Path Of Knowledge🔗

The human psyche longs for continuance. Continuation and perpetuation of one's identity is of utmost importance to us.

We trace our lineage back as far as we can go in memory and records. We try to keep looking for something noteworthy there. Also, we keep ensuring that our heirs are well taken care of. We are anxious to provide for the weak ones in the family. There is a general anxiety on the account of our own lineage.

Arjuna has been driven by the same dilemma. To defend the fears he has about his own identity, he cites historical moral codes that discuss how one's ancestors and descendants are affected by one's deeds in this life. It is a simple transference of his present uncertainty to the past and future.

People ask me, 'When was this universe created? How and why?' I tell them that the next time God calls for a conference, if I am invited, I shall ask this question and find out the answer!

As far back as I can see this universe has existed. As far into the future as I can see this universe continues to exist. I can see no beginning and no end to this universe. It has been there forever and will be there forever. The human form as we know it now may change, but the universe will continue to exist.

The form and identity that we are familiar with is perishable. It is matter. Like all material things, it is subject to creation, destruction and re-creation. The universe is energy. It is formless energy. As it sees fit, it transforms into matter and again back to energy. That energy is imperishable.

This is what Krishna explained earlier to Arjuna. This energy, which is the energy of the universe, is the same energy that is within us. This energy is indestructible. It cannot be destroyed by a weapon, burnt by fire, dried by the wind or wet by water. Whatever we see as destruction to the body-mind system is actually the conversion of the matter back into energy.

All religions may not accept this principle of the energy in man and the universe as eternal and continuous. That is immaterial. Views of religions change and have to change as new knowledge arises. Scientists are now in agreement that matter and energy are the same and inter convertible in time and space. Advances in Quantum Physics have shown that sub-atomic particles can appear in different forms and shapes depending on when they are viewed, how they are viewed and who views them.

For example, people think that materialization of objects is magic, miracle or trickery. It is none of these. It is simple science. It is converting matter into energy, moving it in energy form and converting it back to matter. We can demonstrate this scientifically with the help of modern technology such as Kirlian photography.

I showed the ashramites (those who live in the ashram) how this can be done. I made them count the number of rudrākṣa necklaces that they had in stock in a cupboard. I produced one from the air as if miraculously and showed it to them. Then, I sent them back to count the number of necklaces in the cupboard. They found there was one less in the cupboard!

Anyone can do this. All that they need is to know how.

No matter can be produced from nowhere. It can only be produced out of energy. Fortunately this energy source is infinite in the universe. This universe is known to be constantly growing. There is not even a known theoretical limit to its size.

The very first verse of the first Hindu scripture, Īśā Vāsya Upaniṣad, says that 'out of energy arises all matter.'

īśā vāsyaṁ idaṁ sarvaṁ

Upon reading this verse Albert Einstein the famous physicist said, 'It is only now that I could establish that energy arises from matter. Thousands of years ago these sages knew more. They knew that matter arises from energy. We are yet to establish this. The last frontier of science is the threshold of spirituality.'

It is important to understand that the constant factor in us as well as in the universe is this energy that is eternal. Once we understand this and understand further that there is no separation between the universe and us, all our confusion will be at rest. There will no longer be any fear of death, and there will no longer be the greed to acquire and hoard.

After all, the energy that is who we are is forever. Once we understand and accept this, we are in eternal bliss, nithyānandam!

4.1 The Lord said:

‘I taught the Sun god, Vivasvan, the imperishable science of yoga and

Vivasvan taught Manu, the father of mankind and Manu in turn taught Ikshvaku.’

4.2 The supreme science was thus received through the chain of master-disciple succession and the saintly kings understood it in that way.

In the course of time, the succession was broken and therefore the science as it was appears to have been lost.

4.3 That ancient science of enlightenment, or entering into eternal bliss, is today taught by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend.

You will certainly understand the supreme mystery of this science.

