God is not only in you, but God “IS” you in all His aspects, from the grosser physical body to the subtlest level, which you call the spirit. It is a vast continuum.
How to Deal with the Ego?
THE EGO HAS NO GROSSER SUBSTANCE EXCEPT THOUGHT We could never control our egos. If you believe in that, your ego is the sum of all the experiences you have gained in life or even previous lifetimes. That constitutes your ego. The ego has no grosser substance except thought, and thought, too, is matter. Because all the various experiences you have gained might never be reconciled completely, it will create a conflict. So, the ego or that thought formation finds conflict within itself, and it is this very conflict that is within the ego that is troubling you, and therefore, you want to control The ego is not harming you, but the conflict is creating turbulence. Whenever there is a conflict, you can never control it because by controlling that conflict, you are taking two opposing forces and using them against each other to create more significant conflict. So, it would snowball. We cannot control the ego; the ego is forever producing conflicts, and those conflicts have a habit of multiplying because they are unresolved. The best way and the only way to deal with the samskaras or impressions of which the ego is made is to refine the ego, to bring the ego from its opaqueness through to transparency, so that when it is transparent, the very spiritual force that is within you could shine through, bringing you joy. The nature of conflicts is Tamas, which is inertia or darkness. There is a heaviness about it. So, when one clarifies the ego and allows that spiritual light within you to shine through, you automatically and spontaneously banish the conflicts, which is how you can cleanse the ego. Therefore, meditation and spiritual practices are so important. From your conscious mind, you go right through the subconscious layers of the mind, and yet, further on, you find the superconscious mind, which is closest to the Absolute. Because the superconscious mind is clear, the light of the Absolute shines through to banish the darkness in the subconscious mind. KARMA IS PART AND PARCEL OF THE EGO-SELF Thought is the forerunner of your actions. Every action we perform is because of the thinking ability of the conscious mind, and when thought is the forerunner of your actions, it has to have something to enforce it. The conscious mind is enforced by the subconscious, wherein all the conflicts are stored. So, to recap, there is no annihilation and no resolution, but clarity can be brought about in the subconscious layers of the mind so that all those impressions there could be banished. When you banish these impressions, they go back to the sources. By this, we mean that specific negative thoughts would be attracted to like-minded, negative people in the atmosphere. Positive thoughts would be dispersed, and they would return to like-minded people. For example, if you are cheerful, you will attract cheerful people to you. If you are non-cheerful, those are the people you attract. So, it is not only the circumstances or the environment you are put in that mixes up the ego. It is a combination of the internal self, the samskaras mixed with the environment which enforces the impressions, and it works in a vicious circle, one is strengthening the other. Therefore, the ego-self is also subjected to the laws of Karma. According to the relative laws of life, Karma is that whatever you sow, you will reap. But that does not function in the superconscious level of oneself, it only functions on lower levels such as the subconscious mind which in turn influences the conscious mind. So, Karma or the results of your actions is not your sum totality, for you can disperse or banish Karma. I have said in many talks that if you have harmed ten people, it does not mean that you will be harmed ten times in the same way. Just do eleven good deeds and wipe off the ten non-good deeds. I never use the word bad deeds; there is no such thing. So, that is how, through spiritual practices and modulating our behaviour and actions in life with the help of the spiritual practices, we get rid of the Karma that is there. Karma could have its basis in many past lives, perhaps, and is manifesting in your present life. Therefore, you cannot explain why such a thing must happen to you. You look around you, and you see some people who are so happy and born in favourable circumstances. Then you look around and you find some people in unhappy circumstances. Some people are born sickly while others are born in good health; why? Divinity has nothing to do with it. Divinity is a neutral force. It does not judge. You judge yourself. So, we are placed in adverse circumstances because of Karma, and Karma is part and parcel of the ego-self. HELPED BY OUR MEDITATIONS, YOU CAN CHANGE THE ENTIRE COURSE OF YOUR LIFE So, we do not start with Karma; we begin with those existing impressions and instincts. In Sanskrit, there is a beautiful word called “Sanchita karma,” which means that an expression is already required, and everything in life you can observe is forever found to have expression. Otherwise, without expression, nothing can survive. These flowers will die if they do not give off fragrance or the beauty that is expression. Likewise, a human has to express himself, and because of the conflicts in this so-called ego-self, you express things negatively or positively. If you positively express yourself, your life becomes more and more joyful. So, it depends upon you, and it does not take long to change your life’s entire course. Firstly, you are a self-realised divine being, the children of divinity. You are nothing else than that. It is just a realisation to assimilate this understanding, and with our meditations, you can change the entire course of your life within six months. It does not mean that it will fall on your lap if you indulge
Why fear Death?
