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This is self-inquiry meditation: Ātmā anubhūti. Ātmā means our Self. Our soul is different. The Self is beyond. The Self is equal to Brahman, the Supreme, the Highest. The soul is bound to karma, caught by our karma—our actions, reactions, everything: what we do, what we think. It is the Jīvātmā. Jīva means the soul, and Jīvātmā is a mixture of ātmā and ātmā, because the jīva cannot exist as long as ātmā is not with it. So Jīva means life—the life, not the diet. The soul is traveling endlessly in space, and for a while, it comes and remains in this body and will continue the journey. But it is a destiny that will turn in different directions. So, again and again we come back to this mortal world, and this jīvātmā tries to find some place to get liberation or freedom. But still, the karma, the standing, the dharma, adharma—dharma means righteousness, adharma means the sin—all of this is the victim of the jīva, the jīvātmā. Without that, this jīva cannot merge into the supreme. It is not one thing that, okay, this is my soul and my jīva, and it will go. No. There is an immense mechanism involved in this body to create this body. Do not take it easy. It is a very precious body. All kinds of facilities are there, but we ignore our body, and we destroy our life. Again, the jīva, our individual soul, is disappointed, disappointed. Again, it feels that I lost, I lost, I lost my game of life. What I brought with me, with which expectation of happiness, or with which destiny, with good karma, it was given to me, this human body, where I felt myself the blessed one, the luckiest one, the happiest one. Now I got my chance, my opportunity. I am sure that through this body I will purify all impurities, meaning karmas, destinies, etc., so that I will proceed towards Brahman, the Supreme. In meditation, we will have that imagination of the flame which is separating from this mortal world and goes towards the Supreme. But meanwhile, we forget there is so much, so many temptations, where there is lots of laziness, carelessness, and we don’t think of why we came. And so, in Ātmanubhūti self-inquiry meditation, which in yoga and life we call one of the greatest thinkers—one of the philosophers from the West, also from Germany or somewhere, said on this earth there was no one like that great thinker, Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya. Śaṅkarācārya brought many books and brought the philosophy called Vedānta. Vedānta means non-duality, oneness. Ved and Anta, the essence and end of the Vedas, means the Vedānta. What remains? Life is like an onion. But there is no reality; there is no onion. We take one part of the onion, we peel off the onion. What is that? It is a piece of the onion, a piece of the onion, a piece, but where is the onion? At the end, there is no onion. Similarly, it is myself, my body, my heart, my liver, my kidneys, my bones, my muscles, my nerves. Further, my emotions, my feelings, my mind, my, my... but who is that "my"? Who is he or she who speaks that I am? Where are you? And so there, Śaṅkarācārya tells: "Ko’ham, katam idaṁ jātam, ko ve kartasya vidyate?" Who am I? I am not the body, I am not this jīvātmā, I am not intellect, I am not emotion, I am not the thoughts. Then who am I? Searching, searching to find. And again, who is there? I. Where are you? Here I am. But here is your chest or your shoulders. Whatever you touch, that is not you. So this is the final, the highest state of the meditation, to realize the One, and then there is no one. Because there is only the one; there is no second one. "Ko’ham, kutaḥ āyātaḥ, kutaḥ idaṁ jātaṁ, ko vā kartā, kasya vā idaṁ?" From where did I come? We are here in this world. We were born here or in some other country. We came here, not this. But this Jīvātmā, where was it before this life? That is the main point. And then, maybe you came from there, where you don’t like it anymore, and you are fighting against that, but you don’t know. It was your parents. And so, O human, don’t fight. You don’t know. Maybe you are fighting with your mother, your father, your parents, your brothers, or your sisters. Therefore, it is that you should know: "Ko’ham?" Who am I? "Ko’ham? Katam idam?" From where to here I came? "Idam jatam?" Where am I going? "Ko ve kartasya vidyate?" And what am I doing, and where will it lead me? Is this the aim of my life? Do I know who I am? And therefore, it is said that Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya... So, there is a very nice small booklet written by Śaṅkarācārya. It’s called Aprokṣa Anubhūti. Aprokṣa Anubhūti: The Self-Realization. There, he is very clearly giving the instructions. So: "kovam katam idam jatam kove kartasya vidyate." What am I doing? For what did I come? Your father sent you to go and bring the potatoes, but now you came back with the peanuts. And even you don’t know what he asked to bring. So take it, let’s have peanuts. We’ve forgotten. So, do we know who we are? On the day when we know that all this prapañca—prapañca means all these problems—all this will disappear. So, there is a guide from the master. The master can only show us the path. He will not carry you till the end. We have to walk. Don’t think that every day the master will be sitting in front of me and telling, "Now do this, and this, and this." Definitely, the master also has no time. So I gave you the key, I showed you the path. Now continue, continue. If you change your path on the way, then don’t blame or say, "My master told me, but now I will take the other way." So, it is our mind, our intellect, that doesn’t allow us to believe, and that’s our problem. We are changing every minute, every day, and