Table of Contents
Part I — Consciousness
- Consciousness-light
- Question: Are consciousness and thought the same?
- Question: Can the mind help us to maintain a high level of consciousness?
- Question: How can someone new to meditation tell whether his consciousness is rising, steady or falling?
- Question: How can we raise our consciousness when we feel threatened by negative forces?
- Question: Should one realise or reach the highest consciousness before mingling with unaspiring people?
- Question: What is inconscience?
- Question: When you talk of mineral, plant, human and divine consciousness, what exactly do these terms mean?
- Question: Is there an ultimate consciousness or can consciousness always be transcended?
- Question: What is the relationship between the soul and consciousness?
- Question: What is the relationship between consciousness and realisation?
- Question: What is the relationship between intuition and consciousness?
- Question: Is it possible that the soul is in any way connected with what we call consciousness?
- Question: Sometimes I awake in the morning feeling a very high state of elation and unity, but I am not conscious of what has taken place. Does any work take place at night on the spiritual plane that we are not aware of?
- Question: What is the difference between human consciousness and divine consciousness?
I — The body
- My body
- 18
- 19
- 20
- Body and soul
- Question: I have difficulty sitting in the lotus position.
- Question: I find that when I eat meat I cannot meditate very well; I feel restless. But if I don't eat meat, I feel very weak.
- Question: Please tell me if we are in better contact with the Divine when we are fasting, drinking only juice and water. Does fasting help us to realise God?
- Question: If we are tired or sick, should we sleep more?
- Question: What are the predominant qualities of the body, vital and mind?
- 27
- Don't think, don't sleep
- Vision-skies
- Transformation, transcendence and beyond
- 31
II — The vital
- 32. My vital
- Their options differ
- Question: How can we tell if our love is vital or pure?
- Question: Is it possible to prevent oneself from giving off impure vital love and to substitute the heart's pure love for it? How can we consciously give pure love?
- The transcendence of sex
- Question: I have read some place that when one uses sexual energy he is using up some spiritual energy at the same time. Is this true? If so, what can be done if one wants to lead a spiritual life?
- Question: How can we expand our heart and have more of its divine qualities in our daily actions and our relationships with people?
- Question: Whenever I see a beautiful woman, sex thoughts enter my mind. I try to destroy them, but they persist.
- Question: For what purpose is the union between man and woman?
- Question: Can you please speak about marriage with regard to the spiritual life?
- Question: What is a vital demand?
- Question: Is there any difference between emotion and the vital?
- Question: How can I express love and manifest love in the physical world?
- Once more do come
- You must teach
III — The mind
- The physical mind and the spiritual mind
- My mind
- Question: When I try to think out a problem and plan a course of action, I find myself unable to make up my mind. Why is this?
- Question: About the vision and its fulfilment, how do you know that you are having the right "vision"?
- Question: Some people say that we should always listen to the voice of reason. Can you comment on this?
- Question: Is it desirable to bring to our conscious mind things from our subconscious?
- Question: But orthodox psychology states that the subconscious has to be brought to the fore and illumined.
- Question: Is there a spiritual method of self-analysis?
- Question: What is the best way to prevent wrong thoughts from attacking us?
- Only one thought
- Question: Yesterday when I was meditating, I got a message from the silence which said, "Love one another." When we get this kind of message in our meditation, should we meditate on it and take it into ourselves?
- 58
- Each thought
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- Depend
- My life is transcending
- He thinks — he feels — he knows
- 68
- 69. My Krishna is not black
- 70
- 71
- 72. I am happy
- Hope-boat and life-boat
IV — The heart
- My heart
- Emotion
- I want only one student: heart
- Many a time have I seen you
- In the depth of my heart the blue bird smiles
- My world is for your feet
- Only one hope
- My impatient heart calls you
- O Light of the Supreme
- Question: Why do you tell people to stay in the heart and not in the mind?
- Question: How can we integrate the mind and the heart?
- In the universal heart all hearts are one
- Visions of the Emerald-Beyond
- Question: When you speak of the heart as being the centre of love and the place where the soul resides, do you mean the physical heart, or is "heart" just a term that you use?