DEATH IS ONE OF THE FINEST EXPERIENCES MAN CAN EVER HAVE This one man who turned a hundred was interviewed on television, and the interviewer asked him, “What is the secret of this long life.” So, this man of a hundred answers, “That is straightforward; I just keep breathing!” This other guy who turned a hundred was asked, “What is your secret? And this is that, and that?” they had a long chat about it. So, the interviewer tells him, “Well, happy birthday to you, sir, and I expect to see you at the same place next year,” the old man replies, “Well, I see no reason why we should not. You look healthy enough.” There have been books written like “Life After Death” and “Life After Life” and things like that, with research done by doctors. I am sure some of you might have read those books. There were a few articles in the Observer, a two-part series on the same subject. They stress that a light comes to meet you when a person dies. That is an untruth. This is evidence they got from people who were just about passing over and recovered again. No light comes to meet you, but you will see your spiritual light within you. After discarding the physical body and having the finer mind left, you recognise that light and feel that you are meeting this light. In the other dimension, those little bulbs have no time to march forward to you. Death is one of the finest experiences man can ever have. I have died many, many times, at will, where you can send your soul out of the body and re-enter the body. You project it out, which some people call out-of-the-body experiences, but that is a misnomer. That does not happen. The occultists, who use the word “astral body,” say that your astral body leaves your body. No. It does not leave the body. The astral self, or the subtle body, is projected out of your physical body, and you have a dual consciousness. So, half your consciousness is contained in the subtle body, and half is contained in the physical body or the grosser level of the mind so that recognition can occur. If you are thinking of America, you are in America, and then you will remember it afterwards because part of your consciousness remains behind. If there were a total severance, then you would be dead. HAVING SHED THE ENCUMBRANCE OF THE PHYSICAL BODY, YOU FEEL SO FREE At the time of death, ninety-nine point nine per cent of people lose consciousness, and in the process of losing that consciousness, they feel they are going through a tunnel and on the other end is the light. But that is not the way to die. Why must you die being unconscious? The natural way to die is in full consciousness, and that can be achieved through our practices, where you are fully conscious of leaving the physical body. It is such a beautiful, ecstatic experience that is indescribable in words. There is no suffering at all. People fear because it is the unknown, but those who know it do not fear. It is very beautiful. When a person in old age perhaps has cancer or some other kind of disease, remember it is the conscious mind that is suffering while they are still alive. Only the subtle levels of the mind go ahead, so when the conscious mind is deadened, suffering does not linger. Having shed that part of the analytical mind, having shed the encumbrance of this physical frame, you feel such a beautiful sense of freedom. You feel so free. You feel free because you are now away from a grosser environment into a much finer environment, a more subtle environment, and there, the samskaric body, which we call the soul, feels as light as air. IN THE AFTERLIFE, YOU WILL BE BUSY FORMULATING YOUR NEXT BIRTH That part of the soul, the subtle body, also has powers of thought but on a subtle level, not like the conscious mind, and with that power of thought, you can call forth anyone you desire to meet because in that dimension, there is no space, there is no time. When we hear people saying, “Oh, I will meet you on the other side,” a lover speaking to his beloved, “I will meet you on the other side,” or a friend saying that to a friend, that is possible. When you die, if your thought forces are strong enough and you say, “I want to meet such and such a person,” you can meet him in his astral or subtle body. You can do that. But there will be no shape at all. Mary will not look like Mary, and Amantha will not look like Amantha, and Jean will not look like Jean, but the recognition is there that “Ah, this is Jean, this is Joan, and this is Jack.” Communication takes place there without words. Feelings are exchanged, and one could discuss things, but you cannot necessarily help each other because those souls are busy working out, formulating the process, formulating the basis of their next birth. They are evaluating and trying to find the vehicles through which they could be born again. EVOLUTION IS ALWAYS PROGRESSIVE Some Hindus believe that if you live a terrible life, you will be born a cat, or a dog or a cow, or whatever. That is rubbish. I tell them that evolution is always progressive. Once you reach the human kingdom, you will never return to the animal kingdom. But there is one thing that could happen. If you have evolved into the top of the human kingdom and perform some not-good actions, you could come down to a lower level but remain in that kingdom. That could happen. But you would never become a cow or a donkey. At the moment of death, it is nice to die consciously;
What is Meant by Silence?
