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Part 1: The Prāṇa Body, Consciousness, and the Art of Living Let us say the center of energy is in this region of the body—not from the front side, but more located at the spinal column. This is from the prāṇa body, the central picture. A question often arises: is this chakra like this from back to front, or from side to side? You can imagine it as a ball, like a round egg; it is from every side. The energy is not only going in one direction but is rotating, so it is everywhere. Another frequent question is: should I imagine it from the front side or from the back side? This is very individual. Generally, we imagine while sitting—like here it is, or there it is—so it depends on which direction you are facing. You are sitting, meditating, and your head is there. Then you are imagining, perhaps, this side. The question then is, "Is it connected with our eyes, vision, or that one?" These answers are very individual. But the energy center is this: the whole top of the head, Sahasrāra. Here, in the middle of our head, when we cut the hair short, you will see there, like a circle. Some have two, and some have one, and that is a Bindu Chakra, I think. One can see it on me now, but because my hair is short, I can’t see; I have to look in the mirror. This is where the energy is going. But what is the interesting thing in this picture—that imaginary picture from Mr. Devanand, Devaram, Sukla? What do you see as interesting in this, from the Bindu Sahasrāra, these two glands—pituitary and pineal gland—the Ājñā Cakra, and down to the bottom, Maṇipūra, Mūlādhāra? Do you see something different? This picture is known as a prāṇa body, prāṇāyāma: how the prāṇāyāma is functioning and purifying the energy in our body, which can help a lot for our health—physical health, as well as emotional or psychic health—to give clarity. Now, the prāṇa is the ten different kinds of prāṇas which we have. This is our chart here in the book, Hidden Powers in Humans. The first is called prāṇa. Beyond that, for someone who has done [the practice], then there is sub-prāṇa. Sub-prāṇa is very subtle, more than these five prāṇas. These ten prāṇas are going in and out with our inhalation and exhalation. When we inhale and exhale, the whole body, every cell, is influenced. When you inhale and exhale—when we inhale—expansion in the whole body takes place, not only in the diaphragm or the trunk of the body. This is basically what we notice when you get an injection or an acupuncture needle; then they tell you to inhale. When you inhale, it is less pain, but if you exhale, it is more pain. Did you notice this or not? You don’t take every injection? What? We are living in a modern world. We must have every injection. So when you inhale, at the time of inhalation, you take the injection; you don’t feel that much pain. If it’s at the time of exhalation, the injection needle goes in the body, you feel more pain. So this is evidence that inhalation is going into the whole body. Exhalation takes all the toxins out. So, inhalation—can you search here for the five prāṇas? Thank you. So now there are two forces: ingoing breath expanding, outgoing breath contracting. Prāṇa is what we take in; apāna is what goes out. So apāna is helping to reduce anything from our body, to reject anything from the body. It may be that you pass urine, or cough, or blow your nose, or clean your throat with a cough, many, many things which cause sweating, etc. Can we imagine that we can’t pass urine? We have to call the doctor or an ambulance and go quickly there. It’s such a pressure, but there is no… Upon Śakti, upon prāṇa, so we have to have very healthy both systems. Can we imagine suddenly we can’t breathe? The end of life. So that should be the capacity in the muscles where the prāṇa is sitting there, to expand so that we can take the air in, and there must be something again pressing so that we can exhale. So these two systems, prāṇa and apāna, are the major functions in the body. The heartbeat is also connected with prāṇa and apāna, but for the heartbeat… is the sub-prāṇa responsible? For eyelid movements? For the heartbeats, suddenly something comes as an obstacle in our respiratory system. Then how do you call the sneezing? Or gases come as obstacles in the body also, then it brings the gas out, no? And in some countries, it is a tradition, you know, that when you eat, "Thank you very much." Okay, the whole chart, but thank you, like, very nice. This book is very heavy. What is this? Okay, okay. I