Original subtitles

Those of you who know me, this is normal.

You know, wherever I am —

believe it or not, the only place where I had no problem with the sound was India.

Isn't that amazing? Wherever — Europe, United States, everywhere — trouble!

You know, listening to talks is about the same as reading recipes, right?

You can listen to talks as long as you like; it doesn't satisfy you.

You know, just like you read recipes. You have to eat. Then you are satisfied, right?

And so it is, lectures, you know, that's fine. But you have to apply what we are saying.

Some of you are not familiar with the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda

or Self-Realization Fellowship. Self-Realization Fellowship is simply the organization which he founded

with the purpose to keep the teachings pure and to spread it worldwide.

But I want to say first that this is not a new sect;

it is not a new religion. So what is it?

Paramahansa Yogananda was the last in a line of God-realized masters

whose mission it was to bring back the esoteric teachings

which is underlying all the great religions.

And that teaching, that esoteric teaching, was lost in the Dark Ages.

I think most people still think that civilization gradually evolved to now,

and now we are on the highest point ever.

Not true. There were much higher civilizations in the past.

Civilizations go in ascending and descending cycles.

And you have heard from the mythologies of the ancient Greeks and Romans,

Egyptians, India, and others.

They talk about the Golden Age of enlightenment,

Silver Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age of darkness.

And we have not so long ago left

the ascending Dark Age. We are going up — believe it or not, we are going up —

and we have started in the Bronze Age,

and that is why you see the tremendous development of science,

technology, in the last hundred years or more.

But mankind per se is still very much in a dark age —

in regard to

understanding what life is all about, in regard to behavior, attitudes, that sort of thing.

But the advantage of the new age now is they brought back the knowledge of the finer forces

in the universe: energy, electricity, atomic energy, that sort of thing.

And that is control of energy — I'm going to explain a little later.

Control of the energy, this is the scientific key to — we call it yoga,

but it is really the scientific key of the esoteric teaching that underlies all the great religions.

Externally, the external aspect of religions, there you find big differences — obvious.

Because they have been sent in different times; they have been sent

to different people according to their understanding and

the development, or whatever, the needs of various people.

And so therefore — and you find differences in dogma, in terminology, in rituals, in ceremonies,

and all that sort of thing. And then also,

these various religions are deeply rooted in the history of certain people,

the history of the great saints and masters, prophets of the various religions.

And so therefore you cannot possibly bring them all together in an external way. No way!

I remember, particularly in 1993, when we went to Chicago to the World Parliament of Religions.

There were about four hundred different spiritual paths represented.

And some of them didn't even come, because they didn't want to join us “heathens,” you know?

And so, it wasn't long before Paramahansa Yogananda’s passing

when a professor came from a university from India to interview him —

he came to Los Angeles — and among other things he asked him,

“You claim that there is an underlying unity of all religions.

How come there is quarreling — even war, certainly conflict — between the different religions?”

And the Master said — when I say “Master,” I mean Paramahansa Yogananda —

he said, “You read this same thing even in the ancient scriptures of India.

There are those who are worshipping Shiva; that is to them the Supreme God.

And others who say, 'No, no, it is Vishnu and his incarnations of Rama and Krishna; he is Supreme.’ ”

And then he said — and I often have heard him say that — “If you could bring together in the same room

all the great saints, the great masters, the great prophets of the various religions,

there would be perfect harmony.

And you bring their followers together and they are at each other's throat.” And he said, “Why?”

Because the great ones, they have the full vision — and I mean experience — of God.

And the others who do not have that experience, they go by dogma.

And there, of course, are differences.

And so, we have to understand: The key to religion is

experience, not just belief.

Paramahansa Yogananda used to say, “Your religion has to be something compelling.”

So that it is not just a one-hour-a-week affair, and the rest of it, “forget about religion.”

He said, “It has to be compelling.”

And he didn't mean it in the sense of: compelling — that you're afraid that if you don't practice you go to hell.

It's a little different, you know. There was one time a man came to the Master and asked him,

“Is there really such a thing as hell?”

And Master's eyes were dancing with laughter. He said, “Where do you think you are now?”

This is it! Believe it or not.

This mortal consciousness and the idea that this body and this material world, this is the ultimate reality.

In India they call that maya, delusion.

He meant, when he said “compelling,”

he meant it in the sense of:

If you have a strong desire for something, that is a compelling force for you, isn't it?

Because it compels you to do everything possible to fulfill that desire.

