Chapter 3 – The sun of consciousness
Nine Sutras
Chapter 3
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Original Title:
Sun of Consciousness
Chapter #4
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19 October 1970 pm in Poona, India
Chapter 3
the sun of consciousness
My Bbeloved Oones, .
I have told said to you the first in one sutra of yoga: that life is energy, and that there are two dimensions of this energy — – existence and non–existence. And Then I have told said to you in another sutra of yoga: that existence also has two dimensions — – conscious and unconscious and conscious. Now we will discuss the seventh sutra… : consciousness also has dimensions CONSCIOUSNESS ALSO HAS TWO DIMENSIONS — – self conscious and self unconscious; a THE SELF-CONSCIOUS AND THE SELF-UNCONSCIOUS… …A consciousness that is aware of its isness being and a consciousness that is not aware of its isness being.
If we think of life as an immense tree, the life energy of the tree is one. This is the trunk. Then the tree divides into two branches: existence and non–existence. We have left out non–existence, we have not discussed it, because it is has not concerned with yoga. Then existence also branches into two: the conscious and the unconscious. We have also left the unconscious out of the discussion because this too has no concern with yoga you. Consciousness also branches into two; ; the self–conscious, and self–unconscious. It is very important to understand the difference between the two in this seventh sutra. What I have said up until to now was a preparation preparatory for the understanding of this seventh sutra on which I will talk to you today. From this sutra the process of yoga’s discipline begins. Hence it will be is helpful to understand this sutra rightly.
There are plants, birds, animals; they are all conscious but they do not have the awareness of their consciousness. They are conscious and yet unconscious as well. They are there, life is there, consciousness is there, but they are not aware of their isness being. Then there is man, ; he too is the there, the same as the animals, birds and plants, but he is aware of his isness being. One more new dimension is gets added to his consciousness, : that he is also self–conscious too. He also knows knows that he is conscious. Just Only being conscious is not enough for being to be a man. There This is a condition for being to be a man, : that one is aware that one is conscious. This is the only difference between man and the animals. Animals are also conscious but they are not unaware of their consciousness.
If you try to remember your past you will only be able to remember back to upto the age of four or five years. Before that everything is dark for you. , Nnothing can be is remembered before the age of four. Certainly you were there up to the age of four also, but it seems that you were not self–conscious. This is why small children and animals seem to have a similar condition of innocence simplicity. There is no tension. Naturalness is seen in small children, in birds and in plants and trees. Perhaps up to the age of four we also were not aware conscious that we existed are.
Then every day seven or to eight hours are spent in sleep, in unconsciousness. If a man lives for sixty years, he sleeps away twenty years of them. So twenty years of life go in unconsciousness; there too you are not conscious. You have slept Sso many times you have slept, but can you tell say how sleep comes, when it comes, and what it is? You cannot tell. As long as you keep awake at night, untill then the sleep has not come, and when it comes, you are already unconscious. Sleep always finds you unconscious. You are unconscious until the moment sleep leaves you. When sleep leaves you in the morning sleep leaves you, consciousness comes.
When you say, “I slept for eight hours in the night,” it does not mean that you are aware that you slept for eight hours. It only means that there is a gap of eight hours between the last moment when you were awake and the moment when you woke up again in the morning. This is how you know, ; otherwise in sleep you have gone back to the world of the animals and plants. And Dduring the remainder rest of the day, when you think you are full of consciousness, even then you are full of consciousness only sometimes. One day just stand by the side of the road and watch the people passing. on the road — yYou will feel that many of them are almost sleepwalking in sleep. Someone is talking to someone who is not there, someone is gesturing with his hands, someone is moving his lips. To whom are they talking? They are in some dream. Are they awake? Nobody seems to be there. With whom is this talk going on then? If you can observe abserve yourself, you will find that the whole time you are not aware the whole time. Awareness comes only sometimes. Suppose someone puts a knife on your chest, . iIn such those moments there is self–awareness in you. In such those moments you are full of awareness, ; otherwise not.
Try to understand with some examples. Near us These are the roofs of these two buildings houses. If a one–foot wide wooden board is placed between put across the roofs of both the two buildings houses and you are asked to walk along pass over it, perhaps none of you will be ready to do walk over it. If the same wooden board is put on the ground and you are asked to walk on pass over it, all of you — – the old people, the children, the women, — all – will be able to do pass over it and perhaps no one none will fall. The wooden board is the same, you are the same, – then why would do you refuse to walk along over it when it is put between across the roofs? And so many people were able to walked along over it when it was on the ground and no one had fallen, so where is the possibility of falling off it now? But no,… wWhat is the real difficulty? The difficulty is somewhere else. The difficulty is that while walking along over it on the ground there is no need to be aware. ; Yyou can walk in unawareness. But to pass between over the roofs you will have to be aware. We know we have no awareness, ; hence the fear of a falling which may kill us. On the ground we are not going to be killed even if we fall off.
Sometimes in moments of danger there is awareness; the rest of the time we are asleep. When death is close by, there is awareness. Normally we are not aware. That is why we do not like to change our habits – because one has to become aware if habits are to be changed. Old habits do not need your awareness.
Look at a man, ; how he takes out a the cigarette packet from his pocket, puts a cigarette in his mouth lips and lights it with a the match. If you watch attentively with attention, you will find that he is completely unaware and doing all these things almost in sleep. He has no awareness of talking idea when he took the cigarette packet out, lighting when he lit the cigarette, and when he began puffing in and out.
If the world is full of enough consciousness, it will be difficult to find such unintelligent stupid people who do the work of inhaling and exhaling smoke for hours. And even if you ask someone to smoke for a cigarette, he will say, “I am not so mad that I would inhaling inhale and exhaling exhale smoke. !” Not only that they are people inhaling and exhaling smoke; the whole world protests, explains that it is harmful, that it causes sickness, that it will shorten your life. But these people they are so unconscious, their ears do not hear it.
America recently decided that on each cigarette there packet should be written in red in capital letters: , ‘This “Smoking is harmful to the health.” ‘ The shopkeepers who sell sold cigarettes, the owners of the companies, the manufacturers, all raised so much hue and cry saying that they would run into a loss of billions. When I read all this, I said that these cigarette manufacturers do not know how unconscious that people are so unconscious. How long many days do they think people they will read this warning written in red ink? Not for very long. And that is exactly what has the same happened. For six months the sale of cigarettes decreased, but after six months it went back to the same level as before. And tThe warning is now written on the packet in red… – but the reader has to be there to read it. Once or twice someone reads it and then falls asleep about it again. That cCigarette packets are manufactured with arrives, the warning is written on them it but no one reads it. The sale of cigarettes has gone back become normal again.