want to say, I never saw a book so heavy, but then I looked. It is summer. Thank you. So, where was I? Yeah, okay. So, in some countries, when you are invited as a guest and they give you good bhojana, eating everything, and when you are said, "Oh, now I am really satisfied," then after they say, "It was good, thank you." So, this is… That prāṇa, upa prāṇa, which brings the extra air bubbles, gas out. In some countries, it is to do like this. It is a little bit impolite, no? So then you have to say, "Sorry," yeah, or, "Oh, God," and here, "Pardon." So when you block the air, you harm the respiratory systems, but of course, there are situations, and we generally should not do like that, you know. So we can do like this or something. Now, if you do, then the whole airplane people will get what happens. So anyhow, Nāga, Kūrma, Kṛkara, Devadatta, Dhananjaya—these are the upa-prāṇas, and that one is which is supporting the heartbeat. The other is for the eyelids, because eyelids are very important. Eyelids are very quick. The quicker reaction is in the eyelids. Before something falls, comes, eyelids are they’re going moving. This was after the tea. It is an Indian habit; it was to be good, okay? So, this is about prāṇa and apāna. Now, this is one thing about Kuṇḍalinī. Kuṇḍalinī is connected with the consciousness, and the consciousness, which is a three… Generally, we are dwelling with that unconscious, subconscious, and conscious. In these three levels of the consciousness, we divide sometimes: awaken, sleep, and dream. Now, the Master will ask the disciples, "We are going to practice the science of Kuṇḍalinī and the consciousness, three levels of the consciousness: jāgrat, suṣupti and svapna—awakened, sleeping, and dream. So, you all disciples should find out these three levels about that. Next lesson will be in one week. That’s all. On the rest of the one week, please go and work in the field, go grazing cows, this and that. Today’s lesson is finished. What are the three levels of consciousness? Awake, sleep, and dream, or judged other? Chetan, Achetan, unconscious, subconscious, and conscious. Now the disciple has to work. Next time, when the lesson is there, that’s called Upaniṣad. So what I’m talking about is Upaniṣad. Upaniṣad means the disciple sits near the Master and has dialogue or listens to the wisdom. Now the master is asking, "Did you research?" He said, "Yes, we were thinking a lot, but how?" The answer was not there, so the master gives the same question again for one week to have time. My dear, when you go to sleep, you lie down. Now, in which minute or second the state of consciousness was shifting or transferred, this transcendental process, from awake to sleep. That minute, I want to know, the Master said, "Go to the cows." And the second, how and when did you transfer from deep sleep to dream? We are dreaming, but how did you go? Where did you go? And how you came back quickly from dream to sleep to awaken within no time. An alarm is there in the dream. You were in Budapest, and the alarm came. You are here. So how did our this function of the consciousness that is… connecting with our prāṇas? So Kuṇḍalinī science, it’s not that something you are sitting in body like, "My power is going up, master, master, please, master comes," as it, okay, it’s ready. It’s not like that. So it is to master our all inner systems. This consciousness, when the prāṇa consciousness from the two nerves which we yesterday spoke of, Iḍā and Piṅgalā, from left and right… So, Prāṇa comes from up, forcing Apāna from down, and Prāṇa and Apāna both have to become pure and enter into the one chakra, and that’s the navel. And now you see, like a chain. Now, it’s a profound picture, no? Did you find something different? The chain is rotating from down to up, or up to down, pulling like this cycle. And there is this Prāṇa shown, that Prāṇa goes then up, enters into the Maṇipūra Chakra, and goes straight. That is meditation. That is the beginning of Samādhi, or higher consciousness. Whatever you talk, the rest is the best for different tests, okay? But it is not clearly so. That practicing anuloma and viloma prāṇāyāma, Chandra Bhedana and Sūrya Prāṇāyāma—Chandra is the moon, Sūrya is the sun—so always, we begin with the left nostril prāṇāyāma. Always, why? Because this left nostril is connected to the mind, and the mind is very restless, having so many vṛttis. Today in meditation, we gave a lot of time, we went very… deep, even I went also nearly like a sleep, because the vṛttis, mental