You need to understand that Krishna is just thirty-two years old when He makes this statement! He is just thirty-two years old. Physically His body is only thirty-two years old. But He says, ‘I gave this knowledge to Surya, the Sun god.’

Of course, this is very difficult to understand!

With logic, you cannot understand this statement. With ordinary logic, which you use in your daily life, you cannot make any meaning out of this statement. But Krishna goes on to say other things.

In the next statement He says:

The science as it was, appears to have been lost.

These two verses should be understood clearly. The first thing to be understood is that the truth is not new. It is eternal. It is neither new nor old. It is eternal. Eternal means it is there forever. It never becomes old. It was never new. Eternal means that which is beyond time.

Only things that are described based on time, can be said to be new or old. Anything new will become old one day. Anything old was new at one time. Eternal means it is beyond the new and the old. It is there from time immemorial. But it has never become old. That is what is meant by the word eternal.

Here, this science, the science of enlightenment is eternal or nitya. It is neither new nor old. The science that we learned in chapter three, the same ‘science’ is going to be explained further.

I gave the first glimpse of this in the previous chapter of Gita. The first thing that needs to be understood is the first glimpse. If you allow those words to penetrate you, if you open yourself to those words, then straightaway those words can give you the first glimpse of enlightenment. They can lead you to the first step of ultimate liberation.

Understanding the purposelessness of life will wash away all its stresses, pressures and burdens from your being, whether they are physical or mental. You are liberated in that same moment.

Krishna doesn’t give you any technique that works over lengthy periods of time. There are other techniques that work over long periods of time. You will have to practice them forever. Your son or your daughter may get the result!

Krishna says, ‘No!’ He says, ‘Now, here or nowhere!’ Either have the result now, here, or nowhere. All His techniques straightaway give you the experience. If you can allow that one idea of purposelessness, the beauty of purposelessness, into your conscience, that very moment the breeze of enlightenment enters your heart. That very moment, the healing of your being starts. Healing of bhāva roga, emotional diseases and healing of saṃsāra roga, the disease of birth and death, start.

Five thousand years ago, Krishna says, ‘I gave this science to Surya, the Sun god and the Sun god instructed Manu. The Sun god is Vivasvan. Vivasvan instructed Manu, the father of mankind. Manu passed this wisdom on to Ikshvaku.

Here, Krishna gives the succession, the lineage through disciples. He gives the lineage, the master-disciple lineage. ‘In course of time, the science of yoga was lost,’ He says.

You should understand why this science was lost.

When a disciple who listens is not sincere, if he is not completely ready, naturally the technique becomes a ritual. Understand that there is only one difference between technique and ritual. When it is done sincerely, even an ordinary ritual becomes a great meditation technique that leads you to enlightenment. When it is done without any sincerity, as a routine, without understanding, then even a meditation technique becomes a ritual. The only difference between a meditation technique and a ritual is sincerity. It is just sincerity.

'In course of time, the science was lost.' He has used a beautiful phrase, 'the supreme science was taught, and the supreme science was delivered.' You don't lose that supreme science in just one generation. In one generation, it never gets lost. In course of time, somebody or the other, even a single unenlightened disciple is enough to destroy the whole science. Even a single person in that chain is enough to break the succession of disciples.

The problem is, when your master creates a big movement and if you come to his seat without having the qualification, you are the most dangerous person. I have seen people who simply come to the throne as a successor; they are the most dangerous people. They have everything except enlightenment.

A person who creates a movement, creates it only out of energy and enlightenment. If he doesn't have the energy, no movement will be created around him. For the person who succeeds the founder, it is just a gift. The whole movement is a gift. He has got the complete infrastructure and setup, all ready and gifted to him.

A person who writes just because he is a writer is a dangerous person. But if a person writes because he genuinely has got something to write, that is okay. Only such a person can be called a writer.

A small story:

One man said, 'Only after writing five bestsellers did I realize that I don't know anything!'

His friend asked, 'Then did you stop writing?'

This man replied, 'No! By then I became too famous! I couldn't stop!'

