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Atma

A spiritual discourse on self-realization and the inner instruments of the mind.

"At the time of realization, you feel three things: the entire creation is my creation. It is me who exhales that cosmic sound which was the beginning, the first sound we call Auṁ."

"Ātma-cintan means in meditation you are thinking, 'Who am I?'... I am not the body, I am not the emotion, I am not the thoughts... but who am I?"

Swami Ji delivers a teaching on the nature of the Self (Ātmā) and the path to its knowledge. He describes the state of self-realization using the metaphor of a cosmic egg and the sacred sound Oṁ. He explains the process of self-inquiry (ātma-cintan, vicāra, anubhūti, and bodha) and analyzes the inner faculties—mind, intellect, consciousness, and ego—using analogies like bringing darkness to light and driving a car on a mountain curve, emphasizing the need for pure discernment (viveka) and the wisdom of the Guru's word (Guru Vākya).

Recording location: Australia, Sydney, Australian Tour

In this golden egg of the Eastern time, this fruit is called the king of fruits. There is immense vitality: "eko'haṁ bahu syām." That begins to sprout, and out comes the baby—the sound Oṁ. Everything is created out of that Oṁ. That resonance is still here with us in every atom. That sound, that eternal sound is there; that's a mantra. It is that sound which is uniting, holding, and harmonizing. So when you have self-realization, you feel like this egg: no hands, no legs, my God, no ears, no eyes, nothing. Yes, because these eyes, hands, legs, this body, are meaningless. At the time of realization, you feel three things: the entire creation is my creation. It is I who exhale that cosmic sound which was the beginning, the first sound we call Auṁ. Some call it by a very big "bing-bong" or something like this. Some say it's like a big earthquake. But yogīs describe Auṁ: Akāra, Ukāra, Makāra; Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Maheśa; Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. It is me who exhales, and it is me who is holding my breath out. The whole creation is now here, and one day it is me who will inhale. And in retention, all will exist in me, and all will exist out of me. Me and they, there is no difference; it is me who is expanding and contracting, exhaling, inhaling, retaining. That's called Jñāna Yoga Prāṇāyāma, ātma-cintan. In our mantra practice, you have to sit down and make ātma-cintan: ātma-cintan, ātma-vicāra, ātma-anubhūti, and ātma-bodha. Ātma-cintan means in meditation you are thinking, "Who am I?" Ādiguru Bhagavān Śaṅkarācārya, who was before Christ, said, "Ko'haṁ"—who am I; "katham"—from where did I come; "Ko'haṁ katham idaṁ jātam"—and where I came and where I will go; "Ko vā kartasya vidyate"—what is my aim and where it will lead me. This is ātma-vicāra: I am not the body, I am not the emotion, I am not the thoughts, I am not this consciousness, I am not this mind, I am not this father, and I am not this mother, but who am I? It's very hard to know in reality. You come to your friend's door, and you knock. The friend will ask you, "Who is there?" And you say, "Yes, I am Chandra." Answer kardo, Swāmījī lecture dere. Then I will say, "Yes, oh, Chandra, come in." I open the door, and she comes, and I will tell, "This is Chandra." What is this? Chandra will say, "My shoulder." If this is Chandra, no, it's my head. Anything I will touch from her body, she will say, "It's mine." It's a very interesting thing, anything. Then she will say, "It's my feeling, my thinking, my mind, my emotion, my consciousness." Who are you? My, my, my. This is called ātma-cintan: "Ko'haṁ katham idaṁ jātam ko vā kathasya vidyate." Not that you are meditating and now the sun is rising and flowers are opening and butterflies are flying. This is what you get, instruction in meditation and yogic sleep. It is for little children a toy; when a child is crying, then the mother says, "Oh, look, here it is." Then the child becomes happy. A developed yogī doesn't meditate like this. Ātmā, nothing can touch me. Ātma-cintan: who am I? Then ātma-vicāra, making the distinctions about ātmā. How is that ātmā? Then you call it ātma-anubhūti. In the Sanskrit word, ātma-anubhūti; I have forgotten the word. What is anubhūti? Experience. That's it. So in meditation then you get experiences that I am Ātmā: ātma-cintan, ātma-vicāra, ātma-anubhūti. These experiences are a glimpse, a glimpse of the visions. But you know, sometimes in our life we have such a vision just for some seconds, and our whole life we are carrying this in our heart, happy. And sometimes we have such terrible visions or experiences, and we are carrying them our whole life in our heart. When you practice that kind of mantra which you will receive from the Gurudeva, and that mantra I will explain to you after, then comes the ātma-anubhūti, a glimpse of the ātmā. You see, consciously or unconsciously, when you touch something and there is electricity in this pole, oh God, lifelong I will not forget, I will not touch this. So such a divine experience is which you cannot describe; that's why it's called indescribable, everlasting, immortal: nityam, everlasting; akhaṇḍam, unbreakable; acalam, unchangeable; ātma-anubhūti, my dear friends. Then it is said, practice, practice, practice makes the master. Then finally you have ātma-bodha. What? Ātma-bodha, the knowledge, knowledge of the ātmā. Now you have that knowledge. Now you know how to touch these electric wires with what? With the plastic gloves or with the screwdriver which has a plastic handle. Now you know the ātmā, "Mera Mein Nijātmā, Mein Mera Hoon"—I am my ātmā, "Karta Hoon Mein Vandana Meri Mujhko Hoi"—I pray, and this prayer goes to myself. These experiences mean where the three become one: the knower, the knowledge, and the object. Me, realization of God; God, realization and me; three merge into oneness. That comes only when your antaḥkaraṇa is pure. Your antaḥkaraṇa is pure. Antaḥkaraṇa is mana, buddhi, chitta, ahaṅkāra. Your mind is very pure. Nothing, nothing can dilute or pollute your mind. Yesterday, light was here burning, and we were in the other room and it was dark. So we took the dark from that room in our hands, closed, to