Tabula Rasa

Chidakasha Gita

1

Jnanis are mindless. To Jnanis, all are the same. They have no slumber, no dreams, nor sleep. They are always in sleep. The sun and the moon are the same to them. To them, it is always sunrise.

The glass of a chimney lamp, when covered with carbon, is not transparent. Similarly, the carbon of the mind should be removed.

2

There are three nerves in the body: the sun or the Sushumna; the moon or the Ida; the star or the Pingala. The first is red in color, the second, blue, and the third, green.

3

Where these three nerves meet is the heart space. As we go on practicing yoga, the Bindu-sound is heard in the head. This sound is one, indivisible.

4

Just as camphor is consumed by the flames of fire, so also, mind must be consumed by soul-fire.

5

The copra, detached from the shell, makes a dull sound when shaken; so also the soul and body must be thought of as separate. The first is light; by that light, all vices are consumed.

6

Just as we draw water from a well, we should draw breath. When we breathe out, it should be like letting down the bucket into the well. When we breathe out, it is the carbon (the impurities of the body); when we breathe in, it is the breath of Omkar. Breath of Omkar is the manas (mind).

7

Manas is Jiva; but their positions are different. Jivatman is Paramatman.

8

A man or woman should be educated. What is education? Jiva should know the secret that He is the Paramatman.

9

Paramatman is in Jivatman. The real Mukti is to know the subtle in the gross.

10

We should leave off the gross sleep and sleep the subtle sleep. We should enjoy the sleep obtained from the practice of Pranayam.

11

The upgoing breath is like the wheels inside a clock. Its movement is inside. When the movement of the breath is internal, one will see the world in himself.

12

Just as we see the sky reflected in the water in an earthen pot, so also, to the internal vision, the sky of consciousness becomes visible.

13

If food is prepared in a gold vessel, the dog eats it. If it is prepared in an earthen vessel, then also the dog eats it.

14

The sunlight is reflected in the salt water of the sea. It is also reflected in the clear water of a tank at the top of a hill. It is not enough if we see with the eye but we should experience it.

15

On a tree grow numberless flowers. The flowers all perish but the tree does not perish for a long time. The visible is like flowers; the invisible is like the tree.

16

There are matches in a matchbox. Fire is produced only when the match is rubbed against the side of the box. So also, the Manas is the match; intelligence (Buddhi) is the side of the box. We should rub the Manas against Buddhi and then we get the kingdom of Self which is the same as the liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

17

A man should be quite indifferent to honor and dishonor. He should not have the least love for his body; such a man will see the Supreme Being in everything and everywhere.

18

The Supreme Light and the Universal Light are identical.

19

From a plank, are manufactured tables, chairs, etc. So also, Brahman is the primordial substance from which numberless worlds are formed.

20

Manas and the Atman are the same to all people. At the final stage of the universe, all is one. At the present stage, there is difference in their mode of breathing, thinking, and their mental tendencies.

21

Fire, air, water, and earth are common to all. These may be used by all people alike. Similarly, well-water may be used by a brahmin, a pariah, and children alike.

22

Manas is the gingilly; Buddhi is the oil mill; Amrita (ambrosia) is the oil.

23

Buddhi is the king. Manas is the minister. Manas should be subordinated to Buddhi.

24

When a road is crowded with five or six thousand people, it is almost impossible to drive a horse carriage along the road. The driver must be careful in driving the carriage. A cyclist's attention is not directed towards himself but towards the passerby.

25

When a man is entirely sunk in cold water, he no longer feels the cold of the cold water. A perfect man is not subject to anger.

26

When a seed is fried, it cannot sprout. When a lamp contains no oil, we do not call it a 'lamp'. When the sun is shining, a gaslight becomes dim. It is the sun that gives light to the whole world. If Manas is regarded as the king, Buddhi may be regarded as the prime minister. When a tree does not bear fruits, it has no beauty. There is no effect without cause. In darkness light persists. Darkness is ignorance. Light is Jnana (knowledge). One must see oneself. One must return to the place from whence one started. We must return the thing we have borrowed.

27

A guru (spiritual teacher) will lead any sort of man from a thorny path to the royal road. Such preceptors are of two kinds. One is the primary preceptor and the other, the secondary preceptor. Mind is the primary preceptor and the other, the secondary preceptor. One is not the preceptor of the other. He is only the secondary preceptor. The secondary preceptor is one who shows the water in the well. The guru who exists in the heart of all beings is the Jagad-Guru (universal preceptor).

28

People generally think that a teacher's body is guru. A man does not become a guru by simply wearing sandals and counting beads on a rosary. One who talks 'Brahma Jnana' and gives stones to his disciples is not a guru. Whatever a guru speaks in words, he must show it in action. First one must practice and after realisation, he must begin to teach others.

29

One who has thoroughly wiped off the idea 'I am the body' is fit to be called a guru. There is none higher than such a one. There is no god above such a guru. Such a guru is God, and God is such a guru.

30

If you keep sugar apart from us, we cannot have experience of its sweetness. If we eat it, then only we know its taste. A man cannot get Mukti if he simply repeats 'Rama, Krishna, or Govinda' for a thousand years. He must repeat it heartily (knowing the secret).

31

Cow milk can never be bitter. The stone fixed in the earth cannot speak. By visiting places of pilgrimage like Benares and Rameshvaram, a man cannot attain Mukti. What is essential is keeping the mind steady for a moment by introversion. Seeing earthen and stone images is not seeing God. It is mind's hallucination when you regard images as God. Without true Jnana, Mukti cannot be attained. Our taking the human birth is the effect. Giving it back is the cause. We must know the cause and effect. Likewise, we must know the good and the evil; the right and the wrong. Knowing all, peace must be attained.

32

If a building has no doors, we cannot call it a 'house'. Without fire, we cannot heat water. Without air, fire cannot burn. Without food and sleep, a man can live for a few days but without air (breathing), a man cannot live even for a few seconds.

33

Destruction of the world means transforming it into Vayu (air with its blue color). Raja Yoga is the place of indivisible monism. If you enter the ONE, you lose sight of the MANY.

34

In the infinite, there is no finite. To a Jnani, there is no Ajnani. To an Ajnani, there is no Jnani. If all the children beat a mother, she does not throw them away.

35

You must not leave the feet of a guru. Your mind should not flicker like the reflection of the sun in the shaking water.

36

The sea water is boundless. The tank water has a boundary. Our mind must be like the tank water. Mind is the cause of good and evil. A man may be good and bad according to his good or bad thoughts. God does not do good or evil to any man. The reason is, intelligence and knowledge are the divine faculties in man. A man protected by good thoughts cannot be harmed even by a cannon shot. Without yoga, liberation from karma is impossible.

37

Without knowing the secret (truth), if we simply decorate the exterior skin, our karma will not leave us. One cannot be a Sannyasi by external signs if he is internally a hypocrite. What you think, you must speak. What you speak, you must show by your acts. Do what you say. Say what you do. Such a man is a Jnani. He is a Paramahansa. He is a Yogi. He is a Sannyasi. One who has conquered desire is a true Sannyasi. Only a desireless man is fit to be a spiritual teacher.

38

What is served for others, should not be eaten by us. We must place a separate leaf for us and eat our food.

39

There is nothing like 'this one' has more and another has less. The power of thought, the ears, the nose, the hand, the eye, etc. are the same to all.

40

The nose is not the place where the eye is. Walking should be done by the legs only. Work done by the hands cannot be done by the head.

41

The head is the ocean of Ananda (bliss). In it is situated the Prana Linga, the seat of Liberation. This cannot be learned from books. It is inherent in the brain. The book consists of parts, but Jnana is the indivisible one. A book consists of chapters, but Jnana is single chaptered. For those who have not realised, a book is necessary. But to a man of realisation, there is only one undivided being. When a man takes birth, he is not born with a book in his hand but he is born with a brain. While coming (to this world) and going away (from this world), a man has no book in his hand. Only in the middle period he takes a book.

42

When a man is born, he is perfect. When he goes away then also, he is perfect. In the middle, he is subject to Maya. That which pervades in all directions is ONE, indivisible. That which is limited is divisible.

43

At the place where there is running water, there can be no mud. The place is quite clean. Ignorance (Ajnana) is mud. The current of water is Bhakti and Jnana.

44

It is not Bhakti to give a man some money or to give him a meal as charity. Bhakti is universal love. Seeing God, in all beings, without the least idea of duality, is Bhakti.

45

Without the control of breath (Pranayama), a man cannot be a yogi (a perfect man); nor is he a Sannyasi (saint). Without a rudder, it is impossible to steer a boat or ship.

46

To a good man, every man is good; everything is good. A man can be good by his own exertion.

47

We drink the juice of the sugar cane and throw away the refuse. Similarly, this body is a house for the Atman. When it is spoiled, we build a new one.

48

It is the nest that perishes, not the bird. The nest is built of earth. The blood vessels and nerves are earth. In the blood vessels are the blood and semen. This body made of flesh is subject to death. If it is not washed for a single day, it stinks. We cannot trust the human body.

49

Mind is the creator of ideas. When the gross ideas are suppressed and the man lives in the subtle, this state is called 'Nirvikalpa Samadhi' or Samadhi without ideas. Just as we teach a bird how to talk, keeping it in a cage with its feet bound, we must keep our mind in our Buddhi. A man must learn for himself.

50

Holding the nose with the hand, with eyes turned upwards and holding the breath in tight as if winding a clock spring with a key are similar to circus feats or a cinema show. These are not what is called 'Samadhi'.

51

The sense of equality is the greatest thing in this world. People go mad after shadows. Very few are mad after the invisible (the subtle). True madness is very rare, it being found only in one among a lakh or two. Other people run mad after sixteen things in a ghatika (twenty-four minutes). 'I want this', 'I want that', 'This is different', 'That is different'. Such is their mad talk. Entertaining various motives is madness. Fickleness of mind is madness. Greatness is madness. Practicing and seeing the reality is the opposite kind of madness. Liberation from birth and death is Divine madness. Those who have not realised the truth are mad after the gross. Everyone has one sort of madness or another. Thousands of people possess houses, diamond-jewels, gold and property. They did not bring these with them at birth nor will they take these with them at death.

52

It is not the body that exists nor disappears. He is the ONE who is the supreme doer. It is the breath that man brings here at birth and it is the breath that man takes with him when he leaves this world. Property and fame are here only. There, everything is one. Duality exists here only. On the other side, there is no duality. A perfect man (Avadhoota) is the greatest of men. Yogis and Sannyasis want some Siddhi (power acquired through yoga or tapas). An Avadhoota does not want anything.

53

When SAT unites with CHIT, Ananda (bliss) is the result. This Ananda is Paramananda, Sri Satchitananda. Paramananda is experienced in the head. In the head is in the Brahma-nadi. Brahmananda is Paramananda. Jiva enjoys this bliss when he is one with Paramatman. This bliss is also called Shivananda. Paramananda is experienced in the head. This state is eternal joy. This state is Jivanmukti.

54

He is a Jnani who has given up worldly pleasures and, by practicing yoga, seen God. Ananda (bliss) is not in what you hear. Bliss is a matter of experience. Such a man is called a Mahatma. Those who have seen earthen and stone images do not become Mahatmas. He is a Mahatma who knows himself.

55

An Avadhoota has conquered death and birth. He has no consciousness of the body. An Avadhoota has gone beyond all Gunas (qualities). He is the knower of the 'Omniscient Light'. He has no consciousness of the 'I'. Such is a Raja Yogi, not a Hatha Yogi. When he comes to a village, he feels glad, whomsoever he may see. He has no consciousness of duality though he moves here and there. He has no hunger.

He eats plentifully if he gets plenty of eatables. If he does not get, he will not ask anybody. Those who give to him poison and those who give to him milk are the same to him. Those who beat him and those who love him are the same to him. To an Avadhoota, the universe is the father, the mother, and the relation. He becomes the universe and the universe becomes he. The universe is merged in him.

56

In Pranayama, Pooraka is drawing up the breath. Kumbhaka is retaining the breath. Rechaka is exhaling the breath. These three kinds of breath are from within. Nothing is taken from outside. While thus the practice is going on, the Prana will move only in one nerve. We then feel the internal joy. Who can describe this Brahmananda? The outside world will then be forgotten. We will then be in the world beyond.

57

'This world' means Jivatman. The 'next world' means the union of Jivatman and Paramatman.

58

Just as small rivers enter the sea, our attention must be fixed on the internal breath.

59

What is visible is transient. It is perishable. When the mind is merged in 'Bindu' and 'Nada' Nirvikalpa Samadhi is attained. Our attention is then entirely towards Ananda (eternal joy). Fixing the attention between the eyebrows, the Prana should enter the holy Brahmarandhra. Here the light of lights becomes visible to the divine eye. This is Mukti. This is eternally supreme joy. This is the place where the Manas ought to dwell. This is the eternal being whence the Vedas have sprung. This is seeing Paramatman in all. This is the real place of Jivatman.

60

The real place of Jiva is formless, indivisible. God pervades all things movable and immovable. He is the ONE without a second. God is the origin of Vedas. He is the Lord of the body. He is the Lord of Jivanmukti. Man, to be man, must meditate upon God.

61

He who meditates on the Reality is a Sannyasi. He is a yogi. The distinction of 'Pariah' exists in the external. Internally, all is one without distinction. What is 'Pariah' is not after death. A 'Pariah' is he who has envy and pride, who holds vain discussion about religion, who talks ill of others behind their backs. Sewing is not stitching thread and cloth, but stitching Manas and Buddhi; merging Manas in Buddhi.

Now the distinction of male and female: A true female is one who is merged in the external. A true male is one who is merged in the internal. One whose Buddhi is firm is male. One whose Buddhi is fickle is a female. This distinction of male and female is external only. Internally such a distinction does not exist at all. When the Manas and Buddhi are merged in the Atman, one who is physically a woman becomes spiritually a 'man'.

62

The body is the cave. In this cave dwells the Atman. Atman, dwelling in the body, must attain 'Moksha' (liberation). The outward bodily parts are various. In the invisible (subtle) all is one, indivisible. OM is Pranava. Pranava pervades the form (body). OM is bodylessness and formlessness.

63

Bhakti in the beginning, is selfish. Afterwards, there is no selfishness in it. When a man attains perfection, the whole universe becomes to him, his guru.

64

What is called 'Hatha Yoga' is selfishness. In Hatha yoga, a man seeks his own goodness. He seeks fame. He can stop the sunrise of tomorrow. He can create a mountain of gold. To say 'I am Brahma' is not just. 'Thou (O God!) art ALL; ALL art thou,' we must say. A yogi is one who thinks the whole universe to be a yogi. He should regard all as himself.

65

If a man goes to a forest and there lives in a cave, it is just like a beast in a cave. Even the milestones are better than such a man because by the milestones, we can count the distance in miles. Such people are of no use whatsoever. A thoughtful man should gradually go on renouncing the world. When a man eats food, it is for his own benefit. Others are not benefited by it. It is not enough if we leave darkness. We must always live in the light. If we have a light on a dark path, we have no fear. There is fear in walking in darkness.

66

If you perform tapas for thousands of years with the desire for results, it is of no avail. But if you perform tapas for one ghatika (twenty-four minutes) without any desire for 'fruits', you will see ALL in God and God in ALL.

67

Hatha yoga is duality. The most excellent is Raja Yoga. No man should think he is the doer. Everything is ordained by the great Self. Salt is obtained from sea water. When it is mixed with water, it becomes one with it. Similarly, Maya springs from Paramatman and finally merges in him.

68

Vedanta means Prana (breath). To be entirely merged in Prana, is Vedanta. Vedanta is one indivisible. It is unbreakable. What is called Veda recitation is not from the tongue. Veda recitation should be from the throat. Those who know this secret are Brahmins. Veda is the one letter OM. It is the fire of inspiration. Vedanta is formless and changeless; indivisible. Light is caused by Veda. What is called Dharana in yoga is the real recitation of Veda.