He meant it in that way.

And now we come gradually to the essence, the fundamental point,

not only of religion but life:

What you want? What you want from life?

Did you ever sit down and ask deeply, “What do I want?”

And then, when you ask different people, you most likely will get different answers, right? Because people are different.

Some say, “I want money and everything that money can buy.”

A person that has poor health may think, “I want health.”

Another one wants fame.

Another one — or two other ones — may think, “I want to become President of the United States,” right?

Spend millions of dollars. That's the only thing they think about: “I want to become President.”

But it's not enough. Now you think about it.

A person wants to become President of the United States, what is that,

compared to the size of the universe, you know, billions of galaxies?

And how long does it last? Four years? Eight years?

What is that compared to eternity? It's peanuts, isn't it? It is less than peanuts.

But they're not thinking that way, because most people don't.

It's all right if they run for President; it's part of the show, you know, the cosmic drama.

But we have to go deeper.

And most people do not go below that superficial aim or desire.

We have to go deeper. And then we come to the Source,

not only of life but of religion, in a practical sense.

And there you come to, then, two things that every single human being maybe doesn't want yet

— they are still thinking of the surface —

but they will not have peace until they have those two things.

And these are like two sides of a coin.

Number one: I tell you what you want, okay?

What you need. You will have no peace until you have it.

Number one, you want to be free from suffering,

because suffering we all know, we have all experienced that.

You want to be free. Not just for a little bit, but once and for all.

Now let's go into that. I want to show you. This is in all the various scriptures of the various religions.

Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita: “Get away from the ocean of suffering.”

Jesus said: “In this world ye have tribulations”— that's suffering —

“but be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world.”

And that is not understood yet, I think, by most people, what he meant by that.

Those great ones, they're not saying: “Look at me, I am different,

I am supreme, and I am perfect, and you are, you know.”

No. Those great ones, they came as examples.

And they say, “Come on, I show you the way,

and you can attain the same state of consciousness that I have.”

Buddha said: “Suffering exists. There is a cause for suffering. That cause can be removed.”

And then he boiled it down to one thing: What is the cause? Desire.

As long as you have unfulfilled desires, you have no peace.

That's the state of suffering. It's not complete.

So now what do we want?

That's the other side of the coin.

What is the strongest instinct in man?

Self-preservation, right? Nobody wants to die. You don't want to die.

That's the deep-seated desire: we want eternal existence.

And not just eternal existence. We want that existence to be blissful,

and that's higher than the ordinary joys or sense pleasures and elations —

intellectual and emotional elations, and all that sort of thing.

That is supreme, that is beyond, that is not a joy which goes away.

That is supreme bliss which is ever-increasing, eternal, infinite.

Most people do not think big enough, you know? But that's it.

That's what we want.

And in India they have a name for that: Satchitananda.

And that's the name of God. God-consciousness is infinite bliss-consciousness.

And we are part of God. The soul is part of God. The soul is God within.

We will not rest until we have that.

And this is called, these two — overcoming suffering and attaining infinite bliss consciousness —

that is called Sanatana Dharma in India.

And that means the Eternal Religion.

And that's usually the name given to Hinduism, but it is the name, it is the essence

of all the great religions in the world.

Now comes the point: how do you get that? That will come, you know, a practical thing.

You cannot find it in the things of the world — that's a tough one —

or outer conditions. You cannot find it there, and that's a tough one

because everybody is seeking fulfillment outside, isn't it? In the things of the world? Conditions?

You cannot find it there. Why?

Because this creation is built on the principle of duality.

Science says that. There is no single force in the universe.

It's contrast. You cannot have manifestation unless there is duality.

And so you have — in this world, with your human experience —

pleasure and pain, birth and death.

You read it in the Bible; it's there. Isaiah:

God speaking through this great prophet, says: “I form the light,

and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil:

I the Lord do all these things.”

In order to have a creation He had to create duality.

And that's why you cannot find it in the things of the world

and in outer conditions. It's duality.

So what is the solution? We have to transcend duality and go beyond that.

In one of the most important passages in the "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda, is this:

“To surmount maya”— that's delusion, maya, that is creation, that is the duality.

“To surmount”— meaning to transcend —“maya

was the task assigned to the human race by the millennial prophets.”

He doesn't say Hindu prophets or Jewish prophets, or whatever.

It is “by the millennial prophets.” They all have taught the same thing.

