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Life

A spiritual discourse on life, death, and the pursuit of true knowledge.

"Life is a very mysterious thing, and life means life. We come to the astral world; the astral world is not far away from us. It is very close to us—not even one millimeter distant."

"Nor can this education be taught to us by someone. It is ourself who shall teach ourself. And that is it. And that is the self that has been searching for past millions of years, baby."

The speaker explores the mystery of human existence, contrasting our physical life with the proximate yet unknown astral world. He identifies human intellect and its failure to conquer the fear of birth and death, advocating for the pursuit of supreme knowledge (parāvidyā) over material education. The talk concludes with reflections on aging, destiny, and the imperative of self-realization.

Recording location: Slovenia, Kranj, Seminar

Life is a very mysterious thing, and life means life. We live in this world, and we depart from this world. We come to the astral world; the astral world is not far away from us. It is very close to us—not even one millimeter distant. That is a mysterious thing, because physically, we are also existing in the astral world. Our whole planet is existing in the astral world. But we do not have knowledge about the astral world because our self, our being, is closed in this physical body. And that is good, that we have for a time being rest from the astral beings and astral complications—which are full of distress and loneliness, not knowing where to go. So it is good that we make holidays here on this physical planet. But it is very interesting what to do. There is one word in Sanskrit; it is called kriyā, and kriyā means activities, working. Now, everything is working in this universe. The planets are moving. The elements are changing; the Earth is working. Seasons are changing, and the trees and vegetation are also changing. And humans are also changing, working—I mean, doing work. But humans have got something special which other creatures do not have, and that is called intellect: the capacity to understand and to act. But though we have that intellect, still we have not mastered our life. We know, but still we do not stand above birth and death. We have not overcome the fear of birth and death. We have not overcome the changes. And all that is because of ignorance. If we have knowledge, then we will not be afraid. But we do not have that knowledge. So we do not know how it will be, and that is why we are afraid. If we have knowledge about those things, we will not be afraid. Therefore, the great person said, "Education." We need education. And there are two kinds of education: one education is about material things, aparāvidyā, and one knowledge is about the supreme reality, parāvidyā—metaphysics. Now, whatever we have learned in our life, maybe it is not enough, what we have learned. Do you have fear about something? Yes, then it means you have not developed—except for some material, professional information. And that education cannot be learned in school. That education is not in a university. Nor can this education be taught to us by someone. It is ourself who shall teach ourself. And that is it. And that is the self that has been searching for past millions of years, baby. And that self would like to be the self that is never afraid. We know that we are immortal; we know that we are unborn, we will not die; we know, but we do not know what we should know. And that is why one of the Greek philosophers said at the end of his life—he was a great man, he was Socrates, I think—and he said, "Now I know that I don't know." But you know what a painful situation this is: our whole life we tried our best to work, to learn, to know, and finally, in the last minute of our life, we come to know that we do not know. And that should not happen to us. We pray to Almighty God, "We do not know, but you know, my Lord. Merciful Lord, we may forget, but you should not forget us." Give your life in His hand, then why are you afraid? When we get a little illness, we are so frightened. We are frightened; suddenly, high blood pressure—"Oh my God, what should I do?" Any kind of disease: blood sugar, kidney functions, heart, many, many things. But these are signals for us that you are already in the afternoon. And he said, "Everybody, pray to the sun, the rising sun." Nobody is praying to the sun that is going down. So everyone loves the young, children, and students. Those who are on pension have only tension. No one is interested. What a life! So what did we achieve in this life? All our titles, our degrees, all our education—what we learned will stay here. Again, it is you who have to jump into the empty space, and no one is with you. And it is destiny which will take you here and there. Good destiny, good destination; bad destiny, bad destination. Recording location: Slovenia, Kranj, Seminar

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.

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