69

Just as a tyre of a bicycle is filled with air by a pump, the Nadis (nerves) should be filled with 'Vedanta discrimination'. Prana should be raised to Brahmarandhra, the highest point in the brain.

The nerves should be purified and such purification should be done step by step. Buddhi and Manas should become one with Paramatman. You should play with him. You should sit in the upper story and look around downwards. Buddhi's place is above. Buddhi must become one with Jnana. You should always drink the water of eternal joy.

You must be one with the nectar of Ananda. You must know those who are always merged in this eternal joy. You should know the very secret of this Ananda. Truly, the Kundalini must be awakened. Just as we rock a child in a cradle, we should fix our attention in the head and examine what takes place there. Paramananda (supreme bliss), Sadananda (eternal bliss) are there in the head. Shiva Linga is also in the head which should be one.

70

When you rub a match to the side of a box, you obtain fire. You should cook everyday. You should avoid all distinctions. When the recipient is fit, he should be initiated. That man who has the power of discrimination should be initiated.

71

If food is given to a man who has no hunger, it will cause indigestion in him. Those whose belly is full have no hunger. Those who are well dressed feel the cold, the greater.

72

One must go to Kasi by train. One must reach the town of 'Shivanandapuri'. One must go to the country of 'peace'. One must stop his journey at 'Brahmanandapuri'.

73

A man must know himself. He who has conquered the mind is the man. He is the ascetic. He is the yogi. He sees the one Atman in all. Suppose you come into a dark room after wandering in the sun. What do you see? Look at the sun for five minutes and come into a dark room. You see nothing. This is as it ought to be. One must see with the inner (spiritual) eye.

74

A ripe fruit is very sweet to the taste. The same fruit when it is unripe is astringent. Both are produced by the same tree. The difference between the two is caused by time. As soon as a coconut is planted in the ground, it does not grow into a plant. First, it sprouts, then it becomes a plant and finally it becomes a tree. A tender coconut tree can be easily plucked from the ground. But a fully grown coconut tree cannot be easily plucked. So also, our mind must be unaffected, whatever people say to us or whatever they say about us. The mind must always be under our control. This is what a man must accomplish in life. This must be 'the one object' in life. This a man must accomplish even if his head is to be struck off. We should give a blow with the mind itself, not with a cane or a hand or something. We should learn to tie a man without a rope. This is what a man should accomplish in life.

75

The mind is the seat of 'sin'. It is the cause of action, good and bad. Mind is the cause of all these. If there is no mind there is no speech. Without the mind, nothing can come and nothing can go. But for the mind, nothing can be accomplished. Suppose one knows how to speak english but he does not know how to write it. Then we cannot say, he knows English fully. When he knows both, then only he can secure a passing grade in English.

76

Even a child, five years old knows that there is God. But the child does not know where God is. The sun sees all. But very few, one in a lakh or two, look at the sun. In this world, three-fourths of the people are fond of sexual pleasures like beasts. Even those who have reached the middle state, are less than one fourth of the people. Good deeds are very few in this world. Evil deeds are many.

77

Swami is he who has united the Chit with Sat. Upadhi means the tree of peace. We must take shelter under this 'tree of peace'.

78

Those who are always one with the Brahman are the Brahmacharies. Such a man may even belong to a pariah caste. One does not become a Swami by simply holding an ascetic's wand in hand or by holding a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. Nor by putting on red clothes, nor by discussing God with whomsoever he meets.

79

If gold is melted in fire, it shines with lustre. So also, one should purify oneself, killing desire and anger internally. By introspection, he should move internally. A man's mind never remains stationary.

80

However wicked a man may be, within five minutes his wickedness may be changed into goodness. So long as there are clouds, the sun's rays are not visible. As soon as the clouds scatter in all directions, the sun becomes visible. OM 'the tower of peace'! OM 'the form of peace'! OM! Salutation to OMKAR!

81

There is not a fixed rule about the taking of food. It has not been said that one should not take his meals. Moderation! Moderation is the rule. Half stomach, food; one-fourth water. Do not love sleep too much.

82

Fire consumes anything and everything. It does not distinguish between good and bad. Likewise those who are doing 'karma' may eat anything. Those who do not know what 'karma' is are not aware of what they should do. Such a one suffers from indigestion. One whose digestion is all right may eat anything he likes. It will be digested. Sleep is necessary. Moderate sleep. Do not eat when the stomach is full. Be always regular in your meals.

83

Gold chains around the neck, gold jewels on the ears, gold rings on fingers. These are the causes of the fear of being robbed when they are on the body. Money is the cause of fear. When there is no gold on the body, then there is no fear.

84

What is called 'fear' is the creation of the mind. For the internal sight, there is no fear. Fear exists for the man who has no internal eye (Jnana). It is impossible for a blind man to describe what the cart is like. Similarly to a man who has no guru, there is no place in the world.

85

Food full means Prana full. Food means Prana. If we store our money in a box without much thought about it, it remains in a great store. If we spend from it, it becomes less and less. Money (wealth) is life. The box is intellect (Buddhi). The box requires nothing. Similarly, if a man knows himself he does not want anything. If by the internal exercise of the Sadhana (practice) which is with us, we lead the Prana to the Brahmarandhra (the top end of the Sushumna canal), and there if Prana and Shiva are united, then we do not require anything. Restraining the Manas from going down and showing it the royal road of the 'middle path' is what is called food.

86

The repetition of Rama is true delight. It is the eternal Atma delight, eternal true delight, internal Atma delight, Kundalini grandeur delight. The lord of mind is Rama. Rama means Atman. That which governs the ten Indriyas (five Karmendriyas and five Jnyanendriyas) is Rama. Ravana means all the wicked qualities in us. Sita means Chitta. Lakshmana means attention (thought control). Krishna means introspection. This introspection is the eternal Atma delight.

87

All are men. There is no incarnation higher than man. Man is the greatest of animals. But those are the best of men who ponder over the subtle.

88

'Ekadashi' means the worship of the ONE. To such a man, everyday is Ekadashi. Those are called 'men' who have such an Ekadashi. A man should think very little about the gross. He should spend much of his time in meditation of the subtle.

89

A man becomes 'desireless' when he sees a dead body burning. This desirelessness is temporary. This is the secret of the body. Desirelessness imparted by a guru should not be abandoned. From desirelessness a man obtains liberation from bondage. This desirelessness is the best. Guru is secondary.

The desire that a man be initiated is of the third class. Getting a guru is of the second class. By practice; getting experience for oneself is the real desirelessness which is the goal of human life. When one practices and imparts his knowledge to another, it is 'Yogananda Desirelessness'. It is the imperishable and the indivisible state. It is the tree of peace. The climbing of the tree of peace which is in the head and being one with that 'peace tree' is the real imperishable desirelessness. The cutting of the primary root of passion and anger is the imperishable desirelessness. Being in Samsara, enjoying a little of its pleasures and then renouncing it is the second desirelessness. Desirelessness is liberation from bondage in this very life.

90

Those who have no 'faith' have no desirelessness. Similarly, those who have annihilated the Manas, have no Vasanas. So also, those who have no faith, do not reap any fruit. We buy a diamond for five or six thousand rupees. This is all rental delusion. If we have no mind to buy a diamond, its value is nothing more than that of a lump of earth.

91

Elements are not five but four. Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Space is no element. It is one indivisible. The earth is extended. Air is above water. Space is above air. The sea is the boundary. The earth is the bed. Space is the house. The air is above. The earth is below. The earth is red. The air is white. The earth, made of four elements, is not round. It is triangular. Between the lunar nerve and the solar nerve is Sushumna (the star nerve). The earth is like our face.

92

Vayu (air) is imperishable. It is one, indivisible. It exists in everything. When the glass chimney of a lamp is shut, there is no light. When it is not shut, the lamp shines brightly. If we take 'earth' and imagine it to be sugar, it is sugar only in thought.

The nature of earth is not changed. So also, even if a man becomes a yogi or a Jnani, the nature of the body does not leave him. Manas becomes one with the Brahman, not the body. Jnanis are subject to the limitations of the body. Since their Manas is annihilated, they are not aware of their bodily condition. A man in sleep, if bitten by a cobra, is not aware of the cobra bite and he is not affected by it. Similarly, Jnanis are not aware of their body and hence, the bodily conditions do not affect them. When a letter, written in English or in any tongue, is given to a child of five or six months old, the child throws away that letter and it cannot know what is contained in it. A child of six months old does not at all know the difference between a diamond and a lump of earth. Such children have no idea of the body. They are always in the thought of Atma. Children have no idea of duality. When their brains develop, they become aware of differences. When the brain is not developed, Prana in such a child is in the Sushumna.

93

As the child is growing month by month, it gets knowledge of various things. Earlier knowledge is of no use. When a man is in the know of all, he must be like a child. A true Jnani is just like a child of six months. Such a child is not conscious of its own calls of nature. It does not distinguish between the two calls of nature. Jnanis are similar. They do not like one thing and dislike the other. They have no idea of poison. The administrator of poison should think about it. The eater never cares for it. Likewise, a Jnani does not say, 'I want dinner', 'I want that'. They are always well established in the internal Atman.

94

Our head is like a coconut fruit. In the coconut there is water and kernel. Likewise, there is water and kernel in our head. In the head is Chidakasha. It is the well of Hridayakash. We should draw water from this well and drink it. It is no use digging a well in the earth and drinking water from it.

95

You have a certain thing in your hand. If you look for it somewhere else, you will not find it. If you sit in an upper story, light a lamp there, and close the doors, those who are below cannot see the light. See the biscope! See the drama! All these are seen in the head. Everything should be seen from the same place. You need not go to several places to see several things. The city of Madras can be seen from there as well as from here. It is better to see it from one place. We must 'idealise' it in our brain.

What we call the heart is not below. It is above (the neck). When we are cooking, the flames go upwards. So is the heart upwards. There is light in the heart. There is no darkness in it. If a man's head be struck off, we cannot say who the man is by simply looking at his trunk. It is the heart which sees through the eye. A man must have the internal eye. What is called the 'heart space' is the face which is triangular. We can know a certain man by looking at his face. A man must know his own secret. A man must know himself.

96

Mukti is according to the nature of our Bhakti. If you try hard, you get a good salary. If you try a little, you get a small salary.

97

When we are little children, we do not know who is our father and who is our mother. When we grow up, we come to know our parentage. When a cock eats, it scratches everything towards it with its feet. Similarly, when a man's intellect is developed, he becomes selfish. Every day men die. Every day men are born. But rarely do they burn their selfishness. Selfishness completely disappears when the divisible becomes one with the indivisible. From rice various kinds of eatables such as ambada and halva are prepared. These preparations are not called rice.

98

A vessel without water is of no use. Bhakti is water. Intelligence (Buddhi) is the vessel. He who has no subtle Bhakti is no man. It is not the work of Shakti when a man dances an oracular dance. This dance is a trick. Trickery's course is downwards. Shakti follows a middle course. Trickery belongs to the body. Shakti is Atmaic. Trickery is powerless before the fire of Shakti.

99

Almost all fruits have their seed inside. But cashew apple has its seed outside. Our mind, like the seed of cashew apple, must be outside Samsara. One must not reserve sugar for himself and distribute sand to others. One following the royal road should not lead others to the path covered with forests. It is one's bound duty to lead others by the royal road. We must do this at once. We are not sure about the future.

100

When a train leaves a station, the next station is alerted that a train is approaching by the sound of bells ringing. What is called Bindu-Nada is the bell. Just as we hear a sound when we throw a stone into a well, we hear Bindu-Nada inside the head.

101

When a boy has passed the first standard and he goes to the second standard, books of the first standard are no longer required by him. When a man is in sound sleep, he sees neither the stars nor the sun nor the moon. He is aware of nothing. Then the mind is nill. Sleep is a subtle condition. It is not gross. In sound sleep we are not conscious of the body. Then we are conscious of Atma alone. We will have sleep when Prana is in a fixed plane in the body. When the ego is completely destroyed, everything seems to be like 'reflection'. The mind's delusion is not permanent. It is not Shiva.

102

When a man has become a graduate in law, he receives a university gown. This gown covers the body from head to foot. It has four hands (two hands and two legs). When SAT and CHIT become united, we have Ananda, Brahmananda, Paramananda, Sri Satchidananda, Sri Yogananda. When we discard worldly pleasures, we enjoy divine pleasures. When we realise the truth about Jiva, we enjoy Ananda.

103

Those who have no guru, have not realised the truth. In this world there is no effect without cause. When the darkness in this world has appeared as light, that is called Jnana. Darkness is ignorance. Light is knowledge. Do not be a hypocrite and earn fame.

104

Say what you do and do what you say.

105

Before you die, leave the forest path and follow the royal road. When you are on your deathbed, you may suffer the agonies of hell, your Prana being obstructed by the three humors (Vatha, Pitha, and Kapha).

106

There are many people in this world to take care of those who have passed the I.C.S., but there is none to inquire about the path to divinity. No one can describe what the bliss of Mukti means and what it is. That religion which was taught by Shiva from the beginning of creation is one and one only.

107

Adversity given by Shiva is no adversity. Sorrow given by Shiva is no sorrow. It is your mental delusion. At the time of our birth on this earth, there is some difficulty. So also at the end. When men come out of their mother's womb, tears trickle down their eyes.

108

All is Shiva. Justice and its opposite both are Shiva. O Mind! Leave off injustice and be one with justice.

109

OMKAR is one without a second. Omkar is the cause of both creation and dissolution. Omkar destroys Manas. Omkar is really the Atman in you. Omkar is indivisible. A divisible object can never be indivisible. From the beginning there is only one religion taught by Shiva. If you sit in a room closing the doors, you do not see anything outside. When the doors are closed, Jiva communes with Shiva. When the doors are not closed, Jiva is separated from Shiva.

110

OMKAR is indivisible. Omkar is creation. Omkar is Maya, action, Manas, consciousness, light of consciousness. Chitta is the cause of desire.

111

SAT is the one, indivisible. It is the one 'subtle' which is everlasting. CHIT is always changing.

112

When the 'SAT' unites with 'CHIT', the result is Ananda. This Ananda is the Satchitananda, Sri Nityananda, Sri Paramananda. Union of Jiva and Paramatma is Ananda, Yogananda, Paramananda, Satchitananda and Brahmananda.

113

You must see that God who is in the heartspace. Yes, you must see Him. You must see that Krishna who is eternal bliss (Nityananda). It is delusion to regard stone as God. Pain of death given by Shiva is no pain. All sorrow is mental delusion. Praise God within yourself. Praise Him in your head! You must know the secret of Para Brahma who is eternal joy. Yes, you must know that secret. Look for Him in the heart.

See Him with your inner eye, not with the outer. See the royal road with the internal eye. Leave the downward path and come to the central path. The downward path is that followed by those people who decorate the external body without knowing the secret of God.

114

No one is mad in this world.

115

Leave the gross pleasures and enjoy the subtle pleasures. Leave off the physical sleep and enjoy the subtle sleep. Enjoy that sleep which is eternal. This sleep is enjoyed only in our subtle state. Burn to ashes the delusion of the mind.

116

He is a Brahmin who has performed the Upanayana ceremony. Establish what is called 'Upadhi' in you. Being desireless, look inwards in your heart. See with the eye of desirelessness. Discard distinctions. Burn to ashes the idea of 'you' and 'I'. Yes, you burn it to ashes.

117

In the beginning, there was only one religion propagated by Shiva. In the beginning, there was no difference like 'man' and 'woman' among human beings. This distinction was only in the gross nature. In the subtle nature, all was one. The subtle has no qualities. The subtle receives only the eternal Ananda everywhere. Having and seeing is all mental delusion. The visible world is transient.

118

Hari is no Lord. Shiva is the Lord. What is called Hari is delusion. We must not be fooled by the shadow (reflection). What is called Maya is delusion. To distinguish between the subtle and the gross is delusion. The delusion caused by the subtle and the gross are the same. The delusion caused by the gross is multitudinous.

