There are many approaches to be happy in life. Irrespective of whatever is our approach, one thing is clear. We should be clear as to what we want. Absolute clarity is required before we complete any task in any field, it may be studies, it may be work, it may be sadhana, etc. Any thing that we do we should have clarity about what we are trying to do and what we want to achieve. Second thing, that we have got to take into consideration is - what are the ways and means. In order to achieve the correct goal we should have the correct path. We cannot be just running around anywhere we like, then finally say, I have not found it. Actually we should know that there will be certain procedures, certain methods which have to be adopted to achieve that goal. There are paths, which have been tried earlier, and from every one of them, as civilization advances, we learnt a lot. Every succeeding generation learns a lot from the previous generations and previous experiences. Having decided the goal and the path, then the question is - are we equipped for it? Are we capable of achieving that? Do we have the means for it? In that also comes our basic affirmation of the goal and the confidence that we can reach it. If we want to be a good sprinter we should know which is the track that we should choose. Is one good in 100m or 200m or 400m or 800m or are is he good in long distance or short distance and several of these things that we have got to think about, but above all these things, the person should know that his legs work. If the legs don't work then there is no point talking about running. Some are equipped, some are not equipped. We can acquire skills, but basic disabilities cannot be got rid off. Acquisition of skill also again depends upon so many other factors that are discussed generally in the books of Psychology, as aptitudes, attitudes, intelligence etc, etc. Then only we will be in a position to be sure that we can reach the goal over a period of time if we persevere in the task. For that we require enormous amount of patience, tolerance, certain amount of fortitude, certain amount of giving up things that are not conducive for achieving that goal. Essentially for that only, people have always asked us to identify things which are conducive in achieving our goal and implement them, identify things which are not conducive in achieving that goal and then discard them. Without these two things, usually we do not achieve anything. We cannot achieve also because diversions will be there.

Here we are talking about Rajayoga. We want to achieve some thing in this. The purpose of life and the purpose of yoga cannot be different. The purpose of life is happiness. The purpose of yoga also shall be happiness. It cannot be anything different from that and we cannot be happy so long as there is a conflicting situation. It is therefore essential that we develop certain characteristics, essentially that of friendship if not love as it is not always possible. Once we start our sadhana, any person, with pranahuti or without pranahuti, we are confronted with certain situations where we find that we are not allowed to continue with our task because of certain disturbances, some of them are related basically to the external environment. As we meditate, there will be some children in our house making noise, some body playing around in the road, some noise of the cars. In order to just avoid these situations, people tended to go to the forests or dwell in some place where there is lot of solitude. There is no other purpose behind this nor is there any other greatness behind this. They were prepared for it and they went for it. I do not think we can afford to do that. First of all forests are dying; Secondly we do not have that much of leisure to run away from our house, we have got responsibilities to discharge. Physical disturbance is therefore to be fought with internal determination. Just as a student of mathematics or any student for that matter, concentrates mostly on his work and refuses to get diverted by any other thing, development of concentration is a consequence of determination. Disturbances do occur to us when the power goes off and our fan is off and we are not able to meditate in the place that we have chosen. These things must be won over by us by our determination. There is no other alternative. And this determination is most essential for any sadhana. We must have commitment to reach what we want. Sanity demands that we shall be committed to happiness. Sanity would make anyone at least to agree to this, that we all should be happy. Nobody can get happiness by making somebody else unhappy. All people shall be happy. How? What are the methods for that? These are all different issues and each one of us is working out in his own way, but that should be our goal.

Earlier saints, researchers, yogis have all found this happiness is something that is internal and not external. So they started thinking about things which deter them from doing the task. They have undertaken from purely an internal angle, "Antardrishti" is what they have gone towards, Introspection - in English, it may not be an equivalent for Antardrishti but that is what they have got in English. This particular attitude of trying to look into, to see what exactly are the disturbing factors and when we try to either control them or modify them or annihilate them, one will be in a position to get happiness. Once happiness is established in oneself, he will be in a position to percolate that happiness elsewhere. Light is rather condemned to give light to others. Light cannot keep the light itself. It has to give. Darkness can be expelled but light cannot be expelled. Light dies on its own after the period is over. So long light is on, the light will always be spreading. So once we get happiness, once we are a satisfied, once we are peaceful, we will be in a position to give that or radiate it to others.

Now let me come to the internal hindrances that we are having. We do not accept the concept of "Asana soulabhya". Usually we are not in a position to sit in the same posture for a long time. It gives some trouble. Some people because of their practice are able to sit for long. Some people, because they don't have the practice, cannot sit for long. Sometimes it is due to certain defects in the body, may be some pain here, may be some pain there, we do not know. People were terribly obsessed in earlier systems about this body posture and they bothered about - the asana. They said that they spent all the time in controlling the body and make it learn how to sit. Several asanas have come which go by the name of yoga. To say that it has got something to do with happiness, is something that is an extraordinary thinking which however people have accepted for the last one and half century. Prior to this, nobody has followed so many Asanas. Thanks to the Maharaja of Mysore, the pranayama and all the asana yoga have got publicity. First, only eight asanas came. Eight asanas were there originally from which it came to three hundred and above now! You may add some more. All that is meant only to control mind. Asana is very insignificant aspect of sadhana. This is only one aspect of our sadhana, a very very insignificant one at that. Of course in our system we don't bother about asana. We sit in a comfortable posture, Patanjali himself has advised that we sit in sukhasana, that is, the posture which is convenient for us. Today people talk about asanas, and then quote Patanjali.