bring to the light and see how darkness looks like. We opened our hands and the darkness was not there. Again we ran to bring the darkness. Means we couldn't bring the darkness to this light. Then I told, perhaps you bring somebody. Everyone tried. As soon as they opened the palms, there was light. So anyone, any vichāra, negative comes to you, you are that one, immediately neutralized into the satya, into the truth, into the divine. Mana, buddhi, your intellect; the intellect is given to give the judgment, but not only that you give the judgment, you give the solution to that judgment. It is like that, then again you have to have your viveka with the buddhi, like that, but it is like that, not like this. You need to understand, not changing your vichāra, saṅkalpa, vikalpa in the buddhi, otherwise buddhi is polluted. Buddhi can be spoiled. Viveka cannot be spoiled. It can happen that one doesn't have that buddhi. Buddhi can be lost, not the viveka. In Hindi it is said, "buddhi bhraṣṭ ho saktī hai." How will you translate in English? "Buddhi bhraṣṭ ho saktī hai." Buddhi can be spoiled, buddhi can be polluted through the saṅga. Someone tells you something and misguides you to go the opposite direction. "Buddhi bhraṣṭ ho saktī hai. Lekin viveka bhraṣṭ nahīṁ hotā hai." Viveka will not be polluted. Only viveka hīna ho saktī hai. That means he or she, their viveka is not awakened. As long as you have no viveka, your buddhi will trouble you. Your buddhi will be the slave of your mind, and mind will be slave of the darkness and jealous hate complexes and so on. Therefore, mana, buddhi, chitta. Chitta is the space, the space of your consciousness. When news came that only the child died, you closed your eyes. And now you see the volume and you see your child in that. Someone came and told you, some burglar has broken into your car and took the things away. Immediately in your space, in your space only, all are listening, but in no time, in your inner space appears your car and what is stolen, because you are connected to that point. This is important. So anything happens, it goes alarm. First, to feeling or mind. Mind has only two principles, saṅkalpa and vikalpa. Mind is not responsible for anything. Mind, its principle is only saṅkalpa, vikalpa. Saṅkalpa means to make a thought a vow. Vikalpa means to give up. Coming, going, coming, going, mind brings some kind of desires, very interesting, and now you are in, mind gives up the responsibility. When your mind doesn't go with you, and mind gave this to your intellect, buddhi, buddhi only can give judgment what it is, and you transfer again to the feelings, to the mind. But mind says not my responsibility. Suppose one example: you are a new driver, you are a new driver and you bought a very expensive quick car, and you know how to drive, you know how to turn the key, you know how to change the gear, you know how to steer, and off you go on the road. You enjoy your new car and you say, "Stupid people, they are driving so slowly. That's why traffic jam. If all will drive quick, there will be no traffic jam." You are a new driver, and you drive very safe. You want to show that you have a new and good car. That's your mind. Now you reach the mountains. Serpentine turns. The curve is in the mountain down and so on. And you enjoy driving the curves. Your mind says, "Quick." Your feeling is quick, more quicker. And when the curve comes, a very sharp curve, do you say sharp or narrow? Sharp curve. Car begins to make śīrṣāsana. Head standing, and mind says, "I am not guilty." Buddhi said, "I cannot do anything. Accident will happen." But the viveka would tell you, "Slowly, you have forgotten the guru-vākyas." When these curves came, you have forgotten the guru-vākya. Guru, you are a driving teacher. Your driving teacher told you how to drive when the sharp curves are there. You have forgotten your master. You have a beautiful new car, new road, and a new driver, Hari Om. So, our inner space is polluted from our thinking, and our buddhi cannot take the responsibility. Buddhi is only giving judgment; buddhi will tell, "Now an accident will happen." Mindset is not my mistake. Manas, buddhi, chitta, and ahaṅkāra. It's your ego: "I am the best, I would like to be the best. What I tell is the truth, what others say is nothing." This kind of ego—"I will be the winner, I will shoot this ball into the goal, I will be the best swimmer, I will be the best pilot"—this is ego, a negative ambition. And negative ambition will destroy you and will pollute others. Because there is not only physical pollution, there is also mental pollution; physical pollution you can clean very quickly. You can clean it with air, with soap, with water, with a cloth. But mental pollution, blackmailing—one great saint said, "Many, many lives you have to watch, clean your mind." But still, the spots are not gone; what a nasty, oily spot. "Aneko janma dhoye man ko chithai ho to aisi ho." "Amar ho jisko khane se mithai ho to aisi ho." "Aur phataade man viṣaya se khatai ho to aisi ho." "Aneko janma dhoye man ko"—many, many lives you try to purify your mind, but still there are the spots of the kuṣaṅga. O Lord, I may meet an enemy or a devil, but please never, never protect me that I don't meet a negative person who feeds in my chitta negative things. Because that will bring you from the door of heaven to the lowest part of hell. Eat that sweet which makes you immortal; that nectar is sweet. We like to eat the chocolate and every, you know, I eat every day, buy lecture chocolate with the paper, because it's sweet. So, eat that nectar. But a great saint like Mahāprabhujī said, "Eat that kind of sweet which makes you immortal." And that is the sweetness of the Guru Vākya, the wisdom, the knowledge. In every holy book, what is written, that's called a Guru Vākya. The Bible, what is that? It is called a dialogue between master and disciple. Guru Vākya. All holy books are Guru Vākya. And that sour thing, which is very sour, which one drop can spoil the milk. But he said, "I need that kind of sour which spoils my taste for all this māyā, viṣayas." Recording location: Australia, Sydney, Australian Tour

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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