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The Eternal Journey of the Soul

An introductory satsang on the soul's journey and self-inquiry.

"The subject is a very individual one, and that is what we call the eternal journey of the soul."

"Ko’ham—who am I? And as long as we do not know exactly who I am, it doesn't matter; you can meditate the whole day, or you can sleep the whole day, or read books and books, everything."

The speaker opens the first evening of a retreat by chanting the mantra Om and then delves into the nature of the soul and the self. Drawing from the teachings of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, he explores the five sheaths (kośas) that comprise human existence and the interplay between the senses of knowledge and action. Through stories and analogies, he discusses karma, dharma, and the pitfalls on the spiritual path, emphasizing the continuous, eternal journey of the soul. The session includes practical guidance on chanting and connecting with solar energy at the navel center.

Filming location: London, UK

First of all, welcome, all dear sisters and brothers. This evening is our first satsaṅg, or lecture, or talk. The subject is a very individual one, and that is what we call the eternal journey of the soul. Before that, I will chant a mantra. The mantra is in the Sanskrit language, an ancient literature which comes from great saints. It all resides in that eternal light, because they are known as self-realized, as having ātmā-jñāna, eternal peace and light. So, let us chant the first mantra: Oṃ. We will chant, and many of you know that in this retreat or seminar, we will explore how this Oṃ can guide our soul towards eternity. The chanting of Aum is very scientific. It connects to our chakras. That will come later. So, let us chant Aum. Take a deep inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Relax your shoulders. Relax your elbows. Relax your stomach muscles. Deep inhale and exhale. If you close your eyes, it will be more effective. If you don't want to close your eyes, no problem. So, we will—those who wish can close their eyes—we will chant three times. Oṃ. Deep inhale. Lead us from unreality to reality. Lead us from darkness to light. Mṛtyormā amṛtaṁ gamāyā. Lead us from mortality to immortality. Oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ... Open your eyes. The soul, the eternal one, our individual soul—do we know how many times we have incarnated? Ādiśaṅkarācārya, the great, great saint Śaṅkarācārya, who is called an incarnation of Śiva, posed a question to our self. We shall know about our self. There is a beautiful book written by Śaṅkarācārya called Aprokṣa Anubhūti, which means self-realization. It asks: Ko’ham, katham idaṁ jātaṁ, ko ve kartāsya vidyate. Ko’ham—who am I? I am not these five elements: space, fire, air, water, and earth. I am not this. Also, these are called the five different bodies, the kośas: annamaya kośa, prāṇamaya kośa, manomaya kośa, vijñānamaya kośa, and ānandamaya kośa. This means there are five different bodies. The five elements come together to create these forms because of the soul. Your body, how it is manifested, my body, my soul, and so on. Like there is a honey bee, the queen of the honey bee. When it flies away, all bees will fly behind it. Similarly, for our soul, wherever our soul will go, all these tattvas, everything will go with us. Annamaya kośa means the body of nourishment. What we drink, what we eat. After that comes prāṇamaya kośa, the body of energy. What we eat, our nourishment, gives us strength. That energy should be sāttvic, pure, clean energy. If one drinks alcohol, one has energy, but it is completely different. Or you drink some juice of fresh fruits; it is another energy. Or you drink milk. So, our body energy is according to our nourishment. But there is another fine nourishment: when we walk in the park, in the forest, in the mountains, where there is good, fresh air. That also gives us pure energy. Then there is manomaya kośa, the mental body. The mind is dwelling in our body, but we don't know where the mind is seated in the body, though it is ours. The mind, but where? How can we define our mind? The mind is that which moves with our thoughts. In the mind, the consciousness, unconscious, subconscious, conscious—between this, transferring that message or situation, the condition of our entire being is connected with our mind. It is like now I am speaking and the camera is running, the reel is running. Each and every movement, each and every thought, everything is registered. The reel is moving, new images coming. Similarly, the mind is giving information from our external visions, actions, etc., or through our jñānendriyas. Jñānendriya means the senses of knowledge. The senses of knowledge are five, and the karmendriyas are five. So you see, it is connected. Everything within five, five, five. Understand? So, jñānendriya means the senses of knowledge, which give us knowledge. For example, our eyes. Whatever we see, that is information for us through our eyes. What you have seen, what color, what visions, etc., that will remain lifelong. But of course, if one is blind, unfortunately this indriya, this jñānendriya, is not functioning in that way. But God or the creator has given different powers to give that knowledge. Though one was blind, one can get that knowledge also. Hearing—whatever we hear, good or bad. Smell—what kind of smell is there, it informs us. Taste—sweet, bitter, salty, etc., gives us information. We put it in our mouth and say, "Oh, it is very sour." And when we are talking only about good lemon juice, sour, already