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The Science of Yoga

MASTER E. K.

KULAPATHI BOOK TRUST

VISAKHAPATNAM

i
 Some extracts from the book
“Our whole attempt in the yoga practice is to see that
the reaction is neutralized and action is established. Then
only you will know what your activity is in its true sense.
That means you will know yourself. "Know Thyself" is the
oldest of all the axioms of spiritualism”.
Yoga practice is not an end in itself at all. Yoga living
is the end. This yoga practice culminates in our yoga
living. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali will give us instru-
ctions about yoga practice. The Bhagavad Gita will give
us not only the instructions for yoga practice but also
guidelines to yoga living.
Yoga practice is a process of suspending the present
reaction of the mind through the senses towards the
environment. Then it is said that the mind knows its
original state of existence.
You should make a proposal for a higher living in
the mind. It is essential because every proposal that is
made with the mind stimulates the mind to rearrange
itself and makes a conscious repetition of the proposal
continuously.
OM is His word, His utterance. That means it is a
double key. It is the sound with which we call Him and
it is also a sound with which He calls us. That is why
Patanjali says, "OM is His word". His word means a name
which you should use or a word He uses for you.
"Let the Meditation establish the bodies, minds and
the souls into alignment."

iv
 Acknowledgements

We are thankful to our beloved brother

G. V. Ramana, USA for his contribution made in
memory of his parents Sri G. S. Prasada Rao
Garu and Smt. G. Nagarathnam Garu towards
the publication of this book, “The Science of
Yoga”.
May his family be blessed by the Divine
Grace of Master E.K.

Kulapathi Book Trust

v
 All rights relating to this book belong to “Kulapathi
Book Trust”, Visakhapatnam-530 002, which is the
exclusive owner of the books written by Kulapathi Ekkirala
Krishnamacharya (Master E. K.). Extracts can be taken
with the prior permission of the Trust.

The publishing unit is constituted to propagate the

Ancient Wisdom given out to Humanity from time to time.
The proceeds from the sale of the book are utilised for
reinvestment in similar books in pursuance of the objective
of the propagating Truth.

The contents of this book are dedicated to the

humanity at large. They belong to the One Light and the
One Truth that pervades and is beyond the concepts of
Caste, Creed, Religion and Nation.

vi
 Index
LECTURE - 1
The Science of Meditation 1
1 Yama and Niyama 2
2 The Aspect of Habit 3
3 The Higher and Lower Minds 6
4 Merging of two Minds 7
5 Concentration 8
6 Disappearance of the Conscious mind 10
7 Conscious and Supra-Conscious mind 11
8 Second set of four steps 12
9 Conscious mind and Supra-Conscious mind 13
10 The Space 14
11 About Rebirth 18
12 True Pranayama 19
13 Regulating the Conscious mind 21
14. Practicing Pranayama and Meditation 22
LECTURE - 2
Various Methods of Meditations 29
1 The Concept of Sleep 31
2 Reaction and Response 33
3 The Triangular Process 36
4 How to read a Book? 41
vii
 5 First set of Meditations 43
6 Second set of Meditations 46
7 Third set of Meditations 47
8 Fourth set of Meditations 48
9 Fifth set of Meditations 49
10 How to prepare for Meditation 53
11 Om in Three Notes 58
LECTURE - 3
Full Moon Meditation 61
1 Alignment 61
2 The Secret of doing things 65
3 The Sun and Moon 69
4 The Full Moon and New Moon 70
5 Libra Full Moon 71
LECTURE - 4
The Practice of Yoga 75
1 The influence of the environment 78
2 Using the Measures 80
3 Proposed Awareness 83
4 Detachment 84
5 Total Surrender to the Lord 88
6 Total Surrender 95
7 How to know the Master? 95
8 "OM" - His Word 96
9 The Utterance of OM 98
10 Utter OM and listen to it 98
11 Removal of the obstacles 100
12 Right and wrong connections 103
viii
13 Tapas 105
14 Mental Austerity 107
15 Vocal Austerity 108
16 Physical Austerity 109
17 Swadhyaya 110
18 The First Step : Yama (Regulation) 111
19 The Second Step : Niyama (Rectification) 116
20 Cleanliness 116
21 Satisfaction 116
22 The Third Step :Asana (Stability in Happiness) 118
23 Process of Relaxation 119
24 Law of Pulsation 120
25 Observing the movements of Respiration 120
26 The Fourth Step: Pranayama (Regulating
the Pulsations) 122
27 The Fifth Step: Pratyahara (Absorption) 125
28 The Sixth Step: Dharana (Contemplation) 126
29 The Seventh Step: Dhyana (Meditation) 127
30 The Eighth Step: Samadhi (Attainment) 128
LECTURE - 5
Yoga and Attainment 133
1 Double Pulsation, Prana and Apana 135
2 Strength of the Habit 137
3 What is the real Pranayama? 137
4 Dangers in controlling the Breath 139
5 How to regulate the Mind 140
6 Pratyahara, the absorption of Mind 141
7 The true meaning of Meditation 143
8 Dharana 150
ix
 9 How to read a Book? 151
10 Dhyana, the Meditation 157
11 Samadhi 159
12 The State of Samadhi 163

LECTURE - 6
Yoga and Healing 179
1 Purpose of Yoga Asanas 179
2 Purpose of Healing 181
3 What to do after Asanas? 185
4 Test yourself 186
5 Right type of Pranayama 187
6 Healing Magnetism 188
7 Why do Healers become sick? 189
8 Healing and Healer 190
9 The power of Auto-suggestion 190
10 Preparation for Healing 191
11 How to heal the patient? 193
12 The best process of Healing 194
13 Healing others 195
14 Healing and Sun 195
15 Creating a Healing Centre 196
16 The Mantra 202
LECTURE - 7
The Science of Reincarnation 203
1 The cause for Rebirth 215
2 Two types of Karma 219
3 Buddha refused the Liberation 221

x
LECTURE - 8
How to live a Spiritual Life? 231
1 Vishnu Mantra, the first step 235
2 Vasudeva Mantra, the second step 236
3 Narayana Mantra, the third step 248

xi
.
 The Science of
Meditation

T oday I speak mainly about Meditation. Generally the term

is used in many aspects and many shades of meaning.
Since the time of the advent of Yoga to the West, the term
"Meditation" has gained much importance. But the truth of
it is, some people know the meaning of the word precisely
according to the scientific sense and they use it strictly
according to the yogic principles and standards. But there
are people who use the term rather vaguely. There are people
who close their eyes and say that they are meditating. When
someone is sleeping in the car closing his eyes, his friend
jokes at him asking, "Are you meditating?" Some people try
to concentrate their mind upon something and call it
meditation. That means they use the word meditation for
concentration. Some people believe that the Yoga practice
includes concentration of mind.
You know that the real Yoga path has eight steps
according to Patanjali and Bhagavad Gita. The first four
steps belong to the external attempt of the disciple for the
following :
1. To compose himself and to make his body more fit and
healthy.
2 The Science of Yoga

2. To make the circulation of blood and vital forces uniform.

3. To feed the various parts of the body with the fresh flow
of the vital currents.
4. To heal the various physical parts of the body and then
to rectify the defects in respiration and the blood
circulation.
Yama and Niyama
The first two steps are Yama and Niyama. They include
the attempt to compose the habit nature of oneself into
himself. The habit forming nature is the real personality of
a human being and it is never under the control of good
thought and education. For example, we can have many good
thoughts; we may decide to do many good things; read many
good books and learn many good things and gain much
knowledge about the good things. But still we continue to
live according to our own older habits. Our knowledge goes
on adding and becoming more and more, but our habit is
continuing the same as it was before we could gather some
knowledge.
The true Yoga student observes two different aspects
in his internal existence. The one which is adding day by
day to him by the way of good information which he calls
knowledge and which has no hold upon his behaviour at all.
The second thing is his habits from the beginning, taking
a stronghold over his own behaviuor and having full control
over himself. Upon these two aspects, the real student of
Yoga tries to have some control on the second aspect of
himself, while he practices the first two steps of the
eightfold Yoga path that is the Yama and the Niyama.
 The Science of Meditation 3

The positive way of living is established during these

two steps and the attitude towards his own living is gradually
habituated to positiveness. The attitude towards his own life
will be gradually transformed into a positive way of
behaviour, not by fighting the evil of himself, but by ignoring
the negative aspect by engrafting into his daily life, a new
habit and a new habituated way of living. He comes to
understand that it is the habit nature that is controlling him
and his knowledge is not at all controlling him and his desires
are not at all controlling him. The desire to become good
does not at all have a hold upon him.
The Aspect of Habit
So, there is an aspect which has full control over this
internal living. The power of that one aspect will be
understood by the student of Yoga. That aspect is the aspect
of habit. He understands how powerful the habit is upon
human psychology and how rationalism and logic are not
at all powerful to have any control over him. Knowing this,
the Yoga student begins to rectify the second aspect of his
internal existence, that is, he begins to experiment with the
habit nature of himself and not the rationalistic or the logical
nature of himself which has no control over him at all.
In fact, what we call logic is floating upon the surface
of our individual nature. This is the reason why everyone
has his own logic, though we deceive ourselves by thinking
that logic has a standard. Everyone arranges his own logical
steps according to his own lifestyle and everyone finds his
own way of living reasonable to himself. Now it is this aspect
that attracts the attention of the real Yoga student, because
4 The Science of Yoga

the other aspects are of no use at all. When we begin to

tackle the other aspects, adding knowledge to our existing
knowledge, reading of valuable books one after another;
knowing many valuable things one after another for ten years
or twenty years or thirty years, the subjects will be increasing
in our logical counterpart of the mind. There is neither
expansion of our consciousness nor transformation from
the present to a better stage.
We remain what we were 30 years ago, even though we
read the four Gospels and understand them completely; the
Bhagavad Gita completely and the teachings of the Buddha
and Confucius completely. We will be learning, discussing
and knowing, but we will remain as we were because our
habit nature is not touched at all by this approach. It is this
habit nature that is to be transformed. If at all there is any
specific method to transform this habit nature, it is that
method that is really useful to us.
During these first two steps of the eightfold Yoga path,
that habit forming nature is touched for the first time by
the Yoga student. He will be forced to form certain habits
which were not there previously. Habit formation is not
always according to our liking and our convenience.
Whether we like it or not, we have to make a habit
if we want to practice Yoga. We should select a place and
a time in our daily routine and present ourselves at that
time and that place regularly. Exactly to the minute we
have to maintain the time and the place and while doing
so, we will face a lot of tension in our daily routine, because
we have to steal some time from our busy routine and
 The Science of Meditation 5

arrange every other thing to present ourselves according

to the programme.
It is not a one day programme, but a lifelong programme.
So, your mind struggles to get adjusted. As long as your mind
has been struggling to adjust to a programme, it means you
have not entered the real spirit of Yoga practice. Only when
you feel the happiness of keeping the time, only after you
have released all the tension of your mind to keep to the
programme, only then you could secure the ease and comfort
of making yourself present at the programme. Then only
your programme can be called as the Yoga practice of the
second step. Otherwise, when a student is struggling hard
to keep timing of the Yoga practice, that practice cannot be
called Yoga practice at all, because Yoga first of all indicates
a relaxation of your mind.
Some people think that they have to concentrate. But
it is the opposite we have to do when you are to practice
real Yoga. An attempt to concentrate the mind makes you
nervous and restless. When you concentrate your mind to
study a book, the result is you are fatigued after studying
a few pages. When you try to concentrate your mind upon
the teaching of a lesson, the result is the mind refuses to
work after some time to attend and receive the class. This
is the result of what we call concentration.
Many people wrongly understood that concentration is
meditation. You can better understand when I say that
meditation is the opposite of concentration.
It is the relaxation of the conscious mind upon the
background mind which we call our higher existence.
6 The Science of Yoga

The Higher and Lower Minds

You have two minds in you which you can always feel
when you are a bit careful. One is the lower mind and the
other is the higher mind. When you close your eyes and
begin to think of an idea, other ideas come to your mind
and the idea you wanted to concentrate upon will go away
and slip away and after a certain time you will understand
that your mind is entertained into ideas which are not
intended by you. That shows you have intended to think
something and you are thinking something. That means there
are two people in you; the one intends to think something,
the second begins to think some other thing.
After some time the first one understands that the
second one is thinking and then the first one pushes the
second one aside and tries to think for himself. Again after
a few seconds, the second mind pushes the former mind
aside and begins to think for itself. Again after two or three
minutes we will find the thoughts we are entertaining are
not the thoughts we intended to.
For example, if after going to India, I want to make a
recollection and thinking of our hostess here, if I try to make
a recollection of her face, then for a moment I can see her
face in my mind and then how she received me when I came
here, how I entered the hall and how the hall has so many
pictures of Yogis and how I talked to my friend in this hall.
Then I came to understand that I wanted to think of only
our hostess, but I began to think of this hall and the pictures
and the lights and the pillars. We should clearly understand
that we have two minds.
 The Science of Meditation 7

One wants to recollect one's hostess, the other one

wants to entertain other thoughts not intended. Concentration
is an attempt against this process. It is to try to bring the
mind again to the intended thought or idea or form. It is
impossible. When there are two people in us, we can't bring
concentration because there are two minds in us. But when
we carefully understand, there are hundreds and hundreds
of minds working in our mind. In the Bhagavad Gita also
it is said, 'It is impossible to concentrate the mind and an
attempt on those lines is as useless as anything.' So, it
is not concentration that is aimed at in the Yoga practice.
We have seen that mainly there are two people who are
thinking in us. The one person should get absorbed in the
other, just as a block of ice becomes a second item with
the water on which it is floating; second item though the
water and ice are the same, when a part of the water becomes
ice block, it works as two items, the one floating on the
surface of the other.
Merging of two Minds
This double nature which is false in essence is always
present in us. One is the mind which we are using and the
other mind is which is habituated to work in its own way.
It is like having two servants in the house. The one who is
ready to obey us and the other who wants to do things
according to his own will and wants to be maintained by you.
Whenever you want to instruct the first servant, it is the
second servant who interferes and he begins to work and
he does not allow the first servant to work. This is what is
normally happening in our mind. Here the one servant should
8 The Science of Yoga

be made to be absorbed into the other. The second item

should be made to absorb in the first item. Then there is
no first item. There is only one item. When there is another
item, then only the first item becomes the first. Only when
there are two items, the first item becomes the first item.
When one item disappears, the first item starts to be the
first and becomes the only item.
Concentration
Such a process is required in Meditation. In the
process of concentration, the two minds strengthen
separately and the conscious mind becomes more and more
powerful, because an attempt to concentrate is an attempt
of the conscious mind. Concentration is an attempt upon
the conscious mind and hence the attempt also is made
by the conscious mind. Concentration is a process which
is made against the conscious mind and the attempt is
also made by the conscious mind. So, it is the conscious
mind that makes the attempt to concentrate the conscious
mind.
So, if you ask the thief to take care of the thief, the
result is a miserable failure. Suppose a thief is in the dress
of a policeman, you think that he is a policeman and call
him and say, "My purse was stolen by some body and you
please take care of my purse and see who has taken it". Then
the thief, in the dress of a policeman, smiles at you and says,
"yes". It is what happens when you try to concentrate your
mind.
Whenever you ask your conscious mind to get
concentrated, it also repeats the same thing. The conscious
 The Science of Meditation 9

mind repeats the same idea. When you ask him to

concentrate, he will ask you to concentrate. If you close
your eyes and say to yourself that I should not get other
ideas, and then the mind also begins to say, 'I should not
get other ideas, I should not get other ideas.' The result is
always a failure and not a success. So, meditation is never
concentration. See that the one mind merges into the other.
Of these two minds, the one mind should get merged into
the other.
The conscious mind should merge into the higher mind.
The higher mind is the true mind in you. The lower mind
is the desire mind in you. You may desire that you should
practice Yoga. But a desire can never be fulfilled. Second
aspect of your mind should stand stable by getting the
conscious mind disappeared in the background of the higher
mind. Then the higher background mind exists.
Every day the disappearance of the conscious mind is
happening to us, but we are not experiencing it. It is only
in sleep that such a thing is happening to us. The conscious
mind is getting absorbed along with the activity of the senses
while we are sleeping. But since we are sleeping, it is of
no use at all. It is as good as showing a basket of fruits to
a sleeping man. But there should be another occasion
different than sleep.
When there is the total disappearance of our
conscious mind, we should be awake, we should be aware
and our conscious mind should disappear. This is the
process intended when the word meditation is used.
10 The Science of Yoga

We know it and we are experiencing it sometimes, but

we do not know that it is meditation. When you begin to
know it, you will be able to know the comfort and skill to
use it.
Disappearance of the Conscious mind
For example, when you are sitting at the TV in the house;
suppose there is a beautiful theme of a bit of cinema; suppose
the theme is something biblical and something pious which
is liked by you more; suppose there is good music; good
story and good situation and very good conversations written
by a good dramatist; the film started exactly at 8.40 pm.
and you began to witness it in your room. Before you began
to witness it, you wanted to start somewhere by 9 pm.
because your friend told you that he would be waiting for
you at some place. Now you started to see the picture on
the TV by 8.40 pm, when the film came to an end it was
10 pm. and then you looked at your watch. Now you
remember that your friend was waiting at 9.00 pm.
What has happened during this time? During the above
time interval, were you existing or not? Were you present
or absent? As far as the conscious mind is concerned, you
are not present. During that time do you remember the room
in which you are sitting? Do you remember that a TV
instrument is present in the room? Do you remember that
a cinema, a talkie is being played on the TV? You do not
remember. Had you remembered these things, you would
have remembered your appointment with your friend at 9
pm. So, there is something happening in you during that time;
something which is very similar to sleep. It is not sleep
 The Science of Meditation 11

because you are enjoying the picture. You are listening with
your ears and seeing with your eyes. The sense of vision
and the sense of hearing are normally working. But the mind
is not working. Had the mind worked normally, you would
have remembered the television instrument and the room
in which you were present, the chair in which you were
sitting and the house where you were located and the name
of the street and the number of the door and the name of
the town or city, the name of the country.
Conscious and Supra-Conscious mind
All these things would have been playing upon your mind
consciously, had your conscious mind been working
normally. But there is something different that is happening.
The conscious mind is absent. The mind which has fixed
up the appointment with the friend by 9 o'clock is absent,
but some other mind is present. It is using your eyes to see
the television. It is using your ears to listen to the
conversations and music. But the mind is different from what
you know. What has happened is that your conscious mind
disappeared and another mind is working. That another mind
is employing sight and hearing to serve its purpose. So, the
conscious mind has disappeared and you are existing. The
one mind who intended to think something now exists. The
one mind who wanted to practice Yoga now exists.
So, whenever you attend something which you like
mostly, you will find this experience. When you attend a
sweet musical opera, when the music is quite in tune with
your taste, even then the same thing happens. Your normal
mind or conscious mind disappears and the background mind
12 The Science of Yoga

is enjoying the music. When the music is stopped, your

normal mind takes birth once again, your conscious mind
takes its birth once again and you will understand that it is
10 pm and that you have disappointed your friend at 9 pm.
In fact you are not responsible, because you are not present.
Normally you are your conscious mind much of the
time. But very rarely you are your higher mind. Normally
since you are much of the time in your own conscious mind
which we call the lower mind, we will fix up our appointments
with friends only with the lower mind; because the
programming of the daily routine is made by the lower mind.
But very rarely when the higher mind comes into functioning,
the lower mind disappears and its programmes also disappear
along with it. Again after the function is finished, the lower
mind is permitted to take birth once again and then its
programme will be recollected.
Now you understand that it is possible for you to live
in the absence of the lower mind. You also understand that
many times it is becoming possible for us to live with this
lower mind absent. You have to know only how to do it. That
process is what is called the fourth and fifth steps of Yoga.
It is called Pranayama, the fourth step. The fifth step is
called Pratyahara. These steps include what we call
meditation. The fourth step prescribes you what to do and
the fifth step indicates to you what happens.
Second set of four steps
The second set of four items in the Yoga path is the
second half of the eight items. When the first set of four
 The Science of Meditation 13

items are finished, then the second set of four items indicates
an internal effort to practice Yoga. So, the fourth and the
fifth steps indicate your passage from the conscious attempt
to the unconscious internal attempt.
When you practice Pranayama in a comfortable way
and when you understand what Pranayama is in its true
sense, then you enter into Pratyahara that is absorbing
yourself into yourself, absorbing your lower existence on
the background of the higher existence; absorbing the
conscious mind on the background of the supra-conscious
mind.
Conscious mind and Supra-Conscious mind
The first mind is a conscious mind; the second mind
is a supra-conscious mind. The first mind has sleep and
awakening. The first mind undergoes the two stages of sleep
and awakening, whereas the second mind is not submitted
to any sleep. No sleep exists to the second mind, supra
mental mind. Sleep exists only to the conscious mind and
the senses. Whenever we sleep, it is only our conscious mind
and senses that are sleeping and the supra-conscious mind
is not at all sleeping, because it has to look after all the
duties in the body. Our conscious mind looks after only our
external activities. External mind or conscious mind attends
to what we want to do in the outer world. It is to do our
job, to earn our money, to purchase a house and some
property and to get more and more profits in business and
save some money in the bank for security.
All these activities are done by the conscious mind, but
the supra- conscious mind has to attend to the more
14 The Science of Yoga

important duties; that is your respiration and your heart beat

are to be maintained even while you are sleeping. Otherwise
when our supra-conscious mind stops, when we are sleeping,
then we will never get up once again from our sleep. It is
only until we sleep that we are permitted on this earth. He
shall be thrown into a van or a truck and taken and buried
because he will never awake, when once he sleeps. This is
what happens if the supra-conscious mind sleeps when we
sleep. But the supra-conscious mind is not sleeping when
our mind is sleeping. Our conscious mind and our senses
are sleeping but the supra-conscious mind is alert about our
heartbeat and respiration. Not only that, when we eat a heavy
dinner and sleep, the supra-conscious mind has to keep itself
busy with our stomach also. If it also sleeps along with our
conscious mind, our stomach gets blocked and we never get
up again from sleep. So, understand that our supra-conscious
mind never, never sleeps. The Yogi understands that it never
sleeps, even after this body goes away because the supra-
conscious mind is nothing but what we call space.
The Space
When this body is working around this space, then
space begins to speak and breathe and live. When this
body goes, space remains as space. So, this constitution
which we call the living body is nothing but a generator
very much similar to the electrical generator which
produces space into the form of what we call living beings.
It is not the bodies that we call the living beings, it is
not the minds, it is not the senses and it is not the intelligence
or the total psychological unit which we have. All these
 The Science of Meditation 15

layers are formed only in space just as the layers of onion

are formed in the onion. When you try to detect the original
onion taking off layer after layer thinking that within there
is the original onion, you will be thoroughly disappointed
because there will be only layers and there will be nothing
like the original onion inside. The layers will be exhausted,
the layers will be completed and there is no onion finally.
But no layer can be called onion and if you put all the layers
once again together into a lump, you can never call it onion
once again. It is only a lump of the peeled layers of onion.
But it can never be an onion. Onion never exists in any one
of the layers of onion, but keeps the layers in oneness.
What is it that keeps the layers in oneness? There is
a science which is not yet revealed to the 20th century
scientists till today and which was familiar to all the ancient
nations, the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Indians and
Chaldeans and some other nations. They were well versed
in that one science that is the Science of Space. Now modern
science is too immature to know these fundamental steps
of the Science of Space. We have to cover much before we
understand advanced science.
We have to realize that there is no vacuum in space
but that space is made up of space and it is full of
something from which everything is being created.
We should understand the universal solvent which can
be called Aqua Regia of this creation. That science says that
onion exists in the space of the layers of onion and it keeps
the layers of the onion in oneness and that oneness we call
onion. Similarly we have layers in us if we begin to take
16 The Science of Yoga

off layer after layer in the name of the physical body, the
Astral body, the Etheric body and the Mental body etc. Many
are the names given to the divisions and subdivisions of
ourselves. The more we wanted to appear scientific, the
more names we will give you. Our intellectual aristocracy
makes us invent more and more names for no purpose at
all. It is called the technical jargon of a science with which
a real scientist has nothing to do.
For example, Albert Einstein has nothing to do with all
the technical terms used about the science of Albert Einstein.
His theory was invented by him like a little boy and in the
beginning he never used any technical terms to his theory.
He described it just as a little boy describes his idea but
afterwards it became compulsory for him to cover everything
in technical terms because he has to communicate the theory
to the so-called scientists of his age.
In any science the real scientist has nothing to do with
the technical terms of the science. Similarly if we study
our constitution, forget about the many divisions and
subdivisions and their names of the constitution and try to
understand it in its true scientific level, we will know all
the layers of the human constitution do not contain the human
being.
Every layer is part of the human being and no layer
contains the human being in it. When we group the parts
of a human being into one lump, if we put the parts of a
human body together, we will never call it a human being.
We can call it only a corpse. What is it that is making a
human being? It is this space that occupies these layers, that
 The Science of Meditation 17

is keeping these layers in oneness and this oneness we call

human being. So, it is the space that is speaking, that is
seeing, that is hearing and these constitutions are to make
the space transact with itself to make the space communicate
within itself, just as two bottles when they are immersed
in a river, they are filled with the same water. Until the bottles
are filled, the pressure of the water drives the water into
the bottles. When once the bottle is full with water, the
pressure of the water drives from within. The inner water
tries to push and touch the outer water.
Similarly until space is filled within the layers of our
constitution in the mother's womb, consciousness begins
to expand into the functions of our layers and when once
this function is finished, consciousness begins to push forth
itself out. This is what we call the objective consciousness
that is, trying to understand that there is something else
different from ourselves. But, in fact, there is nothing
different from ourselves around us. Everything is made up
of the same atomic substance. The body of other people
is also made up of the same tissues with which our body
is made but we call them others. This is what is called the
necessary limitation or objectivity.
About this branch of understanding there is quite a lot
of literature in the ancient Indian Sanskrit scriptures and there
were people who devoted their whole life to explain what
the phenomenon of objectivity is. They are called Aitareyas
in Sanskrit. Aitareyam means something different from
ourselves, that is objectivity. The scientists called Aitareyas
are those who explain to us about objectivity. They explained
18 The Science of Yoga

to us that the physical vehicles are what we call bodies; they

are only the generators of space within. They are produced
to make the space active in the objective world and it is to
express themselves to speak, to see, to hear, to smell, to
taste, to sense, to think and to understand. To conduct all
these functions, space is producing its own vehicles which
we thought were our own bodies.
About Rebirth
It is the space within that is called ourselves and
when one knows it correctly, then the purpose of the births
is finished and that will be the last birth for him, because
he is nothing but space when he leaves his body. But many
people do not die completely or leave off their bodies
completely due to the power of desire they have for living.
They leave off only some of the vehicles they have and
we can scientifically call it an incomplete death. Their
personality suspends and lingers and the force of the
previous desire will push the fellow into its own
environment required and is attracted to parents, fit to
receive him in the type of desires he had.
Like this, rebirths take place because of the desires and
when the death is complete, there is no continuation of that
soul to take a rebirth. Every time space creates its own layers
around itself in the form of the vehicles required, bigger
or smaller. When the vehicles are bigger we call them solar
systems and the planets. When the vehicles are smaller we
call them atoms and molecules and we call them the physical
bodies.
 The Science of Meditation 19

When once the conscious mind is absorbed into

ourselves, then it is the original mind that exists, that is the
pure ourselves inside. Then this lower mind does not exist.
What we now call the conscious mind no more exists, but
the senses will be functioning. The tissues and the body will
be functioning. The respiration and the circulation will be
functioning. Everything is normal except the conscious mind.
You will live in this world just as you were living when you
were attending the opera or the TV. All the programmes of
your conscious mind will be cancelled. Once again the
programme will be chalked out by your inner personality
according to the universal plan and not your plan. Such a
state will be achieved by a proper practice of Pranayama
and Prathyahara.
True Pranayama
Pranayama should be practiced in its true sense
according to Patanjali and according to Bhagavad Gita and
not according to other Yoga books. For example, Patanjali
never asked us to make Kumbhaka in Pranayama. When
we take a deep breath inside and keep the breath inside for
some time, it is called Kumbhaka by the Yoga teachers. But
neither Bhagavad Gita nor Patanjali prescribed Kumbhaka
to be practiced by us.
The type of Pranayama prescribed by them is
regulation of the pulsations of life and not the smothering
of the respiration and not the suffocation of respiration.
Pulsations are different from respiration. Respiration is
also one of the results of pulsation and pulsation never
means respiration.
20 The Science of Yoga

There is a pulsation going on from the time of our birth

till the time of our death. It is the double pulsation of
centripetal and centrifugal pulsations. It is making our
muscles and nerves expand and contract at various places
of our body and this is causing what we call respiration and
circulation of the blood by the heart. The pulsation is causing
respiration to the lungs and circulation to the heart. That
is why respiration is taking place and we are not doing
respiration. Sometimes we say, 'I am breathing.' Breathing
is being done through us and we are living.
The pulsation is the power to expand and contract
the material of our body and that pulsation is called
Prana.
That Prana is regular when we are born and that is
rhythmical and musical when we are children. But when we
grow old in age, many times we disturb the music of the
respiration and the circulation. Whenever we are angry, they
are disturbed. The respiration becomes quick and the
heartbeat becomes a palpitation. Whenever we are jealous,
they are disturbed. Whenever we fear, whenever we are
suspicious, they are disturbed. Many are the situations we
create to disturb the music of the lungs and the heart. The
result is, after some years of age, our respiration is irregular
and heartbeat is irregular until the doctor discovers it. But
the doctor can never do anything to help you about this
matter because the Cardiologist knows only the muscles
and the nerves and the skin of your heart. He has nothing
to do with yourself who is making the heart work. So, no
use of Cardiology or Pulmonology.
 The Science of Meditation 21

It is the pulsations that are making you work your lungs

and your heart and they are not working independently. So,
a doctor of pulsations is required and a Cardiologist, however
great his qualification may be, is absolutely of no use when
the function of the lungs and heart are disturbed. Now the
art of Pranayama is to set right again the respiration and
the heartbeat. It is a great dimension of new science that
Patanjali and Bhagavad Gita have given us.
When you begin to practice Pranayama in its true
sense, the respiration will re-establish its own previous
rhythm and music. That is, the regularity of respiration and
the regularity of heart beat will be re-established and the
process of Pranayama should be like this according to
them.
In order to make the pulsations of your respiration
equalized, it is useless to try with your nose and chest
because the regularity or the irregularity of the lungs and
the heart depends upon the regularity or the irregularity
of the work of your conscious mind.
Regulating the Conscious mind
Now begin to make the work of the conscious mind
regular. That is, fix up certain timings in the day and try to
do the same thing in the same hour and minute. Every day
try to do it like that. Select your own timings according to
your own routine and your own profession. First of all,
understand your duties at home and your duties in the office.
Make a programme, fix up your timings and from the next
day onwards try to follow the programme. Trying to do the
22 The Science of Yoga
same thing in the same hour and the same minute without
having any tension of the effort at all. Then gradually a change
takes place in you. The vibrations of your mental activity
get regulated. The various ugly polygons of your mental
vibrations will become regular polygons. The nasty pictures
of irregular polygons of your mental activity will become
regular and gradually you will have a regulated mental
activity and it begins to respond in terms of your increased
consciousness. The respiration becomes normal day by day
and the heartbeat begins to become normal. Then only you
are expected to begin the practice of Pranayama.
Before practicing the regularity in the daily routine, if
you begin to practice Pranayama, it is nothing but self-
suffocation and self-smothering. You will understand that
the music in your respiration is gradually re-established. At
this stage you begin Pranayama, the fourth item of Yoga
practice.
Practicing Pranayama and Meditation
Sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and relax
every muscle and nerve in your body. Mentally travel
through every part of your body, relaxing every muscle
and every nerve. When you have completed this from head
to foot in a slow and leisurely way, then close your eyes.
Begin to observe the movements of your respiration. Begin
to observe within yourself how the muscles and nerves
are making their movements within your chest. How the
abdominal muscles are moving, how the respiratory cage
is moving. Begin to observe every moment that is going
on. Do this for 15 minutes every day.
 The Science of Meditation 23

Try to understand how the respiration is re-establishing

its own equilibrium. You will find that your mind is engaged
with your respiration. Every day after your practice, you will
understand that you are living for 15 minutes a day in the
absence of your conscious mind, yourself being present.
When your conscious mind is engaged with your respiration,
you are living freely without your conscious mind. When
you go to the house of your friend who has a horrible dog
in his house and when the dog is not allowing you to
approach his gate what happens? All your life you are trying
to go into the house but the dog is not allowing you to go
into the house. Then when the friend comes from within
the house, he smiles at you and calls the dog away. The dog
will be engaged with the owner. Then you have full freedom
to enter the house, because the horrible dog is called back
by its owner.
Like this you will find yourself for the first time free
from your conscious mind. You will begin to know what you
are. You will, for the first time, begin to know that you are
the supra conscious one. Begin to practice this for 15
minutes and after two or three months, you will find yourself
fit to take the next practice. That is, you repeat all the
experiments and then after the first 15 minutes of the
practice that is observing your own respiration, then begin
to breathe in slow, soft and deep, breathe in as much as you
can, as deeply as you can without the least discomfort to
your lungs.
Some people when they are asked to take a deep breath
in Pranayama, they will take it as deep as they have to cough
24 The Science of Yoga

it out again. But you see that you take it as if you are
comfortable only. There are some people who take
respiration and block it like this. If you block it here, it
is the worst thing and it can be called the worst experience.
Don't block it and let it stand there after taking a deep
respiration. Then when you feel, begin to exhale slowly, soft
and deep. Once again in the same manner in which you have
to inhale, you are expected to exhale also. In the middle
you are not expected to block the respiration in the name
of Kumbhaka. After some time you will come to such a
stage that the respiration is not necessary for a time. It is
what is called real Kumbhaka and this is not blocking the
respiration.
The necessity of respiration stops for a while and it
will be an experience of great ecstasy and joy and that
is what is exactly called Kumbhaka by the scientists of
Yoga. It is called the poise of respiration and it is called
‘Samanavayu’ in the Bhagavad Gita and when you
practice this daily just for 15 minutes then you will know
that the mind is coming nearer and nearer the respiration
because the mind is engaged in observing the movements
of respiration. Then finally the mind disappears in
respiration just as your mind disappeared when you were
watching the TV.
This is what is called meditation. You will exist but
your conscious mind will never exist. All the activity of
your life will exist, but it is never mental but it is only
Supra Mental. This is what we call meditation according
to the scientists of Yoga.
 The Science of Meditation 25

The purpose of this meditation and the conscious

application of this meditation, I will try to explain to you
in some other lecture once again. But in the meanwhile, if
you begin to practice this process you will yourself
experience what meditation is and you will know what
purpose it serves and you will be able to make a proper
application of it because once you are awakened into the
supra mental state, you have nothing to learn from the
objective world. It is only a matter of verification that you
get from the Great Masters and the elders and from the
scientific books and the scriptures. No doubt, you will never
stop reading great books or going and attending the
discourses of Great Masters. But it is only a matter of
verification that you get through them. But the instructions
you require will be received from within regularly.
Question : What is the difference between doing and not
doing?
Answer : The difference is when we do not practice
meditation we will be doing our duty. When meditation is
practiced we never do our duty but our duty will be done
by us.
In the first case there is the strain and tension. In the
second case, since you do not do anything at all, since it
is only your body and mind that do everything. There is no
strain and no tension because you will do nothing at all though
everything is being done by you. Compare the driving of
a motorcar of a novice and an experienced driver. A novice
is always driving every moment, every minute and every
second. His legs are driving, his hands are driving, his eyes
26 The Science of Yoga

are driving and every part of his body is driving. But if you
sit down in his car, you can never enjoy his driving. It will
be very jerky and you have to take some medicines in the
evening for the pains you have and while driving you should
sit by the side seat and ask him, "Does this road lead to
mountains?" He will never turn towards you. He says, "Shut
up, and don't talk."
But an experienced driver who has a successful drive
without any accident at all for 30 years; if you sit by his
side you can question what meditation is. He will clearly
explain to you what meditation is more easily and more
clearly than I have done to you now, because he is not driving
at all. His hands are driving. He is not driving. His legs are
driving. He is not driving. His eyes are driving. He is not
driving. His mind is driving. His intellect is driving. He is
not driving. So, he is not doing anything at all. In the
Bhagavad Gita he is described like this "Udaseena
vadaseenam asaktham teshu karmasu".That means, sitting
in a chair, not doing anything, looking at you while all of
you are doing something; you will be like that while in
meditation.
While you are in meditation, all the things half done
and something done at this stage of your experience will
be done fully and with perfection after you attain
meditation. One day's work will be done within one hour
by you because you are not doing anything at all. Hence
there is no trouble with your daily routine, when you
practice meditation.
 The Science of Meditation 27

There is no one who can say that he cannot attain

meditation. Even the insane fellow, if you know how to bring
him gradually will be able to begin meditation and reach at
least to some degree of perfection. But a human being of
average physical and mental health and a normal birth is sure
to gain perfection in meditation.
Question : Can you explain about the Diet and routine?
Answer : About the diet and the details of taking food and
food habits, it is a subject in itself. But generally speaking
we should avoid all rich foods which are called the dishes
of dinners. Reduce cooked foods as much as possible. Take
more and more green vegetables, juicy fruits, fruits that have
juice, regular use of wheat and honey and many of the cereals
soaked in water kept for one day should be eaten. Much more
liquid than we take normally, especially pure water, than any
other things should be the diet of a person who wants
to attain perfection in meditation. Such a food is not
compulsory, but if we want to get a hold over meditation
it becomes compulsory. All the rich foods should be stopped.
For example, butter and cheese should also be stopped.
Therefore meat is expected to be stopped. Milk, yogurt,
buttermilk and skimmed buttermilk can be taken according
to the ancient authorities.
As long as there are impurities in the etheric and astral
matter, as long as there is some toxic influence in the finer
vehicles, we go into sleep when we meditate upon the
respiration. But when we continue the same process, the
subtler vehicles get cleared of their toxic conditions and
28 The Science of Yoga

then we will experience sleep no more and we will go into

the supra conscious stage as soon as the toxic condition
is completely thrown out. The only thing is we should not
get desperate and stop the process.
Thank you all
 Various Methods of
Meditations

ur today's subject is "The various methods of

O meditations" and how to choose, that is to choose our
own meditation that suits us. We generally use the word
meditation in a general sense in a rather rough way of our
understanding. Within a few minutes let us have a precise
way of understanding the term, the term as it is used by the
ancient scientists, according to the science of meditation
which is a part of the science of Yoga.
The process of Yoga practice includes eight steps and
meditation is one of them. So, if we want to understand what
meditation precisely is, we have to understand only
according to the science of Yoga and in all its accuracy. Yoga
means the eight-fold yoga path that is propounded by the
'Bhagavad Gita' and 'Patanjali'. Generally we close our
eyes and try to think of something which we hold in
veneration. For some time, we say we are in meditation and
beyond that we are expected to know something which is
precise.
Suppose a person is sitting and closing his eyes in sleep.
Can we say that he is in meditation? What makes the
30 The Science of Yoga

difference? Sleeping is unconsciousness. Our awakened state

is consciousness and what the psychologist analyses is the
subconscious state. But what we call meditation is a supra-
conscious state that is a state which is more conscious than
what we are now. Our normal consciousness is unilateral
and it has no simultaneity of existence.
For example, if I am observing this I cannot observe
a second thing. I can observe the two things put together,
but I cannot observe the two things differently at the same
time. If you give me two books I can read one book even
though the other book is held before my eyes. I cannot read
two books at a time. Generally speaking this is the case with
all of us. Of course there may be people who are Masters
in Meditation among you but this does not apply to them.
What I say applies only to those who do not know meditation.
Those people who have a mind which is unilateral means
the mind when it is applied itself to something; it cannot
apply to another thing. And the second thing we have to
remember is, there are five different windows through which
the mind is applied. They are called the five senses. You all
know them but still let us recollect them once.
They are the capacity of sight, hearing, smell, taste and
touch. These are the five senses or the five faculties of the
mind. I told you a normal mind can work only unilaterally.
When it is seeing, it cannot hear and when it is hearing it
cannot see. But rarely we can do these two things
I can be looking at you and listening to what you say.
But even then we are doing only one thing. While I am looking
 Various Methods of Meditations 31

at you and if something on your face attracts me, I will miss

the idea spoken by you during those moments. When I am
attentive to what you speak, I miss your face. So, it is
unilateral. Every moment the mind is working through these
five senses and there are five objects to the senses.
For the sight we have what is called light and shape.
For the object of hearing we have sound and word. For the
smell we have something that smells. For the sense of taste
we have food and drink and for touch, we have a sensation
of touch, cold or hot, hard or soft etc. So, we have objects
of senses which form the environment. Every moment all
the five types of objects are applying themselves to the
senses at the same time. Hence they are forcing themselves
upon the mind simultaneously, but the mind is unilateral.
So, it is forced to act upon each and go on travelling from
sense to sense in an irregular way. This process is what is
called reaction to the environment. This is what happens to
us every day, every moment except when we are in sleep.
The Concept of Sleep
When we are in sleep, the whole apparatus is in sleep
but we are not actually sleeping. But since we are accustomed
to know ourselves only through the mind and senses,
automatically we are absent to ourselves when we are in
sleep. But the fact is that the lungs are breathing, the heart
is beating, the circulation is going on, digestion is taking
its place and all the important functions in the constitution
are happening normally. This itself proves that we are not
actually sleeping, only the mind and senses are sleeping.
It also proves that we are higher than the mind and senses.
32 The Science of Yoga