So it is to be noted that our system has nothing to do with the Ashtanga yoga, as it is understood today. In the first anga of the traditional system is Yama, and the second one is Niyama. The third anga is Asana. Then immediately after that is Pranayama. Yama and Niyama get the words Shama and Dama in Vedanta. Words are different but meaning is the same, there is no difference. They say, if one wants to do sadhana properly, Yama and Niyama are to be fully implemented. This is what we have just now talked about determination, namely we have got to determine ourselves about what we want to achieve, the goal for which we must avoid things, which are not conducive. We must develop properties, which are good for it. Yama and Niyama are high-sounding words, but literally for us to understand, they mean only these two - Whatever helps us in achieving the goal is to be accepted. Whatever is going to deter us from reaching the goal must be discarded. This has nothing to do with yoga actually. For any task for that matter asana is also a must. A student has to sit in a particular way only, and then only the concentration is possible. When we operate on a machine there is a posture and there are certain ways of operating it. We cannot do as we like on a machine unless we want to be hurt. Then they are talking about Pranayama or breath control. This needs certain amount of deeper thinking. The process involves both the inhalation and exhalation, and says they are to be regulated. There is also a certain time meant for keeping the breath. They are all required to be proportionate, it cannot be more or less. But we see that respiratory disorders can disturb us. Respiratory disorders can disturb our sadhana badly. Any task for that matter, if we are suffering from cold, I do not think one can do his computer programme properly. One takes off from work. Here since we are determined to achieve the goal we try to avoid that, we try to control this disorder through pranayama. These are all the exercises that we have got in ashtanga yoga related to the body and there is nothing more than that. In this system we really do not talk much about these things. We say sukhasana is there, and the need for yama and niyama we understand the real meanings and actually practice them through following the Ten Commandments of the Master.

Regarding Pranayama, it is significantly replaced in our system. Instead of our trying to control Prana, we are exhorted to yield to the Divine, to the Master, to the Supreme Master who is governing all of us, not necessarily Sri Ramachandraji of Shajahanpur or Fategarh or any person like that, not a personality, the Supreme Master for all of us, God, the Ultimate God. Now in this comes contribution from Rev. Lalaji Maharaj. What he did was, since this Pranayama and other exercises were going on wasting the entire life of a person, he provided an alternative. The sadhanas and other efforts to control the body and breath require all the time we have and by the end of the life also, one is not very sure whether he is settled or not. So you end up in performing Asana and development of Yama and Niyama and Pranayama, as the goal of life itself and go on talking about it. Others say "Nistaparudandi Veedu", absolutely a person with his high ethical standards etc. We talk too much about it, while each man errs everyday on all these things and each man errs irrespective of which saint he was. This of course, will lead us to some of our epics, where we have seen great saints have fallen just like that because of some lapse. The lapses you have got, I have got, he has got. Here there is not a person who is out of it. So we don't bother about it. But based on that only is all our sistachara. All our traditional folks talk about it, "Highly principled man and he is capable of doing asanas sir, he does pranayama for such a long time". So what? All these take care of certain things which are connected to body and while it comes to perfection one is not able to manage it. There is certain amount of hectic effort to control which takes away all our life time. Instead Revered Lalaji pleaded with God to help us out of this situation. In our system we do not bother about pranayama, but we accept Pranahuti. In this process the Divine interferes, not because we are capable of compelling him, but by seeking his grace he is prepared to come.

That is, in our system of Rajayoga the first four steps of Ashtanga Yoga are attended to in a different manner than the ones' traditionally prevailing so far. We start from the fifth step of Ashtanga Yoga, by taking up Pratyahara first and from then on through the steps of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi we are enabled to reach our Goal of life.