in our mouth there is saliva coming. And the fifth principle, the fifth jñānendriya, is the skin. The skin, which is touch, is covered over the whole body. Anywhere, a little mosquito or a little ant comes on your body or bites you, immediately you know where and what happened. And this only we can make corrections. For example, on the back somewhere it is itching, and you tell somebody, "Please, can you scratch there a little bit?" Where? Here, left, a little right, a little down. It doesn't go there, but our knowledge immediately will go there. It is there, or it is here. These are the five senses of knowledge. What are they for? Of course, for our body, etc., but for our soul. That is our divine light, our divine existence—the jñānendriyas. So the mind is connected very closely to these five senses. As well, there are other indriyas that are called karmendriyas. Those were for knowledge, and these are for karma. These indriyas are the desires, and through these desires we can act. There are only five. So these are the five indriyas of knowledge and the five indriyas of action. Together they are working. There is one story. One hunter is running behind one deer for hunting. The deer runs away quickly in the forest. The hunter was running behind. There was sitting one farmer, very kind, very humble, very good. So the hunter asks that man, "Sir, can you tell me, did you see the deer and which direction he ran?" Now, this is called, in Hindi language, a dharma saṅkaṭ. Dharma saṅkaṭ. Dharma is also religion, but the dharma reality is my principle. What you should do and what you should not do. That is the dharma of your hands, the dharma of your legs. Dharma of your stomach, dharma of your digestion, etc., etc., or to see, to speak, to tell. Now, the farmer thought, "If I tell this person which direction the deer was running, passing, then I will be guilty, I will be the sinner, because I saw that. Where is the deer gone? Which direction have you seen?" The farmer said, "My friend, what can I tell you?" The hunter said, "Tell me, have you seen the deer, and which direction was he running?" The farmer said, "That is my problem." The hunter said, "What? How to save your dharma?" So the farmer said, "Friend, the one who has seen cannot speak, and the one who can speak cannot see." That is it. So my eyes have seen, but they cannot speak, and my mouth, which speaks, cannot see. So what is the truth now? So, I am... I am sorry, sir, my friend. The hunter said, "Well, stupid man," and he went the other direction. Okay, if someone said to you, "This stupid one," at least we saved our dharma, not... To create the sin, to show someone that we have to be very careful, so it doesn't matter, animals or the humans or anything. So these five indriyas, jñānendriyas are the senses of knowledge and karmendriyas are the senses of action. They both coordinate together, and the mind is balancing them both together. The mind is running there, and the mind is running there. The mind brings information from our conscious to the subconscious. It brings from outside, and then the message inside, and the old message brings out and gives again to the conscious. So the mind's duty is moving left and right, left and right, you know, like a pendulum. Now we want to understand our mind, catch our mind. We cannot, because the mind is just like a reflection—the reflection of our actions, good or bad—but we cannot touch that one. It is a reflection in the water or a reflection in the mirror. You go to the mirror and look at your face, and suddenly you see that somewhere there is some spot, some dirt. Now you see in the mirror, and you take the cloth and clean the mirror there. This spot will not be cleaned here. So we have to have jñānendriya to understand and to clean like this, but by looking there. Similarly, the mind is coordinating the conscious and unconscious, both sides. So it is a reflection. So that is the mind, the mental body. After the mental body comes the body of knowledge, our intellect, the vijñānamaya kośa. Then it is called ānandamaya kośa, the body of bliss or the body of actions and karmas. Again, we come to our desires more and more. So, Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya is talking about the eternal journey of the soul. Ko’ham—who am I? And as long as we do not know exactly who I am, it doesn't matter; you can meditate the whole day, or you can sleep the whole day, or read books and books, everything. But still, that is... and that is called Guru Vakya, the master's word. But do not think that the master will give you realization immediately, in one year or ten years. No, no, no. Because the soul is connected with the soul, what I am saying, as long as we are in this body, me, you, everybody, there are dangers. And dangerous means our actions, and actions means good or bad. We never know our destiny, that suddenly we make some mistake and our whole work is lost. I have in my hand a beautiful cup. This cup was not made in one day or half a day or minutes; this is in my hand, beautiful. We bought it. We went and saw. It is expensive. Everything, nicely packed and so on. It is good. But suddenly, we made some mistake, and it fell down. All work is gone. The cup is broken. Similarly, you think that you have been serving your master or other masters, or you were reading so many things. Yes, you have. You got it. Everything is reserved, like you put money in your bank. Yes, you put money every day, every second day, or every month, and your account, the money will increase. But who knows? Nowadays, people can take money through the computer, from your account. All the money