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Welcome, and thank you, Kṛpā, for inviting me, Kṛpā Purī, and all the other devotees. The subject is very beautiful: it is about chakras and Kuṇḍalinī, the hidden powers within humans, how to activate them, and how to utilize them for our everyday life. This is very interesting. In America, there are always new people, so I must begin again from the beginning, as I have in the last few years. This is good; one always repeats the same thing. You have here a book—do you have this book? It is about the chakras. But who knows about chakras? For those who do not know, this is the best. Raise your hand if you know. Okay. You ladies both know a little bit? All right. I shall again begin from the beginning so that we understand why we should awaken to or practice with the chakras. Then, today, we should have meditation. Meditation is a key to self-realization, a way to the Self. Life is a journey, not a destination, and that journey becomes very clear for us through meditation. Of course, there are many other ways to come to the Self, but if we practice certain techniques ourselves, then we are not dependent on external things. In short, I would like to give a glimpse of life, creation, and so on: the beginning, how the chakra begins, where chakras are in the body, what they are, what is involved in them, and why we should activate them. In the very beginning, yoga is one of the most ancient sciences of body, mind, consciousness, and soul. It is said that in the very beginning, when there was nothing at all existing, that is called empty space. We call it Śūnyākāśa. Ākāśa is space, and śūnya is void, nothing. The most ancient or the first scriptures which humans had are called the Vedas. The Vedas are written in the Sanskrit language and are very, very ancient. In the Vedas, it is said: "Eko'haṁ bahusyāmi"—"I am one, and now I will multiply." In normal language, we would call this the will of God. Does God have a will? Does God have a desire? Does God wish something? We do not understand. But when we say the will of God, it is not that God has a desire; we can say the blessings of God are different. That space, what we call it, is endless space. That is an embodiment of the mother, a mother's body. Within this space, there is a consciousness. Consciousness is in the space, not the space in the consciousness. And between the space and the consciousness, there is again what is called Śakti, the mother power, the eternal mother, and that has three principles. That applies to yoga: first, uniting or union; second, harmonizing; and third, balance. So these are the three perfect balances done through that one energy in the mother's body. So in that consciousness, there is a tendency. He said, "Eko'haṁ bahusyāmi"—"I am one, and now I will multiply." Who is there who tells that "I will multiply"? This is a tendency in the consciousness, in the space. So it begins with the resonance, the sound. We call it Oṁ, Akār, Ukār, Makār—the sound, the form, and the creation, the light. Through this sound, that is called resonance. So the Vedas write: "Nāda-rūpa-para-brahma"—the form, embodiment of God, whatever we call it—not that God which is born, not a God which, what we call now, incarnates, but it is the God as the light, consciousness in the universe. Through that, this resonance, the vibrations, it awakens something in the whole universe. Something is happening. Like we are sitting peacefully, and suddenly we have some ideas. We do not speak, we do not understand, but something is there in us, awakening. And then we say, "Oh, I have these ideas, now I shall do this." So that awakening within us becomes our intuition, our visions, our planning, and so on. From that sound, the nāda creates the light. And that light, like a flame—what we call the flame of life—life is light. From there, it is manifesting; it is called Śiva, the Swayambhū. He has no father, no mother, nothing; just he manifests himself. He is his own creation, and then the creation begins. From this resonance, which is in the whole universe, everything begins at once. Like we are sitting here, and suddenly a little ant bites our small toe. Our body knows, oh, here is the ant bite. Similarly, in awakening, the whole endless universe is filled with that vibration. And this vibration becomes that light, and this light becomes as a salt. Now these salts are endless; it is like a fog around the whole of our earth and in other worlds, what we call astral worlds. They are traveling, they are fluttering on the waves of time, through darkness and light, and begin to experience happiness, joy, pain, and so on. And this salt, which is descending towards our Earth, because this Earth is known as a mortal world, not an immortal one. Who comes will go, and who went perhaps will come back. That we will talk about after. So, God is one. God has no name that we always call. God has no form that we want to see. God is formless, nameless, but