- Question: Many times I feel many important questions inside myself but I cannot conceptualise them. How can we be aware enough inside ourselves to know the questions that we have?
- 89
- 90
- I shall now call myself
- 92
V — The soul
- What does your soul need?
- When I am in the soul
- Question: Do you have any concept of salvation for the soul?
- The soul-bird
- 97
- 98. When I live
- Six confidants
- 100
- 101
- Immortality
- Question: Does the soul get new experiences in its development, or does it merely uncover what it has always known?
- Question: How does the soul communicate with us? What language does it use?
- Question: Does the soul experience loneliness?
- Question: What happens to our soul while we are sleeping? What does sleep do to our soul?
- Question: Are all souls good?
- Question: Guru, once you pointed out to us a man whose soul you said had already left his body. How could he still have been alive on the physical plane if his soul had left his body?
- Question: Does the soul make demands on a person so that he has to change his ways?
- Question: Can the soul select what the individual is to experience in the manifested world?
- Question: Approximately where in the physical body does one feel a sense of the soul?
- Question: Do souls differ in their characteristics?
- My name, my age, my home
- Revelation
- My soul's victory
- Question: How do you explain the soul to a child?
- Question: Are our desires under the control of the soul?
- Question: Is the soul always assured that it will find its true mission during each new lifetime on earth?
- Revealing Soul and fulfilling Goal
- Question: Do the experiences that the soul gets while it is on earth constitute a kind of expansion?
- 121
- Question: Can a person know if he has made contact with his soul and is working from the soul's region?
- Question: Does a beautiful soul always choose a beautiful outer being?
- The Pilgrims of the Lord Supreme
I — Death and reincarnation
- Is death the end?
- Death, tell me something, please
- Question: Why is death necessary? Why can't the soul keep on progressing and evolving in the same body?
- Question: In one of your meditations from your diary you mentioned that death was an obstruction. I always thought you considered death to be a transition that just enables us to be reborn and make continuous progress.
- Question: Can you say something about Eternity and the eternal life?
- Death and the soul
- Death, how often do you speak to Satan?
- Question: Will the soul be able to have some kinds of experiences in the worlds it goes to after it leaves the body?
- Question: Is hell really a place in the vital worlds, or is it just a state of consciousness?
- Death, what do you and God speak about?
- Question: What is the purpose of reincarnation?
- Question: How long do we have to continue to reincarnate?
- Question: Could you please explain how the law of karma affects us in this life and our next life?
- The quick surrender, the brave fight
I — Life-problems
- Ignorance
- Question: Is pain necessary?
- Question: Why do we have to pass through sad experiences such as suffering and sorrow?
- 142
- Question: In your talk you said that if we see the problem and if we face the problem, then we have greater force than the problem. Do you mean, then, that a problem is not a problem if we know how to look at it?
- 144
- 145
- 146
- 147
- 148
- 149
- 150
- 151
- Question: Is there any incurable spiritual disease?
- 153
- 154
- 155
- 156
- 157
- 158
- 159
- 160
- 161
- 162
- Question: What should one's attitude be to bad things that one did before? What is your view regarding guilt?
- Question: When I have problems I can't seem to really solve them. Even my friends and parents don't always know what is best.
- Happiness
- Be happy
II — Fear
- 167. I fear
- Fear
- Question: You say that if fear is our problem we should feel that we are God's chosen children. Do you mean that we are chosen by God to experience fear?
- 170
- Question: How can we overcome fear?
- How to conquer fear
- 173
- No little enemy
- Question: How can I overcome the fear of failure?
- Courage
- 177
- 178
- 179
- 180
- 181
- Speak and don't speak
III — Doubt
- Why is it easier to disbelieve than to believe?
- 184
- 185
- 186
- 187
- Does belief come spontaneously or by effort?
- 189
- 190
- 191
- 192
- Punishment
- Carriers
- All are unselfish
- Question: If you told me you could swim across the ocean, I would say, "Let me see you do it." I wouldn't accept the fact that you could until I saw you do it, and then after I saw you do it, I would say, "Well, now you can teach me."
