Chapter 13
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Sce of the Esoteric4 August 1970 pm in Bomnay, India
Question 1
IN ONE OF YOUR DISCOURSES YOU HAVE SAID: IN DEEP MEDITATION, IF THE LUMINOUS BODY, THE SUBTLE BODY OF A MAN OR A WOMAN GOES OUT OF THE PHYSICAL BODY, IT OT BE BROUGHT BACK WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE OPPOSITE SEX, BECAUSE BY THEIR TOU ELECTRIC CIRCUIT IS PLETED AND THE SCIOUSHAT HAS GO OF THE BODY RETURNS IMMEDIATELY.
YOU HAVE EVEN NARRATED YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE WHEN YOU WERE MEDITATING SITTING ON A TREE.
IN THAT STATE, YOUR PHYSICAL BODY FELL DOWN AND YOUR SUBTLE BODY KEPT WATG IT FROM THE TREE.
THEN, BY THE TOUCH OF A WOMAN, YOUR SUBTLE BODY REEHE PHYSICAL BODY.
SO THE QUESTION IS: IN THIS TEIQUE WHY IS THE OPPOSITE SEX NEEDED? AND FOR HOW LONG? IS IT NOT POSSIBLE TO RETURN TO THE PHYSICAL BODY WITHOUT THE OTHERS HELP? WHAT IS THE DIFFICULTY?
A few things o be uood.
First, the entire system in this universe is based on the polarity of the positive and the ive.
Wherever there is attra, wherever you see the pull you will find the two parts, ive and positive, w there.
The male-female division, or the division of sex, is part of that larger polarity.
In the language of electricity, the ive and positive poles attract each other with great force.
The same principle is behind the attra between man and woman.
There is no fual differeweeure of this attra and a piece of iron being pulled by a mag.
If the piece of iron could speak, it would also say, "I have fallen in love with this mag, now I t live without it.
Either Ill live with it, or die with it.
" If the piece of iron were able to speak, it would have written as many poems on love as have been written by human beings.
Its inability to speak is the only differeherwise the attra is the same.
If you uand the nature of this attra, it will be easy for you to follow a few other things.
This attra is generally experienced by all, but it be of value in the spiritual seoo.
And iain ditions it even bees iable.
For example, if a mans subtle body should ever actally e out of his physical body -- actally, without any previous arra or a spiritual practice t it out -- it bees difficult for the subtle body to return.
Similarly, if a womans subtle body happens to leave her physical body by act -- in some illness, in a mishap, because of an injury, or while pursuing some spiritual practice -- without her planning for it, it bees very difficult for the subtle body to e back, because in such a case the persoher knows the way to go out of the body, nor does he know the way to return to the body.
The presence of the opposite point of attra in such situations be helpful.
The touch of a woman makes it ve for the subtle body of man to return to the physical body.
This is similar to plag a sheet of glass between the mag and a piece of iron.
The iron will still be attracted to the mag regardless of the sheet of glass iween.
So in spite of the mans physical body lying iween, the touch of a woman will help bring back the subtle body.
The magic force will cause it to happen.
A womans subtle body be similarly helped to e back if it has go actally.
But it has to be an actal happening; such assistance is not necessary if the experiment is planned beforehand.
Why is it so?
If you have heard my previous talks, you may recall I had said that each mans first body is male and his sed body is female.
A womans first body is female and her sed body male.
If one has made arras to let his subtle body go out, then he doesnt need a womans body.
He use his own sed body -- which is female -- for the return of the subtle body.
Theher woman is not needed.
This is possible however, only if the experiment is well-planned -- the leaving of the body should not be actal.
When su event happens by act, you remain unaware of the other bodies present inside you.
her do you have any idea of how these bodies fun, nor do you know how to make use of them.
So it is possible that the subtle body of a man may return without any help from a woman, but this too will be as much actal as the leaving of the subtle body.
Therefore, one ot be very sure about it.
No one else has done as many experiments on the inner life of man as the tantrikas.
Hence, iantric workshop -- where the greatest amount of work was done on the inner bodies of man -- the presence of a woman had bee iable.
Not the presence of an ordinary woman, but of a special woman.
Virgin girls were highly valued in Tantra, because if a woman has had sexual intercourse with many men, her magic force dissipates.
This was the only reason why virgin girls were required.
If a woman has been in a sexual relationship with more than one man, or many times with one man, her magic force wears down.
Old age is not the only reason why an old woman looks less attractive.
The same goes for man.
The most fual reason is that their polarity weakens -- the man appears less a man, and the woman less a woman.
If one could stay a man or a woman until one grows old, he or she would never cease to be attractive.
The dynamics of staying a man or a woman until the end is what brahmacharya, celibacy, is all about.
There is a lady in America who is over seventy -- and there is no other woman in that try who surpass her in attractiveness.
Even at this age she needs special police prote.
This woman has obviously succeeded in preserving her magic elements even until the age of seventy, A man do the same as well.
Prithvisinghji is sitting here.
Even though he is quite old, the element of youth is very much present in him.
He has saved his magic force for a much longer period.
Somehow he has still remaitractive even to this date, even at this old age.
So in Tantra, virgin girls became very valuable in pulling the sciousness of the seeker ba the body.
These virgins had to maintain their sanctity very meticulously so that their magic power would not leak out.
There are ways to increase this power as there are ways to weaken it.
Various asanas, body postures, such as siddhasana, padmasana, were devised specifically with the idea of preventing this power from esg outside the body.
There are certain points in our body through whiagic power moves outwards.
For example, it flows through our fingers.
Actually, in order for this energy to flow outward it needs a poihing to pass through.
It t flow out of anything circular -- there it keeps turning around.
It flows out of the toes as well.
So hands a are the two main outlets from where this power flows out.
Thats why in siddhasana, or in padmasana, the hands a are meant to be joiogether so that the energy flows from one hand to the other and does not move out.
Eyes are an opening from where the magic power flows out.
However, this power stops flowing if one mao keep them half-closed.
You will be amazed to know that the energy flows not only when eyes are wide open but also when they are fully closed.
It doesnt flow when the eyes are half-open.
When the eyes are half-open and half-closed, a situation occurs in which the circuit created ihe eyes is broken.
The energy wants both to move out and stay in.
The energy is divided within -- half wants to flow out, while the other half wants to move in.
Both oppose ae each other.
Hehe half-open eyes became very signifit -- in Tantra, in Yoga, and so on.
If the energy is served from all sides and the individual is aware of his opposite body within, the other is not needed.
However, on a while things happen actally.
Iate of meditation, for example, a moment es when without the persons knowledge this phenomenon occurs.
In such a case help from outside may be taken.
But it is not required except under ued situations.
As I see it, if husband and wife cooperate with each other, they bee partners in the spiritual seoo.
If both uand pletely each others spiritual states, the magid electric forces of each other, and cooperate, they have the inner experience much more easily than a male or a female sannyasin have it alone.
Besides the fact that both e to know each other closely, their magic power finds a deep adjustment as well.
Hene experiences a very strahing.
If a man and a woman are deeply in love, feel very close to each other, are very intimate, have no flict, they begin to reflect each others vices and virtues.
So much so that if the couple is very mu love, their voices begin to resemble, their facial expressions look similar.
A harmoween their personalities begins to show up.
In fact, the electricity they tain withiers into each other.
By and by both bee homogeneous.
But this is not possible if a discord exists between them.
So it is useful to keep in mind that man and woman be helpful to each other.
The jugal relationship between husband and wife is not limited merely to sex -- it bee a relationship to experience samadhi as well.
Its also worth noting in this regard that generally, a sannyasin looks very attractive.
No ordinary person attracts women as much as he does.
There is no other reason for this except that a male sannyasin tains a great reservoir of magic forces.
Similarly, pared to an ordinary woman a female sannyasin looks far more attractive to men -- for the simple reason that the magic power is stored up in her.