The mind and senses are our machines and tools to work
with. But unfortunately we are accustomed to identifying
ourselves with our machines. We have identified in such a
way that we do not remember ourselves existing differently
from these machines. So, we react to the environment every
moment and we live in continuous disturbance, succumbed
to the environment, identified with the environment, so that
we have no time to live as ourselves. This is what is called
a reaction and we have to stop this process. We have to
create some time for the mind and the senses to behave as
themselves. Then only we can remember what we originally
are.
Let us find out how we will be when we are not applied
to the environment. Till then we had no time to understand
what we are and how we are in our original state of existence.
This is the sole purpose of the practice of yoga.
We want a method which enables us to suspend the
activity of reaction, suspend the environment forcing upon
ourselves. It is possible many times that, though you are
sitting here, you are looking at this side with eyes open,
until I suggested, you didn't look at the wall. So, it is possible
that though we open our eyes towards something, though
something is there before our eyes, it is possible to withdraw
the sense of sight into the mind and apply it to something
which we want, that is what we are unconsciously doing.
When we are talking about something very important, we
do not observe the little things that are around us, though
we have opened our eyes towards them. Similarly when two
people are talking in your room, when the subject under
 Various Methods of Meditations 33

discussion is very important, then they take no notice of

what others are talking about. They need not close their ears
with their fingers. Their mind is automatically withdrawn
from the ears and is applied to what it wants. So, that activity
is different from this activity.
Reaction and Response
There is a controlled activity and an uncontrolled
activity. The uncontrolled activity is called reaction,
whereas the controlled activity is called response. There
is a lot of difference between the two. While reaction is
taking place, you are a slave to the environment, whereas
while the response is taking place, you are a master of
your own machines and the environment. This is what
makes the difference.
Now we have to understand the difference between 'you
being the slave' and 'you being the master'. From the state
of slavery to the mind and senses, you should have a process
to lift yourselves up to the state of mastery over them. For
this purpose the Master is located within the centre of the
mind that is different from the activity of the mind. So, this
inside Master who is existing in every one of us is called
by the scriptures the, 'I AM' and he is called the positive
'I AM'.
Whereas the mind with the senses is called the negative
'I AM', because this fellow receives impressions from the
environment. He is a receiving pole, whereas the positive
'I AM' shines through the mind and senses. Hence he is a
transmitting pole. He is Light by essence. That's why we
call him the positive 'I AM'.
34 The Science of Yoga

In the scriptures the positive 'I AM' is called the Lord

in you and the negative 'I AM' is called the Man in you.
The whole purpose of meditation is to lift the Man to
the Lord and to see that the Man is absorbed in the Lord
and lives as one with the Lord. When it happens, there's no
danger to the man. The Man still exists. Because when light
is focused towards a bigger light, it merges in the bigger
light and exists as one with it. This is what happens when
we follow the yoga path correctly.
The next step to remember in meditation is, the
negative 'I AM' exists in your brain as your mind, whereas
the positive 'I AM' exists in your heart and lungs. That's
why when the positive 'I AM' departs from this body the
heart and lungs stop automatically and the fellow is no
more in the mind. But when this negative 'I AM' stops, when
he is absent, for example in our sleep, the other activities
will be going on normally.
The lungs are respiring and the heart is beating,
everything continues and nothing is at a loss. Once again
this fellow wakes up in the morning, takes his seat in his
office and begins to work until the fellow is tired and once
again along with his five assistants he goes to sleep. This
is what happens and this part of human psychology is not
yet known to the modern psychology of the twentieth
century. It may take about fifty or sixty years for the modern
psychologist to be able to accept this. But in the meantime,
we have no business waiting for him when we have a better
understanding of things. We have no need to wait for the
psychologist's opinion. So, let him take his own time.
 Various Methods of Meditations 35

We will follow the psychology of the scriptures

because we have grand solutions in these, whereas in the
most modern psychology of the twentieth century, there is
only an analysis of problems without any solution at all. For
example, if one fellow is not able to sleep, the psychologist
can very scientifically explain why he is not sleeping, but
he has no solution to offer. So, with all respect to modern
psychology, it is still in an infant state, as the science of
problems without solutions, whereas we have the psychology
of the ancients offering solutions that are practical and
tenable and also verifiable by every average human being.
The seat of the negative 'I AM' is the mind and the
seat of the positive 'I AM' or the Lord is the heart and
lungs. The purpose of meditation is to withdraw this fellow
into the presence of the real Lord.
It automatically takes place while we are sleeping, but
that is not what we want. We are absent while we are sleeping
but here we want a process through which we should be
present and aware and the machines of the mind and the
senses are to be taken into the workshop, so that they may
be cleaned there, properly lubricated and once again put to
use daily. This whole process is what we call meditation.
How to know whether we are in a meditative state or
not? Suppose I sit down and close my eyes at about 9 pm,
when I open my eyes it may be 7 am tomorrow, how can
I know whether it is meditation or sleep? So, that is the next
step.
36 The Science of Yoga

The Triangular Process

We should understand the triangular process that is
taking place in us. Our existence is triangular in our mind.
Everything exists as a triangular force. For example, if we
want to listen to some lesson, we are there as the listener,
the lesson is there and the process of listening is there. So,
there are three entities. If we want to eat, food is there, we
are there to eat and the process of eating is there. If we want
to think something, we are there as the thinker, the object
is there as the thought and the process of thinking is there.
So, this is an inevitable triangle, without which the mind might
never exist. We want this triangle to be broken. When it is
broken, it means the 'I AM' in your brain is withdrawn to
the 'Lord I AM' in your heart and lungs. The process of yoga
or the scientific way of meditation makes you break this
triangle.
When you do not exist in your mind, the object does
not exist and the process does not exist. When only one
exists instead of three, then it is called meditation. But
then we are not in a stage to call it meditation. It will be
exactly like sleep. The only difference is, in meditation
you are present. But in sleep you are not present. Here
as in this process you are present, the mind is not present,
the senses are not present and their activity is not present.
We want such a state to be experienced and that is called
meditation.
Sometimes we may think that it is impossible and people
try to practice it with great difficulty for years. They try
to control their minds. They want to concentrate their minds.
 Various Methods of Meditations 37

They try and try for years together and yet do not get
satisfactory results. The student tries to remember the
lessons, reads and reads before the examinations, finds it
very difficult to remember the lessons and he says he has
no power of concentration. He goes to the doctor and says,
'I am not able to concentrate on my studies'. Then he goes
to the psychologist and says, 'I am not able to sleep'. But
the psychologist is also in the same state of sleeplessness.
So, we want a practical solution. We know the solution;
it is within us. It is not at all as very difficult as we understand.
But the only thing is we do not know the approach. When
someone gives us the proper approach in a scientific and
a systematic way and also in a practical way but not in a
philosophical way, then it is very easy. Every one of us will
be able to do it and we are in fact doing it many times on
many occasions, but we are not able to recognize it as the
state of meditation. We are not able to understand that it
is meditation, but on many occasions we are meditating.
Do you remember some occasions, when you had been
to some musical programme; an opera and preferably holy
music? Suppose, you have a good appreciation of holy music;
suppose the musicians are highly efficient and suppose the
fellow who is giving you the vocal recitation has a very
melodious voice and a good intonation, then see what
happens? You go and sit down there and when you sat down
there, the hall in which you sat down exists to your mind
and the other people who are around you, they are existing
to your mind and the dias exists to you and the platform
exists to you and the musicians sitting there, they exist to
38 The Science of Yoga

you and their instruments and arrangements and the faces

of the musicians; if some people are funny you will laugh
at them and if one of the musicians has a scar or a big wart,
you will also recognize it.
So, your mind is going through a process of reaction.
Then the music starts and within a few minutes, the hall does
not exist to your mind and after a few minutes, the lights,
the roof and the walls do not exist to you and after a few
minutes other people do not exist to you. Only three things
exist; the musicians, yourself and the music. After a few
minutes you are dropped off. You do not remember yourself.
You have only the musicians and music. Do you accept that
such a thing has happened to you some time or not? After
sometime the faces of the musicians disappear and their
movements disappear. Only music exists to you.
Do you accept that such a thing happened previously
to you? Do you remember that it was not difficult for you
to do it? Do you remember that it was very easy and without
your own knowledge it happened? Then, you remember the
composition of the music, the wording of the song and the
meaning of the song. After sometime the composition of
the music disappears from your mind; only music exists and
then the words disappear. Music exists. The song disappears.
Music exists. Then after sometime there will be a little
sound, a disturbance from one of the fellows beside you.
Once again the hall is there, the lights are there, the people
around you are there, the musicians are doing all those things,
their faces are there and everything is there. Then try to
recollect what happened.
 Various Methods of Meditations 39

When you can recollect the experience you had, you

can call it Oneness or One Existence. The triangle stopped
to exist. Only one point of consciousness existed. Your
senses were not existing; the mind was not existing. But it's
not sleep because you were enjoying music. You were
existing. If you can remember this state whether you had
it in a musical opera or you had it when you were looking
at the TV for a good cinema or when you were looking upon
a mountain into a jungle through the bushes, there was
Sunrise or Sunset. Then there are occasions when you go
into such a state. Or sometimes when you visit a big waterfall,
sit down there, looking at the waterfall for about five or six
minutes; and then for some time you don't exist. But again
you believe you exist. In the meanwhile you were existing
but you were not existing as an observer of yourself, because
the triangle was not there, but you were there as Oneness.
This is what is exactly called meditation in its scientific
sense.
So, it is not enough if we close our eyes and say that
I am in meditation. The fellow who can say, 'I am in
meditation' is not in meditation. Because he is able to speak,
just as the fellow who says, 'I am sleeping'. It's quite clear
that he is not sleeping. Because if he is really in sleep, he
cannot say, "I am sleeping". Only the next morning he can
tell you that he was sleeping. So, it is a similar state, a state
similar to sleep. The only difference is, it is a sleep with
awareness, a sleep to the mind and senses, but you are aware
of the inner Lord 'I AM'. So, it is a sleep to the negative
'I AM'; but an existence with the real or positive 'I AM'. When
this happens, it is called meditation.
40 The Science of Yoga

In fact, meditation is the result and not the process. But

unfortunately we use it for the process. We say 'Yogic
meditation'. We say 'Tantric meditation'. We say 'Zen
meditation'. We say 'Buddhist meditation', 'Hindu
meditation', 'Christian meditation' and 'Psychological
meditation'. So, these are all only the word meditation
applied to the process. It is like naming the tail of the cat
by the name 'Cat'. But of course we can use it for
convenience. But when we know that it is not correct, then
we are safe to use it. But without using this, without knowing
this fact, if we use the word meditation for the process, then
we are wrong, because meditation is the state of experience
and not the process. But, yet we have to use the word for
the process, because today's subject is, "The Various types
of Meditations". Unless we accept the word for the process,
we cannot have various types of meditations.
For example, can we have various types of sleep? We
can sit and sleep vertically; we can lie down horizontally
and sleep, or we can be slant and sleep as we sleep in an
aeroplane. But these are only postures of the body whereas
sleep is only one. We can't call them three sleeps. But for
convenience let us use it. When this can be properly
understood, we want a method through which we can reach
that state. It's not enough if that state is reached at random.
If we go into that state in a musical opera, it is only a random
experience. If we reach that state in a cinema or when we
go into Nature when we forget ourselves for some time,
it is a random experience, whereas we want a scientific
method through which we have a mastery over that state.
 Various Methods of Meditations 41

That is exactly what is called Yoga. When we reach that

state through the eight-fold yoga path of Patanjali, then he
asks us to apply that state to everything that you do in your
daily life. Then the triangle can be broken when you can have
an existence of simultaneity of awareness, then you apply
that state to anything you want to do.
How to read a Book?
For example, if you want to read a book, you apply that
state of mind to the reading of that book and automatically
you will be a master of the content of the whole book.
Without the laborious process of the ordinary reading you
can turn the pages and looking at some sentences, words
and passages, put it there, the whole book with all its content
will be there with you and you can feed it along with the
programming into the instrument because there are
thousands of wonderful computers and instruments in your
mind and you can feed it into the right instrument in a precise
way of programming, so that you can get it whenever you
want and then push it into the machine. It no longer exists
in your mind. But instantaneously it comes to you whenever
you want. You can apply it to a person sitting near you, you
can understand his health condition and the probable diseases
he gets, the present state of health and his habits and way
and behaviour, the causes of his present weak points in his
health and his past health, how he behaved with his food,
drink, sleep and sex and whether he is comfortable with his
profession or job or education.
All these things will be revealed to your mind and then
the solutions will reveal to your mind. You will be able to
42 The Science of Yoga

present the positive way of living to him and it is for him

to take the advantage or not. Patanjali advises us to apply
our mind to any science or art or any textbook or any person
or any circumstance or any situation in life and you will
immediately get the solution. But the best way of utilizing
it is, applying to yourself in the form of various meditations.
So, here comes our subject of this evening 'The Various
Types of Meditations'.
First of all, you should apply the state of simultaneous
existence to yourself, then the mind gets absorbed in you,
you will exist and your thoughts do not exist. Your memories
do not exist, your environment does not exist. Nothing
except the light 'I AM' exists and in that light you will get
an analysis of yourself better than any Radiography and you
will also get a synthesis of yourself because analysis can
never give us a solution. Analysis gives us only a diagnosis.
A solution comes only through synthesis.
You will get at the same time, synthesis and analysis
together. Then you will be able to understand what it is for
you to meditate upon. What will help you; what type of
meditation removes the negative aspects in you and
transforms them into the positive aspects. Then you have
no necessity to fight out the negative aspects in you, because
the more we try to fight out our negative aspects, the more
we become conscious of them, the more we live in them.
For example, if I have too much of irritability and anger,
if I try to meditate that I should not be angry, unknowingly
I am meditating upon anger, that is a negative quality and
in course of time I will grow more and more nervous but
 Various Methods of Meditations 43

I imagine that I am becoming more and more pure. I will

become over sensitive and delirious and hysterical, feeling
the bad vibrations of every fellow who comes to me. That
is the negative vibrations in me, they go on increasing, I go
into a beastly attitude of fault finding, after two or three
months of such practice, I can instantaneously see only the
defects in others. Immediately I will be able to point out
the wrong things in others and I will be an expert in fault
finding. Gradually the mind and nerves go into a diseased
state. My anger increases. Because I am angry, that my anger
is not going away. This is what happens when we are unwise,
when we apply our meditation wrongly.
So, it is strictly forbidden in yoga science not to fight
out our weaknesses and negative aspects, because it is like
fighting with a mean fellow on the street. So, you are
expected to use it only positively. You propose to yourself
a meditation which automatically eliminates the negative
aspects and the object of meditation should be of a positive
nature only. For this purpose, the ancient scientists have
prescribed many meditations to us. The one type of
meditation which is wonderful and highly efficient is, the
meditation according to the law of correspondence, have
an idea upon yourself.
First set of Meditations
Apply your meditation upon your vertebral column while
you are sitting and have a correspondence with the axis of
the earth, which is rotating on its own accord. Meditate
yourself as sitting in the middle of the earth having the North
Pole in your head, the South Pole towards the lower end
44 The Science of Yoga

of your vertebral column and the equator where your navel

is. This is one grand meditation prescribed in almost all the
scriptures.
This removes all the negative aspects of anyone. It links
him up with the activity of the earth and automatically his
relationship with the planet earth will be re-established
properly. His mind begins to work according to the plan of
this earth and the people of various countries and nations
that exist on the various latitudes of this earth; they will be
identified with the various parts of the vertebral column and
automatically the fellow comes in contact with each race
and nation and he has with those nations a telepathic contact
which automatically purifies the fellow of his personal and
individual defects and automatically he has a brotherhood
with many thousands of minds and whoever is working on
the lines of spiritualism and meditation on this earth will
be automatically linked up with the fellow in brotherhood
and the network continues. It adds to the spiritual network
of the earth. He will be one more member of the brotherhood
of the lodge. This is the true and scientific meaning of the
word Lodge.
Many people are not conscious of this meaning because
by lodge they mean a hall or a room. The body is described
as the true lodge, where the various Deva Kingdoms lodge
to function with their natural correspondences with the
various places of the earth. This is one type of grand
meditation which has no parallel. Hence all the other
meditations will be only parts of this. Anyone who begins
to meditate on these lines will understand the practicality
 Various Methods of Meditations 45

and the power of this meditation only within the period of

one year. The only thing is, he should do it uniformly and
continuously with a spirit of devotion and with a spirit of
offering.
Even those who do not practice the eight-fold yoga path,
who have not come to the stage of mastering the process
of breaking the triangle, they can begin it right, straight. It
is short. It is positive. It is effective. It is practical and it
has no risks and dangers. There is no secrecy about it. We
have many spiritual lodges where secrecy is maintained,
where the main keys of practice are lost. But here there are
processes from the scriptures where there is no idiotic
necessity to keep up secrecy where the whole process is
highly significant and dynamic.
People speak of the dangers of spiritualism but here
is a method where there is no danger at all. If you continue
the practice, you will reach your perfection. If you break
it in the middle, the advantage of the half practice will be
there which will help you in the next birth. It is such a
positive and practical method. The ancients here used to
practice this method and they used to live in one ashram
or in one lodge though physically they were living thousands
of miles apart. They were doing the same work and living
in the same ashram, though physically one is in America
and the other is in France, a third man in India. So, it is an
Ashram. This is how we are informed about one method
of meditation.
46 The Science of Yoga

Second set of Meditations

There is a second method of meditation. It is given in
the Astrology books. But what we know as predictive
Astrology has nothing to do with the Astrology of the
spiritualist. Predictive Astrology is only market Astrology
where you find Sun Sign predictions on the pavement. But
this is something which is highly sacred and the real purpose
for which Astrology was discovered by the ancients.
Meditate the symbol of Aries in your head; the symbol
of Taurus on your face up to the neck; symbol of Gemini
in your vocal cords, hands and bronchus; symbol of
Cancer in your lungs and respiration; symbol of Leo in
your heart, and the cave under the ribs, (it is called in
the scriptures the cave where the lion is sleeping); below
that, there is the place of gaster where you are expected
to meditate upon the symbol of Virgo; then the symbol
of Libra in the lower belly on the navel and below; the
symbol of Scorpio in your genitals and rectum; the symbol
of Sagittarius in your Mooladhara and your thighs; the
symbol of Capricorn in your knees; the symbol of
Aquarius in your calves and the symbol of Pisces in your
feet.
So, daily sit down in a comfortable posture and close
your eyes and see that every muscle and nerve in your body
is relaxed. Don't concentrate the mind upon any part of the
body or upon anything. This is a process of relaxation and
not a process of concentration. The whole yoga process is
a process of relaxing the mind and not at all a process of
concentrating the mind.
 Various Methods of Meditations 47

So, then after making a complete relaxation of every

nerve and muscle from head to foot, then you apply this
symbol to your head with your eyebrows and nose as the
symbol of Aries. Do this for one month, that is start with
march 21st and do it up to April 20th, that is when the Sun
is travelling through that sign Aries. Then during the next
month, you take the second symbol and meditate upon your
face up to the neck. Like this, you take the correspondences
of the body from any textbook of Astrology.
The purpose is meditation and not prediction. Your
purpose has nothing to do with the market Astrologer. For
one year you do like this, having one sign meditated on the
corresponding part of the body for one month and then you
complete the year. Many of your vehicles are purified and
what you get by doing these is only a matter of experience
and not a matter of description or discussion. For some
people, it is better to do the first set of meditation and for
some people it is better to do the second set of meditation.
So, we should be able to choose which is required for
ourselves.
Third set of Meditations
There is a third set of meditations. Meditate the Sun
in your heart as the 'I AM' in you; the Moon as the mind
in your head; the Mars who is producing the heat and energy
from your body in the region of your liver and spleen; the
Mercury as working through your vocal cords in the form
of the principle of sound and the ether, translating the
thoughts into sentences, words and sounds. That's why he
is called the messenger of gods and then Jupiter near the
48 The Science of Yoga

Sun, producing the courage and joy and positive nature in

you and Venus near the Sun and Jupiter, producing the
aesthetic sense in you and the power of spiritual love. Then
Saturn below your navel governing the lower functions of
your body and the harder tissues for example the bone, the
teeth, the nails, the skin and the hair.
This is another meditation. Some people need this
meditation, especially those who have inherited diseases
of very deep nature, that is, people who had great bad karma
in their past birth and who are attracted to parents who are
unhealthy as a result of which are congenitally unhealthy.
This will purify the vehicles to the deepest core. This is
one type of meditation.
Fourth set of Meditations
There are many categories of meditations. We have the
meditation of the Cross in the scriptures. It is called the
four armed Lord and the square, that is called The Son of
the Lord or the Creator who is four faced. The circle, this
is called one unit creation or the Egg of Space in which
the little bird of creation is being prepared and on the parts
of the body of this bird, will expand millions and millions
of Solar Systems. This bird of all measures has been
described in the scriptures.
So, this whole figure is given for us to meditate with
our head on top of this, our feet at the end and our hands
towards each end and the one side having our East where
we stand, the opposite point standing to our West; our head
towards the meridian; our feet towards the bottom, that is
 Various Methods of Meditations 49

the midnight, they are called the four corners of the day,
that is, the Sunrise, Mid-day, Sunset and Midnight. This is
one of the grandest of meditations that has been given in
world's every scripture of every nation. Some people require
this. This figure is called in India 'Vajra' or the weapon of
what is called the thunderbolt; it is also called the weapon
of lord Indra. Of course, each of these has many stories
in the scriptures, which are allegories and parables that
explain the significance of these figures.
Fifth set of Meditations
Some people need this meditation and some people need
another meditation, especially those who are not able to
sleep, those who are haunted by thoughts and ideas, those
who have great fears. Let them sit down and meditate a milk
white lotus around them and the same lotus within
themselves also. Meditate it as milk white and when it is
too cold and chill outside, meditate it as a warm lotus. When
it is too hot or warm outside, meditate on it as cool lotus.
This is another meditation, the effect of which you can
experience within a period of three months. Those who are
suffering in life through a series of disappointments, those
who are not able to concentrate their mind on anything, those
unfortunate fellows who believe themselves as helpless,
those who face hardships and sufferings, those who are hated
by others, not welcomed by others, those who are insulted
by others, looked down on by others, let them believe and
meditate. This is one thing.
The capacity to choose the required meditation is
generally not easy. Many people are not capable of doing
50 The Science of Yoga
it for themselves. They require an expert to advise them but
generally the professional Gurus and professional
spiritualist teachers, they do not reveal things with an open
heart. Some people unfortunately believe that there is
secrecy and some fellows are under the obligation or the
owe of secrecy. Some people are under the spell of money.
Some people believe that if they open the secret, the disciple
will not depend upon him anymore, so as a result of which
those who know do not reveal, but Nature is wiser than they
are. Because what they know is only conventional knowledge
and not the real secrets. Nature keeps real knowledge away
from them, giving them only conventional secrets and their
formalities and ceremonies. But real knowledge exists with
you, in your own heart, lungs and mind.
Every one of us has the same apparatus inside. Not man-
made, but Nature-given and God-given. So, everyone is
equally gifted as the other. The one who is open and free
in mind will be automatically a spiritual Master within no
time. Through him the science flows and through him the
wisdom flows to others. Through him the powers of healing
will flow. It is those people who give you the right meditation
to choose for yourself. You can ask me how to get to know
them. The one test is that the real fellow does not want
anything from you because you want something from him.
A fellow who expects something from you will be
automatically weaker than you, not stronger than you. So,
when he is in a position to expect anything from you,
automatically he is not in a position to give you something.
This is undoubtedly one test of a real teacher.
 Various Methods of Meditations 51

The moment the right time comes, the right teacher who
knows the right thing comes directly to you and he will give
you the right meditation. No use of choosing our own Master.
The Master should choose us when the right time comes.
Due to sheer ignorance some people close their eyes and
decide, my Master is Morya, my Master is Koot Hoomi
and my Master is Djwhal Khul. Like that people try to call
the Masters and order them to be their Masters. His idea
of Master is only a servant. Because he believes that the
Master comes at his beck and call. So, those who appoint
Masters in such a way, those who have such an ugly idea
of the Masters, they have to wait and wait for a very long
time. Those who do not wait or do something good and useful
to the world, discharge their daily duties to the office, to
the domestic circle, to the friends and neighbours and try
to live a simple and detached life, reducing the number of
wants, distinguishing between needs and wants automatically
they grow in spiritual maturity, they go into right type of
detachment, and it is the responsibility of a teacher to go
to him and give him the right thing.
This is the truth always. Whenever a disciple received
the right type of meditation, he received only through this
process and not through books or through knowledge nor
through secrecies, nor joining lodges nor through appointing
Masters. So, this is the truth of it. Let us practice the
fundamental laws of meditation. Let us try to keep our
thoughts pure and follow the fundamentals of the yogic path,
according to the 'Bhagavad Gita', or the teachings of the
Lord in the 'Gospels' or the 'Voice of the Silence' or the
52 The Science of Yoga

'Patanjali Yoga sutras', automatically the rest of the things

take their own place. One truth is, whatever good things that
attract us, automatically our mind includes the real keys of
our personal meditation corresponding to them.
When nature is attracting you, that means nature calls
you to meditate upon it. This is one of the truths of
meditation.
Of course there is a little difference between what these
scriptures and the Masters say. It is prescribed that we have
to observe the movements of our respiration in the region
of the heart and lungs, and not the lower. Of course even
if we do in the lower pole, there will be a great activation
of all the energies. But sometimes it is not as safe as the
other methods, for the reason as explained in detail below.
There are three planes of existence in us: Matter, Force
and Mind. These form the three lower principles in us. Four
more principles exist as higher principles in us. The matter
which forms the physical tissues of our body; the force that
is moving the body, which is called the vital force or the
prana in the yogic science and there is the mind with all
its layers.
The head and face region of our body is directly linked
with the mind. The lungs and heart are directly linked with
the force or the Prana. The lower chakras are linked with
the matter aspect. So, when we begin to activate the mind,
there is an automatic mastery over the other two planes.
If we activate the force, there is automatically a mastery
over the force and matter.
 Various Methods of Meditations 53

But if we begin to activate the matter, then there may

be a disobedience of the force to the consciousness of the
higher planes. So, sometimes the senses and the mind may
grow powerful, whereas our mastery over them is not yet
matured. In such a case, people develop powers of some
perceptions, but they are not masters to use them. So, the
path of the scriptures and the path of the yogic science
recommend to activate from above to downwards, that is
starting from the Brow centre or Throat centre or the Heart
centre, then automatically the lower centers will be
activated. The process of meditating upon the Base centre
and then the next higher centres is also there in the yoga
path, but that is not considered safe by the Masters of
wisdom and by the scientists of the Raja yoga path and the
authors of the scriptures. For this reason it is safer to
meditate upon the respiration in the region of the heart and
lungs than in the lower region of our body.
How to prepare for Meditation
The first thing to do is to find a few more people who
want the same thing which we want, in the place where we
are living. Automatically they form into one group and they
should select a place to sit down and meditate daily. By
meditation we need not only mean closing our eyes and doing
it. More effective meditation can be rendered by trying to
understand and discuss any holy book and how we should
apply it in our daily life. Also try to discuss the professional
and daily social activity, as to how to make this activity fit
in this spiritual programme. This is one aspect. And then
having a minimum time of fifteen minutes to sit down and
54 The Science of Yoga

conduct group meditation during which period we are

expected to go into relaxation of the body, muscles and
nerves. Then a withdrawal of the senses and mind into
ourselves which is more effective when done in a group,
than individually.
Hence, a narration of an incident of a holy person's life
is more effective to create meditation than an intellectual
approach and a way to understand. This is one of the top
secrets of meditation which we normally ignore. That is,
if one person can fully poetize and narrate the life incidents
of a holy person, who has lived a holy life, it automatically
leads into meditation. Then sitting for fifteen minutes in
meditation, observing the respiration and enjoying when the
mind disappears into ourselves. The whole thing takes place
in fifteen minutes and when we have more time we can enjoy
it for a longer period.
The next thing is, to try to regulate the timings of the
incidents of the daily routine, that is in the same hour and
same minute we should try to do the routine things without
having the tension of a programme minded nature. We should
take it as a play and a game and not allow tension to take
place for our programme. That is one of the most important
aspects.
For example when we fail, we should not mind it at all.
Again we should try to maintain it. This is what helps us
tremendously. If we begin to notice our failures and think
of it seriously, it eats away all the good effects of our
meditation. So, this is another aspect. So, as many incidents
as possible in our daily life, let them be of the profession
 Various Methods of Meditations 55

or our social activity or domestic duties, let them be adjusted

into the proper timing. This is what is called constructing
the polygon of the daily routine. For example, if you have
three incidents which you can keep up the timings, there
is one figure of the day, you add a fourth incident for example
starting for the office, you will have another figure, you go
on adding more number of events of the day for which you
can maintain the hour and the minute. If you cannot do it,
don't mind. Do it the next day. This is how we have to proceed.
The next aspect is, observe your behaviour with food,
drink, sleep, rest, work and sex and grow meaningful in these
aspects. For example, enjoy the taste of food and drink but
let it be done only to help the body. So, let us grow more
and more aware of these aspects and automatically we will
grow meaningful in our eating, drinking, sleeping etc. This
is the next aspect. Try to observe what good things attract
your mind and heart most. What colour or what colour
combination attracts you most. What figure or picture
attracts you most? Attraction means in a noble way giving
you a composer to compose yourself. Make your meditating
room composed of such pieces of art or music or painting
or the perfume and also the tastes of your food. You will
understand that there is a correlation to all these things. This
is another aspect. This is enough. The rest of the thing happens
automatically.
There is the Lord consciousness in us which shows us
the way and when we are really sincere about following the
path, immediately there is the fellow who shows you the
path and this is a promise by Nature. The rest of the things
56 The Science of Yoga

remain with the Master. When our purpose is done we are

already on the path of success and the test of your success
is that you begin to enjoy life and life becomes sweeter
without any reason and you will find time enjoyable without
any environment or without any reason. Your magnetism
increases and your presence will be felt happy and sweet
by others. This is a sure test of the progress in the right
path. This is what we require in short.
Whatever is quite comfortable to you and conducive
to a meditative mood, you can select that posture. Let the
body choose its own convenient posture. But it is necessary
that we should sit down and sit straight without tension of
muscles and nerves. The rest you can choose your own
convenient posture. At every step Nature teaches us and we
should know it. But one thing we should be careful of. We
should not prescribe it hard and fast to everyone because
there are constitutions which differ from one another. About
diet or the details of postures and other things, we should
be able to prescribe for them according to them not
according to us. For example, if we have shoes that are
comfortable to our feet, we should not ask others to wear
our shoes. They should choose their shoes for them. That's
enough. The scriptures prescribe that sound is absolutely
necessary to go into meditation. All the Indian scriptures
prescribe to utter OM vocally and listen to your own voice,
you will go into meditation. That is most important.
Body movement is not prescribed in the scriptures
except when we begin to produce movement according to
music and dance. When we follow the discipline of holy
 Various Methods of Meditations 57

music and holy dance of a devotional type then they are highly
useful in meditation; except that other types of movements
are not allowed. There are various schools each prescribing
its own way of uttering OM. But the one school which is
the oldest, which runs from the time of the Vedic age till
today, which is known through the 'Bhagavad Gita' and the
Patanjali and the Upanishads, it prescribes to utter OM
directly not making any changes and listen to it while
chanting.
(Master showed here how to utter OM. You can listen
to the Audio.)
This is how the scriptures prescribe. Utter OM naturally,
vocally with a uniform intonation in a prolonged way and
listen to your own utterance. Then there is the opening of
the door of consciousness and you will automatically walk
on the Path. All the scriptures prescribe that meditation is
to begin with OM. I too follow it and I believe in it. I find
that everyone falls into this line if he does like that. A
minimum of three times OM should be uttered in the
beginning and sometimes if the disturbance of the intellect
or mind is too much in individual cases, the number of
utterances of OM should be increased. Then automatically,
we have mastery over intelligence, otherwise intelligence
will be the master and it goes on suggesting things not
allowing the meditation to fall in line. So, in the individual
cases we have to increase the number of utterances**.
(** Here Master showed how to utter OM in three
tones)
58 The Science of Yoga

OM in three Notes
Generally, the middle note is prescribed for all, that
is the fourth of the seven musical notes that is what is
called one's own normal voice. There are generally three
intonations; your normal voice, your low voice and your
high voice. For meditation purposes your normal voice
should be the intonation of daily meditation. For particular
types of purifications and expansion of consciousness, the
higher intonation is necessary and for healing purposes, the
lower one which is lower than the normal is necessary. This
is how experience goes and how the scriptures prescribe.
Once again the lower tone helps in healing, your
normal tone helps in your daily meditation and your
higher tone helps in purification of the finer vehicles and
the expansion of consciousness.
Question : Can you explain about different stages of
experience?
Answer : Imaginary stages automatically change and pass
away whereas true stages go on establishing themselves
more and more daily. Another test is if your reasoning mind
is convinced, you take it as the real state. If you have any
doubt that it may be an imagination, then immediately
understand that it is not a true state. Because the person who
can test is your commonsense. Nature has given everyone
that wonderful gauge and there is no better test than it
anywhere in this world. One thing is necessary, we should
be careful of self-mystification and self- illusion or
imagination or a wishful thinking of experience. That is
 Various Methods of Meditations 59

enough. The rest of the thing, our commonsense is there

to guide us properly. When we are thoroughly convinced
that it is true, there is no argument. It is true. Until then
you can safely wait and be an observer.
Question : Is it possible to achieve powers through
personal practice?
Answer : The one truth that has no exception is, there is
no one in the history of humanity till today who has achieved
any powers through his personal effort or practice. Of course
I may be wrong but if there is anyone, I am ready to follow
him as his disciple. Nature is always wiser than the human
fellows. It confers powers only when there is a use through
us. And if we are to be useful, there will be automatically
healing through us and wherever we go, the health in the
family increases and with whomever you speak for a period
of five minutes, their vibrations begin to change for the
better.
There will be automatic changes and when you begin
to do meditation for a specific purpose, automatically it is
limited and some-times we may have some imaginary
healing powers and it is not true. But when we meditate on
the absolute desire and wishing nothing, automatically all
the powers are with you and they begin to work upon
everyone bestowed by Nature for some purpose and it is
never achieved by individual effort. It can never be achieved
by any means and any methods. Let it be magic or black
magic, this is the one truth of Nature. You can meditate for
the welfare of humanity.You can meditate for the expulsion
of the idea of war and establish the idea of peace. You can
60 The Science of Yoga

maintain a diary and note the date and give a description of

what you have heard and forget about it. If there is a need
of remembering anything on some other day, you will get
an instruction as a cross reference to one of them.
Question : What about the sounds we hear in meditation?
Answer : For example, some days, some sounds are
necessary to meditate. A word which includes those sounds
will come to your mind. For example, one day the word,
'Jesus' comes to your mind. All through the day it will be
coming to your mind again and again. It need not be the name
of God. Sometimes it may be an ordinary word. For example,
pencil. It comes in your meditation and many thousands of
times during the day you will get the word 'pencil', 'pencil'
to your mind. There will be such experiences. That means
those sounds are necessary for that day, for you to meditate
upon. Don't take a particular interest in such things but let
it take its own place and be an observer. Automatically what
is required takes place. Our duty is not to disturb them or
tackle them, that's all. Sounds like temple bells or sometimes
sounds like thunder, all these things are quite probable. We
should not invite them but we should enjoy them when they
are there. This should be our attitude.
Thank you all.
 Full Moon Meditation

Alignment
"Let the Meditation establish the bodies, minds and
the souls into alignment."
That is what the Masters bless us always. They know
that the human constitution is filled with many hundreds of
vehicles, and each vehicle is a bit disturbed in the alignment
because of the disturbance created by the indweller of the
vehicles. The resetting or the re-alignment is what they
call Meditation. The present existing indweller is not at
all capable of making an alignment of the vehicles until
he is absorbed into the real indweller. Whom we call the
'indweller' is the mind, who is a book of intelligence with
pages of incidents occurring every moment and the mind
necessitates the turning of the pages of the days. So, he
cannot make the alignment of the vehicles.
But there is one real indweller in all of us who is called
"The World Teacher" and who is always trying to bring the
vehicles into alignment. But the false indweller whom we
call the mind and intelligence is very anxious to get the
alignment and his anxiety prevents him from getting the
62 The Science of Yoga

vehicles into alignment. The World Teacher is silently

pointing out the way to the mind and the mind is anxious
of finding its own way, therefore the mind cannot find the
way. So, this type of wonderful conclusion continues as our
span.
The moment meditation visits us, the moment it is
pleased to shower its presence upon us, the mind gets
absorbed in the indweller and there is no meditation at all.
As long as the word Meditation is there in the mind, there
is no meditation because the mind is there and the word is
there and its meaning is there, its definition is there.
When so many things exist, everything can exist except
meditation. So, when meditation visits us, there is no worth
to what we now call meditation. Because what we normally
call meditation is only anxiety. In real meditation there is
no anxiety, for the reason the person who is anxious will
be made to disappear. Unless he is made to disappear, he
will not allow Meditation to visit us. He is one whom we
call the mind and the intellect. When once he is made to
disappear, words are not there with us. As long as the words
are there with us, there is no meditation.
Therefore the word meditation is not there with us when
meditation visits us really. When the mind is there, the
intellect is there, as a result of the disturbance from the
alignment and then we will understand that there was
meditation in the previous minute. That it was quite different
from what we know as life and though the mind existed, it
did not exist during meditation; though the senses existed
they did not exist during meditation because the mind and
 Full Moon Meditation 63

the senses were absorbed, absent to themselves and absent

to the one who notices them and yet it is something
different from what we call sleep.
It is a more conscious state than what we now know
as consciousness. But it is a state when we are conscious.
When the mind is not existing, the senses are not existing
and the intelligence is not existing. Therefore the
environment is not existing, the people around us are not
existing but all this put together is totally existing in every
point of existence and from head to foot everyone is more
exciting than existing now. You exist to me in meditation
hundred times more than you exist to me now, but your name
doesn't exist there, your shape doesn't exist there, my
identity of you never exists there, your colour doesn't exist
there, nothing exists except 'You'. There is no second in the
existing, therefore the observer and the observed are only
One Existence. That is the experience you will find in
meditation.
Meditation is the alignment of all the vehicles when
only One Existence shines forth through the apertures of
all the vehicles, Just as when a sophisticated photographic
camera which includes the movie and the talkie also. Unless
every part of it is properly tuned and even if one aspect
is not properly made into alignment, then the machine totally
becomes defunct. There is no picture received by the film,
no sound received by the cassette and no colour filtered
through the colour filters of the camera even though ninety
nine parts of the camera are properly made into alignment.
If one aspect is not in alignment, nothing is received by the
camera at all.
64 The Science of Yoga

