WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?
The subconscious level of the mind is nothing but thought patterns superimposed upon one another—patterns upon patterns upon patterns. These patterns influence the analytical sector of the mind, which in turn expresses itself through the physical body via its five senses: seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, and tasting.
The trouble lies in the subconscious area of the mind, which you have patterned to a certain extent and by the environment you are in or with which you come into contact. These patterns might go back many, many ages or even this lifetime. When we say “many ages,” that is good for people who believe in reincarnation, but you do not need to believe in that.
You are nothing but a bundle of all those patternings in the mind. How to find peace? How to find tranquillity? How do you see that calmness? How to find the Kingdom of Heaven which is with? That is everyone’s quest, consciously or unconsciously. Everyone is seeking happiness, yet the blockages that this patterning has created are those that prevent you from experiencing yourself, which, by nature, is nothing but joy. What is the way out?
I had a press conference in London, and the most prominent newspapers were represented. I said, “What our churches lack today is that they give people no experience whatsoever.” They use just words, words, words. Half of the people only go to church to have a nice snooze, half to show off their “Sunday Best,” and others to meet their friends. They learn nothing.
We want to fill the churches, not empty them. We want to fill the synagogues and all the temples. If only the priests could give people an experience of Divinity, not just empty words.
This experience comes when you can go beyond the patterning of the subconscious mind.
Although the mind hinders you and your reality, it can also be a tool. The tool is to have the proper perspective of life and to stop this belief that “I am a sinner, and I am so guilty about this and that and that.” Whatever has happened has happened, and it is finished. People must learn to live here and now – but how many people live here and now? Ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine per cent do not!
THIS VERY SECOND IS ETERNITY
Examine your mind sometimes when thoughts are going on. What are you thinking about? You are thinking about the past. You are reliving the past all the time in the mind. Auntie Mary said that Uncle John said this, or that happened at work, or this happened. You live in the past, project the past into the future, and the present is forgotten. For the present, that is the only thing that should be important. Blake said, “Eternity in an hour.” I say eternity in a second, for that very second is eternity.
How does one learn to live in the present? That is achieved through spiritual practices, where you use the mind as a tool and bore through the patterning of the subconscious mind to reach the level of the Superconscious mind, where Joy resides. Arriving there, you draw its energies and allow them to permeate the conscious and subconscious minds until they are shown in our daily actions.
BE AT EASE WITH YOURSELF
All the belief systems were sound two thousand years ago during the time of Christ or five thousand years ago during the time of Krishna. They said, “Believe.” In today’s technological society, belief is no good. Today’s culture does not want to believe – it wants to experience, which is why not have the experience, and with so much dissatisfaction, there are so many diseases.
What is disease? To be at dis-ease. You are not at ease with yourself, that is disease. But through a systematic, scientific process of spiritual practices, you tap that reservoir of peace and tranquillity and bring it back through the patterning of the mind, for the patterning cannot be destroyed but can be discarded. They can be discarded, and then that very Force of the Superconscious level penetrates, infuses, and permeates the conscious level of the mind, the thinking mind. All its thoughts would become productive and creative and, therefore, peaceful. This peace permeates all bodily functions, and the disease disappears.
YOUR EXISTENCE IS IMMORTAL, ETERNAL, INDESTRUCTIBLE
This world cannot be changed. Many reformers have come and gone, yet this world remains the same as it was two thousand years ago. Technological progress does not mean that man has evolved more. Yes, the mind has been more developed, but the quality needed is the unfoldment of the Heart, where the Heart and the mind can combine. That will be the only salvation in our time of nuclear inventions.
Collectively, this world will be as it has always been, but individually, great progress can be made through spiritual practices that bring one to an integrated state.
All our problems are because we live fragmentedly. I say this over and over again. From fragmentation, we proceed to integration, where the mind, the body, and the Spirit act in harmony, for there is no division between the three.
Therefore, there is a great need for holistic health, where the mind, body and Spirit are considered a continuum and not three separate sections. Now, physicians have divided and separated the body from the mind. The mind from the Spirit, but greater awareness is taking place where people are being treated holistically. Realisations are given on infusing the Force and the power of the Superconscious level of yourself into the other levels of your existence. Your existence is immortal; it is eternal, indestructible.
Science has repeatedly proved that you cannot destroy a single atom, for the atom, too, is eternal. No one ever dies. I speak of life, never of death. There is no death; it is just a transformation. It is just discarding an old suit and putting on another suit because that which is within you is forever immortal.
Where is the place for sin in this immortality? For immortality itself denotes omnipresence, eternity. Omnipresence and immortality are the same thing, but they are used as words to portray a different aspect and meaning of the same thing itself. Nothing is destructible.
