus. We have no problems; we also adore Allah. Because it is said: "Īśvara Allāha Tero Nāma, Sabako Sadbuddhi De Bhagavān." This was also Gandhijī’s favorite song. "Īśvara or Allah, both are your names, O my Lord. Sabko śadbudhi de Bhagavān." Please give them all a good Vijñānamaya Kośa, good intellect, good buddhi. Good buddhi can fall down, can be manipulated, but viveka cannot. Viveka is the pure cream of our vijñānamaya kośa. Therefore, in Rāja Yoga, it is said these are the four principles, but the first is viveka. And Viveka tells us: "satya asatya kar niyāra niyāra"—Viveka will tell us what is reality and what is unreality. At that time you will say, "Brahma satyaṁ jagat mithyā." So all this conflict and difference is what we are making. That is not reality. When the body falls down somewhere, we do not know what will happen. If dogs eat it, birds eat it, it rots somewhere, or it is in water or fire, we will not feel pain at all. Who is feeling the pain inside? It is a different one. The body is only a cloth, and when it is old, we change it. When it is polluted or dirty, we put it in the washing machine. So, the whole day you are in the world, with worldly people, going and getting information. It means you have acquired many kinds of pollution. Now, the washing machine to remove the pollution of the vijñānamaya kośa, manomaya kośa, and prāṇamaya kośa is satsaṅg. Therefore, it is said: "So, what a glory of the satsaṅg! What a glory of the satsaṅg!" Fortunate are they who have the possibility to come to satsaṅg. This bhajan, you know, and Mahāprabhujī said: like the water of the streets and canals merges into the Gaṅgā, it becomes Gaṅgājal, it becomes Gaṅgā water. There is no difference. A small creek enters into a big river and becomes the river, and the river merges into the ocean and becomes the ocean. You do not call that river a river anymore, but the ocean. You will not call that ocean a river. So we are individual souls, and God gave us this opportunity. We are fortunate ones to have a human body, so we should not abuse it. We should take care of the human body and utilize all the positive energy, the devī śakti, in our body. Do not awaken dormant āsurī śaktis. If one āsurī śakti awakens, it can harm all your daivī śaktis, because asuras are more powerful in certain periods of time than the daivī śaktis. Āsurī Śakti is developed from Kusaṅga, and Devī Śakti from Satsaṅg. The Satguru comes from Satyaloka. The Satguru brought the satsaṅg, and satsaṅg is a boat to the Brahmaloka. Therefore, satsaṅg—sat and saṅg—the company of that truth which is Brahman, gives the knowledge that I am ātmā, I am Śiva.