That is the case with our vehicles and generally we are

always anxious. Our anxiety prevents ourselves from getting
aligned and many times a full span is spent away without
knowing what alignment is and what meditation is. The eyes
are working, the senses are working, the mind is working,
the intelligence is working, we are attending our occasions,
we are doing our business, we are careful about our own
mundane affairs, we are careful about our calculations of
money, income and expenditures, but each vehicle is
functioning separately. Alignment is not there; therefore the
indweller is not shining forth or shining out. So, one full
span will be generally spent away like this, and generally
our span may not be knowing what meditation is.
Nature knows that we are not capable of getting
ourselves aligned. So, Nature itself brings us to alignment
in time, that is what we call spiritual evolution. It allows
us to do things in a trial and error method. A trial and error,
every day doing mistakes and experiencing the peculiar
inconvenience of our mistakes, knowing how to do it better,
again forgetting how to do it better, again experiencing the
same inconvenience, this time remembering how to do it
better, again do it better through births and rebirths, we learn
how to do it better. The result is suddenly we exist and our
intelligence ceases to exist, our mind and senses cease to
exist and our body ceases to exist, our respiration ceases
to exist. Though all these things are taking their place,
everything will be there, but it will not be to us.
So, for a few minutes, we experience meditation during
which time there is no word called meditation or the thought
 Full Moon Meditation 65

that we are meditating. Then afterwards we understand that

whoever had meditation previously, this is the nature of
meditation, but before that Nature puts us to a peculiar
training, it allows us to do our own things. But we try to
help each other, and therefore we fail, that is how we delay
the alignment.
Nature helps from within and from outside, but Nature
gives us training in getting objective help from each other.
Nature is not appearing to us objectively, it is existing with
us only as our own individual nature. Yet it is helping us,
but the human mind wants help from outside, from another
person, whereas Nature is trying to make us know that there
is no outside person, there is only one person inside
everyone. But we are searching for an outward companion
to help us.
This is the cause of the delay in alignment. This is
possible only in human birth. In the animal birth alignment
always exists. They do not need any meditation because the
human mind is disturbed from the harmony of nature. Human
mind lives in what we call effort and attempt. In order to
eliminate the effort and attempt and in order to make the
inner light flow through the same window, the practice of
meditation has become necessary for the human being, the
practice of yoga also has become necessary, prayer has
become necessary and a particular training of doing things
has become necessary.
The Secret of doing things
Particular way of doing things is the greatest secret
that solves all problems. That is called "The secret of
66 The Science of Yoga

doing". Many people try to know what the secret is. There
is no secret concealed inside but there is something which
we have not noticed. Therefore it is always a secret. We
do many things during the day but we don't know what doing
is. We know what is thinking, we know what is understanding.
We believe that we know what is doing? The truth is we do
not know what doing is. We should carefully catch the secret
of doing; it is a very subtle secret which is missing our
understanding every second.
Try to observe yourself while doing something. Doing
is action. Action means change, a change every moment,
every split second and every millionth fraction of a second
that is what is called a change. When we are doing
something, it means we are following a change. If I take this
watch from the table, place it in such a position, it is a change
that I am causing. But if my Master asks me to take the watch
into my hand, change its position from the table to the above;
see what the time is exactly. It is 9 o' clock. Tomorrow I
will also do the same thing, if it is exactly 9 o' clock. If
it is exactly 9 o' clock tomorrow also, that means you are
getting yourself aligned to what is called action, otherwise
you are flowing with the river of change until your body
grows old and dies. That is what the Masters of wisdom say.
If it is 9 o' clock today and if it is 9 o' clock tomorrow also,
that means you are causing the change of position of the
watch from table to a height and you are forming a
background of time to the change you are causing. The
background is what is called "No change", it is 9 o' clock
today and tomorrow also it is 9 o' clock, day after tomorrow
 Full Moon Meditation 67

also it is 9 o' clock. Then there is no change in the time,

there is change in your actions. This change requires time.
So, there is a change in time and there is no change in time
at the same time. So, when you are able to align change with
no change, in terms of time, then you are considered as
trained to get your vehicles aligned.
This is the one secret of action which we have never
noticed previously. If we are causing only change we will
do this at 9 o' clock today and 9.05' tomorrow, 5 minutes
to 9, the day after tomorrow. We are causing only a change
and there is no alignment of vehicles. Each vehicle is working
in its own direction, the mind in its own direction, the eye
in its own direction, the ear in its own direction, the speech
in its own direction. So, everything is getting dispersed into
change until the body becomes old and dies. This is what
is called "Change", "Instability" or "Temporary Nature" which
is called "Awaiting Death Every Moment". That is what the
Master said but there are some people who do it exactly
at 9 o' clock, but they grow mechanically. If you arrange
an electronic machine to do it exactly at 9 o' clock, it lifts
the watch exactly at 9 o' clock automatically, but it cannot
be called 'No change', it can be called only routine.
So, the human mind is always missing the essence. Either
if it wants a change, it is drifting into waste of time. If it
attempts to have regularity, it is drifting into a mechanical
routine. In either way, it is death. You should have the
background of "No change" upon which you should shape
the continuous change into a change of periods that is what
we are doing when we are practicing a spiritual way of doing
68 The Science of Yoga

things. Then you are expected to sit down by eight every

day and meditate from 8.00 to 8.15. It is not the filling of
the gap between 8.00 and 8.15 you are doing, it is not what
is required, but what is required is you getting better and
better. Let us try to do it better; this is how Nature is training
us. Meditation visits us; we can never do the Meditation.
That is the secret of Meditation. Nature brings us to
alignment by not allowing our mind to use its intelligence
upon our programme.
Then there will be some Full Moon day, when the
indweller shines forth through all the vehicles. Then the
intelligence and the mind are absent. They are merged in
the presence of the indweller just as the blocks of sugar
are dissolved. All our programmes disappeared in just as
10 or 15 blocks of sugar are dissolved in the same tumbler
of water. So, our meditation existed as the water where the
sugar was dissolved. So, the programmes exist with us and
we do not react to them. The programmes are being
conducted automatically. You will be here five minutes
earlier to 8.00. The time sense is not there with you.
Automatically you will open your eyes by 8.30 from your
meditation because the time sense is not there, you are there.
Automatically the respiration stops, because you do not exist
in the respiration and the respiration dissolves in you.
That is what is called a "Meditation". First of all three
groups of vehicles should get into an alignment. One group
of vehicles belong to the physical plane, the second group
of vehicles belong to the mental plane and the third group
of vehicles belong to the inner deity whom we call the Lord
 Full Moon Meditation 69

in us, who is the real 'I AM' in us. So, there are three groups
of vehicles, the vehicles of the physical body, the vehicles
of the mind and the vehicles of the consciousness or
indweller. So, the first set of vehicles, the total of which
we call the physical body, is made up of the same substance
as our earth is made of. Same minerals are taken from the
earth, the same water is taken from the earth and the same
gases are taken from the earth. Therefore the first group
of vehicles is called 'The Earth Globe'. The Second group
of vehicles is called the 'Mind' and the third group of vehicles
is called 'I AM', where the innermost 'I AM' exists and the
three should come to alignment. You have your 'I AM' in
you, your mind in you and your body in you.
The Sun and Moon
In the outer world you have the Sun of our Solar System
who is the collective 'I AM' of all of us and the Moon in
the outer world who is the collective mind of all those who
are existing on this earth. The earth globe upon which we
are standing is the collective physical body of all of us. The
earth is going round the Sun, as well as going around itself.
When the earth is going around the Sun, the Moon is going
around the earth. So, if you look at the skies in the night
and the day, you will find that on no two consecutive days
the Moon appears alike. Because you are standing on the
same earth globe but the Sun and the Moon are taking
different angles from each other, when seen from this earth.
Each different angle is making you see a different phase
of the Moon and this is the cause of the different moods
in the minds of the individuals on the earth. This is what
is causing the change in our life.
70 The Science of Yoga

If the heart does not beat there is no change, unless

there is a change there cannot be a beat. Unless the beat
goes unchanged we cannot live. So, there should be the
change of what we call the heart beating and also the
continuity without a change that the heart goes on beating
that is what is called "LIFE".
The respiration is a change, if you go on taking air it
is not possible to live and it should change; you should
breathe out. At every respiration the direction of respiration
is changing but unless the respiration goes on unchanged
we cannot live and we cannot have a span of life. That is
the secret of action. If our mind can imbibe that secret,
so that the actions we do also inherit the same formula, then
there is what is called the process of alignment.
There are two types of actions that take place in our
life; one is called actions that are taking place in us and
the actions done by us. The second is the actions we do;
the first is actions done in us. The first set of actions is
called rituals and the second set of actions is to be
ritualized. Otherwise they are called mundane actions.
So, the activity is to be ritualized. What we do should take
the formula of what is being done in us. So, the change
should go unchanged. If we can practice doing our routine
in such a way then the alignment is done. Then the life
you experience is called "Meditation".
The Full Moon and New Moon
If you understand what happens on a Full Moon, it
is a total reflection of the self-expression of the Sun
 Full Moon Meditation 71

through the Moon upon the Earth. Whatever the Moon

receives from the Sun, is totally reflected upon the surface
of the Earth. That is what is called "Full Moon".
In the New Moon whatever the Moon receives from
the Sun it is sent directly towards the Sun and not towards
the earth. So, these are the two phases of self-expression
that are produced by the Moon and the Earth and that are
being initiated to the living beings on this Earth and we are
waiting until we have the day of our initiation. Though this
word of initiation comes on every Full Moon and the New
Moon, we are not allowing the time of our initiation to
approach us. It is because of our anxiety. So, this is the
significance of Full Moon and New Moon.
The New Moon is the subjective consciousness of the
earth, because the ray coming from the "I AM" is once again
reflected towards the same source, "I AM". That is, the rays
coming from the Sun to the Moon are not permitted to get
reflected towards the earth. But they are retracing towards
the same source, the Sun; so it is called the symbol of
subjective consciousness.
On the Full Moon it is the converse, whatever ray is
received by the Moon from the Sun it is transmitted to the
earth as a message. So, the message of the self-expression
of the Sun God is totally transmitted to the beings of the
Earth on every Full Moon. Every month there is an additional
message also. It changes from month to month.
Libra Full Moon
During this month we receive the additional message
72 The Science of Yoga

of what is called the scale pans of the balance. This is the

month during which the whole year is divided into two equal
parts and hence this is called the month of the Libra or the
balance. So, this is the time when the mental and physical
forces can be balanced and the alignment practices and also
the subjective and the objective consciousnesses are
balanced.
The idea of equal distribution of life in terms of
understanding of what you want and what I want is properly
practiced by the spiritualist during this month. So, it is called
the month of equality and equal distribution. Therefore, it
is the time to understand what others want and what we want,
what we should do to others and what we should receive
from others. This is the significance of the sign Libra, the
balance called the Law of Justice that exists in every atom
of this creation.
The human mind is expected to receive the Law of
Balance once again and meditate upon the point of equality
as the geometrical centre of our existence which is called
"The centre of the Circle" or a "Point", and the horizon around
us being our own circle, the centre of our consciousness
being the geometrical centre of our circle. This is what is
expected of us by way of Meditation.
On a spiritual day we have started our meditation here.
First thing to remember is that it started and we never started
to have this here today. Something brought us here therefore
we are here. If we had to make a programme that we should
be here, it would not have been possible. So, we all know
 Full Moon Meditation 73

how our mind is anxious not to allow its own things to be

done properly. Our mind is generally anxious enough to make
it successful, what it wants to do. In this process these can
be made inconvenient and uncomfortable. That is what the
mind can do with all its anxiety. But since there is a greater
cause that blesses us for every spiritual gathering, it is not
we who have planned for it, but there is a plan which brings
us here and if we remember it, things will always be better
every day.
Light shines forth better day by day; the life of our
everyday incidents will be happier and more and more
brilliant day by day. So, the health of everyone will be better,
the ease of the mind will be better every day and the
programme will be more successful and more lucky if at
all we remember that something, a higher consciousness
brought us here into this house. It is enough if we do not
believe that we are conducting these gatherings, because if
we are to conduct they are anxious to suffer the results of
our anxiety. So, let us believe always that something is
favouring us, there is a blessing from the Masters of Wisdom
which is bringing us together and keeping us quite hale and
healthy and keeping us jolly and happy, helping us to
understand each other in a proper way, giving us better health,
better strength and better hope.
So, let us cooperate month after month to believe more
and more that we are not conducting these gatherings, but
something is favouring us to gather here and see that the
hosts are more brilliant, stronger and healthy and happy and
I will be doing the same thing wherever I am until we are
74 The Science of Yoga

permitted to meet here once again next year. So, let us all
live together wherever we are for one year. So, we will be
continuously living together. May the awareness of our
hosts, who had arranged the gathering here, continue forever.
So, let us have a few minutes of meditation once again.
Thank you all.
 The Practice of Yoga

promised to tell you about the practical procedure of how

I to achieve the advanced steps. That is, how to cooperate
with the evolutionary function, how to train to cooperate
with the Deva kingdoms and how to learn to exist in the soul
consciousness. The process is what is scientifically called,
'Yoga'.
Of course, the word yoga is used in many directions
now-a-days, but there is also a scientific definition with a
procedure which is called 'Yoga'. We are concerned only
with that. The science and the procedure is age old. The exact
science of yoga with its instructions can be found only in
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. After that we are expected to lead
a yoga life. Yoga practice is no end in itself. But the end
and the goal is the yoga way of living. That is given very
briefly at the end of the Patanjali's book, but it is very well
supplemented in the Bhagavad Gita. So, Patanjali's Yoga
Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, put together form the first
part and the second part of the science of yoga.
Now I will try to give you an aerial view of the yoga
practice with exactitude and scientific precision intended
76 The Science of Yoga

by Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita. We have nothing to

do with the many digressions of the other yoga teachers.
Previously we talked about the six angles of vision to ancient
wisdom and it was followed and understood by all those who
regularly attended the lectures. Then we spoke of the five
angles of vision but the sixth was left behind. That is 'yoga.'
Today's subject is 'YOGA'. At the outset, the book of
Patanjali is divided into four chapters. The first chapter gives
us the scope and the purview of yoga practice. Why should
one practise yoga and what should be the main aim?
It is said that yoga is practised to suspend the reaction
of the mind. Before that, let us try to have a rough idea of
yogic anatomy of the human constitution. We have our
physical body made of matter; it is moved by the body of
forces called Prana, whose main function is pulsation. Then
there is what is called the mind. So, the third aspect is the
mind and the mind is divided into two branches, the ordinary
mind and the higher mind. The higher mind is what we called
yesterday, Buddhi or Will. We are shining from within
through all these layers. The one who is shining from within
is called Indweller. He is shining in the form of mind through
the activity of the five senses; the sense of sight, the sense
of hearing, the sense of smell, the sense of taste and the
sense of touch. The mind is functioning through these five
senses and for the present we are functioning as the mind.
So, we have what is called the functioning of the mind.
We call it the functioning of the Indweller, because we
are normally confused between mind and ourselves. When
the mind is working we say, "We are working". When the
 The Practice of Yoga 77

mind sees through the eye we say, "I see it". Like that the
mind is wrongly considered as the indweller. There is an
activity called reaction, it is a reaction to the environment.
Whenever there is light outside, the mind is responding
through the eye and reacting to the light. The result is, the
mind is experiencing light and shape and we see all these
people, this room and all these things. That is called the
reaction of the mind to light, the shape and also the colour.
Similarly whenever there is a sound, our mind is reacting
through the ear. The result is we hear. Similarly with the
smell when there is the incense stick burning, the mind is
travelling outside through the function of the nose and
reacting to the smell. Similarly to the taste, all of us know
and also to the touch through the whole skin from head to
foot. The mind is travelling on the surface of the skin with
the help of the nerves and finding if it is cold or hot or hard
or soft, like that. So, there are five types of reactions to
the mind. When it is reacting to one thing, the other thing
is attracting. When we are observing the scenery through
the window, somebody calls us and our mind begins to react
to sound and say, "Ah! Why?" Then this starts and the first
reaction stops.
Similarly, let us say we are talking and if it is too hot
outside; at that point, our mind reacts to the heat and we
stop our discussion and say, 'it is too hot.' As a result, we
are not able to enjoy any one of the faculties of the senses.
The mind is asked to cut short everything. It has to cut seeing
and then it has to hear. It has to cut hearing and has to taste.
While tasting a good banquet, sometimes there is the
78 The Science of Yoga

policeman calling at the door, showing us the notice that

we placed the motor car somewhere in the wrong place. Thus
our mind is not permitted to enjoy anything continuously.
In the scriptures, the mind is compared with the chariot
having five horses. Five horses are facing in five directions
and the chariot is in the middle and five different people
are showing attractive grass from five different corners to
the five horses. They are all inviting the horses towards their
directions. As a result the five horses are drawn into five
different directions.
* * *
To put it simply, just because a steam boat makes a
movement upon the direction of the gale, you cannot call
it 'journey'. In such a way we are also spending our years
and growing old, all the while thinking, we want to enjoy
happiness. As a result, even though we want to enjoy
happiness, we speak of happiness, we define happiness, but
we have everything except happiness. So, this reaction is
in some way or the other wrong. Something is defective in
it. We have to rearrange the available data and make a proper
adjustment. That is the purpose of the science of yoga.
The influence of the environment
The environment is making its presence felt through
these senses and forcing itself upon the mind. As long as
the environment is being received, the mind is not the mind,
but the environment. When I am looking at you, my mind
is not in the shape of my mind but it is in your shape. When
I am listening to your words, my mind is taking the shape
of your words and their meanings. When I am enjoying the
 The Practice of Yoga 79

taste of food, my mind is taking the shape of the taste of

food. So, in every reaction the mind does not have its own
state. It is continuously assuming the state of the
environment, even if it is not continuous, it is continuously
changing. So, there is nothing to really enjoy except thinking
of enjoyment or expecting enjoyment. So, we have to find
out what is wrong there.
Hence, it is said that yoga practice is a process of
suspending the present reaction of the mind through the
senses towards the environment. Then it is said that the
mind knows its original state of existence.
Now it has no time to be itself because it is in the process
of becoming an environment. When it is very busy in the
outward activity it has no time to be itself. We should know
how the mind will be in its original state for which we have
no time till now. At first he says, "Let us have some time".
Then in the next step he says, "The environment is making
its presence forced upon the mind and the mind is a receiving
pole. It is not allowed to be free. The world is too much
with us." That is what the poet Wordsworth says. That is,
we are not allowed to live as we are, because we are not
left alone by the world.
So, this mind is called, "I AM" by us. That is the helpless
fellow who has no time to live as himself, he is called the
'I AM' by all of us. The result is we are living as helpless
fellows very busy all through the day having no time to live
as ourselves. We have to live as per our programmes,
expectations, obligations and admiration or as our
appreciation. But we are not permitted to live as ourselves.
80 The Science of Yoga

The mind is always at the receiving end. Therefore this 'I

am' which is in the receiving pole is called the negative 'I
am'.
At this stage we have nothing else other than to receive
from outside. We do not know whether we have some interior
or not. In this manner, we spend 30, 40 or 50 years of our
life, keeping ourselves very busy all through the day and
sometimes into the night as well. We think that we are
working to achieve something, to attain happiness some day
or other. We want to earn money to be happy. We want to
construct a big house to be happy or we want to establish
a big ashram to be happy or we want to establish some big
office. There is always something that we want to do, because
we cannot do anything. But at the same time we are doing
something or other, which has no real meaning to reach the
inner man. There is a big activity going on with a tremendous
speed, but no progress is gained.
It is like a motor car lifted upon its Jackie in the car
wash garage and then driven at a high speed of 150 km/h.
The wheels are spinning at a high speed, the oil is burnt,
there is big noise, but the car is stationary there and not
gaining any space or distance, because its wheels are lifted
up on the stands. Similar activity is going on when we are
very busy with our daily routine. When we are doing
something, the next item of the programme is driving us.
Even though something is driving us yet we are not moving.
This is what Patanjali explains in the next stage.
Using the Measures
We are living like the negative 'I am', the slave of the
 The Practice of Yoga 81

environment, always driven by the environment. This should

be stopped. An activity which is in the right direction should
be established. These five types of reactions are once again
multiplied by five as we have five moulds of acting through
these five directions. It's called acting by using the measure.
All the shapes, colours, smell, taste, light, darkness are used
as measures to know what is there outside. I have the shape
of your face as my measure, the incidence of light as another
measure, your voice as a third measure and the dress as your
fourth measure. In this way, I use all the available measures
and come to the conclusion that this is Mr. So and So and
we react to each other. Thus we are using the measures
through these five senses. Simultaneously we are alternating
the measures that are; we are using one measure to
understand the knowledge of another measure. For example,
if there is flame I should know it with the eye. But sometimes
when I am lecturing, I grow emotional about the subject and
stretch my hand like this and then there is a burning sensation.
At that instant I come down from the emotional heights and
find that something is burning. Then I understand that there
is a flame. So, instead of knowing through the eye,
sometimes I know through touch that there is a flame. This
is what is called alternating the measures for knowing.
Sometimes we use mistaken measures. These measures
are sometimes used by mistake. When there is some sound,
we usually understand that it is a motor car and most of the
time we are right. But sometimes there may be another sound
of wheels running on the stone and we may make a mistake
of thinking that it is a motor car. Likewise when it was cloudy
82 The Science of Yoga

yesterday and there were thunders, we could very easily

understand that they were thunder by listening to the sounds.
But in case there is some disturbance in the stereos in this
room, there are times when we may mistake it to be the
thunder sound from outside or when there is thunder outside,
we may get mistaken by thinking that these stereos are
blaring.
Sometimes we mistake one person for another; we
sometimes create humorous scenes. There was one Mr. John
in India whose wife died of cancer. One of his colleagues
told his wife that John's wife had died. Now there was another
person by the same name 'John' working in that same office.
When the wife of that colleague met another John on the
street, she consoled him for ten minutes and this John
silently listened to everything, because he understood the
whole situation. He took leave and went home. She went
home and told her husband that she had met John and
consoled him. He asked which John? She said John Arnold.
He said, "You fool, his wife is quite ok". Just like the above
incident, we sometimes use the measures in a mistaken way.
We have another experience of absence of measure.
That is when the instruments are kept away and the mind
is left alone. That is what we call sleep. There is a fifth
activity which we call knowing through absence of a measure.
How can we know through absence of a measure? It is what
we call memory or recollection. Next year suppose I come
to this table and say. "There was a candle here when I came
last time but it's not here now". This is what is called
knowledge through absence of a measure. These are the five
 The Practice of Yoga 83

possibilities of the mind reacting through the five senses.

So, there is no sixth possibility.
Patanjali has given these five possibilities. He said that
they contribute to our happiness or unhappiness according
to the way in which we use them. If we know how to use
them, they contribute to happiness, if we do not know how
to use them, we live a mundane life of mixed values,
unhappiness sometimes mixed with happiness. But when we
proceed in a scientific way, we will have a mastery over the
use of these instruments.
Proposed Awareness
How to Practice? Two steps are at first prescribed. One
is "proposed awareness". That is when you propose that
you want to live happily and you want to know what happiness
is in its real sense. You want to know the real mechanism
and the structure and the functioning of the mind. If you
want to live in the world of realities, you have to continuously
propose to yourself that you want to know the real thing.
You should make a true and scientific use of the apparatus
and try to live in the real yourself.
Therefore at first you should make a proposal for a
higher living in the mind. It is essential because every
proposal that is made with the mind stimulates the mind
to rearrange itself and makes a conscious repetition of
the proposal continuously.
Whenever you begin any action, you propose to
yourself. "I should do this work with a better knowledge of
facts. I should spend my time in a more meaningful way.
84 The Science of Yoga

Let me try to understand how to do it better and in a more

organised manner. So, let me be more skillful to know more."
Hence you will be persistent in making the proposal
consistently in order to become better. Thereupon you
should do it at every step of life until it becomes a practice.
Practice does not mean automatic but a continuity of
awareness. This is the first thing he proposed. The second
step in yoga is to practice 'Detachment'.
Detachment
What is detachment? Is it to ignore the loved ones? Is
it to ignore wife or husband or children or is it to ignore
old people and send them to old age homes, just as many
of you do in the Occident or western part of the world? Such
a person can never dream of yogic life. Detachment is not
abandoning. It is not about leaving people, it is not about
growing a spirit of indifference or loss of affections. It is
a specific process prescribed by Patanjali. We have seen
how things force themselves upon the mind. You should be
able to detach from that enforcing of the environment. How?
Many people are mistaken. For instance, if there is
something that attracts my eye, and if I am to practice
detachment, then am I to mentally propose, "I should not
see it, or I should not think of it". In such a case it means
that I am thinking of it.
When we have some defects and we think of getting
rid of those defects, that means that we are thinking only
about those defects. That is we are giving more importance
to the defects. Let us say, I have too much irritability and
I get angry with everyone every time. In that circumstance,
 The Practice of Yoga 85

in order to get rid of it, if I close my eyes and begin to think,

I should be free from my irritability and then I am meditating
upon my irritability. I am meditating upon my defects. The
result is, I will be more irritable after some time. Whenever
we begin to think of our defects, irrespective of whether
we like or dislike something, both the processes result in
thinking of that particular thing more acutely. If I like a
person too much, I think about him and if I dislike a person
too much, I will be thinking more about him than about the
first person, because evil influences more than good when
we are dwelling in the mind and senses.
For example, when I visit Brussels from India, there
may be ten people who have helped me a lot and who love
me very much and whom I love very much. We have great
affection. But there is another person from whom I borrowed
a thousand dollars before returning to India. I had said, "I
will return the money to you within two months". I did not
care to return. I did not write any letter to him. When he
wrote to me, I did not reply. After one year, when I once
again visit Brussels, who do you think comes to my mind
first? Is it those ten affectionate people, not at all! First
thing I will do is to look around to see if the eleventh person
is there or not.
So, when we are dwelling in the mind and senses, it is
the evil one that dominates our mind more powerfully than
the good one. Always something about which we are unhappy
will make us think of it, more than your best friend. So, it
is no good, if we try to get rid of them mentally. So, how
to get rid of it mentally? Well, it has been illustrated in the
scriptures beautifully.
86 The Science of Yoga

When a boy is eating rotten fruit, how to stop him from

eating that? It cannot be done by pulling it away from him
as he will become unhappy. But if we show him a better fruit
which is more ripe and healthy, he will drop the rotten fruit
and grab the better one. That should be the process that is
what Patanjali says. You should create a new interest in the
mind towards which the mind is attracted. Automatically the
environmental attraction is cut off. Create a new nucleus
of attraction which is of a desirable nature. For example,
good music, good painting, anything that attracts your mind
and anything that is conducive to your progress. Here fine
arts will come to your aid. For this reason Nature has given
us the fine arts. Indeed this is what is called Vairagya or
detachment.
If you make an attachment towards something, towards
which the mind is attracted and with which no attachment
is possible, then the previous attachment towards the
habituated environment is neutralized. Create new interest
in the mind for a thing which creates no attachment. Suppose,
a yogi listens to and practices music, then he can no way
make misuse of music. In fact the sound of the harmony
of music attracts him so much that his mind begins to dwell
in music for more and more time daily until his previous
addiction is dropped off.
So, an expert can help you in the matter. For example,
there was a person eating a lot of opium daily. He wanted
to get rid of it. He approached many psychologists, swamis,
yogis and Gurus. They could teach him some morals, but
they could not help him. Finally he came to one Guru and
 The Practice of Yoga 87

asked, "How can I get rid of my habit of smoking opium".

Guru said. "Don't worry, l will make you forget about it."
Then the person said, "Tell me how to do it". The Guru then
asked, "Bring me a balance or gold weighing scales and along
with it a piece of chalk." He brought them. Guru said, 'bring
some opium'. The disciple thought the Guru was also an
addict. He asked the disciple, "What is your daily dose?"
He brought a dose of opium which he used to take daily.
Then the Guru said, "Place it in one pan of the balance and
then an equal quantity of chalk in the other pan. Take this
chalk, don't worry about opium and daily eat opium as you
were eating previously. All the same, I will do the magic.
You will stop eating opium on your own. However, count
the number of days before you can stop your opium by
following only one process. Make a mark on the back door
of your house with this chalk every day and the next day
a second mark and so on. Like that you count the number
of days."
So, the disciple began to make a mark with that chalk.
After twenty days he found that the chalk was being reduced.
Gradually he gained confidence as he reduced the quantity
of opium. If he had known it previously, he would not have
accepted. He continued until finally he had drawn the last
line on the door and there was no chalk left and well the
fellow had no inclination to eat opium any more.
Do you know who that Guru was? That was Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa. He could get one fellow to get rid of the
habit of smoking opium. You can read it from his diaries
and biography. Such should be the method for you to get
rid of the environmental effect.
88 The Science of Yoga

Have some experts with you and begin to practice

detachment in a nice way not to get affections detached,
but to get reactions detached, or the effect of the
environment detached. Don't practice detaching away from
your wife, but practise detachment of your impression about
your wife. That is what we are expected to do. These are
the two items which we are expected to practise in the
beginning.
The first is constant proposing of awareness,
awareness of your real self and higher self, an awareness
to live better and in a true world. Do everything with this
awareness. The second thing is practising detachment in
the scientific way. If you do it continuously in your daily
routine, the results are definitely found within a very short
time.
If you do it in an academic way, you will find that even
after 30 or 40 years, it will make you only half better. So,
make your life a laboratory and the incidents of your daily
routine as your laboratory experiments. Only then you will
be able to find results, results enough to cause transmutation
of the mind. These are the two fundamental steps. The third
thing which you have to practise is the major thing. That
is called total surrender to the Lord.
Total Surrender to the Lord
Who is the Lord? If you ask me, I would say, "Lord
Krishna". If you ask him, he says, "Lord Jesus". If you ask
him, he says. "Lord Buddha". If you ask him, he says, "Saint
Michael". Which of these Lords should we surrender to?
Every group says, "My Lord is the greatest, my Lord is the
 The Practice of Yoga 89

greatest". Now you have political slogans shouted in the name

of religions. That is what we call politics in the name of
religion. It is a very bad use of religion. So, Patanjali says,
"Don't listen to the shouts at first, because all these shouts
are true. Whether you say Lord Krishna or Lord Buddha or
Lord Jesus, every shout carries truth in it, but at present
not to you. Wait until you know who the Lord is".
Now he makes us understand who the Lord is! We know
one fellow who is residing in ourselves, the negative 'I am',
the mind, who is afflicted from every side by the
environment. He is being stabbed five times a second. Can
we call the poor fellow a Lord? He himself is helpless. He
is what we call the psychological capsule, the total of our
psychological mechanism. He is a negative fellow, he is a
prisoner imprisoned in a cage. He has no let out. He cannot
explain what he wants. He has to explain what the
environment wants, just as when you are here I cannot speak
what I want to speak. I have to speak what you expect me
to speak. Similarly this fellow is expected to speak what
the five fellows are shouting from outside. This fellow says,
'I am'. We don't know that he is a helpless fellow. We believe
in him and we are living with him and daily we say 'I am'.
When anyone says 'the Lord', if we say 'the Lord', it is only
this helpless fellow. If we say, Lord Krishna, it is not the
original Lord, but a child of my helpless mind because I
am shouting only with my mind. He is only an image in my
mind. If I say God, he is a poor child of my mind. Same
is the case if I say Jesus or Buddha, however great he may
be, he is a poor little child of this helpless fellow.
90 The Science of Yoga

Now we have to find out who the real Lord is. In the
same mechanism there is another fellow living in the centre.
But for so long we were under the impression that the mind
was the centre all these days, because the mischief is that
it is polished inside and outside. It is a mirror of reflection
both inside and outside. The image that is inside is
unfortunately distorted, because it is the outer surface of
a round mirror. We will have a very ugly face. We think that
it is our natural face because till now we have not seen what
a real mirror is like. Now inside there is another fellow but
the inner surface is also made up of a mirror. It is a reflecting
surface but He is real light. He is shining forth. He is shining
in the form of what we call sight. Previously we knew only
seeing a thing from outside. Now we are advised to know
what the capacity and faculty of sight, hearing, smell, taste
and the faculty to touch is like. They are rays from within
outside. You are shining forth in the five directions from
the same centre.
But all these days you have no time to know that you
are shining, because you are engaged only in the images.
The images are ever changing, the outer barrel is ever rotating
and there is the activity of the kaleidoscope continuously
moving. You were living contented that you were the negative
'I am'. Now you begin to know that from you the capacity
of sight is shining forth. All the five faculties are shining
from within yourself like the many rays shining from the
flame. So, within the same centre there is the positive 'I am'
who is the real 'I am', waiting all these years to see that you
just take a pause and listen to Him. Now the only thing you
have to do is, take notice of the fact that there is a negative
 The Practice of Yoga 91

'I am' working outside, while inside there is a positive 'I am',
that is working from within outside.
The first fellow is receiving impressions from outside
and working as a reflecting centre. That reflection is called
'reaction'. Here, there is no question of reflection. It is only
shining forth or brilliance. You should know that there is
what you can call action. Understand that action is original
and reaction is secondary. So, you should live in action,
instead of living in reaction. Instead of reacting to the
environment, you should live as yourself and make your
presence shine forth from within you outside, just as the
magnet makes its presence felt by the iron pieces around.
Just remember that what you are now is not the real
you. What you are now is the negative you and you have
no light of your own, except the capacity to reflect that is
a second rate borrowed light. But at the centre of your
reflection, you are yourself, the original, the source of
brilliance. From you, all capabilities are shining forth. But
you had no leisure to notice it all this time.
It is just enough if you shut the activity of reaction for
a moment. Then from there, you will begin to operate from
within your own centre. When once you really begin to
operate from your centre, there is no reversal to the false
state of existence. You need not go into the forests. You
need not close your eyes, nose, ears, etc. You need not cork
all the orifices then. It is just a scientific process to follow.
First step is a continuous proposal to become better.
Do everything you do with the proposal of doing it better.
92 The Science of Yoga

At first you need not change anything drastically. Nothing

drastic is prescribed in the whole process. Everything is very
artistic. The process is also sweet because the goal is
happiness. If the process is difficult it is illogical. A difficult
process can never lead you to happiness.
Now the first step is a continuous proposal to live better.
The second proposal is the attitude of detachment to the
environment. Whatever is attracting your attention let it not
attract your attention. If you want to bestow some attention
to it you can do it. But it has no business to draw your
attention. That is what is called detachment. Suppose you
have some business to look outside the window for two hours.
If your cow is there, just keep looking at it. But if something
attracts your eye while you are looking outside the window,
you have no business feeling any kind of obligation towards
it. This is the attitude of detachment. Do it if you want to
do, but don't do it because the mind wants to do it. So, that
is detachment.
The third is taking notice of two fellows in you. The
one, the original source of your existence and the other is
the fake fellow, the imitator, the negative fellow who is like
the buffoon in the circus. So, take notice of two fellows
existing in you. The two fellows have the same name. 'I am'.
So, this is the third step. Now this is what Patanjali calls
the "Lord". He is the Lord because He is the one who is
living in you. The one who knows Him as the inner fellow
and gets absorbed into the inner fellow begins to shine
through the body and the senses. Through the same apparatus
he begins to operate. From that time onwards the whole
 The Practice of Yoga 93

apparatus together is called 'Lord'. We call Him Lord Krishna,

Lord Buddha and Lord Jesus. That is the meaning of the Lord.
When once the false fellow is awakened towards the
real fellow inside, the false fellow gets burnt and disappears
into the light of the real fellow, all the while keeping the
total apparatus or the mechanism quite intact. The whole
constitution will be the same as before because it is the
pious instrument of the Lord, created by the Lord for the
play of the Lord. It is the Lord who creates the false fellows
in each apparatus and begins to play with them. He allows
the false fellow to believe that he is living. He allows him
to enjoy the environment but at the same time the fellow
is very much afraid of the environment. He is too tired, too
exhausted. Then he says, "Is this life? If this is life, is it worth
living?" Then the Fellow calls him inside and asks him, "You
fellow, how is life?" The fellow says, 'horrible' and this fellow
says, 'not at all horrible.' That is the play. He is playing with
every mechanism.
Now take the notice of the existence of the Lord in
you. Who is to take notice? The false 'I am'. Because now
we are living as false 'I am'. We are expected to take notice
of the existence of the real 'I AM' and gradually begin to
make a total surrender to Him. Surrender what, ourselves.
Within one second we do it. We often make confessions
at the confession cabin. But that is not a confession. We
have to make a real confession of what we have, until what
we 'are' is left. Is it money? Yes, how much, hundred dollars?
I will pay it to my Guru, if I get salvation. Next time he
says a thousand dollars, I will pay it. Next time Guru says,
94 The Science of Yoga

"Your watch is very good, give it to me". Then I say, "Sir!