119

Realise your Self. When you see another and yourself as different, it is delusion. Identify yourself with another. Realise the secret which is in yourself. It is not enough if you talk of this identity but you must act according to it. What you see with the external eye is of no use. The feeling of distinction will be the cause of trouble at the time of death.

120

Same-sightedness is the 'Oordhva Shwasa' (gasping upwards) at the time of death. Samesightedness is the indivisible one. This is supreme bliss. This is the subtle. This is the eternal. In the upward breath, there is no cawing sound. 0 Shiva! By your grace, permit us to breathe in and breathe out harmoniously. One must meditate in the head. One must meditate upon the ocean of eternal bliss. Meditate in the Ida, in the Pingala and in the Sushumna.

Ananda-Kundalini! Rise! The match is in the match box. Light is in the match. Rub the match and kindle the fire. Ajnana is darkness. Jnana is the light.

Kundalini is the eternal bliss. Yes, it is so. Eternal bliss is in the heart. Infinite light is Kundalini! Kundalini is the Light of Brahma. The sun-light is the subtle light. The solar nerve is the Sushumna. The lunar nerve is the Ida and the stellar nerve is the Pingala.

The nerve of the third eye is the seat of Jnana. In this nerve is Jnana. In this nerve is sleep, Sushupti. In sleep, there is no wakefulness. Enjoy this sleep. Harmonising both Prana and Apana, enjoy the subtle sleep. Harmonising the Prana and Apana, enjoy the eternal bliss. The seat of breath is the truth. It is the internal space (Chidakasha). In the eternal space is the tower of eternal bliss. This tower is the seat of eternal peace. In the 'unconscious sleep' enjoy the 'conscious sleep' of bliss. This is not the sleep of beasts. Sleep the 'sleep of man'.

Enjoy that sleep which must be the aim and end of man. Sleep the sleep of the 'spiritual eye' (Upanayana). When talking, when sitting, without any desires, without any thoughts, sleep this spiritual sleep. Fixing your attention on breath, sleep. Perform the natural Japa of the inward and the outward breath. Have mental (subtle) Bhakti. Yes, have it. Attain liberation from bondage. Have constant Bhakti. Never interrupted. Breathe up and down without any restraint. Drawing the breath upwards is Pooraka. Stopping the breath is Kumbhaka. Kumbhaka is your real seat.

Breathing out is Rechaka. While breathing in, it should be like drawing water from a well. Draw the breath up to the Brahmarandhra in the brain. By such a breathing, kindle the fire of Jnana. Purify the nerves. Burn the three humors (Vatha, Pitha and Kapha) in this fire. What is called discrimination is such a fire. It is the yoga fire. It is the food-digesting fire in the stomach. The discrimination is the solar light. God pervades the universe in the form of subtle energy. Creation is caused by the doubts of the mind. Creation is purely a mental affection. When you have attained the same-sightedness, there will be no creation.

121

The subtle state is common to both mobile and immobile beings. The difference is in the casual (Prakriti). Difference is delusion. Difference is in the body. Bodies are transient. Prakriti is evanescent. When you realise the subtle in the gross, that state is called Moksha. Mukti is the indivisible. Mukti is in the heart space. In the heart space is Shiva Linga. It is self-existence. This is also called the 'Prince-Prana'. This is the upward breath. This is known in yoga as Prana. Prana is the ONE. Prana is the ONE in all. Prana is the existence. This is known only to those who have practiced yoga. Those who have not practiced yoga are not aware of this fact, they being bound by desires. So, cut asunder the bondage of desires and hence attain salvation. Realise the one Tatwa; Paramatman. Realise him by the 'internal eye'.

He is a man who has realised God by the 'internal eye'. Such a man feels that the universe is in him and he is in the universe. Mind, engrossed in the world, is not steady. Shiva who dwells in the heart space is the ONE, everlasting. Shiva is OMKAR. OMKAR is Pranava. When united with forms, it is Pranava. Omkar is the 'unawareness' of bodily existence.

122

OMKAR is the elite of all. Omkar is like the dawn of the sun. Omkar is the witness of all. Omkar is the most frightful of all forms. Omkar is fire. There is not a greater thing in this universe than fire. Fire is pervading both internally and externally. In the middle is the earth. The earth is below. Air is above. Air pervades the universe. The universe is in air. The first is air. The second is fire. The first is discrimination. The second is sound. Soundlessness is in the form of air. Soundlessness is eternal bliss.

It is existence, knowledge, bliss. The Self should be merged in soundlessness. The visible world is in the Self. When SAT unites with CHIT, Ananda is realised. This Ananda is Vivekananda, Chaitanyananda, Sri Brahmananda, Paramananda, Sri Nityananda, and Satchitananda. What is manliness is the realisation of this Ananda. This is Brahma Jnana, Yoga Jnana, Kala Jnana. This Trikala Jnana is in the heart. In the heart is Mukti. Nityananda Mukti is in the heart.

123

Bhakti is prema (love). Giving to eat or eating is not Bhakti. It is the delusion of the mind. It is pertaining to the body. There should be 'subtle' eating and drinking. One should drink the water of discrimination. Peace is water. Yogananda is sitting on the water of peace. O Mind! Leave off worldly pleasures and enjoy eternal bliss! O Mind! Leave off worldly joy and enjoy eternal joy! Enter into the eternal, O Mind! Run into the heart. The real enjoyment is in the heart. Enjoy that pleasure which is called Mukti. Live in it. Enter into the internal, leaving off the external. O Mind! Open the third (divine) eye. Do not be thinking of anything else. See the world with the same-sightedness.

124

Japa cannot be performed by the finger tips. Japa cannot be performed by the tongue. Shiva cannot be attained by Manas. Karma cannot be done with the hand. Karma cannot be done with legs. O Mind! Perform karma without attachment. Being desireless, see the world.

125

Mean dispositions of the mind are senselessness. This senselessness is the pariah (outcast). Joking and mocking at others, hypocrisy, pride and envy, etc. are the pariah characteristics. He whose skin is black, he whose clothes are black, is not a pariah. A man who has a turban on his head, a wristwatch on his wrist, is pariah if he does not recognise the equality in all. One who is a pauper is not a pariah, but he who is selfish and is full of differences is a pariah. He is not a man who has not realised the truth of Vedanta. Liberation in one's lifetime is that Vedanta which is like a trained horse. But the Vedanta which is like a wild elephant is not Mukti but delusion.

126

A selfish mind is not steady (firm). A subtle discrimination is steady. What is creation is peace. What is creation is 'witnesshood'. What is creation is subtle discrimination. Subtle discrimination gives us health-giving contentment. Subtle discrimination is the seed of Mukti. Trickery (Yukti) is not superior to Shakti. Trickery is subject to Shakti. Trickery is the delusion of the mind. Shakti is from Atman. Subtle discrimination is the real Buddhi. Shakti truly so called is subtle discrimination.

127

What you see with the physical eye, is the gross intellect. What you see outside is the gross intellect. What you see inside is not Hari. What is visible is not Shiva. What you see inside is not the universe. In Shiva is Hari; in Hari is not Shiva.

128

The subtle intellect is Buddhi or Jnana. The internal concentration is one pointed. The gross intellect is like a horse which is not controlled by reins. The intelligence which is acquired from others is not permanent. It is not Hari. It is not Shiva. That which is imparted by the guru is the subtle intelligence. It is never gross. The gross intelligence is bestial. He is not a man who does not return what he has received.

129

He who is ignorant of the true goal of life is a beast. This goal is desirelessness. He who is ignorant of this fact is not a man. Man who is the crown and culmination of God's creation, must not be like a frog which sinks below water and rises above water repeatedly. This human life is not a comparison to that of the frog. This life cannot always be attained. When we have acquired it, we should make efforts to reach the goal of life. Meals cannot be had before cooking. Discrimination is the fire. Intelligence is the vessel. Mukti is the goal of life.

130

One is the dwelling. One is the eternal dwelling (Mukti). That dwelling is OMKAR. That dwelling is formless, changeless, indivisible. Future is not happy. Today is the happy day. Tomorrow is not, day after is not. Nine o'clock, ten o'clock is not the time. Now is the time. The indivisible time you realise by discrimination is 'the time'. The time that you spend forgetting the goal of life is beggarly.

131

The seat of Mukti is 'Gokul Nandan'. 'Govardhana', 'Gokul'. The third eye is the 'Gokul'. The internal eye is 'Gokul'. It is Mathura. It is Vrindavana.

132

Look for the all pervading God in the head! Truly look at Him in the head! Hence enjoy the eternal bliss! See this creation in the heart.

133

Realisation of OMKAR is the annihilation of the world. Realisation of OMKAR is the destruction of the Manas. When honour and dishonour have become one to a man, he attains Ananda, eternal joy, exhaustless joy, real joy. Then all that appears becomes nothing but joy.

134

'Shiva is from Kasi'. The heart space is Kasi. Manas is Kasi. Everything is Kasi. The eternal Atman is Kasi. What is Kasi is in the head. The ten Nadas (sound) are eternal. The subtle Kasi is the Nirvikalpa Kasi. What is Haridwar is the nine gates in the body. It is the heart space. It is the place of peace. Yajna (sacrifice) is the immortal Jnana (wisdom).

135

'Yukti' (skill) is like walking on foot. Shakti is that which enters the heart. Sannyasa is like going on a train. He who goes on foot is a wanderer. (Manas is fickle.) The body is the train. The passenger in the train is Manas. If there are no passengers (Manas), the train will not move. Tickets will not be issued. People will not gather. Then there is neither the first class nor the second nor the third. Manas is the class of peace. The master of the chariot is Buddhi. The engine is the head. The nerves and the blood vessels are the screws. That which moves in the nerves and blood vessels is Vayu.

136

He that saves you at the time of death is Shiva. It is not Hari. Shakti is in Shiva. Maya (delusion) is in Hari. Bodies are earthly. The bodily senses are all looking outwards. Shiva is internal. He is the Brahma-Randhra. That which is taught by others is no real knowledge. That which has come to your experience is real knowledge.

137

When you have attained perfect peace, there is no necessity of going anywhere. There is no necessity of seeing anything. There is no necessity of going to Kasi, Rameshvara, Gokarna and other holy places. All is seen in the mind. Going and coming are delusions of the mind. When peace is attained, ALL appears to be the ONE. Liberation from bondage is seeing the ONE in ALL and the ALL in ONE. This is desirelessness. The thing in the hand must be seen in the hand itself. You cannot find it anywhere else. So also, everything must be tested in one's own thought.

138

The real sunrise is to be seen in the sky of consciousness. This is the most excellent sunrise. The whole universe is to be seen in the heart space in one's Self, just as the sun is reflected in the water placed in a small mud vessel. When we travel by a cart, the whole world seems to be moving. Likewise, the whole universe can be known in yourself.

139

He who is hungry knows what hunger is. Similarly, everything is known to the Atman. When a train leaves a station, a wire is sent to the next station. When you throw a stone into a well, a sound is heard. So also, when Vayu is moving in the nerves, 'ten kinds of sounds' become audible.

140

Suppose water is boiled in a vessel whose mouth is closed, then all the heat energy is concentrated in the vessel itself. When water comes out of a pump, we hear the sound of Omkar. We should abandon the forest path and tread the royal road. The energy moving downwards must be made to move upwards. The mind should know mind's place.

141

A boat does not sail where there is no water. So also, if Vayu does not move, there is no blood circulation. When circulation is stopped, heat ceases to be generated. When the generation of heat ceases, there is no digestion of food. So also, a train cannot move without fire.

142

Without a rope, water from a well cannot be drawn up. In the body, breath is the rope. Drawing the inward breath harmoniously is like drawing up the water from a well.

143

In order to make planks of a wooden beam, it should be sawed up and down. Similarly, breath should move upwards and downwards in the body. It should be led into Buddhi and made always to move in an upward direction. To take a stone up hill, requires great effort but to bring it down by the same route is not difficult. So also, going up is difficult but coming down is easy. It is difficult for the Prana to leave the body. To receive a thing is easy but to return it is difficult. Those men who do not return what they have received are not worthy of the name of 'men'. They are merely animals. They have no virtue.

144

It is impossible to describe the pangs of death. Jnana is attained by subtle thinking. So breath should be controlled. The mind should be merged in the sound.

145

He who has a burden on his head, has his attention on the burden. Similarly, he who acts the part of a king in a field drama, has his attention fixed on the crown. Likewise, Jnanis have their attention fixed on Buddhi.

146

Manas (mind) is inferior to Buddhi. Buddhi is the king. Manas is the prime minister. The prime minister must go to the palace often to see the king. So also, Manas is the king of the body.

147

Gas light has no lustre before the midday sun-light. Light is of use only when it is dark. When a man is hungry, he does not consider the difference of castes. Similarly, in sound sleep, there is no hunger. Then, Manas is absent. Just so, a man must sleep the sleep of yoga. Only such men are Jnanis.

148

Take ten men; their Bhakti is not of an identical nature. When ten people are going on a journey, if one of them sits to take rest, the remaining nine will also do the same. Likewise, one man is inspired with Bhakti, other people, by seeing or hearing him become also Bhaktas.

149

You do not feel the scent of a flower which is in your own hand. Flowers which are distant smell sweet. Babies whose brains are not developed, see no difference in the things of the world. When their brains are developed, they see the difference in things. Until a baby is six months old, it feels no differences. A first class yogi is like a baby of this type. If you give a diamond to a baby, it throws it way. To such babies, pebbles and diamonds are the same. Similarly, to true Jnanis, a lump of earth and money are the same. They have no desires of any sort. They see the one Atman everywhere. All is seen in the Atman and the Atman in all. This vision is internal. What is called internal vision is 'subtle discrimination'. Subtle discrimination is Shiva-Shakti. Shiva-Shakti is the indivisible Shakti of the Para-Brahma. What is Para-Brahma-Shakti is the Atman. This is the ONE reality.

150

Reality is the Prana in man. He is a man who thinks (ruminates) rightly. This correct thinking (right discrimination) is the real goal of man. Everything is attainable by practice. By practice, everything becomes known.

151

If you keep a seed safe in a box, it will not yield plenty. If you sow it in the earth and cultivate it, one seed yields thousands. From one lamp, you can light a thousand lamps. One tree produces thousands of flowers. Flower is the downward state. The tree is the upward state.

152

If we sow a gold coin in the earth, it will never sprout.

153

A lifeless thing is soundless. It is gross. A living thing has 'Shabda-Brahma' (can produce sound). The universe is nothing but Consciousness. When you build a house, you must first lay a foundation and afterwards, raise the walls. So also, there is no effect without a cause.

154

Those who are physically blind have no knowledge of forms. To such, light is of no use. Those who have destroyed mental modifications, have destroyed all desires. Such people are not subject to dreams.

155

Those who do not breathe through the nose, have no desires of any sort. Their breath is purely internal. They concentrate their breath in the Brahmarandhra where the Ida and the Pingala meet. They have realised the Great Self. They look upon all things as Self. This is Swarajya (Self government). What is Swarajya is Jiva's true place. The light of life is Prana Vayu. Prana Vayu is the capital of Swarajya government. Atman is the lord of the Swarajya government. Swarajya is one's own energy. This energy must be kept under perfect control. What is Swarajya is not a hill; it is not gold. Keeping under control both desire and anger is Swarajya. A man must say what he does and do what he says.

156

If you are afraid of water, you cannot cross a river in a boat. If you are afraid of fire, you cannot heat water. Fear must be banished. To accomplish anything worth doing, one must be thoroughly fearless. Mind is the cause of anything we do.

157

On a mango tree, all fruits do not grow at the same time and ripen at the same time. First, we have the tender fruit. By and by, the fruit ripens. The ripe fruit is eatable. So also, men must be like mangoes. In every respect, we must cultivate peace.

158

The head is the mango. In it, is the sweet ambrosia. This ambrosia is the essence of the five senses. This ambrosia is the supreme energy in man.