“To rise above the duality of creation and perceive the unity of the Creator

was conceived of as man's highest goal.”

Now think about this.

Usually our aim is to find pleasure, all the nice things in this world, right?

And avoid all the suffering, the dark things, the painful things.

Do you know what that means? That means that people are hoping

to split duality and have only the good, and leave off — escape — the painful.

You cannot do it. You cannot cut duality in half. Right? Not possible.

So where do you find it?

They all say the same thing, the various religions.

And in the external religion that is usually taught now,

they are not teaching it. And they have it in the scriptures.

Jesus said: “Kingdom of God is within you.” Right?

Saint Teresa of Avila, great Christian saint, sixteenth century,

she had the title Doctor of the Church, a great reformer of the Carmelite Order, she wrote to her nuns:

“My sisters, if you want to find God, you have to search for Him within yourself.”

And then she said, “Remember what Saint Augustine said.

He had been searching for God everywhere and then finally he found Him within himself.”

And then she used a very interesting illustration. She said, “Like a turtle

withdraws its limbs into the shell,

so you have to withdraw your faculties within, and there you find it.”

That's strictly yoga. Because Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita, says exactly the same thing,

uses the same illustration of the turtle, withdrawing the faculties within. And there it is.

Not the Infinite yet; the soul. And knowing the soul comes then automatically oneness with the Infinite.

That's yoga. Yoga means union, and implied is: union between your soul and the Infinite.

What is the greatest commandment in the Bible? Old Testament, New Testament:

“Love God — with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength.” Right?

That is in one sentence the whole principle of Raja Yoga.

I'm not talking about Hatha Yoga, standing on your head and putting your

body in a pretzel, and all that sort of thing. I mean, that's okay, but I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about Raja Yoga, a science

which eventually leads to samadhi. Samadhi means “union with God.”

And samadhi literally means “to direct together.”

And so that great commandment in the Bible is exactly that.

And “love God with all your strength?” Today yet they do not know what it means.

They do not know what it means.

It means energy. It means energy.

And the principle is very simple, you know:

the energy and, with that, the consciousness. Master used to say, “Where the energy is, there is your consciousness.”

Now, within us we have six — they call it chakras —

spiritual centers of light in the spine,

and the seventh one is in the head, in the brain.

This is not physical; this is spiritual centers.

These are the centers of consciousness and energy.

And when the energy comes down and goes through the coccyx out into the nervous system,

and from there, from the nervous system, goes in every cell,

in every organ, in the sense organs, and we become body-identified.

And we are completely identified with our sensory experiences, and then the outer perception in the world.

Now, the principle is what?

Withdrawing, going, as we have descended and gone out,

you go in and go up, and there you are.

It's as simple as that, in principle. It's not so easy to do because of our wrong habits,

of always going out, out, out. But it is within.

Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras — one of the main keys, one of the main steps, of yoga is

pratyahara, interiorization.

In the Koran, holy book of the Moslems: “Remember thy Lord within thyself.”

They all say the same thing. And you can go anywhere now, and in any church or temple or whatever;

are you taught, “Go inside; God is in there”?

No. They say God is somewhere in heaven, you know, behind the clouds somewhere. He's far away.

And He's watching very carefully — if you should make a mistake, you're going to go you know where.

And so now I'm going to show you how this whole principle is in the Bible.

But before I go into that, I want to talk about something else. Namely:

the foundation of every religion is basic rules,

so that we live in harmony with God's laws.

In yoga, it is called yama-niyama, the do's and don'ts.

In the Bible you have the Ten Commandments, right?

And if you read in the Old Testament, again and again the prophets say, “Keep the commandments.

Keep the commandments that it may go well with thee and thy children.”

And when you see the history of the Hebrews, whenever they did that, there was peace, prosperity.

When they turned away from God and away from the commandments, nothing but trouble and suffering. Right?

That is the history of every nation in the world. And that is the history — this is what's going on in the world now.

Because to a great extent modern man threw those laws out the window. Why?

Modern man wants to be free — no restrictions,

do as you please, do your own thing. Right? That's not freedom.

That's not freedom. That's slavery to the lower self —

to our passions, to our quirks, to our moods and our selfishness, all that.

And I tell you, mankind has to go back to the commandments.

You cannot go against the laws of God and have peace within.

It creates a contrary negative vibration within.

That is why this — these laws — this is the foundation of yoga, of all the great religions.