Seeking the Grace of the God is nothing been new, it has been there for some thousands of years. Great saints have always prayed. Some of them seem to have got the grace. Otherwise we would not have had all these religions. But still it was something that they could not finally pass it on. Grace itself they can not pass it on, but they impressed upon us the importance of grace. I think this is the significant point we should understand in our system. Grace has never been imparted so far. The greatness of grace was always stressed as the most important factor in sadhana, in Realisation. Every person has accepted this because he had a taste of it. But he could not give the taste of it to somebody else, because that depends upon the will of God. However much your dog is going to scratch the door, the door is not going to get open, it will not open. The door will be opened only when you go there and open it. Any amount of our bakthi, stotras, crying etc., things will not give the grace. It depends upon Him and Him alone to grant you the grace. That is why it has been stated that when people asked, what exactly is the cause for such grace to come, they said it is something that they cannot explain. They said, it is Nirhetuka. We cannot give a cause for it. That leads us to lot of philosophy, where first of all whether God is independent or is free or not. The freedom for God demands that He should have the freedom to shower the grace. It cannot be compelled. That is where most of our rituals commit mistakes. They think that they can bring down God by mantra, or tantra or prayer or what ever it is. You cannot get it. It has to be bestowed. That is why Vedas have to be superceded as Lord Krishna himself has long back said "Vedaha Trigunya Vishayaha, Nis Trigunyo Bhava Arjuna". The reason for that is, Vedic prayers try to appease Gods and get their help by compelling them. They say "You do this mantra or ritual, God has to come, there is no alternative for Him". May be true, if you put on a switch, fan has to work, if the links are properly connected. A mike shall function when I put it on, there is no alternative to it. It cannot say no. That is why Rev. Babuji brings in the concept of functionaries to explain these Gods. They do certain functions. To grant the status of God to fire is nothing but to remember a day when they were not able to create fire. Today we have got match-sticks for help, may be other methods, by which we are able to get fire. Those days it was entirely depended upon prayer, a particular method, a mantra and a tantra was behind it. Tantra is a mechanism, mantra is a prayer. A mechanism was there. We have to take two sticks. Even today if you see the yagnas that are being performed, perhaps next century also, perhaps for several millenniums to come, the same thing will continue because there will be certain people who follow that. It satisfies them. So yagna when you start they try to put some leaves and then put two sticks and they go on rubbing over each other and then all of a sudden a spark comes and the fire starts. Yes, there is a question of God, because one is not very sure whether the first step is going to give or the second effort is going to give or an effort later is going to give fire. Probably it depended upon something else. We are depended on that today, we have got so many lighters, so many match sticks, so many other methods that I am not aware of. We can create fire as and when we want. We are talking about trying to forecast weather. We are not all that dependent upon Vayu or Varuna on whom we once depended. This position was well recognised even by Lord Krishna himself. When he went for Govardhanagiri worship, he was discarding the worship of Indra totally. He said "damn it. He is not the person to give us rain, it is only the mountains that give you rain. Therefore grow trees". We talk today about ecological balance and environmental protection and He talked it about eight thousand or nine thousand years back. But then there was only one Krishna. The demand is - all of us shall be Krishnas. Nobody shall be less than that. It is our birthright. That is what Krishna himself said. "Mamiva Bhavati" - one can become like me. That is what Rev. Lalaji and Rev. Babuji said, "you can become me, you can become Masters, you don't have to be disciples, you come as associates". It is to be understood that we are going there beyond a particular level, this body level. Yoga basically starts above this. It was necessary once upon a time for all these things. Once Lalaji Maharaj has come and said "Now I see the deplorable situation in which we are messed up" and said, "I will try to invoke the Divine itself". And he said, with certain amount of courage which is unequalled, unparalleled in the past, "The Centre is now yawning towards the circumference". It is God who is now prepared to help us, we don't have to run after. All that we have got to do is, to yield to Him. We have got to yield to the Divine. Once we yield, then Pranahuti comes.

Now having talked about the way in which Pranahuti is brought, he said "I will train people who can offer this, not because of their capacity or their achievement, but because they are willing to yield to me, and I definitely see to it that it happens".

This leads us further to the several problems that arise in sadhana. Body might have certain problems, but that is only elementary. Food and sex are the two things that govern the body, whether you like it or not. The body has to continue. It has to procreate. This is a must, irrespective of whatever is the stage of the person, animal, or human or even divine. A person who is condemned to thinking only about these two will definitely encourage more number of doctors to be prepared in this world, because he is concerned about the body. I can understand that in early stages of life when there was no body to protect this human baby, it had to be protected. All other animals are capable of taking care of themselves. We are the only beings who are helpless for quite a long time. Human beings are the only ones helpless for a long time and who required some protection. Some doctors are required, we can understand at early stages of our life. We require to take care of the body and also have need for doctors and medicine to maintain healthy physical body. I am amused many times of people talking to me to taking to yoga exercises in their 65's and 70's to remain healthy. So it reminded me always of the old proverb, not a very good proverb, an old proverb in Telugu which says "vriddha nari pathivratha". This fellow has never been disciplined1 in his earlier life, now all of a sudden he wants to discipline the body in 65th year. How will he do that? It is something that we cannot understand and naturally it leads to such results as he deserves. I do not know what he gets by this Yoga. I have not attempted nor do I have an inclination for it. So this obsession with this body is what is making most of us confine ourselves to the level of the body, physical body.

There is almost a refusal to recognise that there are other bodies with us, and that we have got to be more alive to them than to this physical, which every animal is aware of. It knows how to protect itself, how to take its food, it knows how to bring out next generations, it knows everything about it. There is no necessity for any of us to teach all that. People who get stuck up to this body alone are afraid of what may be considered as a termination of this body, which is termed as death. People who do not have that fear namely those who think that they live even in other bodies that they have got, they are definitely people who are above this fear of death. The physical body seems to be only one thing that is obsessing all religions. Some religions of course believe in keeping it alive even after death. I don't know how they do it. Egyptians did it with some mummys and in modern religions, some do cremate, some bury it, and then expect it to be there. Even those people who burn the bodies after death have got the attitude of putting some gold or silver coins along with it, hoping that the soul will take them along with it. I don't know why they do, that is a criminal waste of money so far I see, but then they do it. But these are all, what I am trying to say is, that religions had to take recourse to such ideas because of the thinking that the body is permanent and if not, should be made permanent.

