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Eternal journey

A spiritual discourse exploring the nature of the soul and the inner journey to self-realization.

"The eternal journey is within our Self, and our destination is very far—that which we call oneness with the cosmic Self."

"All in one, my Gurujī said... one in all and all in one. That is the oneness in our body."

A spiritual teacher guides the audience through a profound inquiry into consciousness, emphasizing the equality of all souls—from humans to tiny insects. He uses the analogy of peeling an onion to question the location of the self, leading to a participatory experiment where most attendees point to their heart. The talk weaves through themes of the five elements as divine, the evolutionary centers within the human body, and the importance of ethical living and meditation, concluding with a call for compassion towards all creatures.

Filming location: Brisbane, Australia

The subject here is the eternal journey. This eternal journey is within our Self, and our destination is very far—that which we call oneness with the cosmic Self. Our soul is moving through the whole universe, and not only humans, but other creatures as well. The souls of all other creations and humans are equal. There is no difference. Perhaps a tiny one... oh yes, that's very good. It's always about the tiny one. I always take the example from Australia: the sand fly. It is even not visible at all, but when it takes over the blood and goes away, then there is itching. This sand fly, maybe some with good eyes can see it, but it feels. And then the elephant, or a very big shark in the ocean—there we are visible, feeling, and we think: how can the soul of the elephant and this tiny sand fly be compared? They are equal. When God—if you believe in God, please; if you don't believe in a God, it doesn't matter, you ask your mother—in every mother, from where and how is life constructed? So, the eternal journey is within the tiny sand flea, the elephant, others, and humans. Life, living, what we call it, dying or still living, we cannot compare with our science. We cannot compare the engineers in all our different creatures, but they all have these kinds of activities except one: that knowledge, what we call the intelligence. In our brain, it is a little different than others, but they have it. This little flea knows my food is coming, and they will come and sit on us and suck the milk or the butter of them, our blood, and they will know when it is enough and will fly away. Similarly, we humans and animals are the same. It is always, I used to say, and it is written in every scripture, and that's why what I'm also telling: there are 8.4 million creatures in the world, including our water, the whole ocean. The ocean is also a life. The ocean is the biggest one. And within the ocean, there are many creatures. And the earth, and all you know, but I am speaking because it is coming on the path: the earth. 'Earth' is a Sanskrit word. Earth means knowledge, meaning, life. Earth is living. Once, about nearly 25 or 30 years ago—time is going so quickly—there was a series of sciences that doctors were making these days, many, many things. And then, once they were made to stand on the earth, just under our feet, and then they are looking, and we will see that we can't stand like this. How many creatures are there? So many! So, that's also living. After that, the water itself is life. And life itself is God. And Earth, we call the mother, and that mother has everything in her body. And the air. Air is also very holy, very divine. And it's also that life which is bringing us movement here and there. That's also eternal. After that, the fire. Fire is life. If the fire is not here, we are complete, finished, all. Fire has many, many different aspects; we can see about that. So the fire is the life. Everything began with the fire. Everything exists because of the fire. And then space, and that kind of space which we have—five different kinds of spaces where life is there, coming between them. And in this, it is said again, all these elements or principles are God. We have many times, many things. Water is a God. They call people in Europe, in some languages, it's called the Buddha Ajīvata. Water is life. It means everything in the water, in one drop of the water, will look in. There are how many lives inside? We call it "jal." "Jal" means water. Jagat, this world, what we have, and that which is, it is the seed of God. That's God. Where there is water, there is God. God means there is life. That's also within us. Some people like this, and some like different. If you take someone as a God, it's okay. You have Kṛṣṇa, you have Rāma, you have Buddha, you have Jesus, or anything, or many others. But what I am saying now, this is beyond this one God, or the two Gods, or the three Gods. And even God itself cannot manifest without these five elements or the gods. So we are God. That is God. The vegetation, all the flowers and beans, have a life, a complete life that's within that self. They also give the fruits, and Earth, the mother, also gives these fruits. And the humans, we also call the mother, give the fruits. The others, that is, we have to understand life. And when we understand that life, then we begin to say, "Let's see our skin. Peel your skin, and you will see how many different jīvas, souls, and this and that are in the skin and what is under the skin." So I'm