vṛttis, were completely balanced, harmonized, tranquilized, and there the jīva, the soul, became happy. The soul became fearless. The soul had no other desires at all. And that’s why it came to that level called Tandrā Avasthā. Tandrā Avasthā means drowsiness. Between sleep and awakening, there are no thoughts, no vṛttis. At that time, the inner Jīvātmā, your soul, is so happy and relaxed, with no tensions. The tension is gone on one side. So the first experiences of this prāṇa-apāna entering through the Maṇipūra chakra is awakening that consciousness, which we call the higher consciousness. From here, it goes to the higher level of that, and this prāṇa immediately affects our Ājñā Cakra, because above that is only the light. Now, question of the light—not this light, what we see with our physical eyes, not a material light, but that’s a light of the wisdom, light of the happiness, light of the joy, light of the contentment, light of the love. How will you describe the form of the happiness? There’s no, no, we can’t make any picture, but we say, "Yes, I’m happy." Can’t you see that I’m happy? Yes, but I can’t see. What is that happiness? It is within us, but we don’t know. Similarly, the soul, Jīvātmā and Ātmā are within us, but we can’t see. And the same is God, but we can’t see. And that is unborn. Your happiness is not born. It is there. My happiness is not born. It is there, and this happiness will never die. It will be all the times in the universe, in oneness. And unhappiness is also there all the times. These are the two negative and positive energies. Now, which side we fall in, we will be like that. So, when selfishness, fear, and anxiety arise, except when our ambition is fulfilled, then we are angry because of the fear to lose something. People have a lot of fear now about existence. God, how will I find my job? How will I do this? How will I survive? Big problem. The first happiness, and to get freedom in life, and I tell you, the bright future of the human will be to learn cooking. You will laugh now, the Swamiji is talking from samādhi to cooking, but cooking is very, very important. You know, 85% of people can’t cook in the world. All are the victims of junk food, fast food, unhealthy food, and now they are even making some buildings and apartments where there is no design of any kitchen, no kitchen. And if you want to have sense, you know, you can’t live in these apartments because there are different smells from different kinds of food—a very good excuse. But downstairs, there are restaurants, a few you can go to. So, indirectly, we are forced to go to a restaurant. Restaurants can be very good, the food is good, but still it is not cooked with that love. The food which is cooked for a child by a mother, no one can cook, no one. Even the mother doesn’t know exactly how to cook. But still, in that food is the love of that mother or that father. Your babysitter does not have that love. My babysitter loves your baby very much and takes care of the baby. But it is bottle milk and mother’s milk. It’s not different. That’s it. So, many people lost the knowledge of cooking—85%. Are cooking 85 percent? They are also perhaps cooking out of them, maybe 60 percent they are cooking, or 70 percent. But what do they cook? They just boil the potatoes and beans and carrots and put a little butter on it and salt. Oh, very nice. Must tastefully boil them and boil the boiler, cook the rice. Once it’s rice, we call it Risi-Bisi. Learning cooking properly, everything takes four to six years, five years. And recently I had a lecture at the University in Győr in Hungary, and the dean and the director and principals, they all were there, and I told them, I suggested to them that they should have one separate faculty for healthy nutrition and cooking. Cooking means each herb and each spice is what you use in which food we should put, and in which food we should not put. That’s very important, and in which kind of metal which food you should not put there. There are nice balls made out of some kind of brass, which we have in the bell we are ringing. It’s very good, very healthy to eat in that pot. But if there’s anything sour on it—the yogurt, lemon or orange juice or anything sour—immediately turns into poison, and it can poison you. So the coriander, the cumin seeds, different kinds of cumin seeds, haldi, many, many, so. Mother’s proper cooking is the best way to health, to keep the health. Part 2: The Hidden Source of Happiness and the Awakening of Kuṇḍalinī If you learn proper