159

A house in which there is no lamp at night has no beauty. Whatever the nature of a house, the house is perishable. What a lamp is to a house, is Jnana to the body. The light is the light of Kundalini. A thing hidden in mire, fetches no value. When it is recovered from mire, all make use of it. If you discover a diamond in mire, you do not throw it away.

160

A man falls into a well. We should take him up, not allowing him to die. We must not think that a man will always be bad. We must try to correct him.

161

If any powder falls into the eye, our attention is turned on the eye. Similarly, if our outer attention is directed inwards, it is called introversion (internal sight). Ignorance is like a casket of powder. The possessor of a box only knows what is contained in it. Others do not know it. The real wealth is the energy of life. Intelligence is the box. The box is locked after the wealth is stored in it. Locking the box is giving the Manas its proper place in the head. That thing received is the soul in man. Turn your soul to God within yourself. Realise internally your own secret. The universe is in you and you are in the universe. The inner man is the ONE in All. He who is 'there' and He who is 'here' is the ONE and the SAME.

162

The supreme light is the universal light. O Mind! Abolish the idea of 'otherness'. Have the idea of 'sameness'.

163

When you were born, you were born with breath. When you leave this world, you leave breath only. This body of earth, you never made it nor can you take it along with you. That which Shiva gave us is the same in all beings, both mobile and immobile. All seeds have the same power in them. The subtle in seeds is one. There is difference in their behavior only. The delusion of the mind is not permanent but transient. What can be seen and heard is all transient.

164

When we call a man 'pariah', it is nothing but mental delusion. A piece of cloth goes equally well into the mouth of a 'pariah' or 'brahmin'. A Brahmin does not use even the chunam touched by a pariah. He does not sit on the same mat with a pariah. Some one acts like this; another sees it or hears of it and he blindly imitates it.

165

Those who call another a 'pariah' are themselves pariahs. Suppose there is a bunch of plantains. From the plantains of the same bunch, we prepare various sorts of eatables. The plantain is a fruit. If it is cut into slices and fried, it is no longer called a plantain. It is called 'fried slices'. So also, variously named preparations are made from plantains (of the same bunch). In the beginning, there was only one bunch. Preparations are manifold. The original form is one only. So also, in all creatures, the sound of Omkar is the one only.

166

There is a station where four railroads meet. One train goes to Calcutta, another to Bombay, a third to Madras. They all start from one station and they reach one station only. Similarly is Maya. Maya is born of us and it disappears in us. It is like butter in milk. Butter emanates from milk and it merges in milk. The sayings of a great sage last long. Even if there is none to hear them, they continue to live long.

167

There was a bare plain. There a traveller's bungalow was erected. Scarcely two days had passed, a meeting was held there. Chunam was used to cement the stones. The walls were all white washed. On the very day of white washing, a meeting was held. A certain cooli was appointed to warn the people attending the meeting, lest their feet and bodies be besmeared with the chunam. The meeting was over and all the people dispersed. But the cooli stayed behind. Afterwards, many a meeting was held in the bungalow. There was no body in the bungalow to tell the cooli, 'You were engaged with a certain salary a month. Now take your salary up today and go away. From tomorrow, your services are not required'. Yet the cooli continues to do his duty. So is a Jnani in the midst of worldly people. There are many people in this world who behave like the people in this bungalow. They are ignorant of the subtle. They are ignorant of what karma is. Hence the comparison of the world to this bungalow.

168

In a similar way, you must understand all matters. One is standing still. Another is working. All are imitating one another. They are ignorant of both justice and injustice. After knowing justice, they will not stoop to injustice. For a just man, it is very difficult to do injustice. Such a man will never tell a lie, even though his tongue were to be torn asunder. An unjust man wants everything. A just man wants nothing. He is not afraid of anyone. The whole world is in him. The minds of the unjust people are in the world. It is the duty of every human being to know what is justice and what is injustice.

169

Rivers and streamlets enter into the sea and there become one. Similarly, finite things become one in the infinite. Dualism loses itself in monism. Monism is oneness. This realisation of the oneness is the most supreme.

170

After a man has realised the oneness, he will no longer be born. Those who are immovably fixed in the idea of oneness die only when they desire to die. Such men are perfectly desireless. realisation of oneness is the most subtle one. What is the same-sightedness (the indivisible sight) is realising the Atman in all. This equality consists in realising the one in the many. This is known as introspection.

When the next world and this world are realised as one and the same, a man has attained same-sightedness. This is also called the union of Jivatma and the Paramatma. What is Jiva is mental modifications (vrittis). Paramatman is the Great Silence, who is above the three qualities. He knows not good and evil, cold and heat. He is quality-less, formless. He is No-Thing.

171

If you cover your body, then the more you will feel the cold. Those who decorate their bodies, feel the prouder. It is very difficult to banish the ego from us. Whitewashing is required for the inside of the wall more than the outside. The outer cleaning is to show to others but the inward cleanliness is for one's own benefit.

172

All is He, pervading everything. He is the One, pervading all creatures. Quality-less, the one Omkar, one, whose form is everlasting peace. Blesser of those who have faith in Him. The same being punishes those who ridicule His devotees. He makes the death of His devotees easy. O Shiva! Do not lead me towards hell but lead me towards You. The giver is Shiva.

173

A dead thing is without motion. It is soundless. A living thing has the delusion of sound. It has consciousness. Conscious creatures have impressions and movements. Creatures, conscious of sound, have the delusion of sound. They have the light of Brahma in them. Consciousness of creatures is light. Men know the distinction between justice and injustice. Lower animals have no distinction of such a sort. Man stands at the head of all creation. There is nothing impossible for man in this world. Man is in the universe and the universe is in man. Man is the greatest of animals. Mind in man is fickle. In man, both this world and the next, merge. Shivaloka is the third (divine) eye. The Shiva nerve is the Sushumna nerve, also called the Brahma nerve.

The lord of Shivaloka is nothing but Shiva-Shakti (Shiva's energy). What is Maya is in Shiva. Shiva is not in Maya. Creation and destruction are both Maya caused by Him. In the Great Self, everything becomes latent-effect, soul, Manas, Brahma, waking consciousness, Taraka, sleep, extreme ignorance, and the whole of the external world.

174

To probe into truth, requires subtle discrimination. This subtle discrimination is Upadhi. The subtle is hidden in the gross. The seat of Upadhi is the heart space. When the Kundalini is raised to the heart space in the head, then the breath is single. In this highest state, one sees the universe in one's Self. Then one sees everything in Him. All the multitudinous changes are seen in oneself. Feeling of duality is hell. Feeling of absolute oneness is Mukti. Absolute Bhakti (love) is Mukti.

Perfect peace, never perturbed peace, is the goal of man. This is Yogananda, Paramananda. The ocean is bigger than all the rivers. The sea is almost boundless. You cannot measure the water of the ocean. It is not possible to practice Bhakti, leaving off Samsara. Being in Samsara, we must attain Mukti by being 'this thing' and by doing 'that thing'. What is desire is Samsara. Desirelessness is Mukti. Then, one will enjoy eternal bliss, eternal wisdom bliss. Eternal peace which is the highest bliss, is the goal of man. When the mind is swimming in eternal bliss, it is known as Mukti. Bhakti is the state of eternal bliss.

175

God is in bliss. In God, is bliss. That is the nectar of wisdom. In that nectar, is joy. When we approach that nectar, we experience joy.

176

The goal of man is Upanayanam (to be lead to immortality). Dwelling in the cave of the heart is man's goal. Living in the cave means living inside the body.

177

Meditate incessantly on the Paramatma who is in the Jivatma. Space is in you. It is in the head. Meditate on the heart space which is in the head.

178

Those who are born deaf have not the least idea of sound. They have no desires. They have subtle discrimination. Those who are always in yoga sleep, have no difference between day and night, between sun and moon. To the subtle discrimination, all is one. Those who have annihilated the mind, are men. Lower animals are so called, because they are in a lower stage of development. Sensual life is beastly life. The upward breath is the goal of man. The same is Gayatri, accomplished. The same is yoga-bliss.

179

One who has annihilated the manas is the universal teacher. One who has destroyed desire, root and branch, is the teacher of all.

180

He is a real Sannyasi who has burnt desire to ashes. He is the universal teacher. The universe is in those who have renounced desire. What is Chidakasha (space) is Sannyasa. The same is light is consciousness. The same is divine light. The same is fire, internal, and external. The same is the fire of discrimination. This power of discrimination is in the universe.

181

Fire is essentially an internal thing. Fire is the supreme of all. The origin of all creation is fire. First, we must realise ourselves and then, impart it to others. This is the highest duty of man. When you feel pain, you must realise that others have pain just like you. When you feel hungry, you must realise that others have hunger just like you. We must think that what is our goal is also the goal of others.

When a physician develops a new medicine and he does not reveal it to others till his death, the medicine is lost to the world with him. One who does not know the ways and means to realise God, is not a man. The most supreme knowledge is the knowledge of God. This knowledge must be imparted to others so that they may understand it. Those who are hungry must be fed. Nobody asks you about God unless he has discriminative power.

182

The first requirement is faith. The second is devotion (Bhakti). Those who have no faith cannot have devotion. The judge listens to what the defendants say. Faith is just like that. When Buddhi has attained acute discriminating power, we will experience Vivekananda. Vivekananda is Paramananda, Satchidananda. When existence (Sat) and knowledge (Chit) become one, Ananda will result. This is Brahmananda, Shivananda.

183

Shiva is in you. You are in Shiva. Maya is in you. Creation and destruction are both in Maya. Those who are free from the bondage of the qualities (Trigunas) are free from Maya. He who is free from the delusion that he is the body, is nothing but bliss incarnate. That which is free from the idea of 'honour' and 'dishonour' is internal.

184

In this world, those who are indifferent to honor and dishonor, have attained the goal. Such people only, have attained peace.

185

In the infinite (indivisible), there is no finite (divisible). Those who are without a guru, cannot attain the goal.

186

Consider the physical eye. A blind man may have a light in his hand but the light is of no use to him. Those who have eaten a bellyful do not require food any more.

Suppose, the cooking is over. You are not satisfied by simply smelling the food. Your hunger is appeased only if you eat the food cooked. If you hold a piece of gold in your hand, it is of no use. It should be melted in the fire. Its dross should be removed. Then only, it shines brilliantly. Similarly, the dross of the soul is desire and anger. These should be destroyed.

187

What the nest is to the bird, is the body to the soul. The body is the house of the soul. What is 'that house' and what is 'this house' is subtle discrimination. The gross body is the beggarly house. What to say of Brahmananda! No one can describe it.

Truly, truly, realise that the eternal Atman is ONE in ALL. Hari is not the knower. Shiva is the knower. What is Hari is wandering. 'Hari! Hari! I want this'. 'I want that'. 'Give me, give me', you say. This is of no use. Such a man is never happy. Let Hari merge in Hara. Burn Hari in Hara. Saying 'Hari, Hari' is nothing but mental delusion. You praise Hara, hiding this delusion in your mind! He who has given you eternal joy is Shiva.

Shiva is the giver of eternal Mukti (liberation) and eternal Bhakti. What is Hari is keeping the mind in the world. Shiva is keeping the whole universe in one's Self. Saying 'Hari, Hari' is going down. But Shiva is the guide to the path of bliss. Mukti is obtained by the upward course of Prana. Hari is like a horse without reins.

188

To ride a horse safely in the midst of a crowd of two thousand people, the rider must be efficient. Buddhi (intelligence) is above. Manas (mind) is below. Buddhi is the king. Manas is the prime minister. Mind must be subordinate to Buddhi. The first is sound. The second is the impression which the sound carries. The primary guru is the Manas. The secondary preceptor is he who initiates you. The secondary guru is the teacher. The primary guru is that which practices. realisation is the primary guru. You cannot have a secondary preceptor unless you have a desire to have him. When you have the desire to possess a thing you require a secondary guru. The secondary guru is he who shows you the well. The primary guru is he who drinks water from the well.

The primary preceptor banishes the darkness in you, giving you light. Darkness is ignorance. Light is knowledge. He who shows you the path to the subtle, leaving aside the gross, is the guru. The one guru who is in all is the Lord of the Universe. One is not the guru to the other. One is only a secondary guru. Guru is the Lord of the Universe.

He is the Omkar, Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara, the origin of Para-Brahma. Vishnu is the mental modifications (Vrittis). What is Shiva is the decoration of the body. Brahmeshwara is leaving aside of the body-idea, like the kernel of a dry coconut which is separated from the outer covering.

189

All things with form are OMKAR. OMKAR is the divine in them. What is OMKAR is the subtle Bindu. Omkar pervades both in and out, in the form of air. It is impossible to describe Shiva-Shakti. Only those who have experienced it can describe what it is. Without experience, it is impossible to describe what Shiva-Shakti is. Men of book knowledge cannot describe it. But those who have the knowledge of the Atman can describe it.

190

If you see the dawn in the heart sky, it is possible to describe it. One must experience these things in one's Self. What is called Jnana is in Buddhi (intelligence). Those in whom Buddhi and Jnana have become one, can describe what this is. Those in whom intelligence and Jnana are separate, cannot describe what it is. What is called subtle discrimination is the union of Buddhi and Jnana. The reflection of the sun, ripples in the water. So also, is mind. If mind is fickle, it is enamored of Maya.

This madness (delusion) is caused by the gross. There is a madness caused by subtle discrimination. This is divine madness. The gross madness is the gross discrimination. Whatever we may eat, the path of food to the stomach is the same.

Whatever may be the contents of letters and post cards and various newspapers, the box in which they are posted is the same. The tongue distinguishes between things pungent and things sour. To the mind, there is no such difference. Just as we cage a bird binding its legs and then teach it to speak, so also intelligence becomes one with the soul when it is caged in the cage of Manas.

191

The Lord of Mukti is Shiva. Shiva is the Linga in the head. This Linga is nothing but Omkar. Enlightenment is the most important thing. Without nerves, there is no sound. Bhakti may be compared to the oil in a lamp. Nerves may be red to the wick. Subtle discrimination is the flame or the light. The nerves are the glass of the lantern. The various air holes of the lantern are the Brahma-Randhras. The form of discrimination is intelligence.

192

If you hold nose and mouth tight, you are not able to talk. Similarly, a thing that does not breathe, does not emit sound. Just as water goes on diminishing in a well in summer, so also, the power of breath goes on diminishing in the body. When the water is moving, the air moves along with it. You can live without food or without drinking coffee for five days. But you cannot live for five minutes without breathing.

193

The highest of all powers is the power of Maya. A dead body and so also a stone are unable to talk. Likewise, if air does not act, fire cannot burn. If breathing is not regular, the fire of digestion will be impaired. When the digestive fire does not act properly, the phlegm in the lungs becomes hard. Fat increases in the body. The food that is eaten remains in the stomach undigested. If there is any obstruction in the pump, water will not flow out properly. Similarly, if the breathing becomes difficult, fever, thickening of the mucus are caused. By this, all diseases are caused.

194

Everything comes out from within, not from without. One becomes bad by oneself. One becomes good by oneself. Similarly, there should be Omkar breathing within. Then, there is purity. When evil merges in the good, that evil is transformed into good. The thing in your own hand has no smell. It has no price. A thing that is got from others has smell. It has price. A Raja yogi Mahatma is Nityananda, all pervasive Omkar, all pervasive Pranava. He who is the Sri Guru is Nityananda. In the beginning, before perfect peace is attained, the power of Maya (delusion) in us will be greatly manifested. Wherever you turn your eyes, you see serpents. In the beginning, when you sit for practice, the heaviness of a mountain is experienced. At times, you feel as if you leave off the ground. You feel as if you are sitting in the sea. You feel as if hot water is poured on you. At another time, you feel as if you are sitting in a grand upper story.