If it is written on something in red ink that it is poisonous, that it is dangerous to drink it, will someone with any degree of consciousness drink it? It‘s will be difficult. ; everybody knows It is clear what poison is. But Iit is the same situation with clear about everything that is harmful bad. How many times have you decided that now you won’t be possessed by anger! ? How many times have you decided? this Hhow many times have you failed to keep your vow? not been able to fulfill it? Not even once have you has it been able to maintain your resolve fulfilled, because if you had, then there would be have been no need to take it decide again.
I was a guest in a house. The old man of the house told me that he had taken took a vow of celibacy three times thrice. I was amazed. How could he take the vow of celibacy three times thrice? I asked him why he did not take it a fourth time. The old man said, “By taking it three times I experienced that it cannot be fulfilled and therefore hence I did not take it the vow a fourth time“.” It had was not been fulfilled the third time either.
Every day Everyday you get angry, and every day everyday you promise yourself that you won’t take oath, and then what happens the next day, what happens when anger comes? Then there is not even a trace left of the promise oath left because there is no trace of you yourself, as to where you are. The Oone who had taken the vow oath is asleep. In the evening a one man goes to sleep with the determination that he has to wake up at four 4 o’clock the next day. The alarm bell rings in the morning and this same man turns over in his bed and says, “Leave it. I will do it from tomorrow.” The same man gets up at seven o’clock and repents again: asks, “How did it happen? I had taken a vow certain oath to get up at four o’clock.” But actually, the one in him who had taken the vow oath is asleep. In the morning at seven o’clock he may again take the vow oath, but the thew next day at four o’clock he will again miss it. Our whole life passes in this kind of sleepiness. If we were to look at our acts, we would not be able to say that we did them – because if we were really the doer, many of them could not possibly have been done.
All the courts of the world know that hundreds of criminals have stated in public the courts, “I have not committed this murder,” or “I have not done this theft.” But the judges take it as a lie, the court takes it as a lie, because there are witnesses, there is evidence, that the crime has happened. But I say to you that those criminals are not telling lies. When they were stealing stole, at that moment they were not in their senses. When they murdered, they were not in their senses. It is very difficult to commit a murder consciously. It is very difficult to steal consciously. According to me, and according to yoga, a sin is that act of doing for which unconsciousness is a must. Sin means such an act that which cannot be done without being unconscious. When you are unconscious, only then only you can you sin. It is a compulsory condition.
Hence, when we say to someone that he has acted like an animal, it does not mean that animals do such things. No animal commits such does acts as like man does. No, acting like an animal has a very different meaning. It means that just as the animals are self–unconscious, just as they are unaware of themselves, similarly man is also unaware of himself. It is in this sense, that the phrase “acting like an animal” ‘animal-like act’ is used. Otherwise, no dog has ever acted like Hitler, nor has any snake has ever behaved like a Genghis Khan. Has any animal done such terrible bad things as the animal called man has done? No, no animal ever has. ‘ “Animal-like” ‘ means only one thing — – that a man is doing something in self–forgetfulness; , that he is unconscious. That is why the courts do not agree not to penalize small children who are below the age of seven years like criminals – because we assume that a child is not conscious yet. But can the court guarantee that a seventy year–old man has become conscious? No, even a seventy year–old man is does not become conscious, – we just presume that he is has become. – Bbecause if we watch the actions of a seventy year–old man, we will see know that he too is a sleepwalker walks in his sleep in an unconscious state. In this life of seventy years, if someone is conscious for even seven minutes, this is too is a high a figure. Even seven minutes are too much. If in a man’s lifetime of seventy years, there are even a few moments of consciousness, it is enough to make that man a Mahavira, a Buddha, a Krishna. But even a few moments are not there. We go on living unconsciously.
But I told you that ‘ “man” ‘ begins only on that day when self awareness consciousness begins. So, we are only potentialities to become man, we are not yet man; . wWe are only opportunities to become man, we are not yet man. We are It is only the possibility in the seed form of becoming that we can become self–aware – conscious, but we are not yet it have not become. This is why it has always been our difficulty that if there is a man like Buddha or Mahavira, how are we to call him ‘ “man” ‘ — ? wWe call him “the blessed one.” Bhagwan. The whole reason for calling him “ blessed” Bhagwan is that we call ourselves “man,” whereas rightly speaking we are not man, in the right sense. Sso now where to place these people? If we call them “man,” we will be placing have to place them in the same category as ourselves with us. So we find a new category: – “ the blessed one.” Bhagwan. It would be better for us to if we call them “man” and call ourselves “sub-human.” We are on the way to becoming become man, but we are have not yet – become man. That will be right — and this alone would be appropriate; this alone would be the truth is true. But even in our lives sometimes we become conscious for a few moments. Those moments alone are the moments of bliss in our lives, because they give us a glimpse of our being; – like as if of a flash of lightning.
Yoga divides consciousness into two parts: self–consciousness and self–unconsciousness. Those who are unconscious from the point of view of having a soul self-awareness are self–unconscious, it is true all right, but even we who ought to be self–conscious are animals in many ways animals, are in many ways — trees and stones in many ways. A small proportion of us have become man; – a very small portion. It is like putting a piece of ice in some the water: and only one tenth of it sticks out of the water, and its nine tenths parts remains submerged drowned. We are also like this. : Our nine tenths is parts are drowned at the bottom, submerged in the dark. ; Oonly one small part has come to the surface and become man.
Hence man has tremendous restlessness. Animals are not restless. No animal commits suicide. The day any animal commits suicide, know it well that that species will not remain as animal for too long, ; it has already started becoming man. No animal commits suicide. – Tthat much anxiety for does not get created that suicide to becomes necessary is not created in him. No animal laughs except man. If on the way you come across a buffalo on the road laughing, you will never pass by that way again.
No animal laughs. What is the matter? No animal is so unhappy that he needs laughter to forget the unhappiness. Laughter is an arrangement to forget unhappiness.