still he is there. And we are the light of that supreme. So all the rays, the light which comes, it becomes the soul. So God consciousness, the light of God, is involved in particular drops, like an ocean, the fog, the clouds, and the rains, and flows back to the ocean. This is the cycle of the whole universe. On this earth, it is said that the time the creator has created, or the souls developed, 8.4 million different kinds of souls, different kinds of life. Out of them, one is the human. These creators and the creation are divided into three categories: in the water, on the earth, and in the space. All are cycling, cycling through the whole universe. And when we come close to the earth, so out of 8.4 million, one is the human. Humans have got a powerful tool that is called intellect, and intellect needs education. Our intellect is such that the culture in which we are born, the kind of profession we want to have—everything is developed and predicted in our consciousness and intellect, and we think like that. So the best education is in the lap of the parents. What kind of culture, language, behaviors, attitude our parents will show us, that will be our whole life, will exist within us. So creation means karma. Creativity means the karma, the action, and every action has a reaction, and every reaction will have an action. So we are between this action, reaction, action. So this is how, like we call it in Europe, and here also you have the snow. It is called a snowball. You make a little snowball and roll it. So it will get again more and more, and bigger and bigger it will become. Similarly, every life, every day, every minute, and every second, our activities, our actions—we are getting more and more and more a kind of layer around our pure soul and consciousness. The consciousness is one, that God consciousness, higher consciousness. The soul is only that which is collected from all our actions and our impressions, our activities. Whatever we do will be counted as karma. Karma is nothing else than actions. Karma is a name in the Sanskrit or Hindi language. We can say our deeds: what have you done? Whatever we do, we will get. There are four ways to get karma, or actions: through the physical body, through the mental body, through the intellect, and through our position or power—maybe money power, political power, anything we might call a very dominating person, a dictator. So whatever our ego, because ego is developed in our body. So what we call karma is our action. And every action we have, it has the reaction or feedback or answer, question and answer. Now, good actions have good fruits, and bad actions have bad fruits. If you plant a thorny bush, it will grow thorns. And if you plant the fruits, good fruits will come. So, what kind of action are we doing? We are involved in that. Karma, our deeds through body, through mind, through words, and our social position. These are the four different kinds of karma we can do. Karma is in our hands. We have complete control, the power of our karmas. Now karma is in our hands, but when it has gone out of our hands, then it is not in our power. Suppose we have a stone, and we can keep this stone. We can keep this stone or throw it. It is in our hands. But when we throw the stone, and it is gone out of our hands, and you see there is someone sitting, and the stone will hit that person, or animals, or a tree, or anything. You say, "Oh no, I do not want this." But you cannot run and catch the stone which you throw. Because that goes with the mental power. Now, when it is gone, then it is not in our power or control anymore. It is gone out of our hands. That, literally, we will call destiny. Literally, that is our destiny, our luck, good luck or bad luck. We can change everything, but we cannot change destiny. This is the minus point in our life. What is written in your destiny will come. Does not matter what we will do, evidence will never die. So destiny will again come as a reaction, and it will happen to us. So that is a problem for humans: how to get rid of the destiny. It is not easy. We have to go through. But if we change the way of our life, the way of our actions, the way of our eating, living, and speaking, then, if we do everything positive, now we feed everything positive, and negative is finished. We do not do anything. Then the effect will be there, but more so, our destiny will multiply, multiply positively. Then one day, suddenly, it becomes divine light within our heart, or within our intellect, or within our consciousness. This room is dark. It is a dark night, and you come into the room and there is darkness. So you can say, "Please, darkness, can you go out from the room?" Darkness will not move at all. That is our destiny. We can pray to destiny, please destiny. No, it will not move. So we put on light. And as soon as the light is on, we do not know where the darkness is gone; it disappears. So our positive thoughts, our spiritual way