Sometimes you feel like a needle. At another time, you feel like a leaf. Sometimes you do not feel whether you are walking or sitting or talking. At another time all feeling comes to a stand still. Sometimes the body becomes quite motionless, like a coconut tree. At another time, human beings appear like actors in a dramatic performance. At one time you see black faces. In perfect peace, one indivisible whiteness is visible. Light is in darkness. Darkness is in light. The whole universe is in darkness. In the universe is light. At one time, all this appears like a bioscopic performance. At another time, like Sat Chit Ananda. At one time, questions arise: 'Why have men come into this world?'

'Whither are they going?' They do not know what their main duty is. Coming down is not permanent. Going up and up, is permanent. To those who have gone step by step to the upper story and look around, what is heard, what appears, what is done, all is like a net, that cannot be cut through. All penetrating Omkar is the all penetrating Pranava. Birds are like airplanes. Men are like beasts. Beasts are like men. Dogs are like Jnanis. If you feed a dog, it will never forget you till its death. It will have constant love for the master, who has fed it but once. Men have no subtle discrimination. They think not whence they have come and whither they are bound. A man of perfectly ripe understanding should be like a dog.

195

If you go to see a king, you have not the boldness to tell him to his face what his defects are. But behind his back, you criticise him. So also, people (worldly) are not bold enough to criticise a Jnani to his face. If you gaze at the brilliance of the sun and come into the house, you see nothing for a while. Similarly, if you emerge from a dark place into a light place, you cannot know whence you emerged.

196

Suppose a man awakes from a sleep out of fear, and sits up. Then he is so confused that he has no clear knowledge of anything. So also, Jnanis who are always in 'Yoga-Nidra' (yoga sleep) do not know anything about the external world. If you have an umbrella, your head does not become wet by rain water. Those who take meals daily, have hunger. Those who are entirely merged in cold water do not feel cold. A perfect man is never excited to anger. A fried seed cannot sprout. Like gold, well burnished, your mind should be always pure.

197

A high class cobra has internal Pranayama. A cobra is very attentive to the sweet music, arising from a musical instrument called Nagaswara. A Jnani loves ALL as a cow loves its own calf. This is what is called same-sightedness. There is no house which is without doors. There is no cooking without vessels. A dog feeds on food, cooked either in earthen vessels or in gold vessels. Birds think of today's necessities. Never tomorrow's. A seed, kept in a closed box, never sprouts. Such a seed, never yields fruits. If it is sowed in earth (and watered), it will sprout and yield fruits. Hence, we must practice and get experience. It is you yourself who is responsible either for happiness or misery.

198

Anybody can handle a lamp without distinction of caste and creed. So also, the sun gives the same light to all. Sun is visible to all alike. Fire is visible to all alike. Supreme Buddhi (intelligence) and Jnana (knowledge) are one to those who have developed in them the power of the internal eye.

199

Those who have no subtle discrimination are not worth the name 'men'. A man is not an animal. The gross is the body idea. The subtle is the thought of Atman. Jivatma is the gross. Paramatma is the subtle. Without the gross, the subtle cannot be realised. Without a foundation, a house cannot be erected. Thought power (power of discrimination) is what is called Shiva-Shakti. The union of Jivatma and Paramatma is called 'Shiva-Shakti'. When this power is intensified, man becomes 'superman'. A superman is a happy man. He is a Brahmin, knower of Brahma. Vedantic conduct or behavior is true character formation.

200

He who is desireless is an Acharya (great teacher). Desireless man is the Sannyasi. He is an Avadhoota in this world, who has abandoned desire. Avadhoot is a man of the first class. He is the most supreme of men. There is no state higher than that of Avadhoot. Avadhoot is he who is above all. He to whom this world and the next have become one is an Avadhoot. Consciousness sky, real sky, emancipation from bondage, the bliss of self government, the bliss of Brahma, real bliss, yoga bliss, fulfillment of human birth, lordship of Mukti, power to teach emperors; these are the 'possessions' of an Avadhoota.

201

He who meditates on God and who is desireless, is the saviour of the world. He who meditates on God is the Muni (sage). He is Shiva and Shiva is he. All that is visible is Shiva.

202

One who has not realised the truth is a beggar. One who has not destroyed delusion, one who has not left off the downward (worldly) path, is a beggar.

203

Those who are indifferent to honor and dishonor, enjoy bliss, true bliss which is the same as Brahmananda (at-one-ment with the God-head). If we concentrate our intellectual powers for five minutes, we feel that bliss. Those who have not realised the primordial cause, have not realised the goal of life. Like flies falling into the flame of a burning lamp, those who have not realised the truth, are caught, in the net of delusion. The flies repeatedly see the lamp. They repeatedly hover round the lamp and at last they fall into it and die.

204

Those who do not practice Pranayama (control of breath) have no yoga. It is impossible to draw water from a well without a rope. Those who are not free from bondage have no peace. No one can live without drinking water. Those who have annihilated the mind, are desireless. Babies are Raja yogis till the sixth month. After the brain is developed, the same baby is Hatha yogi. The mind in such babies is very fickle. Because the discriminating power is less in them. Babies cannot distinguish between a lump of sugar and a lump of earth. Hence, such babies regard earth and sugar as the same. The fruit is always at the top of the tree. Similarly, the fruit in man is upwards. If you plant a coconut in the earth, coconuts are eventually seen at the top of the coconut tree. For every tree, the fruit is at the top.

205

The umbrella does not hold the man. All is held by the mind. When the mental moods are destroyed, all differences disappear. Such a man has no desire. He is a Sannyasi. He is a yogi. A man who has Manas wants everything. A man who has no Manas, has everything in himself. Just as in a steamer, there is all sorts of commodities, so also, a man who has conquered the mind has the whole world in himself.

206

When a boat is sailing, everything around appears to move. So also, when mind is disappearing, everything appears to whirl round. What is experienced in sleep is not experienced in the waking state. What is experienced in the waking state is not experienced in sleep. If you place a vessel, without water, over fire, no sound is produced. In order to produce sound, water is necessary. So also, those who have no subtle discrimination, will not be benefitted. If you are bitten by a cobra in sleep, you will not die. In sleep, mind is quiescent. When there is Manas, there is everything. What is called creation is a mental affection. When there is thorough introspection, there is no creation.

207

In the beginning of practice, the neophyte should diminish sleep. When practicing moderation in diet, one should not bathe in cold water. If you bathe once in four or five hours in cold water, the blood circulation in the body will not be regular. An actor in a theatre, first acts behind the curtain, then he comes out. In the beginning, there must be secrecy. Afterwards, it is not necessary. If you pour water in a vessel which is already full, that water flows out. So also, when perfect peace is attained, it becomes known to all. Such a man has no desire. This peace is the supreme. Perfect peace means union with the Godhead.

208

The form of God is peace. OM and peace are His forms. He is without form. He is without change. He is above discrimination. He is bliss, absolute. Like the lulling of children to sleep in the cradle, we must sleep internally with the Manas for the pillow. We must be successful in each and every test. We cannot get employment unless we succeed in the tests. Knowing to speak English but not knowing how to write, is not knowing English fully.

209

The throat place is the 'Muladhara' where the serpent power (Kundalini) is originated. The heart space is the place for the throat place. The heart space is in the middle of the eye brows. 'Swadhisthana' is in the brain. Ajna is triangular. What is called 'Raja Yoga' is above the neck. Ajna is the locality where man attains Mukti. What is called 'this world' is Jivatma. What is called the 'next world' is Paramatma. The union of these two is the space of consciousness. Chit is the mental mood. Sat is the one, indivisible.

210

Pooraka is drawing the breath up. Kumbhaka is retaining the breath. Rechaka is the exhaling of breath slowly from within. Many sorts of cakes are prepared from the same rice. So also, by breath, everything is accomplished. The functions are different. What is called Pranayama is all internal working. The same is Shiva-Shakti in man. When this Shakti is guided to Brahmarandhra, it is communion with God-head.

211

Shiva-Shakti is one, indivisible. Shiva-Shakti is salvation. Shiva-Shakti is the upward breath. Shiva-Shakti is Prana Vayu. It is the Omkar. It is the Pranava. From Pranava is creation. Pranava is consciousness of the body. Omkar is soul consciousness. Omkar is like the kernel in a dry coconut. The finite becomes one with the infinite. River becomes one with the sea. The mental moods are the rivers. The indivisible Shiva-Shakti is the sea. Just as paper when burnt in fire loses its individuality, the mind loses its individuality in the Atman. Five or six roads may have only one junction. We may travel by these roads either by walking or by train. The body is the train by which we come and go.

212

Firm posture of the body is like the station. This posture should be an easy posture. This is Raja yoga. What is Asana is seat.

213

Samadhi means controlling one's energy. Samadhi is the upward breath. The upward breath is what is called the Taraka Brahma. When the upward breath has become perfect, the whole world is within you. This upward breath is the same in all creatures. A Raja yogi is one who has realised the one, indivisible. He is one with God when he is talking or sitting or walking. Raja yoga is like sitting in an upper story and looking around below. Raja Yoga is so called because it is the king of all yogas.

When our intellect becomes one with God, the same is known as Raja yoga. It is all peace; it is formless, quality-less. Bliss has no characteristics whatsoever. This is known as Jivan Mukti.

214

Creation disappears in primordial nature. Coming out from this primordial is called creation. Entering into it again is called destruction. When you are conscious of the body, and of nothing else, it is creation. For Raja Yoga, there is no particular action prescribed. There is no Shiva worship. There is no particular place. All this takes place to a Raja yogi in the brain centre. Salutation takes place in the brain centre. If one salutes in the brain centre, it reaches all.

215

Brahmahood means realisation of oneness within oneself. Pindanda (microcosm) is that which is visible outside. Brahmanda (macrocosm) is seen inwards. This macrocosm is beyond creation. Creation is a mental condition. Atma is uncreate. Mind has fears of all sorts. All creation appears to exist only to the embodied. When the external is internalised, there is an end of all fear.

If you have gold ornaments on your body, you have fear of thieves. Those who have not such ornaments, have no cause for sorrow. They have one sightedness. Desire is in those who see with the physical eye. They see differences. Desire causes a man to work. Desirelessness is Mukti. Desirelessness for fruit is Jivan Mukti. This is the state of an Avadhoota. This state is a subtle one. Jnanis have the internal sight. They have annihilated the Manas. They experience one spirit everywhere. They have no idea of differences. They have realised the one, indivisible. In the gross state, there are differences. The internal breath is not divisible. It is indivisible. It is one.

216

The idea of grossness is all mental. The subtle state is Atmaic. Jnanis enjoy always Yoga Nidra. They are in this state whether they are sitting or walking. Jnanis may be compared to a tortoise. These animals project their limbs outside only when necessary. At all other times, they keep themselves inside the shell.

217

To the mail train and to the local train, the energy is the same. Time only differs. The Sannyasi is like the mail train. Sannyasi is one who sees the whole external world within himself. One who concentrates his power in the external world, is like the local train. It is difficult to get into the train. After getting into the train, there is no difficulty. One does not then think of the luggage. When we purchase a thing, sitting in the train, our attention is directed towards the train. So also, the first is discrimination. The second is sound. Whatever one may be doing, the attention should be fixed in the head. Seeing, hearing, talking are not actions in themselves. Breathing through the nose is an action in reality. What is called good action is the downward path.

218

What is called 'silence' refers to the mind, not the tongue. What is done when the Buddhi and Jnana are in communion with the Atman, is not Karma. Silence is the real locality of the mind, not of the tongue. It is by silence, yoga is accomplished. He is a yogi who has united into one both Buddhi and Jnana. One who subjects the Manas to Buddhi and makes Buddhi control Manas, is a yogi. What is called 'the vow of silence' is another name for the Sushumna which is the junction of the Ida and Pingala. The three important nerves of the body are the Ida and the Pingala and the Sushumna. Sushumna is the seat of the Kundalini.

219

All Tatwas have one root Tatwa called Parabrahma. When this is realised, it is called Jivan Mukti. You must see the river at its source and not after it merges into the sea. You should see the mother root of a tree. All the trees have one mother root. So also, all have one and only one God. When you have realised all as one homogeneous, this realisation is Mukti.

220

The actors in a drama, first of all, perform a trial behind the curtain and then perform it on the stage. So also, is the performance of yoga. First of all, it is secretly practiced and when it is accomplished, it gets publicity of its own accord. When you begin to learn an art, you do not have experience of it all at once. The more you practice, the better will be your experience of it.

221

One's hunger is not appeased by simply smelling the food cooked. One must take the food himself, to satisfy his hunger. So also, the experience is the only accomplishment. There is no body to oppose you when you have experienced the Truth. By simply holding sugar in your hand, you cannot experience its sweetness. Sugar must be placed in the mouth to taste its sweetness. This is experience. Book knowledge gives room for doubts and discussion. But self-experience does not. Experience for oneself is like the command of the king to the subjects.

Experience is like the king's command. Book knowledge is the subjects. What is called Jivan Mukti is one's true home, the aim and end of yoga. This is the thing to be attained. The dwelling in the cave is the thing to be accomplished in life. The cave is the Buddhi. When Jivatma learns to dwell in the Buddhi, the aim of life is realised. The heart space, which is the place of dwelling (cave) of the Atman, is the place of the third eye. The heart space is discrimination. Buddhi and Jnana have become one, a screw is turned by male or a female. Male and female are distinctions only.

222

Gold does not make a man great.

223

Through science the bondage of Karma is not cut through.

224

O Beggar! Burn the delusion of the mind in the fire of yoga! Those who have not realised the Brahman do not know the truth. They do not experience real joy. Egotistic tendencies are not destroyed. Be always immersed in Ananda. Bury your desire in the depth of your Manas. Desire is fruitless. Destroy it internally.

225

When Jiva leads the Shiva-Shakti in man internally to the centre of the brain (Brahma Randhra) and there becomes one with Shiva, the indivisible, Mukti is realised. Brahmananda is for him who has attained this Mukti. Always concentrate on Shiva. In the beginning, was Shiva. In the beginning, there was Shiva-Shakti alone. The Great Protector is the eternal Ananda. The great desirelessness is the eternal Ananda. He who is without desire, is without the three qualities (Gunas). That is real virtue. You are the king of yourself. You are the lord of Mukti. Look within yourself. The real form is the human form. Man stands at the head of the animal kingdom. In this world, there is nothing higher than man. It is man that has created all the countries.

226

He is a Brahmin who has experienced Brahmananda. Your Maya (delusion) is transient. O Hari! Burn the ego! One who has destroyed the Manas has destroyed Maya. Hari (Maya) is not the lord. Shiva is the Lord. All know that butter is latent in milk. When we boil milk, butter must be obtained. Those who take butter are very few. Milk is Bhakti. Heating milk on fire is the power of discrimination. The vessel for discrimination is Buddhi. The fire of discrimination is the fire of yoga. By this Viveka fire, the six enemies of the body: anger, desire, envy, passion, greed and delusion are destroyed and the butter obtained.

227

Without oil, a lamp cannot burn. So also, without breath, the body cannot move. Without a helm, a boat cannot be steered to its destination. A steamer is steered by steam energy and by the intelligence of the captain. A boat cannot go like a steamer. Similarly, a Sannyasi is like a steamer. He who has the whole world, in himself, is like a steamer. He who is in the world, is like the boat. The guiding light of a steamer is on the top. Similarly is the Brahmarandra to a Sannyasi. Mind in a Sannyasi is merged in the heart space. What is light is Sannyasi. A cow cannot run like a horse. He whose mind is merged in the Self is like the horse. He whose mind is in the world is like the cow. All cannot become kings at the same time. All cannot be traders at the same time. Customers are also required.

228

When you walk in darkness, you have fear. But in light, there is no fear. Ignorance is darkness. Knowledge is the light. Guru is such a light. Light is guru.

229

In perfect sleep, men forget everything. Suppose you walk ten miles and then sleep. You are quite unaware of your existence in this world. So also, when you are hungry, you must satisfy your hunger by taking food yourself.