That is why the more unhappiness increases in the world, the more different types of recreation have to be invented. There is cinema, television, radio, dance, song. , and still with When they are all of these finished, man says, “Bbring something more” , – because now he is even much more bored. At present, fifty percent of the energy of the whole world is just busy with only in providing means of recreation for humanity. And these days, in this age those who are able to provide recreation for human beings have become the most esteemed important — – like actors. There is no other reason for their being highly esteemed becoming important except that they are able to provide recreation for you sometimes. You are so miserable that if someone can provide you with a little recreation, he becomes important.
No animal laughs, because an animal is not so miserable that he needs laughter. Laughter is a safety valve — . jJust as any steam mechanism is provided with safety valves so that if the steam becomes too much excessive the valve gives way to release it and nobody’s life is endangered, the steam. Otherwise lives of everyone around will be in danger. Sso, laughter is a safety valve for man. When trouble gathers within, the laughter is a means to release, to be free of it. This is why no animal laughs – because there is not so much tension in him, because there is not so much anxiety in him, not so much worry in him.
What is the anxiety of man?
Man’s anxiety is that a part of him has become self–conscious and the remaining, the large part is lying in unconsciousness. His difficulty is the same as it would have been for Narsimhavatar, the Hindu‘s man-lion incarnation of god whose body was half lion animal and half man. The difficulty in which would be felt by a man-lion incarnation might have been is the same difficulty that we are all in. People ask me how such a thing as a man-lion incarnation is possible. I tell them that all human beings are man-lion incarnations. And were if the division really was half man, half animal lion, then also some sort of balance could would have happened. But a very tiny part of the mind head — – not even the complete mind head — – has become man; the other part is still of animal. Your The whole of life is animalistic, of unconsciousness, ; just a little corner of the intellect has become conscious. It is like an enormous area being in darkness, and a tiny lamp burning in a corner around which you we pass our lives your life. That tiny lamp also does not burn all the time, ; it is extinguished during sleep. And if there is someone whose lamp is not extinguished, then he extinguishes it either by drinking alcohol, or through a thousand and one other intoxications. This is the reason why one feels relief in drinking alcohol: because the part that was causing a little restlessness as because it had become human, gets thrown also thown back again below man. Thus the whole piece of ice is again drowned in the water. Now you have moved back to the world of animals — ; now there is nothing to worry about. This is why sleep gives you relief; . iIn sleep you get drowned one hundred percent per cent. This is why you get up fresh in the morning. – Yyou are just coming back from the world of the animal, where there was no anxiety, where there was no difficulty. Now again your human man’s world will begin. This goes on happening Ttwenty–four hours a day this goes on happening.
So, when I say that man is self–conscious, all that I mean is that there is a good possibility of becoming becoming self–conscious. In becoming With man, only a small part has become self–conscious. Yoga says that if the whole of man becomes self–conscious, he attains to meditation. If all his dark corners become full of light, man attains to Samadhi, enlightenment.
Self-knowledge will happen only when the entire house of your life becomes full of light. A small little wick of a lamp is not going to do, ; the whole house needs the light of the sun so that its each and every corner becomes full of light. Otherwise you will always remain broken into two parts. The part that is full of light will decide that it will not let any snake come into the house, but what will it do about those dark parts where snakes are already living? And sooner or later, when the snakes come out into the open in the lamp light, you will shout loudly that your vow has been broken, ; the vow oath that you had taken not to let any snake into the house has been broken.
When you swear that now you will never not get angry again, you are swearing from with that small part which has light is illuminated. You are not bothered about the nine parts that are still in darkness, that are drowned in darkness, where even now anger is even now brewing, getting ready. When you are taking the vow an oath, even at that time, in some corner in you, anger is brewing, and your nine tenths whole inner part must be feeling surprised at your vow. It is like a servant who is peon sitting outside a house and who has no knowledge of the whole house at all but who goes on making decisions about the whole house. He has no idea at all of what is going on inside. In the dark parts, all sorts of the preparations are already going on. You have taken a vow an oath of celibacy, but your sex centers is are all drowned in darkness, . nNo ray of your intelligence has reached it up to them. So you have decided in a corner of your mind head that you are going to take a vow taking an oath of celibacy, but your sex centers knows nothing of this vow oath, ; it continues its they go on continuing their work. Sex will arise from there, and it will overpower your intelligence because it is nine times more powerful stronger. Then you will weep and cry, take the vow an oath again, but will never understand that taking a vow swearing an oath is useless. The real question is not whether that you take vows oaths from this small part, so the real question is that you expand this small part so that your whole being becomes conscious. Then you will not need to take vows at all oaths.
This is why I say to you that Yyoga does not ask anyone to take oaths, to take vows. Except ignorant people and stupid persons, no one takes has taken vows in the world. There is no sense in vows. The real issue is something else. The real issue is that if your whole being becomes full of light illuminated, then you will not need to take vows. But you we go on doing it taking vows! Against whom do you take them vows? You take them vows against your own dark parts, and you have no access at all to those dark parts. – Yyou cannot reach there. All your decisions take place remain in one a corner of your skull. Even the whole skull is not conscious illuminated.
Now scientists agree with this vision of Yyoga that the whole of man’s brain is not even the whole brain of man is conscious. Now science supports it. This is why I am repeating again and again that Yyoga is a science, because the more present–day science goes on discovering, the more the experiences and the insights of Yyoga go on being getting proved to be true. Now scientists also say that half of man’s brain is lying inactive; no work is happening happens there, it is lying unused. And Tthis too is not about everybody all — – it is only about those who work the most with the brain. For Tthose who work less with the brain, three quarters of their brain is lying unused, only one quarter of their brain is laying unused, only one quarter of it is being used. Even the most talented man uses only half his brain; half remains unused. In the case of the majority, even half of the brain is not in use, just half one part of the half. And this quarter or half, this too is not used to at its fullest capacity. Even the most talented person uses only fifteen percent of his capacity, ; the remaining eighty-five percent is not unused. And of the But leave that half or quarter, I am not talking about that. Of the part which is is active, only fifteen percent of it is being used to its full capacity. !
Now sScientific data, evidence, research, all now support the fact that only a tiny part of the human brain mind is active. And this part generally, after eighteen years of age this part also does not develop becomes silent, does not increase work. Hence you have only as much intelligence as you have developed by up to the age of eighteen. Don’t There is no need to be under the this illusion that when you are become eighty years of age you will may have more intelligence. There are very few people who develop their intelligence after they are eighteen years old. Most of the people go on accumulating experience through the intelligence they had developed by up to the age of eighteen. The collection of experiences grow but not the intelligence. People go on experiencing through the limitation of that much intelligence. So an eighty–year–old man has many experiences, but his intelligence remains the same as when he was eighteen.