When you get somebody's throne as a successor, you will be filled with ego. The successors have everything except enlightenment. I always tell people never to go to successors. That is because the whole setup was created by somebody else and the successor just represents him. They don't have anything from their own experience. They are good librarians, not masters.

We must be very clear about the difference between a librarian and a master. Librarians are good. They preserve books. But they can only preserve the books, nothing more than that. The successor is also a good librarian, a good parrot. He can repeat the whole thing.

A small story from Zen Buddhism:

A disciple of a great master sits and talks about Zen to his followers. An enlightened master comes to him and says, 'You have yourself not become enlightened. What right do you have to teach others?'

Out of ego he says, 'Don't you know? I am the disciple of the great master.'

The Zen master laughs. He just laughs and says, 'If you wash the cup in which you have kept tea, will that water have the same taste as tea?'

Can you say that the water that is used to wash the cup in which the tea is kept, is equivalent to tea itself? What relationship can be there between the tea and the water that is used to wash the cup that had contained the tea?

Imagine that a cup of tea is here. Another cup contains water that was used to wash a used teacup. What will be the relationship between the tea and the water that was used to wash the used teacup? There will be no relationship. You can hardly smell the tea in the water!

So, if a person is not enlightened and is just a successor, he will be dangerous. He will create damage. He carries just the book and not the knowledge.

That is why Zen masters always destroy their books when they leave the body. Before leaving the body they destroy the books. They say that if you have got Zen in your life, if you have achieved enlightenment, you can teach. Otherwise keep quiet. At least you will not disturb society. At least you will not create more trouble in society. A successor without the experience, is the most dangerous person.

A small story:

A small girl was watching her mother prepare fish for dinner. She cut its head and tail and then placed it in the frying pan. The little girl asked her mother why she cut the head and tail of the fish. Her mother replied, 'I have always done it this way. That's how your grandma did it.'

The girl was not satisfied with the answer. She went to her grandmother and asked the same question.

The grandmother replied, 'I don't know. My mother always did it that way.'

So the girl and her grandmother visited the great grandmother and asked her the same question. The great grandmother thought for some time and replied, 'My frying pan was too small to fit in the whole fish. So I had to cut its head and tail!'

Understand: If you are not enlightened, you can easily get carried away by anything that you see! The truth or the spirit of anything can be easily lost.

If you want to destroy any law, all you need to do is just follow it to the letter and miss the spirit. That is enough. You just follow it to the letter and forget about the spirit, you will end up doing exactly the opposite to what the law intended. You just go against the very reason why the law was created.

In course of time people who had not become enlightened and those who were not sincere, entered into this field and corrupted the science. Because of that the science was lost. That is why time and again our Upaniṣads insist upon going to a living master.

All our books are only manuals. Vedas are the only books that are courageous enough to declare that they cannot give you enlightenment. Vedas are the only books that are courageous enough to declare that they are not the ultimate. They say very clearly that they are only manuals.

If you want the ultimate reference, you have to go to a living master. What do all medical books say in the end? Consult your family doctor! They end with this one line! All these things are only manuals. You can't take medicines just by reading a medical book. You can't take medicines from a person who is not a doctor.

In India, compounders, that is to say, doctors' assistants as they are known there, are the ones who prepare the medicines, like pharmacists would learn the tricks of the trade by and by. In course of time these compounders would know that for a headache you are meant to take a yellow tablet, for stomach pain, the green tablet, for back pain, black tablet and so on. They would know the color of the tablet for a particular disease. If you go and take medicines from a compounder, you may sometimes get healed. You may get cured. But it is very dangerous.

Taking medicines from compounders and learning from unenlightened masters are one and the same.

Please be very clear, a compounder at the most harm your physical body. But an unenlightened master can destroy you life after life. He can destroy, misguide you, and create trouble, for life after life. This is because the whole thing is lost if you have missed even a single crucial point.

Here Krishna says,

One important thing, He says, 'rājarṣayo viduhu', meaning, this science is given to kingly saints, not to just any saint.