of living, our practices to awake those energies or tendencies, powers from our being—physical, mental, intellectual, and energetic—we can get enlightenment. So, what most people are talking about is enlightenment. Enlightenment means that we put all our cards on the table, we can say. My cards are open on the table, and so you see there. And this enlightenment will disappear, let disappear our darkness, means the negative karma energy. That time, we can become free from that destiny. Because our good karmas, good deeds, will uplift us. Darkness will go down, and we come to liberation. Otherwise, there is circulation all the time, all the time. The biggest problem for every creature, especially humans, is attachment. Attachment, as much attachment as we have, that is a big barrier for ourselves. Now, how much attachment do you have to what? House, money, persons, eating, family, husband, wife, children. Of course, we do care about that. It is, in one way, our dharma. Dharma means our obligation, our duty. So, how do we do that? How do we fulfill our duty but not be attached to it? This is that, so attachment and love are different. Where there is attachment, there is suffering. And where there is love, there is freedom. So, how do we understand love? One kind of love is called attachment. And ever and ever, attachment will always be a problem. The fruits of attachment are suffering, and the fruits of that love, what we call universal love, will liberate us. Because love is what we call God. God is love, and love is God. But not this love that you love your house, you love your dog, you love your cat, or you love your families and this and that. This is a temporary, worldly thing. And we have to go above this world. But at the same time, we should not neglect that. If we neglect, then we are doing bad karma. So again, the karmas are growing. So how can we do without this attachment? So the duty or obligation of the parents is towards the children. So you have to give proper education. And you have to give them proper ethical and spiritual education. Humanity needs ethical and spiritual education. That makes a human who goes towards spirituality and God. Now, at the same time, children have an obligation towards their parents. That is also very, very important. You have to follow, you have to serve, and help your parents. One man asked his mother, she is very old, maybe above a hundred or more. He asks her, "Mother, what can I do for you? What would you ask, or what do you want from me? Do you have any wish, Mother?" Mother said, "My child, I have no wish. I do not need anything from you. What I want to have, I have you. You are my son. So what can I take from you? Nothing. I wish you a happy life, a healthy life, and a good life." But, Mother, can you tell me something? What would be the feeling of the mother? So then Mother said, "If you ask me again and again, then Mother has one wish. You know, my son? You know, my child? When you were born, I was with you. And when I die, you should be with me. Understand?" If the mother wishes this, it means that the mother does not want you to just leave them suffering and put them in an old home or somewhere, which is not the tradition. In the last few centuries before, it was a joint family helping. Yes, in the old home, there are good people, and they can take care of you very much, very much. Maybe better comfort than this than at home. But they do not need that comfort and that home. They need, a mother needs to see the child. A mother needs, even if she is very old, she is bound to feel the touch of her child. You may be the president of a country or the whole world, but for a mother, we are still her child. That love which is between mother and child and father, that is divine love. There should be no attachment, no anger, hate, jealousy, or this, but pure feelings. In this way, detachment means suffering kind love should not be, but a free love. So the karma, and especially for the human, is not easy, not easy. And when a mother, daughter-in-law comes home, or the son-in-law comes home, then the son-in-law or the daughter-in-law should not say, "Let us go somewhere and have our own apartment, and we live there." You can live here, but it is just in this part of the street or near that. Anytime you can be available, you can be close to them. But your spiritual path and the things which you should do, you should not quit. Otherwise, again, you have an attachment. So, between love and attachment is a very thin layer, like a very thin layer between two thick layers of an onion. So, that is so fine, so gentle, that we should take care of that. But if you said, "No, I have to do this, and I have to go do it; I cannot do this, and I do not do this," then it is a very big attachment. So that is called moha, and moha means ignorance. Attachment means ignorance. Love grows even in far distance. And the doubt and jealousy grow as soon as there is a little distance. So with