is gone. What is that? That means our karma, our deeds. We did good things; we did very good always. But at the last minute, we made a mistake. There is also a story a disciple tells. One master was moving through the street with some good disciples, a few disciples with him. And one man, a merchant who had a shop, saw the master coming. He was not good. The master had a long beard; I have not so long, so I am not a master. And the merchant said, "Gurujī," and the master said yes. The merchant asked, "What is the difference between the beard and tail of the donkey? What is the difference between your tail or your beard and the tail of the donkey?" Oh, God, all disciples were so angry. The master said, "No, no, no problem," and went away. The person was also afterward very, very sad. "How stupid I am, that I humiliated that person." After 70 years, or 75 or 80 years, the master was dying, going out of the body. So he knew that now I will die in one hour, two hours, or two days, or something. So the master said to his disciple, "Can you call that merchant?" They said, "Why? He was so rude to you." He said, "No, no... doesn't matter. Then why do you call him? Because I owe him something. I am still guilty. He asked me the questions, and I had ego, or I had also inside, but I digested it. But I know before I will not answer him, before asking the answer, I will die. My dear, only because of this one question to answer back, I have to come again in life. Whole life I did good work and good, but last second I can make a mistake. That part is broken." Therefore, do not think that "my master, ah, he did not give me anything," or "I do not change anything." And this you should know day by day, every day. Sunrise, and every day is your time. Life is growing, changing, etc., etc. So do not think that, "I will be self-realized." You know, we are all self-realized. We are all... though I know, "I, my name," every day. I know I am eating, I am living. That is... okay. But that kind of light in which our soul is, in eternity, everywhere traveling, traveling—how is it going through the body? So these are the elements, the mind, and the mind is that reflection. And that reflection can be good or bad. It means our behavior, that which we can do. The body—Śaṅkarācārya said, "Ko’ham? Who am I?" He said, "Yes, I am." Okay. "You are this?" He said, "No, this is my shoulder." Okay, you are very nice. "Are you this?" "No, this is my cheek." Whatever, wherever you will touch, it is my body. I am not that. We take blood out. Is this? No, it is my blood. Whatever we touch, whatever we will call, then we will say, "It is not mine." Now, I am sorry, it is not me, it is mine. And I think that could be the good thing we can always do. We need one chair, and we need a chair for this brother who is standing there? Thank you. That also comes to our good karma. Thank you. So, whatever we touch, whatever we speak, whatever we do, then it now has become like an onion. We know the onion. We said, "What is this?" This is an onion. Now we peel one piece. What is this? Oh, it is a piece of onion. It is not the onion; it is a piece of onion. One, two, three, four, five. Very the onion. And so is our condition. This is my body. This is my mind. This is my emotion. This is my action. This is this, and this is mine. But who are you? Ko’ham. And that is it. I am pure ātmā. That is all. Ko’ham. Who am I? Well, maybe you know, okay. But the second question he is putting: From where did you come now, in this life? We are all sitting here. Okay, you can say that I am coming from this street, from that part of London, there. No. From past life, how did you come? From where did you come? Who was your mother there? Or your father? And in which body you were—do not think that a human will always be born as a human. Forget it. This is a cycle: going, moving, moving... moving. So from where do you come? Who are you? And from where are you coming? And we do not know anything. That is why when we come to the border of the UK, they do not ask you who you are or anything like that, but for your passport. You know, so your passport answers everything. We do not know. From where? Ko’ham? Katham idaṁ jātam? And now, where are you going? Why did you come here? Why? And where do you want to go? Are you sure where you will go? Will you be born in London? Or will you be born in Budapest? Or in Sydney? Or maybe in Rajasthan? We do not know. Are you sure? Have you your document that you will go there next life? We do not know. Do we use that kind of knowledge? Our science has done a lot, our work has done a lot, but still we are nowhere. So it is said, and what you are working and where you are going. This, our soul, beginning the journey, when you understand. When you understand, now I am awakened, where and how will I go? The soul, the soul is going through the sun, is coming through the sun to the astral world and further extra, and that this entering the soul in our navel, is coming to our navel. Now, we are born as a whole, complete body, but there are some creatures which come first, like an egg. But within that egg also, they are developing the soul, the bindu. It is called bindu, the dot. And the soul is not so big. Do not think that the elephant has a big soul and the mosquito or ant has a small soul. The human has that one soul. That is like a fire. A very tiny little piece of fire can burn the whole forest, everything. So your soul, my soul, other souls, that soul—all are the light of God. Light of God. So if somewhere there is a burning fire, a very big fire, it does not mean that in other villages there is no fire. Fire is