coming to you on this yoga, this eternal journey. And this is the eternal journey, which is within ourselves. After that, there is nothing. And the five elements are the measure. First is space, fire, air, water, and earth, and these are within our self, but more than this we have. And so we shall touch our body somewhere, and immediately some things come to us. For example, but we are touching definitely some kind of life, or animals, or some—what we call it—infections, yes. So, that which is, that is also a life. That's also a very high life. So, we are around ourself very much. Then, where is your soul? What is our soul? Where is our soul? How big is the soul? We mostly will say, "Where is my body? There, and this, and that." Many times I am telling, where is your soul or where are you? And people are giving 99%. And some who knew one here may know, or they don't know, what I want to tell. So we can make an experiment. And so, please, it is like this that I ask you the question, and your hand will be up. And then I will say this one index finger. And then I will tell you, please close your eyes, because otherwise you will imitate others. So if I ask you, and then this finger, like this, touches your finger there, where do you think it is, you? Maybe you turn on the T on your knee, or on the toes, or on your head, or on your nose and your ears, or your throat, or navel, or the heart, or organs. Wherever it is, you are free, you are free. Where? But it is where is your that feeling? Your this is eternal within thyself, where it will be. And it's moving, that's moving all the times. So I will say you something, and that means... That when you shall close your eyes, and then I will see. Now, index finger, touch there and keep there. Don't remove, don't remove there. When I said once, "Where is it? Where are you? Your soul or your life or this?" Then you can touch wherever you want to touch. You can say, "It is here." Okay, it is here, but now don't move your finger. Then we will see everyone where they are: here, or here, or here, or here, or here, or there. I don't know. It is your body, your... you are not me. Only I. See something, so please, index finger up and close your eyes. Do not open your eyes, otherwise it will be wrong. So please close your eyes. It doesn't matter if you do or not, your hand up and down, but keep your eyes closed. Now, where is your... where are you? Where is your soul? And please touch that with your index finger. Where is it? Very good, but don't move. Don't move. Move your finger now. Look, open your eyes and see, where is your hand? But don't look at the other one. I told you, please look to yourself, yes. And now look to your neighbor. Now you can look to the neighbor. Where are your hands and others? We can see more. Don't move your hand, thank you. Put your hand down. So, mostly we touched our heart, and it was 90% or more than 90%; all hands were on the heart here. Thank you. But someone said here, that's also beautiful. Nothing. There's no, it is also good. Someone said something different, but generally we will tell. So I will ask you, there are different things, but generally we will say, it is my, I said, please tell me clearly what you said. Where did you say? Who are you then? So, we will do it. It's my, I am, it's like this. So, the biggest part of our life is in our heart here, but others, everything is clear there also. We can do something, and we said, "You, somebody is knocking on your door, and you will say, 'Who is there?'" Said, "I am." So you open the door and you said, "Who are you?" "I am." Where is "I am"? This is my shoulder, this is my hand, check. Is my head, is my skin, in my stomach is my heart. My heart. So, what are you? We are internal, changing where it is. Whatever I will touch, you will say, it is mine. It is mine. So where is yours? Oh, who are you there? He said, "Yes, it's mine. It's your heart. This is part." Then we call, for example, the onion. What is this onion? I peel the one little part from the onion. What is that? The onion. What if you want skin? What is that? Onion. I take it, peel it again. What is this? This is from the onion skin. Where is the onion? It is here. I feel one, I feel one. Constantly, how many layers of the onion are on that? And finally, there is no onion. Similarly, we are all here in this part, in our body, our skin, our muscles, our bones, our joints, our hair, our organs, everything. Who are you? I am this, but where are you? And that, if we can, then we said, "Yes, now I am further in the cosmic knowledge to come there." We are living, without that we cannot. And then it is like this, there are different centers in our body. Now, let's come to our humans. There are different kinds of creatures, and they are four. And in this, for one, is that those kinds of creatures which give the baby—any animals whose mother gives the baby, maybe the goat, the cow, the horse, or all any little animals which are giving birth—that is only that one. Coming like egg, and that comes egg, including sweating, and all these things. Then it comes to the bark, vegetation, and then it is like just water, nothing else. So these are from this. The human brain, cow brain, horse brain—all these animals have the brain. Some we can train, something, some we cannot, but they have a limited, but the human brain is beyond, but that needs the training. And look like this: in that human body, so with the V, human, there are little