If you have attended yesterday's lecture, you would know that the science He taught is Quantum Spirituality, which gives you both the material world as well as the spiritual world. That is why He says, 'the science is given to kingly saints'.

If this had been only for ordinary saints, he would have emphasized only on the inner world, the inner space. Had it been only for kings, he would have emphasized on the outer world and wealth. Here He says, 'kingly saints'.

The science is delivered to the kings, enlightened masters; enlightened masters who are kings. Only they can preserve the science as it is. Be very clear, only an enlightened person who is a king or a king who is an enlightened person can know the totality of spirituality.

People again and again ask me, 'What should we do for the poor?' I say, 'Give food and medicines for the poor. Serve them.'

Only a rich man who has enjoyed material wealth can understand the meaning and relevance of spirituality.

Be very clear, I am telling the honest truth. Poor men who have not seen the outer world wealth can understand only religion. They can go and beg in front of God. They can never understand the ultimate spirituality.

Only a person who has seen the outer world completely, who knows there is nothing in the outer world, only such a person can enter into the inner world. Only he can enter into the inner space.

If you still have hope about the outer world, you cannot experience the ultimate spirituality. You cannot experience the ultimate enlightenment.

Only a king can be utterly frustrated. Only a king can be completely qualified to enter into enlightenment, because he knows there is nothing in the outer space that can fulfill him. He has seen everything. He has seen all possible comforts, all possible sense enjoyments and all the so-called pleasures. He is ready to enter into spirituality with earnest honesty.

If somebody who has not experienced depression of success enters into spirituality, he will stand in front of God and beg, 'God give me this, give me that.' He may be a religious person. From morning to night, he may sit and do rituals. But he will never be a spiritual person.

There is a very big difference between a religious person and a spiritual person. When you know God has got the śakti (power) to give whatever you want, your religion starts. When you understand he also has the buddhi (intelligence) as to when to give you what, then you enter into spirituality!

We all believe God has got the power to give what we want, but we don't trust that he has also got the intelligence to give it at the right time! We don't believe that. That is why we beg and beg! Only a person who trusts that God has got the power and the intelligence, can enter into spirituality, trusting implicitly that He knows when to give and what to give.

Spirituality is the ultimate luxury. Please be very clear, I always tell people, a person who is poor, meaning who has not experienced the comforts of the outer world, can be a religious person. He can stand in front of God and beg and pray. But only a person who has seen the outer world to the extreme and who is completely frustrated with it, who has completely experienced the depression of success, can turn towards the inner world. Only he can become a healer.

I always say that only a person who understands the purposelessness of life can heal himself and others. Only he can be a healer. Only he can be a spiritual person. Only he can be a real spiritual being.

Here, Krishna uses the words 'kingly saint. Only a person who has lived fully in the inner space and the outer space, can experience the truth of the totality. Of course, when a person who is not sincere enough to realize this truth enters into the system, he corrupts it. And his very presence spoils the system. So, Krishna says, 'In course of time, the science was lost.'

In the next verse, Krishna says:

He says, 'I am telling you about this very ancient science of the ultimate enlightenment or entering into eternal bliss, and being my devotee and my friend, you will understand the supreme mystery of this science.'

This has to be understood very deeply. One cannot tell this truth, this ultimate truth, to a person who is not ready. I repeat, this truth cannot be delivered to a person who is not ready. And truth told to a person who is not ready, creates danger for himself and for others as well.

Again and again, people ask me during many of my meditation programs, ‘Swamiji, please talk about your enlightenment, talk about your spiritual experience.’ I never open my mouth and speak about my personal experience or spiritual experiences, unless I know them or unless they are associated with me for at least six months. I wait. People ask me, ‘Why don’t you talk about this, Swamiji? Why don’t you tell us about your spiritual experiences?’ If intimate experiences are shared when you are not ready, you always doubt and spoil the whole thing for yourself.