everywhere, and this fire is coming to our navel. We will do the sādhanā in these two days more; it will be heavy. We will practice. That is called the solar plexus. Jāṭharāgni. In Hindi or Sanskrit, we call it Jāṭharāgni. Agni means fire. That Jāṭharāgni is called the sun plexus. So this is the sun, and that is the soul there, the solar plexus. And there enters our soul, and there the soul goes again back to the sun. And the speed is so strong, so quick, that when someone dies, we cannot catch them anymore. It has lost all other tattvas, and the soul is going with high speed, high speed, high speed. And in that kriyā, in that sādhanā, in that which we are going further to come, we become the solar plexus. The solar is the light of the sun. Now we know we have solar panels, yes? Our science is doing everything, but our scientists, they are also truthful. Because solar is from the sun, and from this sunlight we make light, fire, warm water, etc., etc., everything. So similarly, our solar is in our navel. There is then the sound of the Oṃ. You know, everyone, definitely, because many times I spoke, many others spoke, the scientists, the NASA Center in America, they, through their instruments, came closer and closer and closer to hear the sound of the sun. And that sound of the sun is exactly Aum. Now, there is YouTube nowadays. And if you look at the sun, at NASA, you will see there is a sound inside. This is one YouTube. Let us go into that. And so that soul, our light, our life, which is coming and bringing us closer and closer and closer. So this is a kriyā. So we change now. We will change now, so relax. You have to realize, concentrate on this sunlight. Sunlight, you close your eyes and first imagine the dawn, beautiful dawn. Beautiful. Inhale, exhale. With every breath, inhale, exhale, and try to imagine that just the sun is rising, the sun is rising, that through our vision's eye, visions which are closed eyes, we have so with our inner eyes we are imagining, but that is reflecting through our inner eyes to the navel, and the navel is there, which is that connection, or connecting to the sun. It does not matter: midnight, dark night, clouds, etc., but there is constantly connection, constantly connection with our navel to the sun, solar, that solar energy is in our navel, and now we will come there. There are chants which we did, but it is a... this is a Sanskrit letter, and there are 52 Sanskrit letters. So, A and Ā, then comes U and M. We will chant this. Try to chant first A, then A. Do not go far. No, only this. Yes, you are running behind, in front of me. I said only, only A. Uh, no, no... You went again too high. Look, this is a kriyā, or this is the technique which I want to bring you to, the technique to bring it to the way of the eternal soul. Where and how it will travel, you will see yourself. Take time slowly. So, open your eyes and place your one hand on your navel, right or left, does not matter, okay? And perhaps sit a little straight, please. Now, do not lean on the chair too much. And we will say that one, one letter only, one letter. And there is only so, but let us say loudly, "Ah!" What happened? Here, ah, yes. Ah, when, for example, a child cannot properly pronounce or has some problem speaking, then meditation, concentration, and chanting on this, what we call the navel, the nābhi, and the sūrya, or the solar plexus. Ah, ah, now you said... Who? What happened to the navel? Empty? Who? Who am I? Yes. So this whole vocal cord is going... that is how awakening our that consciousness and awakening our being: "Ko’ham? Katham idaṁ jātam? Ko vā? Kathasya?" Vidyate, so the technique, this is kriyā of the sūrya, the solar plexus. Oh yes, yeah. So there is it. Some one person, one person developed one yoga technique, and there is no other any exercises, only one. And his technique is laughing yoga, and in the aeroplane while sitting, suddenly he laughs, and everybody says, "A crazy man is here," and then one said, "This is a laughing yoga, haha." He said, "You ever look how happy you are? So make change." So, now, is it really in the whole world? There, you call it laughing yoga, and he said, "If you can laugh for five minutes in the morning, the whole day will be happy." And why? Because of the maṇipūra cakra, according to the science of the Kuṇḍalinī, and because the Kuṇḍalinī is the power of the Sūrya, so okay, so only this energy. From the solar, what is called the solar energy, has to go first to our heart, that our heart, which is warming our whole body, is coming from the solar point. So, ah... so, keep your mouth open. That will help your heart. That will help your physical heart and your spiritual heart. And the soul, the residence of the soul is in the heart. Kaṭhopaniṣad, the Upanishad books, and in the Kaṭhopaniṣad it is said that in the heart there is a little cave, and there is a tiny blue light. That is the soul, but still, we will come on slowly. Ah, ah, then we bring to our Viśuddhi cakra the vocal cord, and tomorrow is coming with this the many, many problems: thyroid gland, etc. Why is the problem creating there? But that we will come to in time; I am talking too long. So, ooh, like Uṣā. Okay, Uṣā, ah, in the night, never is moving. Uṣā is only here. So, ah, ah, ooh, how smoothly, just to going, expanding, creating, coming in, and then transferring to the Sahasrāra Cakra once more. Śānti, śānti... When we chant śānti, śānti, the solar plexus is completely peaceful. Tomorrow we will continue. Wish you all the best. Thank you. Are you?

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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