TRUE SURRENDER COMES FROM WITHIN
Anything that happens to us has been brought upon us by ourselves. The conditions we live in or our environment is always blamed, but if you are strong enough not to take in the environment, then nothing can affect you.
My mother did this and that to me, my father did this and that to me, and my boss does this and that to me, and therefore, I am like this—it is a false concept. I am like this because of my karma. I have attracted to myself the circumstances in which I am.
That is acceptance. And when you accept this, its blood brother, surrender, automatically walks in. To what do you surrender? You surrender to the Force that is within you. You do not surrender to any guru or spiritual master; you surrender to the Force within you. The guru or the spiritual master helps you accept and surrender to the Divinity within you. Yes, love and devotion exist between pupil and guru, as it would exist between friend and friend, husband and wife or mother and father. But the true surrender comes from within you.
REALISATION IS AN ASSIMILATION OF AN IDEA
This, too, must not be a mental concept, for you are piling patterning upon patterning. By accepting concepts, you are only changing energies and shifting around energies. What we need is realisation, and what is realisation? It is a total assimilation of an idea. It is like food. You eat food; it has to be digested, but even that is insufficient. It has to be assimilated into the entire system to produce the energies the body needs – that is assimilation. It is not ideas that are sufficient.
The assimilation I speak about is experiential, where you spontaneously experience acceptance and surrender within yourself. When I accept myself, then I will start knowing myself.
BE YOURSELF
People tell you to be like Krishna, Christ, and Buddha. I say, “No, do not be like them.” We do not want second-rate Buddhas or second-rate Christs. But I say, “Be yourself.” Be first-grade John, first-grade Mary, and first-grade Jean and Jane. That is the only way you will know yourself, which is not contrary to any religious belief.
I always say, “If you are a Christian, become a better Christian; if you are a Buddhist, become a better Buddhist; if you are a Hindu, become a better Hindu; but above all, become a better human being.” How are we going to become better human beings? It is not through actions that you become a better human being.
Many do-gooders would peddle around for charities, nursing homes, and blind societies. They are doing something. But what is the motivation? Is motivation ego inflation? Or is it a surrender to themselves of a greater, higher Self within themselves by expressing this in action in serving others? So, motivation. What controls motivation? The patterning of your mind. We come back to square one.
BECOMING INTEGRATED BEINGS IN THIS LIFETIME
All problems individuals have are caused by misconceptions guided by the wrong patterning in the mind. If you have to remove all these layers one upon the other, another one, another one, it will take you a million lifetimes. Do you want to wait a million lifetimes to be happy? We like it here and now! That is the teaching we need today: that it can be achieved in this lifetime, that we can become integrated beings in this lifetime.
Man has that ability within himself. We can use the conscious level of the mind and utilise those energies systematically to tap that reservoir of Bliss, the Superconscious level, and bring it into our daily lives.
Belief patterns are not necessary. We do not want to believe in God. Forget it! We do not want to have faith in God. Forget it! But becoming living Gods is essential. You want a living God, not a conceptual God. A living God that knows of Joy and Bliss, for that is the nature of Divinity. And you are that! Thou art that. “Tat Twam Asi”, as they would say in Sanskrit – “Thou art that” -but the door has to be opened – you must extend your arm to knock, and it shall be opened.
So, what do we do? Do we keep on saying that we are miserable beings? Do we keep on saying that we are rotters and there is no cure for us? There is! For you are not sick, you are not ill! The illness lies in the imagining and the image-making produced in your mind through these various patternings.
THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY IN EVERY ADVERSITY
If something is adverse in your life, why only look at adversity? Know that there is an opportunity in every adversity. Our minds will always dwell on the adversities and not look around the corner to see life’s possibilities. We cannot do this with the brain’s conscious, analytical left hemisphere. We have to dive deeper within ourselves to get that energy and find that wholeness, and it is so done. I always say it is simple to be happy but challenging to be simple.
We add these complexities to our lives. No one needs to suffer, for you are children of God; you are divine yourselves. When you approach the world with the attitude that “I am divine,” everything changes for you, and your entire perspective changes—but you need the experience of it, and the tools are there—they are built-in within you.
I have a very favourite story of mine. There was this man who used to go to a cafe and a restaurant regularly, and he used to buy a can of Coca-Cola. He used to order the can, sit down, take out a can opener, open the can and drink his Coca-Cola. The shopkeeper watched this for a few weeks, and it perked his curiosity that the can had that little thing there to open it, but why did this man use a can opener? So, the shopkeeper could no longer contain his curiosity and asked the man, “Sir, you know, on that can, there is this little ring by which you can open the can. Why do you use a can opener?” The man answered, “That little thing that is there to open the can is for people who have not got can openers.”
So, why do you want to use can openers when you have the built-in devices within yourselves? This does not require any high intellectuality. It could be anyone – a university professor or a street sweeper.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 82 – 44