WHAT IS MEANT BY SILENCE? Silence can only be found in silence. If you cannot experience silence within yourself, how will you know the value of silence? Can you ever understand the meaning of silence in the process of life within yourself? Because in that silence, all recognition is gone. Silence remains silent, and there is no recognition of silence. Once you start analysing the meaning of silence, then your silence is destroyed and becomes useless. You go within yourself in that silence, yet you do not know you are silent. For silence has no answer to itself. Silence is silence. That is a scientific equation; any scientist here will bear me out. When you merge within yourself in silence, my beloveds, no question will remain because you will not analyse silence at all in your very silence. That is silence. So be silent and know, as the scriptures say, “Be still and know that I am God.” THE GURU LEADS YOU TO FIND THAT DIVINE SILENCE WITHIN YOURSELF That is what our scriptures tell us. But I can tell you something more about this. I will teach you how to be silent yet conscious of that silence. I will write this out to all of you as my license. To be silent is a step on the path that leads you further on. Leading you further on in your silence, you must learn to find the in‑silence within yourself, and as you progress, you will discover total silence. Let us define the meaning of silence. What is silence, and what is silent? To be still and in your guru’s heart, or He in your heart. Is that silence? That is superficial. The guru leads you to find that divine silence within yourself. He can only lead you there, but you must see that silence. As I said, I will endorse the license to lead you there. So, what is the process of finding silence within yourself? There is no process. Silence exists within itself. No one in this universe can create it. The process involves following the path of in-silence to merge away in silence. I am telling you truths perhaps never known before. I do not know. Who cares, in any case? Because once you produce a case, as my lawyer friends here will confirm, you go into mental gymnastics, which is not what I want you guys to do. I want you to merge away within yourself in the silence of Divinity. In finding that, I promise you will find the in-silence within yourself that will translate into peace within all of you. BE YOURSELF People try to clean their exteriors, and yet they stink. They put on their powders and puffs and whatever. You would know more than I do. What is the meaning of that, my beloveds? Where is it going to take you? To the cosmetic factory, yes! That is where you will go and spend a damn fortune, which is meaningless. But if you have the purity of heart, you will always remain fragrant within yourself. Smell me, if you like; any of you. Total fragrance without any cosmetics, without any makeup, without any shit. The principle is to be fragrant in purity within yourself. You can still use your cosmetics if you want to, like putting up your eyebrows in blue, purple, and whatever shade. What do I know about it? When I am with my beloved, I tell her to wash her face in the bathroom and to be herself, totally pure, without any cosmetics. That is important. I never want a woman who has cosmetics. But I want my wife, my beloved, clean and pure. These are practical lessons, so listen to them. I want her to be clean and pure, without cosmetics. Why must I fall in love with cosmetics, which are a falsity? Do you know that the most significant industry in this world is devoted to creating cosmetics? If my beloved kisses me passionately, am I kissing her sweet lips or lipstick? The point is this: do not indulge yourself in a false mask; indulge yourself in your reality. Remove the mask, for that mask is a falsity. Get to the next point: to become yourself. Be you. Be your reality and feel the beauty that exists within you. Why do you guys not see the beauty that is within you? You fail to see the beauty within yourself because of the false masks that you have put upon yourself. You only see yourself through this mask, which is not you. You observe yourself through the facade, the mask, that you have created around yourself, so you lose the sense of your reality. It is all so simple. “THAT” IS WHO YOU ARE To a spiritual master, a realised being in communion with Divinity, it is simple. But others might need a little more understanding, a little more spiritual practice, meditation and more and more diving deeper. The deeper you go within yourself, the more you will discover yourself. Where is your authentic self? Tell me. Answer me this question, my beloveds. We have known each other for so many years; you know that. Who are you? This beautiful, handsome face? Is that what you are? Is that what you regard yourself to be? That is wrong. That is who you are. God bless you, beloved. Let sunshine forever flow in your life.Sunshine will ever flow in your life.Rain might come, but that will pass away soon.For the sunshine will forever be there with you.Clouds might float by, but remember this:Above the clouds, there is that beautiful sky.So why must I be concerned with the cloudsWhen do I know the vastness of that beautiful sky?Sunshine would never be there.And thanks to the shining of the sun,That has produced the clouds and the rain,That has given you food for yourself to sustain,Come blessings, my beloved.Everything in life,Everything has its counterpart. … Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1987
Love thy Neighbour as Thyself