Should husband and wife also serve this power and uand well how not to lose it, they prove much more helpful in saving each others magic power rather than causing it to dissipate.
You may recall my previous talks in which I have said that even sex prove to be the server of energy if practiced with the knowledge of various yoga teiques and the discipline of Tantra.
So remember, the role of the opposite sex is essential only in actal situations.
However, the physical assistance from the opposite sex is not required in every case.
Many times, evehe phenomenon occurs uedly, the subtle body returns.
But in that case it is the inner woman that makes it possible.
So one way or ahe woman is iably instrumental, the man is iably instrumental.
Question 2
WHAT ARE THE PRECISE METHODS FOR ING BA THE BODY? PLEASE EXPLAIN.
Something o be uood in this regard too.
Ordinarily, we dont realize that every touch of ours tains magism.
When we are filled with love and touch a person, the person feel the different quality of touch.
When we are filled with hatred and toueohe difference is noticed too.
Wheouebody with indifferehe person knows as well.
In all three cases the magic element in us flows in different els.
Furthermore, if one trates his mind just on ones hands with a total will, the magic forces bee very strong.
Mesmer calls them "magic passes.
"
Make a person lie naked.
Spread both your palms four inches above his head -- dont touch his body.
Now vibrate your hands vigorously and move them from head to toe -- keep your hands four inches away from the body.
If you do this for fifteen mihe person will attain suormous peace, such profound sleep -- the kind of sleep he may have never had before.
Dont touch him -- simply create electric currents with your hands from a distance of four inches.
Just feel the electric currents are flowing and, shaking both hands, move them from head to feet.
Aldous Huxleys wife has narrated a strange i in her memoirs.
She had met Huxley while his first wife was still alive.
She sychiatrist and Huxley had approached her for treatment.
She went to his house for his psyalysis.
She made him lie on a coud talked to him for almost two hours.
She realized, however, that Huxley was su intelligent man that it was very difficult to get anything out of him -- obviously, intelligent people are difficult to deal with!
Whatsoever she said, Huxley knew more than that.
The books she referred to, Huxley had read those and many more.
Huxley even explaio her the meanings of the words and terminology she used in talking to him.
It became a difficult situation.
The patient was wiser, more learned, more intelligent thaherapist.
Huxley was one of the wisest people of this age.
The lady was just an ordinary doctor, a psychiatrist, while Huxley was a remarkable man.
She became nervous in about a couple of hours.
She realized that the use of stific terminology was leading her nowhere.
Naturally, those who are aware of the exact meanings of words often fail to reach the real meanings -- they remain stuck with the literal meaning.
She became very fused.
It became apparent to her that what she was doing would not work.
But she remembered suddenly that Huxley knew something about the magic passes.
So she said, "I have heard you know something about magic passes.
Is it true?" Hearing this, Huxley got up at once.
Up to now he was answering her rather relutly; now he became very ied.
He asked her to lie on the couch.
Just so that Huxley may have a ce to do something and take some i, she lay down on the couch.
Huxley had indeed bee unfortable lying there for about two hours.
So while the lady lay on the couch, Huxley gave her passes from a distance of four inches from her body.
Its a very simple teique.
Keep your fingers four inches away from the fad shake them vigorously.
Feel electricity flowing through the fingers and move them from head to toe.
Huxley followed this teique and within ten mihe lady went into a deep peaceful state.
She had created the whole thing just as a means t some excitement in Huxley.
The up and asked him to lie down.
The lady went home after a while, but she could out of her drowsiness.
She remained all the while as if in a state of sleepiness, she couldnt figure out what was happening.
She called Huxleys wife on the phone and told her how she was in that funny space.
Huxleys wife asked, "Did Huxley wake you up?"
The woman replied, "No, he didnt wake me, I got up by myself.
"
Hearing this, the wife called out to Huxley, "You fot to wake up Laura -- she is still in the sleepy state.
"
Huxley said, "Before I could wake her, she got up on her own.
Then we began talking and I fot the whole thing.
"
Huxley had not withdrawn the energy he gave her through the magic passes; it followed her for about two days.
So when the energy is transmitted, hands move from head to feet; when it is taken back, hands move from the feet to the head.
There are certain points in the body which are very sensitive; the energy passes through them very quickly.
The most sensitive of all points is between our two eyes.
It is called the agya chakra, or the third eye.
It is the most sensitive spot in our body.
If you sit with your eyes closed and someone points his finger iween your eyes four inches away from you, you will soon begin to see the finger inside -- although you wont see outside because of closed eyes.
The finger will not touch you from outside, but you will begin to feel its touch from within and the chakra will be activated inside.
If the same experiment were carried out even on a sleeping person, his chakra would bee active in sleep.
The seost active point is at the back of your neck.
It would be fun some time to experiment on this ter.
For example, a stranger is walking ahead of you.
If you focus your eyes on the back of his neck from a distance of four feet and give him suggestions to look back, in a few minutes you will find the man looking behind him nervously.
You even make him look behind from his left ht -- whichever way you suggest, he will look back.
You even suggest to him to turn on the street instead of going straight ahead.
After a few experiments, when you bee fident, you make a person go astray.
Yo<var>藏书网</var>u make him go where he never wao go.
When children are kidheir hands a are not tied; rather, the ter at the back of their necks is worked on.
If oempts to tie their limbs openly oreet, children yell and scream and draw peoples attention.
The kidnapper be easily caught.
But if one knows how to a the ter at the back of the neck, one take anybody with him wherever he wants.
And the iing thing is, this man X, for instance, will be walking behind Y, the person he is w on.
So no one accuse X of leading anybody away.
Although Y will be walking ahead of X, he will be only following Xs suggestions.
X make Y walk, turn, move whichever way he wants.
He take Y wherever he wants.
So these two points are very signifit.
There are many other points in the body, but it is better not to discuss them.
These two ters are simple and straightforward.
As I pointed out in my previous talk, any woman who went to see Gurdjieff immediately felt some work happening on her sex ter.
Many intelligent womeo see him and their experience was the same.
As soon as they would go to Gurdjieff, immediately their sex ter would bee active -- some straense sensation would begin making a circular movement at that point.
Its a tremendously sensitive point.
The navel is also one such ter.
There are many other ters as well.
So the question is, if a mans sciousness has go, where should the body be touched so that it be brought back? Generally we o know the mans personality; we must know which point in his body was most alive.
If he is sexual, then toug his sex ter would enable his subtle body to return at once.
If he is an intellectual, lives through intellect, then the body would return by toug the agya chakra.
If the person is seal, emotional, then the subtle body be brought back by toug his heart.
So it will all depend on the ter through which the person lives the most.
Remember, when a person dies his life force leaves from the very ter he has lived through most.
And the same is the point for his subtle body to enter his physical body as well.
For example, when a sexual man dies his life force departs through his genitals.
There is a plete sce which describes how by a dying man, you tell which ter in his body was most active, because that is the ter which breaks down at the moment of death.
We still observe an age-old practice at the time of cremation; its a practice which although now totally meaningless, was ceived once upon a time at a great moment of realization.
At the end of cremation we break the skull of the burning body with a staff.
The blow is made at the point of the sahasrar, the seventh chakra.
The fact is that the skull of a person who attains to sahasrar breaks open at the moment of death.
His vital energy escapes from that point.
Now in the foolishness of hoping that the life breath of our beloved one will pass through the sahasrar, we have been following the tradition of breaking the skull at cremation.
This is quite meaningless because the mans life breath has already escaped through another ter.
However, one who at the moment of his death has attaihe highest state of sciousness, a hole appears on his forehead because the life breath escapes from that point.
Ever since people came to notice this fact, they have been breaking skulls at the cremation ground -- affeately, in the hope that this way the vital breath of their dead beloveds may leave through that ter, although actually the person is dead, the vital breath is already out.
The ter of our life is the same from where our vital breath departs.
Thats why on toug this ter the subtle body returns immediately.