During In the last world war, a surprising fact came to light there has been an amazing experience in America. – America is the country which can be said to be the most educated, the most developed country on the earth, which and that it uses intelligence more than any other country. During In the last world war it was a great surprise when they made arrangements to to measure the recruit soldiers after measuring their intelligence. The results derived from the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of soldiers while recruiting them. The results were very surprising: that none of the those soldiers had a the mental age of more than thirteen years. Their average intelligence was that of thirteen years–olds – of age — as if everything had stopped for them at the age of thirteen. Yoga has been saying it for a very long time that the whole total mind of man is not awakened illuminated. And Iif the whole complete mind of man becomes awakened illuminated, amazing powers will become available things start happening, – – what you call supernatural powers. Although Yyoga calls them functions of those parts of the mind which are at present inactive — – nothing more than that.
For this also, nNow scientific evidences are is gradually becoming available to support this. In America there is a man called Ted Cerio. Some of those Certain new scientific instruments are able to show which parts of the mind are active in him which generally are inactive. Now there are instruments to investigate which part of the mind is functioning. Different parts of mind function for different things. When you read, one part of the mind functions; when you weep, another part functions. When you laugh, yet another part functions. Similarily, there are different parts are activated when you sing a song or when you the play the veena or when you create a painting love. Even up to the extent that when you speak the Hindi language, it is one another part that is functioning functions, and when you speak Marathi it is another part, and yet another when you speak English. There are hundreds of thousands of centers in the brain which are functioning for different things.
In America there is a man called Ted Serios who has developed the capacity to use the parts of his brain which in most people are still inactive. So some parts of his brain Ted Cerio’s mind are functioning which in most people are unused generally do not function. If he closes his eyes in America he and is asked what is happening here in Pune Poona in the grounds of Sanghavi’s factory where we are tonight, he will go on sitting with closed his eyes and sit silently for about some fifteen minutes, – then he will not speak – and when he opens his eyes — he will not tell, he will only open his eyes and a camera which will takes a photograph of his eye will show and a picture of this gathering. The camera will catch it be caught on the camera. Now if this were was described in some two thousand year old book, we would say it was just fiction gossip. But this man is alive, and many all the universities in of America have seen the experiment ; examined him, he gives demonstrations here and there demonstrates from place to place. The only difference between our photograph taken here and the one taken of from his eyes will be that as if one is was a fainter copy of the other, that’s all. The difference is not going to be more than that this — – just a slightly fainter copy, that is all. His eye is catching our pictures although we are sitting at such a distance. So if the Mahabharata Mahabharata says that Sanjaya was giving a running commentary to the blind Dhritarashtra on the Dhritrashtra of a battle in Kurukshetra Kurnkshathra a hundred miles away distant, there seems to be no problem in it. Eyes can can see so far away. ; Eeyes can see any distance, but for that some other areas of the mind need to be illuminated.
Take another one example of a scientist from Russia. Fyadov is a scientist in Russia. Leave aside Unlike America, Russia is an atheist country and has is not been prepared to accept the divine or the soul, or God up untill now, . bBut this scientist Fyadov has experimented a done great deal with experiments sending telepathic messages for a distance of up to one thousand miles — – not through any instrument but only through by sending thought waves messages. Sitting in Moscow with closed eyes, he has sent messages as far as up to Tilifis Tiflis. Sitting in Moscow, he will think a about something message and it will be picked up caught in Tiflis.
One day an experiment was done in Tiflis. In a garden there, in Tiflis a man came and took a seat on bench number ten 10. This man knew nothing, hHe was a traveller; , tired, ; he had taken a seat to have take a little rest at noontime in the noon time. He knew nothing of the experiment. Some The people hiding in the bushes informed the scientist by radio Fyadov on wireless that a man was sitting on seat number 10. They said, “If you can make him sleep within five minutes by sending messages, then we will be convinced that telepathy works.” The Russian scientist Now Fyadov, sitting in Moscow, concentrated remained thinking in his mind for five minutes on the idea that the man sitting on seat number ten 10 should go to fall asleep. This man knew nothing about the experiment. After In five minutes he did go the man went into a deep sleep and started snoring. Naturally those friends these hiding there friends thought that perhaps he was may be tired and weary, he might may have fallen asleep slept on his own. – Ccoincidence is possible. So they sent a message back, “that tThe man is sleeping, but if you can make him get up in exactly in seven minutes times, then we will be convinced.” After Eexactly after seven minutes, the man woke up from sleep. He looked around as if someone had called him. They came out of the bushes and asked the man, “Who are you looking for?” The man said, “Someone has been constantly saying to me, ‘Get up, ! wWake up, ! now dDo not remain asleep. After Eexactly after seven minutes you have to get up.'” Now who was saying that? There was nobody there. The person who was saying it man was sitting thousands of miles away in Moscow.
If mind becomes fully awake, man becomes a discoverer of great powers. There are hundreds of other such potentialities in man’s mind. Yoga used to call them: siddhis siddhis, supernatural spiritual powers. We can may give them any name, it makes no difference. The Our whole brain is also not awake. People We look miserable and helpless; , and this is because of their our remaining asleep. And this restlessness that remains in our lives is the restlessness of not being fully able to fully use the wealth that we have been born come with. Yoga says that all these centers of the mind can be activated, and that this brain hidden in your skull does is not contain your whole personality. An equally large Exactly such a big “mind” is also hidden hiding within your the heart. The very information about this it has ceased coming to us. Only once in a while, when there is a little glimpse of love in someone’s life, does the person then he remembers the centers that the heart has, ; otherwise there is no remembrance rememberance. And love goes on disappearing from our lives day by day. In the name of love, we have introduced many kinds of false coins which go on circulating in life. Even if the whole brain is developed, the heart has a its own brain, which remains completely untouched, because all of our education is only for the mind. So, a little bit of the brain develops, but for the heart there is no education, it does not develop at all. It remains undeveloped and man becomes too full of inner tension. Even heart and mind together do not constitute the whole of man; man has more centers. Yoga divides man into seven centers. It says that man has the potential to develop his individuality at seven levels. These are gross levels, it is a gross division, . tThere can be even more divisions.