A man is immortal not because of the body. A man is immortal because of his preachings, because of his teachings, we remember Lord Sri Krishna, we remember the sage Buddha, we remember the Lord Christ or we remember the Revered Prophet Mohammed. They are continuing, they are immortal. To say that they are dead is meaningless. They are alive. They are with us. Their thoughts are influencing us every day. Every day we are getting influenced by them. How do you say that they have not reached their moksha or liberation from the body. Again when the words moksha or liberation is used, usually they are talking about the body only. They are trying to make it immortal. When we say a person is going to live forever, immortality is what we are seeking for the body. How do we get it? It is by definition, has to die. Every form of life is born, it grows and it dies. This is a cycle, it has to go on. There are, I am aware, I am aware in the sense that I am aware through some knowledge given to me by some of my doctor friends who talked to me about it, they are thinking in terms of continuing the body forever. In agony, is it? I am very much agonised when I came to know that one of our brother's mother was in U.S.A. in a state of coma and they said she shall continue in that state forever and they tried to preserve that body. It is a very funny idea. I am unable to understand the logic or the reason behind it. May be I am ill equipped to understand the science of medicine. But, my common sense does not permit me to accept it. Body is something that is bound to perish and the sanskrit word "seeryathe iti shariram" means that which perishes is body, "seeryathe iti shariram", then what is the point in worrying about it.

How to live with old age is the problem today. It has been a problem from the beginning. And that is why we had a joint family system to take care of others. Now that the joint family system has perished, the society is asked to take this responsibility which again is something asking for too much. That is why you find so many old people begging in the streets, where it is permitted. Where it is not permitted, you condemn them to some cell. What ever happens to them, at least they have freedom in our country, to walk on the road or do wherever they like. Other countries don't even allow them to walk on the road. They have to sit in some place condemned and confined to a particular area. They are taken care of all sorts of things and are talked about only for the body. Our obsession is with the body. My point is, the body is the only sarira that we are able to think of. But that will never get the immortality.

In some cases, and most cases for that matter, human beings develop what we call as Ethereal body. This actually serves the needs of the physical, that is, it expresses our impulses, emotions, cravings etc. This is the body of emotions and feelings. In the case of animals they are condemned to urges and drives. When a particular impulse is there, it will definitely try to see that it is satiated otherwise it will not keep quiet. While in the case of human beings we are allowed to learn a particular way. If we are hungry, we wait till the food is served. We don't try to go and grab it wherever it is. If there is an impulse towards sex activities or procreative activities, we have got to control it. We have to behave in such a way that it is socially acceptable. In this field God himself has given us certain amount of liberty, which again is misused. It is a freedom given to us here. Moksha at this level is granted to us already by God. But that freedom is misused as license by us. We do things as we like, not according to a particular order. The control over these impulses, which helps us to promote the extension of the body, is what God has given us. That is why people are capable of living longer. If we know how to control this, we know how to live longer. I won't say that they live for millennia, but definitely I know they live longer. If we don't know how to control these things we really fall. So this body is there with us. We are more slaves to this ethereal body than the physical body, because this body is taken care of by doctors who will give some medicines etc.. But who is to give medicine to this ethereal body? By birth He has given us the capacity to modify or regulate the cycles of urges which is something which no animal can get rid off. But our Psychologists-physiological and animal psychologists- have confused us by comparing with the animals and made us believe we are governed totally by these urges. But God says we can get rid of their binding influence on us. But while He gave us freedom, we indulge in such activities perhaps as many number of times as a dog will do for a year, in a day. This is what is happening. It is absolute misuse of freedom. We talk about freedom being given to us by society or our forefathers or the people who brought us freedom to this country. And then we say we are misusing it. But what about this misuse which every one of us is doing.

We are unhappy because of this misuse. This is calculatedly promoted because we are yielding to what I should say modern methods of media. It is much worse, because we are exposed to media, which has specialized only in two things, violence and pornography. They are the only two things that we can see or hear in any T.V or any radio or anywhere we go or any cinema. Entertainment means entertainment in these two things, entertainment is license. It is not an entertainment. There is no recreation. There is destruction. Where is recreation? What ever you have got you are loosing it.

A person who wants to move towards happiness has to control these urges and this is taken care of by Yama and Niyama. It is what all our traditions were talking about. Tradition was aware of this and that is why it is said you control it, Yama and Niyma or you call it by other things, which are there in vedanta. But the onslaught from society is enormous. Marketing advertisements inspired by the research of psychologists have ruined modern civilization beyond a limit, and I am never tired of referring to Pitrim A Sorakin who said we require a sane sex order in this world. It is insanity that is governing us today. We have to come out of it. If one does not have this determination, please do not bother about yoga sadhana, because one is not going to have it. His thoughts will be running over media (T.V. etc.) news and advertisements.