Although this ter is different in eadividual, y out of a hundred people will have sex as their ter, because the whole world is obsessed with sex.
So if you are uo figure out, toug the sex ter will do.
If that doesnt work, then most probably it is the agya chakra, the third eye, because with people who are very intelligent or who use their intellect a great deal, their sex energy turns into intelligence.
If both ters fail, then one should touch the heart ter.
Those who are her very sexual nor very intelligent are emotional people.
These three are the oers.
Then there are some unoers too, but there are very few unon people with such ters.
By toug these oers
In exerg this touch, a few things o be taken into at.
If a particular ter is predominantly active in the person who is applying the touch, then it creates an unusual situation.
For example, if a person whose agya chakra is active were to touebodys heart ter, it will have very little effect.
The whole thing has a sce of its own.
He is always dangerous to practice these experiments on ones own -- experieng the seven bodies, out of the body experience, and so on.
A school, an ashram where there are people who uand the whole system, who be of some assistance -- is the place appropriate for dug such experiments.
Thats why iradition of monks who decided to remain parivrajakas, wandering monks, the seven chakras, the seven bodies all disappeared
.
because a wandering monk ake use of them.
Monks who are tinuously on the move, roaming around, aying at one place, t experiment mu these areas.
Therefreat experiments in these fields were carried out only in the monasteries and the ashrams.
For example, there is a monastery in Europe where no man has ever entered.
The monastery is about fourteen hundred years old.
Only nuns reside in it.
Once a woman is admitted she ever e out of it.
Her name is struck from the citizens list; she bees as good as dead.
The world bees meanio her, she no longer exists for the world.
A similar kind of monastery exists for men too.
Iing this mohe esoteric Christianity had done a remarkable job.
No woman has ever entered in that mens monastery.
No man who has entered has ever e out of it.
Both these monasteries are close to each other.
Should a monks subtle body leave his physical body, a womans touch will not be necessary.
It is enough to place him o the wall of that womens monastery.
The whole monastery is charged.
No man has ever e.
There are thousands of women inside.
There are thousands of men ihe mens monastery.
It is not an ordinary resolve, its araordinary determination.
Its a resolve to embrace death while being alive.
Now there is no way to turn back.
The secretmost sces could develop in these monasteries because they were very ve for carrying on experiments.
The tantrikas had also created such facilities but by and by they were wiped out.
And we are responsible for it, because the foolish puritanical attitudes of people in this try had declared tantrikas immoral.
If a naked woman is worshipped in a monastery, it will obviously upset the man of ethid morality ier world.
It is indeed dangerous if it bees known that in a monastery a woman sits naked and seekers worship her.
About the naked woman being worshipped by men, a man outside is bound to project his own mind, his own acts.
So we destroyed a great many monasteries, a great many scriptures in this try.
King Bhoja alone slaughtered one huhousand tantrikas.
They were murdered en masse throughout the try, wherever they were found.
The reason was they were carrying oain experiments which would have brought ao the entire priesthood, to the so-called morality and the puritan mind of this try.
If their experiments were right, then all our morality is wrong.
It was the experience of tantrikas that if a man performs a particular kind of worship before a naked woman with the feeling of reverence, he bees free from women forever.
Similarly, if a erforms particular kinds of worship before a naked man, she bees free from men forever.
The magic forces between man and womaually desigo uhem.
So it is not a small thing if a man bees capable of looking at a naked woman before him with a feeling of reverence.
Although nature has equipped man to enjoy woman, should a man bee adept at looking at a woman with reverence his magic force -- the energy which otherwise moved toward the outer woman -- begins to flow toward the inner woman.
Thats the only way it be, because his attra for woman disappears.
Now she bees a mother to him.
Now he looks upon her as a goddess.
She bees someone who is venerable.
Ohe energy is reversed, where will it go? Obviously the energy is never destroyed; one simply ges its course.
No energy is ever destroyed, only its course is diverted.
If the woman outside bees an object of worship, the energy begins to flow inward and the meeting with the inner woman occurs.
Ohe union with the inner woman has taken place, a meeting with the woman outside has no purpose, it bees meaningless.
There were specific procedures, particular states of mind, special meditations, certain mantras, definite words, select teiques in order to worship a naked woman.
The union with the inner woman occurred when the experiment included all these ingredients.
The entire system was similar to how it is in a sce laboratory.
We all know that the bination of hydro９９ｌiｂ.gen and oxygen makes water.
This does not mean however, that if you fill your room with hydrogen and oxygen, water will result.
Just the presence of both hydrogen and oxygen is not enough.
A high voltage of electricity is required to vert the hydrogen and oxygen into water.
The rainwater is caused by the lightning.
Hydrogen and oxygen both are present, but only when the lightning flashes with such a powerful force that the heat geed by that electricity brings about a mixture of both the gases, is water created.
God forbid, but su unfortunate day may e -- thanks to our stists -- that we may be left with books which simply mention that water is created by bining hydrogen and oxygen.
But just this much will not help iing water.
The same is true with the books on Tantra.
The books tain only this muformation, that by worshipping naked women with the feeling of devotion, the energy flows inward.
But we have no idea how some charge of electricity, how some special occurrence of this kind is needed for this phenomenon to happen.
Lets look at it this way.
You may have heard the Tibetan mantra: om mani padme hum.
If you repeat this mantra, youll find that several parts of your body are involved in uttering these words.
For example, the word Om reverberates above the throat level, while the word Padme reaches the navel, and Hum to the sex ter.
Just uttering this mantra repeatedly will show how it pees into the different parts of your body.
Now this mantra, Om Mani Padmi Hum
.
if the word Hum is repeated often, its powerful impact stops the outward flow of the sex ter.
With the repeated use of this Hum, the sexuality of man is destroyed, it disappears.
Many teiques were performed before the naked woman.
It is easy to find out whether a teique is w or not if the worshipping man is naked as well and the other seekers are watg him.
But watg a naked woman from outside, one ot be sure whether or not she is sexually aroused; her sexual meism is hidden inside her body.
Watg a naked man however, one instantly find out whether he is sexually aroused or not.
Mahavira allowed only those monks to stay naked who had practiced deeply the sound of Hum.
They could be permitted to remain heir sex ans were not affected even in sleep.
You will be surprised to know, but ordinarily it is difficult to find a man who doesnt have aion two to four times during sleep at night -- whether he is aware of it or not.
In America, where a great deal of research is being done on sleep, a very amazing thing has been noted: every man invariably has aion two to four times in sleep at night.
Whenever dreams ter arouhe genitals are affected.
If dreams affect sex ans, then words too.
If dreams affect sex ans, then pictures as well.
After all, what are dreams?
So there is a whole system for transformation, the energy be turned inward.
In the text of turning th9９liｂ?e energy inward, it may be asked: Why wasnt there a tantric system where the man would stand naked and women would worship him? This o be uood as well.
There never was any tantric system where a naked man was worshipped by a woman because such practice was found unnecessary.
There are a few reasons behind this.
The first reason is that whenever a man is attracted toward a woman, he wants to see her naked.
The woman has no such desire.
Man is a voyeur.
Man wants to see the woman he woman has no suterest.
This is the reason why during intercourse y- of a hundred women close their eyes, while man keeps his eyes open.
Even when you kiss a woman, she keeps her eyes closed.
There is a reason for it: she doesnt want to live that moment outwardly.
To her, this moment has nothing to do with what is outside.
She wants to enjoy this moment inwardly, within.
This is the reason why men have created so many statues, films, paintings of women in the nude, but women have as yet taken no i in nude men.
her do they keep photographs of nude men, nor do they paint nude men or hang dars of nude men in their homes -- they have absolutely no i in seeing a nude man.
Women have never shown any i in nude men, but mans i in nude women is very deep.
A nude woman may well bee instrumental in mans transformation, but a nude man would only cause a woman to close her eyes -- nothing more.