animals who can completely, all the time, walk on two legs, and that is the human. Four legs, they are walking. It is the animals, but it has in there. They have a spine, and on the spine they have their centers also. Life, very great life. But in this, we are traveling. We are traveling and the... In the beginning, humans were not like that. They were also walking like this. We are developed very much in this age. And there are very many yogīs or ṛṣis, what we call. So when we come up, then we have in our body these organs and centers where your energy, your everything, what you want to say, God or no God, or any... This is this, you have that. So in our body, still we body have the energy, and that is a first is in our foot sole. All everything is came in big in together, final is on a foot sole, and on our foot, all on our foot, this is the life and that. Is our self this is the earth element, Mother Earth. Earth we call in every country, "Mother Earth." But we can say "father country," like "by the country," but earth is a mother. So, in 90%, you will always respect and say the female, the mother, is the mother. First, God is the mother. But that mother has to follow the principle of the mother. And now the mother is not that principle, mother. What we have, others, the fathers, what have they done? Destroyed with so many pesticides, and made the mother confused. And therefore, all mothers are more confused now. Yes. Otherwise, what a great... There are... They are following very hard. Let's say what we call the Holy Mother, the Jesus Mother. There are many, many. It was whole, but now this world has become confused. And this confusion, neither this, there is there, but still the principle is there. The mother earth, from our ankle joint till our knee, this is all vegetation centers, all which are hidden. Coming from after death, from the knee till the end of our spine or the hip joints, is animals. How is it coming? More and more developing: earth, then vegetation, and then animals. And then, between, there—sorry—there begins the humans. And in this human comes also, like, monkeys and certain other animals. But there is desires, very strong desires. And so here it is together, the animals and humans. And many times we said, "Oh God, this person is like an animal." Who knows this about our animals that are within us? In our concentration, and then come the centers of the humans. They are one of the best centers of the humans to step by step come to the highest consciousness, the highest consciousness. This we have is the chakras. Along this spiral, after that from the vocal cord, there in this last center, then from this final comes to our forehead. And so, one sister here by sitting, and she was showing the indications here. And that means not emotion. The emotional thing is big in lower parts here, and the animals, and... Humans are more either emotion, or eating, or fighting, that's all. But the knowledge comes under that point we call the third eye. So God has given two eyes. Maybe some animals have only one eye, I don't know. Sorry, maybe you have seen, or you tell us. Otherwise, we have two eyes, and these two eyes mean one eye is to live life, and the third eye is to be in knowledge and in developing further into the past. These two, these two eyes are for our earth and space, heaven. But there is a third eye, and this third eye is here between the eyebrows. And there is the center, it's called the opening of the God Śiva. That when there will come a very, very terrible time on this earth, then again Śiva will appear. And then he's sitting in meditation, and when he sees really and truly that there is no one who can do anything, and he is completely distracted that way, then Śiva will open the third eye and will burn everything, finished. But in the finishing, there are... Two. One is either like you people are, we are humble, you are spiritual, you are yoga practicing, is your health? But health is the best wealth. Not money, not anything. Good health is the wealth. Anyone can take it out from our hand. But no one can take it out from this point and from our body. We will work again, and we will get again. And therefore, the practice of yoga is very, very important. But to understand your body, we are definitely coming here. And I see mostly the Australians, they are coming early morning. They take a shower, maybe take a coffee, a little run, and come to the yoga practice. Practice, and then I come in the house and then sit down on the dining table, and how much good bread and butter, and then what is this? Where you get, "Sorry, please, please don't be angry," or like this from the thousands of people, somewhere in Europe or India, you stand this one person, and you will find out quickly that it is an Australian. That's very good, very good. Yes. So, maybe a joke, maybe reality, but here is sitting my disciple, Lakṣmaṇ. I'm so sorry, please, my sisters and brothers. When he's sitting in someone with him in the car, who's sitting in the car is only making prayer, God. When we will stop? How to go? Come with the world that that strong this. Your power, energy, or, but you are eating that very, very good. Sorry, joke or no joke, are good. So, you are coming, and then you are having your breakfast, and you go to your work. This is a very, very good rhythm, what Australians are doing. Also, yogīs, the yogīs said that—my one disciple wrote one book, a little—and he wrote from the