AN INTERPRETATION OF CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION I am crucified every moment of the day and resurrected every moment, too. Between every heartbeat, there is a rest. If your heart beats a hundred thousand times daily, all those gaps in between represent death; every time it beats again, it means life. So, man can say that he is crucified a hundred thousand times a day and resurrected a hundred thousand times a day. Crucifixion can be taken very literally. Literally in the sense that the man Jesus was nailed on the cross and put to death. That is the literal interpretation of it. There could be another interpretation, that the horizontal bar of the cross represents the worldly existence, the relative existence, and the vertical bar could represent the world of the absolute. So here in man’s existence, in the existence of this man called Jesus, he has represented the combination of the relative and the absolute. We are not trying to find Jesus, but Christ is where the two points meet the horizontal and vertical bars. That is what man must try to achieve. THAT IS WHY CHRIST COULD SAY, “I AND MY FATHER IS ONE” If we look at the man just being nailed on the cross, we will only see the man Jesus. But if we can see where the relative meets with the absolute, we will know Christ. God exists because man exists, and man exists because God exists. The absolute cannot exist without the relative, and the relative cannot exist without the absolute. They are interpenetrating all the time. As the absolute is eternal, so is the relative eternal too. We do not find eternity in relativeness because we look at tiny, little sections in this vast continuum. We only look at the changes. But behind the shift lies the changeless absolute. If we can combine the two at the point where the cross meets, we will find Christ’s consciousness, and Christ’s consciousness is a combination of man and God, and that is why Christ could say, “I and my father are one.” Because of the combination, the togetherness took place. LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF In this technological age, we have reached significant advances in materiality. Let us now turn inward and find the centre of the cross. Let us turn inward, dive inside, and realize experience, which is absolute. These techniques are so simple, and the process is so simple that one can discover or experience that absolute. One can experience the upward-pointing vertical bar of the cross. Otherwise, man, living only on the horizontal bar of the relative, is suspended. He has no foundation. He is suspended like a castle built in the air without foundation, and only the realization of the vertical bar plants him firmly and gives him substance. The vertical bar is there. The conjunction point is there. It is inherent in man. When the Lord said that I give my life to save humankind, this is what is meant: to bring to you the realization that I do not exist on that horizontal bar alone, but cognize, realize, and experience the vertical bar, and when you reach the meeting point, then this world, God, all existence becomes one to you. When you reach the meeting point of the cross, you are living and resurrected. You are now dead. Become alive. Become alive. And life can only come when we reach the relative and absolute meeting point. It is there. It is there. But only to be brought to our conscious and practical level. That is accurate recognition. That is self-realization. That is self-integration, where you are integrating the Divine and the mundane aspects of yourself, within yourself, to yourself. When we reach the meeting point of the horizontal and vertical bar, the relative and the absolute, we become permeated with that Divine consciousness. And when that divine consciousness permeates us, everything our eyes can see, or our hearts can feel becomes divine. And when Divinity is seen and perceived in everything around us, we can indeed follow the Ten Commandments when it says, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” Love thy neighbour as thyself because, in reality, thy neighbour is thyself. There is no separation. THERE IS NO SEPARATION; DUALITY IS AN ASSUMPTION You are sitting there; I am sitting here. Do you think there is space between us? Something empty, emptiness? There is no emptiness. There are so many atoms and molecules joining you to me that, of course, our limited eyes cannot see or perceive. This whole universe is a continuous whole. There is not an empty fraction. Every square inch, every fraction of an inch, is filled with this energy; therefore, we call Divinity omnipresent. Perhaps that is why I am placed in the country I am put in. It is some finger that pushed me to that country. When man realizes the equality of all men, when man realizes the oneness that exists and stops his mind from thinking of separations, when man stops thinking of me and mine and you and yours and comes to the level of thinking we and ours, that is when the sense of oneness is cultivated. And when oneness is cultivated, then how can there be hatred? You cannot hate yourself. When we say, “I am my brother’s keeper,” do we understand that? We can only be our brother’s keeper if we love the neighbour as we love ourselves. Then, we are, in reality, keeping ourselves filled with this love because there is no separation or duality. Duality is an assumption. Duality, the sense of duality, is unreal. Reality is only one. If Divinity is omnipresent and present everywhere, where is there a place for anything else? There is only a place for one, and we all exist in the one, and the one exists in us. That is the meaning of the crucifixion, which is my interpretation: crucifixion and resurrection. But man must die and be born again.