And then comes the science — as I said before,

how the energy and consciousness has descended and gone out.

Now I show you.

It's even more clear than Genesis. Ezekiel:

“Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God.”

That's not a place. They say it's somewhere in Iran.

No way. That's not a place. It's a state of consciousness.

“Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.”

Those are the chakras of light.

“Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,

until iniquity was found in thee.”

And “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence,

and thou hast sinned.”

Now this is exactly that consciousness, energy went out,

and man became so engrossed in external pursuits

that he lost the divine consciousness.

And so he says, “Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God:

and I will destroy thee from the midst of the stones of fire.”

The mountain of God is the highest chakra in the brain:

from here, the medulla, and the thousand-rayed lotus in the brain;

that's the seat of cosmic consciousness within you.

That's the fall of man. That's the “original sin.”

And so, now, what do we do? As we have descended and gone outward,

become body-identified and identified with all the sense pleasures and stuff,

we go back, isn't it?

Withdrawal through yoga techniques, withdraw the energy and go up, and there you are.

That's the “spinal highway;” that's what the Master called it.

He said all the religious bypaths lead eventually to that

because everybody has to go back into the spine and up.

Now I’ll show you; it's in the Bible, believe it or not. Isaiah:

“And a highway shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness.”

That's the spine — the inner spine, not the physical.

“The unclean shall not pass over it.”

Meaning those that are not interested in anything spiritual, that are completely engrossed in outer pursuits.

“But the wayfaring men, though fools”

— Saint Francis was called a fool by the whole population there in Assisi

when he started his search for God —

“though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there,

nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon,

but the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion”

— Zion is another name for the holy mountain, thousand-rayed lotus —

“with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads:

and they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

And there you have it. If you understand this — you know, the symbolic language — Sanatana Dharma.

“Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Suffering eliminated.

And eternal joy, bliss consciousness.

I'll give you another one, also Isaiah:

“And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people

a feast of fat things.” Now he is talking, you know,

what people usually — what they think. What is joy? It's a good meal. Right?

So, “a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees,

of fat things full of marrow, and wines on the lees well refined.”

What is that wine? You know we have a book by that title,

“The Wine of the Mystic.” They call it that way. It is the bliss of God.

Just like in the Bible — the disciples of Jesus, you know, when they had received the Holy Ghost, they were “like drunken men.”

It is that bliss consciousness.

“And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people,

and the veil that is spread over all nations.”

What is that covering, what is that veil? You find it in the Bhagavad Gita.

It is delusion, that you'll think this material world

and your physical body is the only reality, that there is nothing else.

“And He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.”

There again, mortal consciousness is gone. Eternal life. Death is conquered.

“And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.” Suffering is eliminated.

“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God.” That means experience of God.

“We have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

It's the whole story — the science of yoga.

You know, I remember when in the fifties and sixties,

it started — people became more and more interested in yoga.

We got all kinds of calls from colleges and churches, and so on.

“Could you come, could you send somebody to give us a lecture on yoga?”

It was not really understood yet. And it was really not taken seriously.

It was more like a novelty, or as a form of entertainment.

And we went to colleges, we gave lectures, and so on.

And one call came from a Jewish community in Los Angeles:

“Could you send somebody to give us a lecture on yoga?”

And so I went. What did I take?

Nothing but the Jewish prophets.

Showed the whole thing is there.

And I tell you, that was a very attentive audience.

And afterwards people came to me and, you know, asked some questions. And one lady said,

“What you people are teaching is actually our Jewish religion, isn't it?”

And I said, “You are absolutely right.”

It's the essence, it's the esoteric teaching of Judaism.

But not only Judaism. It's the esoteric teaching of Christianity and Hinduism, and whatever.

It's there. It's there.

Now, with all this I did not mean to say that you should neglect your outer duties, your outer life.

But this earth is a school

— most people don't know that. The Master used to say, “This is not the kingdom of heaven;

it's school.”

And our outer life, our outer duties also are part of the spiritual discipline,

that we do it in harmony with God's laws.

And that is why the Master said, “Our spiritual and material duties

should work together, like two stallions pulling the car of life harmoniously

and uniformly to one happy goal.”

And I remember — you know, I came to America after the World War.

I got an invitation to study with Frank Lloyd Wright, who was at that time the king of architecture.

And we were in this community, we were about sixty architects and students

from all over the world. It was very interesting experience,

because some of the people had been fighting on the battlefields against each other,

and there they were together — community.