scriptures, the ancient times: 90 minutes, 90 minutes before sunrise. It is the golden time. Everything will go good for you in this. But what we call, "Early to bed and early to rise." And what is a ripe cherry? The first bird gets that cherry, which is the quicker one who gets the first one. Well, if you are living in one house, you can make it. I am now 50 years traveling around the world, so jet lag and jet lag and... now my jet lag is not anymore there, but there's a feeling of the jet lag still. But this is a very good early morning. If you come, come for your exercise here. You come down, no joke, no coffee, nothing. Come practice meditation, a little chant, and then you go. That will be good for your life, good for your life. For your health, it will be very good, and of course, if the couple, husband and wife, are coming, that's very good. But sometimes the wife comes here for early morning exercise, and the husband said, "My God, always I'm here alone, and I have..." To make a coffee, and you see, there is what you call a little bit of difference and problems. Best is to both practice and do it in the right way, but of course, it is his choice, and it is her choice. But we should do it for exercise, if not here, in our... Center you do in your house. Your house is beautiful, very good, nice, and you practice. At least one hour and 25 minutes of yoga exercise, at a minimum, is the best for our set. Okay, let's go to the inner centers. So I think it is enough that you see these things happening. So, in part of this, then on the brain, we see here, this was the best part here. And what is that? My consciousness, my light, my knowledge—all is the light. And that is from here above, all light and divine. So, there are many, many centers in the, we have big pictures on this. You can read what it means, and what, how many petals of the chakras, and how this chakra means. Before that, after, here it is. Every animal has, and we also have, our what we call the nerve systems. We self-purify our nerve systems, everything. Now, we say we clean the nerves. How will we clean the nerves? We cannot give the injection inside. No. Air. We cannot put the air in the nails. But how are we doing this? It is through our prāṇāyāma: the prāṇa, breath in, out, in, out, through the lungs, and from the lungs it also comes into the body and the nerves. For humans, there are 72,000 nerves, and that many, 72,000 nerves, and the point of the nerve that is a double. And so, what we call that they are doing the acupuncture, and every acupuncture is there, which we have. There is the energy point, and then there was acupressure, and this acupressure is that, for one, let's say alpha. Like a Y. In the Y, when we see the Y, then one center is down, the second center is where both branches are separating, and the third is on the tip of one point and the other tip. Two, three, and four force centers for their energy to let go through the whole body, different kinds of qualities, different kinds of quality, and so from 27, 72 thousand center energy and double. Or double points are there in our body, and it can be like this, then like wind, like air. So through the air, we are nourishing energy, everything. But the air is living, but air does not have that one point, and therefore you cannot feel pain. Can cut your? It will not be, but it is growing, and they are growing and growing, growing green. The air is green. So there is a point now we are completely in one big hall, and this is your universe. Your cosmic self is everywhere. This is only, let's say, one point of it there. And similarly, in each drop of blood from our body, or any liquid from our body, how many cells are there? Now, it means, and everywhere. When this little tiny seed, the sand fly. What is the thing? Sand fly. Sand fly. You know the sand, always, because you have a very big beach here. Sand. When that one bites our small toe, or the small, we call also the toe, though, okay, that bite is felt here, then what does it mean? Where is your soul? If the soul is only here or also there, please find out: where are you and who are you? And so you are the king, or you are the honey bee, the queen honey bee. And all the other bees and all the eggs, and this round is one all. So, we humans, or any animals, have our own kingdom, like a whole Australia. Similarly, you, my dear, have your own kingdom. And from this kingdom, you are the king. And do not give something into the wrong hands. Hand, so we have to let it, our body, and our coach, and there are the ten horses. And these horses are running our coach, and these are indriya. Indriya means the senses, and these are the five senses. This is what we have here in your yoga book. You should read about these hidden powers in humans. So now, what are you going to learn or think? I will say that we will sit and meditate here. You should think. Now, what should I touch? The point? What should I know from my kingdom? I have the bush, I have the rivers, I have oceans, I have hills, many things. Everything is within myself. I am that human. So, human is equal to God. But God gave us everything, and he gave up. Now, if you do wrong, it is your problem, and you do good, you will come then to God, the highest consciousness. Otherwise, you will go back again. How do you, how do you take care of your body? Don't think about others. But try to take care of your body with the nourishment: the solid, the liquid, the air, the