What about my salvation? I am giving you many things". He
says, "Total surrender".
Total means everything. My house! Yes, give it away.
My property! Give it away. Wife! Give her away. Children!
Give them away. Have I surrendered totally? It is totally false.
That is not what is required. If any Guru demands such things,
remember that he is a Guru of these negative 'I am' fellows.
The more he demands, the bigger is the Guru of the negative
'I am'.
The test of a real Guru is, the one who does not want
anything from you, who expects nothing from you, because
if he wants something from you, it means that he must be
inferior to you. How can he give you what you want?
Therefore such a person is not a Guru. The moment he wants
something from you, understand he is fit to be your disciple.
That is the acid test to know if he is a Guru or a non-Guru.
Unless he has absorbed his negative 'I am' into his positive
'I AM', he is not eligible to be a Guru to anyone. How can
a blind man lead another blind man on the street? When the
fellow is already suffering and when he wants some job for
his son in America, how can he come to you and say, "Robert,
I am your Guru. See that some job is given to my son".
So, find out the Lord. He is the same in you and others
also. Before you realize the Lord in you, He is already the
Lord in some other fellow, who has earlier become a magnet.
You may still be an iron piece, but there might be iron pieces
that became magnets earlier than you. So, along with the
physical body we call Him the Lord or in our language we
 The Practice of Yoga 95

call Him Guru. So, a Guru is not just a person because

before He became a Guru he had this negative fellow in
him and he had his own Guru who was a positive fellow.
Hence Guru is the one and only person, the positive
existence, whether it is in the first person, the second person
or the third person. So, the Guru is an Eternal Guru. That
is what the Mantra of Guru says in the scriptures. It says,
'Gurur Brahma', that means the Creator has come in the
form of my Guru, 'Gurur Vishnuhu', that means the
Preserver of creation has come to me in this body of my
Guru, and 'Gurur Devo Maheshwaraha', that means the
Lord who absorbs all these things into Him, He is the same
one who came to me in this body as my Guru. That is the
Mantra of Guru. That means Guru is not a person, but the
'Person' who exists in every person.
Total Surrender
So, Patanjali says, "Make a total surrender to the Lord"
or "Surrender yourself completely to the Lord". I can very
easily say. " I make a total surrender unto myself ". Not
possible. You should do it to the same person but who is
existing in another body. Choose anyone you like, because
you should have someone to offer yourself. It is not your
money or property or your house or your furniture, but
yourself. That means your beliefs, your ideals and your
impressions. Gradually day-by-day begin to offer them to
Him.
How to know the Master?
How to know where He is? I want to know my Master,
where is He? Sometimes we choose our own Masters. I
96 The Science of Yoga
choose Master Djwhal Khul as my Master, just because I
chose him. That does not mean he is a Master, he might be
my servant. Then the question arises as to how do I choose
my Master? Well, the answer is, it is the Master who should
choose me. Therefore, the first step is, "Offer yourself to
the unknown Master, though we do not know Him". Can the
patient know the quality of the prescription the doctor gives?
Can he judge if the prescription is right or wrong? If he can,
then in that case, he is not a patient, he is already a doctor
and he need not go to a doctor. He can as well prescribe
it himself. Therefore, you do not know your Guru, but he
knows you long before you know Him; sometimes many
tens of years before, sometimes many hundreds of years
before, that is through births and rebirths. In the ladder of
evolution, he is leading you better and better. Many times
it so happens that we are not aware of Him. Therefore,
surrender what you have to the Lord.
What is the way to surrender? Patanjali says. "Call Him,
shout for Him. He responds". "Yes. Here I am". But we doubt
it, unfortunately it is very true. When we call Him, He says.
"I am here". How can we call Him? Here Patanjali gives
the method. This fellow should call this fellow, that is the
negative 'I am' should call the positive 'I AM'. How to call
Him? You should know His name and telephone number. His
word is what is called 'OM'. How can you use his code and
key without knowing the procedure? You should be able to
handle the key.
"OM" - His Word
Suppose the key of an electronic machine is given to
 The Practice of Yoga 97

Krishnamacharya, but he does not know how the machine

works. What should he do with the key? Well, he should
place it on the bag to advertise that he has the key. Similarly
we do it with OM many times. We have OM on the banners
and OM on the arches, sometimes OM like we have it here
and there. It is because we do not know the electronic
machine having this key OM. We should be able to call Him.
OM is His word, His utterance. That means it is a
double key. It is the sound with which we call Him and
it is also a sound with which He calls us. That is why
Patanjali says, "OM is His word". His word means a name
which you should use or a word He uses for you.
Now we should know whether we are shouting for
Him or He is shouting for us. It is just like when everything
is ready, there is a gap between two wires and the current
is not flowing. If you just work to make the two wires
contact, the circuit is complete and the current begins to
flow, lights begin to shine, fans begin to work, the radio
functions, the television shows everything and the telephone
functions. There is only a little gap in the wire, but other
than that, the whole house is well furnished, every machine
is there, all electrical apparatus and electronic things
are there but we are blinking with the machines. Similarly,
we are making false use of our eyes, ears, nose, etc., That
is our senses. We are making an uneducated and foolish use
of all these things. Like an uneducated fellow, we are
using valuable machinery. Instead the only thing we have
to do is to just make contact. How can we call this fellow
with this sound?
98 The Science of Yoga

The Utterance of OM
I request you all to sit down in a proper way, close your
eyes and make the preliminary arrangements and I will tell
you what to do. Then utter OM through your voice. That is,
make your respiration uniform, slowly inhale and begin to
exhale, uttering OM but at the same time listening to your
own utterance. While you are exhaling your air, you exhale
with the sound OM, like I am doing right now. In this way
with every utterance breathe in and breathe out with the sound
OM. But mind you, that while uttering, you should listen
to your own voice only. Otherwise the key will only remain
on the banner and with OM written on the board. It will be
of no use. If I write 'magnet' on the board, it will never behave
like a magnet. It is only 'You' who has to transform it into
a magnet.
Utter OM and listen to it
Do you know what will happen? You will utter as this
fellow, negative 'I am', because we know what we are now.
We are negative 'I am s', busy with our activity and helplessly
panting and sweating on the streets. So, we begin to shout,
"Hello! I am". No reply. Don't think that the scripture is
false. On the contrary, there is something wrong in our
handling.
To cite an example, let's say there is this wonderful
American camera. In order to know it's working, I must
approach my friend to know where I should press to click.
Once I press that, immediately there will be a flash. We
understand at that instant that there is something electronic
 The Practice of Yoga 99

in it. Thus we have to approach our American friend first,

in order to know the parameter before we know that energy
exists. Similarly the negative fellow must utter OM and
listen to it for five minutes daily and just donate five minutes
of his time in a day, not five dollars. Once he dedicates five
minutes a day, shortly afterwards he will begin to donate
ten, fifteen minutes, one hour and eventually twenty four
hours.
You will be able to do it and your endeavour will be
fruitful, because other than that, there is nothing else existing.
Moreover all your activities will be purchased by the
wonderful Fellow inside. The inner Fellow, the positive 'I
AM' has many millions and millions of dollars with Him.
Therefore the moment you just give Him five minutes, very
promptly, He will take six, seven minutes accordingly. This
has been very poetically described in one of the books.
A poet in Sanskrit language said, " Don't go to that side
of the river bank (that side means 'This Path') By any chance
if you reach the other side, you will find a little boy who
is blue (that is space), with no clothes and quite naked,
playing his flute there. Once you get attracted to Him, you
will never return. You will have no wife and children and
you will have nothing, no job, no money thus there will be
a journey of no return for you. Therefore, be careful, don't
go to that side". That is a poetic way of suggesting to us,
to just go and try there.
So, begin to utter OM five minutes a day at the same
place and time. Don't change the place and time in the
beginning that is before He is awakened. Once you begin
100 The Science of Yoga

to utter and begin to listen, you will gradually understand

that you are uttering with your respiration. Subsequently,
you will understand that the respiration does not belong to
you; rather you belong to the respiration. It is so because
respiration is automatically going on in you, you are not
doing the respiration. You are living because of respiration.
So, where is the respiration coming from? It is from
a different 'I am' who is respiring, whereas this 'I am' is busy
with everything
outside and if we had been asked to conduct our
respiration for one hour, we would have forgotten about it
and died long ago. There is the real 'I AM' in you who is
continuously aware of your existence, because He is the
'awareness' in you and He is conducting your respiration.
Therefore, He is making you chant the OM. So, He is uttering
it for you, thus He is making a shout for you. It is His word.
Start it as your call for Him, you will understand that it is
His call for you. That is where man and God meet in the
language of Sri Aurobindo. It is the centre of existence called
Lord.
* * *
Removal of the obstacles
It is both the consciousness of the Lord and the
consciousness of the disciple and in course of time the
disciple's consciousness gets absorbed in the Lord's
consciousness and what remains is Consciousness or Lord
or what we experience as Light. This is what happens by
following the process. This is one benefit which you will
directly know and a second benefit which he describes is,
 The Practice of Yoga 101

removal of the obstacles. The obstacles on your way will

automatically be removed. You need not take the trouble of
making your path clear. Generally we think that spiritual
training involves many obstacles such as financial, social,
health and about the acceptance of other family members.
Such are the practical obstacles we meet.
How can we remove these obstacles? How can we get
on in society and at the same time get on with the yoga
practice? We are expected to take 24 hours as our
experiment time in yoga. It is not enough if we devote half
an hour or one hour or two hours for meditation. Then how
do we fit in our vacation hours, hours of domestic duties
and our weekend holidays with yoga practice? Such are the
obstacles we mentally meet. The obstacles are removed by
starting this procedure, in the way of uttering OM and
listening to it.
You need not try to remove them. You can ask how?
Everything will be gradually rearranged in your life. The
truth of it is, obstacles exist in our mind and not outside.
What exists outside are persons and things and there are
no items called obstacles outside.
Obstacles exist in our mind as our impressions upon
others and our feeling of obligation to others, our
suspicions, our jealousies and our misunderstandings of
people and things. When these things are gradually removed
from our mind, when the obstacle complex is removed from
our mind, actually there is no obstacle at all. Whether you
are driving your car or talking to your wife or whether you
are working in the office, you are tackling the same Lord
102 The Science of Yoga

because your reaction to the environment will be neutralised.

You are not society conditioned, you are alone. Even in the
midst of a thousand people, you are alone.
That is what is called, 'the holy loneliness' in the
scriptures. 'Holy loneliness' never means going away into
the caves and temples. It means that you exist alone in
the presence of a thousand people, because you come to
know that only One exists in everyone; not as a theory
but as an experience. These two effects will be immediately
felt when you practise this.
First is direct experience of the Light, the second is
removal of the obstacles. When obstacle consciousness is
removed from the mind, there is no obstacle. When
somebody is sick in the house, you will serve the person,
knowing very well that you are serving the Lord. While you
are doing some work in the office, you know that the work
is useful for many people and you are serving the Lord. When
you are a professor in an institution, you know that every
student is a Lord Himself and you are helping the students
to know the Lord, because the lesson you teach will be more
useful not only for their examinations but also each sentence
will touch the student. This leaves a seed of Lord Cons-
ciousness which will be germinated in time. These are the
two benefits you derive initially when you start this.
Then, he speaks of some centres in you. Let us know
the centres of different expressions and how to manage them.
I will give you only a few examples. In case you have a feeling
of sympathy in you, how to manage it? You have pity in you,
as well as pleasure, indifference and sometimes negative
 The Practice of Yoga 103

traits also. We have hundreds of such things in our

personality. How to manage with them? When we meet other
people with these complexes, aren't we reacting to them?
Then how to suspend the reaction? He teaches us how to
eliminate the reaction in spite of the existence of these traits
in us.
Right and wrong connections
You should only know how to set the proper connections
of electricity. If we make a wrong connection, sometimes
there may be no effect, but sometimes there may be an
explosion, that is what we call a quarrel. Every so often the
filaments burn, that is what we call jealousy. On odd
occasions the fuse of the whole house may blow away, that
is what we call total destruction of a situation. But if you
know how to connect these plug points to the pins, you will
have only light, TV, radio and every other thing that is useful,
without any burning or outbursts.
Moreover he gives the examples of the connections.
If you find a person living very happily, you should know
which of your traits you should connect to him. Suppose,
you connect this with your indifference, it creates jealousy.
If someone is very happy and you find it necessary to show
indifferent attitude towards him, the result is jealousy in
you. But if you link up your sympathy for him, it is a correct
connection. Whenever you find anyone happy, try to feel
happy, because he is happy. If a person is sorrowful and you
make a wrong connection of pleasure to his sorrow, plus
you feel pleasure because he is sorrowful, that is what is
called enmity. When an enemy has bad days, generally we
104 The Science of Yoga

feel, "That's good, he should be punished like that". That is

called a wrong connection. But if you connect your
compassion to the sorrowful state of that person, then it
is the right connection. Immediately you will be moved to
do something positive for him in order to make him less
sorrowful and more pleasant and try to remove his sorrow
as much as you can.
If you find a person virtuous and well behaved, but you
connect it with your indifference, then that shows that you
are not ready to learn anything from the virtues. Instead if
you connect your pleasure centre with that person, then you
learn a lot. Whenever you find good behaviour and virtues
in others make them pleasurable to you. If you feel very
much pleased with the good behaviour of others,
automatically your centres are purified.
The last example is the weaknesses in others that are
the vices and the bad behaviour in others. What happens if
you connect your pleasure with it? That means you feel happy
whenever a fellow has some weaknesses in him. Suppose
I feel very happy to have found some faults in you. The next
day I am very much pleased to talk about your faults with
this gentleman. I discuss and criticise you with this person,
that is criticising a person in his absence, but in the presence
of others.
Every nation has its own weaknesses. Indians have their
own weaknesses. Similarly, Belgium has its own weaknesses.
It is highly difficult not to criticise others in their absence.
But you have to make an effort to connect it with the centre
of your indifference. That is called the right connection.
 The Practice of Yoga 105

Indifference means not taking notice of something. If there

is bad behaviour in some person, leave it to him and don't
take notice of it. You need not react unless he asks you for
advice, help or he invites you to comment about his bad
behaviour. Like this you can make a list of the psychological
complexes you have in you and have the proper plug points
to plug in correctly, so that the current flows properly and
produces light and wisdom and happiness. Let there be no
explosions, no burning of the filaments and no blowing up
of the fuse. This is one advice he gives.
Then he goes to the main item of the practice. This is
what he calls 'Purview of yoga science'. Hereafter the second
chapter begins, what Patanjali calls, "The action of yoga".
What do we have to do? Start with doing something
prescribed.
The first thing to do is Tapas. In Sanskrit it means,
one pointedness of the whole life.
Tapas
Make your life purposeful for your practice. Your main
aim should only be your practice. Don't deceive yourself
by believing that by practising yoga or spiritualism, you will
get some benefits. The very benefit is, the 'Bliss and
Happiness' you experience, and the path itself is the goal.
If you believe that there is something beneficial out of it,
better stop it, because you will be utterly disappointed after
sometime. For example, some people begin to practice yoga
for what they call 'Powers'. They are deceiving themselves,
because God is not a fool to confer powers for certain
practices.
106 The Science of Yoga

There is a purpose for creation, that is happiness. The

purpose of yoga practice is 'happy living' to others and to
yourself. Except the science of spiritualism, there is nothing
in this world that can bring happiness to you and others. If
people believe that their luck will increase with the practice
of yoga, it is false, because the very idea of luck is foolish
and everything depends upon how we do things and how we
think and our motive in doing.
It is thoroughly scientific and materialistic
understanding which makes you a real Spiritualist. Unless
you are a thorough materialist, you cannot be a true
spiritualist. If you have something imaginative in your
mind, you will suffer from self-mystification for some time
and self-stupefaction with astral influences for some time.
Yes, it is self-deception, because in trying to deceive others
we will in turn deceive ourselves.
Thus, what he says is, "Understand that everything you
do in your daily routine should be utilised for your spiritual
practice. Whatever benefit you get in life, is an implement
or instrument for your practice". If you get 10,000 dollars
unexpectedly, try to understand how to make better use of
that money, how to enhance your practice, how to increase
your consciousness in order to discover how best you can
utilise the money. Similarly use your energy, your time and
the space in your house and office for your spiritual practice.
You should be able to make use of whatever wealth you have
in the implementation of your practice. If you make
something very tasty to eat, the pleasurability of the taste
can be utilised for your spiritualism. That is what is called
 The Practice of Yoga 107

dedicating everything to the Lord. Do everything with a spirit

of dedication. Believe that it is a step which can be utilised
for your betterment, by utilising it for the betterment of
others. That is what is called Tapas.
Therefore, have the same intention or aim in doing
everything. Today your departments of life may appear
different from one another, but tomorrow you will
understand that all of them are counterparts of one
existence. Your professional life in the office, your life in
the domestic circle, your life in the friends' circle may
appear as three different departments without having
anything in common. But when you begin to practice yoga,
you will come to understand that all the three are parts of
your life. You will know the oneness of your activity. That
awareness is called 'Tapas'. It is wrongly translated as penance
or penitence.
There are three types of austerities of life. First one
is mental. The second is vocal, and the third is physical.
Mental Austerity
Mental Tapas or mental austerity is thinking about
others only in progressive terms. If someone is good, rejoice
in his goodness. If someone is bad, sincerely desire for his
progressive betterment. That is what is called mental
austerity. It is thinking only about something good,
something positive, that everything should be useful only
to someone or the other. Let there be no occasion when
you feel objectionable about anyone, because there is no
necessity for you, as your thinking is in your own hands.
108 The Science of Yoga

Nobody needs to help you in your thinking. Nobody needs

to contribute his virtues for your good thinking. People may
have many bad traits, they may be speaking many bad things,
remarking very badly about you. But your thinking is with
you, not with them. That is what is called mental austerity.
Vocal Austerity
The second is vocal austerity. You must practice speech
in such a way that your speech not only imparts useful
information, induces hope in others, but also encourages
others into goodness. So, use your speech as a good weapon.
Gradually eliminate what is insulting to others. Others may
try to insult you, but it is your mind that gets insulted. So,
be sweet in your mind, because others are not judges of your
goodness or badness. Always you are the better judge of
yourself. You know yourself better. Therefore, don't give
more value to others' opinions than your own opinion about
you. So, even if others speak bad about you, you need not
speak ill of anyone. On the grounds that retaliation may give
you cruel pleasure momentarily, nonetheless it will also give
you suffering and pain.
If you think in the night of a person who has harmed
you, your sleep is affected while the other person is in no
way affected. Remember every time you are retaliating, you
are not only losing your mental balance with your
hypertension going up, but also losing your sleep, ultimately
resulting in you being a loser. Therefore you have no
necessity to retaliate. Let him rejoice in his own paradise.
You need not tackle him once again. The world is too big.
 The Practice of Yoga 109

He has his own way of living and you have your own way
of living. That is what is called vocal Tapas, vocal austerity.
Physical Austerity
On the physical plane you have austerity. Whatever work
you do on the physical plane, see that it is useful to all. Make
sure that it is for the betterment of some person, society
or a group of persons. If it is useful, do it. If it is not useful
to anyone, don't do it. For example, sometimes, we go on
commenting about people for hours together. Every so often
ten of us will gather, sit down and make humorous remarks
and comments about the world at large. At the end of two
hours or three hours, if you calculate the benefit of what
we have spoken for three hours, you will find zero value.
On top of that, one can't help but notice that a great deal
of energy, vocabulary, voice and laughter that escaped from
our throats has been drained and wasted. That's why such
discussions are of no use. Keeping that in view, the yoga
practitioner minimises these things gradually.
For instance, let's say Michael says that somebody ate
a banana and threw it on the platform of Brussels. Another
person stepped upon it, slipped over the banana peel and fell
down. Now listening to which Krishnamacharya goes on
laughing and then a second person says, "Oh! is it? Tell me,
repeat once again." "He fell down, really fell down?!" A third
person says, "What is it, really?" A fourth fellow, "Oh! foolish
fellow". A total of three minutes is burnt and wasted. While
dwelling on such a thing, not only did we waste time but
also our life span which is valuable and which can never be
replaced by any doctor.
110 The Science of Yoga

This is what the practitioner understands by physical

austerity. But understand that it is not a sin to be pleasant,
humorous and happy. Austerity does not mean you should
grow dried up without any feelings. Be happy and make others
happy. Be humorous, but let your humour create happiness
in others. Be pleasant and let your pleasant attitude create
hope in others. Let others forget about their difficulties at
least for the moment. That is what is intended.
Swadhyaya
Now after speaking of this austerity he gives us the next
step that is called 'Swadhyaya'. The first is called Tapas and
the second is called Swadhyaya. That means the habit of
reading a scripture daily. Let it be five minutes or two
minutes or only one minute. Let it be one paragraph or one
sentence. Make it a habit to read from a scripture daily and
try to understand its significance and import and imbibe it.
This is because the scriptures speak to us about the goal
of yoga and they also contain the science of the human being
and the art of human living. These are the two subjects which
cannot be learnt at any university existing in the 20th century,
because the universities are still primitive and at the Old
Stone Age and not enough to reach this level. Even in the
most advanced and scientific nations and countries, the
universities are too backward and primitive with regard to
these two subjects. The present evolution of any university
never permits the university to teach about the science of
the human being and the art of human living. It may take
at least one more century for the university scholars to think
of such things. But we have the universal university where
 The Practice of Yoga 111

there are professors, who are authors of the gospels and

the scriptures and we have the syllabus which we call the
scriptures of the world. They are too advanced in scientific
and artistic subjects. In the 20th century no scientist or
science professor could reach the levels of explaining to
us about scriptures.
So, it is the fundamental duty of a spiritual student to
make it a habit to read from a scripture daily and try to
understand the import. Better still, read it out to the people
who are ready to listen to it. Or if some experts are reading
it out, go and attend. This is the second compulsory item
to be practised.
The third is called the total surrender which is described
previously, that is making a total surrender of yourself to
the Lord by way of uttering OM. Now He leads us to the
eight steps of the yoga practice and explains each of it
separately.
The First Step : Yama (Regulation)
The first one is called 'Regulation', that is the process
of regulating your activity. It is called 'Yama' in Sanskrit.
It includes the following items:
a) We have already narrated what is called Tapas, which is
"Austerity".
b) Then an attitude of 'Harmlessness'. Let your attitude be
harmless. Let there be no critical discussion about the
possibility of living with harmlessness. Whatever you do,
let it be harmless to others. It is an attitude. Some people
question, "Is it bad to kill and eat?" The answer is "It is not
112 The Science of Yoga

bad, but it is better to eat without killing." That is what our

attitude should be. We can kill and eat as far as we feel like
doing it. There is nothing bad about it. But it is always better
to eat without killing, let it be an animal or a plant. You can
eat from a plant without killing the plant. You can eat from
an animal without killing the animal. It is left to our choice.
So, a critical discussion will lead us into a desert of
nothingness. So, your attitude should be harmlessness. When
you speak, let it be harmless. And when you make remarks
in the absence of others, let the remarks help those people
who are not present. If you do something, let it be helpful
to someone. By the same token you are expected to practise
what is called an attitude of harmlessness.
c) The third is called "Truthfulness". That means, if you
like a person you should be truthful in your liking. That is,
when you are alone then also you should be able to tell
yourself that you like him and not just when others are
present. If you do not like a person, be truthful to yourself,
you should be able to tell yourself that you do not like him.
Then it takes no time for you to remove the enmity from
your mind. When you do something, you speak to yourself
if you are really serious about it or not.
We do many things even though we are either reluctant
or do not intend doing them. All these things will be
eliminated when you begin to behave truthfully. See, when
my office colleague is going on an excursion to the Alps,
I too want to take my family to the Alps just to show him
that I can also go there. That is one best example of
untruthfulness. The fact is that you don't need the trip, but
your false behaviour necessitated the trip.
 The Practice of Yoga 113

When a colleague of mine in my office manages to

secure a seat in the course of medicine for his son, I too
try to secure a seat for my son to be a medical student. Not
that my son is inclined to study medicine but because my
colleague has his son admitted in the medical course. It is
the jealousy that makes me want my son to be a medical
student. What happens? What is the result? Suppose my son
is not interested in studying medicine, I will find him a big
failure in life after 4 or 5 years. That is how I will be penalised
for my jealousy. Such untruthful items of behaviour will be
eliminated from our procedure. We begin to practise to know
if we want this or not. After a little practice of one or two
years we will instantaneously know if we desire something
or not. I will choose what is needed and eliminate what is
not needed. That is what is called truthfulness. Be truthful
to others and yourself. Let your attitude be truthful.
This is often wrongly translated as truth speaking. Mere
truth speaking is not enough, truthful motive should be there.
As a matter of fact, there is no better truth speaking
gentleman than the cassette of the tape recorder, because
it represents only truth including the occasional cough we
take out. That is not the truth. Sometimes you may also speak
falsehood for the benefit of others. If the child is not eating,
you say, "I will take you on a holiday on ice". The child eats
and then sleeps. You know you are not going to take him
on holiday on ice but instead of doing it you say, "I don't
lie to my child." The result is that the child won't eat. So,
it is not merely truth speaking, but it is truthfulness of the
motive. Truthfulness of the motive is an inevitable one.
114 The Science of Yoga

d) The next item is the elimination of the 'Thieving

instincts'. What is that thieving instinct? If you place your
watch here, and I find it nice, I will place my handkerchief
upon it. It is very easy. That is what is called magic by
magicians. In fact, it is black magic though we use white
handkerchief. And then I will take the handkerchief with the
watch. I know a hundred wonderful methods to steal. That
is called the thieving instinct on the physical plane. But there
is a thieving instinct on the mental plane. Let's say I find
the microphone here somewhat fascinating.
I look at it many times while lecturing. I am looking
down my collar. I am thinking, what if I take it away. Of
course, I do not take it away, I return it safely. But all the
while thinking, if I could have it with me. That is called
thieving instincts on the mental plane. I am not courageous
enough to take away the physical things, but mentally I may
be stealing many things, hundreds of things a day, which is
more dangerous and more contagious to the person proper.
Besides, there are thieving instincts on the intellectual
plane that are more detrimental. In case during my
conversations with my friend Robert, I find some fine phrases
and sentences that are very fascinating. So, when I go to India,
I use those sentences wonderfully among the audience to
impress them, and they shout, "Oh! Very good!" I pretend
as if the sentences were my own. Like that many times we
copy from the books of others and publish them as our own
passages. That is what is called plagiarism. It is a thieving
instinct on the intellectual and the cultural plane. It is very
detrimental to the person who has these instincts. So, we
should try to eliminate all those things in our motives.
 The Practice of Yoga 115

e) The next thing is "Purity of Sex". In a society where this

type of yoga practice is possible, to whichever century this
society may belong, it is prescribed that the person should
be a celibate up to 21 years. He should not be a celibate
by compulsion, but a celibate because his mind is engaged
in something which is very attractive on the spiritual plane.
After that he should get married and then in the twenty-eighth
year he should start his sex life. Eventually after middle age
that is 45 years, the husband and wife should grow passive
of sex, not fighting with sex or trying to oppress or suppress
or eliminate sex, but to grow passive of sex. Since both the
husband and wife involve themselves in doing something for
humanity, they begin to live as friends and companions and
brothers. Such a type of life is prescribed in this type of
yoga practice. Of course, it may not be totally possible in
20th century society. We should know our limitations. We
should know the spirit of the scientist and try to cooperate
with the values prescribed by the scientist. According to our
own circumstances and possibilities, we should grow passive
to sex after certain age, so that our interests in life are
engrossed with humanity and spiritualism. This is what is
called 'purity of sex'.
f) The next thing is "Having no obligation". This is most
important. That is, don't place yourself in a position where
you are obliged to anyone. What does that mean? Before
you receive hundred francs, be sure that you have done work
of at least 150 francs for the other person. Be sure that you
are not indebted to anyone. But do not have it as a complex.
Don't have what is called 'pious aristocracy' in your mind.
116 The Science of Yoga

Be sure that the other person has received more from you
than you have received from him by way of work or help
or anything. Then only you are fit to have spiritual progress.
Otherwise your subconscious mind feels the burden of
obligations. It never feels the freedom which is due to itself.
So, these form the first step called 'regulation' of your
character.
The Second Step : Niyama (Rectification)
The first is Regulation and the second is Rectification.
In Sanskrit it is called 'Niyama'. The first is called Yama
and the second is called Niyama, that is to rectify yourself
physically and mentally.
Cleanliness
Teach the child who is to be a yogi to practise cleanliness
from his childhood. Train in physical cleanliness that is daily
washing his body with water and cleaning properly and having
his hair, moustaches and beard close-crisp. That is what is
prescribed by all these Masters. Let him also be taught
mental cleanliness. That is, by the end of the day let the boy
be aware of whether he had got good thoughts or bad thoughts
about others. Let the mind be purified with progressive ideas.
Satisfaction
The second is satisfaction as an attitude, satisfaction
not attributed to incidents, not due to benefits, not because
of events but satisfaction ingrained as your own inherent
nature. You can develop it very easily. Be satisfied with what
you get. If you do some more good work, then you will get
some extra money. But be satisfied with what you get at
 The Practice of Yoga 117

present. In future, you may get more and you may try for
more, but in the meantime do not grow nervous or
discontent. If your friend is getting a thousand dollars more,
don't worry.
Cut your coat according to the cloth, according to the
availability of the cloth. That is how we have to practise
because what is due to us from the society is a ratio
between the society and ourselves. It has got a mysterious
ratio which we can never understand.
Our logic and economics will never be able to calculate
it. We calculate that we may get some more from society,
but what is due to us depends not only on the merit of what
we work, but also on what we think and what we believe about
others. The LCM will always be the ratio between us and
society. Sometimes we may not be able to calculate it
properly and thus we live our life grudgingly. We must never
hold a grudge against society that is at no point in life should
we ever grumble or complain against society. Remember,
society contains individuals just like you. We can never
fathom a society separate from individuals. They are also
as good and bad as yourself. Therefore, satisfaction should
inevitably be practised by a yogi.
Prior to the present time, Sage Patanjali had given what
is called austerity and reading the scriptures. Apart from
adding previous things to the list he added total surrender
which is uttering OM and listening to it. These five items
will rectify your existence. This is called the second item
rectification. Now, we go to the third item according to
Patanjali.
118 The Science of Yoga

The Third Step : Asana (Stability in Happiness)

We will have happiness only instantaneously as a
flash normally. What we call happiness exists only
instantaneously. All the remaining is something before
happiness and something after happiness. When something
is very tasty to eat, we have the happiness of the taste while
we are tasting. It is not there while we are preparing, it is
not there while we are cleaning the plates. In anything you
do, happiness is only a lightning and a flash, before which
there is much work and after which there is much work. It
is like the feats in a circus, the items in a circus. For every
item they have to do something in the beginning and after
the item is finished, they have to dismantle many things once
again. So, there is much preparation and much disposal. In
the middle there is an instantaneous flash of what we call
happiness. But all this put together is what we call happiness,
only because we are essentially foolish. But here, he asks
us to practise 'stability in happiness'. You should infuse the
mind to live in happiness stably, continuously.
How? Sit in a comfortable posture, select a place which
you need not change frequently. Keep the place clean and
make the room pleasant. Let it be well ventilated not only
of light but also of air. Select a posture which is comfortable
to your age, physical condition and stage of life and then
you sit in that posture. Any posture except lying flat is
recommended. Because when we lie flat, horizontally and
begin to practise stability in happiness, we will not be there
to enjoy the happiness as we will immediately fall asleep.
In the meanwhile happiness will be lingering around there
 The Practice of Yoga 119

for us to experience but the moment we wake up, we get

to realize that happiness has gone once again. Everyday
happiness visits us but we are not there when happiness is
there in our house. That is what happens if we select a
horizontal posture.
Process of Relaxation
Select a vertical posture. Let your vertebral column be
perpendicular to the floor. The most convenient is called
'Siddhasana'. You close your eyes and then begin to practise.
It is called the relaxation of every nerve and every muscle
in your body. Mentally begin to travel from your head to
your foot slowly. First of all observe if any muscles or nerves
are in tension in your head. Mentally remove the tension
and relax the muscles and nerves. Then travel to the eyes,
release if there is tension in your eyelids. When somebody
asks to close the eyes and sit down, some people sit with
very strongly closed eyes, so that there will be tension in
the eyelids. Remove the tension in the muscles of the eyelids,
then to the nose, then to the mouth and chin, like that up
to the feet. This is the first step you have to take.
Then for a few moments relax the mind completely into
your respiration, and then once again tighten or tense up
every muscle and nerve for about a few seconds and then
relax once again step by step. In this manner alternately
practice a few seconds of tightening of muscles and nerves,
a few minutes of relaxing them, a few seconds of tightening,
and a few minutes of relaxation.
120 The Science of Yoga

Law of Pulsation
By doing so, you are communicating with one of the
cosmic principles, what is called the Law of Pulsation. The
space is expanding and contracting alternately and the space
is pulsating and as a result of which the solar systems are
coming out and getting absorbed into space once again. Each
solar system is respiring or pulsating and each atom is
pulsating in its nucleus. Each living being is pulsating in the
form of respiration and heartbeat. So, pulsation is a Cosmic
Law and a Cosmic Principle which includes contraction and
expansion.
Observing the movements of Respiration
The next practice which you have to do is to begin to
play music in tune with it. Following which you have to begin
to observe the movements of your respiration. Then the mind
gradually begins to approach the place where the respiration
is taking place. Respiration is energy and the mind gradually
approaches the energy centre. After a certain time the two
become one. There will be no two items. There will be no
mind separately, no respiration separately. There will be only
one item existing. Then you will experience what is stability
in happiness.
This is called the third one, 'Asana' in yoga class. This
process is called Asana but unfortunately this word is
translated in a wrong way. It is understood as the many
physical postures and acrobatics we do. For example, we
have Shirshasana (head down posture), Sarvangasana (like
an inverted comma), Halasana, (the plough posture) and
Dhanurasana (the bow posture or Sagittarius). So, there
 The Practice of Yoga 121

are many Asanas, hundred or two hundred or three hundred,

but it is not the Asana which Patanjali calls. The physical
Asanas come into the first heading, called Yama. You are
expected to select your own physical exercise not according
to the lesson in the book, but according to your constitution
and need. Let an expert in yoga advise you about your Asanas.
Let not everyone exhaust the total list of Asanas.
For example, if a person having hypertension begins
yoga, he should not be allowed to do the head down posture.
Some people should not do some postures. For some people
a few Asanas are enough. For some people many Asanas
are required. It depends upon the constitution. Imagine what
will happen if the Guru asks all his disciples to wear the
shoes with the same dimensions as that of the Guru's shoes?
It will be likewise if the same list of Asanas is prescribed
to everyone. Hence, everyone should select the physical
exercise which is suitable and required for himself.
Now here in this context, what is called Asana is 'stability
in happiness'. That is what Patanjali and Bhagavad Gita
say. Immediate effect of this practice is that you are making
alternations of contraction and expansion in pulsations. The
result is, the mind is freed from 'pairs of opposites'. That
is, the mind is free from receiving a shock in changed
conditions. When it is cold now and when it is very hot
tomorrow at noon, the body won't receive any shock. It's
like if you honour me very much here and the very next day
if someone calls me a fool, it doesn't shock the mind.
Similarly, if I am asked to enjoy staying in a big hall
throughout the night and then the day after if I am asked
122 The Science of Yoga

to stay in a little room somewhere else, where it is not

possible to stretch completely, yet the mind receives no
shock.
That is possible only by this practice. The circumstances
in life, in the family conditions, in the vocational conditions,
in the economic conditions etc., will never create any shock
to your mind. So, it makes you go above and beyond shock,
a beautiful shock-proof existence. This is what is called
Asana, the third step.
The Fourth Step : Pranayama (Regulating the Pulsations)
Remember firstly you have to sit down and practise the
contraction and expansion daily. Now the next step is that
you have to observe your respiration. There is automatically
a contraction and expansion of your lungs. You are not doing
it, but the 'inner you' is doing it, the Lord is doing it and
not the negative fellow doing it. Begin to observe and enjoy
it and try to cooperate with it. Establish music, a beat, a
rhythm in your respiration. Begin to inhale slowly in a soft
prolonged way, in a very smooth way with uniform speed.
Inhale like that as long as you can inhale conveniently. Then
begin to exhale exactly in the same way, slow, soft, and
uniform and in such an artistic and skillful way that your
own respiration becomes completely inaudible to you. Again
begin to breathe like that. But there is no Kumbhaka here.
Sage Patanjali has never prescribed any Kumbhaka and thus
he is not responsible for the consequences of our doing
Kumbhaka. Therefore the most important part is that you
begin to practise this and at the same time observing the
movements of your respiration with your mind. If you do
 The Practice of Yoga 123

it without observing this, your mind is wandering somewhere

else and then even if you keep on doing it for thirty years
it will be of no use. It is like a motor car lifted on jackies.
Question : What is Kumbhaka?
Answer : After inhalation you are asked to hold it for some
time, self-smothering. That is called Kumbhaka technically,
which is not described either in Patanjali or in the
Bhagavad Gita. So, when you do this practice, observe the
movements of your lungs. Question yourself who is making
the movements. You will receive the answer that the 'I AM'
in you is doing it.
Then, do it for five minutes. At that point, while you
are inhaling, mentally think of the sound 'So' and while
exhaling, mentally think of the sound 'Hum'. As long as you
are inhaling mentally think of 'So' like that. When you begin
to exhale mentally think of 'Hum' until you complete it. Do
it for five minutes. In the next round of five minutes you
leave off the consonants and select the nasal and the vowel
in order that just the sound OM is left there. In the third
set of five minutes you mentally think of OM as long as
you are inhaling and vocally utter OM as long as you are
exhaling. At the same time listen to it completely and
continuously. While uttering OM you should listen to your
own OM. This is what is called the practice of pranayama.
Then what happens is, the music or the rhythm in your
respiration is re-established. It was there since your
childhood but had been disturbed a thousand times in a day,
while you were growing older. Whenever you are angry it
is disturbed, whenever you are jealous, it is disturbed,
124 The Science of Yoga

whenever you are afraid of something, it is disturbed,

whenever you are anxious of catching a train or a plane, it
is disturbed. Not less than a thousand times in the day we
disturb it. According to the Law of Habit formation, the
disturbance has been established as a habit in us and the result
is cardiac disturbances, missing beats of the heart and
unequal or irregular respiration.
As we grow into adult age, we lose the rhythm and the
music in our respiration. Nevertheless we can re-establish
it again by practising this. Subsequently after some months
of practice, the respiration stops automatically. Don't be
afraid, you will be alive. But the respiration stops for some
time. As long as the mind is one with the function of
respiration, the respiration stops and the moment the mind
is different from your respiration, it begins to respire again.
Don't enforce this stopping of respiration. You are not the
maker, the Lord in you knows better than you. Let Him do
it. It is possible only when you establish regularity in your
daily routine. Imagine your 24 hours like a clock. Have 1,
2, 3 or 4 items in the daily routine established regularly
at the same time every day. You will establish a polygon of
your routine.
***
Keep up the polygon. Gradually add one more item and
make the polygon wider. Add one more item. In this way,
make as many items of your daily routine as possible,
regularised. Then only, the stopping of respiration is
possible. Unless the activity is regularised, unless the mind
is regularised, it is not possible for the respiration to stop
 The Practice of Yoga 125

by itself and start once again. If you begin to enforce stopping

respiration in the name of Kumbhaka, it is highly dangerous
and the results will be disastrous in course of time, because
it is quite opposing to the activity that is going on inside.
We are not expected to enforce our intelligence upon the
Lord who is working inside. The very defaultation has its
own penalisation. This practice is called Pranayama. This
is the pranayama according to Patanjali and the Bhagavad
Gita.
The Fifth Step : Pratyahara (Absorption)
After practicing for about two or three months, you
begin to practise the next thing, the fifth step, that is to bring
the mind, bring the activity of the senses back to the mind.
If there is some photo and the eye is looking at it, withdraw
the eye into the mind. With open eyes you will be able to
do it very easily. At this juncture your ears are exposed to
sounds, but you can be away from listening to the sounds.
So, the fivefold activity can be cut off by yourself, because
you can invite the senses into the mind at this stage. For
example, all the while, the carpet is there before your eyes
but you have not seen it. Even though your eyes are open
and the carpet is before your eyes, it never attracts your
eyes. Because you have allowed your sight to be engaged
with the mind, it is quite natural to do so. You will be able
to do it easily.
What happens when you bring the senses into the
mind? The senses lose their existence and mind exists,
because the activity of the senses is nothing but the mental
activity projected through an instrument.
126 The Science of Yoga

It is the mind that sees through the eye, therefore when

you withdraw the sense activity into the mind, it is like
drawing the water into the reservoir through the taps once
again. The senses lose their identity until you permit them
to exist; then only the mind exists. Now, the mind exists
with you. This is the fifth step, which is called 'Pratyahara'.
Pratyahara means inviting back, inviting the activity
of the senses back or absorption of the senses back. It is
not controlling the senses, you cannot control by closing
your eyes, because the mind goes on thinking of other things.
Once, one Guru asked the disciple to come without
eating and drinking in the morning to receive an initiation.
The disciple was not accustomed to going out without eating
early in the morning. Then the Guru asked, "Close your eyes.
Do you see anything?" The disciple, as he did not eat anything,
said, "Pretty bread, a cup of coffee and a banana". Hence
this is not the way to control the mind. If we close our eyes
we can see more clearly the other things that are not required.
So, this is the way to control. This is called Pratyahara.
You will be able to maintain that mind as long as you want.
This is not concentration. This is the relaxation of the lower
mind upon the background of the Lord.
The Sixth Step : Dharana (Contemplation)
Then the next step is to apply this mind upon something
you prescribe, not upon what the senses prescribe. Now, when
you prescribe some shape, sound, name, science or some
subject and apply this to that particular prescribed subject,
then gradually that subject begins to germinate in you. You
will learn science without a lot of studying of books. That
 The Practice of Yoga 127

is what is called the sixth step. It is called Dharana.