So a similar teique is meaningless for women.
A womans transformation happens differently.
It is important to keep in mind that a woman is the passive sex -- she is not aggressive, she is receptive.
No woman be aggressive.
She never eveo anyone on her own to say, "I love you" -- let alone being aggressive about it.
Even expressing this much would be an act of aggressiveness on her part.
Even when a woman falls in love with somebody, she works it out in such a way that the mao her and says, "I love you.
" A woman never goes and says such things on her own.
She t even it this much of an aggression.
When a man approaches a woman and says, "I love you," even if the woman would like to respond favorably, she says, "No&quo<mark></mark>t; instead of "Yes.
" She refrains from cooperating in mans aggression by not saying even as little as "Yes.
" She will say "No.
" She will refuse.
The fact that a womans refusal actually indicates her approval is a different matter.
A womans denial, in this case, tains acceptance.
The womans "No" will of course reflect the "Yes" as well as her pleasure; but shell be uo say "Yes.
"
Man has to initiate the woman in sexuality, he has to lead her in the world of sex.
However, if a man seeing a nude woman bees oh his inner energy instead of being sexually aroused, the phenomenon proves to be of immense value for the woman.
The inward-going energy of a man helps the womans energy to go within -- it bees an initiation for her.
Just as man succeeds in leading a woman into sex, if he could also transd sex in her presence he initiate her into transding sex as well.
Thats arate system for woman was not discovered -- there was no need for it.
Question 3
WHAT HAPPENS TO WOMEN WHO ARE OF MASE NATURE?
This is possible, and there are reasons for it.
It will be useful to talk about it a little.
Actually, it is not quite correct to say that someone is a man and someone is a woman.
In fao one is only a man or a woman.
Being a man or a woman is a matter of degrees.
For a certain period, a child ihers womb tains both sexes -- it is her clearly male nor female.
The fetus gradually develops iher a male or a female.
This progression is also just a matter of degree.
When we identify someone as a man, it means he is sixty pert male and forty pert female, or seventy pert male and thirty pert female, or y pert male and ten pert female.
When we say woman, it means the female element in her is proportionately greater than the male element.
Occasionally it happens that a man is fifty-one pert male and forty-nine pert female -- a very minor difference.
Such a man will appear to be feminine.
Similarly, if a woman is fifty-one pert female and forty-nine pert male, she will look very mase.
If such a womao find a feminine husband, she will immediately take a dominant role.
In a case like this we it a linguistic error.
In a situation like this, if we were to use language correctly, the man should be called the wife, and the woman the husband, because the one who is dominant is the master.
In that case we must drop husband and wife as synonyms for man and woman.
Truly speaking, husband stands for a particular fun.
To be a husband is a position in itself -- either a man or a woman be in that position.
To be a wife is also funal -- either a man or a woman fulfill that fun.
Many men live and fun as wives.
Many women live and fun as husbands.
So the high or low male/female ratio in their personalities causes men and women to live such lives.
And on a while it happens that either a man actally, in some illness, bees a woman, or a woman ges into a man.
Some time ago there was a case in London in which a woman turned into a man soon after her marriage.
A suit was filed acg her of cheating the man she was married to.
The suit tehat she was already a man at the time of their marriage and the man had been deceived.
It became very difficult for the poor woman to prove that she was indeed a woman at the time of marriage, that she turned into a man afterwards.
But medical sce came to her rescue and it roved that she was a woman at the time of marriage, but on the verge of being a man.
She was a marginal case -- one more step and she could have turned into a man.
And she moved that oep.
Iure it will not be too difficult for sake it possible for men and women to ge their sexes if they wish.
And it is good, because people after all do get bored playing the same role -- a ge is needed.
Women who have the male element more in them will bee domineering.
And suen will always remain unhappy.
The reason is, suineering element is trary to their femiure; heheir misery will be endless.
Actually, a woman likes a man who dominate her.
No woman likes a man who bees dominated by her.
A woman with a high degree of male element will dominate and suffer unhappioo, because she didnt find a man who would dominate her.
Her misery will have no end.
The situation with the man however is that his happiness lies in the woman surrendering to him.
But if he surreo her on his own, the woman will always remain uneasy -- she will never be satisfied.
So being a man or a woman should not be a marginal thing.
But the kind of system we have developed is by and by causing men and women to live marginally.
We have only our civilization to blame for this.
In fact the way our culture has evolved, it has made the roles of men and women almost identical.
This has proved harmful.
Because of it the womans femininity has deed, and so has mans masity -- although ideally, both o be oreme poles.
A man should be y-nine pert male and one pert female -- one pert effeminacy is bound to remain, that he ot avoid.
A woman should be y-nine pert female and one pert male.
For this to be possible, it is necessary that there should be different exercises for both, different diets, different kinds of education.
It is essential that their entire discipline of life be different; only then will we be able to place them as two polarities.
The day man will grow in his uanding, we wont want women to bee like men and men like women.
That day we will want a woman to be like a woman and a man like a man.
And we will want a big gap betweewo, because the greater the distahe more attra be tweewo, the more juice flows betweewo.
The greater the distahe more joy of unioweewo.
The lesser the distahe less juice flows betweewo, the less joy in their meeting.
But this is what has happened.
In the process of being civilized, man has beore and more soft and tender.
Since he her goes to fight battles, nor does he go to work in fields, fight animals, or break stones, his feminine personality has begun to grow.
He has bee soft, he has lost his muscles.
A very basic part of his manhood has disappeared.
The woman is ing closer to being a man.
She is receiving the same education as men.
If she o be successful within the male-orieructure of society she has to pete with men, she has to perform the same jobs as men do.
She has to be like man if she o work in the factory.
She has to behave like men if she chooses to work in an offiviro.
In such situations she is just nominally a woman.
Biologically, her being a woman bees meaningless, because in all other respects she remains a man.
She performs the same jobs that are performed by men.
She stays in petition with them.
On the one hand man is being more and more womanish, less virile.
Oher hand, the woman is moving closer to man, she is being mannish.
This has proved very harmful.
The greatest harm it has caused is that no woman is able to feel satisfied with any man.
The same is true with man.
sequently, both suffer from distewenty-four hours a day.
This is bound to happen.
Until we have enabled man and woman to be on the opposite polarities, distinct from each other, their suffering is iable.
This factor is responsible for their suffering -- which is sick.
Otherwise, there is no reason for it.
Question 4
WE NOT CALL THIS PERVERSION? WE NOT CALL THESE PEOPLE PERVERTS?
It is not a question of calling them perverts, it is an act.
It has nothing to do with perversion.
It is basically an act, and ways should be found to save oneself from su act.
The one who is a victim of su act deserves pity, he should not be called a pervert.
The person is not at fault.
Unless we care t about a qualitative ge in people with respect to their effeminaasity, which is not too difficult, all our efforts to correct them are acts of foolishness.
By iing hormohe person be made feminine or mase -- but we dont think along these lines.
If a woman nags her husband, harasses him, dominates him, the husband hinks of sulting a doctor.
He prefers rather t her to a monk, a holy man, for him to sel her.
The fact is, the holy man is the least responsible in this matter, he has nothing to do with it.
There is no question of anyone seling the woman.
She needs hormones which make her more feminine.
Suones be given -- there is no problem in it.
If a man shows femiendencies and his wife no longer finds him iing, there is no reason to be upset or miserable.
He he same kind of treatment as is required in any other situation.
Question 5
OHE SUBTLE BODY IS OUT, IT T ENTER BATO THE PHYSICAL BODY PLETELY.
THE ADJUSTMENT AND HARMOWEEWO IS DISRUPTED FOREVER.
THIS IS THE REASON WHY THE YOGIS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ILL AND HAVE BEEN DYING AT AN EARLY AGE.