Buddha has made nine divisions. – and Hhe is one of the greatest yogis who ever to walked on the earth. Patanjali has made seven divisions. Someone else may make even more divisions, because there are hundreds of centers in man and each of them has its own capacities. And if all of these those capacities unfold completely and the whole man becomes conscious, and then if in that state, man declares, “aham brahmasmi AHIM BRAMASMI – “I am the Brahma“,” there is no exaggeration in his statement. But instead sitting with books in their houses near a kerosine oil lamp, people merely have picked out phrases from the Brahma sSutra, or sitting with books in their houses and reading by the light of a lamp, they find have found out great statements from the Upanishads and repeat the words aham brahmasmi like parrots. are saying: “Aham Brahmasmi!”
An Kerosene oil lamp won’t do, and the scriptures read with the help of outside lamps can’t be of any help. When the inner lamp burns and the inner light illuminates all the seven centers, then the scriptures that are revealed at that time, – the Vedas that are experienced at that time, – are not the Vedas written in any book, ; and the declaration of aham brahmasmi Aham Bramasmi that happens in that moment is not something that has come from any scripture. It is something arising out of from the whole entire being of oneself.
So, Yyoga takes man himself as a scripture, and in him lie many unread chapters — – unknown, unfamiliar unacquainted – which we have never approached with light, about which we had no idea. It is like an emperor asleep in his palace who has may have forgotten his treasures, his riches, while he is having a and may be dreaming that he is has become a beggar, that he is begging on the roads and no one is giving him even a single paisa piasa. – Aand he weeps is weeping and cries suffering and suffers crying. We are in an almost similar in the state of such an emperor who does not know of all his wealth. If someone tells us about our treasure , we will not be able to believe it trust. How can we believe trust that we have so much treasure? No, no! . If someone asks that emperor in his dream, “Why are How come you are begging? You are an emperor!” the That emperor will say, “Do not joke, give me a coins.” piasa and tThat will fit with his dreaming reality make sense to me.”
Our condition is exactly like that.
Yoga says there are vast expansions of infinite treasures within us, but all these treasures will become available avaliable only by our becoming self–conscious self–aware. Except this, there is no other way.
Now let us understand this. All centers of our being awaken, become active, through consciousness. The more consciousness reaches them, the more active they become. On whichever whatsoever part consciousness gathers, that is the part that becomes active. Small children are not aware of the sex center because it has not become active yet. After the fourteen years of age of fourteen, nature activates the that center, ; then one starts becoming aware of it. , and as When one becomes starts becoming aware of it, the center becomes more starts becoming active. This happens naturally That is done by nature. So, iIf nature did does not activate the sex center, you would will never know that there was is something like sex in your personality. The center would will remain dormant, you would will not notice it. How could can you notice it? ! But nature has to activates the take work from that center for the propagation continuation of life, ; hence it activates the that center on its own, – it does not leave it to you. It activates it in animals too also, in plants also, and in all forms of life, it activates it on its own.
It is the society that who activates the mind center through education, through explanation, because otherwise it would will be difficult for to get life to carry on going. So it teaches mathematics, it teaches geography — –society teaches as that much as is needed to which makes life easy to carry on easily. Society cause gets some of your mind center to become activated, ; nature activates gets your sex center activated. All the other centers in between remain dormant, ; they never become active, Tthey are not needed by anybody. Society nNot only does society not need them, rather it would will not like that certain other centers to become active. For example, if somebody’s love becomes very active, the society will not like it. The society will not want the people’s love center of love not to become very active. ; neither The family will want the family same. The wife will not want her husband’s love center not to become very active; the husband will not want his wife’s love center not to become very active. The mother and father will feel the same about their child want this, the father will want this. – and Tthere is a reason for it. If the love center becomes fully completely active, then the barriers between whom to love, whom not to love, start disappearing falling down. Then a mother cannot say, “Love only me.” If the love center becomes very active, the child will start loving everybody. Then the mother’s jealousy will try to stop him. A wife will not like it if her husband starts looking with love at anybody else — – her jealousy will prevent him. The whole society will try to prevent the love center from becoming active, because the love center may become dangerous. Hence it will try to suppress it, to cut it. And there are other centers which the society will tolerate even less, . fFor example, this man Ted Serios Cerio… if there were are many people like this that around in the world, the society would will try to make laws against them.
Recently this did happen one such thing happend. There is a man called Tony in Indonesia. And oOne of the most important events in the twentieth happenings of this century happened around a man is happening in the life of Tony in Indonesia, Asia. But tThe whole society, the courts, and law, were all have stood up against him. He did some very great Tony has done an experiments with psychic which is one of the deepest experiments — that is of spiritual surgery. Not Eeveryone’s mind cannot grasp these methods. He performed the surgeries Tony does surgery without any kind of instrument. For example, if you have appendicitis an appendix in your belly, he will puts his both his naked hands on your belly, closes his eyes, connects with pray to the whole, divine and both his hands will enter inside your belly. The skin will gives way without any instruments and both his hands will enter into your belly. And this has happened in front of dozens of medical scientists, doctors and surgeons. It has been filmed and shown around the world.
His hands will reach inside your belly, his eyes will remain closed, and he take will catch hold of your appendix in your belly and will pulls it out with his hands, cuts snap it off and removes put it outside. He will moves both his hands over your stomach and your cut skin joins together will be joined again. And aAfter two days there will not be even a mark will be left to show seen that the stomach was cut. Now such a man should be highly valued, but the government of Indonesia has filed a lawsuit law suit against him. and Also, the medical association has filed a case law suit in the Supreme Court there, that this man has no license for surgery — – how can he be allowed to do surgery?
Is there any limit to human madness? Just Bbecause he doesn’t have a has no certificate from any medical college, no degree in surgery, they say, how can he be allowed to do surgery? And the courts are bound to rule give judgment against him, because laws have always been blind. The government has now prohibited him that man from doing any surgery anywhere. This man has a group of twenty-five friends with him. They are all worshippers and meditators. When they are asked about it, they are unable to explain anything — – they say that they do not know anything: “We leave ourselves in the hands of the divine…Then divine,.then whatsoever it moves he makes us to do, we do that; but we ourselves do nothing.” But if this man is allowed to operate, what will happen to the medical profession? What will happen to surgeons? They are bound to make trouble against him this man. They are bound to entrap him this man for cheating; . hHe is a poor man, a simple man. Being harassed harrased by them, their trouble he will give up easily, saying, “I will not do anything — – I will ask for their forgiveness.”