Pratyahara is called 'absorption' and Dharana is called
'contemplation'.
Suppose you apply your mind to the candle. The candle
exists in the mind with all the light. You can keep the candle
burning as long as you want. You can know how to make
the candle and its contents by applying it like that. Then step
by step, all the details will be revealed to your mind as to
what the formula of the chemicals of the candle is and how
to make it. Similarly it can be applied to any science.
The Seventh Step : Dhyana (Meditation)
Then the next is the seventh step. That is, the candle
exists but you do not exist. In other words the observer does
not exist to himself, only the object exists. To put it in
another way, it is the total absence of the observer, while
only the object exists. That is called 'Dhyana' or meditation.
Well, this is meditation. Closing the eyes is not meditation.
When the object of meditation exists to the total absence
and disappearance of the meditator from the mind, that is
called Dhyana or meditation.
After this the next step is when the candle exists and
no other thing exists. By other things we mean the observer
and the object of observation. There will be no other thing,
except only one thing existing. With that, when you project
your mind upon anyone, or any subject the mind will
contemplate or stand upon that subject because of the sixth
step and you will disappear from your perception and
nothing but the object will exist because of the seventh step.
128 The Science of Yoga

That is the only way to know the Lord Omnipresent. When

more than one thing exists in the mind, how can the mind
know the one existence? Unless you practise the seventh
step and make a real experience of it, you can never know
the fifth, sixth and the seventh of the seven planes of
existence, which we discussed yesterday. That is called the
soul experience.
The Eighth Step : Samadhi (Attainment)
Now let us see the next step. No doubt the candle exists
in the seventh step. In the next step the name candle
disappears. Only the candle without a name exists. The
colour of the candle disappears, only the candle exists. The
name of the flame disappears, only the flame exists. The
shape disappears from your mind, the candle exists and the
flame and the candle disappear; one thing exists because even
though the candle and the flame are two, yet to you only
the totality of the candle exists. No doubt, all the parts exist
to you in your observation, but the parts disappear and the
total existence will be in your mind. That is the eighth step,
called Samadhi. In English, we call it 'Attainment'. Do not
think that, 'absorption, contemplation, meditation,
attainment' are chronological phenomena.
Do not think you will get these things one after the
other. Sometimes you will get two or three at a time and
the last three steps can be made to exist simultaneously.
The sixth, seventh and eighth steps can be made to exist
simultaneously. That is called "simultaneity of existence".
In Sanskrit it is called 'Samyama'.
***
 The Practice of Yoga 129

Thus the senses lose their identity in the mind. Then

the mind begins to reflect towards the real centre, the real
'I AM' or the positive "I AM'. When the withdrawal starts,
we have by now understood how to make a total surrender
to the real 'I AM', who is also called the Lord. The method
of making a total surrender to the real 'I AM' is to make
the respiration uniform according to the process of
pranayama, which we described yesterday. In the process
we begin to withdraw senses into the mind, the process of
which is called absorption. Subsequently, we will have the
experience of our real existence for the first time. Then
it is said that we are able to exist as ourselves through time.
In that scenario, instead of the environment presenting itself
to the mind, we are in a position to prescribe the environment
to ourselves. We are able to ask the mind to expose itself
to anything we want, but not anything that is presented by
the environment.
So, in the course of this process, the pairs of opposites
disappear, which we call pain and pleasure, success and
failure, heat and cold and the various impressions of others
about us, and our various impressions about others. For the
first time, the mind exists without any impressions. For the
first time, you will know that you are a light and the mind
is your flame. So to say, you will understand that you are
self-luminous; you have a light of your own, transmitting
out from yourself in the form of the mind into the senses.
Then you will understand that the same light is existing in
everyone in the name of the real 'I AM' in everybody.
130 The Science of Yoga

Then you will come to understand that only One

Existence is there in everyone. This is called the existence
of the Lord in all. That is why Sage Patanjali calls it the
Lord consciousness.
Now it is your duty to apply this to something. Prescribe
something to your mind to work upon, as now the mind is
your secretary, whereas previously the mind was your
manager and the proprietor. It never allowed you to
remember that you exist. That is why you existed in the form
of your mind and senses. You were not permitted to exist
as yourself, but only to exist as your environment, ever
changing. So, you were also ever changing. Now that you
have known the art of withdrawing the mind within yourself
in the name of absorption, the easiest method for this is
to utter the call of the Lord.
The sound OM is described as 'the call of the Lord'.
When you practise uniform breathing through pranayama and
begin to utter OM vocally, at the same time listening to your
own voice, you will begin to understand that you are uttering
OM. Thereupon you will understand that when you are
uttering it with your breath, it is not you who is breathing,
but an inner yourself who is breathing. He is breathing for
you, because He wants to make your body and mind live.
He wants your body and mind for Himself. It belongs
to Him and not to you. This is what you will come to
understand. As you listen to the call of the Lord, you will
understand that it is a call from the Lord, not from you. That
is the next stage of your understanding, because the
 The Practice of Yoga 131

respiration is starting from Him and not from you. The voice
and the call also start from Him and not from you. That is
what you will come to understand. It is something peculiar.
At first you will begin to call Him with that sound. When
you begin to listen to it, you will understand that the call
is coming from Him and you are listening. Then you will
understand that He is knocking at your door to look at Him.
This is the next level.
At this point, the senses are automatically withdrawn
into the mind and the mind is automatically withdrawn into
the Light, into the real 'I AM'. This is what is called
meditation. Then you apply this state of existence to
something you want to apply, most preferably a sentence
from any scripture, or a sentence from any good book you
like or a thought or a concept.
For example, there is the sentence, "I am the way" in
the Gospel. You apply your state of existence to that sentence.
You will find the Lord teaching that sentence. Mysteriously
enough the sentence stands without any change. There is no
distortion or disturbance as long as you want to make the
sentence stand. Similarly, when you apply this to the face
of your friend in your mind, the face stands in time without
getting blurred in your mind, because it is not an impression
from outside enforced upon your mind, but it is a
proposition from within stamped on the mind. So, you are
the master and you are no more the slave of the environment.
In the next phase, you think about the meaning of the
sentence. For example, "I am the way" or "Love thy neighbour
132 The Science of Yoga

as thyself". Then the thinking process will be very sane and

consistent and you can take the picture of sunrise or sunset
in your mind. Any picture, which can purify and make you
brighter stands along with the concept you prescribed to the
mind. That is what is called meditation. Forging ahead, you
will disappear from your recollection and only the object
of your meditation will exist.
When this happens, there is only the existence of one
thing and not two things. Previously when we were in the
reaction state, we had three items in our activity: the thinker,
the thought of the object and the process of thinking. When
you are eating, you have three things; you, who is eating,
the food which is the object of eating and then the action
of eating. The same thing happens when you are seeing or
observing something. You are the one who is seeing and the
object is what you see and then there is the process of seeing.
Thus these three things were inevitable when you were in
the reaction state.
But when we come to the stage of meditation, only two
things exist, the object of meditation and the person who
meditates. The process of meditation is eliminated from the
mind. That is what is called meditation. So, one factor
disappears. Then advancing ahead in the next step, you will
not be there for yourself, in fact you will disappear from
your recollection, with only the object of your meditation
remaining ultimately.
Thank you all.
 Yoga and Attainment

rothers and sisters! Thank you all for the happy presence
B you have given me today. It is the continuation of our
previous topic we are going to take up today as I promised
you. We have seen that the attempt to practice yoga has its
object to make yourself experience and live in your original
state of existence. Since every moment the mind and the
senses are reacting to the environment and the reaction is
not natural to you, because it is conditioned by the
environment. As long as you are in the awakened
consciousness, your mind is influenced by the environment
and the result is generally you are living in the reaction
towards the environment.
Our whole attempt in the yoga practice is to see that
the reaction is neutralized and action is established. Then
only you will know what your activity is in its true sense.
That means you will know yourself. "Know Thyself" is the
oldest of all the axioms of spiritualism.
When you are surrounded by parallel mirrors, you can
see your images hundreds in number but they are only your
images and not yourself. When the mirrors are removed,
134 The Science of Yoga

then you will come to remember your own existence, your

real existence.
Similarly, there are some five mirroring phenomena
around you which we call the five senses. The mind is working
through the five senses. It is every time distributed among
one, two, three, four or five of the senses and the result
is, it is experiencing only reflection and not existence. When
I stand before you in your presence, I behave according to
your presence and not according to myself. When I am
sitting at the dinner table, I behave in terms of dinner, not
according to myself. But, can you tell me the time when
we behave according to ourselves?
As long as the senses and mind are reacting to the
environment, it is not possible. The mind and the senses stop
reacting to the environment only when we are sleeping.
Since, we cannot experience ourselves during sleep, it is
of no use though the mind and the senses are not working.
It is only a sleep to the mind and senses. For a long time
we are habituated to know things only through the mind and
senses. The result is, when the mind and senses sleep, we
feel that we sleep and we cannot gain any experience of
ourselves during sleep.
We should have another type of state of consciousness
different from sleep where the mind and senses are not
reacting and where you are awake. Such a state is to be
established. The scientific process of establishing this state
is what is called Yoga.
Yoga includes eight steps. The first two steps are
regulation and rectification as we have seen previously. The
 Yoga and Attainment 135

third step is called Asana which includes the process of

observing your respiration. Then your mind begins to
observe the movements of your respiration and gradually
it begins to come closer and closer in the process of
respiration. After that the process is to regularise your
respiration. That is the respiration is controlled by a
pulsation which is working for you and this pulsation is
working in you day and night. It is making you breathe. It
is making your heart beat.
Double Pulsation, Prana and Apana
There is a double pulsation working from birth to death
in all of us and this double pulsation is inherited by us from
the space in which we live. Space has the nature to pulsate,
that is to expand and contract. Wherever it can find a centre,
wherever a created entity is placed in space, it forms a
temporary centre in space and around the centre the space
begins to pulsate. Each of us form a centre in space around
which our own space begins to pulsate. According to this
pulsation, all the parts of our body are pulsating and the vital
pulsations which we call the Prana form a part of these
pulsations. Influence of this pulsation makes our lungs
respire because it expands and contracts the muscles and
nerves of the lungs.
Similarly it makes our heart beat and our blood circulate.
While we are sleeping, this pulsation makes our digestive
organs also pulsate as a result of which the digestive organs
make many movements, many expansions and contractions
and the result is digestion of food. Like this, all the vital
organs in our body are contracting and expanding alternately
136 The Science of Yoga

and this process is called the "Double Pulsation". This

depends upon the pulsation of our subtler vehicles, vehicles
that are not physical; vehicles that are called etheric and
astral etc.
All these pulsations of these finer vehicles put together
are called Prana in Sanskrit. The double pulsation is called
Prana and Apana. By the power of the pulsation of Prana,
we are able to take the air inside. We are able to take the
food and drink into our digestive system. We are able to
listen to others and understand what they say. We are able
to receive everything that we receive mentally, physically
and vitally.
When the second pulsation that is called Apana is
working, it is making us breathe out the respiration. It is
making us excrete that which is not required in our body
like the perspiration, the stool and the urine. Also this
pulsation is making us speak and express ourselves. We are
giving out to the world whatever we give through this
pulsation which is from within to outside. So, these two
pulsations put together are called Prana and Apana.
The respiration is only a result of these two pulsations
and the health of the respiration depends upon the
equilibrium of the pulsations. As long as the equilibrium
of the pulsations is maintained by us, the health of the
constitution will be maintained. But, when we grow old in
age, we will disturb the equilibrium of this pulsation. As I
told you, for example whenever we are in a hurry to do
something, then our respiration rate is disturbed. Whenever
there is fear, suspicion and anger, the equilibrium of the
 Yoga and Attainment 137

respiration is disturbed and the heart beat is disturbed. Many

times, many thousands of times in our life, we create
situations where we express jealousy, fear and other
disturbing emotions.
Strength of the Habit
Every time the respiration and the heart beat are
disturbed like this, they establish a habit of getting disturbed
because in the beginning, it is only the strength of the habit
that establishes the respiration and heartbeat in us. Among
all the psychological and supra-psychological powers we
have inside, the power of habit is also established in us when
we are born. The habit to respire is established and we are
respiring. The habit of beating is established in the heart
and therefore the heart beat and the circulation are
automatically going on. So, when we once again establish
a different habit in us, that is the habit of disturbing the
already existing habit, then there will be once again a habit
of disturbance. As a result, disease and untimely death occur
to the human constitution.
After a certain age, when we observe ourselves, we find
that our respiration and the heart beat are not as natural as
when we were children. This is because we have made a
disturbance in them many thousands of times. This is
because we have established a new habit of disturbance. It
is the purpose of the yoga student to establish once again
the original habit. He should engraft a new habit of making
them original once again. The attempt is called Pranayama.
What is the real Pranayama?
It is a process which regulates the respiration, but it
138 The Science of Yoga

is wrongly understood as something to control the breath.

Many people try to control their breath and call it
Pranayama. If we directly begin to control the breath, the
result is only suffocation and not Pranayama. We should
know a specific process which makes the respiration regular.
This process also was described in our previous lecture.
When we begin to observe the movements of our
respiration daily, gradually the new habit of making it equal
is being re-established. Then we should use our conscious
mind to make it regular once again. That is by trying to breathe
in slow, soft and deep and at the same time observing the
movements of the respiration; again by breathing out slow,
soft and deep, at the same time observing the movements
of the respiration. We should regulate the respiration by
making the respiration slow, soft and deep and at the same
time the mind should be observing the movements of the
respiration. If this one step is missing, everything becomes
missing. Our entire attempt becomes useless. So, the key
note of the whole process is to observe the movements of
the respiration, the muscles and the nerves.
Then the mind comes closer and closer to the pulsations
of the respiration. And there comes a stage when your
respiration will be very soft and very sweet. That is like music.
Just as the notes of music have their symphony, your
respiration also begins to re-establish a symphony which
was not there in you. The symphony was there in your
childhood but in the middle, it is disturbed. But now, once
again when you want to practice yoga, it is to be re-
established. This process is called Pranayama.
 Yoga and Attainment 139

Within a few weeks, incredibly in a short time you will

experience a wonderful thing. You will experience the stage
when you need not breathe for some time. When you breathe
in slow, soft and deep and observe the movements of the
respiration, the mind goes nearer and nearer to the
respiration activity and finally disappears in the process of
respiration. You will find that the senses and the mind
disappear in the process and you need not breathe out for
a very long time. There comes a stage of experience when
your mind and respiration stop in poise. This is what is called
Kumbhaka in Pranayama but unfortunately people try to
control their breath and call it Kumbhaka.
Dangers in controlling the Breath
Some people control their breath in the throat. Then
the upward impulses will give a damaging effect to the
cerebro-spinal system. Some people try to stop respiration
by closing the nose. This is worse still. This may sometimes
cause deafness or blindness or both. Sometimes it may cause
some humming sounds being heard in the ear. There are
people who practice violent practices of Pranayama and
they begin to hear the sounds in their ears. They believe that
they are yoga sounds. But, unfortunately they experience
headaches and other things. Anything that is painful and
uncomfortable is against the practice of yoga. So, respiration
should not be directly controlled in the name of Pranayama.
Respiration can be controlled only by the control of the mind
and control of the mind can be obtained only by a regulation
of the mind. Regulation of the mind can be achieved only
by making our routine regular.
140 The Science of Yoga

How to regulate the Mind

When we observe our official and domestic duties and
make a convenient programming of these duties with allotted
timings to each programme and if we begin to follow these
programmes according to the timings exactly to the hour
and the minute and that too without any mental tension to
observe these timings, then our mind begins to get regulated.
By making the work regular, the mind can be regulated. It
can never be regulated by asking it to become regular. You
can never control the mind directly. You can never discipline
the mind directly by asking it to get discipline. When you
apply the mind to the work that is regularized in its timing
and placing, then only the mind gets regularized. When the
mind gets regularized, gradually the respiration and the heart
beat get regularized.
So, always remember, unless you regulate your daily
routine and programming, unless you gain mastery over
your time of the day, it is highly dangerous to practice
Pranayama directly. Don't control the breath directly. Let
the controlled mind control the breath directly. Just begin
to regularize your daily routine while observing for fifteen
minutes every day how the respiration is going on, you will
find the change taking place in you. It is a change in the
practical affairs of things which can be very easily observed.
It is not a change which is in the imaginary plane or
which should be supposed by you. Within a few weeks, you
will find that you have changed. Then Pranayama is achieved.
The first four steps are achieved. Your mind and the
respiratory process will come together and become one and
 Yoga and Attainment 141

you will have a beautiful muse of comfort and happiness.

When you forget your respiration and it stops. Again, after
the practice is finished, you will begin your respiration. In
the meanwhile, there is no suffocation. There is no trouble
to the mind or senses. That is what is called real Pranayama.
The necessity to breathe should stop and the breath should
not be stopped directly. Having achieved these four steps,
you have to make an attempt towards the next four steps.
Pratyahara, the absorption of Mind
The next step is called Pratyahara. You will find that
the mind is now free from the senses. The senses are
suspended. They do not function unless you make them
function. They will obey you and they will sit with you until
you order them to function. Just as when you are discussing
something important, though you have opened your eyes and
are looking forward, you will see only the person with whom
you are discussing. The other things in the background will
not be apparent to you.
Even though your eyes are open, your eyes cannot see
the other things until you permit them to see. This is what
is happening in our daily life also but we are not observing
it. When you are after some important business, when you
direct the eyes towards a person, the eyes will see only that
person and nothing else. When you hear a particular person,
your ears can listen only to the words of that particular person
and not the conversations of others. This is being observed
by you daily in your daily routine also. But, you have not
made a special observation of this phenomenon. But as a
student of yoga, you have to make a special observation of
142 The Science of Yoga

this phenomenon and understand that there is a possibility

for the senses to get arrested along with the arrest of the
mind.
Until you permit the mind and senses to work once
again, they do not work. You should see this possibility from
your daily life and you should make the best use of this
possibility. This is possible only when you practice
observing your respiration and then the respiration stops
automatically without your knowledge and then the senses
are automatically withdrawn from the environment.
If you propose something inside to meditate now, then
you will see that. Prior to this practice of the four steps,
it is not possible for you to meditate upon something.
Whenever you want to meditate upon something, your mind
leads you somewhere else which you did not intend. Suppose
you want to meditate upon a picture of Buddha or Christ,
you try to recollect to your mind the picture. Then your mind
goes to a person who has presented that picture to you. Then
the person begins to talk to you in your mind. Then a past
situation which has happened between you and your friend
will come to your mind and then you will meet your friend
on Sunday in the market where there are hundreds of people
and the street is very busy. This is the picture which comes
to your mind when you want to meditate upon the picture
of Buddha or Christ.
You proposed the picture of Christ, but the mind
proposed the picture of your friend who has given you a
picture of Christ. And then mind took you to the market.
And then it showed you thousands of people in the market.
 Yoga and Attainment 143

Now, once again you will recollect that you have to meditate
upon the picture of Christ from the market once again. You
have to bring your mind home again. It will go away. Again
you have to bring it back. This will be your trouble if you
begin to practice meditation directly, without practicing the
first four steps.
The true meaning of Meditation
Many people close their eyes and try to think of an
object and call it meditation. Only when you have finished
the fourth step called Pranayama, you can practice the art
of withdrawing. Withdraw the behaviour of the senses into
your mind by not trying to withdraw but proposing
something in your heart. You propose heartbeat. The mind
comes to the heart. You propose the movements of your
respiration. The mind comes to the movements of the
respiration. The heartbeat and the respiration are the only
one item which can withdraw your senses and mind.
Generally the mind has the habit of receiving the
impressions of external objects. When you think of the light,
the mind becomes light. When you think of the voice of
your friend, the mind becomes the voice of your friend.
When you begin to think of bread, the mind becomes bread.
When you begin to think of the taste of beer, the mind
becomes the taste of beer. So, the mind gets the taste and
the smell of whatever it thinks.
It is like a handkerchief where something is placed. If
you place some camphor in the handkerchief, keep it for
some time, then take away the camphor. Your handkerchief
smells like camphor. Afterwards take another handkerchief
144 The Science of Yoga

and place an onion in it. Press it and take the onion. The
handkerchief smells like onion. Whatever you place in the
handkerchief, the kerchief gets the shape and the smell of
that object and sometimes the taste of the object also.
Similarly, whatever you think with your mind, the mind takes
that shape and it is what we call reaction. Now, you take
a piece of fire and put it in a handkerchief for some time
and then take away the fire. Does the handkerchief smell
like fire? The handkerchief goes into the fire. So, fire is
something different from any other thing. You cannot make
the handkerchief smell, the smell of fire.
Similarly, it is only the respiration and the heartbeat
which is something different from all other things to the
mind. Whatever object you think in your mind in this world,
the mind is bound to get its shape or smell or taste. But
when you begin to practice thinking of your respiration and
the heartbeat, the mind can never get the smell or taste or
the impression of the heartbeat or respiration. Instead of
doing it, the mind disappears into respiration and heartbeat
and the result is the one unit after the two disappearing.
That one unit takes a new birth of your personality. Now
this unit can withdraw the senses and the mind into itself
because it can exist in itself. Previously, it was the mind
that was existing, not you. Previously you are existing in
the heart and the lungs, and the mind is existing in the brain
cells. Now, after you have completed the practice of the
fourth step, the two are not existing separately. The mind
has come closer and closer to the heart and the bigger mind
which is in the heart has absorbed the normal mind which
 Yoga and Attainment 145

is working in the brain cells. The mind that is working in

the brain cells is objective in nature. That means, it is only
like a mirror. It can reflect the inner light outside. But it
can never give you any illumination. If you place a mirror
in this room, it can reflect the light of all these bulbs in
this room and make you feel that there is double the number
of lights in this room. Similarly, the mind is being felt by
us as something which is really existing.
A higher mind is shining from the place where the heart
and the lungs are functioning. And this light is reflecting
upon the mind in the head and it is reflecting outside through
the five senses. This process will be absorbed into itself
by the fifth practice. Then, the mind which is working in
the brain cells gradually comes to the heart through only
one process of practice. That is by thinking of your heart
and lungs and no other thing at all in this world. Then
after achieving this, when you begin to think of the
respiration and the heartbeat, the senses stop functioning,
the mind stops functioning and you will be fully conscious.
You will be functioning as long as you are meditating. This
is the true meaning of Meditation.
This is the fifth step which is called pratyahara. During
this process, the senses are withdrawn into the mind and
the senses follow the mind. Previously the mind was
following the senses into the outer world and reacting to
the external stimuli. So, the process has changed. If the whole
process has been reversed, instead of the mind following
the senses, the senses begin to follow the mind from outside
within. They cut off their connection with the environmental
146 The Science of Yoga

effects. Light stopped to appear to the eye from outside.

The wall before you stopped appeared to your eyes from
outside. Then you propose your heart and respiration which
are appearing to you from inside. It is not the physical heart
and the physical lungs that are appearing to you, but it
is the functional heart and the functional lungs that are
appearing to you. In this process, this step is called
pratyahara. When you are experiencing this step, you will
experience the absence of all other things; absence of
everything around you. Previously even though you tried to
experience the absence of other things, it was a waste.
Even though you shut yourself in a room separately, even
though you do not allow your wife and children to come
to your meditation room and bolt your door inside and sit
down, everything from outside is entering through the walls,
the walls of your mind. When you sit down and begin to
meditate, you will recollect a person who was disturbing
you previously. You will recollect how he was talking to you
and not allowing you to make meditation. You will recollect
how your wife was talking to you when you were meditating.
Now in the room the wife is not there physically. She has
been to the market. She is physically absent in the house
but she has entered the walls of your mind and she is
disturbing you now, because you are recollecting how she
disturbed you yesterday and the day before yesterday. This
is what happens when you begin to meditate previously.
Once a teacher of yoga asked his new disciples to come
and begin the practice of yoga. The yoga teacher came from
India and the new students belonged to Belgium. They asked
 Yoga and Attainment 147

him, "Sir, at what time should we be present"? The Indian

Guru said, 'it is 4:30 in the morning'. He never understood
the difference in the climate between India and Belgium
because in India 4:30 am will be very comfortable and calm.
We all get up, take our bath and sit in meditation by 3:30
am or 4:30 am. So, he asked the new disciples, poor fellows,
to come by 4:30 am. They asked him if they could take
coffee. He said, "No, it is very sinful, very unholy". One of
the disciples asked, "Can I take my breakfast and come"?
He said, "No, you are not fit to be a student of yoga. You
have to take a head bath and then come to me directly".
Then, poor fellows, they came very carefully with great
devotion. Then the Guru asked them to close their eyes and
asked them to meditate upon the rising Sun. Then he asked,
'what are you seeing'? The first disciple said, 'a beautiful
cup of coffee with a saucer'. The second disciple said, 'two
slices of bread with butter in between'. Then a friend of this
Guru advised him, 'if you allow the fellows to eat and take
coffee, the physical coffee and physical bread will appear
before them only for a few minutes. But, if you do not allow
them to drink coffee or take bread on the physical plane,
they will be eating the mental bread and drinking the mental
coffee continuously for hours and the breakfast will never
be finished.'
That is the case with the mind. So, unless we know the
art of withdrawing, even if we close our eyes and shut
ourselves in a room, things do not stop coming to our mind.
Our mind can never be withdrawn. Our senses can never be
withdrawn. But, when you have finished this fourth aspect
148 The Science of Yoga

of yoga practice, whenever you propose the movements of

the respiration of the heart and lungs, the mind and the senses
will be gradually withdrawn towards your heart and even
though you open your physical eyes, it is not the lights and
the ceiling of the room you are seeing, but it is only the
centre of your heart and lungs you are seeing.
See, when a person is sitting on top of a house that is
on the upstairs, second or third floor and asked to take dinner,
and someone tells him that a fellow is waiting down stairs
with a pistol to kill him; the person can see only a person
with a pistol. He can never see the dinner table before him.
This is the power of the mind. When properly used, it
becomes yogic power. When the heart and lungs are
proposed by the mind, you can be in the pratyahara state,
even though your eyes are open, your ears are exposed to
loud noises. You will allow the ears to hear only when you
permit them. Otherwise you will find the whole unit
withdrawn into yourself. See, when you are attending the
television, when you begin to witness a movie, do you
remember the frame of the television set? If the picture you
are seeing is absorbing to you and interesting to you, you
will forget that it is a television set and soon you will enter
into the story of the movie you see.
This power is there in you which is working daily. And,
it is this power you are expected to utilize in yoga practice.
In your everyday life also this power is working in you.
Whenever you are seeing a drama, when the drama is
interesting to you, do you remember that it is a drama? You
will forget that it is a drama and you will soon enter the
 Yoga and Attainment 149

story. You will forget the name of the theatre where you
are attending. You will forget the name of the street and if
your friend was talking to you in the chair before the drama
started, your mind will drop off the existence of your friend
by your side. That is, your friend will not exist anymore as
long as you are witnessing the drama. This is our daily
experience.
That means, the inner mind which is called the supra-
mental consciousness which never sleeps in you, is working
in you day and night, which is making your lungs respire
and heart beat even though you are sleeping. That has the
power to absorb the ordinary mind and the senses within
itself. It has the power to live and make the mind and senses
function according to itself. This change occurs in the fifth
step of the yoga practice. This change is called pratyahara.
Then you will know by yourself that the mental unit is
existing in yourself as long a time as you order and as much
time as you want. If you are engaged for one hour or two
hours or one day or two days, the mind and the senses will
not exist for even one day or two days even. Not only that,the
metabolic functions of your body also do not exist as long
as the mind and senses do not exist. When you are able to
arrest your mind and the senses in yourself, two days or three
days is no question at all, because time stops for you. Don't
believe that time exists in the watch. Time exists only in your
mind and it is only to measure your mind, you have a watch.
So, when the mind stops to exist, time stops to exist to you.
Then if you allow the mind and senses to get absorbed
in you for two or three days, then the body requires no more
150 The Science of Yoga

food or drink for three or four days. There will be no

necessity for stool or urine or perspiration also, because
the human constitution is a three-fold unit having Matter,
Force and Consciousness. Matter is in the form of your body
and tissues. Force is in the form of your respiration and
circulation and it is expressed through every centre of force
as the activity of your physical body. Your consciousness
is there in your heart and lungs making the heart and lungs
work. That is why it does not sleep when your mind sleeps.
During sleep, it is your mind and your senses that are
sleeping. If you are really sleeping, how is it possible that
the lungs and the heart are functioning? So, understand the
difference between yourself and your mind and senses. When
once this mind and the senses are absorbed in yourself, until
you let them out work again, there is no work. There is no
activity of the senses. There is no activity or the combustion
of the human constitution. But you will be living. The body
will be living.
After practicing this, you need not verify by practicing
it for three or four days without eating or drinking. You will
be able to know very easily when you get at this power. When
you order your mind to get itself absorbed in the heart and
when you begin to observe it, the mind will never go out
into the senses until you order. As long as you keep it like
that, the mind exists like that. This is what is called
Pratyahara.
Dharana
The next step is, you should do something with this newly
born mind. You propose something new which is different
 Yoga and Attainment 151

from the activity of your respiration and heartbeat. For

example, you can mention the face of your friend now. His
face will be before your eyes for as long a time as you want.
It may be one hour or two hours. It stands there. If you
propose the picture of Christ or Buddha, now the picture
will be there for hours or days together. Your mind will never
go to the Sunday market unless you permit it to go. So, now
it is your duty to propose something new to this controlled
mind. If you propose anything which is really auspicious,
for example the idea of Buddha, the idea of Christ or the
idea of Krishna or anything you like or anything you think
holy and elevating.
It may be a beautiful piece of art. It may be a
combination of colours. It may be a musical note. It may
be a statue. It may be a Sunrise. Select something and
propose it to the mind. Then, it stands there. When you
practice this, gradually the mind gets the nature of the newly
proposed something.
Instead of the mind getting changed, the mind gets
elevated. The mind becomes the higher mind. The thought
becomes sweeter and sweeter because there are no
thoughts, but there is only thought. Previously you have
thought. Now you have only thought and not thoughts.
This practice is called Dharana. That is the sixth aspect
of yoga practice. That is the sixth aspect of yoga practice.
How to read a Book?
You can take a sentence from a scripture and practice
for some time. For example, take the sentence of Christ,
"I am the way". If you put your new mind on that, you will
152 The Science of Yoga

understand the real meaning of that sentence because it is

not the words that you are reading. It is not the grammar
of the sentence that you are reading. It is not the relationship
between the meaning and the word that you are reading. You
are reading the author directly. Whichever book you begin
to read, you will read the author directly but not the meaning
of the sentence.
Normally before this practice when we read a book, we
will be able to understand the book only partially. The result
is we have some differences of opinions with the author
of the book. Now, after this change has taken place, you will
not have any difference of opinion with the author of any
book on this earth. Let it be even a bad book of a bad author
because you will read the author, not the book. You will
understand why the author has written that book. Then there
is nothing bad in the book. This is the state which was
experienced when Emerson said, "That there are no bad
books in this world. There are only badly written books.
There are no bad people in this world. There are only badly
behaving people".
That is what the great seer Emerson has said. You will
understand from what level he spoke. Normally when we
read a book, we begin to judge the book by its merits and
demerits, so that we may have an opinion upon the book
and the author. Even when we read the books of great people
like Vivekananda or Aurobindo or Shankaracharya or even
the Holy Bible, we begin to have our own opinions about
them because there is a gap existing between the book and
ourselves when we read them.
 Yoga and Attainment 153

When there is no possibility at all to have an opinion

over those books, when the books are given as lights for
us to get enlightened, we may be utterly foolish enough to
express our opinions about those books. I may say, 'the
author of the Old Testament has written like this, but I think
there is some defective thinking here. Here the author is
mistaken'. Like that we will have our ideas about every author.
That is the result when we read books before we practice
yoga. The result is not the benefit of reading the books, but
only the labour and the trouble of reading the book we get.
Whatever book we read, we will be having only the trouble
of reading it and the additional trouble of having our own
dirty opinions about every book. Now, after this change has
taken place, if you begin to read a book, the author speaks
to you. If it is a bad book, the author will explain to you
why he has written that book. This is the stage you will get
in the next step.
This step is called Dharana. When you see a person,
you will not see his face. Your eyes are seeing his face but
you are not seeing his face. Your ears are listening to his
voice, but you are not listening to his voice. Your mind is
listening to his sentences and conversations, but you are not
at all listening to his sentences and conversations. Your logic
is attending the good and bad of his conversation, but you
are not at all attending the good and bad of his conversation.
You will be seeing him and nothing else.
Who is 'He' in fact? He is the same as yourself inside.
Then you will begin to see the same light in everyone. This
is what happens when you begin to experience Dharana.
154 The Science of Yoga
When you see a cheat, you will see the person and feel why
this fellow is living like a cheat. Your presence transforms
him gradually because as you begin to see him through his
eyes, ears and heart, he begins to see himself. Previously
he refused to understand himself, therefore he is living as
a cheat. Now he will begin to understand himself. When he
lives with you for some time, he will know himself and he
will be like yourself and he will be yourself.
This change takes place if you are really practicing the
scientific path of yoga. You will no longer argue with him.
You will no longer call him a cheat. You will no longer discuss
with him that doing this is very bad. You will calmly permit
him to do what he wants and will keep your own distance
from him not to be affected by his deeds. He does not know
why he is being transformed. It is not your logic that
transforms him, it is not your power of argument that
transforms him, but it is what you call your presence that
transforms him.
Presence is not physical. Presence is something more.
If you find and understand the magnetism in a magnet, if
you compare your physical body with the weight of the
magnet, then the magnetism in the magnet is like your
presence. It is your magnetism that works as your presence
and after some time he need not be in your presence. Even
in the absence of your physical body, he will be in your
presence. See how people are in our mental presence when
we like them. I can sit here but I can think of my wife and
children in India because I like them. Like that, presence
is not physical. Presence is something more than mental
and supra mental.
 Yoga and Attainment 155

The fifth state called the Pratyahara state makes you

give your presence to everyone. It is a matter of tuning that
makes others feel your presence just as the radio or the
television in your room, though it is ten miles or fifteen
miles away from the transmitting station, it is receiving the
programmes that are being transmitted. Similarly your
presence will be received by those who are tuned to you.
This is the practice of Pratyahara.
When you begin to meditate upon any sentence in a
scripture, you will become that. Do it for some time. Take
another sentence and do it for some time. Take another
sentence. It is for this purpose our scriptures are given, our
Gospels are given. It is not for logical understanding that
these books are given. It is not to discuss and give our dirty
opinions about the scriptures. But, when we once begin to
practice yoga, we will understand that every sentence in every
scripture gives you light and not logic. It gives you only
presence and not ideas and thoughts. When you practice this,
you have to go to the next step.
When you propose a sentence in your mind, the sentence
should disappear from your mind and the person who has
written it should stand in your mind. But it is not the face
of the person that should stand. It is not the name of the
person that should stand. It is not the photograph of that
person, but it is that person who stands before you. Where
is the person without a body and a photograph and a face
and a sentence? An author will be present to you without
his picture, without his name and without the name of the
book you are reading. The moment you read the sentence,
156 The Science of Yoga

the sentence goes away from your mind. The name of the
book never exists in your mind. The impression of the author
will never exist in your mind but the author exists in you.
Author means the person while he was giving this sentence.
You imagine the moments when the sentence was being
born from the author. Before he has translated the sentence
into his own language, the sentence exists in him before
he writes the sentence on the paper. It exists in him before
he translates it into French. First of all, the sentence comes
as an idea. Then the sentence is translated into his known
language. Then the sentence is transcribed on paper.
You are reading the sentence on the paper. You are
leaving it. Going into the sentence in the language, then you
are leaving it. Going into the sentence when it was born,
imagine how a sentence is born in your mind. If I say, this
is a watch, it is a vocal sentence. Before I utter this, I should
have an English sentence in mind, this is a watch. And before
there was an English sentence, there should be a sentence
before the language. It is a thought sentence. Before it is
translated into any language, and before that sentence exists,
'I' exists without the sentence. Therefore 'I am' is the origin
of the sentence. From me, the sentence takes birth. From
the sentence, a language sentence takes its birth. And from
it, the vocal sentence will be uttered forth. It is written on
paper or printed on paper.
We are reading the sentence on the paper and trying
to understand the author. While doing so, we are gathering
the meanings of the words used in the sentence. Whenever
we are defective in understanding the meaning of a particular
 Yoga and Attainment 157

word, we understand the author only in our way. Suppose

the meaning of one word is doubtful in my mind; suppose
I have to refer to the dictionary for the correct meaning;
even then I am trying to understand the meaning of the
sentence blindly. Then I am trying to express my opinion
about the author.
All these steps will disappear. A direct step of direct
perception will be given to us. The moment one sentence
we read from the author, we will read it only as the author
and not the sentence. This practice is called Dharana. Then
the next step. It is called Dhyana.
Dhyana, the Meditation
You propose in your mind anything in this world. It need
not be a sacred thing. It need not be a sentence from a
scripture. It need not be the picture of Buddha or Christ.
It may be the face of your husband or your wife. Then begin
to apply your yoga on it. You will understand your wife.
Previously you had your impressions about your wife and
you thought it was your understanding. Now you will directly
understand the person as she is. The name of the person will
drop away from your mind. The shape of the person will
go away from your mind. The voice of the person will go
away from your mind. Your ideas and impressions about the
other person will go away from your mind.
If you put your mind upon bread and coffee, then the
name of bread goes away from the mind. The smell of the
bread and butter will go away from the mind. Then the
substance remains there. What is that substance? It is nothing
but the atomic and the supra-atomic existence of everything.
158 The Science of Yoga

So, when you see the substance and want to see it, the atoms
in space will appear to you as that substance because the
substance never binds you. When you put your mind upon
some new science, the nature of the whole science will come
to your mind as a seed and the seed begins to germinate
in you. The result is, you will learn that science within days;
whereas it takes five or six years for others to learn it.
If you place your mind upon someone, you will know
everything about that person. Even after that you will not
have a critical mind about that person. When we know a
person, it is impossible for us not to have a critical estimate
of the person. But when you have come to Dhyana state,
then it is possible for you to see a person completely and
to know who he is from birth to death.
You know everything about his own nature and still you
exist without having a critical opinion about the fellow
because it is benevolence and sympathy you have towards
him. It is the pure love you have towards him and nothing
else. Only one state you have towards anyone in this world.
That one state is called the Truth Level in yoga science.
With everyone and in everyone you will see that Truth Level.
If anyone is misbehaving, you will know the truth why he
is doing it. Upon any subject in this world, let it be an art
or a science, if you bring the science to the focus of your
mind, your mind will be no more in the head and it will be
in the heart.
So, bringing the subject to your mind means not to the
head but to the heart. The moment you bring the subject into
the focus of your mind, then all the nature of the science
 Yoga and Attainment 159

will be received by you just as the fertile soil receives the

seed of the whole tree. Then, the activity during your sleep
and awakening also expands that science into you. You will
have only one experience throughout the twenty-four hours.
It will not be a sleep or a dream. It will not be the normal
awakening where there are thousands of thoughts coming
and going. It is only one existence and one thought and it
is an experience of continuous sweetness of life. You will
live only happily and not otherwise. There is no aberration
to the feeling of your existence. That is what is called
Dhyana.
Samadhi
The last step is Samadhi. This step is perfection. All
the sentences used by others in the world will not be heard
by you. You will hear only one thing from all these sentences
that is the truth of their existence. For example, if a person
says, my wife is coming to Brussels by the aeroplane today
and for the past twelve years his wife and himself have
separated, he still uses the word my wife. What does it mean?
Does this word wife have any meaning? Twelve years ago,
he divorced her and she divorced him. Now he calls her wife.
People use words like this. Now, when he uses the word
wife, it means only the word and not the object. In the daily
routine we use many hundreds of words like this.
For example, the word happiness we use like that. We
say, I want to be happy. We work day and night and we are
fatigued and exhausted. If your friend asks, "Why do you
work too much?" We say that we want to be happy. The only
one thing missing is happiness. It seems once a boy was
160 The Science of Yoga

fishing in a river and an old man came there and asked him,
"Boy! Are you studying in college?"
The boy said, "No Sir".
Then the man asked him, "Don't you want to be happy?"
Then the boy asked him, "What are you doing Sir?"
He said, "It is a big story. I studied in the college very
well."
Then the boy asked, "What was the result?"
He said, "I came first."
"What was the result?"
"I was selected for a big job."
"Sir, what was the result?"
"I get a big salary every month."
"Sir, what was the result"?
"I saved a lot of money in the bank".
"Sir, what was the result?"
"I started an industry in my middle age."
"Sir, what was the result?"
"I got big profits in my industry."
"Sir, what was the result?"
"I could purchase a big house for every one of my
children."
"Sir, what was the result?"
"I got my children educated."
 Yoga and Attainment 161

"Sir, what was the result?"