HOW WE PREPARE OURSELVES SO THAT THE DISHARMONY MAY BE AVOIDED? THE POSSIBILITIES OF ILLNESS BE MINIMIZED? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
In this respect too, the first thing is: the moment the subtle body goes out of the physical body, natures order is bound to be disrupted.
The phenomenon is not natural; one should say, it is beyond nature.
When a phenomenon occurs which is trary to nature, or which is beyond nature, the entire harmony and adjustment of nature bees disorderly.
A great deal of preparation is needed if one wants to save oneself from such a disorderly state.
Various yogasanas and mudras, yoga postures, are very helpful in this respect.
In fact all the teiques of Hatha Yoga are useful in this dire.
So you need araordinary body -- an ordinary body wont work.
You need your body to be made of steel so that it withstand an unnatural phenomenon of such great magnitude.
For example, there was no fual differeween the body of Ramamurti and any other human body, but he had mastered a few tricks.
We see that trick w every day, but it rikes us.
You see a tire; when inflated it carries the heavy weight of a car.
Take out some air and the car will not move.
The air has to be in a particular proportion for the tire to carry that much weight.
Through a special teique of pranayama one fill the lungs with so much air that the body hold the weight of an elephant.
The chest funs exactly like a tire, like a tube.
In order to withstand the weight of an elephant, if one knows the proportion, the volume of air required in the chest, then there is no problem.
Ramamurti had the same kind of lungs as we do.
The tube ihe tire is not made of any hard steel, it doesnt have any strength.
The tubes only use is that it takes in its volume a specific amount of air -- thats all.
If that much air is present, the thing works.
Retly, a ype of car has been ceived which run four feet above the ground.
It will not require any tire tube.
In fact the same trick applies in this meism.
The car will move so fast that the air underh will have volume enough to bear its weight.
The speed will cut through the air, separating its upper and lower parts, and due to the speed a layer of four feet will be created which will sustain the moving car.
This works on the same principle as a moving boat.
As the boat moves with speed, a void is created behind it.
It is this void that helps the boat to move ahead.
Water from all sides rushes to fill the void; this pushes the boat forward.
This is the trick that works all along.
Should the water behave differently, the boat will not move.
So if a car is made to run at a particular speed, a four-foot thick layer of air be made underh for it to fun as a road.
In fact, there is o make it really -- it will be formed automatically as the car moves at high speed.
Then there wont be any need for wheels; the car will simply slide along.
Then nothing else will matter -- only air will be hats all.
Hatha Yoga has discovered many teiques which give the body a special discipline.
Giving such a discipline makes the difference.
Thats why a hatha yogi never dies young.
A normal raja yogi dies at a young age like Vivekananda or Shankaracharya, but not a hatha yogi.
And the reason is that the hatha yogi gives a total disciplio his body before such a happening take place.
In order to prepare his body to withstand any unnatural situation, he performs many unnatural practices.
For example, when it is hot outside he will cover himself with a bla.
Sufi mystics a bla around themselves.
The word suf means wool.
One who always covers himself with a woolen around is known as a Sufi.
There is no other meaning of the word sufi.
All Sufi fakirs in the Arab world, where the sun is burning hot, move around in blas.
In that scorg heat they themselves in a woolen bla.
They create a very unnatural situation.
As it is, the sun is sizzling hot, there is no greenery anywhere around, and a man is sitting there ed up in a bla.
He is making his body able to withstand unnatural ditions.
In Tibet a lama sits naked on the snow, and you will be shocked to see perspiration running down his body.
This lama is w on his body to perspire even uhe falling snow.
His effort is very unnatural.
There are many such ways of preparing the body.
If the body has been made to pass through these preparations, it bees fit to withstand any unnatural happening.
Then no harm is caused to the body.
But ordinarily these preparations take years.
sequently, the discipline of Raja Yoga finds it useless to spend so many years in preparation just to live a little longer.
Hatha Yoga requires years of preparation.
Twenty or thirty years are minimum -- thirty years are least.
If a man begins at the age of fifteen, he would be fifty by the time he is fully prepared.
Hehe discipline of Raja Yoga decided not to be so much ed about the body.
If such a state does occur and the body dies, then so be it.
What is the need for saving it? So these preparations were abandoned.
Thats why Shankaracharya died at the age of thirty-three; the reason is that his body was not prepared to handle abbr>..</abbr> of such magnitude.
But there was no need for such a preparation.
If it appears necessary then it is all right; otherwise, o bother.
If one has to work for years in order that the body may last for only thirty-three years, and if the body is saved to last for thirty-three years more, then the arra doesnt prove to be of much be.
If I have to work from the time I am fifteen until I am fifty, I will already have lost thirty-five years in preparation.
Should I remain alive for ahirty-five years -- till the age of eighty-five -- the sum total of years that I will have lived will still be thirty-five.
So it has no meaning.
If someoo have said to Shankaracharya, "You could have lived for seventy years if you had practiced Hatha Yoga," Shankaracharya would have replied, "But I would have had to work forty years for it.
I find making su effort unnecessary.
I like to die at the age of thirty-three.
There is nothing wrong in it.
"
Hence, gradually Hatha Yoga lagged behind.
The reason was that no one was ready to follow its long practices.
But my feeling is, Hatha Yoga e ba the future if its practices are followed with the help of sce.
As I see it, what took thirty-five years ow be pleted in five years with the help of sce.
Time be saved with the maximum use of sce.
However, it will be a while before the stific Hatha Yoga e into being.
I believe stific Hatha Yoga will be born in the West, not in India, because India doesnt have any stifiviro at all.
So time be saved, but it doesnt serve any particular purpose.
It might be useful to save time under very special circumstances, but that too will happen only on the gross level, the level of the physical body.
For Shankaracharya it may not be useful to tinue living but for others it be.
Thats why even if remotely, even if barely, Hatha Yoga is still meaningful.
One could have said to Shankaracharya, "Grahat extending life is of no use to you.
However, if you could live for thirty-five years more, it would be many people.
" This is the only excuse which bring back Hatha Yoga.
When the subtle body separates from the gross body, the adjustmeweewo is interrupted.
It is almost like once you take apart the engine of a car, you reassemble it, but it does shorten the life of the engine.
Thats why the buyer first makes sure the engine of the car was not dismantled before.
Even if the engine has been put together exactly the way it should be, it does lose its loy.
The reason is that it ot be the same -- even a little ge in its inal adjustment affects the life of the engine.
Furthermore, in our body there are some elements that die very quickly; there are other elements that take a little loo die.
And there are some elements that refuse to die even after the man is dead.
Even in the grave the dead mans nails and hair keep growing for some time.
They keep doing their job and take a loime to die.
Death occurs on many levels.
In fact there are several arras in your body which are automatic -- even the presence of your soul is not needed for them to fun.
For example, I am sittialking to you.
If I leave this room the talking would stop, but the fan will go on moving because the fan has its own arra -- it has nothing to do with my presence.
There are two kinds of systems in our body.
One system is such that it will e to an end as soon as the sciousness leaves the body.
Another system keeps w for a short while even after the sciousness has left the body.
It is automatic, it has a built-in arrao tio fun for aended period of time.
The sciousness will move out and the hair wont know the man is dead.
The hair will take quite a while to know the man is gohat it need not grow anymore.
So there are certais within us which die very soon; there are some which die in six seds -- for example in case of a heart attack.
A man survive a heart attack if aid reaches him in six seds.
Basically, a heart attack is not a death; it is just a structural fault which be set right.
In the first world war about fifty people were saved like this in Russia.
If the aid reached in six seds to soldiers who died of a heart attack, they survived.
But after six seds certais die, and then it bees very difficult to revive them.
The delicate parts of our brain die very soon -- immediately.
So if the subtle body stays out for too long, then it bees very necessary to protect the physical body; otherwise, some of its elements will begin to die.
However, you wont be able to gauge how long the subtle body remained outside, because the gross and the subtle body exist on a different time scale.
For instance, if my subtle body goes out, it may seem like I stayed for years in that state.