230

Just as there are the gutters (storm drains) on both sides of the road for the water to flow freely, so also, you must allow the breath to take an upward course freely. It requires great effort to carry a stone upwards. But without the least effort on our part, it suddenly comes down. Similarly is concentration. It is easy to take birth. But it is very difficult to leave this body.

We must discover the source of a river. After it joins the sea, there is no use in seeing the river. To a tree, its mother root is the most important. All other roots are subsidiary. When we raise a chair, our breath goes upwards. That is the seat of Prana. When we are cooking, flames of fire have an upward course. So also, the smoke takes an upward course. In the lighted chimney, the course of the heated air is upwards. Similarly, in the heart space, the course of breath is upwards. Our joy is caused by the motion of the air (Vayu). Without this air motion, there is no blood circulation. When a water canal is dammed, the motion of water has come to an end. So also, in this body, such a dam is Vatha, Pitha, and Kapha (three humors of Tridishas).

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Head is the seat where the smell of musk, sandal-paste, camphor and concentrated camphor is experienced. Ants swarm at the place where there is sugar. Where the sound of Omkar is experienced, there is no ignorance. That which is seen by the spiritual eye is the real heart. That which is seen by the physical eye is not the real heart. The greatest is the head. The origin of breath is true Ananda. The real Ananda is in the cavity of the heart. The house of breath is the dwelling of Kundalini. This is the house of Shiva. This is our real happy home of peace. This is the home of Satwa guna. One who lives in this house, does not care for honour and dishonour. This is the home of a yogi who has renounced everything. This is the home of those who have the power of subtle discrimination. This is the home of Kundalini. This home is the heart home.

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Those who do not concentrate on breath have no aim, no state, no intelligence and no fulfillment. So, concentrate and think. Concentrate on in-drawing and outgoing breath. Draw the breath in properly. Breathe, concentrating on the sound the breath produces. Concentrate on the sound, which is produced internally. Have faith in the internal sound and breathe. Breathe in.

Breathe deeper and deeper. Breathe in so that the internal sound may be audible to the ears. Do not think of anything else. Eating and drinking, coming and standing and eating, these do not elevate the soul. Cook for yourself. Do not desire to eat what others have cooked. O Mind! Do what you do with faith.

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Round a leafless tree, wind blows in vain (there is no response). In a dead body, there is no air (Prana), no sound. Without air, an animal can never live in this world.

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The engine does not move without steam. A coconut tree does not yield jack fruits. What one talks without experience, is in vain. The judge and the magistrate hear what the plaintiff and the defendant say and form an idea of the case. But they do not know the truth of the case. It is not enough if YOU have sugar in your hand. You must taste it to know its sweetness. Although there is water in the bowels of the earth, we must dig a well in order to get the water. The main thing is the internal practice and the union of Prana with Parabrahma in the centre of the brain. This is seeing God face to face. This is the fulfillment of yoga. This is the eternal peace.

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There is no prescribed food for a neophyte. Peace is the food for the practicer. The highest of all arts is the Brahma Vidya (art by which God is realised). Such an art cannot be bought for money. It isn't obtained by honour or dishonour. It is not obtained by the outer fame. It is acquired only by unwavering devotion (Bhakti). Without Bhakti, there is no liberation from bondage. Mukti is attained by a man only by the subtle Bhakti. Brahmananda is not empty talk but solid experience. This is the same as Satchidananda. This is acquired by the unceasing practice. All is Brahmananda to one who has realised.

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O Mind! Banish the idea of duality. Have subtle discrimination. Having abandoned the idea of duality, think that the visible universe is all Shiva, the spotless. There is no disguise. Have everything within you. That which is permanent is faith. O Mind! Control the breath. Have internal life. Discover the truth by means of subtle discrimination. That which is related to subtle discrimination is eternal. The essence of every creature is eternal joy. Acquire eternal joy. What is eternal Ananda is eternal Mukti. The mental seats (posture) are the thrones of kings. The eternal seat is the eternal joy. When Sat and Chit are united. The same is Paramananda. The same is called Chaitanyananda.

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All creation is mental. The body is nothing but a means to an end. Shakti is of the Atman. The highest tower is in the head. This is the seat of the Atman. This is the sky of consciousness. This is the greatest support. The Ajna (the sixth chakra of the body) is the support. The seat of Kundalini is the heart sky. What is traveling in a train is the thought of the Atman. The mail train is the Raja yogi. The local train is the Hatha yogi. The difference is only in time. Although the velocity is the same, time differs. This difference is the delusion of the mind.

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A man's birth is from his parents. He is first a child. He grows to manhood and himself becomes the parent of children. The difference is due to time. The nature of the child is according to the thought entertained by the parents when they are in union. If the parents entertain devotion, mischief, wrath, activity, desire, etc. at the time of union, the child born to them will imbibe the same qualities. Creation is caused by Vayu's entrance in the womb. If the parents at the time of union have worldly or celestial inclination, the child born will have the same inclination. When the child has the latter inclination, it will soon be enlightened.

The first essential is desirelessness, after birth. The destruction of the seed of birth and death comes next. When a man is subjected to repeated sorrows, he must see the light after the exercise of subtle discrimination. What is called Prana Vayu is the destruction of creation. Prana Vayu and the Apana Vayu must be merged in the Atman. When these two are united, all conditions are annihilated. Before the expiration of Prana, one must attain Mukti. Then it becomes one, indivisible, losing its duality.

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Upanayana is the goal of life. Jivatma must be merged in the Paramatma. Upanayana is internal. Upanayana is the subtle. What is called Upadhi is the third eye. The object to be attained is to be near God. What is Upanayana is not the body idea. It is the thought of the Atman. In this world, he who has performed such Upadhi is a Brahmin. Upadhi is the Sushumna nerve. It is the Brahma Nadi where gods and godesses dwell.

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Shabda (sound) is generated in Akash (space). That which is generated in space is life energy. What is called Akash (a space) is in the head. Akash is heart space. Life energy is one only. Just as there is difference between a river and the sea, so also, there is difference between Jivatman and Paramatman. It is one of degree, not of kind. One must not think as 'I' and 'mine'. This is the cause of next birth. That man is of little intelligence who thinks in terms of 'I' and 'mine'. By so thinking, he descends into lower birth.

The energy in the sun appears as light. Likewise, there is an energy in the form of light in a gas light. To those who have lost the difference between day and night, the light of the sun and that of the gas light are the same. There is no difference between the two. One's faith is the greatest thing. Above faith, there is no God. In this world there is nothing higher than faith. A Man with faith cannot be deceived by the wicked tricks of others. Man enjoys that in which he has his faith. The internal faith should be concentrated upon breath. Those who have no faith have no thoughts of anything. Those who have no faith have no regard for Sadhus and Sannyasis. They think (wrongly) that thousands of Sadhus are merged in them.

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To a blind man there is no difference between day and night. To him, external light is of no use. In him, the light of Jnana is strong. To the blind, their bodily form is of no use. As their physical eyes do not see, their spiritual eye must be very effective. Blind men cannot describe the form of a carriage by feeling it with touch.

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Is the sound generated from the world or is the world generated from the sound? Is the effect from the cause or the cause from the effect? The world is generated from the sound. From the sound is generated the form, and the world which has form. From the cause is the effect. Whence is the cause? The cause and the effect are from the Self. Cause and effect must be the slaves of oneself. Both these are from the Self. This Self absorbs the cause and the effect and they become one (indivisible).

The Maya which the Self creates is annihilated by the Self. A lie is a lie. If you believe the lie, you will have to tell the lie. If you believe the truth, you must tell the truth. Those who utter falsehood have no truth about them. There is no falsehood separate from them, but it is one with them. What is the cause of falsehood? Their mind becomes habituated to falsehood and they do not feel it to be false. They do not feel falsehood as a separate thing. If they knew it (falsehood) to be evil, their mind will not be inclined to falsehood. Then they will feel that there is a separate thing called truth. Then they will attain the good. Then they will know the correct path.

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Just as all rivers enter the ocean, both the good and the evil enter the Atman. Both are sacrificed to the Atman. Both the good and the evil are from the Atman. They enter in that from which they came. Mind is the cause of good and evil acts. Mind is Atman's power (instrument). No one can increase or diminish it (the soul force). What will happen will happen. It will happen only in one way according to the eternal law.

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The seed is not from the tree. The seed is the beginning. A seed falls down from a tree and that seed grows into a small plant which grows into a tree. Again and again, trees grow from seeds. Similarly is creation. In the seed is the beginning but there is no ending. Wherever you may see, you see the same seed.

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Those who have no doubt, find that this doubtlessness is the path to one-pointedness of mind. A doubting person's intellect is small (limited). Wherever they may see, they see nothing but doubt. Everybody is subject to his own nature. There is no cause for finding that quality which one has not. In the shaking water, a man cannot see his shadow. In the still water, a man can see his shadow quite properly. Similarly, to a fickle-minded man, his real nature is not visible. To a steady-minded man wherever he may see, he sees the ONE, indivisible. He sees himself in others. If you put on red spectacles you see everything red. You cannot see green colour. Everyone sees according as he thinks.

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Why do you hold an umbrella? To prevent the rain from falling on you. Rain is the Maya. Truth is the umbrella. Chitta is the handle. In everything, there is truth. But there are very few men who have realised that truth. Maya is from Atman. But Atman is not from Maya. The prime minister is of the king. The prime minister is not the king. Mind is not Atman. Mind is the reflection of the Atman. Mind is two ranks below Atman.

Mind is subject to destruction. Atman is indestructible. Mind is deluded by the various objects to the senses. Atman is not subject to the delusion caused by the three-fold qualities, Trigunas. Mind is subject to the three-fold qualities. When we say that mind is a fragment of the Atman, we mean mind is to Atman what the river is to the ocean. Atman is the ocean. Its water is measureless and endless. Similarly, Atman has neither a beginning nor an ending. Atman has not come from anywhere nor does He go anywhere. Atman is everywhere. There is nothing existing but Atman. Interior to you and exterior to you, is all creation which fact is unknown to you.

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When the life energy moves in an outward direction, desire is generated for the sense objects. It manifests as mind and it is divided and subdivided into two, three, and six. Thus what is called 'world' comes into being. From this world all qualities (good and bad) come into being. Five organs of action are related to the earth. Five chief senses are related to space. Organs of action are said to belong to Sat-guna. He who conquers the senses is the free man. To such a man, fulfillment comes from himself.

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Think and think about Brahman. Mind, though seemingly different, is one and one only. Mind when it is one pointed is great indeed. This mind is the eternal mind. This eternal mind is supreme joy. This eternal mind is called Chidakasha. A clean mind is a clean space. A clean space is Siddhi. This clean space is yoga (union with God). This clean space is the heart. When you move in this clean space, it is the fulfillment. When you move in this clean space, the difference between 'you' and 'I' will vanish.

In this clean space is Mukti, Bhakti, Shakti and the path suitable. This clean space is Buddhi. When the Jiva dwells in this clean space, the attachments to sense objects will be burnt away. This clean space is Brahmarandhra. What is called Raja Yoga is above the neck. What is called the 'Colour cavity' is above the neck.

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Mantra is this Brahmarandhra. Mantra is the minister to Prana. This prime minister of Prana is Atma Bindu. In the midst of this is eternal Mantra, in the midst of this is Chidakasha. This Chidakasha is Chit. This is supreme joy. This is the supreme medicine. This supreme medicine is the supreme guru whose Mantra is Tatwamasi: That art Thou, Thou art That.

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Why is man called man? The true man is he who ruminates. If you do not know the path leading to Brahman, you will be born again and again. If you do not know the path, you will have no contentment. This contentment consists in doing your duty without attachment to results. This non-attachment to results of action is called Mukti. It is also called the supreme joy. Desire is hell. Desirelessness is supreme joy. The supreme position is Shiva-Shakti. The Shiva-Shakti is the knower of both the visible and the invisible.

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Atma is not perceived by the senses. Atma is quite different from the senses. It is perceptible to Jnana. It is free from the body idea. Those are yogis who know the true nature of the senses and behave according to that knowledge. Those are called the Mahatmas. What they utter is Veda word. They are like the seeds of the tamarind fruit. The tamarind matter is sticky to the touch. But the seed is perfectly pure. The heart of a Mahatma is like the tamarind seed perfectly pure. These Mahatmas are ever young. For a Jnani, there is no age idea.

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Fill a lamp with oil and light the wick. When the oil becomes less, the wick comes lower and lower and the light becomes less and less. If you again supply the lamp with oil and light the wick, the light shines as before.

Similar is the internal life of a Jnani. Their mental life is like butter placed in water. The butter does not sink in water. It floats above water. The body is like the water and the butter, the soul. Subtle intelligence should be concentrated in the head. The intelligence should be concentrated at the top of the Sushumna. Both the mind and Buddhi should be in the head. The mind must be in the Buddhi and Buddhi in the mind. Discrimination is from Buddhi and from discrimination is effected the union of Jivatman and Paramatman.

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From one coconut, many coconuts are produced. If you cut the trunk of the coconut tree at the bottom, the production of coconuts ceases. Vasana (attachment), which is like the trunk, should be cut at the root by the axe of discrimination. Then comes peace. The characteristics of Sadhuguna, Satwaguna, and peace and all such qualities, come from non-attachment. When Buddhi becomes steady, it is called Satwaguna. Sat (truth) is like letters engraved in stone. The talk of the worldly is like letters engraved on a chalk slab.

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Once the well should be emptied of its water. All the mud should be removed. The water which then comes is the purest. Jnana is like this pure water. Once you burn away the thought of 'I' and 'mine', then non-attachment to the objects of the senses will result of its own accord.

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When a man has learnt to write on paper, he need not practice writing on sand, spread on the ground. Similarly, when a man has attained Brahman which is qualityless, he does not descend to Brahman with qualities. When the milk has been changed into buttermilk, can the latter be again converted into milk?

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Those who have come to buy the milk, should not ask what the price of the cow is. Similarly, those who hanker after Atma should not bother themselves about the body. The man who has attained the Atman is like the dry kernel within the coconut (he has no attachment to the body). When the rope is burnt to ashes, it cannot be made into a rope again. No man can do evil to another man. Atman will be good or evil according to his own thinking. When we say some other man is the cause, it has a subtle meaning. The boat must be pushed off with the hand that it may move. Similarly, there must be some one as guru for Atma knowledge. When the boat has reached the opposite bank, the boatman's help is no longer needed. How is the boat in the water? So is the Atman in the body.

Suppose the feet are dirty with mud. In order to wash off the mud, we must go to a place where there is water. If you fear to touch the water, how can the mud be washed away? You cannot produce sound with one hand only. When both hands strike against each other, then you are conscious of an energy (sound is produced).

Although all fingers are not of the same size, when you take your meals, they come to one size. So, when your experience ripens, you see the one, indivisible. Faith in the guru is like the cry of a jackal. Just as the cry of all jackals is similar, so also are the hearts of all Sadhus similar. The water in the well is the same at all levels. There are not two waters in the same well. So also, the life energy is the same in all mobile and immobile beings. Likewise, the energy in the sun and the moon is the same.

Atma is in space and space is in Atma. Those who have realised this, will sing with joy. They know the Ananda Kundalini. They will try to discover where this Kundalini is. They will join it by Pranayama after finding it out. They must join it by repeatedly performing Pranayama. They must realise Bhakti. They must realise Mukti. They must conquer both birth and death and must forget all. One must conquer death and things allied to it. One must understand the true nature of Maya. One should realise Nityananda (eternal joy). O Mind! Become one with this eternal joy. Enjoy such a mind which has become one with this eternal joy. Become one with the Supreme Being. O Mind! The external world must melt and become one with the Supreme Being.