"I got them married. They are very happy with
themselves."
"Sir, what was the result?"
"Now, I am free. I am happy."
The boy said, "Without doing all those things, I am now
happy. I am quite as free as you. That's why I am fishing."
So, the old man had to search and search for tens of
years for happiness. To be happy, he had to do many things.
Similarly, we do many things to be happy. We go on doing
things to be happy and suddenly we die and there will be
no time to be happy because death never informs us that
it is coming. So, many times we use the word happiness only
for the meaning of postponement. Instead of using the word
postponement, we use the word happiness because many
times we lack commonsense. But this eighth step brings you
happiness and removes every other thing.
The whole world is an experience of happiness. Anyone
who wants to follow him will be happy. If you go to a person
who has attained Samadhi, with many ideas in your brain,
with many questions and many problems to put before him,
you stand there, talk to him happily for one hour or two hours
and come home and wonder why you forgot all your thoughts!
Wonder why you could not ask your questions. The second
time you try to meet him, you will forget to ask any question
at all. A third time you try, the same thing happens.
Why? It is because as long as you are there, his mind
is your mind. He has not changed your mind, but your mind
is changed in his presence just like the iron piece near a
162 The Science of Yoga

magnet. As long as it is near a magnet, it behaves like a

magnet and not an iron piece. Since you also have the mind
of a yogi, it is quite natural that you do not have any problems
at all when you are with him. You will immediately understand
that there are no problems at all. His happiness is your
happiness and afterwards you will wonder why you forgot
all your questions. This is our regular experience whenever
we spend some time with great people.
It was the experience with Aurobindo and it was the
experience with Ramana Maharshi, to the people who went
to them and spent fifteen or twenty days with them. They
expected great initiations from them. There was no such
ceremony at all. They spent time happily, returned home and
wondered over what happened. They talked to themselves
and said, "They sent us home without giving anything at
all. We had no intention to ask them anything at all. But
it is not true that they have not given us anything at all.
It is true that they have given our existence to ourselves."
Our true existence includes no thoughts and ideas and
no problems. It is our 'Totality of Existence' which does not
include any environment and its effects upon us. That is what
happens when you are in the presence of a person who is
experiencing Samadhi. He will be walking and talking. He
will be smiling and joking. He will be listening to what all
you say. The only one thing he is doing, that is 'existing.'
You may think that he is talking but he is only existing. He
is eating but he is existing. He will never do anything, just
that he exists. That is the state of Samadhi and this is the
ultimate goal of yoga practice.
 Yoga and Attainment 163

The last three steps are simultaneously practiced, not

one after another because as a student begins to approach
the fifth and the sixth steps, he will experience the
simultaneity of existence in all planes. When we are existing
on the physical plane, the mental plane is not visible to us.
But, when we are existing on the mental plane, the physical
plane is very well understood by us. Every higher plane
makes us understand all the lower planes. Every plane
is not making us understand the next higher plane. But
when the top light of the tower is on, all the steps of the
staircase down to earth will be illuminated. There will be
simultaneity of existence in all planes.
The State of Samadhi
For Samadhi, one need not close his eyes because for
a man who has attained Samadhi, the difference between
the outer and the inner world goes away. The difference
between the inner and the outer mind is only to the mind.
Objectivity and Subjectivity are only our thoughts. They can
exist only as thoughts but only one world exists to him in
which everything is real. There is nothing false in it. The
levels of truth and false will go away from his mind and he
will experience the truth of every existence. He has nothing
to criticize. He has nothing to say that this is not good. He
will find the meaningfulness of the whole creation. Since
he exists in all the planes simultaneously, he can live with
you and spend time with you on your own terms, so that
he has no aristocracy of his yoga state. He never expresses
to you that you are not fit to talk to him.
164 The Science of Yoga

"He is a great yogi and you have no stature to talk to

him", such things do not exist to one who is in Samadhi.
With a child, he is a child. With a saint, he is a saint. With
an intellectual, he is an intellectual. With a litigant, he is
a litigant. With a politician, he is a politician. With a pure
dry selfish intellectual, he is a greater intellectual pure dry
but not selfish.
The Same thing you observe when you study the
character of Krishna in the Indian scriptures. With cow herds,
he lived like a cow herd. With the politicians, he lived like
a politician. When there was an attempt to murder him, as
it is usual before the elections and he was invited for a dinner
where food was poisoned and he understood everything. He
said, "You are not to invite me for dinner today because I
came here to represent your enemies. All other people will
think otherwise if you call me for dinner. And suppose
something happens to this physical body after eating in your
house, people will never believe that you are sincere. They
will suspect that you have killed me. Therefore, it is not
proper for you to invite me to dinner at this time. Therefore,
I decline with thanks."
That is what he answered. The enemy in the elections
was not successful. So, he can live with anyone on his own
terms and at the same time, being only positive. This is the
ultimate goal of existence. It is only full of action and no
reaction. You will find from him anything that is useful to
anyone and nothing harmful to anyone. From him, nothing
harmful in this creation occurs to anyone at all. Night and
day, all his life will be only useful to anyone. This is the
 Yoga and Attainment 165

culmination of the eight-fold yoga and after achieving this

step, it is our purpose to live a yoga life.
Yoga practice is not an end in itself at all. Yoga living
is the end. And, this yoga practice culminates in our
yoga living. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali will give us
instructions about yoga practice. The Bhagavad-Gita will
give us not only the instructions for yoga practice but also
guidelines to yoga living.
So, the two books are supplementary to each other and
all the other things described in the other yoga textbooks
may be practiced, but the authors of Bhagavad Gita and
Patanjali Yoga Sutras are no more responsible for what
we practice and what we experience. Only when we practice
according to those lines, the real science of yoga will be
known and its experience will be experienced. If we practice
all other things, the safety of our results may not be assured
by anyone at all. This is about the eight-fold yoga path. I
thank you all for the opportunity you have given me today.
Question : What is Shaktipaatam?
Answer : Shaktipaatam is a word used by a school of yoga
practitioners. The Masters of some path will create the flow
of the yogic power in the disciple through their will in many
methods, either by touching the head by their hand or looking
into the eyes or giving a sound for us to utter. That will be
the beginning of a new flow of force in us which gradually
leads us into perfection and gradually leads us to the
awakening of the consciousnesses in us. That is the real
meaning of the Shaktipaatham.
166 The Science of Yoga

Question : Can we see the planetary deities?

Answer : We can see the physical bodies of those planets,
but we cannot see the planet, Just as our physical eye can
see only your physical body and it cannot see you. When
I am talking to you, it is my mind that is seeing your mind
and not the physical eye. Similarly, with our physical eye,
we are seeing only the physical planets, but the real functional
planets are not physical planets, just as we are not our
physical body.
Question : Can we get psychological powers when we
attain Samadhi?
Answer : It is neither a flash nor a state but it is our own
real state of existence. Therefore, when once started, it
exists as long as we exist because it is ourselves fully
awakened. It is an awakening from within and not any
psychological power or force. Psychological powers or
forces are only layers of our consciousness, whereas the
Samadhi state is our own existence in its fullest awakening.
Therefore it exists as long as we exist. Even though our mind
and senses are sleeping and we know it that our mind and
senses are sleeping. So, you will experience conscious sleep
after attaining Samadhi.
Question : Which is good to practice, the longer Mantra
or the shorter Mantra?
Answer : The necessity of a longer or a shorter Mantram
is decided by the Guru to the disciple. Just as the dosage
of a medicine to a patient is decided by a doctor, sometimes
the same Guru gives only one sound to one disciple and a
 Yoga and Attainment 167

sentence to another disciple. I can tell you the broader

principle that is based.
When the intellectual mind is more alert, it requires
some food for thought. Then a sentence and its meaning are
also required along with the Mantra. The intellectual activity
will have the satisfaction of the meaning of the sentence
and then the consciousness will receive the yoga awakening
through the sound. When a short Mantra is given for a great
intellectual, his intellect will be working upon something
which it requires.
Therefore, a longer Mantra is given to a greater
intellectual. Another example is, a person who has less
intellect and more devotion and when a sound is given to
him, his intellect is not interested in any meaning. Therefore,
he finds greatest satisfaction upon that particular sound. He
gets the same awakening. But, the more the activity of the
intellect is, the more difficult it is to get into the real
consciousness of the Mantra. That is why Gurus decide the
Mantra according to the psychological structure of the
disciple. Mantra does not exist in the meaning of the word
or sentence.
Suppose there is a wonderful musician who is giving
some notes without any literature, you are enjoying the
music but there is no literary composition at all. What is
it that you are enjoying in the music without a literary
composition? A similar enjoyment is called the Mantra;
whereas the meaning of the words in the Mantra is
secondary. The meaning side of the Mantra keeps our mind
engaged until the required awakening takes place.
168 The Science of Yoga

Question : When will the Astral body be burnt?

Answer : Within the first two steps, the astral body will
be burnt because there will be no desire body at all after
the practice of the first two steps. The mental body also
will not be there. It will be absorbed by yourself. The
intellectual body is also not there because it melts away
into yourself. It is only pure yourself who exists and no
plane at all. Yet you will be awakened in every plane of
existence with anyone, but the astral body will not be there
because during the first steps, it will be burnt to ashes. That
is what is described in the scriptures about the yoga practice.
The finer vehicle exists which we call the etheric body.
It is required for us to act in this world and also because
our physical body is created by the etheric body every
second and every moment. The biochemistry of the tissues
of our body is produced and maintained only by the etheric
body. Therefore, it exists pure and crystal. So, if it is the
finer body, it exists. But, if it is the astral body, it is different.
What we call the astral body is nothing but the desire body
of ourselves. And, it will never exist when we begin to
practice real yoga.
Question : What is projection of the double?
Answer : What we call pratyahara means, absorbing the
senses and the mind in ourselves which we have described
as the fifth step of practice that creates the projection of
the double. While projecting, we will project astral matter.
There is no astral body to ourselves. We will project the
planetary astral matter of this earth because there is nothing
 Yoga and Attainment 169

bad in the astral plane of this earth. The astral plane is

different from the astral body. And even some standard
authors have committed mistakes in confusing the astral
body with the astral matter of this earth. The mistakes are
corrected, rectified and clearly explained in the books of
Alice A. Bailey.
The eight-fold yoga path student will work with the
astral plane of this earth and he does not have any astral body
at all. That is what happens when he projects his double. This
is possible in the fifth step Pratyahara. Patanjali himself
answered this question. He says Theevra samyogath
arambha. That means, the more devoted your attempt is,
the shorter the period will be.
Question : How much time will it take to get perfection
in Yoga practice? Is it the same to both
Occidentals and Orientals?
Answer : That is, when all other activities become part of
our yoga practice, it will be very short. But, if yoga practice
forms one of the items of our daily routine, then it may
take births and rebirths. Generally, an average time is seven
years. When we take up yoga as the ideal of our life
realization and make our vocational and domestic activities
part of yoga practice, then the average time is seven years
according to the scriptures.
It is for anyone because yoga practice is not for the
body but for the consciousness. The difference between the
Orientals and the Occidentals exists only in the
psychological unit, whereas the yoga practice is not an
170 The Science of Yoga

experiment conducted on the psychological unit. It is a

practice which is to be conducted upon ourselves directly.
We are always higher than our psychological unit. The
difference between Orient and the Occident doesn't exist
to ourselves, it exists to the psychological unit. It is true
that the psychological unit of an Occident is stronger than
the psychological unit of the Orient. The result is, it is more
individualistic and more personal in its strength. The
advantage of it is to perceive a thing against any disturbance.
The disadvantage of the Occidental psychological unit is,
it offers great resistance to the change that should take place
because the personality never submits to something which
is not understood. Unless you understand, you will never
accept to submit yourself. But, you are something beyond
your own understanding. Therefore you can't understand
yourself before you submit. This vicious circle takes a
longer time.
When awakening begins to take place, it is the awakening
of yourself and not the psychological unit. That time, the
difference between the Oriental and the Occidental doesn't
exist because the fact that we are born either in the Orient
or Occident is intended by Nature. It is not an accident.
Nature always intends only in a positive way. It is only
according to our states of evolution and according to the
needs of our future evolution that we are placed in a particular
nation or a country.
Question : At what stage do we need a Master to guide us?
Answer : Up to the fourth stage, a Master is definitely
necessary. Until we attain the happiness of pranayama, a
 Yoga and Attainment 171

Master is necessary. Even afterwards, a Master is necessary

in some other sense. From within ourselves, we will be
receiving our own instructions from the fourth step onwards.
But since verification is necessary for our own confidence,
our Master is still necessary even after the fourth step.
During the first four steps, he will instruct us because we
do not know. But afterwards he will give his verification to
what we receive from within. Our verification is the only
guide which gives us information that we are going on the
right lines. For that purpose, the Master is necessary up to
the stage of the Samadhi. During the first four steps, a
Master is absolutely necessary. During the last four steps,
he is necessary for verification.
Question : Can you explain the conditioning of Karma?
Answer : When a person is dreaming a horrible dream, a
night mare that a murderer is trying to kill him, running
behind his back and he is trying to escape by running and
running. Suppose that a person is dreaming like this, you
will know at every step the person fears. But the fear is only
conditioned by a dream. But it is as true as anything to the
one who is dreaming. What is the influence of his awakening
from sleep upon his dream? The whole dream disappears.
So, the whole of his karma will be made null and void and
a zero because he will be awakened into his real living. All
the layers of self-conditioning will disappear immediately.
The karma results are only self-conditioning. There will
be no karma to him at all. But, yet there is one thing. When
a boy is throwing stones on the electric lights, when you
go and catch his hand, stones will be stopped. But, the stone
172 The Science of Yoga

that was already thrown cannot be stopped. Similarly, the

results of his past karma upon his physical body, but all the
other results can be neutralized. This is because his physical
body is not a body at all, but it is only a resultant of many
thousands of forces at work just as a soap bubble is not an
independent item, it is only a resultant of soap, water and
air though it appears as an independent item. Similarly our
physical body is also a resultant of equilibrium of thousands
of forces of work.
When a disturbance is created, it is bound to reflect
upon the physical body. Therefore, except the physical
results upon the physical body, everything becomes null and
void as a dream about the past karma. It is only very late
that wisdom dawns.
Question : Is it possible to heal the deformity?
Answer : A deformity can never be healed but what best can
be done can be done. When a surgical operation is required,
when it becomes inevitable, it should also be conducted and
then healing should complete the process. There are still
some cases where the defect is either congenital or
irreparably damaged. In such cases, damage can never be
restored but health and hope and magnetism can be restored.
Deformities generally cannot be totally restored.
Homeopathy is suited for any constitution, but we cannot
claim that homeopathy can cure every disease.
Question : Is Homeopathy suitable to everyone?
Answer : Yes, it is a fact that homeopathy is suitable for
anyone in this world. There is no one to whom homeopathy
 Yoga and Attainment 173

is not suitable. According to the science of healing and

according to homeopathy and according to every system
except allopathy, it is the evil force that is called disease
and all the other parts of the disease are called the
manifestations of disease. Homeopathy is discovered only
to dispel that evil force which is called the real cause of
the disease. Similarly in healing also, the evil force is
understood as disease and not its manifestation. In a magnet,
where there is a mixture of some other non-magnetic
substance, the defect is the existence of impurity and the
result is the lines of force and the magnet becoming ugly.
The thing to be cured is not the ugliness of the lines of force
but the impurity of the metal. When the impurity is removed
and when the magnetism is restored, then the lines of force
are orderly once again.
Similarly in all of us also, disease is an evil force which
exists in the form of impurity of thought. When a true healing
takes place either by homeopathy or spiritual healing, the
disposition of mind is rectified and then all the physical evils
are rectified. So, it is the evil spirit that is first rectified
without which there is no real cure.
The medicine in a homeopathic dose is not material.
But, the pill we use is material and the medicine exists only
on the vital plane and it works only on the nerve of the tongue
and no matter goes into the stomach. The stimulation of the
tongue nerve gives the required vibration to the cerebro-
spinal nervous system and then the cure starts. That is how
a homeopathy cure is expected to take place. Just as man
is a spirit and to convey him there is a physical body, similarly
174 The Science of Yoga

medicine in homeopathy is the dynamic dilution. The pill

is used only as a physical body to carry that dynamism. It
is only a sugar pill upon which a spirit solution is poured
and the spirit solution contains the dilution of medicine
where no medicinal substance exists at all except the quality
of the medicine. So, there is nothing physical in homeopathy
except in the vehicle of medicine.
Question : Is it a must to maintain regular timings for
any practice?
Answer : According to the convenience of the constitution
and according to the routine and the works we can choose
our own time either in the morning or in the evening.
Morning or evening does not make much difference. But,
what helps us most is to keep up at the same time. That is
the only most important thing. Some people to whom it is
not possible in the morning due to their professional activity
or something, they can choose the evening hours and for
those who have the evening hours not convenient, they can
choose the morning hours. But, the regularity of the same
time is the one thing which counts because the intelligences
and the forces of Nature will be ready to help us when we
are regular.
When you fix up a prior appointment and then make
people know of it, then they can come easily there before
the time, making themselves available by the time. So also
the various intelligences and forces of Nature should find
their place and time to help us. It becomes possible when
we maintain a place and a time. Even with the vital functions,
it is true. The digestion works very well when we have
 Yoga and Attainment 175

definite times to eat. For those who have no time to eat or

who go on frequently eating, the forces of Nature working
in the body cannot find the time when they can be ready.
Hence digestive irregularities occur. So, on all planes, the
intelligences and forces of Nature find a convenience when
you maintain a time.
Question : Is it so important to sit lengthwise when we
meditate?
Answer : It is because the dimensions of length and breadth
exist in our mind, not around us and the uniformity and
proportion of the concepts, length and breadth find their
comfort in having such proportions in the hall. By sitting
in the hall lengthwise you try to experiment and find out
the difference for yourself. When you sit down like this,
length wise in the hall and meditate and for one month you
do like that. Again, for another month you sit down there
and face that side and begin meditation, you will clearly find
the difference in the progress. When you sit facing length
wise, the progress is very rapid and uniform. Even in a lecture
hall, you can find that difference. When you face the audience
length wise, the communication on the mental and the
psychological planes will be most comfortable.
If you sit breadth wise and ask the audience to sit like
this, and face them breadth wise, the communication is most
inconvenient. It is like the relationship between the poles
of two magnets. I will give you another example also. We
can ask all these people to face that wall and sit down. We
can stand behind their back and give a lecture for one hour.
Is it audible or not? But is it psychological? Can they receive
176 The Science of Yoga

the same comfort as when they are facing us? What makes
the difference? It is the comfort of communication.
Similarly, a hall which is length wise gives the greatest
comfort for communication.
Question : Why do many temples face towards the East?
Please explain about the science behind the
directions.
Answer : Not only the churches and mosques but all the
temples of all major religions are oriented towards the East.
The word Orient means towards the East. It is a great tradition
that gives us that word Orient. That's why we automatically
use that word because of our relationship with the rotation
of the earth and apparent rise and set of the Sun.
When an insulated wire is coiled around an armature
and when electric current is passed through that insulated
wire, the armature behaves as a magnet. And suppose we do
not make it a coil, we use the wire as a lump and use the
armature and then the armature does not behave like a
magnet. What makes the difference? It is the arrangement
of the wire. Similarly, the apparent path of the Sun around
this earth makes its coil around this earth a big line of force
to all the beings living on this earth. In accordance with that
line of force, it is better for us to face the East. People
who could understand this, they arranged that every temple
should face the East.
If you go into the scriptural traditions of the ancient
nations, for example ancient India, ancient Egypt and ancient
Hebrew tradition, you will find the directions for sleep also.
It is said that one can sleep very healthily and comfortably
 Yoga and Attainment 177

with the head towards the south and most unhealthily and
uncomfortably with the head towards the North. And towards
the East or West, it means nothing. That is neither an
advantage or disadvantage. Based on this, there are allegories
which convey great truths in the scriptures.
For example, in the Indian scriptures, it is said that God
cut the head of one of His children and the Mother, who
is the force of Nature, the wife of God, grieved after it, felt
sorry for it and wanted that the son should be made alive
once again. Then, the Lord ordered that, 'whoever is sleeping
with his head towards the North may be marked and his head
cut and brought and we will attach that head to the neck of
this boy'. Then the angels of God went in all directions on
this earth and could not find anyone sleeping with their head
towards the North. At last, they could find an elephant
sleeping like that. They cut the head of the elephant and
brought it and God had attached that head to the neck of
this boy and it is whom we call Ganesha, the elephant God
with the body of a human being and the head of an elephant.
Of course, this story is only an allegory of some truths
concealed in it just as all the allegories of all the scriptures.
It includes the fact that it is not desirable for us to sleep
with our head towards the North.
It is positively said that it is very good to sleep with
the head towards the South. It is described that our vertebral
column is compared with a magnet. And the axis of our earth
is already a magnet and if you place one magnet upon another
with like poles, they repel. If you place them one upon
another with unlike poles, they will not only attract one
178 The Science of Yoga

another but also work as one magnet. Similarly, our vertebral

column is in tune with the axis of our earth when we lie
on the earth horizontally with our head towards the South.
And this much is described in all the scriptures.
Question : One Master teaches one thing and another
Master teaches another thing. Why is it so?
Answer : I practice my Master's path, the eight-fold path
of Raja Yoga, Patanjali and Bhagavad-Gita path. But each
of the Masters covers a portion of the field which is not
covered by the others. For example, Master C.V.V. has given
the methods to go into the consciousness of the various
planets. Any student can experience and gather the
information by himself. Any student who follows Master
C.V.V.'s path can travel through all the planes of the planets
and gather information and take down notes by himself. And
anyone doing the same independently gets the same
information in the same way with the same experience. That
part of the work is covered by Master C.V.V, whereas the
teaching of wisdom to the 20th century man is covered by
Master Djwhal Khul.
So, the same work is done by each Master in a different
field of action. Yes, definitely there is a supplementary aspect
also. The one which is not covered by one Master is clearly
covered by the other Master. As far as I know there cannot
be incompatibilities between two Masters. I have been
teaching Djwhal Khul's teachings and C.V.V.'s teachings for
the past twenty years. I have trained many batches in India
and till today, I did not find any incompatibility anywhere.
And I think it is not possible also.
 Yoga and Healing

thank you all for the happy presence you have given me
I this evening also. I thank the hosts of the evening who
have created this occasion. According to the programme,
we are expected to talk about yoga and something about
healing today. This is already a yoga school and I feel very
happy to speak about yoga in a yoga school. When we find
yoga schools here, we have great hope for the physical
fitness of humanity in the future. The Asanas are regularly
taught and practiced in the yoga schools. Practicing Asanas
regularly, first of all it minimizes the inequalities of physical
health and makes the physical body fit more and more as
time advances.
Purpose of Yoga Asanas
As age advances, the physical body shows its
inequalities but as the Yogasana practice advances in years,
these inequalities are minimized year by year. Many people
find that healing starts with themselves when they practice
the Yoga Asanas. In fact, healing should start from oneself.
Unless one is perfectly healthy, one cannot claim to heal
others because the confidence upon healing and the self-
180 The Science of Yoga

confidence upon the healer will not be there if the physical

body is not fit. The circulation becomes more brisk by the
Yogasanas and the respiration becomes more active
according to the standards of the ancient yoga system.
The number of breaths will be decreased and the volume
of breathing is increased by practicing the Yoga Asanas. It
is a fact observed and accepted even by doctors, 'that the
more rapid the respiration is, the more number of breaths
will take place in each minute and the quantity of breath and
the length of breath will be minimized.' When we practice
the yogasanas in a systematic way along with some pranayama
also, then the speed of the respiration will be controlled
and the magnitude of each respiration will be increased. This
increases the span of life and the health of the body during
the span.
Every part of our body and every muscle will be under
our control. Every nerve will work with responsibility and
especially the cerebrospinal nervous system will be
stimulated daily and the ductless glands become more and
more active. The whole endocrine system will become
meaningful and it will have a link with our conscious mental
body. Then the moments of our daily routine become more
and more meaningful. Gradually we begin to do only what
is significant, what is useful to us and others. And gradually
we minimize things that are not so very significant. The time
spent in daily pleasures will be minimized and the time used
for some utilitarian aspect will be increased. The daily
routine becomes more and more significant so that the span
is filled with some meaningfulness. This is the starting point
 Yoga and Healing 181

of yoga practice and also the starting point of healing. The

power to heal comes only from the power to utilize time
and opportunity.
One who is automatically a master of his daily routine,
one who has the capacity to conduct his routine exactly in
the same manner as he has done yesterday and to keep up
his timings regularly without any strain and effort, then one
gains mastery over one's life span. A mastery over the
environment is also automatically achieved. Mastery over
forces within and without will be simultaneously achieved.
The magnetism in the human constitution will be increased.
The lines of force that are working through our body become
more and more regular just like the lines of force in a magnet.
The lines of force that are working through our body or our
intentions and thoughts, our hopes and our intentions and
also the work we do will be increased. The quantum of work
we do will increase with practice of yoga. Though Asanas
form only a part of yoga, they will form the basis to practice
yoga in future.
First of all, we become more and more self- conscious
and less and less nervous. Nervousness leads us into a crazy
way of living, whereas self- consciousness leads us into the
magnetism of life. This is the point where we achieve mastery
over healing powers.
Purpose of Healing
Healing is nothing but establishing health and it is the
arrangement of the lines of force that makes the difference.
When the lines of force are ill arranged, it is what we call
182 The Science of Yoga

ill health and it causes disease and it causes the various

symptoms on the physical and mental plane. What we call
nervousness and irritability, what we call restlessness and
impulsive nature are only signs of ill health and sickness.
The more and more we have sickness in us, the more and
more we grow nervous and over-sensitive to others. Then
our behaviour will be distorted and conditioned according
to the presence of people around us. Our behaviour changes
with the persons present around us and the nature of the
persons around us will alter the nature of our existence. This
is the cause of all diseases in its true sense and when man
begins to live in confusion and hurry and always feeling that
his time is not enough for the daily routine, then he gradually
goes into disease and this is what we call the opposite of
yoga.
The lines of force in us when ill arranged cause all these
evils. They make us think that people around us are disturbing
us. That the people around us are forming competition for
us and gradually we begin to fight with society. This is the
first sign of ill health and disease. When this begins to dwell
with us, then the production of the tissues in the body will
be altered. And a disturbance in the production of tissues
causes clinical disturbances. That is the cause of what we
understand as physical ailments. Especially a busy way of
living, a great tension under which we live and an over-
sensitive nature towards other people will cause insomnia,
headache, sometimes metabolic diseases like constipations,
diarrhea, disorders of liver and pancreas and more commonly
the disorder of the kidneys.
 Yoga and Healing 183

All these bring a crisis at a particular stage and when

we begin to use medicines regularly in large quantities, the
medicinal substances also begin to play their havoc in us,
just as in an industrial city the air is polluted, the water is
polluted, the roads are polluted and the whole atmosphere
is polluted. Similarly in a body full of medicines, the blood
is polluted, the nervous system is polluted, the kidneys, the
blood vessels, the heart and lungs are polluted. Every
functional organ will be polluted and the whole human
constitution becomes a big industrial city, when life becomes
impossible.
We begin to live suffocated in this body just as we live
suffocated in a big city. When you go to a real countryside,
which is not polluted, you can take a bath and you can drink
the water in the river and then you will feel very happy.
Similarly, when you begin to practice yoga, you will
begin to feel the freshness of life more and more. As the
circulation becomes more and more equal; when the cerebro-
spinal nervous system begins to work more harmoniously;
when the two vagus nerves work simultaneously, when the
kidneys begin to function in a harmonious way, then the
psychological forces will be harmonized. The freshness of
life will be experienced and you will find that you are already
being healed.
So, a practice of yoga should start with a yoga school
like this, but it should not stop there. A practice of yoga
is only a beginning and the advanced practices of yoga should
also be practiced afterwards. But everything will be made
possible only if you take daily Asanas. The incentive to take
184 The Science of Yoga

Asanas daily will be given by the presence of a yoga school

and a group of people, who are practicing yoga with you,
begin to give you health. Health exists in living as a company
and loneliness gives disease. Sometimes people think that
they have to practice yoga in loneliness. But neither healing
nor yoga is useful when it is practiced alone.
The great Masters of yoga teach us one essential aspect
about the fundamental practices. They teach you that you
should be functioning like a string in an instrument of music.
When it is in harmony with the other strings, then only it
is called a musical instrument. Similarly when you begin
to establish a harmony with other people around you, you
are fit to practice yoga and your yoga practice will continue.
Otherwise you will feel after some time that you are having
some impediments and then your incentive to practice yoga
will go down and after some time you will stop. Only those
who can keep company with others with the right
relationship and proper human relations can continue to
practice yoga until its culmination. Others who practice only
Yoga Asanas and who do not care for the other aspects of
yoga, they will practice Asanas for health for some time
and then they feel like stopping it. They lose interest gradually
and someday they drop off.
More than two years they cannot practice. Those who
can practice for more than two years are those who are really
interested in the advanced steps of yoga. They will be able
to keep company with others and have the right relationship
with others. Our relationship with our parents, our brothers,
our friends, our classmates, wife and husband, children,
 Yoga and Healing 185

neighbours and our colleagues at office, all these

relationships form part of yoga practice. When we keep all
these relations in a proper way, then only we are called
students of yoga. Then only it is possible for us to heal in
its true sense.
If we ignore the other aspects and begin to practice yoga
singly, disease begins to take its origin in our mind, making
us think that we are practicing yoga and therefore we are
greater than others. This is the origin of disease. When we
begin to keep company and social relationships with others
and a good spirit of service, then the real yoga practice starts
with us and it makes us continue the yoga practice.
What to do after Asanas?
Every day after practicing the Asanas and after taking
a bath, you have to sit down in a comfortable posture, make
your body comfortable, relax every muscle and nerve, relax
the mind and for some time begin to observe your own
respiration, meditating upon the Mantra 'So-Hum'. Then you
will go into meditation gradually. The mind begins to get
itself absorbed in respiration and the process of respiration
gets absorbed in the mind. The two become one. A great
ease, comfort and relaxation will be experienced.
A change will be observed in all the parts of the body.
The change will be like that of a magnet which is different
from that of an iron rod. Just as when an iron rod is being
magnetized, every molecule of the iron rod is awakened into
magnetism. Similarly this change will occur in you and you
will feel that every molecule of your body will be awakened.
186 The Science of Yoga

You will find yourself different. And all the discomfort and
the burdensome attitude of your mind will go away.
Test yourself
When you feel any part of your daily routine
burdensome in the mind, that means your yoga practice is
not correctly going on. It is the right test to see if your yoga
practice is going on in the right lines or not. Only when you
find that you are not impatient with anyone and if you do
not dislike anyone in the daily routine, if you do not feel
inconvenienced in the presence of everyone, then only you
should understand that your practice of yoga is going on
right lines. If you find that some people are not liked by
you, if this idea continues and if your impressions about
them continue, and if you have unfavourable thoughts about
others and continue for a long time, and if you remember
your unhappy experience with others for a long time, that
means your yoga practice is not going on right lines. There
must be something wrong in our practice. We should know
it and rectify it. Then once again the change begins to occur.
You will begin to feel pleasant with everyone because you
will begin to feel pleasant with yourself. There will be a
pleasant muse twenty-four hours in you and as long as the
pleasant muse is with you, you will find the presence of
anyone pleasant to you.
Just as when your spectacles are coloured, you will find
everyone through that colour. Similarly, when your mind is
pleasant with you, you will find everyone around you
pleasant. This is the right type of test to test your progress
in yoga. And this is the starting point of healing. If you are
 Yoga and Healing 187

pleasant in your mind all the twenty-four hours, if you are

not irritable and wild with anyone, if you are not nervous
with anyone, if you do not experience fear, suspicion,
jealousy then your mind is healed. And that mind heals your
body.
So, in your daily practice of yoga, when your body
begins to take this change, you will be able to observe it
in the form of a beautiful colour also. Mentally you will
begin to feel that there is something blue around you or
something golden yellow around you. Some harmonious
colour will be felt mentally by you when you are doing your
work and duty regularly. You will be able to read books
continuously or do your office work continuously and you
do not feel bored. The monotony will not be found by you.
Every work is found fresh by you and you will feel every
moment fresh in life. This is the result of meditation.
Right type of Pranayama
Meditation shall be practiced along with pranayama.
Right type of pranayama is relaxation of breath. When
you practice a harmonious way of breathing, when you
begin to breathe in a slow, soft and deep manner and at
the same time thinking of your breath, you will find the
exact coincidence of the prana and mind. The pulsations
of your life will absorb your mind. The mind becomes
harmonious and the respiration becomes uniform. The
uniformity of the respiration keeps harmony in the mind.
When the mind is harmonious, your body is gradually
healed, your nervous system is healed and all the
nervousness will go away. You will find everything
188 The Science of Yoga

pleasurable. Your appetite increases, the metabolic

activity increases, diseases will rectify themselves day by
day and diseases disappear finally. The usage of
medicines will be minimized day by day. It is your duty
to see that you do not over drug your constitution and
it is enough if you use medicines only when it is an
emergency.
Healing Magnetism
This magnetism will be flowing out from your body and
people begin to feel it just as pieces of iron begin to feel
the presence of a magnet from a distance. The people around
you feel your presence and the presence of healing
magnetism. It will be experienced in the form of some
happiness. Your friends begin to discover that they are happy
in your presence and that their minds are calm in your
presence. Their thoughts are suspended as long as they are
in your presence. Suspension of thoughts marks the
beginning of healing. When the speed of the mind is
controlled, when it is made harmonious, then people begin
to get healed even without their own knowledge. Sometimes
when people with a great headache and heaviness of head
meet you and talk to you for five minutes, they will find
that their headache disappeared. When they go home, they
go with great energy and all the fatigue is gone. When they
experience it twice or thrice, they will begin to talk to you
about this. The topics that are being discussed with you begin
to heal them because they do not have the critical nature
with them. Nobody will be able to argue with you because
your argumentative nature has gone from you. A nature of
 Yoga and Healing 189

revelation and nature of intuition begin to dawn from you

and a nature to understand how things are correct dawns from
you. The capacity to discover the goodness in others and
all people will have their goodness stimulated in your
presence.
Why do Healers become sick?
This is the real practice of healing. Without such a
practice of meditation and the Asanas, healing cannot be
properly practiced. Healing practiced by a neurotic and an
over sensitive fellow will not have the same comfort as it
is practiced by a yoga student. He may sometimes heal other
patients, but he himself becomes a patient. Every time he
heals others, he becomes sick and he gets the auto-suggestion
that he is taking their diseases. It is utterly false. It is correct
that you can heal others of their troubles, but it is utterly
false that you take their diseases. Is it a fact that when a
doctor gives medicine to a patient, when the patient is healed,
is it true that the doctor becomes sick? The doctor is there
only to convert the patient into a healthy man by the power
of his medicine. Similarly the healer is there to convert the
sick man into a healthy man by the power of his own
magnetism.
The difference between the doctor and a healer is only
the medicine and the magnetism. The doctor uses the
medicine in the physical sense, whereas the healer uses the
medicine in the spiritual sense. Both the things are medicine
in two different forms. And there is no necessity for the
healer to become sick. Still there are some people who
believe in it that when they are healing, they are becoming
190 The Science of Yoga

sick and that they are taking the diseases of the patients.
They think that it is a great service. It is not true. It is a dis-
service to the society because their presence increases the
nervousness and restlessness in others also.
Healing and Healer
A healer is essentially a healthy man and it is always
a great pleasure for him to heal. The more cases he heals,
the more pleasurable his constitution is. Just as the right
musician is not fatigued after giving a song, so also the right
type of healer is not sick after a healing. Is it a fact that
the musician who makes the audience pleased with his music
goes into great sorrow after the music and believes that he
has taken all the sorrows of the audience. It is only fooling
oneself. Same is the case with healing also. If people get
sickness after healing, it is only by the power of their auto-
suggestion. It is because they strongly believe that they take
the diseases of the patients. As they begin to believe this
daily, it becomes true with them.
The power of Auto-suggestion
This is what is called the power of auto- suggestion.
The power is there with us to use in a right sense and not
in a negative sense. So, everyone should not rush so hastily
into the art of healing. One should be positive at first before
one becomes a healer. He should know and realize the
positive nature of healing and understand that all the negative
nature is created by himself and not by the healing. This is
an essential step which is to be taken before one becomes
a healer.
 Yoga and Healing 191