But after returning to the physical body I may find not even a sed has elapsed.
The time scales for both are different.
It is as though a man dozes off and dreams he is being married, the marriage procession is moving on, then he had children, and they grow up and now they are being married.
He wakes up and narrates his long dream.
One may tell him, "But you dozed off for only a minute, how such a long dream take pla such a short time?" It ; the time scale is different.
Such a long dream take pla one minute, for the simple reason that its time measurement is very different from that of the waking state -- it is very fast, speedy.
If the subtle body stayed out even for a mi may seem to you as if you have been out for years.
It doesnt give you any idea how long you remained outside really.
In that dition it is absolutely necessary that the body is preserved -- which is very difficult.
However, if plete arras are made, ones subtle body stay outside for a long time.
There is an i in the life of Shankaracharya which is worth relating.
It is meanio talk of how loayed outside in terms of his subtle bodys time scale, but acc to our time scale he remained outside his physical body for six months.
A woman got him into trouble.
He had a debate with Mandan Mishra which Mandan lost.
But Mandans wife made a very womanly argument, whily women make.
She said, "Only one half of Mandan Mishra has lost.
I, the other half of him, am still alive.
Until you have defeated me, you t claim to have defeated Mandan Mishra totally.
"
Shankara ut into difficulty.
Although what the woman said was right, it didnt really carry a.
Mandan Mishra was fully defeated.
One doesnt have to defeat Gama, the wrestler and his wife too in order to bee the winner.
But the wife of Mandan Mishra, Bharati, was worth having a debate with.
The world has seen very few learned women of her caliber.
So the idea of debating with her appealed to Shankara.
He thought it would be fun.
He figured if Mandan couldnt win, how long would Bharati last before him? But he was mistaken.
It is very easy to defeat a man, but it is not so easy to defeat a woman, because the arguments of man and woman, winning or losing, are he same.
They follow a different logic.
Thats why so often husbands and wives dont uand each other.
Their ways of reasoning are different, they are never harmonious.
They often go parallel, never meeting anywhere.
So Shankara thought Bharati would discuss matters like Brahmaera.
But she didnt raise any issue regarding Brahman, because she had witnessed how Mandan Mishra had got himself in trouble on that ground.
She knew very well any discussion of Brahman and maya will be of no use.
So she said to Shankara, "Please say something about sex.
"
Shankara was at a loss.
He said, "I am an aplished celibate.
Please dont ask me anything about sex.
"
Bharati said, "If you know nothing about sex, then what else do you know? When you dont know even this much, I wonder what you may be knowing about the Brahman, maya and so on.
You will have to say something about sex because, after all, it is the very source of this world you call maya.
I will debate only on that topic.
"
Shankara said, "Please allow me six months time to learn about this subject.
I have no knowledge of it, no one ever taught me.
I dont know the secret of sex.
"
In order to learn the secret of sex, Shankara had to leave his body aer into another body.
Here one may ask, "Why could he not have learhrough his own body?" He could have, but his entire life energy had bee so introverted, the entire flow of energy had moved so deep ihat it was difficult to draw it out.
He could have, of course, related with a woman using his own body.
If he had set out to know what sex was all about, he could have related with any woman by means of his own body, but the problem was that his whole biy had turned inward.
Drawing it out would have required more than six months.
It was not a simple thing.
It is easy to draw the energy within from without, but to draw it out again is very difficult.
It is easy to drop pebbles and pick diamonds, but very difficult to give up diamonds for pebbles.
So Shankaracharya was in a predit.
He knew his body was no good for the challe hand.
He asked his friends to go and find out if anyone has just died so that he may enter his body.
Theold them to guard his own body zealously till he returned.
He entered into the dead body of a king, lived through it for six months, and then came back.
Shankaras body was maintained for six months.
This kind of guarding and maintenance of the body is aremely difficult task.
Only individuals of incredible devotion must have beerusted with this responsibility.
As I mentioned earlier, a Tibetan seeker sits out in the open iing cold and makes his body perspire.
This is all a matter of will.
Through his determination he dehe reality of the bitter cold and creates another reality that the sun is shining and it is hot.
Merely by his resolve, he subordinates his circumstao his state of mind.
The actual situation around him is that of the falling snow, but closing his eyes he dehat situation.
He suggests to himself that it is not snowing, that the sun is burning hot.
He causes this suggestion to go so deep within that a moment es when his every breath, every cell of his body, every part of his being begins to feel the heat.
Then how he not perspire? His very perspiration shows that he made his state of mind prevail over the circumstances.
In a sense, all yoga is nothing but allowing the state of mind to overe the circumstances.
And all worldliness in a sense is nothing but subjeg the state of mind to the circumstances.
It has not been recorded or eveioned anywhere exactly what Shankaras friends did in order to preserve his physical body.
For six months, a group of his devotees sat around his body without breaking the circle.
The idea was to maintain a fixed number of people present all the time.
They would take turns with others, but basically everyone present was required to remain awake and alert all twenty-four hours.
A special enviro had to be maintained in the cave where the body was being guarded.
It was necessary that certain thought waves prevail in that cave.
About seven individuals were o sit around the body feeling intehat they are not breathing, Shankara is; they are not alive but Shankara is.
And their bioelectricity had to flow tinuously into Shankaras body.
The hands of these seven people were to be placed upon Shankaras seven chakras.
It was essential that the bioelectricity of these seven people be poured uninterruptedly into the seven chakras of Shankara; only then was it possible to preserve Shankaras body for six months.
Even a moments lapse was enough to break the circuit, causing the body to lose its temperature.
It was imperative that the same degree of temperature which is present in the normal living human being should be maintained in Shankaras body.
Not even the slightest variation was allowed in his body temperature.
And this body heat could not be created by any other external means except that these seven individuals tio pass their whole life energy, all their magic forces through the seven chakras of Shankaras body.
Throughout this experiment, the body never es to know that the man is not present, because the seven individuals supply the same energy that the body received from the man under normal ditions.
Do you follow what I am saying? The body never es to know its seven chakras are no longer receiving energy from the mans sciousness, precisely because the chakras go on receiving a non-stop flow of energy from the seven individuals sitting around.
These individuals fun like transmissioers.
sequently, the body remains alive.
But if any error occurs in the procedure, the body gets ready to die.
Until then it remains totally unaware.
So a body be kept alive if other people supply energy to it.
This was the incredible teique used in order to keep Shankara alive for six months.
For six months a group of individuals was diligently engaged in it.
Taking turns, it was required that seven people always remain actively involved in the process.
Finally, Shankara returned after six months and answered Bharatis questions.
This is how he came to learn about something he had no knowledge of.
There was yet another way of learning about sex, but Shankara was not aware of it.
Had su event occurred in Mahaviras life, he would not have entered into another body.
Instead, he would have entered into the memory of his past lives; that was yet another source available.
This teique of remembering past lives, however, remained limited only to the Jainas and the Buddhists -- it never reached the Hindus.
Had such a question been raised to Mahavira, he would not have bothered to enter another body -- there was no need.
Rather he would have revived the memories of his relations with women in his previous lives, and known through this method.
He would not have needed six months.
But Shankara didnt have the stifiowledge of this teique.
He khe sce of entering into the other body, which was developed by a different group of seekers.
There are many spiritual sces, and so far nion possesses all the details of all these sces.
A certain religion developed a particular teique and then remained satisfied with it.
But up to now, no single religion has been founded which tains the treasures of all the religions.
And this will not e about until we have stopped seeing other religions with enmity.
If these religions could e close to each other as friends and share each others treasures, bee partners, a new sce may evolve that makes use of an infinite number of sources.
What was developed i is unknown in India.
Those who built the pyramids knew something whio one in India knows.
Those who worked in the monasteries of Tibet possessed something which is not found in India.
What India has known is unknown in Tibet.
What is known by one is not known by the other, and the problem is that each looks upon its respective fragment as plete.