- No little friend
IV — Purity
- 198. Simplicity, sincerity and purity
- Purity and power
- The role of purity in the spiritual life
- Question: What is the highest kind of purity I can aspire to?
- Question: Is it possible for a person to become unintentionally involved in the vibrations of someone who is impure?
- The power of purity
- The first and the last
- Man, be careful of woman
- 206
- One man and one woman can save the world
- 208
- Why is she chosen, why is he chosen?
- 210
V — Some inner qualities
- Obedience, inner and outer
- Patience
- Question: How can we develop patience?
- Question: In my meditation and in my spiritual life, I feel that I am fighting against time because of my eagerness to reach my goal. Is this the wrong attitude?
- Humility
- My humility
- Admiration
- Ambition
- 219
- 220
- My human pride and my pride divine
- Two killers
- 223
- 224
- 225
- 226
- Worry
- Curiosity
- 229
I — The inner voice
- 230
- 231
- Question: Very often I may not recognise my inner self. I do not know whether the voice I hear is the inner voice or the outer voice, and this is extremely confusing.
- Question: Can we answer our own questions through our daily meditation?
- My inner pilot discourages me
- 235
- Complete transformation-change
- I do the impossible, how?
II — Will
- Will and will-power
- 239
- 240
- Determination and will
- God's Will and my will
- Thy Wisdom
- 244
- 245
- 246
- 247
- 248
- 249
III — Freedom
- I escaped
- Outer freedom and inner freedom
- Go and ask
- God is still my boss
- Question: Is there any spiritual significance to the energy crises, wars and other problems the world is having now?
I — The spiritual life
- 255
- Question: Could you explain what inner hunger is?
- Question: I am looking for more joy in my life, but I don't feel confident about jumping into meditation to get it.
- Question: When you spoke of the need to transcend the past, you said that the world is continually evolving. Could you say more about this?
- Question: What happens if after practising spirituality for a while, you decide you want to take a rest and then continue your journey at a later time?
- Question: Sometimes people say that the dream is always better than the reality and that the search for something is better than the actual achievement of that thing, because when the goal is reached there is no place else to go. Does this also apply to the spiritual life?
- Question: I often find that in the spiritual life I go up and down. I always hope that I will not fall down again, but it happens constantly.
- Question: Now that I have entered into the spiritual life, I have more problems with desires. Is the Supreme giving me these extra desires to strengthen me?
- Question: How can I win the battle that is going on inside me between the light and the darkness?
- Question: I am not as receptive as I would like to be. Why is this?
- His correction and his manifestation
II — Yoga
- Question: What is actually meant by Yoga?
- Question: Can anybody practise Yoga?
- Question: Can yoga help us in our everyday life?
- Question: Do yoga and meditation require the renunciation of all religions?
- 270
- 271
- 272
III — Aspiration
- Aspiration-flame
- Question: What do you mean when you say that the unaspiring man's Eternity is uncertain?
- 275
- 276
- Question: How can I separate myself from my physical desires?
- Aspiration-cry
- 279
- Desire and aspiration
- 281
- 282
- 283
- 284
- 285
IV — Spiritual discipline
V — Detachment and renunciation
- 290
- 291. Attachment and detachment
- Detachment and responsibility
- Question: While striving for detachment, how can we safeguard against indifference?
- 294
- Renunciation
- 296
- 297
- 298
I — Bridging the inner and outer world
- Is the spiritual life an escape from reality?
- Question: What is the spiritual value of the earth?
- Question: When you say that earth can easily be transformed into Heaven, do you mean physically as well?
- Question: Will you please explain how it is that the soul evolves only on the planet Earth?
- Question: Is there a link or bridge between the inner world and the outer world?
- 304
- 305
II — Service
- Work and service
- Duty supreme
- Spirituality: the fount of world peace.
- Question: In practical terms, how can we give the world love and concern?
- The hero marches along
- How to change humanity
- Question: Do you not feel that national boundaries and political dogma divide human beings into different camps, creating unspiritual environments and making peace, for an individual as well as for a nation, a distant star?