In this world, mMany times many in this world miracles have happened and we have stopped them. We have always made arrangements arranged things so that such phenomena should things do not happen, – because if they do, due to such things our whole establishment, all our well–established institutions, will be in get into trouble. They are bound to be in get into trouble, ; their very existence because what will be threatened. happen to them all? In the light of such things, what we call a “scientific” outlook will appear also becomes mediocre and meaningless, because these things bring the news of phenomena even farther beyond the known. We are become against people like Ted Serios Cireo or the man practicing psychic surgery in Indonesia Tony because we say that these things will shatter all our ideas. ?? If Ted Serios Cireo can see the things inside another‘s person’s house, sooner or later then if not today, tomorrow we are going to start worrying . – perhaps Hhe can see our iron safe also. We will try to stop it. The sSociety has always been trying to suppress the very valuable achievements of yoga. And naturally, anything which is totally suppressed completely stops manifesting itself because we prevent stop the very opportunities and circumstances for it them to manifest.
Right in front of me aAn incident happened which surprised me. and I felt how suprising it was! One friend used to come to me to meditate. His son, who was studying Hindi in the third grade, also used to accompany come with him. He asked me if it would be all right if the child sat near him. I told him it was all right — – it would actually be good. The That friend was meditating and the child sitting near him also started meditating. The father could not go very deep but that small child went very deep. The father He was supposed to come back four days later but he did not, come; he returned very puzzled came after fifteen days very puzzled and he asked, “What have you done to the child? Please, change him back, . wWe do not want that him to go into meditation.” I asked him what had happened. He said many strange things had started happening. He and his wife had left Leaving the child at home, he and his wife had locked the house from the outside and asked the child to play inside the house. They told him they were just going to visit a friend in the neighborhood. When they returned, the child was standing at on the window sill and he said, “You told me a lie. You are coming from a movie. You have been to a matinee show.” They had had been to the matinee show of a movie, but they had fooled bluffied the child. They were surprised. They asked him, “How did you know?” The boy said, “When I was alone and there was nothing to do in the house, I sat in meditation and I saw you both seated in a movies house cinema hall.” So they said, “We do not want such things to develop in the child. We do not want him to learn meditation, that will create trouble.” This is a dishonest father’s mind.
It feels strange but it is so. If in your house also a child starts seeing such things, you too will also say, “Enough. ! Stop all this.” Because yYou too ask the child not to smoke and you smoke yourself smoke. Tomorrow that child is bound to say, “What are you saying, dad? You told ask me not to go to the cinema and you go yourself go.” Tomorrow he that boy is bound to ask, “What are you saying? You have been doing everything that you have prevented me from doing.” So you will not allow certain talents to grow in the child. This is why the whole of humanity has been conspiring against Yyogic growth, the growth in meditation, and which we are not aware of it. We will try to suppress all these things, and when the whole society suppresses them it and will not allow give the opportunity for them it to develop….
Just think a little, . iIf all the universities, all the colleges and all the schools are closed down, how many people in the world will would know mathematics? If all education is and teaching was stopped for two thousand years, after that one will start doubting that there can be so much intelligence in man that he could have ever been intelligent enough to have airplanes aeroplanes flying — – that there can be so much intelligence that he could have ever been capable of going to reach the moon! . People will say, “How could is it be possible?” Even to build a bullock cart will would be difficult — – building an airplane will be aeroplane is a faraway far away thing. The fact that man has reached to the moon today is the result of educating the mind for the past ten or twenty thousand years. If we had worked for ten or twenty thousand years on the centers mentioned by Yoga, it is impossible not possible to even to imagine where man would could have reached. Sometimes someone reaches to those heights hights, but then we make him an object of worship and forget about it. But it is possible for everyone all. There are many planes in man but they are drowned in the unconscious, ; hence, we have no idea of them.
Yoga divides man into seven planes, into seven centers. Infinite energy is dormant in these seven centers, just as the flower is closed in a bud. Seeing only the bud we can have no idea that there will be such a flower in it, ; that such a lotus will blossom, that bloom — a lotus with so many petals will manifest. In man Tthe bud also remains closed. If someone has seen only the buds of the lotus and has never seen the flower, he cannot ever imagine that this bud can become a flower. All our the centers that we have are closed like buds. If they blossom completely,…we do cannot imagine know all that may could be hidden in them, how much fragrance, how much beauty, how much energy! Infinite energy is dormant in at each center. – If the buds blossom, then it can manifest; if the buds do not blossom, it cannot manifest.
Have you ever observed the flowering blossoming of lotus buds? When do they bloom blossom? In the morning when the sun rises and the light has spread all around. The buds are closed in the darkness of night, ; they bloom blossom in the morning along with the sun. Exactly like this, the day the our sun of consciousness shines manifests on each center, each center’s bud starts unfolding.
There is a sun inside us too; it is also,.the sun of our consciousness.
Upon receiving its light After reaching it we may give it the name meditation or whatever other name – something else — that does not matter, – but there is is a sun of consciousness within us. On whichever center its rays light falls, the bud of that center bursts forth into blossoms and becomes a flower. And as soon as it becomes a flower, we find that the infinite energies that were dormant there in us, start manifesting themselves.
There are seven centers in man and each one can be unfolded, and each center has its own capacities capabilities. And when all the seven centers centres unfold, man’s doors and windows, – of which I was talking yesterday, – become open to the infinite. The individual becomes one with the infinite.
Consciousness, …how is it that only consciousness can open up these centers? I would like to tell you some scientific facts about this too.
Until twenty or twenty-five years ago, scientists had no idea that consciousness can bring any change to anything. We do cannot see such things happening either. We have heard the stories of sages and saints fakirs, of yogis, but they have become just stories. When the art of doing certain things is forgotten, they become mere stories — – it is natural. If the tThird wWorld wWar happens and if a few great scientists of the world die, it will be impossible to make atom bombs. At present only a few dozen or two, not no more than that, know the formula. If those scientist were you killed the twenty-five scientists, atom bombs could not be made anymore any more. Now there are a few dozen scientists twenty-five who know how to make them it; ten twenty years ago only fifteen knew. When Hiroshima was bombed, before that there were hardly four people in the world who knew. If these four people persons had been killed, the atom bomb would become just only a story, . aAnd then if someone had said that such it is not just a story it is true, we would say, make the atom bomb could be made, that it was not just a story, we would say, “Then create the atom bomb and show us. !” !that is the Then it would be difficulty.