which kind of love do you live in this life? That grows in your heart and that leads us to enlightenment. So, what is that enlightenment? It means to see the world positively, love all of God's creation, trees, animals, our neighbors, our friends, colleagues, and our families, and live very freely. Give them way, give them opportunities. In this way, the karma, the actions. Now, this out of 8.4 million different creatures, the last milestone is the human life. Means to come to God's light and become one with that cosmic consciousness. Not a heaven, not a hell, not these things. But become one with the eternal, everlasting, divine peace and light. For that, we need to know, who am I? I am not this body. I am not this intellect. I am not this property. I am not this. Who am I? And from where do I come? We do not know where we have been in our last life. How was our last life? And in one way, thanks to God that we do not know. Because maybe you are all family members, they are still suffering. Then you are sitting here, and you do not care. But if you come to know, then you will be more sad. You have enough problems in this life, and when you know the one past life, then you will also have an awakening of the consciousness to your second. And third, for more generations, then the human will not be able to proceed further in spiritual development. But still, we should know: from where do I come, and who am I, and for what did I come into this world? What am I doing? And finally, where will I go? This answer will come when we have awakened all these chakras, especially the sixth chakra in our body. That is called the Ājñā Chakra at the center of the eyebrows. We have to break through. We have to break through, and here, on your forehead, there is written or described everything that we call our destiny. Destiny is not somewhere, but it is with us. All our actions, everything we are carrying on our back as a backpack. So it is here. When something wrong happens, then we say, "Oh, God." Automatically, the hand goes, "Oh, God." So nobody needs to tell us. Our hand is indicating that we made a mistake. Oh, my good luck or bad luck. So this is the chakra where the third eye opens. The third eye means knowledge, the opening of knowledge. This body, what is it created from? God has created every creature's different forms, different models. So, 8.4 million different models are still in this garage of the world. And from that, one is the human. If one, which human is the last one, the last milestone, and we will miss our sādhanā, our practice, our prayers, what humans should do, then we will again go back to the cycling. The rebirth and death, rebirth and death, rebirth and death. Now, in the modern world, we have a very nice one word they have taken from spirituality, and that is what we call recycling. We should use all things that are environmentally friendly and can be recycled. The ātmā, the soul, is immortal and will never die. Similarly, now the second one became immortal. In this world, it is plastic. Plastic we cannot destroy, but this immortal one is harmful, and our immortality is harmless, plastic. What we call recycling. We do believe in recycling, no? So if you believe in recycling, then where is the problem to believe in reincarnation? The recycling word is taken from reincarnation. So now, when you have a very beautiful, nice watermelon, and this watermelon can be recycled and will be recycled, but do not think the next what will come out of this melon will come again as a melon, no. We do not know in how many parts or where it will come. Maybe it will become tomatoes, or some berries, or the cherries, or the fruits, or the grass. Similarly, when we are gone from this world, we do not know where we will arrive, in which life. And then we do not know when we will come again as a watermelon. So the yogīs, the self-realized who know everything, they said, "Only the way for us to come out of this cycle of rebirth and death is self-realization." Know thyself, you know God. And the first priority for us is to get self-realization, for what life is given. So humans have two kinds of duties. One is called, "Be protector, help, help,... help." Every creature, each and every entity, is my Self. And my Self is the Supreme Self. So love them, if not more, then as much as you love thyself. So when you love yourself, you will not do the same bad things to others. You will only, that karma, that destiny, that time is deleted from itself. So this is a spiritual way, a spiritual path. Otherwise, your house, your money, your company, whatever it is, nothing will go with us, nothing. So in the Bhagavad Gītā, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says to his disciple, to Arjuna, "What you have today, yesterday was someone's, and now you have it. Tomorrow it will be someone's." What have you lost? Nothing. It was not yours. It was given to you temporarily. Use it, because tomorrow will be someone else's. And you