The real type of healing requires a good sense of

cleanliness also. Of course, there are certain elements which
are not so very readily possible in the Occident, but it is
necessary for us to know those things. So that someday we
may be able to practice them. The one thing is, to have a
daily bath in plenty of water to keep all the parts of the body
clean. The second thing is to take as much water as possible.
Fruit juices will be helpful but without water they will not
give any health at all. A major portion of water drunk daily
is necessary to become a good healer and a good yogi.
Alcoholic drinks should be left off and prohibited to become
a healer or a yogi.
Among the food materials also, rich dinners should be
avoided. Green vegetables and raw uncooked foods should
be taken more and more. Spicy and costly dishes should be
minimized. Quality of the food should be increased and
quantity should be reduced. The carbohydrates and the
starches should be reduced and proteins and vitamins should
be increased. All types of narcotic nature, that is cannabis,
opium etc. should be completely avoided.
Preparation for Healing
One room should be separately maintained in the house
where he and his family members can practice either healing
or yoga. The room should be kept clean and pious. His
traditional way of prayer should be conducted there regularly
at the same appointed time. The prayer should be according
to his family tradition or according to the initiation of a
Guru. The uniformity in prayer should be maintained. The
type of prayer should not be altered often. This is one aspect.
192 The Science of Yoga

Another aspect is, you should change your clothes when

you enter your shrine room. When you have a separate set
of clothes in the shrine room, it is the best way to practice
healing because impurities are not only physical, they are
also astral, etheric and psychological. All these should be
prevented. They can be prevented by only changing the
clothes before you enter the shrine room and washing your
hands and feet before you enter the shrine room. If it is not
possible to maintain a shrine room in every house, you can
make it possible by having one hall for a group of
practitioners. There may be a hall where healing and yoga
can be practiced. But, the same purity should be maintained.
The hall should be kept pure. Some perfume and incense
should be there in the hall. It should be a little ventilated
so that air comes into the hall. Otherwise you know what
happens? When we begin to practice yoga or healing in a
hall, after half an hour the oxygen in the hall will be exhausted
and we will be breathing out and breathing in the same foul
air again and again and the result is vertigo, not healing. When
we close our eyes, and begin to practice meditation, we will
feel some strange vertigo in our eyes and we may deceive
ourselves by illusions that it is Samadhi. Insufficiency of
oxygen leads to a toxic type of Samadhi. So, there should
be a continuous supply of air into the room and people should
be able to breathe oxygen even after they sit in the hall for
a long time.
There should be an altar on one side in the hall and the
hall should not be a square or an irregular shape of room.
It should be in the form of a rectangle. The most useful
 Yoga and Healing 193

method is to have 1x1/3rd length and breadth. That is, if the

breadth is one unit, the length should be three units. In such
a hall, practice of meditation and practice of healing will
be conducted in a very ideal manner. After taking all these
precautions, then only you should begin to heal.
How to heal the patient?
In the beginning stages, you bring the patient into the
hall. Ask the patient to sit before you at a distance not less
than six feet from you. People should not sit close. The healer
should sit separately and the person to be healed should sit
before him. You can heal a number of people also at a time.
In fact, it is easier to heal a number of persons than to heal
one person at a time. It is only an arrangement of the
magnetism of the various constitutions. See how it is easier
to arrange a set of electrical cells into a battery either in
the AC arrangement or in the DC arrangement either in
parallels or in series.
You know that a group of generators arranged will give
a greater energy than a single generator. Same is true with
our human constitutions also. If you make people sit in rows
uniformly, so that one sits at the back of the other in a perfect
row and then another row, a third row, so that the vertical
and horizontal rows are uniformly arranged. Then they are
ready to allow healing magnetism to flow. If you daily make
a group of people to sit like this and meditate or pray, they
begin to get healed. The secret is you need not heal them.
They begin to get themselves healed. It is because of the
arrangement in which you made them sit. You have to sit
at a distance facing them, a bit higher than they sit. Your
194 The Science of Yoga

head should be at a higher level than the heads of those who

are to be healed.
If you sit horizontally in a line with others you will not
be able to heal. Even an expert in hypnotism cannot hypnotize
a person who is sitting on a higher level from himself. So,
just as in hypnotism, you have your method of ease and
comfort. Similarly in healing also you have your own method
of ease and comfort. The best way for you is to have
something to sit upon such a seat which is a little bit higher
than others who are to be healed.
The best process of Healing
Then you close your eyes and ask others also to close
their eyes. Then you practice your own daily practice. That
is observing your own respiration and invoking the mantra
"So-Hum" in your respiration. This is the process in which
you have to make others sit and then the best process to
heal is given by the ancients. I will explain it here.
When you sit in prayer daily, you turn to the East
and sit down, close your eyes, and make yourself
comfortable at the time of Sunrise. Imagine that the energy
is flowing from the Sun to the centre of your eyebrows.
Then imagine that it is entering into your head through
your eyebrows and then it is gradually descending into
your heart centre. Then from the heart centre, it is
expanding into all parts of your body resulting in an
experience of comfort and relaxation. This is the practice
you have to do when you want to become a healer.
 Yoga and Healing 195

Healing others
Then when the person to be healed is before you, you
should imagine that the same force is travelling from you
from your heart centre to the brow centre of the person
to be healed and from his brow centre it enters into his
heart centre. And from his heart centre, it expands
throughout his body causing comfort and relaxation to
all parts of his body. This is the process with which you
have to heal.
Healing and Sun
So, the healing magnetism starts from the Sun. It enters
into you through your brow centre from your brow centre,
it enters into your brain. From your brain centre, gradually
it descends into your heart. From your heart, it expands into
every part of your body. And from your heart centre, it forms
a line of force again and enters into the brow centre of the
person to be healed. And from there it enters into his head
centre. From there it descends into his heart centre. From
there, it expands into all parts of his body causing relaxation
and comfort. And this heals the person.
Healing is possible in the first steps only when the
diseases are nervous and mental. Temporary ailments will
be easily healed. Fever and headache will be very easily
healed. Hypertension will be healed. Any pain or discomfort
in any part of the body can be very easily healed. But diseases
having deep seated causes cannot be healed. As you gain
experience in life in later years, you will be able to heal
those diseases also by creating a healing centre in the person
196 The Science of Yoga

to be healed. It takes one year or two years in such cases

to get healed, but that's no disqualification. Even in the case
of medicines, sometimes treatment takes ten years and
fifteen years or twenty years. Even then there are cases that
are not cured by medicine. So, when the doctors are helpless
about that, you have no business to get discouraged.
Creating a Healing Centre
Know the art of creating a healing centre in the person
to be healed himself. The one thing you should practice in
the positivism of healing is, 'don't develop dependency in
the person to be healed.' See how the professional doctor
tries to make the patient dependent upon him; see how the
professional doctor has an art of making the patient always
doctor addicted! You should not have the same mentality
with the person to be healed.
If the patient learns to believe that he has to come to
you every day to get healed, it is not a healthy type of healing.
First of all, before you can induce confidence in him, you
ask him to come and sit with you for about a month or two
or three. For some people, one week will be enough. For
very sensible and sensitive people, two or three days are
enough. But there are people who want two or three months
before they gain confidence in themselves. They feel cured
and they get cured, but anytime whenever they have any
discomfort, they feel like running to you or telephoning you.
Such a mentality should not be encouraged. You should make
the person believe and understand that the healing centre
of magnetism is within himself and not within the healer.
That is called the right type of healing.
 Yoga and Healing 197

Confidence is the one which heals. The ideas sent

through a line of confidence form the line of force which
rearranges all the forces in him in a correct way. Every
thought current rearranges the forces of the body. Our
everyday thoughts are also forming lines of force that are
changing the direction of force in us. But, since our
thoughts are not regular and organized, the lines of force
we produce are suffering cross currents. One line of force
comes in the way of the other and the result is a fighting
of lines of force in us and we feel fatigued.
Work never gives us fatigue but our idea of working
too much gives us fatigue.
Our auto-suggestion makes us sick of our work. Every
one of us by birth has an amount of self-pity which should
be expelled. Everyone feels, 'poor fellow, I am working too
much. I require being encouraged. I want other people also
to work for me'. Such dirty ideas will be working in us and
causing discomfort, fatigue and disease. If there is real
fatigue to the body, automatically the body indicates sleep
and immediately you should go to sleep. All the other types
of fatigue are only an auto-suggestion and the result of self-
pity.
All these things will go away when you become a healer
and you should induce the same thing in the person to be
healed also. The greatest type of healing is to prepare healers
and not to prepare patients just as the professional medical
practitioner does. It may be the daily prayer of a medical
practitioner every morning going to the altar of God and
saying, "My Lord! May the number of patients increase for
198 The Science of Yoga

me." Your prayer should not be like that. The prayer of a

healer should be in such a way that the number of healers
in this world should increase. The best way of getting healed
is to become a healer.
For the past fifteen years it is the experience of our
doctors in India who are working in my clinics. As they begin
to work in the clinics dealing with the poor people and sick
people, they begin to forget about their own maladies and
at the end of one year they find themselves more than half
cured of their chronic diseases. At the end of two years,
they feel they are almost cured. At the end of three years
they are in perfect health. They are wondering how they are
cured because they never take medicines. It is only very rarely
they take a dose of medicine when it is an emergency. Still
when you visit India, you can see how the doctors in our
clinics are healthy; how they are gradually cured of their
chronic diseases without medicines.
So, a real healer should make a patient a healer. That
is the ideal of healing. And if you practice healing on these
lines, you can practice according to any method of healing.
You can use any formula to heal according to your instructor,
but the positive attitude is most important.
Question : Some people believe that they are getting the
diseases of the patients after they give
healings. Is it true?
Answer : The absence of any negative attitude should be
first practiced. The auto-suggestion that you are getting the
diseases of your patients should go away. And also, the auto-
 Yoga and Healing 199

suggestion that you are spending your energy when you are
healing should go away. Many people believe that they are
using their energy to heal. The result is, they feel very weak
after healing. It is also a result of auto-suggestion. It is not
a fact that anyone uses his magnetism for healing. Healthy
magnetism comes from the solar rays and enters into us
every minute, day and night. Therefore, healing magnetism
is no one's property to be personally used. It is a foolish
idea, if we think that it is our energy that we are pouring.
This idea gives a great cause of sickness and ill health. So,
this idea should also be removed.
The fact is that the healing magnetism comes from the
Sun and our body is absorbing energies from the space, from
the air and from the Sun's rays. It should be remembered
and maintained. The healing energy passes through us, not
from us. If the electric wire thinks that electricity is supplied
by it, it is wrong. Electricity is supplied through the wire,
not by the wire. Similarly, healing magnetism is supplied
through us, not by us.
This is the sum total of healing and the last point I want
to impress upon you about healing is, "We need not make
a demonstration of healing while we are healing. We need
not produce many gestures and postures like a dancer or
the gestures and the postures of a high priest. You can sit
down in an aeroplane and silently heal the passengers.
Because, it is through you that the energy flows. If you find
anyone fatigued in the aeroplane or the train or the bus, you
can heal him. Anyone going in the street is weak, you can
200 The Science of Yoga
walk behind him at a distance and silently heal him. In your
experience, you will find many miracles and wonders."
A real healer never makes an advertisement of his
healing. Of course, a professional healer, he has to make
an advertisement of his healing because he lives upon it.
But, for all of you, people like you, you can do the healing
service without any noise. In the routine of twenty-four
hours, you can heal any number of people in this busy world.
Especially those whom you meet daily, like your colleagues
in your office or your teachers or your students, you can
heal them at first. After one or two years, you will find them
quite healthy. They need not know the cause. They need not
give you a diploma. It is Nature that confers upon you the
real diploma because you are not a professional healer. This
is all about healing but in short because our time is short.
Question : What is the relationship between Karma and
Healing?
Answer : Any sickness, little or big, is karmic. When the
sickness is temporary and of a little nature, it is the result
of a little karma. When the sickness is of a prolonged nature,
it is the result of a prolonged karma. If the karma is so
prolonged, that the tissues of this body are not capable of
getting completely healed, then the healing will be only
partial. Sometimes if you find a person who is very old and
the disease incurable, the only healing you can do is to make
him not suffer. You can make an anesthetic effect upon him,
but you can never cure some diseases. We can cure only
as much as we are permitted by the Lord Almighty. So, it
 Yoga and Healing 201

all depends upon the maturity of the karma and as a result,

the curability or the incurability of the disease.
One thing is certain. If the age is reasonable, diseases
that cannot be cured by any type of medicine can be cured
by a healing method, provided the healer and the healed are
in tune with each other and have the same amount of
confidence upon healing and confidence upon each other.
Then only a complete cure is possible. There are certain
diseases where even a healer cannot do anything. It is enough
if we meditate on the light of the Sunrise. It carries all the
colours of healing.
Karma means scientifically speaking only something
wrong done and the results being experienced. The science
of karma teaches us that good karma is also done by us just
as bad karma is done by us. And just as bad results are
experienced, good results are also experienced. Healing is
a good karma and it does not require any inquiry because
human welfare is God's first thought. The moment we have
the pious idea to heal or relieve somebody from suffering
makes us enter into the kingdom of God and work as one
of his vehicles.
So, all the karma is subordinate to God's will. Unless
God permits the other fellow to have his good karma done,
unless he has a good karma done in the past, he cannot come
into the presence of a good healer. And with its result, he
comes to the purview of a good healer and nothing needs
to be doubted about it. When we begin to practice in a group,
after some experience we can heal people sitting with us
even without their own knowledge. When we complete our
202 The Science of Yoga

meditation of healing daily, we invoke healing of all those

who are unhappy on this earth.
Lord Maitreya has given Mantra to be uttered by all healers.
The Mantra
Loka Ssamastha Sukhino Bhavanthu.
Loka Ssamastha means, "All planes of existence on this earth
and the beings that are on the planes. "Sukhino Bhavanthu
means,"May they receive happiness, comfort and health."
It should be uttered daily when we get up from our
meditation. So, that is the duty of a healer to send a healing
invocation to all those who are living on this earth. At the
same time, some people require some confidence to get
themselves cured. They come to you and they ask you to
heal. In their cases, you have to conduct a ritual-like
procedure. It is not for you, but for them to invoke
confidence in themselves. So, you have to provide whatever
is required for the psychological plane of that person to be
healed.
Thank you all
 The Science of
Reincarnation
am asked to speak about some aspects of "Reincarnation"
I this evening. Reincarnation is also sometimes called
Rebirth. It is supposed that in some parts of the globe, the
people believe in reincarnation. It was understood to be a
belief sometime ago. It was considered to be a religious
belief of certain people. But as time passed on, people came
to know of Evolution on this Earth.
The coming of Darwin and his followers has once again
brought the "Theory of Evolution" on this earth and many
scientists have improved upon Darwin theory till now. Even
now the theory of evolution according to biology remains
defective. There are still many things to be explained and
there are no proper explanations to those gaps that are to
be filled up.
In the meanwhile the science has developed in many
branches and the Science of Spiritualism also developed and
many branches of science of spiritualism also developed.
They have gradually covered the missing links of evolution.
Now because of the foremost thinkers of the world till now,
many gaps in the theory of evolution have been filled up.
204 The Science of Yoga

Now we have a self-sufficient theory of evolution which

can answer and clear off all the doubts of the biological
student.
The theory contains three aspects in it.
1. The Theory of Evolution.
2. The Theory of Reincarnation
3. The Theory of Karma.
All three sciences put together form a self-sufficient
science and people who understand this self-sufficient
theory, now no more think that the theory of reincarnation
is a religious belief. It is not a belief but it is a scientific
truth, which is understood through sound commonsense, by
those who have an objective way of understanding. It is a
matter of experience by some people, who have undergone
spiritual discipline.
It is a matter of a simple scientific truth in the eyes
of the true scientist. In the meanwhile some imaginative
theories have also developed about reincarnation. Now there
are people who do not believe in the theory of reincarnation
and there are people who really understand and believe it.
There are people who don't understand but yet believe it;
there are people who have made their own theories calling
them, "Theories of Reincarnation".
Our purpose today is to pick up real theories which stand
to sound commonsense and the experience of those who
have undergone spiritual discipline, that is, who knew the
theory objectively and subjectively also. Those who believe
it only as belief have fantastic ideas about reincarnation.
 The Science of Reincarnation 205

Some people believe the living Soul may be born either

as a human being or as an animal. Many times we are born
as animals and also as human beings. The reason they
attribute it is that it is the result of their Karma that gives
them the birth of an animal or a human being; those who
did good deeds are born as human beings and those who
did bad deeds are born as animals and insects. For moral
teachings the theory may be good but the theory is only
imaginative and fantastic. It is foolish to believe it because
if animals were to be born as human beings, how can they
know the differences between good deeds and bad deeds?
How can they select good deeds and do good deeds and then
be born as human beings? Therefore it is not the truth of
it.
Some people believe that among the males and females
on this Earth, the males are reborn as only males and the
females are reborn only as females. There are people who
believe this theory in India and in the Occident also, I have
seen some people who believe this. It is also not true because
male and female are only biological conveniences of physical
body, though many of us are being conditioned by the instinct
of sex.
No living beings like males and females. The
difference between male and female is only a biological
convenience because the construction of the physical body
has some differences for child bearing and reproduction.
This is the difference caused by Nature in the construction
of the physical body and the tissues that are being
produced in the body and endocrine differences.
206 The Science of Yoga

All the other things are cultivated in the human mind

as the conditionings, because the much emotion and romance
which the human being feels about male and female is only
a self-cultivated fantasy, whereas the differentiation of sex
is Nature given and the sex instinct is intended for
reproduction. Therefore we cannot understand that there are
male souls and female souls.
For a person to be born as male and female, the necessity
is quite different and the reason is quite different. The reason
exists in Nature which teaches us many things. To be born
as a woman teaches us some aspects of life and to be born
as a man teaches us some other different aspects of life.
The two aspects give two different dispositions of the mind
which have their perfection in motherhood and fatherhood.
Since these two aspects are to be perfected by the Soul in
evolution, it is natural that every one of us should be born
as female many times and as male many times also. Unless
we are born as female, we don't have that particular
dimension of development, psychological or supra-
psychological. Same is the case with the male birth also.
Since Nature wants us to develop in all dimensions, it
gives us either male birth or female birth according to the
need of our evolution. It is not at all true that male souls
are born as males continuously and female souls are born
as females continuously. This does not stand to reason and
also there will not be a mutual understanding of male and
female, if this were to be true. The one fact in Nature is,
males try to understand females more. This is one of the
facts in Nature and the reason for this is the supplementary
 The Science of Reincarnation 207

development of the psychology of human beings. Since all

the dimensions are to be developed, a polarity is created
in Nature and attraction between opposite poles is also
created.
The whole Earth has its own axis which acts as a magnet
and wherever it is necessary in creation, Nature has
introduced a strange phenomenon of polarity that is
attraction and repulsion. The physical cells of male attract
females and the physical cells of females attract a male.
This is for the sake of reproduction, Nature has bestowed
us this polarity.
When all these things are carefully understood, it is
a fact that every one of us is to be born as a male or female
according to the required development of that dimension
of consciousness. Whichever dimension is required, that
particular birth is given to us.
When Mother Nature is to be supplemented, we are born
to play the role of wife. When the father nature is to be
supplemented, we are born to play the role of husband. When
immature, we play the role of husband and wife. When
maturity takes place we realize motherhood and fatherhood
with the child. That is what Nature expects from us. Therefore
we may be male or female in the next birth. Some people
believe we have alternate successions of male and female
births, when we are born as male this time, next time we
will be born as female. If we are female now, we will be
born as male next time.
This is what is called the Theory of Alternation. Some
people believe in this theory. Even that also stands only as
208 The Science of Yoga

a probability in certain cases and it cannot be reduced to

a theory. The probability is that a person who is weak in his
resistance against the sex instinct may have much of his
psychological mechanism dedicated to sex instinct. As a
result night and day he may be thinking of the opposite sex
and she may be thinking of her opposite sex. In that case
sometimes constant thinking may give an instinct to take
the birth of the opposite sex. It is only a probability and
cannot be a theory.
There is also another misconception among some
people in India that a couple will be born in the next birth
as a couple. That is a husband and wife in this birth will be
husband and wife in the next birth. This is also not true. But
the reason to think like this is there in India because in 80%
of the cases in India marriage is a mutual identification of
the couple to each other. There is no possibility of thinking
of a second marriage in many cases and the type of affection
an average couple has in India is something which is not
easily understood in the Occident. Such a relationship makes
the Indians think that husband and wife are born as husband
and wife again.
But it is like the theory that a husband and wife are
working in a city in two different departments. If the husband
is working in an office and the wife is working in some other
office, and when a transfer were to be made in the job, both
of them will be transferred to the same place is not possible.
It is like that. Nature has its own way of doing things. The
role of husband and wife, father and son, mother and
daughter, brother and sister- all the relationships are only
 The Science of Reincarnation 209

conditioned by one birth. They are not conditioned by the

next birth at all, because Nature is guided by progressive
procedure and not by sentiments which are equal to human
sentiments. We may have great affection for our brother,
mother, wife or sister, but that affection is only sentimental
and it is not based on any spiritual truth. But Nature's
procedure is always based on something progressive. Nature
wants to give the proper evolution and a gradual unfoldment
to the consciousness. It is intended by Nature like the
blossoming of all the petals of a flower. That is why Nature
makes groupings and rearrangements every time, so that
people of different natures will have common experience
and develop all dimensions of consciousness commonly.
We now come to comparatively and apparently
scientific arguments. Some people believe that the 'Theory
of Evolution' and 'Theory of Reincarnation' are connected
in such a way that the way in which we behave in this life
will give us a clue to understand the next birth. Sometimes
people believe that we can know our past birth also. There
are some experiments conducted on these lines. There is
much emotion about the theories and conclusions that are
drawn. People believe that they have an idea of the previous
birth of themselves. They go into some hypnotic sleep or
trance and make imaginations about other people and begin
to narrate stories after stories about the reincarnation of
others. This has become very common in the Occident during
the past 30 years. It has come to such a ridiculous extent
that a peculiar person telephoned in the middle of the night
to another friend of hers and said that I have discovered a
great truth.
210 The Science of Yoga

"What is it?" The friend asked.

She said, "I could understand who you were in your past
birth."
"And then who am I?" The friend asked.
She said, "You were Isaac Newton."
He was very much afraid to know if he were Isaac
Newton because if you were to accept it, tomorrow many
people would ask him questions about Newton's law. He has
to put on the face of Shakespeare. That means a different
field.
Another lady has met a young gentleman in one
Occidental country and said, "I discovered something sweet
about you".
He said "What?"
"In our past birth you were my husband," she said.
Then the fellow said, "What if? If so, if it were true what
to do now?"
She had no answer.
In India there was a story. A fellow approached a Sadhu,
a Sanyasi or a monk and wanted him to give power to know
his previous birth.
Then the monk said, "It is dangerous."
Then he said "No, No. I want it."
Then the monk gave him a little initiation for twenty
four hours.
 The Science of Reincarnation 211

Then the fellow had a peculiar vision. When he saw his

wife in the previous birth, unfortunately in this present birth,
she is the wife of another person. Both of them were going
on a motor bicycle to the cinema. He felt very jealous and
he followed them. He forgot that it was his previous birth
because he was in a trance. He became angry about the
person who was taking his wife. He straight went to the
cinema theatre and then sat by the side of his wife. Then
the real husband in this life pulled him by the collar and
gave him a kick. Then he came out of trance and went home
to see his wife in this life.
Such stories indicate that people have strange notions
about rebirth, but the reality is something different. There
is a good relationship between the theory of Karma and
Reincarnation. No doubt. The present life and the incidents
of life at present are supposed to be in relation with our
previous birth deeds.
For example, if I ill treated somebody in the previous
birth, in this birth I will be ill treated by somebody. And if
I injured anyone in the previous birth, that will be registered
in the memory. This memory gives a memory spot in the
particular tissues of the body and I will be born with weak
tissues in that part, so that I will have an incurable or
unavoidable disease like cancer in that part. This is a part
of the external truth of the Law of the Rebirth. But this is
not also the whole truth of it. If we are born as the result
of previous deeds, if that were to be true, what is the reason
for our first birth? There it has no answer. Therefore this
theory also does not stand to reason.
212 The Science of Yoga

Now what the Masters of Wisdom have understood

about the Law of Reincarnation is as follows:
The whole Solar System is undergoing a series of chain
actions and a part of which is the birth and development of
the Planets. Our Earth also is part of the Solar System. It
has its own series of chain actions in the making and
development of the Earth matter. It is against commonsense
that the Earth matter is a mass of some minerals because
there should be some consciousness which is preparing these
minerals otherwise minerals cannot aggregate into a planet
called Earth and keep itself intact as the Earth Globe. The
Earth Globe cannot rotate around its own axis in uniform
motion and activity and cannot go round the Sun in such a
uniform way and cannot produce the effects of seasons in
a uniform way. All these things prove that there is a team
of intelligences making up the Earth who are called the Devas
and the Deva kingdom. They are creating chain actions in
the matter of this Earth.
The minerals of the Earth are undergoing chain actions
of evolution- the liquids, solids, gases of the Earth are being
treated by the heat of the Sun and internal heat of the Earth.
A great experiment of conscious metallurgy is going on and
a great experiment of magnetism is going on and much
electricity is being produced on this Earth. The whole thing
is a big laboratory creating the chain actions of evolution.
This is giving the mineral evolution to the mineral atom,
and after completing which, the mineral atoms are entering
into the plant life, and after completing which, the plants
are entering into the animal kingdom, and after completing
 The Science of Reincarnation 213

which, the animals are being recruited into the human

kingdom. All this gives a gradual increase of the degree of
consciousness. The candle power of the awareness is
increased until we are human beings on this Earth.
After we are being recruited as human beings on this
Earth also, there are many chain actions that are going on
and much is to be unfolded in each of us through time.
This creates the necessity of reincarnation and the result
is we are born many thousands and thousands of times as
human beings on this Earth. Every time we are being purified
of our experience and again we are given a better opportunity
to do things better. We are permitted to do things on this
Earth because our doing requires thinking and understanding.
Our thinking and understanding will become better and better
when we are permitted to do things. We learn much from
the environment and we learn much through experience.
All that we have learnt is piled up in our brain cells as
recollection and memory. When this body is lost, all the
records of our memory are lost. We do not remember
anything and at the same time a micro photo of everything
is taken by our recollection and this recollection will be
preserved in the form of seed principle. We should not think
that all that we have learnt can be remembered because all
that we have learnt is not necessary for us. The enlightenment
and the experience we got are required.
Just as once in Five years or ten years, the records of
the office are being burnt after taking micro photo of
required documents, similarly all that we learnt, the arts,
sciences and information which are gathered and preserved
214 The Science of Yoga

like a mad man, will be mercilessly burnt away and the result
experience is kept as the quality of our intelligence. The
intelligence is also burnt away and the potentiality of
intelligence is preserved just as the banyan seed preserves
all the potential parts of a big banyan tree, not preserving
any physical tree at all. Similarly all the recollections are
preserved in essence only as potentialities, which can be
re-germinated when needed and according to those
potentialities we are born on this Earth again. The present
personality is nothing but a mosaic of all our potentialities.
That is the reason why it is very difficult to change the
personality of any person.
Sometimes you can change the beliefs of a person, you
can change the religion of a person, you can change the
political party and identification of a person but you can
never change the individual nature of a person. It is like the
signature of that person and it is like the handwriting of that
person. You can identify him only through that.
How can you identify your friend? It is not by the face.
Because when you see your friend after fifteen years or
twenty years, there is much difference in his face and body
also. Previously he had beautiful silk hair and after fifteen
years, if you see him he will be like a full moon, full bald
and the person will be very hefty now. But after talking with
him for five minutes, you will say "Hello! How are you?"
You are talking to the same person and then you will be able
to understand only by individual nature and personality.
It is not altogether difficult to change nature, but
normally speaking it is not possible because that gives the
 The Science of Reincarnation 215

totality of his previous experience and the result of his

previous behaviour; the totality of the previous behaviour
makes the present personality.
The cause for Rebirth
What is the cause for rebirth and reincarnation? Let us
try to understand. We know many times that we are not able
to lead our life meaningfully. It takes some time before you
can understand what life is. When we pass childhood and
when we come to the age of youth, there is the cloud of
emotion which prevents us from understanding the truth in
its true sense just as the Sun cannot be seen on a cloudy
day. We will spend much of our youth according to our
emotions and not according to our understanding.
The result is our body and mind are often misused by
us according to our taste and not according to our needs
in terms of food, drink, sex and enjoyment. Before we can
have a complete understanding of the mechanism of the body
and mind, the mechanism is often damaged beyond repair
and we have to put up with the damaged mechanism.
Nature has provided us with death and birth because it
wants to give us a fresh body and a fresh chance. A new
machine is given once again and a new lease of life and a
new span of life are given once again. Many times it is given
like this, so that we may be able to use the potentialities
of our experience and we begin to behave better and make
the use of the body and mind in proper manner until we try
to understand the purpose of body and mind. When once
the purpose is understood, the necessity of bodies is finished.
216 The Science of Yoga

That is the end of the births and rebirths. That is what is

called Liberation or Nirvana by Buddha. It is called by many
names. We can understand it better by the word "Liberation".
During every life we are doing something and getting
involved in certain situations. We have to get ourselves clear
from the involvement, the complications. We have to get
ourselves free from the complications and therefore we are
busy in answering the past Karma. Many of our births are
filled with repayment and while trying to repay past
complications, we are growing emotional and creating new
complications and also the necessity of clearing them once
again, and so goes on the necessity of birth and death until
we carefully clear off the present debts, the involvements
and then make our path clear. Then we will be able to
understand what life is in its reality and the purpose of
evolution is finished. It is only one way of understanding
the whole picture of reincarnation.
But in fact reincarnation is part of the chain actions of
this Earth. It is the chain actions of this Earth Planet in the
background. The same chain actions are pushing us forward
in the Great Plan of this Earth. There is a plan to this Earth
by which it is increasing the illumination of consciousness.
The result is creating each of us as sparks of that illumination
of consciousness. That particular spark has vehicles around
it as layers around the onion . We call these vehicles our
body and mind etc. Every time these vehicles are being
dropped off and again new vehicles are being taken by us.
The water in the canals of the river is also conditioned,
similarly according to the plan of this Earth we are being
 The Science of Reincarnation 217

created and produced into the Human kingdom and we are

taking our rebirths according to the Great Plan.
But there are two different types of our understanding
about ourselves and as long as we are in the first part of
our understanding, the problem of evolution cannot be solved
and the necessity of rebirth continues. If I believe I have
my own life and if you believe you have your own life, the
relationship between us both will be quite different. In such
a way, everyone has his own way of living. After a certain
time, we will understand that there is a common
consciousness in all of us which is making everyone live
in that consciousness with a little of individual
consciousness. There is an underground consciousness in
which we are not separated from each other, and in mind
consciousness, we are separated from each other.
I gave you one example yesterday, like the thousands
of bottles that are immersed in a river. Every bottle has its
own water in it but all the bottles are in the same water. Like
the river water, total water, in which all the bottles are
existing, there is one consciousness existing in all of us,
one life in all of us in which we are existing. At the same
time, just as every bottle has its own water in it, we have
our own separated existence in our mind. This separated
existence creates all the fears and jealousies because of the
instinct of the idea of separation. The result is we live in
a helpless state like orphans and homeless beggars having
our own fears about others and our own fears about the future,
our own jealousies about others, suspicions and our own
anger and our own complaints about others.
218 The Science of Yoga

The result of this separate consciousness is misery and

sorrow until this is transformed into the consciousness of
One Life which exists in all of us. And it wants you to live
in this undercurrent which is called the Common
Consciousness in every one. Once you begin to understand
this, life becomes love to you; you have nothing but love
towards others. Love is a linking principle according to you
in that stage. You have nothing to do with the behaviour of
others. Nature is directing us towards that goal. Therefore
it is the purpose of rebirths to lead us to such a destination.
This common life and common consciousness is
what we call 'The Soul'. Every one of us has Soul in us but
there is nothing like my Soul and your Soul. It is only out
of our ignorance that we believe that I have a Soul and you
have a Soul. But we have Soul consciousness dawned upon
us and we can be awakened into Soul consciousness, but
it is not true that everyone is a separate Soul. Separation
is to mind and Soul is Oneness. When we begin to understand
and experience a Soul life, we begin to live a group life.
Group existence will be known and you understand that every
one of us is existing in all others and this mystery will be
clearly understood by us. All the miseries of the world will
be reflected in us also along with the happiness of all the
people on this Earth.
Every field will be yours and you will have a planetary
experience of the whole Earth, when you once reach that
stage. In that stage you have no more necessity of Evolution
when the physical bodies are required. Therefore it will be
the stoppage of the births and rebirths. You begin to exist
 The Science of Reincarnation 219

as one with everything on the planet. So, what is reborn is

not the Soul but it is the personality. It germinates the mind
and the five senses at every birth. It prepares its own body
in the mother's womb made up of the same minerals of the
Earth. This body and this mind will be dropped off at the
time of death but the seed of the mind and the senses will
be preserved as potentiality just as the seed of a plant gives
the same flower in the next generation. At every birth the
mind and the senses and the body are germinated again.
Every time we become conscious of the mind, the
senses, and body; our intelligences will unfold, our
experience is being expanded and we are at a stage to
understand, "Who we are?" After some births and rebirths,
we come to the question, "Who am I?" For some births, we
will answer ourselves that I am my body. After that we answer
ourselves that I am the mind. After sometime we understand
that we are the intelligence. After some time we understand
that we are more than intelligence, that is our nature.
Gradually birth after birth we will be able to understand
ourselves. We begin to know the art of withdrawing into our
Real Self. We will be able to use the body, mind and senses
also, but we will live as we are separate from these things
just as we are separate from our hair and nails. This is what
the theory of rebirth tells us according to ancient Indian
Scriptures.
Two types of Karma
The Tibetan scriptures also give theory of births and
rebirths but when we totally understand the whole thing, it
is only the Earth's Karma that gives us birth and rebirth.
220 The Science of Yoga

Karma is of two types: Divine Karma and Individual Karma.