All science will be destroyed – If the third world war happens, then as it has happened many times already – if the Third World War happens. before, all science would be destroyed. – – The Mahabharata War happened and all the science and all the culture of that time was destroyed, ; only their stories have remained. We say that they are all stories. – Tthey are are stories now. If the tThird wWorld wWar happens and the whole world gets destroyed, as it is probably will probable, then – as happens whenever the world is destroyed in wars, – the most developed people in the civilization are of that world get destroyed first. If bombs are dropped in the tThird wWorld wWar, Pune Poona will not survive, Bombay will not survive, Delhi will not survive, London or New York will not survive. If anybody survives it will may be some aboriginals hidden in the hills of Bastar, ; some people living in the mountain like the Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh. No one Nobody will try to drop atom bombs there. It would also will be costly costlier also to search and locate these people in order to and then drop atom bombs there. But all the developed centers of the world, universities, centers of science centers, will all be destroyed. These will be destroyed first. And tThose who survive, – these aboriginals, – they too have seen railway trains, so they will go on telling stories to their children that there used to be railway trains. After two or three generations, the children will say that it cannot be so. – Hhow can it be? Where is the proof? And there will would be no proof left.
The same has happened with the art of Yyoga. Many times the art develops, but then for many reasons it gets lost. We ourselves are Tthe biggest reason, because of all is that we ourselves cannot tolerate it, – as because there are dangers in it. I was saying to you that consciousness makes a difference to things. It has always been a fundamental understanding and application of simple experiment in yoga to conclude that consciousness makes a difference to things. ; By becoming conscious it makes a difference. But science agrees with it only now. If we look at a pebble, it makes any no difference. You can go on looking at a pebble – Wwhat difference does it make? A pebble remains a pebble. No matter how much we concentrate our consciousness on it, the pebble remains a pebble. But since the discovery of electrons, scientists have discovery come to know that when we try to look at electrons through a microscopes, the movement of the electrons wavers. It is In the same way as if when you are taking a shower in your bathroom and you are in your most relaxed state, – making faces and laughing in the mirror, forgetful oblivious of your age, – and if then suddenly you realize realise that someone is peeping through the keyhole, key hole and you become alert and you stop. If you were singing a film song, you start singing a devotional hymn, or you start doing something else.
So, this much we can agree with: this, that if someone looks you are looked at you through the keyhole key hole, you change, . bBut when scientists say that the movement of when electrons changes when they are viewed looked at through a microscope their movement changes, then it is very surprising. It means that observation brings change.
Yesterday I had talked to you about a Christian saint who blessed some seeds in a laboratory at of Oxford University Uiversity. An One even more amazing thing happened. wWhile the saint was blessing one seed that he hadblessed was photographed, the image of the cross appeared inside it. It was a great surprise. He was wearing a cross around his neck when he bent over it that seed with folded hands and prayed. , When the seed was photographed, we were in for a great surprise. Inside the seed the photo of the cross also appeared. It is very surprising. When the saint bent to pray, the cross also reached crucifix had also come near to the seed, … bBut a picture of that cross inside the seed! ? How is this possible? Could his prayers, his attention to over the seed, also convey the picture of the cross inside inside the seed? Can Is it be that the seed also responded to the prayer? Is it that the seed accepted that saint wholeheartedly monk whole heartedly?
Yyoga has known for long that on whichever center we meditate on inwardly, that center becomes immediately active immediately. Its activity opens the its buds that which were closed, just like as the morning sun wakes up the birds. And remember, – and you may have noticed this it or you may not have noticed, – the birds start singing hours before the sun has actually arise arisen. As yet, the sunrise is has only imminent, it has not yet actually turned its face to come this way, . it has not as yet come, iIt is only about to come, and the birds start singing, the buds start opening blossoming. The sun is about to come — , it has not as yet come, and the flowers have already started opening blossoming, the buds have started smiling and the birds have started singing.…. Simply Yyour attention moving begins to go inside and your centers start to be are activated. ; Jjust beginning to go going inside, and unique experiences start happening.
Now in these three days so many friends have come and told me of so many experiences. These experiences have always happened to meditators. Someone starts experiencing intense light within, – some center is releasing the light; someone starts experiencing some fragrance from within — – some center is releasing the fragrance. Someone starts hearing music. ; Iit is the sound of music emanating from some center. Different experiences start manifesting from within. The universe inside us is not smaller than the universe outside of us. Until now we have paid attention only to the outer, hence only outer things have become active. Until now wWe have not paid attention to the inner, otherwise everything in the inner can everything also becomes active. I will can tell you a few small experiments you can do so that you can understand that what I am saying it can happen. You are walking going on a road, and someone is walking ahead of you. Go on looking at the backside of his neck for a minute or two without blinking your eyes .It won’t be more than two minutes before that man will have to turn and look at you. His center becomes activated; , fFeeling uneasy, he will immediately turn back to see what is happening behind him. What is happening behind? You cannot find a man who will does not look back if you gaze for two minutes like this, and if you do may find such a man person who does not, know well that you have come across a very valuable person.
Today choose some center in your own body and start bringing a little consciousness to it. If we were are asked how we would we feel if one of our hands were is taken away, we would all say, : “It would not won’t be nice, it would be very painful, but yet it would not won’t be too much to have removed from the body of me taken away.” But if we were asked, “What if your the head was is taken away?” then we would say, that “Aall would be gone.” , Bbecause our whole identity is only with our head and that has become our whole being. Whatever is our wealth, our thoughts, our knowledge, whatever we have known about ourselves, all that is in at the small center of our mind, – it is not spread over the whole body.
You sStart meditating on any center within you. Just Aas I was telling you to the experiment with the for outside, in the same way, only for five or six days, keeping your eyes with closed eyes, bring your attention to your heart — . nNothing more is to be done. Five minutes every day everyday and you will find that love has started increasing in your being. You will feel it, your neighbors will feel it, your family members will feel it. No need to tell anybody; tellanybody, you just go on giving your attention quietly to it and you will find that people have started noticing the change in you and mention it to you. – that Yyou have never been so loving.