One who has become one with the Supreme has accomplished the object of his birth. One must concentrate his mind on the Supreme. One must become one with the Supreme. Wakefulness, dream state, and sleep state must melt in the Supreme and become one. The power of discrimination (Buddhi) is the key to self knowledge, and that key must always be in the hand. Just as a man, possessing a treasure box, must be very careful about the key of the box, so also, Buddhi must be concentrated in the brain. The water is hot only so long as it is kept on the fire. But when the vessel is kept on the ground, the water becomes cooler and cooler. Our Buddhi must be like the water placed over a fire. Similarly, faith should be constant. Jiva is like a calf tied in a room. The calf is always very eager to go out of the room. So also, Jiva is very eager to drink Jnana which is like Amrita (ambrosia).

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Dharana is the means by which Buddhi's power of discrimination is increased. Dharana is the path to Mukti. Dharana is the path leading to the highest. Prana (life energy) to become steady, Dharana is a means. When life energy becomes steady, the mind becomes steady. When Prana is given an 'upward' direction, then Jnana enters every nerve and peace is the result. Then nature and the subtle become separated. Then powers resulting from yoga peace of mind, forgiveness, patience - these are experienced in Buddhi. Those who practice constant Dharana feel that the whole external world is existing in themselves. One should, being quite steady in mind, be enjoying eternal joy (Nityananda). Atma is beyond all karmas and formality. Karma is that which is done without attachment.

A man is free from sin if he performs karmas disinterestedly. Karma is that which is done by the knowledge of Atma who is actionless and passionless.

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Atma is not perceptible to the senses. It is perceived by intelligence (Buddhi). It is not perceptible as a thing with form and qualities. To those whose attention is fixed on the body, it is very difficult to attain peace. It is also very difficult for them to see the Atma. The attention towards the visible should be lessened. The love towards the invisible should be increased. So long as the attention is directed towards the visible, pain and pleasure may appear to be dual. But when the attention is directed towards the invisible, the sense of duality will disappear.

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The sacred syllable OM is like a storm in the sky. OM is without beginning or ending. Omkar is like a stage manager in a drama. As it works through the bodies of men, those bodies are pervaded by Omkar. This syllable is inside us, outside us and everywhere. It is the cause of everything that exists. We need not bring it up to consciousness anywhere. That sound exists in everything. We need not recall it separately to memory. This energy is not divisible but indivisible.

This sound exists in every animal. Whatever sound is produced by animals, it is nothing but Omkar. What is called Pranava is another name for Omkar. When it is united with Prana and moves in the body, it is called Pranava. When nature and the subtle (i.e. physical and non-physical) Sthoola and Sookshma are separate, it is Pranava. When we feel both to be one, then it is called the feeling of oneness. This is identical with Omkar. At that time, one sees the ONE everywhere. That which you worship with faith, becomes ALL.

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That energy called Omkar pervades the universe and is formless. It is the light in ALL and light of ALL. Ignorance and knowledge are mere phantoms, not realities. Happiness and misery will never touch a man who has realised the oneness.

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If you have Manas, you want everything. If you have no Manas, you do not want anything. If you have Manas, God becomes a separate being for you. When you have merged Manas in Buddhi, you have no separate God. All appears as one. If you have desire, you want a separate God, because God's help is necessary to accomplish your desire. Then the Manas goes after the various objects of the senses and causes doubt about various matters. Then one feels the necessity of an idol or image. Cause and effect appear to be two separate categories. The image worship is due to Maya or ignorance.

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What is called Akash is in the upward direction. What is called 'male' is a subtle state. What is called 'female' is nature.

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Men who have no desire, need not have a separate God. They need not strive for anything. When the mind runs after various objects of the senses, to bring the mind to one-pointedness, what is called the practice is necessary. Man should concentrate on Buddhi as long as there is the beating of the pulse in man, and as many times as the pulse beats. The Manas should not be united with the senses. Whatever you may do, your mind should be concentrated inwards upon Buddhi. In order that a man may not be drowned in water, he must learn how to swim. Maya should be conquered by the Supreme Maya. What is Maya? When the Manas runs after sense objects a variety of desires is created. It is you that clings to the coconut tree. The coconut tree does not cling to you. Similarly, has Maya hands and legs to catch hold of you?

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Purposelessness is felt only in the subtle. Discrimination is becoming one of Manas with Buddhi. What is called Samadhi is seeing the one in all. By practice, one must conquer the six enemies of the Atman in the body; desire, anger, etc. A Sadhaka, a beginner in God-realisation, should not talk ill of others. If he does so, his progress will be retarded. Like that of a sprout on which a heavy stone is placed. A Sadhaka must not relax his practice even for a ghatica (24 minutes). The mind should be ceaselessly engaged in the practice.

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The Prana must be firmly fixed in an upward direction with great faith. That is the path to liberation. This body is like a cave to the Atman, and in this cave, dwells the eternal Atman. Yoga means becoming one. When the two become one, that is yoga. When the mind and Buddhi become one, it is called yoga. When Jiva travels by the path of Buddhi and enters Brahmarandhra, it is called yoga.

Devotion, reasoning and power, these three become one and become Omkar. Egotism becomes merged in Omkar. Just as camphor is lost in fire, mind and Buddhi become one with each other. Like little children rocked to sleep, Chita, being placed in Buddhi, must know who the 'I' is.

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O Mind! Enter the house of Ananda! When the whole area is flooded, we cannot distinguish the wells and tanks in that area. Because there is darkness, we must infer there is light. When you taste sweet things, remember there are pungent things to be swallowed. What is the state of Jiva when Jiva has realised that the Atman is not the body? Such souls have attained their pristine condition. 'I' and 'mine' are not visible to the physical eyes. 'I' and 'mine' are not to be found above the tip of the nose. That which is above these, has neither beginning nor ending.

A visible object has a beginning and an ending. Since Atma is invisible to the physical eye, Atma is without beginning and ending. It is impossible to lessen the power of Atman because Atman is always constant. Just as space is homogeneous everywhere, so is the Atman the same everywhere. The head of man is the abode of the light, of millions of suns. Which is bigger, the eye or the sun? If the eye is spoiled, is it possible to see the sun? So the eye is more important.

The form of gold images is the creation of the mind. When a man is photographed, the picture is according to the posture of the sitter. The virtues and the opposites in the photographer are not seen in the picture.

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The fruit is according to the internal faith of a man. Good and evil are not of the Atman. Atman, like the reflection of an object, takes that form which the mind wants Him to take. The Jiva is like a bird in a cage. When the nest is spoiled, the bird is not affected. The bird flies away. The bird may build a new nest and enter it in six months, in a year, or in five minutes. That depends on the bird's efforts. From this place to the railway station, you can go in 24 minutes or in a month.

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Sadhana (practice) is necessary for Vairagya (desirelessness) to be steady. For Vairagya to be permanent we must have practice. Vairagya is not related to the body. When the mind is unwavering in all the external and internal causes and effects, then the one sees the Atman. When the idea of Jnana and Ajnana is absent, then one sees the Atman. When one knows but he is not aware that he knows, then one sees the Atman. Men who have realised the Atman, are like blind men, are like deaf men. Although they hear, they do but they are unaware of what they do. When the senses are acting, they are disunited with them. So their action is inaction to them. In them, the idea of creation is less and the idea of nihility is more.

Since their power of forgetfulness is great, their actions are inactions. Their attention is concentrated not on the coconut shell but on the kernel (on Atman, not on the body). They are beyond both sin and merit. They are like a boat in water. Just as water and boat are quite distinct, they feel the gross and the subtle to be separate. They are indifferent to bodily functions but concentrated in Jnana. They drink the juice of the sugarcane and throw away the outer skin. When the sugar is manufactured, it does not become the cane again. When by practice, one has realised that he is Atman, the idea that he is the body never returns. Like an old vessel, after the necessary repairs, shining with the lustre of the new, Buddhi, when the Vasanas are annihilated, can be transformed into the pure Satwa quality. Then we will have contentment.

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Unless the intellect is purified, contentment does not spring. Unless the intellect is purified, Chita does not become steady. Unless Chita is purified, a man cannot free himself from verbal delusion. When ice is placed in water, both become one. Similarly, man who has realised the Atman, merges in the Atman. Just as the rivers enter the sea, all Vasanas are merged in Atman. Atman is not a thing. Karma is a thing. The steamer is in the sea. To the looker on, it appears to touch the seawater, but the steamer is quite different from the sea water. There is no relation between the two. So must a man be in the affairs of the world. He must not have any attachment to worldly things. Just as Brahmins wait eagerly for plantain leaves to be spread and meals served, so must a man wait for mental purification and Mukti.

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No one wants to look at a fruitless tree. Why is man called man? Because he has Manas (thinking power), he is called man. Manas should get knowledge of various sorts and being united with peace, must become one with Omkar. He who desires Mukti (eternal life) should at once give up the idea 'I am the body'. Such people alone can realize the Atman. To those who think 'I am this body', it is very difficult to see the Atman. Those who hold fast to the idea 'I' and 'mine' may practice for a thousand years. Yet they will not attain even the slightest fraction of Shanti.

If one bathes in a river, his body becomes clean, let him be a pariah or a brahmin or a child. Likewise, the internal state of man is the same, though the exterior of every man may appear to be different. Chilis, watermelons, etc., may grow in the same field. The nature of the one is different from that of the other. The heat of fire is only felt by those who sit near the fire but never by those who sit in water. Peace is cool like water. Before you are hungry, the food must be prepared. So also, before you become a householder, you must know the duty of a householder. A householder should have his exterior and interior equally pure. He should distinguish clearly between cause and effect.

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A man may run after a horse in vain for any length of time. Let him ride the horse. Let him bind the legs of a horse and get on its back, quickly. So also, worldly men must keep their mind free from attachment to sense objects. Just as water slips off from an umbrella of palmyra leaves, so also, a man must be free from the idea 'I am the doer'. A householder must be like a calf offered to a temple. All should be offered to the Brahman. But one cannot say that a man who does like this is nearer God and a man who does not like this is far away from him. If you keep a light before a thousand people, it reaches all without making any distinction. Anyone may take it. Where there is light, there is no darkness. In the darkness there is no light. There can only be one thing (either light or darkness), not two at the same time. One's nature should be like the sun. One's Chita must be cool like the moon.

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Vairagya should be like fire burning a cloth. When Vairagya is highly developed, the interior (Atma) splendor will be visible. The body may sit firm but it is the mind that should sit firm. Those whose minds are not purified, seldom have equal sightedness. Those who do not practice, will have great difficulty in possessing the Satwa quality in them. The subtle intelligence is developed by practice. Unless you practice, the desire for worldly things cannot be destroyed. Hankering after landed property, after woman, and after gold, is difficult to be extinguished. What is the thing to be attained by man? When the Chita is free from the three forces, Satwa, Rajas, and Tamas, it is called Purushartha. Just as dirty linen becomes clean when washed in soap water, so also, Chita should be purified by washing it in the soap water of Buddhi and it must be made as pure as space. When you learn sewing on a machine, in the beginning your attention must be fixed not on the legs but on the hands. When we fix our attention on Buddhi and make the mind merge into heart space, then we will attain that eternal peace which is called NITYANANDA.

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Those whose minds are pure may call God by any name they please. Prakriti is like a railway carriage. Those who are in it, are like Jnana. The stations are like chakra. Within the chakras is the subtle. The subtle is within the tube. Within the subtle tube is the energy of the Kundalini. Kundalini, in the form of Omkar, is in the subtle tubes. Let this subtle be known by experience.

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A certain man is a lord of scores of money. All cannot be millionaires at the same time. It depends on their past karmas. Everyone is rewarded according to his due. There is plenty of water in the sea. But the quantity of water one fetches depends on the size of the vessel one takes to fetch water. The fruit depends upon the vasanas of one's karmas. It is because of the vasanas of former births that a man has a hankering after hearing the teachings of a Sadhu.

It is because of these vasanas that one feels no happiness in worldly pleasures. Those who are guided by the vasanas of former births, do not require separate vasanas. Vairagya itself is the result of the vasanas of former births. For such men, it is the time to tread the path to Mukti.

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For attaining Jnana and Mukti, age is no consideration. This very moment is the time for the attainment of Jnana and Mukti. As soon as a man is hungry, it is the time for taking his meals. Those who are not hungry should wait for meals until they are hungry. One should have a keen hunger after Bhakti. The greater the heat of fire, the greater the boiling of water. Shraddha is the heat. Peace is like the ice in the brain. It fills the inside and manifests outside.

Such a man becomes content in all respects and his mind becomes pure. Peace of mind, for attainment, does not cost us anything, like charity and dharma. When one is filled with peace, those who are near him are also infected with peace. It is enough if one person is filled with peace. Out of a thousand, if one has peace, a fraction of peace is enjoyed by all those who are around him. A sadhu when he enters a crowd of worldly people, should have that peace which a hunter has when he approaches a tiger. A sadhu, to be in the world, should have immense peace and patience. Peace is very useful to move among thousands of worldly people.

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Various kinds of articles are brought to a fair. Similarly, peace should be practiced in various ways. When we are in the midst of thousands of people, we should have a firm will. When you think (wrongly) that you are in the midst of thousands, the idea of duality arises in you. Just as an airplane moves without the help of the earth, so also, one must learn to act without the help of the body. The crown of firm belief 'I am not this body' should be firmly planted in the heart. A traveller after being in the sun for a long time, becomes tired and goes for shelter to the shade of a tree on a hillside. There he forgets his fatigue. So too, those whose minds are absorbed in the search of God, forget all their worldly anxieties. Just as in the shade, the sun's heat is forgotten, 'mineness' is forgotten by the absorption in God.

When we are inside a house, we do not want an umbrella. We are in need of an umbrella only when we go outside the house. Just as you do not want an umbrella inside the house, so also, when you are in the Great House called God, you feel no necessity of worldly enjoyment. When a man shuts the door of a house, he sees only things which are inside the house. Let him open the doors and come out. Then he will see what is outside. Similarly, you must learn how to shut the doors of the five senses and how to open them. When the doors of a warehouse are locked, buying and selling ceases. When doors of the senses are shut, the difference between the external world and the 'I' will vanish.

You must always be careful about the senses. Like a horse being controlled by the help of reins, you must control your senses by the help of discrimination. Your attention on the senses should be fixed like a nail in a wall. Buddhi (intelligence) should be concentrated in the head. Your attention should always be above the neck, never below the neck.

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Just as gold is burnished after repeatedly put into fire, so by repeated exercise of discrimination, the subtle should be enlightened. You must see the world in you. Our intelligence is only a means of Moksha. What is called Dharana is nothing but clear understanding of the subject. By this clear understanding, we come nearer to the Atman. We do not get experience from books. First experience, and from that experience, books are written. The tree is in the seed. The seed is not in the tree. Man is not in the world. The world is in man. The world is subject to man. We express in words what we think in our minds.

The heart should be free from hypocrisy, the heart of man should be perfectly pure. What the heart thinks, the tongue should talk. What one thinks, one must talk. Nobody you should deceive. Nobody you should hate. You must not mix with others. Your mind must always be one-pointed. When you have a deceptive heart, it is like the sun, in the mid-summer, a star comes out of the clouds and shines with glory. After a few seconds, it is hidden again by the clouds.

So also is the mind of man. Sometimes, it appears to be pure but again in five minutes, it is over clouded by passions. The egotistic mind melts in the Atman like a star which falls down from the sky. Akash (space) is not visible to the physical eye. Akash is that which is visible to the divine eye. By discrimination, we can experience discrimination. Sound is known by sound. Mind is perceptible to mind only.

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He is Paramatman (supreme being) who is in Jivatman (Atman). Paramatman is the witness to the qualities of the Atman. When Jiva realises that he is not different from Paramatman, he is called Nityatma (the eternal spirit). When the tender mango is on the tree, it is united with the tree. So also are Jiva and Paramatman united. When Sat (being or existence), Chit (pure perceiving awareness), and Ananda (bliss) are in union and when the three gunas are merged in Sat-Chit-Ananda, then only do we say that it is yoga (union).