movements, etc., for our physical body. Then comes the energy, prāṇa. The body can't do anything. It can fall down and sleep, lie down in the bed, lie down in bed. "I will go nowhere," laziness. It means you have no energy. Energy is from our willpower and our nourishment. What kind of food are we eating? How... Clean we are keeping, and good our energy can be. Energy is also different side. Which kind of energy you want? There is also an energy which is a criminal's now. That is also energy. You will shoot again. Gun is also your energy, or other side. You will take care of them, is that all my ideas? We are okay, etc. How will you and I live in that harmony within our body? That is my journey within my body. After this body is gone, then all elements will go. Nobody will stay with us. All gone. And then all the souls in the body, they will also go behind us. So we are not only one person alone in the universe. Believe me, you will go like a beautiful chariot if you have done good. Or you were eating meats and eggs and alcohols, and this fighting and that fighting, then, of course, they will torture you in different and different ways. Purify, purify, purify. Give to thy body in such a way, purification. And when this purification is there, then it's all. Otherwise, we have four stages of life. We are little, then we are young, then we are middle-aged, and then we are getting very old, and sooner or later we will die. So do not think that I want to have this for me, and now I am good, I am strong, and I want to enjoy this and that. What is that? When you were in the body of the mother's womb, at that time your soul was all with him. All was there, all. And the center of your house is the navel, that navel. If you give the soot, immediately all the whole body's cells are dead. Heart, brain, of course, this is different. But the navel, air is in the navel. From the navel, then, all different friends begin coming together and together. Therefore, we shall be one with ourselves and all. All in one, my Gurujī said, my holy Gurujī, Madhavānandjī Bhagavān said, one in all and all in one. That is the oneness in our body. So, life, life for humans is given to come to your highest one. Now, highest, you must not say that my God and that is your God and that is their God. Your God and my God and their God is standing on one door. There is only one door, so we will say, "But I am a Hindu." Let you, me, first say, "No, no..." It is finished. There is no Hindu. The Buddha is here. Oh, it is okay. Good, sit down, Jesus. Okay, but please, just take time, Allah. Oh, that is very good also. But tell Allah, take comfortably. All are mine. Slowly, everything will come. So, God, but we think God is different. And God, he said even. Here that he knows, and he will know from our heart what we have done and what we have not. What kind of "don't"? Don't give troubles or pain to the creatures. I'm sorry, but may I tell you, if you don't like it, keep it back. You know that here is a fish and an ocean. When you throw a hook in the water, and this creature comes, like, "Someone gave me something to eat," and the hook comes in the mouth, and now it is pulling out. How painful is that? And coming and suffering and pulling out, suffering. When we eat something and it is stuck in our... Throat, my God, is very uncomfortable, these and that and that. So maybe God will say at the door, "How many fish did you pull out with the hooks? My dear, first give back." Wait here. Let in your throat the things come and come and come. It is therefore, you are my dear Māyā, you are. Don't think that others don't have fear and pain. That is a bad thing. Others, what you are doing this and that, and that is okay, this is nothing. Think a little bit, but that kind of pain which... Is their whole bodies like this? That is very bad. So, eternal journey within thyself to understand and feel that. If you feel good, then you should know that they are also very good, and if you think... Within thyself, there's a lot of troubles and problems. Then, it's also others will have this, so feel good. But still, there are the karmas from past lives and this life, but I don't know from where I came from past life, maybe you were from Africa and now you are born here. You want to come here, your mother came here, but the Africans, they don't give her, the other mother, what you call the visa? Who is your mother and who, what is that? So, please. Don't be angry with me, but I want to tell you, look within yourself: your knowledge, your happiness, your kindness, your mercies, and practice for your good health. But sit down and meditate. How should I meditate? Looking to the ocean, looking at the sunrise, looking at beautiful flowers. These are all outside. This means you are keeping yourself away from thyself. Meditation is to be thyself. How are you healthy? No health problems? This heart, this, or what? Others, all negatives, only you know, nobody else. Or it's called, there you call, the Dharmarāja, the king. Of the Dharma, what was the Dharma? The Dharma means the good things. Who have done good is God. So Dharma, Rakṣatā, Rakṣatā. And so he will give the result, not we. Result is somewhere else, but we don't know what we should do or what we should not do. At least we only do one thing: that we should not cause pain to anyone. You are a God. You are a human.

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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