I remember an elderly man, father like man for me who guided me in several issues. 9'o clock was the time of prayer given to us in our system, to pray to God, saying that "all people in this world are our brethren and they are developing true love and devotion towards God ". It is a prayer. A simple prayer, which does good for others. But his main objection to it was (at that time fortunately T.V's were not there in India, we had radios) "Narayana what am I to do. I am habituated to hearing to the News in English that comes exactly at 9 P.M. I have got to hear, what to do?". I said the priority is yours sir at this age, what can I do. That was the only answer I could give to an elderly person. He was my father's age, my father's classmate. What should I say to him? I can't give a sermon to him. I don't know what he did afterwards, but I definitely know this much, he put this question and this is the answer I gave. So, I always say, have your priorities properly. Our questions are "T.V has got a show today at 9 P.M. what should we do? Should we do the prayer in the evening or see the show?" Or during Basant "we have to go to a cricket match, should we go there or sit here?" or "there is a drama performance, we are interested in it, should we go there or not?" I say the choice is ours. That determi-nation we have to make. And this comes to us only when we know, what generally is called as 'viveka' i.e. wisdom. You should develop that wisdom. If some one say he is not able to, that is the problem. If one is able to, why should he not?

So that is why we say yield to the Master, meditate and see what happens. Through the process of Pranahuti, our mental tendencies which are going to the lower portion of our heart, is enabled to move towards the upper portion.

The division U and L in the heart that is shown is not a physical division. Through this we are only trying to understand a significant part of help that we get from Pranahuti. In the heart there is an upper portion and a lower portion. We are capable of thinking low. We are also capable of thinking high. The flow of thought goes towards the lower things and our mind naturally goes to L level by itself because more than 90% of our thoughts are bestial, the remaining 10% is taken over by marketing persons to ensure that we are 100% animals. That is what is happening. All our thoughts are going here to the lower portion (L).

Through the process of pranahuti, the first thing that happens to us is, the divine influx enable us atleast to move towards the upper plane (U), namely thinking about something more of human which we may call higher values. This solves the problem we face here. Unless this is done, this problem is not solved and that is where other systems failed.

They said that we have to somehow or the other arouse the energy that is bottled or holed up at the Kundalini bottom namely, the Mooladhara, to move it up towards higher centres of Swadhistana, Manipura, Anahata to Visuddha, finally reaching Ajna. For this several yogic practices were advised and severe measures to control the base instincts and body were taken up as means.

In this system of Rajayoga we are enabled to move up by the process of yielding to the Divine and receiving the Pranahuti from a brother aspirant in the path who has moved up and is capable of fomenting us with the same.

"We are yet but slaves of our wishes, putting bar to our advancement". By accepting wholeheartedly this sentence of the Prayer of this system, we develop an attitude of insignificance, we develop an attitude of yielding to the Divine. That is what is expressed by the sentence "Thou art the only God and Power to bring us upto that stage." Then our system allows Pranahuti to work in us and with the assistance so received we are enabled to accept the fomentation received from the trainer as an instrument of the Master. This Pranahuti instead of the prana that is sought to be controlled enables to move to the higher planes at the higher centres. We know that our wishes start straight from this level, of Pranic body located at Swadhistana and that they are based on the Energy that sustains us and enables us to procreate located at the Mooladhara. The aspirant has to do the meditations on the points A and B located in the chest region of the body to control these ideas and this coupled with constant influx of the Divine energy through Pranahuti received through individual sittings and Satsanghs enables us to stabilise at the Pranic body level. Though wishes are essentially based on the urges and instincts yet as a consequence of development of culture and our knowledge about this, they can be of any level.

However once this first step is ensured or once control at this level of mooladhara and swadhistana is stabilized through steady and persevering practice, every day we start forgetting about these things except those that are natural. All of us are householders. We cannot totally deny the responsibility of continuing the progeny, therefore a balance has to be struck in the satisfaction of urges and needs and wants, for that you have got to yield to the Divine and seek its help.

Our wishes are multiplying. One person comes forward with one type of biscuit and the other person comes forward with another type of ice-cream. So we do not have any time except getting exhorted and get exposed to that type of bombardment from the media and social circles in which we move. We go to our family, friends or other circles; they talk about the same thing. What did you have? What will you have? No person is having anything to talk other than food and there is no end to this type of talk. Let us take the conversations of women in the phone, particularly in our country, I don't know what they do in the west, but here they go on talking hours and hours together like, "What you have prepared in the house? What is your dish, and how it has been prepared? How can I do this? How can I do that?" This is what is engaging our attention. Subtle influences come from every source. Some fellow says to us "Sir, there is a new restaurant here". This afternoon I was coming with my brother, he was telling to me there is a new restaurant near to our house. But I don't go to restaurant, what do I care for it? New restaurant or old restaurant, it does not matter much to me. I never ask for food in any other place except in my house, or in some of my brother aspirant's houses. I may be a fool, I agree I don't fit in, but then I have got a freedom, where as others seem not to care for.