To On whichever center your consciousness goes to, that center becomes active. We have seven centers. ; Yyour consciousness can be taken to all these seven centers centres. If you take your consciousness there, only then does it goes there. This is the advantage of being self–conscious, and this is the danger also. If you do not take it there, it will not go there. And if you do not take it there, then there is no difference between a self–unconscious animal and a man. If I say it this way that Yyoga is a science of transformation making man from animal to human, this definition is not an exaggeration. In Yyoga, the meaning of “animal” is also very interesting. According to yoga, an animal is one who is in tied up — – like when a cow or a buffalo buffalow which is tied with a rope. The rope is called pash pash, a tie, and from this the word one who is tied with it is pashu pashu, an animal is derived.
Yoga says that a man who is tied in the chains of unconsciousness is an animal, and only one who has broken the chains of unconsciousness is a man. Manushya Manushya, a man, means one whose mun, mind, has come to completion completely become man, to mindfulness. And mun, mind, is a the name for of consciousness. Mun Mind means consciousness, that which has become completely conscious. The English word man man also comes from the man of Sanskrit word mun. That which has completely become mun ‘man’, – which means consciousness ‘consciousness’ – is man. This is the seventh sutra of Yyoga. A few more things about it in this connection and then I will talk to you tomorrow on the remaining sutras of yoga. It is important essential to keep a in mind a few more essential things in mind more.
Just Aas I have said that man is conscious only sometimes, and the rest of the time he is unconscious. , so Tthe contrary also happens. What we consider to be unconscious all the time, also becomes conscious in some moments. For example, a plant also becomes conscious in some moments, a stone also becomes conscious in some moments, animals also become conscious in some moments. As man is conscious in some moments, similarly the less evolved backward species than man are conscious in some moments of their life. But such incidents hardly happen and they are very rare. In the time of Buddha, it happened with the bodhi Bodhi tree.…
Statues of Buddha were not made until For five hundred years after his Buddha’s death, his statue was not made because Buddha had asked that statues should not be made to make statues. He had said that this bodhi Bodhi tree would will do, and for five hundred years only the bodhi Bodhi tree was worshipped. After five hundred years Buddha’s statues were made. There were many reasons for this — . oOne reason was that the moment Buddha be–came enlightened, the tree under which he was sitting got resonated with the enlightenment, – it became awake. ; Iit became a witness, . iIt alone was the witness, no one else was present there, ; only the tree was present as a as witness.
You will ask, “How did that tree became conscious?” A great sun of consciousness like Buddha arose under that tree. No matter how asleep much the tree might have been asleep in its unconsciousness, a part of it was also got awakened. It also witnessed the happening wakefully watchfully. Hence Buddha said, “This tree is my witness. Worship it and that’s enough. It alone is the a witness.” This is the whole reason why buddhists have been trying to protect this bodhi Bodhi tree up until now, though they also do not know why they go on protecting it. The emperor Ashoka had sent one branch of this tree to Sri Lanka with his son and his daughter. The That branch took had taken roots in Sri Lanka. So when the bodhi Bodhi tree in India died, one branch of the tree in Shri Lank Shilanka was planted back again in india. The But that tree has been alive for twenty-five hundred years, ; it is a witness. The happening that took place in Buddha’s consciousness also overwhelmed the tree, and, waking from its deep sleep, it also saw what had happened.
It will be easy to understand it with like this parallel. – Iif you ask some great musician, he will be able to explain it easily. If we keep a veena in an empty room, we keep a veena and in the other corner some skilled musician plays on another veena, the first veena will begin to resonate with the music being played. The other veena’s strings also begin to vibrate and dance.
A similar thing happened with the tree. It was such a great phenomenon that happened to Buddha that, under its the influence, the strings of the tree’s inner veena also started vibrating. The tree also danced. The tree became a witness.
You may have heard the name of the physician physican called Lukman. In Lukman’s life, there is an amazing incidence which reference and that is connected to the deeper roots of yoga. There is a story about Lukman; . I say it’s a story, although in fact it is history. The story is that Lukman would go and ask the trees, “What is your use?” He would go and ask the plants and the shrubs medicinal herbs, “What is your use?” And even now the people who do medical research are puzzled about how people discovered hundreds of thousands of medicinal herbs and their uses — – the Ayurvedic Ayuvedic, the Greek and others systems — – because there is no evidence of any sizable laboratories anywhere such big labs in the old medical books. Even today we have not been able to find out about all the herbs and for which diseases they are useful for, . tThe work continues. But Lukman single–handedly created the whole science. How could one man find out so much in one life?
The story of Lukman tells us something else. It says tells us that Lukman used to go to each and every kind of plant and tree, and sit near it in meditation. He would ask pray to the plant to tell him what its uses were, and in his heart he would receive the answer from the plant the answer in his heart and would start using that plant for that particular disease. And even now in scientific labs, the plants that Lukman used, even now in labs they are proving to be right. Even plants can become awake near some Lukman, near some Buddha; even stones can become awake near some meditator Yogi. But we human beings remain asleep. It is a very sad thing that near Buddha even a tree became awakened, but thousands of people who came near him did not wake up, and even went returned back to asleep. Perhaps trees are very innocent and that is why it resonated.
Man is very complicated, clever and cunning, and does not resonate so soon. He investigates and checks everything before accepting taking it. In this checking and testing he probably sometimes does succeed – by looking and by tapping and listening – in getting the right, uncracked price for an earthen pot which costs two pence, but often loses checks cheques for millions of dollars because of it.
People who are too clever sometimes fall into great deceptions. And if there is someone who takes every single step too cautiously… , one thing is certain, : that he cannot go on the pilgrimage to godliness the divine, because that journey is of insecurity; . tThe journey is so unknown, so unfamiliar, and we are so unacquainted unaquainted with it, that people who are too clever will never not manage. Many times, even ignorant people do enter the door and clever ones remain standing and thinking in front of it.
Tomorrow I will talk to you on the next sutra of yoga. If there are any related questions, you may ask them. Whatever questions have been were asked up to until now, slowly, slowly I have talked about them. A few may be have been left, ; I will talk about them tomorrow. The friends who want to come in the morning for meditation should be freshly bathed, should come on time, and sit silently. Tomorrow is the last day, . nNo one should come just to watch, ; only those who want to experiment are invited.
You listened to my talks with such love and peace — I am grateful for that you have listened to me with such love and silence. Now to end, I bow down I pay my respects to the divine that dwells sitting in each of you all, . pPlease accept my pranams, my offering of respects.