How Far has Man evolved?
Christ, Compassion, Effort, Ego, Evolution, Evolve, Harmony, Heart, Joy, Kindness, Meditation, Mind, Purity, Spirit, Spiritual Practices, Unfoldment
REAL EVOLUTION OCCURS FROM THE UNFOLDMENT OF THE HEART People talk of evolution; they say that man has evolved, but I do not see any evolution. Can we say that the man existing today is better than the man who lived during the time of Christ? No. Technological processes and progress have not improved the quality of man. During the time of Christ, there were thieves and robbers, Philistines and what have you, and we have them today, too. We have the same human mind and mentality. Perhaps we think we are advanced because of the invention of motor cars, aeroplanes, and atom bombs. We are not advanced. The evolution of man is not dependent on technology because technology is dependent on the mind. The evolution of man occurs from the heart, from the unfoldment of the heart. Not development of the heart, but unfoldment. We call our Foundation the International Foundation for Spiritual Unfoldment. The spirit within man is forever unfolded and pure; we must remove the veils and let it shine forth in its expansion. So technologically, we have progressed to a certain extent, but in many instances, we have progressed to our detriment. It required a lot of thinking and high-powered brains to invent the hydrogen bomb, but what have we done with it? We missed it, where millions of people were killed. So, what is the use of this technological progress? I would rather live in Christ’s time and do things by hand instead of machines. Technological progress would have influenced human values if it had been so significant. But we see so much strife and turmoil because humans have become more mind-orientated. He has concentrated more on developing the mind and has forgotten how to create the heart. MAN AND HIS MIND IS THE TROUBLEMAKER You take a mad scientist. With his powerful brain, he can invent some instruments, and being a mad scientist, he will use the instrument to destroy the world. But, with that high brain development, if the heart too were unfolded, then the combination of mind and heart would have prevented him from destroying the world. It would stop him. He would use all his laser beams and hydrogen bombs to help the world, to help humanity, to make the life of humankind easier, more smooth, and more joyful. The world’s present condition is dependent upon us and our minds. The mind tries to find comfort through outward search and by outward glorification itself and builds up its ego more and more. It does everything in its power to see individuality and develop individuality, forgetting universality, with the development of the ego and forgetting that which is within. These things happen. Therefore, we cannot say that the world today is better than it was, and most of its troubles are caused by man. Man and his mind. There is a lovely saying: “God plus mind makes man; man minus mind makes God.” So the troublemaker is the mind, and the basis of the mind, the power giver of the mind, is the ego. That gives the impetus and the stimulus to the mind. You have a motor car, so my motor car must be better although I might not need it. And it is this always striving to improve, not betterment of ourselves but to seem better. That is what we are doing. We want to appear better to the world. So, if Mrs Jones can do that, Mrs Thomas must do better. She has a little Austin motor car; the other one should have a little Hillman motor car. THROUGH MEDITATION, MAN EVOLVES So, all troubles are created by the human mind, and if we can bring greater calmness to the human mind through meditation practices, it will have a better power of thinking. It will think in terms of more excellent equilibrium. Through meditation, the heart’s quality will empower and stimulate it. When the mind and the heart can work simultaneously, man evolves, develops, and finds beauty in living. Then, man finds beauty in existence. People today exist because they have to exist because they are born, and many of them feel, “Oh, this terrible life”. Many of them pray when it will end. They do that every day; they struggle every day. I went to work this morning, and the boss was terrible; I came home, and the children and the wife were nagging. And the wife says, “Oh, my husband is so inconsiderate; he does not care’ “All these troubles. Why? Because of our essential instability. The unstable person is the person who always blames the other; he blames his wife, his children, his boss, and his motor car. And when he cannot get the golf ball in the hole, he blames the club—always blaming others. Therefore, please do whatever form of meditation you want to follow. It brings beautiful, excellent, peaceful stability within us. From that stability angle, all our actions become more dynamic and vital, and that is how we can reduce the tensions in the world. Tensions in the world can only be reduced by individual effort. There will be less tension when individuals become less tense and less nervous. You cannot reduce the tensions of the world collectively. They have to be decreased individually, and we must make our start. We make our start, even if we are not those do-gooders for others, forget that. Do not worry about that. Let us do good for ourselves; automatically, it will reflect in the environment, and we will be helping humanity. TECHNOLOGY CAN BE HARMFUL, AND IT CAN BE USEFUL TOO So, this world has not evolved since then; it has yet to become. Evolution depends on heart quality, and we cannot say that people today are kinder, loving, charitable, or compassionate than those who lived a couple of thousand years ago. Technology is a beautiful thing if it is used correctly. Hydrogen power can be used as fuel to provide electricity and light,
Can we Cure Ourselves?