And on Sunday — we didn't call it church,

but we were together: community breakfast, and Frank Lloyd Wright was there,

and after we had our breakfast, he talked about philosophy,

about architecture and art, and so on.

And one student one time asked him, “What if I don't become a great architect, then what?”

And Frank Lloyd Wright said, “Well, no problem.

You'll come back and try again.” He believed in reincarnation.

And I thought, “Is he happy?”

Because by that time I had read the "Autobiography of a Yogi" and "Science of Religion"

by Paramahansa Yogananda, and I knew, according to what he said,

you cannot find absolute fulfillment in anything in this world,

including fame, and all that sort of thing.

And Frank Lloyd Wright, you know, he celebrated his eightieth birthday while I was there.

And he was still on the peak of his creative ability. And he really,

you should have seen — telegrams, letters, honorary degrees

came in from different universities from the around the world

— big celebration. And he was a great man, I mean great genius, creative.

And I watched him like a hawk, watched him.

Is he really happy? Fully happy? Totally satisfied?

And one day he let it out — still frustrated, still frustrated.

And I thought, there! That was one of my greatest experiences of seeing that

no matter what peak you reach,

outwardly speaking, it is not enough.

And then I thought — I had seen in Italy

some of the great paintings of — and particularly Fra Angelico, fifteenth century.

And he was a saint. It was said that when he was painting he had tears of devotion.

And I thought, “That's it, that's it.”

He did not seek fulfillment through fame or the beauty of his works.

He had found it in his relationship, his experience of God.

And his work, he did it as an offering to God.

And that's the key. This is how you spiritualize your outer actions.

And it doesn't matter what you do, what your occupation is. Because if you look at the saints

of the various religions throughout the centuries,

you find them in any possible occupation.

You find them on any level of the social ladder, from kings to beggars and everything in between.

You find them among householders, monastics —

different lifestyle. It was not the outer which made them saints; it was their inner attainment.

And you can — you know, it's very simple. Whatever you do — most people work for ego satisfaction. Isn't it?

I, I, I. And if you do whatever you do,

and once in a while you inwardly offer it to God:

“I do this for You.” Because He is the “movie director.” You know? We are all actors.

If you say, “I do this for You,” you spiritualize your action,

you spiritualize your outer activities.

But I want to — particularly now, I want to ask you to think about life.

You have heard, possibly, of a very famous woman, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

She’s Swiss, like I am — was. She is in America now.

I am an American too now.

And she made it her life work to work with people who had a terminal illness —

helping them, counseling them, encouraging them; at the same time observing,

studying them. She wrote books. I didn't read any, but I read an interview that she gave.

And she said a remarkable thing, observation.

She said, “You would think because the strongest instinct" — as I said before — “in man

is self-preservation.” Right? Not only in man — in animals, in plants.

And she said, “You might think that this is the greatest fear — fear of death.”

She said, “There's something worse.” What is it?

“The feeling at the end of life, ‘I have not really lived.

I have not really lived.’ ”

And when they saw that they feel, “I came into this world and I wanted to accomplish something,” and sure,

everybody is busy with career, family, all sorts of things.

Then at the end of life something essential is missing:

“I have not really lived.” And they don't know what it is.

And I can't blame people, because they have not been taught. Those that should know, and should teach it, do not know.

We are not physical beings. We are children of God. And there is a spiritual dimension which is neglected.

And I know, because every once in a while somebody — from our members or whatever —

writes to us or comes and talks for consultation, and says,

“I feel I have a mission to fulfill.”

And they think in terms of external mission.

And we say, “You’re right. You have a mission to fulfill. And the greatest mission is to find God.”

And we do not mean this in the sense of — as it’s usually used — in the sense of belief in God.

I mean experience of God.

And so we have to think about that, you know, deeply: Why am I here?

And you don't have to wait until the end of life, you know.

Because God sends a warning about halfway through.

Have you heard of it? Mid-life crisis?

That's very real, you know? Hits most people.

Before that, when you're young, sure, “Death? Never mind, doesn't happen to me; life is eternal.”

It says in the Mahabharata, one of the great writings of India — Bhagavad Gita is part of it —

it says there the astonishing thing is that people see people dying, acquaintances, and so on.

Happens everywhere. Nobody believes it will happen to him.

But in mid-life crisis, then people think, “Wait a minute, I have been very, very busy:

building a career, having family, and all that sort of thing and I’m not really satisfied.