Then next, bodies about which we have to talk about. We have seen that the development of viveka is nothing but trying to control our lower tendencies and moving on to this first control over basic urges and impulses. The whole of Vedanta psychology is going about all the time talking about this, day in and day out, as if that is the end of the matter. The temporariness of our existence i.e. life of the body is a fundamental fact and thereby exhorting to develop a detached outlook towards these urges and also totally curb them. Sat-Asat Viveka is nothing but knowing that everything is transitory. The whole of Buddhism is based on that and the whole of Advaita is based on that. But unfortunately life is not confined to Buddhism or Advaita, what to do, we have got to move on. There are many other things to tackle about except knowing only that. Knowing only that is not jnana nor is it kaivalya. That alone has made people tend to all sorts of sanyasa methods. They are fundamentals of Viveka, which every person should know.

Now having achieved this ethereal body there is one more binding force or body that we have got, which goes by the name of "astral" or sookshma sarira. I do not know how many of you know this. The gross or physical body, bhoutika sareera, we share almost with all living beings. The next body called as Prana or Bhuta sareera exists because of the fulfilled and unfulfilled wishes. Wishes, actually unfulfilled wishes at the end of the termination of the body continue to exist. Since they continue to exist, float around, they are seen generally as ghosts, spirits; that is their level. It is nothing to do with atma, nothing to do with soul, it is one of the earliest levels of body. If you put the question do they exist? They exist. They do exist because many people have got enormous amount of unexhausted anger and enormous amount of unfulfilled desires. They would like to take vindictive or retaliatory action against somebody else. They try to see that it is executed, all sorts of things, both good and bad things. Generally this redressal is taken care of by the vaidhikis, brahmins, by conducting a particular ceremony. It is "preta sarira." This is called as bhuta, preta, and pisacha. These are the two levels for which we have doctors to attend their ailments if any.

Now the astral body is the karana sareera, it is the one which really gives us the shape and form of the Physical body. It is the discharge of our karma that decides the form we take at birth. The need for executing a particular type of function decides the form of the instrument and the instrumentation is accordingly. There are different screwdrivers for different tasks and so it is for other instruments. Similarly the physical body is structured to suit the purpose of life that the karana sarira dictates. A person who evolves upto this level knows his attitudes and aptitudes to life clearly. They are the Samskaras that form the Karana sarira. Samskaras give however only few of those attitudes and aptitudes we have learnt during this lifetime while we are growing up with our parents and others. Several ideas they have added to you. We start owning up some, we disown some. We make some sort by selection. All of the ideas suggested are put together, and then we form an idea as to what we want and say. This is not necessarily what our physical or psychological environment gives us, but these inputs modify the mode and method of executing the samskaras we get from the past. Now this past, is a big word, this leads us to fundamental question whether the same antahkarana continued or not. It is not necessarily one and the same anthahkarana we had earlier that continues. All thought waves, which are similar to us, become our samskaras. That is why some say that we belong to some tradition, for example, when I was talking about this subject with my revered father, he said "we belong to the tradition of sage Yagnavalkya or Plato". See the thinking behind it. These persons who talked about certain high levels, high values, and their ideas also become our samskaras. This should be understood that the purpose of our life which is not only dictated by the samskaras that is something of our own past life, but also whatever impressions or ideas which resonate with our own in this life from various sources. Influences of our past life means, the thought patterns and their wavelengths that we have had earlier, which were left floating after the death of the Physical body, is again available floating, and we get it. We accept it, as also those that would serve the purpose of our life, perhaps those of our elders, like fathers, grand fathers, and some other persons aspirations also are taken. That is why we say in our country that 'Tata puttadu aiya veediki'. The reason for that is their bhavas, their aspirations, their ambitions continue at a higher level. At the ethereal level it is baser and vindictive. At the astral level it is higher aspiration.

The aspiration levels are different. The Ethereal is absolutely emotional. True, behavioural aspirations and higher aspirations enable us to move up. Not only that there are also certain aspirations which are not very conducive to the society, social well being, global well being, come under the category asuric. The daivic ones are good for others. That is why Bhagavan Krishna classifies people as daivic and asuric and says to Arjuna that he belongs to daivic. If he is a daivic, and that is by birth then how is it that Dhrutarashtra's son is asuric? If we go by only the community or by caste or the genealogy, it will not fit in. The reason for that is his samskaras are daivic, and the other persons are asuric. This is not the physical body, which He is referring to. This is the astral body by which we start already having connection with something higher.

But we are not exactly having connection with higher. We do have some connection, otherwise those positive thoughts will not arise in us. We are born for a particular purpose and that becomes meaningful here in the astral level. It is not meaningful at the pranic or bhoutika planes, except for continuity of a particular race, there is no other purpose that is served here. The ethereal body suffers from destructive tendencies. In the astral plane both construction and destruction are possible, for which we have got certain wavelengths of thought patterns. That is why we find our friends are in tune with us. Certain persons are not in tune with us. It is not just a sympathetic under-standing of other person nor is it empathetic. Both these words will not fit in, but there is something more, there is a common wavelength in which we are moving and that person is really a sakha or a sahachara. Only with that person it is a compatibility, total compatibility. Again the physical world is such where there is no possibility of a total compatibility. Total compatibility is something that is not possible in physical. Because you have got different views and they have got different, though the samskaras appear to be similar or even identical in most of the aspects. Recognising this point is the wisdom of the institution of marriage in this country. I do not know about others, whether they are based on this sahachara, trying to understand the difference the other person can have and live with. And the moment the total compatibility, which is physical impossibility, is not there the other part of the world thinks in terms of divorce. Divorce is something that cannot be accepted, when you accept a philosophy of sahachara. We are talking about a friendship. There is always a question of give and take. Total compatibility is an impossibility. This we should understand. It is like two receivers receiving the same wavelength. One radio which is a very good and this you can fine tune the level, and the other one receiving the same wave length but then under poorer level. This applies to transistor, this applies to radio and this applies to human being and this applies to all. Each one of us appear to be similar. But again there appears to be certain amount of dissimilarities with us that is because of certain other basic factors, which are genetic. It is a matter of Genetic engineering. So this is another body that is called astral with which we have to move to higher planes of bodies. Unless we come to this level we do not know really what is the purpose of life.

