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Part 1: The Essence of Soul and Consciousness Oṃ du sa yuktam nityadayanti yoginaḥ. Kandam vakṣadam teva oṃ kārayānamo namaḥ. Guru Brahmā, Guru Viṣṇu, Guru Devo Maheśvara, Guru Sākṣāt Parabrahma, Tasmai Śrī Gurave Namaḥ. Dhyāna Mūlam Guru Mūrti, Pūjā Mūlam Guru Padam. Mantra Mūlam Guru Vākyam, Mokṣa Mūlam Guru Kṛpā. Om Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Blessed Self, dear sisters and brothers, good evening and welcome. Our Mahāmaṇḍaleśwar, Swāmī Jaśarāj Purījī, was giving an introduction. Many of you know Jashārāj Jī; I have known him for a long time. He became a holy saint when he took sannyāsa. Since then, he has progressed through much listening, talking, and studying. Jasarājī then attained a higher level among the sanyāsīs, swāmīs, and sādhus from the lineage of Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya, which has ten different akhāṛās. His is the Mahānirvāṇī Akhāṛā. I wish to explain that becoming a sanyāsī—a monk—has levels, and the highest one can attain is Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar. At the Kumbha Mela this time, he did not come because he had a duty here. Otherwise, a Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar is like a pīśāc. We have won Śaṅkarācārya and the Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara. So, Swāmījī Rājāpurījī is here, and I am very happy to see him again. He is from my lineage, from my masters, and he became a monk. I performed his ceremonies, etc. Dear ones, I have been travelling throughout Australia since 1980, so I know a little about this country, its people, and everything. I think Australians are one of the largest groups of yoga practitioners outside of India. You are aware of physical health, and many are practicing yoga for developing human consciousness. We humans are the same as other creatures. We have a soul, but other creatures also have a soul. And not only creatures, but vegetation has a soul as well. When we cut down a tree, within a few minutes—or for a big tree, maybe half an hour or an hour—the whole tree dies, all its leaves droop. This means there is life. Each and every blade of grass also has a life. There is also life in the water. Water, too, has life, a soul. Do we know what the soul is? Yesterday, I gave a lecture on the Sunshine Coast about the nature and quality of the soul. Many of you said, "It is my soul," or "your soul." Yes, it is yours and mine and theirs, but in reality, there is only one soul. Is this the first time you are hearing this? That every soul is a different soul? If you go to a higher consciousness, you will realize there is only one soul, and that one soul is present on our earth. How can you understand there is only one soul? Consider the ocean. From the ocean, we take water in different containers, big and small. The sweet water that comes from the ocean through steam, clouds, and rain is still water. It may be salty or sweet. This water may be in fruits or juice, but it is still water. In creation, it is said there are 8.4 million different life forms. I mention this not because I have counted them, but because it is stated in the scriptures and by saints. So we have to believe it. Otherwise, you could start counting from today how many different creatures there are in the water, on the earth, and in space. Yet, again, it is one. There are different vessels, but the water inside is one. Life is water. Water is life. Now, water has different qualities. Here, duality appears. There is one bottle; inside is alcohol. It is also water, but it is transformed into different qualities. In fruits, there are different qualities. Similarly, every creature's soul is within them, dwelling in that particular form, life, and body. We are composed of five elements, which we all know well: space, fire, air, water, and earth. These come together, but the soul is not that. There are different aspects to our being: the physical body, the mental body, and the subtle body. In Vedānta philosophy, there are five sheaths. These five bodies are called kośas. Annamaya Kośa: anna means nourishment, food; this is the physical body. Prāṇamaya Kośa: prāṇa is energy, life, strength. Then Manomaya Kośa: mana is the mind. Our mind is like a body; it is one layer after another. The strength of the mind is very powerful. It expands and contracts. You can travel in a quarter of a second. I can bring you there in your mind, and now you are only here—that is the mind. For example, if I simply name the moon, without any explanation, you are already there with your mind, or even beyond. So each one of us dwells in the entire universe through our consciousness. Manomaya Kośa, Prāṇamaya Kośa... then there is Vijñānamaya Kośa. Vijñāna means science or knowledge. All this is within our body, yet the soul is different. These five bodies will eventually disappear. We say a person or an animal has died. Yes, we say it, but in reality, that is not dying. When the soul separates and departs, all these five elements, as the five bodies, merge back into their sources: water into water, earth into earth, air into air, fire into fire, and space into space. They do not die. And they will come together again. How does the soul come? Where does this happen? All these five elements assemble according to the science of yoga. Particularly, the science of yoga involves the cakras and kuṇḍalinī. Many of you know about kuṇḍalinī, cakras, and energy. Our soul, which we perceive as individual because it resides in one vessel, contains everything within. We are trying to reach that consciousness, to merge our soul into what we can call cosmic consciousness. That is called liberation. So you, or I, or they—we are in the case of these five bodies. We will leave. We will go into other bodies again. When we leave this body, the speed is very, very high, like a falling star travelling a vast distance to earth in a second. Do not think that your soul is here, your body is here, and then we perform ceremonies, go to the graveyard, and pray. That is another philosophy, but there is nothing there. That is our attachment, our feelings for our families: mother, father, brother, sisters, husband, wife, friends. We have attachment, but this attachment exists only on this earth. So, how do we purify that? Our consciousness is where the soul resides. That part which develops will no longer be called just the soul. Ātmā. I am sure you, as yoga practitioners, know what ātmā is. Jīvātmā, ātmā. What is the difference between ātmā and jīvātmā? Ātmā and anātmā are measured against that, and it is called jīvātmā. But when purification takes place, and you have no negative karmas or qualities—if you have only very good qualities—this is also yours, but you will still remain here. It is like this: up and down. If you are good, more good things come up. If you are not good, other things come up. But we have to reach a state where you have neither this nor that. When there is nothing, then you can proceed to that cosmic consciousness again. Otherwise, we as individuals, even in a very tiny creature like an ant, have life. When an ant lays an egg, it places another soul inside. Achieving purification and liberation involves many different meditations. We will speak about meditation another day. What does meditation mean? There are different types: active meditation, peaceful meditation, and many different ways. But still, our soul is struggling in this universe. How do we come out? Meditation is not a way to come out, but it is a way to stay on the good path, to remain on that path. There is mantra, there is kuṇḍalinī, there is Śaktipāt. There are many, many things, and all are good. We should not criticize anyone, because everyone who is trying to do good is doing good. In this hall, we are sitting here. How many people? But we are all one. Therefore, who am I to criticize one person and not another, to say this good person is dead or that one is naughty? In reality, we are one. This is how we approach the cakras. And cakras are not like this. You will see in a chart I have here. This is a cakra. What I will explain and show you is not in my body, nor in yours. But there are symbols which have meaning, and this meaning points to energy centres in our body. According to Indian methodologies, the cakras are depicted like this; in other systems, they may be different. But these symbols have been brought together to represent what is what, so we can understand that this cakra corresponds to that centre. We will now see a very short video about Kuṇḍalinī and cakras, and then we will continue. So, when we are all one here, we are all one. We should not criticize that one or this one. When our body is gone, we are all beautiful souls together, like empty space, like the sky. We are one. There is nothing. This is very hard for humans to understand. And, of course, other creatures cannot understand it. We will speak about these animals and so on. There are 8.4 million different creatures; one of them is the human. Humans have greater capacities and energies. We can develop, we do develop, we understand. So now, human life is here. Either we go up or we go down. They are doing acupressure and that acupressure. They take a little needle and touch somewhere on the body. Similarly, if you touch somewhere here, or here, or somewhere, on a monitor the needle moves. Puri Jī, Puri Jī... Puri. Well, so all these cakras are in our body. Everything is everywhere. At each point, there are vibrations occurring, which we know as our very fine nerves. Some kinds of nerves are visible and touchable, like a stream through which air flows. There are 72,000 such nāḍīs (energy channels) in a complete, healthy human body. And that is shown in this chart we are looking at. Part 2: The Path of Purification: Chakras, Prāṇa, and the Journey Within There are many major chakras, and what is visible here is very little. They are major points, but there is more than this in the whole body. When we achieve purification through our entire body, then we can attain our true self, our health, and our divine consciousness. We must purify ourselves through prāṇāyāma—breath