Something is missing.” And then they look ahead:

“What am I going to do with the rest of my life? Same thing?

I'm not really happy, not really satisfied.” And then comes death.

You know? Panic!

And some people go to extremes, they do really crazy things,

trying to — hoping they can catch it.

A man will leave his family, run away with a young woman,

or go to another country or completely changing his lifestyle and whatever,

thinking, “This is it.”

No Way! Or women have come to us:

“I’ve been busy all my life so far. I have been working, building a career,

and I didn't think of time and years went by. And now

the biological clock is ticking away and here I am, and I'm not married yet and I want to have a child.”

These feelings are very real. It's panic.

And people think in terms of external solutions.

And nothing external is the solution.

Why? Because we are the soul. We are the soul.

And in one of the old scriptures of India, it says, “The Self” — meaning the soul — “is self-luminous.”

Like the sun is self-luminous; it doesn't need any light from another planet or star.

We are the soul — and that soul is never touched

by any of the external experiences, believe it or not.

Has nothing to do — is not touched by any biological urges or whatever.

The soul is self-contained because it is God within.

And the Master used to say to us, “Your soul is waiting,

with infinite patience, to be redeemed” —

meaning, so that you become conscious of it, that you know who you are.

I want to read to you one of my favorite passages.

Paramahansa Yogananda’s interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita.

It's actually what I have already talked about: success.

“Success in obtaining material goals and pleasures

is relatively easy in a world fashioned for this purpose.

Thus man pursues the obvious, immediate gains — the tangibles —

all of which are treacherously evanescent” — meaning, they don't last, they go like a mirage.

Now comes, “Lasting success consists in freeing the soul from the threefold sorrow.” That's suffering.

Threefold: physical, mental, spiritual.

"The threefold suffering which is inevitable in the limited human being

and in attaining the bliss of final liberation.”

And there you have it again: Sanatana Dharma. Overcoming of suffering, attaining eternal bliss.

That's it. Keep this in mind. That's it. And because that is where yoga comes in —

of learning to go within and to become still.

Not making the mind a blank, but being deeply concentrated,

absorbed in meditation, in the presence of God within.

It says in the Bible, Forty-sixth Psalm: “Be still and know that I am God.”

That's yoga; that is the definition. In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

he gives the definition of yoga: stilling the waves of consciousness.

What causes the waves? Energy activating the instruments.

Withdrawing the energy, stilling the faculties, and there it is: soul-consciousness.

And that is why Paramahansa Yogananda said, “Your real nature is calmness.

You have put on a mask of restlessness, but you are not that mask.

You are pure, calm Spirit. It is time you remember who you are: the blessed soul.

Take off the mask and face yourself” — meaning go in, through meditation, inside, in the inner stillness.

Now, he used to say to us, “You know, when you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror and what do you see in the mirror?”

He said, “That is not the image of God.

That is the image of worry and mortal consciousness.”

But people think — this is the maya, this is the suggestion — this is you.

And then, depending of what you are, I mean outwardly speaking, if you are a man, you'll think, “I’m a man.”

And if you are a woman, you see a woman's face in there and you think, “I am a woman.”

Then you go a little further and you think, “I am black” or “I am white” or “I am Oriental,” or whatever.

And it's not true. It's a lie.

This is only the mask which you have put on to play this particular role in the drama of life —

now, this life.

It's only the mask.

I call it the package. You know why?

Because inside of the package is the soul. That's the diamond of the soul.

The package is going to go, right?

I mean, we all have the experience: The body changes, eventually gets old, and it dies.

But you are not the package. You are the soul. The soul is eternal life. That's the true Self.

So when death comes, if a person has been meditating and he has had the experience of something deeper

than just the body — death? No problem. Because you're not going to die.

But if a person thinks he is the body and death comes,

that's a terrible experience, because you think you’re dying.

You're not. You are not dead when you take your clothes off, right?

We are the soul. The life that we have that we think is the body — the body is just an empty shell.

Inside the body, the life that we have is first of all the soul,

then is the causal body, then is the spiritual body, the astral body, body of light.

When the body drops, no problem. It's just “good riddance,” you know, of the body.

If you know about people who have had near-death experiences —

they died, they left the body, they were on the other side, and then later on they were revived.

They had to come back, and most of them didn't want to come back.

They say, “Oh, it was wonderful to get rid of the body.”

