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Yesterday we spoke about consciousness. There is a mythological image I would like to explain. For those who do not know its meaning, it may sound quite strange, like a joke or a fairy tale. But when one brings these symbols together and learns their meaning, everything becomes very clear. We begin first with space—infinite space—which is called Ākāśa. Mahākāśa, Ākāśa, Chidākāśa, Māthākāśa, Ghaṭākāśa, Ākāśa. All clear, right? Ghaṭākāśa is the space within a vessel. Hṛdayākāśa is the space within our heart. The heart is like a small mountain cave, a small chapel. Within this very small, invisible miracle of the heart, there is a light, a blue light. From there, space begins. Hṛdayākāśa is the spatiality within our heart. Ghaṭākāśa: a ghaṭ is a vessel; this is the space within a vessel. Māthākāśa is the spatiality within a house. Chidākāśa is the space within our consciousness. Indeed, our consciousness extends as far back as we can think—into the past, the present, and the future with our memories. A hundred years ago, it was very difficult for people to grasp what or where India is. Truly, in India there are monkeys and elephants, completely wild; it is hardly imaginable. Australia, a few hundred years ago, was unknown. But these are our experiences. Now, through media and travel, everything is fast. One has breakfast here and stays overnight in Sydney. That is how it is. So, our Chidākāśa. Chit is consciousness, ākāśa is space: the space within our experiences. It extends to where our relatives or friends live, to whatever distance we have relationships, or have seen or heard. Day by day, our Chidākāśa is expanding—the space within your experiences. You possess a space within your heart, a spark there, very tiny. It can expand to infinity. When you think of the moon, your Chidākāśa extends all the way to the moon. Chidākāśa, Ākāśa. Ākāśa simply means space. As far as you can see, as far as your horizon extends. Ākāśa means an empty space. Then there is Mahā Ākāśa—infinite space. We are limited, but space is unlimited. Our experiences, knowledge, abilities, and thoughts are all limited. But the space in which we play is unlimited. Space always remains space; it moves nothing. Space itself does not stretch. It is the things within space that move and stretch. To the extent you can expand your consciousness, it is indeed you who are that. The space is there; only the matter is moving within. So Ākāśa-Tattva, which is indeed called the Tattva-element, is an eternal element. It has a very close relationship with our true Self. What is called the Ātman? The soul. Your soul is an atom in this space. And you are space; your Ātma is space. Therefore, for some people it is difficult to understand God in one form. If we want to see God in one form, then we have limited Him. But God is unlimited. God is a principle, perhaps. God is like an element—space, infinite. They say: I am like the wind; you cannot hold me. I am like the ākāśa-space; no one can possess me. But still, I am with you; I will never leave you alone. Our God, divine consciousness, is everywhere. And that means space. Space is everywhere. Nothing can exist without space. Everything needs movement, a space. Everything plays within God, and that is why God is omnipresent. But to understand God in form is very difficult. We need a point of reference. We exist in the most sensitive body, and we can understand better when we can see something, hear something, grasp something, or smell something. We would like to touch, feel, smell, and see with our senses. When we can see nothing with our eyes, hear nothing with our ears, and comprehend or touch nothing, then we understand nothing. Then it is being; perhaps it is, but it is nothing. And what we say is nothing—is there something there? And what we think is something—is nothing there? That is a miracle. Then we see God in a form, in a shape. All of us believers say: God is in all; God is in every atom. Whatever is, whatever exists here, God is present everywhere within it. Then we understand nothing there either. Another problem arises: we no longer understand God at all. We are completely confused. Why? If God is present in every atom, then how can God be inside a bullet, which you see, and that bullet kills someone? So God is cruel again. There is a problem again when I see God in a form. Something about it does not please me. My expectations were different, and it has become different. So, damn it, it’s hard—to understand God or to realize Him. Space is an element: Ākāśa Tattva. Everything that unfolds in