have no right to ask back. So, this life is limited, given to us. After all, it will be someone's. And you will see my so beautiful house, and this, and they are living inside. And I am somewhere in a small hole as a mouse. The soul is all the time there. The soul is traveling, not the body. With this kind of thinking, in the whole world, the so-called holy saints and holy books give us knowledge. It should not become fanaticism and dogma, but it should lead with pure love to all creatures. Do not cause pain to anyone. Do not take away from anyone. I used to call them, love them, feed them. Do not eat them. Can you imagine? Now, someone is coming and says, "Okay, so we can take these three persons for today to slaughter." We are closed in this room, and every day they come and take two or three. What will be our condition? Same pain, same fear, every creature says. And why are they? Because we want to eat them. So their pain, their karma is coming to us because those who want to eat. If the whole world will not eat any more meat, why should we unnecessarily keep these animals and kill them and kill them? How much pain is there? Can you imagine that someone cuts your throat? No animals come and say, "Okay, please cut my throat today." You know they have spasms in the body. Even if you cut the throat, but still, for some seconds or minutes, they have pain. That pain is a curse for this earth. But it is said also in the Jīva Jīva Bhakṣate, "The life will eat life." Then how will they become free and come to the divine light? Then we create one human. So through the humans, all these souls will be liberated into enlightenment. They will come to the light. But as we become human and we behave again like animals, then we are again in the same cycle. Well, my dear, in the human body, there are 72,000 different nerves. And these nerves are the channels through which the consciousness flows out into the body. We have immense glands in the body. We have many cells in the body. Each of our cells in the body represents our whole life. Like one seed of the tree, a very tiny seed from the little fruit, like a fig tree, a very small seed. But this small seed can grow a very big banyan tree. Similarly, each sense in us is a whole universe. Everything is in us. In this, in our body, there are different levels of the centers, chakras. On the foot soles, there are earth chakras. From the ankle joint to the knees is vegetation. From the knees to the hip joints is called the animal kingdom or animal chakras. From the bottom beginning of the spine to the top of the spine are called the human chakras. And then comes this border called the Ājñā cakra. These are the divine chakras. This is in the whole brain. There are many, many,... Many centers, which are governing, which are controlling and keeping our life comfortable and balanced, are sitting in our brain. But to come to those chakras takes time. If we have not purified these chakras, then a human behaves like an animal. So, there is a border between human consciousness and animal consciousness in the Mūlādhāra chakra, which you have here. Many chakra pictures you can see. In these chakras are the different levels of our consciousness: unconscious, subconscious, and conscious. The higher consciousness, above this purification, the light consciousness, and then comes here, then there is no more chakra. It is then only divine, divine. So, when we meditate, we develop our divine centers in our brain. So, they take them over and then help us to purify all negative qualities in our chakras. So, of these 8.4 million creatures, the best is the human. They have these 72,000 nerves, and out of these, there are four nerves very, very important for us. One is called Vajranāḍī, and Vajranāḍī is responsible for our immunity system in the body, the strength in the body, what we call, "Oh, he has a lot of energy, very strong." That strength is from Vajranāḍī. And when our immunity is good, then we are not a victim of many illnesses. And that begins from the earth cakra. Because the earth is what supplies all the minerals and everything for our health to be strong. So, those who are practicing here, they practice for—asana is called Khatu Praṇām. And Khatu Praṇām āsana is designed especially to improve immunity in our body. When you come home after work, do three or four rounds of the Khāṭū Praṇām, you will feel immense energy in your body. Not that you come home and drink something and this, or drink coffee and that you have energy. No. Energy is in our body. Everything God has given us, how to utilize, how to awake, these are the different techniques, different things. Of course, we have to eat also, we have to drink also, to feed these hormones in the body. So, these chakras have different energies in the body. So, Mūlādhāra Chakra, which we have, mūl means the root. Mūl means the origin. Mūlādhāra means the foundation. This building is standing on the foundation. If the foundation is solid, our