Divine Karma is the planetary working of this Earth which
includes chain actions of the Earth. It causes wave after wave
of living beings on this Earth and it produces us in groups
on this Earth and we are reincarnating in groups, not as
individuals.
For example, when all of us are spending some time
here, this proves many times we are born as contemporaries
on this Earth. That does not mean all of us should have met
each other in our previous birth but it proves that we were
born as contemporaries many times and lived on this Earth
in one group. In the future also when every one of us is born,
we are born as contemporaries, just with a few years of
difference because just as a shepherd is guiding the group
of sheep as a group, another shepherd is leading another
group at a distance, the common contemporaries of evolution
are made one group and they are made to take rebirth in
one group. We find the temperamental differences on this
Earth because of the various differences of degrees of
evolution between us, just as a bunch of flowers has buds
and little buds and flowers and big blossomed flowers of
various degrees of blossoming we see in the same bunch.
It is because each of the flowers has started its career on
different days. Similarly we have our own individual
evolution of bodies, minds and intelligences; so that we have
our temperamental differences between each other. Some
people behave automatically well. Some people are decent
in their behaviour and some people are rough and insulting
to others in their behaviour. Some people believe in
 The Science of Reincarnation 221

evolution. Some people believe in law and order. All these

temperamental differences are due to the individual stage
of evolution.
Some people can be happy with all people. Some people
can be happy with their own people. Some people can be
happy with their wives and husbands and there are some
people who cannot be happy with their wives or husbands.
We know wives torturing husbands and husbands torturing
wives and leading a miserable life. They weep and make
others weep. But there are people who are very happy and
who keep others happy. This difference is all due to the
difference in degree of evolution. These are external
differences but the undercurrent of consciousness is Soul.
When the Soul consciousness is touched by the
individuals, these differences will disappear and
individuals become a group consciousness. This is the goal
of evolution. This is the goal of rebirth. Rebirth has a pious
mission on this life on this Earth. It is not our individual
Karma that decides our next birth completely, it is the
impulsion of the whole Earth planet that decides our
direction. Our past Karma will be only an immediate cause
to the degree of consciousness of the next birth.
Buddha refused the Liberation
Suppose I have done something wrong in my past birth,
to rectify it, I am born once again. This is the apparent cause
of rebirth. This is only an immediate cause which is apparent
and the real cause is the impulsion of the Earth planet. The
impulsion is to lead you to Group Consciousness and until
222 The Science of Yoga

then it is compulsory that we have rebirth. When perfection

is gained by consciousness, rebirth is not a necessity, but
rebirth can be willed and can be received. Sometimes we
want rebirth. At will we will have rebirth after perfection.
But before perfection, rebirth is compulsory. We cannot
escape the quality of rebirth before we are perfect. After
reaching perfection we have the choice of having or not
having rebirth. Some people do not want rebirth after
perfection and they are merged in group consciousness
completely. This is what is called Liberation or Nirvana. But
some people refuse this.
If we want to cross all these miseries of this Earth and
if we see other people still suffering on this Earth, if we
still want to be happy, such an idea is nothing but selfishness.
It is a challenge and a test given by Nature to us whether
you choose Liberation or refuse Liberation.
Many of the Human beings choose the Liberation at
the end and once again they fall into the new cycle of birth
and rebirths. But there are some who refused to receive
Liberation. For example Buddha and Christ refused
Liberation because they wanted the Liberation of other Souls
not their own. Buddha wanted to be on this Earth as part
of the Group Consciousness of the whole Earth and he
bluntly refused to have personal liberation. That is the reason
why he has become a Planetary Principle of this Earth just
as Christ is Planetary Principle of the Earth. That is the
ultimate perfection. Liberation is not ultimate perfection
according to these Masters. But yet Liberation is the
temptation of the common Human beings.
 The Science of Reincarnation 223

We do good deeds to get liberated. In the process we

are purified. We are made to take many births according
to many environments and we are permitted to gain much
experience without getting involved in a situation. Our
emotional bodies are purified through our rebirths. Our
hopes and desires are being purified because they are never
fulfilled. But they make it a necessity for us to take another
birth. At the same time, Earth is creating its own chain actions
over us. Therefore understand that the process of
reincarnation is not something for which we are responsible.
But it is the Great Plan on Earth. We are expected to behave
accordingly and purify our psychological vehicles with the
motives of charity and benevolence, tolerance and
acceptance, happily accepting responsibilities and burdens,
forgiving others for their faults and not fearing anything for
the misbehaviour of others. These are the items of the
procedure we are expected to practice if at all our vehicles
are to be purified.
A gradual purification automatically takes place. We
come to understand that every good deed we have done and
which is useful to the world is not done because it is useful
to the world, but it is done because it purifies our vehicles.
Any useful thing done by us to the world, is useful only for
us and not for the world. Because anyone can do such good
work to others in the world if you do not do it.
Therefore whatever good work you do, it is only to
purify your psychological vehicles and your
consciousness. This leads you to the culmination of
rebirths. The last test will be seen by you if you prefer
224 The Science of Yoga
Liberation or you prefer salvation of others. If you refuse
Liberation, you will be one among the planetary workers
of this Earth and that is what we call the Holy Hierarchy
of this Earth.
If you accept to have Liberation, you will have personal
liberation which is only self-deceiving and self-pleasing. In
short, this is the purview of, "Theory of Reincarnation". All
other theories except this are only sweet thoughts and
personal imaginations. Stories cannot fit into the truths of
the workings on the Earth. Stories cannot fit into the
planetary workings of this Earth. So, let us try to follow
the wisdom of the Masters on the path and let us identify
ourselves with our own work, so that our misconceptions
are washed away from our mind and we know our path.
Question : According to the Bible, it seems Jesus is
against reincarnation? Is that right?
Answer : There is no evidence that Christ was against
reincarnation. He wanted only that all the souls on the Earth
should reach their perfection, so that they live as children
of God and not as children of their individual father and
mother. That is what Christ taught us. Yes, that conversation
never says anything about reincarnation. That conversation
speaks only of the Lord's grace. That is not a proof of either
negation or the acceptance of reincarnation. No mention at
all of reincarnation in that conversation, because he is always
engaged in making God's glory dawn upon man's mind.
Every conversation of Jesus Christ reflected God's
glory upon man's mind. As long as we are in ignorance, we
accept Liberation. But the moment we understand the path
 The Science of Reincarnation 225

of either Christ or Buddha, we flatly deny Liberation. We

totally deny Liberation to ourselves because it is selfishness.
Question : Some people commit suicide believing that
they get Liberation? Is it true?
Answer : Suicide is killing the body. It has nothing to do
with death and birth of consciousness. But it has its own
impact and results in the next birth. It causes a life full of
horror and terror in the next birth because the agony at the
time of suicide is stamped upon the consciousness and with
that stamp we will be born. All through life that agony exists
night and day as the result and impact of suicide. But there
is no loss or gain by suicide because we kill the body and
we cannot kill ourselves. But every act has its own effect
upon our consciousness.
Question : Please explain about Resurrection.
Answer : Resurrection is the second birth while we are in
this body because the birth given by the evolution of this
Earth, it is the birth of the body, mind and senses. It is
only a birth of the new instruments and not at all a birth.
A new set of instruments are given to us in the form of body,
mind and senses. But we are living the same life as before.
When we understand that we are not the body, mind and
senses, we know what we are. That is our Soul. Then we will
understand that our body and mind and senses are not
ourselves. This change taking place in us is called
Resurrection and until then we are buried in this body in
the form of a tomb. At the time of Resurrection we are called
out of this tomb and everything in our life will be set right
by God and that is called the Day of Judgment also.
226 The Science of Yoga

We are buried inside and we are living a life thinking

that this is ourselves. But once the real knowledge is given
to us, we will begin to live Christ Life, that is we will be
once again born when we are in this body. From the birth
of False Existence to the birth of Real Existence, we have
a second birth while in this body. That birth is called
Resurrection or our birth into God's Kingdom because from
that day onwards we will not live according to our
relationships with others, we begin to live as guides and
helpers of all others. That is what is called Resurrection.
It is a spiritual birth actually not rebirth. We are free
in our immediate causes and effects just as we are free in
a railway compartment to walk further forward or backward.
At the same time we cannot walk in the opposite direction
in which the train is travelling. But we can walk in the
opposite direction only in the train. Similarly we can do an
evil act and cause an evil life as a result. But the death and
birth are not caused by our evil act or good act. That is only
according to the plan of Evolution or Earth's impulsion. Our
behaviour, good behaviour or bad behaviour decides the
quality of our next birth but the very cause of birth is not
in us. It is linked in the plan of this Earth that is what I mean.
Question : Is there any specific reason for the increase
in population?
Answer : When animal Souls are recruited too much at a
time into the Human kingdom, we will have centuries of
over population on this Earth. The immediate cause of such
a situation is too much indulgence in the instinct of sex by
the Human beings. The more we give importance to the
 The Science of Reincarnation 227

instinct of sex in our life, the more animal Souls we recruit

into the Human kingdom through us and we create a necessity
for family planning and contraception. That is the immediate
cause. It is undue importance to sex indulgence and sex
enjoyment by the Human animal, undue importance that is
too much importance given by human animal to the instinct
of sex unlike all other animals. That is the immediate cause
for overpopulation by attracting animal kingdom into the
Human kingdom at a higher rate. That is, we are attracting
more and more animal Souls beyond the normal optimum
number on this Earth and it is the cause of overpopulation.
The next step, the consequence of Karma, is the effort
of Human beings against child birth. That is the necessity
to make efforts 'not to have more children'. And the next
consequence is understanding sex only as enjoyment and
not for reproduction. The purpose of sex instinct is given
a more different value by the human beings than animals.
The Human beings misunderstand that sex instinct is only
for enjoyment. This causes the next consequence that is the
abnormalities of sex. For example homosexualism and
masturbation and many other monstrosities of sex are the
consequences.
The next consequence is that Nature begins to take care
of everything not to allow such things to spread in evolution.
Therefore Nature creates sterility gradually in more and
more numbers of human beings. Gradually the next and the
next generations will become sterile and childless, not having
a child birth at all, so that within three or four generations
there will be no human being at all on this Earth until the
228 The Science of Yoga

next cycle of some hundreds of years. This is only a

consequence of the evil act of the human being and the
sequence of Nature's penalty over man.
Question : Can we recollect our past births?
Answer : Sometimes, very rarely it is done. Many times
it is a falsification and there is no utility or any purpose
at all even though sometimes we can recollect our past.
Unless there is a purpose, Nature never permits us to know
anything. As far as present human commonsense is
concerned, there is no purpose that is served at all by
knowing what we were in the past. Therefore it is always
a closed book. If at all there is a big purpose behind it in
particular cases, they will be able to know it. But it is not
a general rule at all because there is no purpose.
Question : Is it not possible at all to recollect the past
births?
Answer : Sometimes it is possible. The recollections are
from previous births but many times the case is otherwise
because in space also there is a memory of all the wisdom
of man. When there is a specific purpose for an individual
or for the century, Nature gives a touch of that dimension
in Space to a mind and automatically the wisdom will be
dawned irrespective of age. That is what is called Akashic
records by the Theosophists.
Where does the recollection of a banyan tree exist? It
is only in the space of banyan seed. Similarly in the space
around us there is all the history of the past mankind and
the wisdom of mankind in the form of space seed. When
 The Science of Reincarnation 229

our mind stimulates into that dimension, it can know

everything. When there is a purpose, a person will be born
with the knowledge irrespective of the age. Many times this
will be the cause and rarely the memory of previous birth
will be the cause. The deservedness is decided by Nature
because through him Nature wants to get some work done.
That means he deserves it.
What I mentioned as stories is a sweet imagination
because the mind goes into a dimension of space when it
can know certain things. It is possible in hypnosis and it goes
into the family history of a person which has happened 50
years ago or 100 years ago and that person speaks out in
hypnotic trance. That is equated with our previous life history
many times. But when you go and verify, it is proved that
the story has occurred somewhere, therefore we
automatically equate ourselves with the story. There are
many sources of error in the process. The Masters of
Wisdom do not attach any importance to such information
gathered.
Question : Is it possible for a human being to be born
again in the Animal Kingdom?
Answer : Very rarely a Human being is born in the animal
kingdom. With the intelligence of Human evolution and the
body of an animal, he suffers a hell. It is only as a penalty
of some horrible deed he has done, that such a birth is
possible. But immediately as soon as the animal birth is
finished, the penalty is also paid up and he will directly come
and join the place from which he has fallen and progress
in evolution further. This is a rare phenomenon.
230 The Science of Yoga

But in the animals there is no Karma at all because there

is no motive in the action of any animal. The whole process
belongs to Nature. Here there is no place for consequences,
good or bad.
Question : Is there any scientific evidence to prove that
there is reincarnation?
Answer : How can a Nuclear Physics professor prove to
a boy that the atom exists. You will also know. It is a matter
of expanding consciousness. Iif a little boy asks how can
I get a moustache or beard now ? There is no answer. Let
us wait until we know it. It is not a matter of belief, it is
not a matter of understanding, but it is a matter of knowing.
Those who know will express it to the world. When we know,
we too express it. There is no proof that we have a mind
but we know that we have a mind. Similarly the dimension
develops in us when we know and experience Reincarnation.
Thank you all
 How to live a Spiritual Life?

I thank you all for the happy presence you have given me
this evening. It is really a very good thing to know how
to live the Spiritual Life. Spiritualism is nothing but
ourselves in our own spirit. From the spirit, we exist out
into the world and our mind is shining forth from the Spirit
inside just as the Sun sends his rays out. The mind is shining
forth into the five senses and their functions. This requires
an apparatus and a mechanism and it is what we call the
physical body with all the tissues and the parts. So, we are
expected to gradually understand some time or the other
that in the course of our life, our body, senses and mind
are given for a purpose; the purpose is for us to become
aware of ourselves and then understand that we are existing
and that we need a life. But this is given when we do not
know what we are.
When we are born, we are born without our own
responsibility. We did not want to be born, because we had
no mind or desire to be born. Desire comes only after the
mind comes out and if we gradually try to understand the
232 The Science of Yoga

mechanism and its function carefully, we will understand

that every part of this mechanism has a purpose and no part
is living for its own sake. Even though we try to live for
this body, some time or the other we come to understand
that this body is for a purpose. Though we eat according
to our taste for some time, sooner or later we come to
understand that taste is only a medium to eat food and eating
food is only to sustain this body and that the taste and eating
have no value in themselves. They have the value so as to
maintain this body and this body has only so much value
so that it knows and remembers that we exist. Though this
body is also included in us, this body is only an outlet or
an expression of ourselves and not ourselves completely.
To begin with we exist in this body for some time as
mind and senses, later as our intelligence and afterwards
as our discrimination, that is the power to select what we
want or reject, what we do not want. We come to realize
that none of these parts is ourselves.These parts emerge out
from us. In us these parts live as one. Into us, these parts
merge again when the time is over. So, these parts are
intended only for the purpose of knowing ourselves. When
we gradually know this fact, we begin to live accordingly
and the value of things takes a shift in us steadily. The order
of priority changes in us. When we believe that we are eating
for our taste buds, we get perturbed the moment food is
not tasty. But when we reach a state where taste is only a
matter of convenience to eat food, and that eating food is
only to maintain this body, then even when we eat tasty food,
we are not bothered by the taste.
 How to live a Spiritual Life 233

When food is not tasteful, it does not affect us.

Similarly, when some people do not like us, or some people
think bad of us, there comes a time when we have no business
in mind to think about these things. When we know human
nature and the background nature, we come to understand
that it is natural to like and dislike. It is natural for people
to think of us as enemies or friends and relatives, and others
as their nationalists and foreigners. When we know that these
things are quite natural, we will be able to grow and rise
above them and then we will be able to see the man inside
and not these differences. For this, there is a specific
practice which makes us understand the outlook of spiritual
life. Every scripture gives us the practice in its own way
and once we follow the practice given by one scripture, we
will be able to reach that degree of realization which is called
spiritual living. The scripture then guides and gives us the
training in the form of a narrative or an incident which is
as follows.
There was once a very rich family which was God-
minded. They worshipped God in their own way and
venerated all God men, inviting and showing hospitality to
them. They had constructed a separate building to provide
lodging and boarding for all those God men, who visited
them. It was a customary thing in some nations in the ancient
times, for the people who went around, preaching about God
and who had no family of their own, who had crossed
everything of the idea "Mine", and who did not have their
own work and who did not want anything except some food
and some place to rest and that too quite ordinary.
234 The Science of Yoga

It is customary for the God men to make seminaries

for four months between June and September. So, once a
group of God-minded people gathered in their house. They
were guests for four months and every arrangement was
made to make sure that everything was facilitated to them.
A boy of five years old was placed in-charge of them on
the first day they settled in the house. They were talking
at night about God and many aspects of God's science. They
were so absorbed in the subject they were speaking about
that they didn't realize that it was very late in the night. When
they looked at the door, the boy was still standing there.
They were surprised to see him.
They called the boy, "Why are you standing there?"
The boy said, "My dear sir, I am placed here in charge
of you to see that whatever you want is served."
Then they asked, "Have you been standing there since
evening?"
The boy said, "Yes".
They asked, "Then what have you been doing all the time
standing there?"
The boy said, "Listening to what you are discussing."
They said, "Are you interested in what we are speaking?"
He said, "Yes sir, it is very interesting to me."
They were very much surprised to see that a five year
old boy was interested in the subject they were discussing.
They thought that there was something strange and
extraordinary in the birth of the child.
 How to live a Spiritual Life 235

They said, "We are pleased with you, but don't you go
in the evening to play with other boys?"
He said, "I do, but when I listen to your discussions,
I forget myself. Therefore, this is more interesting than
playing with other boys.
In reality it is a great privilege to be born like that and
so they questioned him, "My boy do you want to take up
the path of spiritualism?"
The boy asked, "Sir, what is spiritualism?"
They said, "The thing in which you are interested is called
spiritualism and since you are interested, it is our duty to
initiate you into the Science of Spiritualism but it has certain
steps to practice. We will now give you the first step. From
today onwards, we will give you a Mantra to practice.
Vishnu Mantra, the first step
That Mantram is, that whenever you see some person,
you should meditate that God is there in the form of that
person. When you go home, and see other people, each
person should be envisaged by you as a form of God. You
should do it until you consistently do it in this world. You
can be seeing people but you should remember that they
are forms of God. In the beginning, this idea will be there
for some time and after a while you will forget it. But after
some time, it becomes a continuous habit to remember this;
that is to recollect God in everyone. Take this Mantra and
meditate upon this. It is called Vishnu mantra in Sanskrit.
The word Vishnu means one who is pervading in all and
One who is in everyone. That is the meaning of Vishnu. He
236 The Science of Yoga

is called the God of Pervasion; the Lord who pervades

everyone. If you see any object, you should remember that
God is in the form of that object. You should remember that
object and also the God in the form of that object. So, this
double meditation should become consistent with your
nature. We like you because you have the greatest
qualification to practice this and because by birth you seem
to be gifted in the spiritual consciousness, we feel like
giving you this first initiation. We will be here for four
months so you can tell us your progress".
The boy said, " Yes sir".
Within two days, they understood that the boy had
attained perfection in the first initiation. It's not so very easy,
but it was his dedication that made him reach that perfection.
They tested him in many ways and found that his God-
consciousness was consistent in everyone.
Then they said, "We are pleased. We discovered that
God is pleased with you. That is why you could persistently
recollect God in everyone. It is very easy to close our eyes
and try to think of God, try to locate God either in our head
or heart or try to locate God in a temple, church or a mosque.
It's easy to go there and sit down in prayer but then the mind
will be wandering somewhere else. But dear boy you are
born with this gift. This is the real gift which is required".
Vasudeva Mantra, the second step
They said, "Now we will give you the second initiation.
The second step in spiritualism is called the second Mantra".
"Now, whenever you see anyone speaking, begin to
conceptualize that God is speaking through them.
 How to live a Spiritual Life 237

Whenever you see people behaving in a certain manner,

begin to envisage that God is behaving in that manner
through them.
It may be easy to experience God's presence in others
and in everything we see. But it is very difficult to experience
God's presence in the behaviour of others because the
behaviour of others will not be according to our own liking,
but it will be in a thousand and one ways. Everyone behaves
in his own way and it is for you to remember that God is
behaving in so many thousands of ways. It is very difficult
because we have certain things in our mind. Certain shops,
certain magazines in our mind and there are some magazines
of firearms and artillery.
That is what we call anger, hatred, malice and jealousy.
When others are talking, it is very easy to make an ignition
point of one of these magazines and a thousand explosions
to take place every day. It is not because others speak badly,
but because of the fact that we have firearms on our side.
As our mind has been conditioned due to our habits formed
in the previous years, decades, births and deaths, we gather
these magazines of artillery and wait for them to explode.
We think that others irritate us. When we are angry, we
believe that others made us angry. We do not understand
that our nature to get angry is deep rooted or inherently there.
When the environment is good for others then we grow
jealous of them but we choose to believe that others are
causing jealousy in us. We do not remember that the nature
of jealousy is inherent in us like artillery and the ignition
point is the way others speak and behave. What can a match
238 The Science of Yoga

stick do when there isn't any artillery with you? Understand

that the conversation and behaviour of others are only match
sticks in a match box.
Thus the second step in spiritualism is that you will
extinguish all the firearms in your mind and see that the
magazines are filled with fruits and flowers. However, the
step to practice is to remember all the time that God is
speaking when others are speaking, to remember that God
is behaving when others are behaving. In fact it is really very
difficult because as long as you are appreciating me and say
that Krishnamacharya is a great man, it is very easy for me
to remember the presence of God in you. I may believe that
God is praising and appreciating me. But suppose, you stand
up and say what I spoke is nonsense, immediately the God
in me disappears and
I will stand there speaking what I do not like. Try this,
my boy", they said. This is called the second Mantram of
spiritualism. It is called the Mantram of the behaving God,
the living God. It is called Vasudeva Mantra. Vasudeva
means the living God and the behaving God. They said,
'practice this and come to us'.
The boy started practicing it. It is really difficult to
practice this because there is a self-projection phenomenon
in human beings. We project our impressions upon others
when we see and try to understand them. We only understand
them according to our own understanding, not according to
how they are. For instance, if I live with you for ten days
or a month, and then say, I know you, it will mean that I know
you only according to my understanding and not according
 How to live a Spiritual Life 239

to what you actually are. So, we have the habit of projecting

ourselves upon others and understanding others according
to our own thoughts. When this is there, it is called self-
illusion. It exists with every one of the human beings and
it is called Maya in Sanskrit. When the human psychological
mechanism is filled with Maya, that is, self-illusion and self-
conditioning, it is very difficult and next to impossible to
attain perfection in the second Mantra. It becomes possible
only under one condition. Such as how does an iron piece
become a magnet?
The answer to it is that in the presence of an already
magnetized iron piece, the iron piece begins to behave as
a magnet.
It is only the presence of a magnet that can make an
iron piece a magnet. Similarly, it is only in the presence
of a person who has crossed Maya and who has known the
perfection of the second Mantra, that we can attain
perfection. Saying so, they left the boy with the second
Mantra. They said,"You have to practice detachment when
you practice this Mantra."
The boy's mother was a widow. She worked as a servant
in the house of a rich man who had hosted these saints.
Everyday she worked in their house, helping them in
everything, cooking and then serving them food and returning
home late in the night. She had no one, except this boy. Her
only interest in life was this boy. Whenever it was time for
her to return home, the landlady would give her a part of
everything that was prepared that day to eat. When it was
winter, the landlady would give her old garments also. This
240 The Science of Yoga

servant would take all those things late in the night. She
wouldn't eat. She wouldn't wear the garments. She would
bring them home for the sake of her five year old boy. Once
she saw the boy sleeping fatigued and approached him with
great affection and sympathy. She touched his head and
said, "My boy, are you tired, are you hungry? You are
sleeping with hunger. You have not eaten yet. It is too late".
Then she woke him up and gave him food to eat. She would
never remember her own hunger. She would say, "Are you
cold?' She would cover him with the garments given to her
and say, "My boy you are the only point of interest to me.
I have no one in this world. If I am living in this world, it
is only for you. I pray to God that he keeps me alive on
this earth until you are independent". Daily she would speak
like that with the boy.
Then this God man asked the boy, "Don't you think what
your mother has towards you is great affection? See, how
your mother is too much attached to you. See, these
attachments are not desirable for a spiritual person. These
are impediments. One should not be too crazy about
attachments. One should practice detachment. Now my boy!
Are you ready to leave your mother and come with us"?
The boy said, "Ready Sir."
Then they asked, "Don't you feel for your mother?" The
boy said, ' "No sir".
"Why"? They asked.
The boy said, "You said that detachment should be there
for a spiritualist."
 How to live a Spiritual Life 241

Then they said, "Take care my boy. This is not

detachment. Many people may teach you that this is
detachment, but remember this is only animal nature in
detachment. You are not expected to leave her and come
away. What happens, the moment you come away from her,
the moment she finds that you have deserted her? She will
die of a broken heart. So, is it morally right to kill people
in the name of spiritualism and call it detachment? This is
pseudo-detachment and not detachment at all. The attachment
your mother has towards you may be so very great. But that
is her attachment and you have nothing to do with it. You
are concerned only with your attachment and your detach-
ment. What you have to practice is to practice detachment
for yourself and not to hurt others or harm others feelings
in the name of your spiritual practice".
Now, according to the first Mantra, are you seeing God
or are you seeing mother in her? If you are seeing mother
in her, it means you have not completed the perfection of
the first Mantra. Only if you see God in her, and no mother
at all in her, then only it means you have completed the
practice of the first Mantra. Now test yourself if you see
mother in her or God in her.
He said, "I see only God in her".
Then they said,"Then if you see God in her, what
necessity is there to leave her and go away somewhere? See,
how real things are different from false values in this world!
See how so much of ignorance and nonsense is passed on
in the name of spiritual practice and detachment?" They
further stated , "Now, you follow what we say. You practice
242 The Science of Yoga

the second Mantra, the Mantra of the envisaging God in

everyone. You practice this with your mother. Listen to what
she says. If she embraces you with great affection, test
yourself, if you see mother or God. Tell us if you see your
mother is embracing you or God is embracing you."
The boy began to practice it. The boy saw both mother
and God in her. When she was sitting calmly, he could see
the form of God in her. But when she began to speak and
embrace the boy with great affection and give everything
to eat, then he saw his mother as well. At that moment
he saw 50% in the form of his mother and 50% he saw God
in her. He said to his teachers 'I see 50% God in her'. They
said, continue to practice. After some time, he said, I see
60% of God in her. After some time, it went up to 70%
God then 80%, 90% and 99%. When it reached 100%, he
heard only God talking and not his mother. Moreover, when
he saw only God embracing him and not his mother, a strange
thing happened at that instant.
In the night, his mother went into the compound to
milk the cow. It was dark and a snake bit her on the foot
and she died immediately. Then the Guru said, " See how God
enters into our life in the form of so many characters. Just
as the characters in a drama enter to conduct the whole story,
see how God stayed with you as your mother to help you
fulfill your practice. See how the character makes an exit, the
moment the purpose in nature is over. It is not your mother
who lived and not your mother who died. But it is God".
Thereupon the boy could get perfection in the second
step of practice. He became a Master of detachment. When
 How to live a Spiritual Life 243

he understood that he need not desert in the false name of

detachment, they said, "My boy, you have crossed a very bold
step".
It is easy to teach and preach. It is very easy to deliver
sermons but it is very rare to live and teach sermons. We
know the only one, who lived and taught sermons. That is
the one, who taught us the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus the
Lord. But we cannot understand the greatness of what he
taught because he lived and he taught. But, when we listen
to them or read them on Sundays, we live our usual life and
listen to the sermons. Only when we begin to live them can
we understand the sermons, otherwise they will be
understood only in the form of some morals and nothing
more.
So, the Godmen told the boy that he had crossed the
second step. It was a very bold step to practice. There are
thousands of people who can teach this science of
spiritualism very beautifully, as if a sweet pudding is being
served on the table, but when one begins to practice it and
when one begins to live it, it is a very bold step and it decides
whether this life is useful and fruitful or a failure. If we die
without achieving this, another birth will be given to us and
another birth and another birth and many rebirths will be
given to us, just as the student who could not pass is asked
to appear for the same examination again and again. But,
this boy could get through the examination very soon.
They said, "Now there is a third step which is the final
step. We are now giving you the third step. But, it is the
fourth month. The time is over. We have to leave the place.
244 The Science of Yoga

We will give you the third step and leave the place. It is for
you to feel the experience of the third step. You have crossed
the first step, the 'Vishnu Mantra' that is 'always recollecting
the pervasion of omnipresent God in all'. You have crossed
the second step, 'Vasudeva Mantra' that is envisaging God
in everyone's behaviour and speech. Now, we teach you about
the third aspect of God, the highest aspect and who lives
deep, deeper and deepest in you. It is the very essence of
yourself, which we call the 'Spirit of Man'. Attaining that
spirit is what is called spiritualism".
The word spirit means the essence. What we call the
man is only the totality of the outer layers of the mind and
body. If we can call our beard, hair and moustache as
ourselves, will it stand true? Suppose we call our garments
as part of ourselves and consider it to be true, then it is also
true that the body, mind, the senses and the intelligences
are ourselves. But, generally we identify ourselves with one
of these things. Some identify themselves with their body
and they live as if they are their body.
When the doctor says that your disease is incurable,
they begin to die with the words of the doctor. It is because
they live with their body and in their idea, they are their own
body. So, when the doctor says it is hopeless, they believe
they are dead. There are some people who live with the mind
and believe that they are their mind. So, you will see them
with wavering moods in this world. You will find the fellows
laughing one day and weeping the other day.When the mind
is okay, they go on laughing. When the mind is not okay
, they are weeping. When the mind is angry, they are bleating.
 How to live a Spiritual Life 245

When the mind is suspicious, they are looking through holes.

No two days, you will find the fellows behaving in the same
manner.
If you ask me what about Michael, 'I say Oh! He is a
very good boy'. After ten days, when I am angry, if you ask
me how Michael was, 'I say, don't speak of him'. What
happened? It is only my mind that is in a double nature. No
two opinions agree. No two days are similar in our life. No
two hours we have the same mood. This is the fate of those
who live as their mind. There are people who identify
themselves with their senses and live as their senses.
Unfailingly, their life is nonsense. Senses are alternatively
'senses and non-senses'. When the sense of 'I' is working
towards the light, the ear cannot hear some sound. So, the
ear is a nonsense when the eye is a sense.
When I am interested in what you are speaking and I
begin to listen to you attentively, my eye forgets that there
is a light. Then the eye is non-sense when my ear is a sense.
There are people who identify with their tongue and live with
their eating and taste. We have five senses. The power to
see, the power to hear, the power to smell, the power to
taste and the power to touch. These are the five senses that
are working for us. But we are letting ourselves lose into
these senses just as a little child who throws himself down
the steps of a staircase . It is not the fault of the staircase,
but it is the inexperience of the child. So, it is not our senses
that are deceiving us, but we are being deceived by ourselves.
Like this people live in senses and non-senses. After some
time, we begin to live with our intelligence and we believe
246 The Science of Yoga

that we are our own intelligence. Our intelligence begins

to lead us instead of ourselves leading the intelligence. It
will once again be a repetition of the story of Macbeth.
He was led by the witches, because the witches predicted
and prophesied something correctly. When he began to
follow the witches, they led him into the wrong ways and
you know the horrible tragedy of Macbeth. Same is with
the fate of those who believe in their intelligence. Gradually,
man ascends these steps and he finds that he is none of these
things. That he is not anyone of these layers around him.
There are thousands and thousands of layers around him
which are coming out from himself like the hair and the
beard, but which can be shaved and yet man can be safe within.
Every time we die, all these things are shaved. But yet we
are safe. That is called the Spirit and to live the Spirit is
called the 'Science of Spiritualism'. Though you may think
that the Spirit is yourself, the truth is, the Spirit is not yourself
though you are living in it. It is in everyone, therefore it
is God. You can call it "I am " and 'myself.' Everyone is
permitted to live as Spirit.
Just as everyone is permitted to visit the park, river or
the zoo; In the same way we are permitted to go to the library
and use the books. But that doesn't mean the library is ours.
Similarly, we are permitted to live as ourselves, the Spirit,
but Spirit is not ourselves. We are the Spirit, but spirit is
not ourselves. The space in the room may be the space in
the room, but originally it was the outer space and then we
can make it (the Space) our room. But, we should remember
that we have constructed the room in the space and not the
 How to live a Spiritual Life 247

space in the room. The space existed long before the room
was constructed and long before we were born. At the same
time, we are privileged to use the space in our room as our
own. Same is the case with the 'Spirit' in you. You can say
that it is 'your Spirit,' You can say that it is yourself. It is
correct because you are permitted to say. But, the actual
truth is that you are that and it is not yourself.
Spirit exists everywhere in space and in you, it is
speaking and space is speaking through you. Every pin-point
of space is the existence of God and that pin- point in you
is speaking and you understand that you are speaking because
you are permitted to understand like that. Assuming that a
person does not know an instrument like this exists, suppose
we place these four amplifiers in the four corners of this
building. Now if the person who does not know that
amplifiers exist, comes near the amplifiers and listens to
the lecture, he can say, this wonderful big thing is speaking.
So, let us honour this. In the same way, we believe that
we are that. We can honour ourselves thinking that we are
that. We are permitted to view, we are the spirit. But the
spirit is all pervading and all existing. What we call space
is nothing but the presence of that one Spirit. From it, layers
come out in the form of the solar dust and each spark particle
of that dust becomes a Sun and it forms its own solar system
around itself; its own planets revolving around itself, of
which the earth is one. The atoms on this earth contain the
same spark. They begin to evolve into the living beings on
this earth. They evolve into the human kingdom after some
time and we are that.
248 The Science of Yoga

No doubt, we are the Spirit, but Spirit is not ourselves.

So, my boy, you are living as Spirit. It is your duty to give
place to the existence of that Spirit in you. You see that Spirit
descends in you and that exists in you, instead of yourself
existing in it. This is called the 'third step of spiritualism'.
There is a practice to do which allows the Spirit to live in
us, instead of ourselves living in this body. When that change
occurs, it is the God that lives in this body. It is the God
who speaks through this body, and it is the God who wants
to do work through this body, mind and intelligence. We
too exist with him alongside, not as the owners of this body,
mind and intelligence, but as the faithful servants of the one
who is living in this body. We exist as his ideas and thoughts.
Even now our existence is only an idea that we exist. Our
existence is not the existence of this body or mind or senses
because if it is me or body, we call it corpse. But when He
is living in this, He makes this body and He conducts this
life and He merges this body into the elements when the
time is over. If we understand this and remember this, we
will live as His ideas in this body as His faithful servants.
This is the third step. That is when He begins to descend
into you; you should allow Him to descend into you, so that
there is no existence of your own in this, but there is only
His existence. Along with that existence, you also do exist.
Narayana Mantra, the third step
This is called the Mantra of Narayana. In Sanskrit,
Narayana means the path of God. The downward or the
descent path of God is called creation and the upward path
of God is called realization of Man. God comes down as
 How to live a Spiritual Life 249

this creation and exists as His presence in this creation. Man

ascends into God by his spiritual practice and merges into
God just as the lesser light merges in the greater light. So,
this path of descent and this path of ascent put together form
the two hemispheres of God's kingdom. The whole wheel
rotates around every one of us and we are expected to
complete this third practice. I am giving this Narayana
Mantra to you.
See the God outside and see the God inside. Instead
of meditating that God is within yourself, rather meditate
that you are in God, Just as a bottle immersed in a river
has water filled in it because it is immersed in the water;
it is simply because the bottle is in the river, hence the river
is also in the bottle.
Similarly you have the presence of God around you.
It is true that you have His presence within yourself but
it is not enough to meditate God within yourself only. It
is only 50% of meditation. If you meditate God in your
brow centre, heart centre or throat centre and in case you
succeed in doing it, still it is only 50% of spiritual practice.
You are there only in the preliminary steps. So, see the
God within and see the God around and allow him to
descend into you. Allow him to live in you.
It is up to your ego to make space for God. Because
when we think, we live in this body, that thought is called
ego and it never gets up from the chair when God wants to
sit on the chair. Ego and God cannot co-exist in this body.
Either he should live in the name of "I AM" in you or you
should live in the name of "I AM" in you. Since the name
250 The Science of Yoga

is the same to both, that is "I AM", it means ego and it means
the Lord also. So, you will deceive yourself by counterfeiting
the name.
See how the Lord when He comes down to earth, speaks
through all the scriptures of the world, see how He speaks
"I AM". When He came down as Christ, He said, "I am the
way". When He came down as Lord Krishna, He said, "I am
the greatest and the highest and nothing is there greater than
"I AM". When God spoke to Moses about His own name,
He said, "My name is "I AM" That "I AM". So, whenever He
spoke through any scripture, He spoke through one name.
That is "I AM". But, since the name of Saturn is also "I AM",
he may possess you before God descends in you. What we
call ego is the Saturn in us and the Lord exists beyond, above
and within everyone. So, we are leaving you my boy", they
said.
They went away but the boy never felt that they went
away. Because, having finished two steps of spiritualism,
he no longer felt that his people were coming or going.
Owing to the fact that the one and same Lord was coming
and going in so many forms. Thereupon he was never sorry
that the Godmen left because by then he had already crossed
two steps. He saw the same God giving him spiritualism,
coming to him in the form of these Godmen and going in
the form of these Godmen and he saw the same God in all
the others around himself.
Subsequently he started his journey of no return. He
walked and walked and looked at the hundreds and thousands
of people in this world. He enjoyed so many thousands of
 How to live a Spiritual Life 251

forms of the same Lord. He enjoyed the drama of the

behaviour of the many millions of living beings of this earth
just as when you see a drama, you are not disturbed. When
somebody is killed in a drama, you are not disturbed, but when
somebody is killed in the house, you are disturbed. The whole
creation was a drama of the living Lord to him because it
was the same Lord who behaved in all of them, so he didn't
get disturbed by the behaviour of anyone in this world.
He walked and walked through cities, towns and villages
and he climbed many mountains and walked through many
forests. He saw the Lord in the form of the elephants, tigers
and the lions; in the form of the serpents and the scorpions
of the forest. Since he had no reaction to any living being,
no living being harmed him. It will be the same case with
us as well. No animal or no insect can harm us when there
is no reaction in us. He walked and walked into the summits
of the Himalayas where he found big bamboo forests
singing. He said to himself, see how the Lord sings in the
form of thousands of whistles. Insects and worms make holes
in bamboo trees and when the wind of the valley passes
through the forest, you can listen to the whistles of thousands
and thousands in bamboo forests. He observed how the Lord
sang through the thousands of whistles. He then asserted
to himself, that the Lord enters as the breath in everyone
like how he breathed in a bamboo and then works as the
respiration of every living being on this earth and He speaks
to Himself in so many thousands of forms. Next he saw a
big vast ground and a peepal tree.
He began to meditate upon the third name of the Lord
Narayana. He said to the Lord, 'you are in me and you are
252 The Science of Yoga
around me. You begin to live in me. I stand up from my chair
within myself and offer my chair to you and sit down in the
centre in the bosom of my heart and begin to rule as the
king and emperor of my life. You begin to live in me in this
body and I will live with you'. Soon the Lord began to enter
into him. He found the experience very peculiar. He found
himself loosened, just as a person who is being thrown from
a valley into a river from a great height. He was confused.
He saw himself missing and the Lord descending into
himself. At that moment he instantaneously said, "My Lord,
you be with me forever. Don't leave me".
Then the Lord disappeared and he was left alone. He
opened his eyes and looked around. He could not understand
what mistake he had committed. He wept and wept for God
but he could not see God again when finally he heard a
voice saying, "My boy, I have given my presence to you
but this third stage which is called The Narayana cannot be
realized by those who are victims of desire. You have dropped
off all your desires. No doubt you have overcome every
desire but still the desire nature is with you. When I am
coming into you of my own accord, why do you desire that
I should live in you permanently? When the desire is there,
your mind is there. When your mind is there, you are there.
When you are there, I am not there. The drama is finished.
For this life, you live like this. In the next life, I will bestow
my presence on you".
That is what the voice spoke to him. He wondered how
the seed of desire remained in him and how foolish it was
for him to desire to invite God when God was coming to
him. How foolish it is to think of our own concept of God
 How to live a Spiritual Life 253

when God's presence is there in us. He lived away that life

seeing God within and outside. When the time came, he left
his body but it was a very long time before he left his body.
He had to wait until the next wave of creation because God
wanted to descend into him and make His omnipresence felt
in the boy and along with Himself, God also wanted the boy
to be omnipresent in every creature. That's why God made
the boy wait for many millions and millions of years after
he left his physical body. Subsequently that particular wave
of creation ended and everything went into the Lord; along
with that, the boy also.
Eventually when the next creation came into existence,
the Lord emerged in the expression of the boy and filled
the boy with Himself. God made the boy as one of the Grand
Masters of creation and one of the Masters of Spiritual
Science. He is whom we call Narada the Grand Master, who
initiates the living beings into the path of devotion. This is
the path of spiritualism and we are expected to follow this
path in terms of our own life, our own environment, our
own country, our own religion because God is present in
every language. We can call God in any language.
It is not correct to believe that when God comes to earth,
he speaks in English only. God is present in every breath
and every language. God is present in everyone and therefore
everyone is in Him. Everyone is expected to practice in his
own environment and take these three steps regularly and
when we make a sincere attempt, we reach the correct
Master who initiates us into the path. It is not at all our duty
to search for our Master and it is not at all correct for us
to appoint our own Master in our mind.
254 The Science of Yoga

For example, I may think that my Master is Master

Morya. There are people who believe that my Master is Koot
Hoomi. Masters are not our servants to come and go
according to our beck and call. A Master can never be our
servant. He knows you. You can never know him, just as a
doctor knows the prescription for a patient and a patient can
never know whether the doctor is correct or not. Similarly
it is always our Master who knows us and so it is foolish
for us to select a Master in our mind. It is his duty and not
our duty. Our duty is towards the God who is in the form
of the people around us in terms of our duty towards them
as father or mother, as wife or husband, as child, brother
or friend. When we are sincere about it, when we are sincere
in our attempt to see God in all around us, our Master knows
us immediately, and directly comes to our house.
One day he gives a knock at your house without having
a prior appointment. So, don't send him away on the plea
that he had no appointment. He gives you the required
initiation and makes you as his disciple.
Every world scripture gives the Science of Spiritualism
and you can follow a path given in any scripture. It leads
to the same goal. That is seeing God in everyone, realizing
the behaving God in everyone, understanding that the
behaviour of everyone is only a drama of God and finally
allowing God to live in us. This is the sum total of
spiritualism. This is beyond any religion. Every religion, when
properly understood, teaches this. Religions are like schools
for discipline and training and not to compare other schools
of thought.
 How to live a Spiritual Life 255

When you have studied in a school and I have studied

in another school, it is foolish to compare the schools
because it is the study that is important. Understand that
religions are schools of discipline. Remember that the world
scriptures are beyond religions though the religious people
claim them. Follow any one scripture. Follow it in your daily
life and practice, not only in your mental lib or on the Sunday
morning prayer, but also every day, every minute when you
are with others. Then you will know what the scripture is.
Then you will know what your Master is. Then you will know
what God is. This is the sum total of the Science of
Spiritualism.
Question : Can you explain about the conditioning of the
Karma?
Answer : When you are attending a drama, it is easy for
you to appreciate the dramatic conversations of the drama;
at the same time you will not forget that these conversations
are not the ideas and thoughts of the actor of the drama.
When a holy man and a villain are talking in a drama, or when
a murderer and a saint are talking in a drama, it is not very
difficult to remember that the conversations of the murderer
do not belong to the actor? Similarly, automatically you will
begin to know yourself and remember the behaviour of
everyone in the world as the part of the drama and portion
played by the actors. Man as a character behaves like that,
but man as an actor never behaves like that. You will come
to understand this double role of man. Man as a character
and man as an actor. In the drama, as part of an act , you
may call me a fool. But, once we come out of the drama
256 The Science of Yoga

sequence do I bear malice or anger towards you because

you called me a fool in the drama? It is that simple. It
becomes very easy and we begin to take the step.
Karma always exists, but our karma stops to exist. Karma
is the chain action of the whole creation, whereas what we
call bad karma is different from this karma. Individual karma
is nothing but self-conditioning. It exists as long as we
separately exist in this world for ourselves. As long as we
live our life away from God in the mind, its subdivisions
also exist to us. They play their conditioning upon us and
we experience the misery of our past karma also. For
instance it's like a person who has borrowed money from
many people and goes absconding. When in his sleep he gets
a dream where all his debtors find him and one by one come
upstairs to where he is hiding and he looks at everyone and
feels the misery of it. This fear and suffering will continue
until he is awakened from the dream. This suffering is as
true as anything as long as he is in the dream. No doubt it
is a dream, but to him it is not a dream. When he is awakened,
it is just a dream.
Similarly, when God's grace showers upon us, to make
us practice the three steps of spiritualism, there will be the
awakening of our consciousness into God consciousness
and there is the instantaneous disappearance of self-
conditioning. So, there is no karma from that time onwards.
Thank you all.