Now going bato past lives is a very simple experimeering another body is very difficult and very dangerous.
The experiment in regression is very easy and it involves no danger.
But Shankara had no knowledge of this teique.
Since he spent all his life challenging aing the Jainas and the Buddhists, all the doors of Jainism and Buddhism were closed to him.
He could not gain anything from them because he could ablish any tact with them.
It rocess of tinuous frontation.
Naturally, some doors were closed to Shankara.
Shankara was not ready to receive sunrays ing from any other dire except through his own door.
Although we dont realize it, the fact is no matter through which door the rays may ehey e from the same sun.
But here we are, sitting by our respective doors, putting our claim on it.
We fail that what an Arab does ed up in a woolen bla uhe sun is the same thing a Tibetan does naked in the falling snow.
Their work is identical -- there is no differe all.
Although they are engaged in trary experiments, essentially both are involved in the same kind of work: the principles are the same.
Question 6
WHAT IS THE DIFFEREWEEERING ANOTHER BODY AND PSYCHIC MEDIUMSHIP? HOW DOES OER INTO A MEDIUM?
Actually, the experiments are trary to each other.
In the former case, a persoers into another persons body, while in the case of mediumship, the medium alloerson to enter his body.
These are two different things.
The teique of leaving ones body aering into another be called the male teique; one has to enter another body.
Mediumship is a female teique.
Here, the medium will simply remaiive and invite someoo enter his body.
This is much simpler, and the souls invited by the medium will in most cases be bodiless.
Rarely will an embodied soul ever respond to a mediums invitation.
The disembodied souls which are moving around us
We are not the only ones sitting here; there are others present here as well.
Sihey are bodiless, their presence makes little differeo us.
Their presence be uood in terms of how the radio works.
If you turn on a radio you catch the Delhi station, but when the radio was not turned on, do you think the Delhi station was not transmitting or that the sound waves were not passing through here? They were, but we were not aware of them.
There was no medium to ect us with the sound waves.
The radio funs as a medium.
It puts us in touch with the sound waves.
So the individuals who work as mediums fun on the same principle as a radio does.
They perform the act of tuning.
Their presence makes It possible for any of the wandering souls to ehem.
But these are all bodiless souls, and these souls are always eager to enter a body.
There are reasons for it.
The biggest reason is that bodiless souls -- we call them ghosts -- their desires, their passions are the same as those of any ordinary mortal, any embodied soul.
However without being in the body, without the help of the body, the desires of these bodiless souls are never satisfied -- they t be.
For example, a ghost wants to make love to someone; for that it needs a body.
The ghost carries the desire but is helpless without the body.
When it es closer to a human body, the ghost passes through it.
Our body offers ao it.
The spirit wants to be in the body, it longs to enter a body.
The spirit succeeds iering the body when out of fear a person tracts from within.
In a state of fear your sciousness does not cover as much space -- you shrink.
A vacuum is created in your body.
In that fearful state the spirit ehe vacuum.
Generally, people think ghosts are born out of fear, or that fear itself is the ghost.
None of these beliefs is true.
A ghost has its owence.
A person in a state of fear makes it possible for the ghost to ma -- he bees the medium.
And si is the ghost that enters into his body, problems are bound to arise.
The mediumship you are talking about is the sequence of a voluntary invitation given to a soul.
Someone on his owes a space within and invites a spirit to enter.
The sole teique of mediumship is that you create a space within and invite a spirit present in the viity to enter your body.
Sihis is done voluntarily, there is not much risk involved in it.
And si is done purposely one knows the method of calling the spirit as well as the device for sending it back.
heless all of this is possible only if the medium is receptive, and it works only on the ordinary bodiless souls.
The risk increases if a soul that is already in the body is to be called, because if I were to call an embodied soul to enter a medium, the body of the man being called will fall unscious.
Very often, when someone falls unscious, it is taken as an ordinary state of unsciousness.
But many times it is not the case -- it is a situatiohe individuals soul has been called somewhere.
He is highly risky to treat the individual at that time -- it is best to leave his body alone.
But we have no knowledge of all this.
Up to now, it has not bee clear to sce when a state of unsciousness is of the normal kind, and when it is caused by the souls moving out of the body.
So the phenomenon is the same but of a different nature.
In the case of mediumship the soul is invited in the body; in ahe soul is moved out of the body.
Question 7
IN ORDER TO KEEP HIS BODY ALIVE, RAMAKRISHNA HAD TO RELY ON THE CRAVING FOR FOOD.
IS IT NOT POSSIBLE FOR A HIGH LEVEL BODY TO EXIST WITHOUT ANY SUCH CRAVING? IN WHICH BODY DOES SUCH ASSISTANCE BEE NECESSARY? IF THE BODIES ARE OF THE HIGHER STATES -- SUCH AS THE FIFTH, SIXTH, OR THE SEVENTH BODY -- WOULD THEY BE REQUIRED TO BE MAINTAINED WITH THE AID OF ANY SUCH CRAVING AS WELL?
Ramakrishna was very fond of food -- excessively.
One might say he was crazy after food.
Even in the middle of a profound religious discussion he would walk to the kit and ask his wife Sharada what she was cooking for dinner.
Then he would e bad resume the discussion.
This caused aggravation not only to Sharada, but to his close devotees as well.
The devotees were ed that if wot around of their masters weakness for food, it would create a sdal.
Actually, disciples are always greatly worried about their master! They are always very nervous lest their masters name be dragged into disgrace.
So finally they said to Ramakrishna, "Your all of a sudden dropping a serious discussion for the sake of food does not look good upon you.
And why should the food matter so much for a man of your stature?"
What Ramakrishna said in response was very remarkable.
He said, "Perhaps you dont know
.
how could you? All the anchors of my ship are lifted, all the pilings have been uprooted, the sails of my ship are filled with the wind and I am ready to depart.
One anchor I have carefully saved so that my ship does not leave the shore yet.
The day I stop taking i in food, know that I shall die three days later.
I doo live for myself -- there is no reason for it.
But I have something to tell you, something to vey to you.
There is something I have which I am eager to give to you.
He is necessary that I linger a little longer.
"My ship is ready to sail, but it tains a treasure which I would love to distribute to those who are on the shore.
But the people on the shore are all asleep.
I have to wake them up, I have to coax them to accept the treasure I possess.
They dont realize it is a treasure, they think it is trash.
They say, We dont know what you are talking about -- leave us alone.
We are happy sleeping in our cozy beds.
"Let me persuade the people on the shore to accept the treasure my ship is filled with.
Let me distribute to them everything I have got.
The time has e for me to say goodbye.
"So this is the reason why I have tied myself to one anchor; this is why I take so muterest in food.
Food is my anchor.
The day I turn my face away from food, know that I shall be dead three days thereafter.
"
No oook him seriously that day -- which is normally how things happen.
The world would have beed greatly had certain things in the lives of Ramakrishna, Buddha, or Mahavira been taken seriously.
But that never happened.
So it was thought perhaps Ramakrishna roviding an explanation, that he was merely trying to make a point.
The devotees must have suspected also that maybe Ramakrishna was explaining away his weakness for food so that he doesnt have to be bothered.
But exactly what he had said happened.
One day, Sharada brought his meal as usual.
In his room Ramakrishna was lying down on his bed.
He looked at the plate and turned on his side.
Ordinarily, he would jump out of his bed to see what was in the plate.
The momeurned on his side, Sharada recalled Ramakrishnas words: his turning away from food would mean he wont be alive three days after that.
The plate fell from her hands.
She broke down a.
soling Sharada, Ramakrishna said, "What will g do? I have pulled up the anchor.
How long could I have remaiied to it?" Exactly three days later he died.
You ask me: " such a soul stay on this earth without the aid of any desire?" Up to the fifth body, some earthly desire, an anchor, is needed; otherwise the soul t stay around.
One who has attaio the fifth body has to fasten himself around some cravied to one of the five senses.