building is strong and solid. If the foundation is not solid, it will collapse. Similarly, our Mūlādhāra Chakra, which has the seat of the immunity energy there, begins from between the big toe and the second toe, and that directly connects to our navel. The Vajranāḍī nerve connects from there to our navel level. All our digestion system, all the hormones, and all the dividing of our food, and this in our intense times, is based on the Vajranāḍī's energy. If you have constipation, if you have diarrhea, if you have pain in the stomach, etc., if you have a problem with the apāna-prāṇas, meaning difficulties to urinate or defecate, all this lower part of the body, pain anywhere, cramps, this can be solved with the Vajranāḍī. And Vajranāḍī purifies all energies and gives the best qualities to the upper parts of the body, up to the brain. These three nāḍīs, out of the 72,000 nāḍīs, three, Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā, are connected. They are divine nāḍīs, flow of the divine energy, controlling of our consciousness, our thoughts, our visions, our life, the balance, etc. This is beginning from both hemispheres. This side is called the emotional center. So, there are two kinds of people. One is spiritual-emotional, and one is intellect-emotional. So, whose intellect person is, you will see the right eye is more open when you talk or look. And who is most emotionally spiritual has the left more open. So, with the face reading, you can see. You will see some rare person who has both eyes exactly open. The eyelids should be a little. They are the same size. It is not that one is bigger and smaller. But the function of this knot is here, to our eyelids. So please look to anyone, and you need not ask. When you see the person with which eyes are more open, when more spiritual, emotional also, is the left one, and intellectual more than the right one. So I gave you some very secret. So when you choose your husband or your wife, look, yes? And when both husband and wife have the same eyes like this, then there is a little quarreling. So there should be balance. If the husband has the more intellectual eye open, the right one, then the wife has the left one. So it is balancing, harmonizing. So, both hemispheres are controlled and affected by this. Now, this is called the moon, and that is the sun. The Moon is emotion. The Moon is growing and increasing and decreasing. Today is full moon, and you will see today the ocean has three times what you call the flood and thawing. Three times, or very strong waves. The whole ocean is moved by the sun. Oh, sorry, the moon. And when the dark night, the dark moon is, then you shall be more calm, more peaceful. So, the moon represents water and the emotions. So, we are emotion, which we are in motion. Our emotion becomes so strong, sometimes so wild. Emotion has many forms. If you are very happy, you are in emotion. If you are sad, you are in emotion. If you are angry, you are in emotion. If you are jealous, you are in emotion. Ego, you are in emotion. So, all these qualities, like that stream, strong, are emotion. So, in this motion of the emotion, to come through is not easy. Very spiritually, emotion is also not good. Then you have to put some other masālās inside. So, what you call the watermelon is very nice and sweet. But some people like to have a little salt on it, no? The fruits are very good. Naturally, they have a very good taste. But some say, no, no... a little salt, it will be tasteful. Look, the butter, very nice, natural butter, very nice taste, and this, but they mix the salt in it. I cannot eat the salty butter. First time when I ate salty butter, oh God, I was nearly vomiting. So, some like this and like that. The right one is connected with the right hemisphere, and that is intellect. Activities, creativities, also anger, temperament, etc., are coming from the right. Now, this both has to be balanced. Both have to be balanced. So, they support each other. So, these two nerves, which are going from there, both coming from the hemisphere, immediately they come beginning from this pituitary gland. And this left one will come to here and go to the right side, and the right one will go to the left side, and then they will come and meet here again. So, mostly, brain hemorrhage affects the left hemisphere more. Why? Because that is emotion, and there is our mental tension. That is causing the high blood pressure. Many think that because you have a lot of tensions here, a lot of tension is taken as emotion. From there, it comes to the thyroid gland. So many people have problems with the thyroid. Because we unconsciously give pressure there on the hormones. And many people who cannot digest, but they swallow, they cannot digest. Means, if someone is not nice to you, you have very bad experiences, and this and that, someone tells you something, you swallow down. You swallow down, but in the stomach it is lying like a stone. They will not melt there.