The real meaning of liberation doesn't find any sense in earlier planes. When we talk about Realisation or when we talk about the minimum goal of liberation, we are trying to go beyond this level. In these three levels, people will be born, will live, and will die. Again some other beings will be reborn, not because same person is born but the procreative process goes on. The life process goes on, as there is no other purpose served by this body. Only when the person has developed a purpose you can talk about saying that whether he has come out of that or he has achieved something, otherwise he is condemned to that or this level. We understand here these aptitudes are different and cannot be of higher planes. Till this level including our astral body, we are governed by our aspirations relating to the body. We are creating our own limitations. We are not trying to go beyond this.

But at the Manasika sarira or the aspirational body located in the region of chest as Anahata chakra the need to go beyond the borders of the body arises. The point is, here we are already in touch with the higher plane of ideas relating to the aspirations of human living. Our movement in this plane is only restricted to certain persons who have the same attitudes. Our friendship circle is limited to that, the group in which we move is limited to that. It is a particular area into which we are confined physically while the mind moves all around. Here it is not the same feather that we are talking, but about the same ideas etc things. However, persons flock, clubs are formed, organisations are formed. It is the restrictions of the organisations. Any organisaion for that matter has got this inherent limitation, we have to conform. We came here trying to get liberated from body. Only the ideas, aspirations are the common things for us. This is the binding force of all religions, all societies for that matter. We feel bonded again; internally we know we should move further. For that we are asked to do again penances, take to austerities and seek satsanghs and do Tapas. Traditionally it is stated that the Kundalini should move up from Manipura to Anahata. More pranayama more tapas etc., as the means. It is a laborious task.

In this system the working of Pranahuti is from this level of the Heart and that helps us to move to higher regions. Through diversion of the flow of thought to Atma Chakra (not talked about in Kundalini or other types of Yoga) we move on to higher planes.

We have noted earlier that through the process of Pranahuti we are enabled to move on the upper portion of the Heart. This is where the real Astral body finds expression. It comes to know the need for releasing itself from bondages. Now that through this level, it has landed in the realms of the saints and sages, it starts gaining knowledge about the need to get rid off the astral plane. If it is struck at this level it cannot help being reborn and again attempt to liberate itself so that the meaning of life is understood fully and serve the purpose of the Divine.

When we go beyond this Anahata, we are talking some thing of spirituality. We are moving out of our borders of physical body. Our boundaries are getting collapsed. We are breaking our boundaries. Upto this there is a physical boundary, which invariably exerts its influence.

When we move from the Anahata to Visuddha level ie., from the level of psychological to the spiritual then the courage to rid off the body is got and when one really establishes himself, all these boundaries are lost because he moves to the Brahmand from the Pind. This is really the place where the modern para-psychologists are using the phrase "No boundary consciousness". Till this level, the consciousness had certain limits. From here there is no boundary that restricts the expression of consciousness. So far we are thinking about welfare of our society, welfare of our houses, welfare of our family, welfare of country, welfare of our world etc. Beyond this, Anahata consciousness does not go, we talk in terms of trying to go beyond the world, globe, think in terms of universe, universal consciousness, there is no boundary, known boundary to us. This is where the concept has been very well explained in Sanskrit through the word Akasa. Akasa has no boundary, sky may have boundary. That is why evolved souls talk of Viswa. Viswa has nothing to do with Bhumi. Bhumi is connected with Bhumata, the motherland. For all of us, the real motherland is the entire world and not our place of birth. The evolved consciousness alone can accept this, otherwise the bondage of the place of birth is too gross to overcome over which heroic stories were written of the various conflicts and wars were fought. This is the plane from where we can talk in terms of liberation. From Anahata through influence of thoughts of evolved Souls, the aspirations for liberation arise. Visuddha is the state from where we can seek and have liberation from material expressions of sorts. This is not the limit and is not to be confused with the state of the Ultimate Realization. Spirituality here is still confined to welfare of humanity, Viswa Manava Kalyanam, the consciousness that is concerned about good for all. This is the consciousness at the Visuddha chakra of Kundalini yoga. To move upto this level one has to put in enormous effort. It is stated that aspirants take several lives to move to this plane. The virtues of Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Aparigraha and Brahmacharya have to be assiduously developed to perfection. The consciousness must grow into one of Love as against Self seeking interest. Karuna has to develop which is possible only by an awareness of Divinity of all existence. Enormous effort indeed.