so we are doing our sādhanā, and never, never... hurry up, slowly, slowly. When a small baby child is born, you cannot give one glass of milk in the stomach. Little, little, slowly, slowly, little, little. And when we give the solid food, also little, little, slowly, slowly, slowly. The steps will come. The child will stand up, will fall down, stand up, will fall down. But one day, it will be the champion for the Vancouver run. Similarly, our sādhanā should be like that, that we do. We should not feel that our life is a burden. Also, you don’t think that I don’t know now where to go and what to do. You have everything. You have everything in life that you need. Our mother nature, our father God, whatever we think, we should be thankful and give everything, everything. Then why do you say that you are unhappy? Why do you say that you are poor? God said, "Give your hands, legs, eyes, body, limbs, everything. Why don’t you work?" How can you say that you are poor? What makes you think you are poor? Go into the forest and ask the deer, "Are you poor?" They will say, "I don’t know what this word means." The animal’s life is, and our life is; we are not poor. We make ourselves poor because we do not live according to what God has given. And so self-inquiry means ātmā-anubhūti. This word, please remember: ātmā-anubhūti. The realization of the self, or aprokṣa anubhūti. So we will now try to meditate a little bit. Anāhata Cakra is there, so please make yourself comfortable. Be sure that posture will not give us liberation. So it doesn’t matter how you sit, but you sit comfortably, that’s it. One can sit in the lotus posture, one can sit in Vajrāsana, one can stretch the legs. Make yourself comfortable so that you feel comfortable in your body. Without this, you cannot think, meditate, or do anything. Place your hands, if it’s possible, on the knees or on the lap. Adjust yourself into a comfortable posture. Adjust yourself comfortably so that during the meditation you will not feel discomfort. Light is okay. Put off the air conditioner noise. Now, we will chant Oṃ and feel that you are in your endless universe, which is within thyself. Everything, everything is within thyself. Our astral world is endless, and there is the sound of Naḍa Rūpa Parabrahma, which means the resonance is the Supreme. Three times we will chant Oṃ. Inhale, deep inhale, and exhale. Try to breathe deep into the stomach and exhale. Relax your elbows. Relax your shoulders. Just relax. Try to see or imagine that space which you have for your entire being, endless. Nāda Rejuvenance: Concentrate on your navel. We will chant Om, but I’m bringing you first to that path of the Om. The center of our being is the navel. The beginning of our life is from the navel. Prāṇa and Apāna unite at the navel, and therefore the seat of the sound, the seat of the... Our words or speech begin from the navel, and we will chant Oṃ, the sound, the energy from the Maṇipūra Cakra. Maṇipūra Cakra is the navel, immediately ascending the vibration or awakening of that energy from the Maṇipūra directly to the top of the head. There is one cakra called Sahasrāra Cakra, the thousand-petaled rose lotus. This sound goes so quickly, connecting your navel to the center of your brain. And the whole game of our life is based on these two centers, the navel and Sahasrāra Cakra, Brahmarandhra. From there, the sound separates—not dividing, but one part of the sound, which is 50%, goes into the space which you can hear. The chanting of your "Aum," what you hear, is coming from the Sahasrāra Cakra to the space which you hear also. Second part of the sound, 25% is going back to the whole body, meaning each and every cell of the body is vibrating, recharging the light, the energy, and the next 25% of the sound through the Sūrya Nāḍī, Iḍā and Piṅgalā, Suṣumṇā. Suṣumṇā leads the sound to the heart. That is one of the finest energies, the finest energy that is in the heart. Relax. So, the ascending of the Om resonance from the navel to the vocal cord, this is the Viśuddhi Cakra. Cakra balancing your hormones through the glands of the throat. From there, the sound comes up to the Sahasrāra Cakra, and then the three streams: one is in this space, the second is in the whole of our astral body, and the third is at the center of our life, the heart. Deep inhale and exhale. Relax, relax. Now, deep inhale and begin from the navel. We will chant all together, Oṃ. Resonance of the Om in your whole being: the three words—past, present, and future; physical body, mental body, and subtle body. All three bodies are awakened by OM resonance. Concentrate on the navel and feel the contracting and expanding of the navel with inhalation and exhalation. Inhale, we will chant OṂ. Follow the resonance of the OṂ. It is going to be endless. Feel in your heart the heartbeat. It is the jīva there. That is the soul. And now this third, Triloka, Trinity, Trivod, this last chanting of the Om. Let your awareness go into the higher consciousness. Means, now imagine, at the center of thy brows, a dark and dark and dark blue space, no objects. From the navel, a beautiful flame comes, and with the chanting of OM, you will see the flame, a tiny flame, going through your chanting. In the high speed into the sūkṣma loka, you will enjoy seeing the flame of life. Inhale. Śakti. All the three words. Feel your body. Become aware of your being here. Feel your physical body. Be aware of the body. Move your fingers. Close the fist and open the palms, and fold the palms together. Rub your palms, then place your hands on your face. Gently rub your face muscles, eyelids. Open your eyes into your palms, slowly close and open your eyes again, and move the hands toward you.