this universe happens within space. The space does not become larger; the space does not become smaller. The smaller and the greater move the weather. The weather moves, expands, and contracts. And the space gives them the room to move. A mechanism provides a tolerance limit, so there is movement, possibility, a scope, the knowledge. The space is infinite; you could fit several thousand Earth spheres and still have plenty of room. In this infinite space, one can call it Śūnyākāśa. Śūnyākāśa is a space without atmosphere—no movement, no other elements, no sound, no light. Sleeping consciousness, the state of sleep: completely Śūnyatā. And this complete Śūnyatā is the God-consciousness. In His consciousness, in His navel, the sound resides. So it is said: the world is sound, and sound is the world. Now, Parabrahman, that is, the form of the Highest, is in the second form. The first form is space, without any objects. The second form of God is sound, vibration. Through vibration, through sound, we are able to speak. We are capable of breathing, moving, and speaking. When one has no sound anymore, then he is dead again; that is stagnation once more. Everything was absorbed by the sound. And this sound is called Oṃ. These are the three stages: A, the beginning; U, all-encompassing; and M, all—all is multiplied in one. Beginning, middle, and end. Everything is sound. Through this vibration, the other four elements were then created. After Ākāśa comes Vāyu (air). After air comes heat (Agni). After heat comes water (Jala). And after water comes earth (Pṛthvī). So there are the five elements. In the mythological image, it is said that beneath the water in the ocean rests the god Viṣṇu, and from His navel comes a beautiful lotus flower. Upon the lotus flower then manifests Brahmā. Brahmā begins to create the entire world; He is the Creator, the Maker. Then comes Śiva. When He sees all that Brahmā has created—but it is nothing, it does not work according to His desire, and everything has become negative—then He destroys everything. When one sees this image, it is like a fairy tale. Last night I spoke about yathā brahmāṇḍe tathā piṇḍe: what exists in the universe exists in this body. Everything—all solar systems, all planets, all aspects of the universe—exists within this body. Viṣṇu Śakti is the fire śakti, the fire element. Fire cannot exist without water; fire must remain in water. When water comes from outside, it becomes disturbed. The colder the water becomes and the more it freezes into a block of ice, the stronger the fire inside it becomes. Hold a block of ice in your hand; after some time, your hands begin to burn. First it becomes cold, and then it begins to burn; one feels burning pain. In our body, as we all know, more than 80% is fluid. That fluidity, this Jala-Tattva, exists within us. In this water Tattva, the fire element Tejas exists as Viṣṇu-Śakti. Viṣṇu means: Viśwa is universe, aṇu is atom. In every atom in this universe, this power exists; it is Viṣṇu, God Viṣṇu, the Lord of all worlds. This Viṣṇu-Śakti, the fire element, the seeds, lie precisely within the solar system. In the navel center, Maṇipūra, dwells the Viṣṇu-Śakti; that is the fire cakra. We know that every element in our body must be active. If one becomes weaker, then one dies. They must remain in balance. Our Maṇipūra Cakra has, first and foremost, a very close relationship with our kidney system. The kidneys are the roots of our fire element. When the embryo begins, the very first beginning of the embryo is the navel center. The seed begins to grow from the navel, and then the embryo begins. This embryo signifies the lotus flower, which arises from the navel where Viṣṇu is bound. This fruit, the embryo, lies within a watery fruit. Again, within this water is the fire element. The warmth provides the opportunity for the embryo to continue growing. So, it is connected to the womb through the navel. From the navel grows the embryo, which is the lotus flower. When it has unfolded to that extent, it is born and begins its activity in this world. Viṣṇu rests upon the thousand-headed serpent, Śeṣanāga. Śeṣanāga rests in the ocean, deep at the edge of the ocean. This is the symbol. In our body, there are 72,000 nāḍīs (nerves). The main nerve among these nāḍīs is one called Suṣumnā. Suṣumnā-Nāḍī is straight, where they say the serpent power, Kuṇḍalinī, resides. So we come back to the place where the snakes are mentioned—through the Kuṇḍalinī-Yoga and Cakras. The root, where the end of the snake is, is a tail. There lies the power, the Kuṇḍalinī power. The Maṇipūra-Cakra is a very significant