As against this, in this system, Pranahuti of Master diverts the flow of thoughts to the Atma chakra (2nd Knot) from the U level of the Heart. From there through a zigzag path we are led to the stage of Devotion (3rd knot) and then on to the stage of Surrender (4th knot) of our being to the Divine for its purposes. From there we reach this stage with relative ease and much lesser effort. No need for us to take 7 or more lives for liberation, this life period is enough. That is the promise of Master, provided one follows the path assiduously.

Beyond this we have got the concept of - Total pure and simple consciousness.

When we are talking about these things, the question arises as to how to liberate ourselves and move towards higher stages. First of all, we have to seek from the Master, Pranahuti. That enables us to move from the bestial self to human self. The second help that we get after we stabilise ourselves in the U portion of the heart, and practice the method of meditation and cleaning prescribed in the system, we are able to feel the Divine inside the heart. Then through the continuous influx of Pranahuti, the flow of consciousness which has been restricted to its down ward movement is now diverted towards, Atma chakra.What happens to us is, there is a support of the Divine that comes to us, which takes care of modifications required at this level. Traditionally these things have to be really fought out, a real war. Day in and day out we have to fight with these things. We say that "When I sit in meditation all sorts of foul thoughts come to me. What am I to do. Somebody spat on my face, what shall I to do? Somebody said something to me, what shall I do?". These are all the problems. "My teacher inspite of doing my best work has given me only low marks." That is what we feel. The feeling we cannot deny. Whether we have been pulled up from the lapse in the work genuinely by our boss or not, what we feel is he has unnecessarily pulled us up and that disturbs. These are all there at all levels. So when we talk about the goal of trying to liberate ourselves from all the bondages, we are talking about all these things and any number of lectures will not be in a position to make us understand fully what it is. But if we yield to that power of Pranahuti, then we know exactly what is happening to us.

There are three principles that are used here. One is the help that you are getting from the Divine. The other one is, since we have made a determination to cleanse ourselves from all these thoughts, and want to be as pure as possible we take the assistance of the Divine again in this cleaning process. That is the cleaning process that is talked about in this system, which again is backed by the Pranahuti power of the Master. For any sadhaka what I say should have been more than necessary to understand the enormity of assistance we are getting in this system.

All prayers throughout the history we know are petitions, at certain times gratefulness or thanks, and most of the times it is flattery. We go on flattering God, so that we may get what we want and wish. "You have given such and such person some thing, that Gajendra was there, poor fellow who was crying, you helped him, after all I am a human being, I am much better than elephant, why not help me". This is the type of prayer. In all these things our prayers are for fulfillment of our wishes. We have enormous wishes, we want them to be satisfied. The prayers usually relate to the three bodies that we have referred to. My health is not alright, make me alright, the solution is to go to Raghavendra temple or go to Tirumala or Shirdi or Puttaparthi. O.K. That is what we do. I am not getting a promotion, I go to this Baba or that Baba. That is what we do. All our prayers are of these levels. The prayers that we are talking about in this system is "We are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement" and we are asking for liberation from them, not for gratification of them. That is another significant factor here in this system. We should understand the Divine influx enables us to offer this prayer. Otherwise we are condemned to pray only as others, seeking relief. We are not asking for relief or gratification. We are asking freedom from those bondages. That alone enables develop love for all people irrespective of our original attitudes. Once such a thing is established, what Buddha talked about, namely, the mythri bhava develops, universal brotherhood develops. For development of the consciousness capable of having universal brotherhood, again we pray in the night by saying all the people in this world are our brothers and sisters and that they are developing true love and devotion towards God. Here God is not one person we are referring to, but the principle of total pure consciousness, the suddha satva, behind everything. There is something which is behind, we do not know. If we can define God, He ceases to be God. As soon as we define anything and say this is God that ceases to be God, because we have already confined Him to that form. We have already restricted Him to that name. It is a bondage given to God by us for the freedom He has given us to know the Reality. Not only are we bound now by choice but also like God to be bound. That is what every religion has done. We are not finding any fault with that. But we have grown, we have grown enormously with our knowledge and here is the Master who says all those things are unnecessary, "Come on, come to the fundamentals, I am here to help". The Divine is not something against us. He is not something to be afraid of. God has nothing against us. He wants us to live with Him. If there is anything that happens to us, which is not to our liking, it is our own making, our own attitude that we have developed. So change the attitude. In this system, the samskaras, which form our attitudes, are abolished. When the attitudes themselves are abolished then where is the question of changing. We don't change. We actually move towards the Source. We are trying to not just change our behavioural pattern, but we are trying to move above to another realm where these differences will have no meaning - Sarva samaiykata bhava - is something that is possible for every one of us. So from Bhoutika Sareera to Bhuta Sareera to Karana Sareera to Atma Sareera and then to Brahma Sareera is the evolution. We have got the right, the fundemental birth right given by God to live in Brahma Sareera. Beyond this there are many realms about which we are not discussing here. Let us not condemn ourselves to the physical world and the help that we get from pranahuti is what I explained, while explaining the system.