cooking and have only a few square meters of space somewhere in your house or on the balcony, and you make your own nice organic greenery—some vegetables—it is enough for two or three people of the family. Three square meters of space for your daily vegetables is more than enough, yes. But to know which and how, it is a cooking lesson diploma: healthy, vegetarian, balanced, sāttvic food and spices takes three, four to five years of study. Then, are you so good a cook that you can cook your food as a real remedy? That is a quality. So this is the future of humans. Otherwise, are you finished? You become the permanent client of doctors and hospitals. Anyhow, so where is the happiness hidden? Where is the kindness? Where do mercies happen? Where is the love? What form does it have? We cannot see it with the physical eyes. Similarly, that light of wisdom or samādhi is not something we can see like this light. That is called wonderful, marvellous, indescribable. We can’t describe it; there are no words, but still it is there. For example, you all are sitting here, and you are doing it every day. I ask you one question: you eat butter nearly every day at breakfast, or different things, and this and that. You take the ghee out of the butter, or pure butter without salt. In England, you have salty butter, which, in my taste, I can’t swallow down. It’s a habit. So, can you describe the taste of the butter? Not the sour, and not the salty, but the taste of the butter, or that melted butter, the ghee. You eat it every day. It must be worse? We must know that we can say, but it’s like that, but like that, not like that. What is the taste of the butter? So similarly, every day you experience happiness, love, joy, meditation. Every day you have very good feelings, but you can’t describe them. When you can’t describe, this is beyond our intelligence. So Āyurveda is nothing but a science of nourishment, that’s all. In Āyurveda, if someone begins to give you medicine, it’s not Āyurveda. Āyurveda will give you medicine, maybe in the very last stages, but when it doesn’t go. Āyurveda only will tell you what and when you drink water, which food you eat, how much and when you sleep, when you meditate, practice. So it is the way of life. The prāṇa and apāna, this energy which we see from the maṇipūra cakra, and this is that going, it’s a balanced harmony. It gives the quality to life. Sāttvic, then automatically all our chakras are purified, and it will go straight up. Then you see the prāṇa body. Now you see in this chart, one prāṇa. We see the physical body, and after the physical body, we see this yellow light around the body. So this is the energy which is exposing. When we inhale, our prāṇa comes into the body, and this light goes through the whole body. When we exhale, it squeezes and puts out, rejecting the dead cells from the body or toxins. So both are very important, inhalation and exhalation. We practice the prāṇāyāma from this part first, always with the left nostril. Whenever you inhale, first expands here from navel till down this abdomen, and it is that abdomen which is pressing back, supporting the diaphragm to exhale and inhale. So, when we practice with the Sūryanāḍī, the right nostril, to purify the consciousness, all our thoughts, and this then is awakening. Now, awakening of Kuṇḍalinī, what does it mean? Yes, there are a few things happening: awakening of the... Kuṇḍalinī means awakening of the wisdom, what we call, "Oh, she or he is a very wise person, very balanced thoughts, and good words using," because that is the awakening of Kuṇḍalinī. Kuṇḍalinī becomes mother Sarasvatī. Sarasvatī is the goddess of the wisdom. Whatever knowledge you have in you, imagine intellectual knowledge, but that is a blessing of Divine Mother Sarasvatī. So this is the first sign of the Kuṇḍalinī awakening. Second, your tension is gone. Burdens are there, a lot around you, but no tension. You can try and try, but that always remains free. On the road, when you drive in the night, there are the lights on the road, and how much the rain is falling and the dirt is falling, but still this is shining. Similarly, it doesn’t matter how much dirt and worldly burdens are there; inside, you are Ānanda. Your inner self is shining. This is the second. The third, your health condition is developing, physical as well as emotional or mental. Whatever may, you have some difficulties. So, awakening of Kuṇḍalinī is never a negative effect on someone. Awakening of the Kuṇḍalinī means that all the destinies, karmas from