- Question: If man, when dissatisfied with the world, escapes the world and seeks out higher planes of existence, how will humanity ever be able to establish peace and happiness on earth?
- Question: What is the relationship between silence and action?
- Question. How can one accept and love one's fellow man?
- 316
- Do not convert and do not be converted
- The goal of the Beyond
I — Meditation
- Meditation: an introduction
- 320
- 321
- Question: I have never been to your Centre before. I have read a few books but I am a beginner in meditation.
- Question: How can we learn to meditate? I believe in God, but it is very hard for me to meditate.
- Concentration
- Question: What is the difference between concentration, meditation and contemplation?
- Question: Could you please discuss how contemplation differs from meditation?
- Question: How do I know that while meditating I am entering into a higher plane and that it is not just my imagination?
- Question: When you have a personal problem which you wish to solve through your meditation, how can you resolve it and know that the answer you get comes directly from the soul and not from the emotional vital?
- Question: Why doesn't God make all our meditations equally good?
- Question: You say we should meditate in the heart, but I find it easier to meditate in the mind.
- Question: In meditation, sometimes the mind stops functioning and there seems to be little information coming.
- 332
- Question: When I first began meditating at three o'clock in the morning, I used to have very good meditations and I was very inspired. But after a few days, I didn't have the same inspiration and it became very difficult.
- Question: Sometimes after meditation I lose the joy that I have received from my meditation. Is there a method that would be helpful in holding onto that joy?
- Question: What do you mean by highest meditation?
- Question: How can one make meditation practical?
- Question: Through meditation is one able to create or master psychic powers?
- Question: During a meditation, if something external to the meditation occurs — such as noise or something unforeseen — is it better to include it in the meditation or to try to shut it out and pursue the meditation?
- Question: Sometimes when I get into meditation I feel peace and light all around me. Then someone calls me from the kitchen or some other place and I have to stop my meditation. Then I feel frustrated.
- What it has
- Question: Should a person shut himself away all alone and reject humanity in order to meditate?
- Question: If meditation is the only way of seeing God face to face, what advice would you give to the man who has a family to look after?
- Question: If we get Light from the soul during meditation, do we actually manifest it?
- Prayer and meditation
- Question: If we give you everything on the physical plane, will we grow more into your soul?
- 346
- The Absolute
I — Peace
- 348. Outer peace and inner peace
- 349
- 350
- 351
- 352
- 353
- 354
- Our peace is within
- Question: How can we attain lasting inner peace?
- Question: How can a person really find inner peace?
- Question: There is so much injustice and nothing we can do to help ourselves.
- 359
- Question: I have an experience here at your Dag Hammarskjold lectures which I never am aware of at your other talks. I know you are bringing down tremendous Peace, which I feel in both places, but here at these lectures I have a feeling that I am falling asleep. Yet I hear what you are saying.
- Within, only peace
- 362
II — Light
- 363
- The inner experience of light
- Question: During concentration and meditation, what kind of practical things can I do to see the divine Light?
III — Bliss
- 366
- Delight
- Question: You have said that it is very difficult to bring down Delight for the disciple. Is there any particular reason for this?
- Question: Once you said that transcendental Delight is one of the divine qualities not manifested on earth. Why is that?
- Question: Do children sometimes experience this kind of Delight?
- Question: Guru, could you tell me the difference between joy, Bliss and Delight?
- Question: What is the difference between ecstasy, Bliss and Delight?
- Question: Is Delight the highest aspect of the Supreme?
- Question: What is the relationship between Light and Delight?
I — Ego
- The human ego
- Between nothingness and eternity
- Question: How can I conquer ego?
- Question: I feel that I am always competing with others. How can I overcome this?
- Question: Once the human ego is transcended, is it possible to slip again into egocentricity?
- Question: I understand that preparatory to realisation, it is necessary for the ego to die.
II — Divine individuality and oneness
- Who is called, who is chosen?
- Not power, but oneness
- Question: I would like to know what the demands of my soul are when I accept a spiritual Master? Do I have to give all my life, all my intelligence, all my love?