techniques. Breath techniques, meditations, singing, resonance, and so on—through these we can achieve balance. Then our whole body will be healthy and at its best. So, do practice. You are doing so here in this hall, and the prāṇāyāma breath technique must be done systematically. When you come as a yoga teacher and wish to teach—learn yoga properly. You will learn āsanas and similar practices. Then you may think, "I am a yogī." I would be very happy for you if you were a yogī, but you are not. Because we are still not there; we are on the way. The practice of prāṇāyāma is the purification of the body and the maintenance of all the nerves and glands. These are the techniques of prāṇāyāma: Iḍā, Piṅgalā, Suṣumnā, Sūryanārī, Candrabhoi Vedan, Anulom, Vilom, Bhastrikā, Kapālabhāti, Ujjāyī, and so on. These are all purifications for the body. Your yoga teacher should teach you. So, I would say you can do a little physical exercise, but do more work with the prāṇa—the energy, the strength, the clarities in your body—through the prāṇāyāmas. Then you will understand what chakras are and what your happiness is. You will be joyful. You will feel it when you can touch these nāḍīs, these energies in our body. It is a fine energy, very fine. But you cannot begin by saying, "Okay, tomorrow I am..." and then the day after, "I feel, oh, my all energy is there." No, no, no. You must go step by step. It is like a woman becomes pregnant, and after one week you want to have the baby out. It cannot be. It will take nine months until the baby comes, and then we will have the beautiful child. God has done everything systematically. How many days is God giving this—or nature, if you don’t believe in God? But you cannot immediately have the head orally there. Your soul, my soul, my consciousness, your consciousness—this is in the navel. That is called nābhi. From here, it goes to the whole body, the whole creation. If there is something in the navel that is not in order, the child will not be healthy. Anyhow, the chakras. I am coming to this: your chakra and my chakra, all are here. This is very nice, you know, but you have that also, I see. Now, our body is divided into different levels. The first is our earth. Our earth is not only a planet, but it is an earth. Planets may be different. This is the solid, our mother earth, and we are stepping on this. So, in your mind, all foot soles are covered with the whole earth—not only Australia, okay? Also in Fiji, or some other places, wherever, anywhere, a tapu. So, our chakras, our solid points, are from the whole foot sole to the ankle joint. When we have no consciousness, when we are not balanced, then we can have problems. You can fall down, you can break your ligaments or your ankle joint. So here is our chakra. Every day I am talking about Kuṇḍalinī. Kuṇḍalinī is a science, unbelievable. You are here sitting; this whole chart is you, not me only. It is in you. So, if you want to become a good, healthy person, and if it is possible, walk on good soil for about 15 minutes at least, or half an hour. Put a little water on it and walk. Just make your telephone, or whatever, if you can feel that, and afterwards you can wash your feet. How happy and relaxed you will feel. People who have headaches—they should work on the earth every day because the earth is connected to the Sūrya, the sun. When you are building a structure, we put in earthing. What is earthing? Because lightning from the clouds can destroy the whole building. But that power from the lightning, from the cloud, is conducted through one thread of our earthing wire. Similarly, our whole body is balanced through our foot soles. If you don't have that opportunity, or if you have time, sit at home on your sofa, take your foot sole, work it a little, and do this āsana. You have that yoga āsana, yes? Beautiful, beautiful, this. From here, we exercise our ankle joints clockwise and anticlockwise, and our neck will be healthy. Both the neck and the ankle joint are very strong. This chakra, up to here, is called the Earth Chakra. For a few minutes or ten minutes, work with the mud, the earth. If you don't have any anywhere—if you live on the fifth or tenth floor—you can bring something from your plants. Touch the soil in the plants, clean it, and work with it. Touch that. Energy from the earth comes into our hands. It will be beautiful. Afterwards, you can clean nicely, and then, of course, you can tend to your nails. Okay, no problem. So you might think, "Oh God, I'm coming into my office and what will my boss say? Look, all my nails are full of mud." No, you should clean them nicely, but touch the mother earth. It is like a little child crying, and the mother's lap, and the mother is touching her. The mother's hand—how the child feels best. Or the father also. Please don't only talk of the mother; the father is also the same. From the ankle joint to the knee is what we call the vegetation. All the vegetation inside. From the knee till the hip joint, at the beginning of the bottom of the spinal column, are the animal chakras. So all that you have—different kinds