past life which are not good, negative, they can harm in future. That is because, lying down there as our destiny, awakening of Kuṇḍalinī will neutralize everything. Like in 20 liters of milk, you put one drop of lemon, and it will spoil the whole milk. That means there will be no more butter. What will you taste? The milk is spoiled, and the butter is chemically disappeared, one drop of the lemon. So similarly, that one little movement of Kuṇḍalinī awakening is all the burdens are gone, and all the negative qualities are cleared up. And that is what in yoga and daily life we have. This particular Kriyā, which many people are practicing for years and years, is the Kriyā you should practice. Then you will see. When you are doing Kriyā, according to this yoga and daily life, in that time, 40 minutes or 20 minutes, your Kuṇḍalinī is constantly awakened, constantly. So many lives, destinies, or karmas are purified by this mantra, this Kriyā, prāṇāyāma, the concentration. Be sure that after this, your life will be in the light of God, and no more of these burdens. Now we come to the Mūlādhāra cakra. Please, someone had a PowerPoint? No, no. So now, I will not explain everything, but you see, in the very center, there is one, like a Śivaliṅga, this stone. And then you see, like the rope, it is three and a half times coiled around the Śivaliṅga. Now, this is what we call the rope. It is a form of the snake. Oh yes. So now we are here. Okay. Now, generally, the head of the snake, which is here, is going down. Down means after this life, again, according to the karma, we will be. Office here. Anyhow, I will not destroy your garage. So, these three Nāḍīs, this is the Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā, these three Nāḍīs, they come together, and it’s three times coiled round. It means, Sāttvic, Tāmasic, Rājasic guṇa, these three, and this is three times coiled, and that legend is that negative Śakti energy which is going down. So next life, again, this jīvā, this individual soul, will travel into the animal kingdom. If we have this pure consciousness and practice and lead the life is very kind, humble, spiritual; then it is going upwards. The Śiva Liṅga is a symbol of the entire universe. The universe is like an egg, and within this universe is all entire creation, all the energies, all whatever we see, the Sun, etc., etc. So it is like the whole form is a mother body. And that cosmic consciousness is within that universe, so cosmos and consciousness. So the Śiva Liṅga means that the manifestation of the entire universe, and is Śiva and Śakti. The space is the Śakti, and our consciousness, God consciousness, is Śiva, and everything is. Within this ocean, the ocean has the beach, the shore, all the water, and within that water, many, many water lives are living. Similarly, in that consciousness, all the elements, all negative and positives are existing, Āsurīśakti and the Devīśakti. So, through our practice of Prāṇāyāma and Kriyā, this Kuṇḍalinī reveals itself and goes up, rewinds from here, and it goes up through this channel and then to other chakras. Here is the seat of Gaṇeśa. In Mūlādhāra, the Mūlādhāra cakra is the seat of Gaṇeśa. Many of you know Gaṇeśa. So Gaṇeśa, Gaṇa means the elements or divine energies. Īśa means Īśvara. It is he who is balancing and keeping all under control, organized in the proper way, and it is called the root, and the root is the life of the tree. So Gaṇeśa is a foundation, that’s why he is called Mūl, Mūl Ādhār. Mūl means the roots, other means the based on something. So our consciousness, the human consciousness, is developing from there. Below is animals, above is the human consciousness. From the foot, salt in ankle joint is the earth chakra from. Ankle joints till the knees is vegetation, and from knees till the hip joint is the animal chakras. And from the beginning of the spine till the end of the spine is the human chakra, and then from above there is the divine chakras. Our consciousness is moving all the time through these levels of the consciousness, the vegetation, earth, animals, humans, and when we meditate, we come to the Divine. So, Kuṇḍalinī awakening is not something shaking the body, or that, oh, I can do something, no. It’s a pure science of knowledge, clarity, happiness, and solving all the karmic problems in this life. And for that, sometimes we are giving to persons who really would like to go. If you fail, now if this chain of this Maṇipūra Chakra is broken, meaning when you disobey the Master’s instructions