But beyond the fifth body this is not necessary -- the soul stay around without needing to do this.
However, in that case some other factors will tribute iending the souls existence.
Then it wont be necessary to preserve any craving.
But this is altogether a different matter and requires a lengthy discussion.
Let me explain it to you briefly.
If one wants to tio exist beyond the fifth body -- as Mahavira, Buddha, or Krishna have done -- then in that case a pressure from the liberated souls, from the free spirits works upon them.
The urge, the persuasion es from above.
Theosophy did a very signifit resear this area.
The theosophists discovered that many souls which are now liberated, which have bee oh the universe, which have attaio the highest, their pressure works in keeping sudividuals a little longer on the earth.
For example, a ship is about to leave.
It is not tied to any piling, but the people from the other shore call out loudly, "Please stay a little longer: please dont be in a hurry.
" These voices from the other shore bee instrumental iing the ship from leaving.
And these voices did prove effective iime of Mahavira, Buddha and Krishna.
By Ramakrishnas time the ditions had ged siderably, and things became very difficult.
In fact su enormous, unimaginable gap exists between the people who have reached the other shore and this tury that it is almost impossible to hear their voices.
The distance has grown wider and wider -- there is no tinuity, no li anymore.
For example, Mahaviras life is part of a tinuity.
Twenty-three tirthankaras preceded Mahavira, and he was the twenty-fourth of that tradition, that system.
There is a of twenty-three individuals before him, and the twenty-third person preceded Mahavira not long before he lived -- two hundred and fifty years before him.
Although the first man of the happened very long ago, all the twenty-three iween appeared very close to each other.
The man who reached the other shore before Mahavira
The meaning of the word tirthankara may surprise you.
Tirtha means a ghat, the quay, and tirthankara means one who has landed on that ghat before you, thats all.
So twenty-three tirthankaras have landed oher shore, the ghat.
They stituted a systematic order.
The language, the signs and symbols, the informatioaining to that world were all well preserved.
The twenty-fourth man, standing on this shore, could easily hear, uand, pick up messages ing from these twenty-three beings.
There is not one person among the Jainas today who follow a single word of this tradition.
Mahavira died two thousand five hundred years ago.
A huge gap exists between him and us.
Even if Mahavira were to shout from there, there is no one here who uand his language.
In two thousand five hundred years, the entire system of language, the signs and codes pertaining to that world have ged -- they have lost the tinuity.
Jaina monks simply wade through the scriptures -- they dont know what else they do.
But they make a big thing about the 2500th birth anniversary of Mahavira -- they make a great deal of noise, display banners, raise flags, cry out loud slogans of "Hail Mahavira!" They no longer have any meism to receive Mahaviras unication -- there is not a single man who receive it.
People other than Jainas may have such a system still, but the Jainas dont have it.
Hindus and Buddhists had a similar system too, but by Ramakrishnas time no such meism was available.
Ramakrishna did not have any link, any e with the people of the other shore.
Hehere was no way he could be persuaded by them.
So the only course left for him was to drive a piling here on this shore and hold on to it.
There was no other way.
It was difficult to know of any pressure w from the other side.
Two kinds of people in this world have worked for spirituality.
There are some who have worked in a , and the remained active for thousands of years.
The twenty-fourth man in the Buddhist tradition is yet to be born.
One more ination of Buddha is yet to appear, and Buddhist monks all over the world are awaiting his appearance.
They are looking forward expetly -- desiring him in infinite ways, hoping to find him once more.
The Jainas are awaiting no one.
Hindus are also expeg an ination -- Kalki.
He is yet to desd.
But they dont have a clear picture yet as to how he be called, how he be received and reized.
They dont have any means to identify him.
You will be amazed to know that all the twenty-three Jaina tirthankaras had left clues to identify the twenty-fourth tirthankara.
All possible indications were made available.
They had defined all the characteristics: the lines on his palms, the signs on the soles of his feet, how his eyes would look, what sign he will have on the side of his heart, how tall he will be, how long he will live -- everything was determined.
There was no problem identifying such a man.
In Mahaviras time eight individuals, including Mahavira, claimed to be the twenty-fourth tirthankara.
The time was ripe for a tirthankara to appear, but there were eight claimants.
Finally, Mahavira ted and the other seven were discarded, because only Mahavira showed all the signs of being a tirthankara.
But no such system or means of identification was available by the time Ramakrishna appeared on the se.
In a spiritual sehe world today is in a very fused state.
And in this fusing situation now there is no alternative left except that one remaihered to the earth by anch himself to some piling.
No messages are heard from the other shore; even if they are heard, no one follows them.
Even when one does follow their transmissions, it bees difficult to decode their secret.
The basic difficulty is that now, only by way of signs and signals is unication possible between that world and this world.
You may not be aware, but within the last hundred years stists have discovered that there must be at least fifty thousand plas in the universe on which there may be life.
And they suspect there may be beings on these plas with a sciousness developed as high as that of human beings -- or even higher.
But the most difficult thing is: how to establish a dialogue with them? How to send them signals? What sign or symbol will they uand? How will they follow them? Seeing the tricolor flag of India, an Indian knows it is his national flag.
But what significe will the flag have for people of other plas? And how we make it fly so that it bees visible to them? Many strange experiments have already been carried out in this respect.
One maed a gigantic triangle in Siberia.
He grew yellow flowers on that triangle which was miles long.
Then he illumihe triah special light effects.
Now, no matter on which pla you may draw a tria will still be a triangle.
No matter where you may draw, it will still have three angles.
Wherever there is a human being, or beings higher than man -- whatever -- the figures of geometry will remain the same.
So the idea was to establish a tact with other plaary beings by means of geometry.
It was hoped, firstly, that people looking at such a huge triangle from another pla may e to think that such a triangle could not have e ien its own.
And, sedly, seeing the triahey might safely assume that geometry must be known to the people oh.
For many days a great deal of work was done uhis assumption, but there was no firmatioher or not anyone oher plas uood this attempt.
Now of course, radar has bee up to receive signals which perhaps the other plas may be sending us.
Occasionally some signals are caught, but their secret, their meaning remains obscure.
For example, you must have heard of the flying saucer.
Many people have seen a small luminous saucerlike object moving around and then disappearing in the sky.
It has bee many places, on many occasions, and sometimes at many locations around the world on the same night.
A, so far, it has remained a mystery.
No one knows what that object is.
Who sends it? Why does it appear and then disappear?
It is quite possible that beings of some pla are trying to establish tact with earth.
They may be sending us signals which we are uo follow.
When we dont uand them, some of us say its all a fi.
They think the talk of flying saucers, etcetera is nothing more than gossip.
Some believe it must be an optical illusion, while others think it could not be anything but some kind of natural phenomenon.
So it is not clear exactly what it is.
There are a few people in this world who at least believe that maybe through these objects people of another pla are sending an invitation to us, that they are trying to vey something to us.
But even this is not such a difficult situation, because the distaween life on this pla and life on another pla is not so great as it is between souls which have reached the other world and souls which still exist in this world.
This distance is much greater.
In the first place, the signals transmitted from that world are difficult to catch here.
Even if they are caught, they are not uood.
Their secrets remain undiscovered.
So people like Ramakrishna in this tury, or say within the last two hundred years -- it is nht to say even two hundred years
Actually after Mohammed -- that is in the last fourteen hundred years -- things became difficult, very difficult indeed.
Realizing the situation, Nanak created a new set-up from the start.
He fot about the past and started a radition of ten people.
But it too disappeared very soon -- didnt last long.
So now there are only individual seekers left -- those who are not part of any .
An individual seeker has to use an anchor as a means -- thats the only way at least up to the fifth body.
The external signals and pressures work when one is beyond the fifth body.
But for now, if the messages from the other world are not ing in, even a man in the seventh body too will have to make use of the anchor established before the stage of the fifth body -- there is no other way.
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