of emotions, anger, and this and that, many things—is from the knee till here, the cakras. Slowly, slowly, everything is getting strength, strong and stronger, and then comes man—it means humans. Now, there is a strong power in the animals and humans, and this is the chakra, the Mūlādhāra Cakra. There it begins. It is your energy, my dear, and mine too. So here come these five chakras, very strong in humans. And these five are the five elements. These five: the physical body, mental body, etc. Annamaya Kośa, Prāṇamaya Kośa, Manomaya Kośa, Vijñānamaya Kośa, and Ānandamaya Kośa. These are the five, we can say, kośas. I would say, one after the other layer. We are in our... this is our tent, with one layer after another, and we are inside. These five are very, very important. Also, your kidneys, your liver, your heart, and all the organs and glands in this body are depending on our chakras, which we have seen today on this screen. So, my dear, āsanas and prāṇāyāmas, the yoga you are doing, is very good. You should do it every day. But if you concentrate now, systematically, you will see in three months you will have completely different feelings. Different energy will come to your body automatically; you don't need to do anything. Of course, you should not take drugs. Otherwise, my whole work is gone with one glass of alcohol. Because that is too strong an energy. Alcohol is too strong an energy. So as soon as you drink a little something, your whole head, in your brain, there is some vibration. All nerves are in this disabled point. Drugs. I don't want to prohibit you. You can do what you like. It is yours. But if you want to come in that way, then please don't take the drugs. Instead of alcohol, drink juice. Apple juice can also turn into alcohol. Grape juice is very nice and good, but it can turn into alcohol. So this is how the quality of the human is changing. That is very important for us to take care of our body. So these chakras, from the end of the spine till here, are our thoracic glands. The thoracic glands—many times we have problems. Why is that mostly the problem? Because these chakras, this energy, is imbalanced; it is not good. There is chanting. With chanting, we can address our thyroid problems, and there are many, many causes for why it is. So that may be for next time. After that, the fifth chakra: Mūlādhāra, Svādhiṣṭhāna, Maṇipūra, Anāhata, and Viśuddhi. After that comes the borderline between the human and the divine—the human qualities, human power, etc. And then, above the humans, there is another highest point, the highest power. And that is coming here. It is called Ājñā Cakra. Our consciousness is here, and then the divine is coming up. If you have drugs and alcohol, then this Agnya Chakra is very much imbalanced, and then all the glands and everything are different. It is your choice. But if you want to go as a human into that human level, to the Divine—if you believe in God, then God, otherwise in the Supreme One. That is Supreme. So this chakra, after that, there is one coming which is called the Bindu Cakra. Bindu means a drop. This is in everyone, men or women, in their body, in the forehead, on the top of the head. When you cut all your hair and the hair grows about half or one centimeter, you will see the chakra there. Oh, that was it. You can put them off, okay? Thank you. That is called the nectar. Nectar means not honey, not a sweet. It can be different. This nectar, if we can get it, then our life will be long, our consciousness will be very balanced, good, everything. It is here. Then, the eighth chakra that is on the top of the head here, which we call the thousand-petaled rose, is like a sun, the sun’s rays. That is what we call symbolically Śiva. Śiva and Śiva is that one is called the Swayambhū. Swayambhū means that I have no mother and no father. It is He who manifests Himself. Now He is on the two seats: on the top of the head and in the Mūlādhāra Cakra. Here you will see on this cakra, here is your Kuṇḍalinī power, your power, and there is the elephant. Why is the elephant there? Yes, I will do, thank you. So, there is an elephant. You can't see it, so it's a little one. But why is the elephant here? An elephant has seven trunks. I am coming from a country where there are elephants. I was in Africa, there were elephants. In some other countries, there are also elephants. But I didn't see two trunks, only one trunk. But how do we show this here? These seven trunks mean saptadhātu, the seven minerals which are keeping our health very much. So, how this is functioning in chakras will be tomorrow. Otherwise, you will say, "What is Indian? He was talking this and that, and we are all like this." So, I wish you all the best. This was a glimpse of Kuṇḍalinī. Tomorrow we will—what time is the program? Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening. You can take this; I believe you have this book. When you read this, start with the first chakra. Take time. Everything is very, very... So this is, yes, the same. This is Mūlādhāra Cakra. Other chakras we will see in this. Thank you. Adio.