center where both Prāṇa and Apāna unite and enter into the central channel, Suṣumnā-Nāḍī. The Suṣumnā Nāḍī travels inward toward the body and ends its function where our Sahasrāra Cakra is located, here at the crown of our head, the fontanelle cakra. This cakra is called the thousand-petaled lotus, also the thousand-headed serpent or the thousand-petaled lotus. It goes to the center, is cooled, rotates where the Viṣṇu-Śakti, the fire center Maṇipūra, is, and the serpent, the long one, within this body—because the body contains more fluid. Thus, this mythological image is to be understood: Viṣṇu rests on the serpent in the ocean; from His navel a lotus emerges; from the lotus comes Brahmā; and Brahmā begins to create this world. The beginning of our consciousness, the origin of our consciousness, is the Ākāśa element. In this Ākāśa, this Paramātattva, divine consciousness, the divine Self: Ekohaṁ—I am the One. I am only myself, only the one; there is no two, only the one. And now I will multiply myself, within myself. And so He began to multiply. Then He wants again the content, the discovery within oneself. For example, Hamburg is located very close to the ocean. One sees the ocean is one, but how many waves there are—different times, different kinds of waves. Sometimes very wild, very high waves; sometimes very gentle. What is the difference between an ocean and the waves on the ocean? It is difficult to define the difference between the ocean and the waves. Thus, the Self, God, and the creation are one. There is no difference. There is no difference between yourself and God. There is something different that you do not know, and you feel limited, and through that you have lost everything. In reality, you possess everything, and it is a play within your consciousness, a play within your knowledge. Through practices, study, and contemplation, we can develop ourselves to such an extent and progress further. So, the beginning of consciousness is from Nāda Bindu: Nāda Bindu Kalātītam. Bindu is a point, and Nāda is sound. This sound began from a tiny point, and so our consciousness begins to work. Well, in the evening we will see how far we can progress towards consciousness. Let it be; everything as it is. We will begin speaking again in the evening. If you have any questions, I can write down the questions. In the evening, we will spend half the time answering questions, half the time giving a lecture, and half the time singing. Before that, the mantra initiation is at 6 p.m. For those of you who are considering receiving a mantra, there are a few things I would like to share. It is important—not mandatory, but one should become vegetarian. You shall not kill. When someone dies in our house, what do we do? We immediately remove the corpse, transporting it to the cow room or to the place of understanding. We do not keep this death-body for days in our house. But how is it that people now bring lifeless dead bodies home and put them in the refrigerator? One brings this entire negative atmosphere of death. The method of death—death is a corpse. It can be a mosquito corpse or an elephant’s; that is a corpse. Not to kill, as the animals suffer—that is cruel. If I start to torment like the animals, that is terrible. You all know anyway; television comes on from time to time. When one watches television and talks about it, one says, “Yes indeed, we should not do that.” But when you go into the food, you like to order again. Those who like to eat dogs order dogs; those who like to eat cats order cats; those who like to eat rats order rats; those who like to eat cows order cows. There are people who say “allfrescher.” They devour everything that moves. Stones also move, but unfortunately they cannot digest them; otherwise the stones would also decrease. That is how it is, because my heart is very much with living beings, with animals—firstly, to kill nothing, and secondly, to keep everything healthy. Thirdly, of course, you should know under what circumstances in families we can drink, so that we will live vegetarian without any additional problems at home. So you don’t have to become a vegetarian right now today, but gradually, slowly over time. Second, always practice. Third, you have only one master in life, so you must decide whether you want to have this person as your master again or someone else. Perhaps someone prefers a master without a beard. Unfortunately, I cannot shave because of my ID and so on. So, one must consider that carefully. It is a faithful relationship between master and disciple, a spiritual, mental relationship. One should consider that carefully.