and you think now you can drive, then an accident, definitely an accident will happen. The chain is broken, the chain between you and Master, Master to disciple, to disciple. And when that is broken, then psychic problems, physical, many, many things happen. Therefore, one has to decide, take it in hand, and then join this stream of divine consciousness. That’s why the system. So Gaṇeśa is sitting here in Mūlādhāra. Now we have the elephant. My God, this is another one, beautiful. He is so beautiful. In Indian mythology, the elephant is a symbol of happiness. The white elephant is the symbol of great wisdom. On the day when you dream of a white elephant, this is something great, not some toy, the living one, a white elephant. And if you are riding on it, God Brahmā is riding on the white elephant. If you see yourself one day sitting on a white elephant, that means something is coming to you. Now, the trunk of the elephant—an elephant was born out of the churning of the ocean in Satyuga, where the devas and rākṣasas, the goddesses and devils, were churning the ocean to get the nectar. But before nectar came, there came the thirteen different objects, which they call the thirteen jewels. And out of that jewel, there was also alcohol. Alcohol was born at that time. An elephant came, seven trunks of elephant, and why the elephant? Because it is the symbol of Gaṇeśa, and the seven trunks are the seven roots, seven roots of this tree of the human. And in these seven roots, there are seven minerals, which seven? Minerals are balancing our body. All different kinds of minerals which we have inside, like iron or potassium, etc., are all well maintained by the Mūlādhāra Chakra. So, don’t think the Mūlādhāra Chakra is not a good chakra. It is a very good Chakra. Those who don’t know this will say, "Oh, everything is in his Mūlādhāra." Of course, everything is your whole life. This Liṅga here, this is the stories of your past many, many ancestors’ life. You and your ancestors are closed here. You can liberate them through your meditation. That’s what we are doing, the Śiva thousand Śiva statues and three times a day will be made, the prayers ages and ages, because the temple will remain. The temple is not like here, flats now after two years they will come over, "This building is not good, with this matter we do this." The temple is not, the temple will be lasting ages and ages in the garden, you know, and there are a thousand Śiva statues. So here, these are the minerals, and the elephant is a symbol of prosperity, a symbol of wisdom, a symbol of strength, a symbol of certainty and braveness. When we said, when the elephant is walking through the street and dogs are barking, the elephant is not frightened. So be like an elephant, let the burdens be here and there, don’t let all these problems touch your heart. So here the elephant, four petals, these are the four pillars of life: dharma, artha, kāma, and mokṣa. And from here, we will rewind this kuṇḍalinī, and it goes upwards. So there are two goddesses sitting, male and female, all the time. There are both male and female. Finally, when you come to the chakra on the sahasrāra, between there is one picture. It is not here. Gaurī and Śaṅkara, Śiva and Śakti are here. Both will be there. He is Brahmā and Sarasvatī. Brahmā is the creator, and Sarasvatī is wisdom. Sarasvatī is the daughter of Brahmā, and Sarasvatī is the wife of Brahmā, but not in the way we think. Sarasvatī is born through Brahmā’s intellect, and that is wisdom, and therefore she is also Sarasvatī in this way, not like that we think, okay? How is it possible? It is not like that. So both Śaktis are there, masculine and feminine. Both have to go together, otherwise you will fail. So today is finished. Next seminar, we will talk more about. We have a lot to... this is such a big, big story of wisdom we can talk whole life. So now you get a job, you got a test task. Please find out till next seminar: Did you find exactly which second you, and how did you go from awakened to the sleep? What was the feeling between? And from there, how did you get up and go to the dream? The body was here, you were there. What was the connection between you? If walking in Budapest and the body is lying in the bed in London, how? What was the connection there? And within, no time with which speed you came from Budapest to here, and through which chakra your astral body goes, that is in the chakra of the viśuddhi chakra here, in this chakra. So, until that, you study this book, and we will continue.