THE WORKINGS OF THE BRAIN Doctors say that eighty per cent of all illnesses are of psychosomatic origin. This means that our thought processes cause illnesses. There are specific organic illnesses, but our thought processes cause most diseases. I have quoted this before where Émile Coué, a French psychologist, pharmacist, and hypnotist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion, experimented with this and started clinics in many places. He worked on one formula: on waking up and before going to bed, you repeat to yourself repeatedly that day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better. “I am getting better and better.” When this thought, because of repetition, because of adding emotion to this thought, by adding power to it so that it is deeply felt, that thought will be believed by the mind. When the mind or the brain mechanism believes something or is convinced of something, it acts upon it. For example, if a person wants to go on a diet to lose some weight, they are usually told to eat slowly and chew thoroughly. The psychological reason for this is in the fact that we have been used to eating in a certain way: that a morsel of food we chew for, say, thirty times, and it sends a signal to the brain that after eating twenty morsels and multiplying those thirty times twenty, six hundred, the brain registers that you have chewed six hundred times. Then, the brain, in turn, sends a signal to tell you that your stomach is full. When you eat fast and chew less, you consume more food because the brain has not yet received the signal of the number six hundred. When you eat slowly and chew more of the same morsel of food, you have been chewing it thirty times before swallowing it; now, you chew that same morsel sixty times and swallow. The brain, the calculator there, calculates how many times you chew. So, when it reaches six hundred, it sends off the signal to say you are full, yet you have only consumed half the amount of food. That is how the brain works in every way. THE MEDICATION IS ONLY HALF THE CURE; THE BODY IS EQUIPPED TO CURE ITSELF In the thought process of good health or ill health, man can control illnesses and alleviate a lot of the suffering that he suffers. By thinking negatively, having the mind feel that the body is sick, and repeating that thought, “Oh, I am sick, I am sick, I am sick, I am sick, I am sick,” you will become sicker. That is true. If a person comes to me and says, “Oh, you do not look too well today; you have exhausted yourself,” I sometimes feel like slapping him, although I will not do it. If I see a person not looking too well, there will always be something in that person that I will talk about that will be well and set his mind off. Any nurse or doctor here in the audience will bear me out. Ask a nurse. She will tell you that when you visit the patient in the morning, you put on a lovely big smile, a sincere one, of course, and you say to the patient, “Ah, you are looking fine today.” And you smile, and the patient smiles. That is half the cure. Not only the medication. When a person is ill, we go to a doctor. The medicines a doctor gives only help in the curing process. No doctor can cure you with the chemicals he gives you. The body is equipped to heal itself. The body is equipped with the mechanism that rights the imbalance within it if given a chance by a positive thought. ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH, ALWAYS SEEK GOOD AND HOLY COMPANY The same thing applies to religion, and the same thing applies to a person on the spiritual path. Ancient sages have said that a person on the spiritual path must always try to keep holy company, where things of a higher nature are discussed. Have friends. Have a friendly circle where things of a spiritual nature are discussed. Therefore, I encourage the groups to meet every week. We have this in South Africa, Rhodesia, Spain, and England, where they chant and meditate and listen to a tape. I have made over one hundred twenty tapes, and I was very surprised to hear that very few of them, just the earlier ones, were released here. Of course, those were just very elementary because I had to start people off at a certain level and progressively go deeper and deeper into various subjects. All the tapes should be distributed so that you can have the theoretical background of our teachings. When these groups gather in England and other places, they chant and meditate together. Group meditation is always beneficial and good because many minds are tuned to the same purpose here. A togetherness, a family feeling develops. So, you can call it a beautiful social evening if you want to. Then they listen to a tape, they could listen to a long one or a short one, whichever they like. After that, there is always coffee, biscuits, and refreshments; it is a well-spent evening. That, too, can be regarded to be holy company. Did Christ not say, “When two people are gathered in my name, I am there”? This is what is meant. So, on the spiritual path, too, let us always be in such company where things of a higher level are discussed and thought about. But if we drive every night down the wharf area in San Francisco and places like that, the mind could never be tuned to higher things. A PERSONAL ANGLE ON HEALTH Likewise, the principle is the same, not only on the spiritual path but also as far as health goes: if we train our minds to health, we