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The energy called Kundalini should be roused by Pranayama. By rousing Kundalini, a man must attain liberation. Faith is like a rope. Vayu (air) is the rope. You must hold the rope of Vayu tight. Faith must be tied by the rope of Dharana. What is faith is nothing but Dharana. Our attention must always be concentrated on Dharana. That concentration must always be coupled with faith. Faith should be filled in every nerve of the body. To such people, there is no existence of Maya as a separate thing. Mind itself is Maya. It is the mind that creates (mental) images or ideas. All sorts of relations, all creation, cause and effect, light and universe, universal light and the Supreme Light; all these differences are caused by one's own ignorance (Maya).

When this is realized, there is no fear of Maya. 'All these forms are MY OWN FORMS'. Thus should a wise man meditate. When the mind becomes firm in meditation, and when the Supreme Oneness is realised in the sky of consciousness, it is called Moksha. The path of Moksha is not far from one's Self. Like the distance between the eye and ears, the distance between sin and merit is very slight. Moksha is not beyond Buddhi.

Pleasure and pain are things to be merged in Buddhi. By the help of Buddhi, one must attain Moksha. When the mind is merged in the Self and when the oneness is realised, one attains Moksha. Jnana is internal. At the beginning, Jnana can be known. As one progresses, this Jnana is also forgotten, then there is nothing to be said or nothing to be listened to. All is Brahman and Brahman is all. This state may be called the state of 'nothingness'.

Prana is like a rope. When exhaling and inhaling it moves harmoniously. Prana is indivisible, it has no difference of time. Prana feels this difference when it is coupled with the gross. Jiva, because he is engrossed in the various qualities of the world, has forgotten his real Self and has occupied a lower rank. Let him take a higher (upward) direction by the help of Buddhi. Prana should be tied down by the rope of faith. Let Prana attain Moksha by its upward direction. Liberation from the sensual ties is Moksha. Then comes peace. O Prana! Enter the abode of Peace. Have under control both this world and the next!

Such souls will attain Sat-Chit-Ananda. They have no attachment to the results of karma. They are eternally liberated from bondage. They are eternally one minded. They have conquered the qualities of the Jiva. Until the consciousness 'I am the body' is wiped off, Mukti is a thing far off. Unless the idea of 'twoness' is annihilated, there is no yoga, no Mukti. In a sense, everyone is a yogi. But everyone of such yogas has a certain object in view. When a substance becomes one with the original substance, when the dualities of lives is wiped off, it is called union or oneness. When this is realised, we see oneness in all. The real yoga is that which is detached from everything.

That yoga by which a man becomes free from desires is the path to Moksha. Doubt will not disappear until Jiva unites with Shiva and becomes one. When one does a thing which is not palatable to the other, one takes the other to be a mad man. When both are interested in doing the same thing, one does not take the other to be a mad man. When both are equally interested in doing the same thing, there is nothing strange in doing that thing.

The mind is like the cotton placed in the wind. Devotion to God is like water poured on the cotton. Similar is the destruction of the mind. The mind which is like cotton should be wetted by the water of Jnana and the Chita should be freed from desires. That is Moksha. In the manner of the cotton, let man attain Mukti. A man may meditate on the Atman although he is engaged in various actions. The various objects of the senses are outside us, not inside us.

Even when we are performing various actions, it is not possible to keep the Buddhi separate from them. If a car driver, when he steers the car, takes his hands off of the wheel, the car runs in whatsoever direction and is endangered. Mind should be in Buddhi. We must not let the mind wander. Mind should be fixed on internal Dhyana. Mind should be developed by the power of introspection. O Mind! Enter the sky of consciousness by developing the subtle Buddhi and filling every nerve of the body with this Buddhi! O Mind! Be always content! O Mind! Do not be deluded by shadowy appearances!

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Those whose minds are merged in Samadhi, are not deluded by the external jugglery. They are quite fearless. Siddhas (God realised souls) are not afraid of the world. A tiger or a cobra, when they see such a person, become calm, forgetting their ferocity. Similarly, all animals become calm at their sight.

Even enemies forget their enmity and become friendly. As soon as they see a sadhu, they become stone-still. What is the cause of this? It is because of their doubting nature. At the sight of a sadhu, there is no darkness. Mind gets purified, realising the Satwa quality.

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All do not feel hungry at the same time and to the same degree. Similarly, all do not attain Mukti at the same time. There is only a difference of time. Men dispute among themselves because of the difference of language. In Hindu-Thani, sugar is called mittha. In other languages it is called sakkare, etc. The use of sugar is the same to all. Although the sugar may be put to different uses, the places where it reaches is only one (mouth). Instead of believing in thousands of gods, if a man believes only in one God, he can realise what bliss is.

Then only is a man content. Those who believe in thousands of gods are never content. So long as you think of two, there is no happiness. So feel happy only in ONE. God is only ONE, never two. Those whose faith is such, see God in themselves. They see all as Self. This is the path to Moksha. For such a man, there is no enemy. All are his friends. A man should not spoil himself by believing in two. He should attain by believing in one.

A man must return from whence he has come. Knowing the cause and effect, playing on the external matter, reach the place from whence you started. This is Moksha. Moksha does not come in search of us. We should search for Moksha and enter therein. What is Moksha? Moksha is freedom of the mind from actions and standing apart from the internal state. Moksha is not to be attained by a different outward path. What is Moksha is not different from one's Self. We have not striven for Moksha.

So, we feel that it is far off from us. Moksha is not a thing to be attained by going 'here' and by going 'there'. One should search within oneself. The mind should be merged in Buddhi and by the path of discrimination, one should enter Mukti. God is the Indivisible One. Man because of his doubts, has made images and called it god, due to ignorance. This doubt should be removed by the path of discrimination. By doing so, he must attain JivanMukti.

Bhakti (devotion) is nothing but love a man manifests towards an object. A man should believe that thing as great, by which, because of his faith, he has been much benefited. This belief should not be relaxed. There is not a single thing without Bhakti. All animals have Bhakti. Just as water flows in different directions, so also, is Bhakti of different types. All animals have a right for Bhakti. Bhakti is in all objects. Bhakti should be absolutely pure. Bhakti should be realised in the sky of consciousness. Bhakti should be internal and it should realise the subtle. Then, a man becomes desireless and sorrowless. This state is eternal Mukti. Let Mukti be entered into by the path of Sushumna.

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The subtle power of Kundalini must be comprehended by the path of Buddhi. By discrimination and Shraddha, the Prana should be heated in the Sushumna like boiling milk, and led towards the Sahasrar in the head. When the Kundalini crosses the various chakras in the body, our bodily qualities change. The change of one quality means the change of one birth. When the Prana is led upwards through the chakras, peace of mind and forgiveness are acquired. Five chakras and five houses (Pancha Bhutas) should be crossed and the sixth chakra should be reached. After conquering the six qualities, Sat-Chit-Ananda should be entered into.

After enlightening the Ajna Chakra, Akash (internal) and Agni Mandala should be attained. Shakti and Shiva should be one, present, past and the future. The place of these is Bindu. In Bindu is Jnana fire. This should be meditated upon and Prana Linga should be entered into. Let Prana become one with Shiva. Conquer both Yantra and Mantra. Let Buddhi proceeding through Akash (internal) go to the centre of the sky of consciousness and there be one with the dawn of the Atman. Let the qualities of karma be sacrificed and let Jiva, by the path of pure Akash, become one with Paramatman. Let Jiva take his stand on the top of the Sushumna which is his real home. Let the feeling of 'mine' and 'yours' disappear. Let all the qualities of Jiva be unified, and man become a Siddha and be fearless. Knowing the path of the Atman, O Mind, distribute spiritual food to others! Knowing the path of the Atman, O Mind, conquer both birth and death! O Mind! Be free from birth and death! O Mind!

Enjoy eternal peace! When the Buddhi is enlightened, every man comes to know his own defects and merits. Like one's reflection in the mirror, the various desires of the mind will be visible to Buddhi. The gross and the subtle will seem to be separate like the reflection of the sky in clear water. These experiences will be had by those who have realised the Atman. The internal state of man will be like an object sunk in water. In all forms, the One is seen. So be sunk in the water of Jnana. Let the desires of the mind be washed in the Ganges of the Atman. Thus realise Ananda. Enter Mukti. O Mind! While sitting, lying, sleeping, and walking, be on the path of Mukti and enter it. For Mukti to be attained, no particular time is prescribed. When you are walking in the company of others, let your mind be in the sky of consciousness. Let the mind with Shraddha drink the nectar of Mukti.

Realising Bhakti and Mukti to be one, become one with Omkar. Let the ten Indriyas become slaves of Buddhi, like a bird deprived of its wings. Let Prana which is moving in ten directions be made to move in one direction only. Let this be done internally.

Let Prana enter Chidakash. Let internal peace be attained. Let Mukti be attained in same-sightedness. Having attained Mukti let them see the whole universe as freed from bondage. The body is the engine. Knowledge (Jnana) is the steam. Discrimination is the movement. Shraddha is the line. Knowing this, let the train be driven. The driver is the intellect (Buddhi). The digestive system is the boiler. The nerves are the screw. Knowing this, enter the Atman by the subtle oath of Buddhi. Attain thou peace. Just as the train moves on rails, so also, discrimination should move on the path of subtle Buddhi.

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If we look at the rails and the carriages, both appear to be closely connected. But really the rails and the wheels are separate. The rails are the gross passage. The train's motion is caused by the energy of steam. Similar is the connection between the body and the soul. It should be shaken by the subtle intelligence and the eternal peace should be attained. Just as the carriages of the train are connected by chains, so also, let Jiva and Paramatma be united. The bodily qualities should be cut asunder by equal sightedness. Let Jiva attain Mukti, his eternal home.

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Let Meditation, Manas, and Faith be merged into one. Let the subtle point of light be kindled between the eyebrows and the union be established. In the Omkar, let the pure Chita be firmly fixed, following the path of subtle Buddhi. Let the Manas become steady being firmly fixed in Dharana and Samadhi. Let the mind be one-pointed. To establish Chita in Akash, there is no other means than Samadhi. O Jiva! Enter thou Akash! To the Jiva who has entered the Akash, there is no separate existence for this world. O Mind! Be quite free from the body idea!

To make Chita firm is very difficult without Sadhana. To those who are ever merged in Samadhi, the body's existence is quite foreign. To such, the gross and the subtle become separated like the kernel and the shell of the mango seed. To those who always think 'I am not the body', there is no separate Samadhi. They enjoy eternal Samadhi, absolute Samadhi, Shivanatha Samadhi, Manolaya (mind annihilation) Samadhi. To those who are always sunk in the sugar of Jnana, sugar does not exist as a separate thing. Such men are quiet regardless of the external acts and the external world.

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The energy of Omkar is like a mine of water. It moves in all directions. It pervades both inside us and outside us in the form of reason. It becomes vibrationless, creating, maintaining, and destroying all. The vibrationlessness becomes one with reason. Reason becomes merged in Omkar. Omkar becomes one with reason. Omkar becomes one with the world. The world becomes one with Omkar. The Omkar and the world become one with Akash. Akash becomes one with reason. Reason becomes one with Akash. Reason and Akash become one with Omkar.

The imperishable becomes one with reason. The imperishable and Jnana become one with reason. Reason becomes one with Atman. Atman becomes one with reason. Form discrimination becomes one with Atman through the path of Buddhi. The cause and effect juice of yoga. The juice of yoga transforms every quality of the body, directing it upwards. 0 Mind! By the upward path, pervade all those qualities of the body.

Shake off all doubts from all parts of the body by bathing in the Ganges of Shiva. Let Shiva and Shakti be one with Omkar. See, with the third eye, the forms and qualities of the world. Let the doubts of the mind be reduced to ashes. Let the six enemies of the body be burnt to ashes. Let the body be smeared with these ashes. Thus enter thou Shiva by the help of the third eye. Be thou Shiva and Shiva, thou. Let the difference between thee and Shiva be sacrificed in the midst of the five fires of the five senses. Let all doubts be heartily sacrificed in these fires, O Jiva! Perform penance by sacrificing all thy qualities Satwa, Rajas, and Tamas. By the disinterested path, drink the nectar every moment. Drink that nectar without doubts.

When thou hast realised the truth, thou hast no fear of death. After realizing the truth, 'I' and 'mine' are as if they are dead. The fear of death is dead forever. What is called the feeling of 'I' and 'mine' is nothing but the fear of death. This is an obstruction to the path of God-realisation. When the truth is realised, death becomes an external condition just as thou sleepest, forgetting the external world. This is not different from what is called the internal life. Then the senses are turned inward and when they move internally, 'I' and 'mine' become atomic and become merged in the highest. When the Jiva suddenly awakens from sleep and becomes aware of the external, then only he realises the nature of sleep. This is the state of Jnana. The cause of birth and death is desire. By this desire, the shadow appears as reality.

This desire is under man's control. Those who have the power of discrimination, have no fear of birth and death. Since mind is controlled by desire, you give room to enjoyment and difficulties. If the desire is subdued by man, he is no longer under the sway of Pleasure and Pain. Because mind is subdued by desire, man requires external help to satisfy his desires. When a man becomes a slave to certain habits, this is the cause of lower birth. All habits must be under the control of man. A man must be indifferent to habits. For this you want a firm will. The work depending on fancy is not permanent. The work done by the power of discrimination lasts till the body lasts.

Sankalpa is not always permanent. Sankalpa is far inferior to Buddhi. Sankalpa is like the little finger. Buddhi is like the middle finger. Vasana is the great love for a certain thing. This Vasana is the cause of birth. Vasanas, which are related to the body, come and go now and then. Like bubbles which appear and disappear in water. Body is all nature. Because of the great love for a special thing, which is called Vasana, we have to take another birth. Juice of yoga. The juice of yoga transforms every quality of the body, directing it upwards. O Mind! By the upward path, pervade all those qualities of the body.

The Vasana has a special form. That form reflects the internal. It appears in the form of a body in a special family. The man having such a Vasana, whatever work he may be engaged in, his body only is working. His Vasana stands apart and there a body is created according to the Vasana. It is impossible for the body to satisfy the Vasana. Hence, the body suffers from some disease, and the outgoing Prana, after death, assumes a particular body. This body is gone and a fresh body is generated. The birth is for the fulfillment of that special Vasana. The birth is of the same nature as the Vasana. For instance, when one is walking, can he lift up both feet at the same time from the earth? Lifting up the feet alternately, one must walk. Similarly is the Vasana of former birth.

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Desireless Bhakti is not for the enjoyment of worldly happiness. This Bhakti is not related to nature. This Bhakti is not for getting rid of any difficulties. There is no relation whatsoever between this Bhakti and difficulty. No one should shrink back from the path of this Bhakti. He should proceed on the path of this Bhakti. Just as the big lizard (in a fort) embraces the fort wall very firmly and never leaves it, so also, desireless Bhakti should firmly embrace the heart lotus with steadfast faith.

Bhakti by the path of skill (Yukti) should be one with Shakti. Let, by such a Bhakti, the heart be purified of all its Upadhis (latent tendencies). Let such a Bhakti become absolutely free from desire. Let this desirelessness become the strongest. Let the senses become quiet. Let his Bhakti become unwavering in that Giver of Peace. This is real Bhakti. This is eternal peace. This is the Self-luminous. This is what is called Sat. This Bhakti is beyond both this world and the next. This is nothing but the mind filled with eternal Ananda.

The mind filled with eternal Ananda is the seed of all things. The mind filled with eternal Ananda is the subtle seed of all things. Let this be developed with discrimination. The mind filled with eternal Ananda is that without qualities. It is the diseaseless. It is the universal reason. It is called the Creator. It is the witness of all. It is the one Sat for this world and the next. It is the One, pervading in and out. It is the Knowledge, higher and lower, (Jnana and Vijnana). It is the one Cause and Effect. It is the Universal Witness. It is the Sinless Atman. Witness of All, it is the Universal Guru. It is the Universal Light. It is the Universal Father and Mother. It is the Bindu in Omkar. It is MA, A, E, OM the Great. Movable and the Seen, OM the Essence. It is what is declared by the sages as The Truth. OM. OM.