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The Ātmā is like space. It cannot be cut by thousands of blades, cannot be burned by fire, cannot be extinguished by water, and cannot be destroyed by any weapon. Take a knife and try to cut the space here; you will see no scratches in the space. Try to burn this space; you cannot burn it. Only all these objects will burn; the space will not burn. Death cannot take away the space; death is only a play within this space. So the identity of the ātmā is like space. It was, it is, and it will be. Everything is a play within this endless universe. Our real Self is like that ātmā, like space. Yesterday we spoke about the many creatures. We spoke about what is the mind, what are the indriyas, and what is the consciousness and the levels of consciousness. Then we spoke about karma and destiny, we spoke about the tattva, we spoke about the prāṇa, and we spoke about the nāḍīs. We spoke about nāḍī jñāna and how the chakra is formed in our body. And then we stopped our subject. Was it like that? Now we shall proceed further: pralabdha. "Pralabdha pele rachā, pise rasa śarīra." First pralabdha—destiny—is created, and then the body is given. The question was: what is the individual soul? Now we are coming to the individual soul. The space was divided into five levels: Ghaṭākāśa, Māṭhākāśa, Chidākāśa, Ākāśa, and Mahākāśa. Before that, we spoke about resonance and the sound—sound or resonance—"na the rūpa para brahma." The form of the supreme, the divine, is Para Brahma as a resonance, as a taraṅga (wave). Now, this resonance has divided the individual. Consider water, the ocean, and waves. What is the difference between waves and the ocean? What is the difference between water and the waves? Both are the same; only the motion is there. And motion means movement in the motion; emotion means you are in the motion. So this emotion, the waves, have divided. The motion has divided ocean and waves. When the wave becomes calm, again they become one, and we will say, "Oh, beautiful ocean or the sea, there are no waves, very calm." In this taraṅga, in these waves—which waves? The waves of the motion, the resonance—there, the separation takes place. As soon as the separation took place, the different qualities, guṇa, begin to occupy it. Different names: ocean, waves. From the waves comes the steam. Now we don't call them waves; now it is steam. When the steam rises high, we don't call it steam; we call it fog. When the fog moves a little higher, then we don't say fog; we say the clouds. And when the clouds are there and it begins to rain, we don't say clouds are raining, but the rain—water is coming. Each drop, we say, "Oh, so big drops, heavy rain." And many drops come together and water begins to flow; we don't say the cloud is flowing. Do we say the cloud is flowing? Do we say the rain is flowing? No, the water is flowing. And this water again, slowly, slowly, comes to a river. And now it becomes the river; we don't say that water is flowing, the river is flowing. And finally, the destination of that river is the ocean; again it comes to the origin. That is a circulation, and so is the circulation of this jīvātmā to the paramātmā. You are that ocean. You are that steam. You are that fog. You are those clouds. And you are that rain. You are those drops. You are that which is flowing. You are that river, and you will join the ocean one day. But when? That is the question. And when the river merges into the ocean, we don't call it the river; we call it the ocean. But before merging into the ocean, someone takes water away and goes to the desert and uses the water there. Again, a long, long way back to the ocean. So that is a kuśaṅga—that you have nearly achieved your higher consciousness, nearly you have achieved everything, and you fell into the kuśaṅga, and doubts come into your mind. The doubts take you out from reality. Doubt is a lemon in the milk. Recording location: Australia, Melbourne, World Peace Tour 2005