On the other side, some of them — mostly it is young women who had little children —

they wanted to come back because they felt, “I have to take care of my children.”

But usually, the other ones, they didn't want to come back.

In fact, there was one of them, there was a doctor, and a friend of his, a doctor friend, revived him.

And when he was revived he said, “Carl, don't you do that ever to me.”

He was as angry as could be. And he said, “What do you mean? I brought you back to life.”

Then later on he explained, “I was on the other side. It was so wonderful over there. I didn't want to come back. You brought me back.”

And so, think about that. Think about what you are.

I mean, you know, in America people are usually practical people.

You are not dreaming of investing your money,

all your money, in something where you know it's going to be lost. Right?

But when it comes to life itself, most people do exactly that.

They invest everything — all the work, all the thoughts and emotions, everything —

in the package. And you know, the package is going to go.

In fact, your loved ones have to give money to somebody to dispose of it.

You know, I mean —

Think about it, what I said. It's not what I say, it's what Paramahansa Yogananda taught,

you know, what life is all about. And the bliss consciousness, I tell you —

I just tell you a little story. The the first time I saw him,

he had given a Sunday service. After Sunday service — just a little temple —

and after the service, most people went to him to greet him.

And when I stood in front of him he didn't say a word, I didn't say a word.

He just took my hand. And the moment he touched me

I was drunk. And completely drunk.

Now, that was the real stuff, that was the “wine of the mystics,” you know. That was not — y'know.

You know, I thought I had experienced joy before.

Then I knew. He talked about bliss consciousness.

And I knew. He gave me just a little more than I could hold.

Unbelievable. Bliss. First time I had a little touch of bliss.

And I walked out; I was completely drunk. I couldn't walk straight. I was like this, you know.

Not only that. I was alone and I couldn't contain it. I laughed out loud.

Just completely drunk. And people in the street, they were utterly disgusted.

They shook their heads and went way out of my way.

I didn't care. It took me several hours to simmer down.

So that was the first experience. The second experience was when I had an interview with him.

And he asked me questions about my studies, and about my life, and all that sort of thing.

And I saw that the way he phrased the questions, I knew he didn't need any information.

He knew me better than I did.

And that is a remarkable experience, I can tell you, if somebody knows you completely.

No ordinary human being can do that.

And that can be, you know, if somebody knows everything about you,

all your mistakes you have made and everything.

But there was more. There was understanding.

No judgment. There was understanding

and unconditional love.

And that is a combination — you know, you cannot find this in the world.

You know, you read in the scriptures sometimes that God is an angry God,

and God is a judge, and all that sort of thing.

That's not true. This is a very crude-language-expressed reference to the law of karma, cause and effect:

“As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

God doesn't judge. We judge ourselves. He created law —

had to, in order to keep everything in balance.

In the bible, when it talks about the last judgment — oh yes, it exists. But it is not a final judgment.

It is at the end of life each person has a review of life.

Whole thing. And then comes the idea, “Are you satisfied

with mistakes you made, and things like that?” Think about it.

And that is the judgment which determines whether we have to come back to school

to have a new opportunity to make good, you know, to learn our lessons which we haven't learned yet.

That's the last judgment.

But it is not the final condemnation.

We come back. Oh, yes, hell — you know, we are here now, believe it or not.

We come back, compared to the higher spheres, higher planes.

But God does not judge.

And God cannot be angry. There was a saint, Christian saint, who said that

after having visions of God, she said, “God cannot be angry.

Anger is a perversion. You find this in human beings, not in God.”

And believe me, if He would be angry, he would wipe you out of existence, right?

She said, “God is love, God is wisdom, God is compassion.”

If you have a wrong concept of God, you have to make adjustments because

you have to have a loving concept of God.

Like our president, Sri Daya Mata, when she says sometimes,

she talks about her experience with God, and she says,

“I am in love with Love,” meaning God.

And so, when meditation comes, you go into that Presence

and commune with that Presence. And if you see nothing, you hear nothing,

there is no concept, there is no experience —

There was a saint who said, “His absence, too, is one of His manifestations.”

Because God is omnipresent; He cannot be absent.

He may seem to be absent, but you are in the light of God right now. All the time.

You are embraced by the love of God all the time.

But you are not thinking that way.

And if you are cultivating that thought, your life changes.

You are children of God, not children of matter.

Think about it, alright? God bless you.

This is the way of greeting in India and some other Eastern countries.

You know what it means? “I bow to the God within you.” God bless you.