- Individuality and personality
- Question: Will we retain individuality or shall we lose individuality when we realise God?
- My necessities
I — Love
- Love human and divine
- Question: I believe that love is always the same, whether human or divine. Is this true?
- 389
- 390
- 391
- 392
- 393
- Question: How can we teach ourselves to love humanity, not just as a collective whole, but also specifically, when a person's defects and bad qualities are so obvious?
- 395
- 396
- 397
- 398
- 399
- Love
- Question: What is the relationship between divine Love and divine Compassion?
- Question: I don't understand why God's Love doesn't enter into me even though I keep the doors shut.
- 403
- 404
- 405
II — Devotion
- 406. Devotion to God
- Question: What is devotion? Just a desire to do everything possible for one's Guru?
- Question: What is the difference between devotion and surrender?
- Devotion
III — Surrender
- 410. The strength of surrender
- 411
- 412
- Question: Why is it that I find it so difficult to surrender to my inner life?
- Question: Is surrender a passive thing?
- Question: Could you explain the difference between dependence and surrender?
- I shall fly only your victory-banner
- The necessity of surrender
- Question: How can we surrender to the Supreme?
- Joy in surrender
- Question: I do not know what is going to happen to me in the future, and I worry a lot about my destiny. Is this right?
- Question: What is involved in the surrender of the vital, and of the physical body? Having surrendered with the heart and soul, how can we best help the other recalcitrant members of our being to surrender?
- 422
- The message of surrender
- Question: Our path is the path of love, devotion and surrender. Can there be oneness with each of these qualities, or does real oneness come only in surrender?
- Love, devotion and surrender
- 426
- 427
I — God and divine Grace
- The finite and the infinite
- God's Name
- Man and God
- Is God's power limited?
- Grace and compassion
- If I can
- I am thy servant
- Question: Which is more important: God's Grace or God's Justice?
- Personal effort and God's Grace
- 437
- 438
- The hour came
- 440
- 441
- Your thoughts divine are in my heart
- 443
II — The Guru
- 444
- Question: Do you think that an aspirant needs a living Guru in order to realise God?
- Who is more important — Guru or God?
- Your real teacher
- Question: When you are meditating on us and I am looking at you, I think perhaps I should try to be as humble, pure and receptive as possible. Is that right, or should I just forget about all this and keep my mind open?
- Mother, you respond to my song
- O Yogi of the highest magnitude, now it is my turn
- The miracle maker
I — Realisation
- Illumination
- Question: Do we have to remove all materialistic goals in order to realise God?
- Question: When I think of all the failings and undivine qualities in myself and my fellow disciples, illumination seems a million miles away.
- Question: Can we actually feel our realisation coming, or does it appear spontaneously and unexpectedly?
- Question: What does God-realisation really mean?
- Question: There are some paths which speak of the goal as enlightenment, and there are other paths which speak of the goal as God-realisation. What is the difference between enlightenment and God-realisation?
- Question: After a person realises God, does he still act like an ordinary human being?
- Question: Does every person who realises God become a spiritual Master?
- Question: Once you said that when a seeker reaches the highest realisation, automatically spiritual manifestation comes. Would you explain to me what you mean by that kind of manifestation?
- Question: Is there any difference between liberation and realisation, or are they absolutely identical?
- 462
- Hide-and-Seek
II — Manifestation and perfection
- 464
- Spiritual perfection
- Question: What keeps us from attaining perfection?
- Question: Was God perfect before He created the universe?
- Question: Has the soul always been perfect?
- Question: Will God's Reality ever be found on earth?
- Transformation and perfection of the physical nature
- Above all
- Two different things
- Question: God could have made man perfect to begin with. What was His reason for putting us to all the trouble that we are going through to attain perfection?
- Question: Will the process of striving for perfection ever come to an end?
- Perfection-goal
- They are known
- They all disappear
- Question: If all creation and all interplay between man and his environment are nothing but the manifestation of God, then the whole universe is, in truth, divine. If this is so, then what about the problem of evil?
- From glory to glory