There are two angles to this. If you have courage, you will straightaway question the experience that is being shared. You will say, ‘This is just a lie. This is a story. What are you talking about? This cannot be the truth.’ You will straightaway oppose.

Or the other angle is: If you don’t have that much courage, you will just think, ‘Alright, this is one more story! I have heard one thousand stories. Here is one more story. Leave it. Anyway, after all, it is free!’

Either one of the two will happen. The spiritual experiences cannot be shared and cannot be opened up just for nothing. If it is shared it should become an inspiration source for you. It should become a force that transforms your life. Then it is worth sharing.

By sharing the spiritual experience, if it inspires you to enter into the same space, if it gives you the courage to take the same jump, if you also feel, ‘I think I should also experience the same joy, I should experience the same bliss, I should not postpone it,’ if it becomes an inspiration source for you, then it is worth sharing. Otherwise it is not worth sharing.

There was a great master in South India. He wrote a set of poems on Shiva. He did not even write, he just sang the verses. He sang a set of poems on Shiva. It was never recorded in writing.

Close disciples who lived around him requested him to publish it as a book, or to put it in writing, so that it could be useful to society. He said, ‘No, they are my intimate love letters to my Lord. How can I release this to the public? It is my intimate expression. It is my personal relationship. How can I publish it? How can I bring it out in public?’

If, for example, you see somebody for the first time and he straightaway starts asking you personal questions, how would it be? Would it not be rude? It is too rude! Indians are the only people who make that mistake. It is too rude. They don't bother to introduce themselves. They don't bother to understand. They tend to be abrupt. If you ask personal questions straightaway, without even getting acquainted, how will the other person feel?

It takes a little intelligence to understand this social etiquette. You can't talk or ask straight away. It is very impolite. You need to understand that you can't share your personal experiences straightaway with anybody and everybody. It is very difficult.

In the same way, the master says, 'If somebody comes and asks you about your personal life, you can't share it. Only if you become intimate with him, it is possible to open up.' Only then conversation happens. For a conversation to happen, you need a certain intimacy. If both are filled with their own ideas and arguments, a conversation can never happen. If both are prejudiced, a conversation can never happen.

I always tell people, in a marriage, in the first year, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens. The third year onwards, both of them speak and the neighbors listen! The conversation never happens! Only arguments happen.

As long as the other person is in a mood for arguments, truth cannot be shared. The satya (truth) cannot be expressed.

The master says, 'It is my personal relationship and it is my intimate relationship with God. How can I share that with the public? I cannot.'

Then one disciple, who considers himself intelligent asks, 'Why? You are sharing with us. When you can share with us, why can you not share with the world?'

Then, the master says, 'By becoming a disciple, you have become a part of me. Only a person who has become a part of me can share these poems. Only with him can I share these poems. Physically you may be another body, but mentally, you have fallen in tune with me. You are completely ready to receive me. You have become like a womb, ready to receive the divine energy. This is the reason I share my experience with you.'

Unless you enter into a deep receptive mood, unless you become a complete, total, simple innocent being, you cannot receive the ultimate truth. Please be very clear, the ultimate truth is beyond logic.

Initially when you start to teach the truth, it always starts with logic. Your logic is always addressed first. Words go logically. But after some time, you have to leave logic behind. Otherwise, you can't reach the Divine.

You can't talk to God through logic. You cannot relate with him in prose. Only in poetry you can relate with God. That is why, all over the world, whenever it comes to prayer, it is only through songs and poems.

Whether it is Eastern or Western culture, any culture, whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism or Christianity, when it comes to relating with God, it is always poetry, because you can't relate with the Divine through logic. Prose is not useful anymore when it comes to relating with the Divine.

If you want the divine relationship to happen, you need love. You need the language of poetry. Here, only a person who understands, only a person who has become a part of the master, only he can receive the master's experiences. That is the reason the master says, 'I share my songs with you, because you have become me. I cannot share this with the public.'

There was another great saint called Manickavasagar in TamilNadu in South India. Throughout his life he sang about Shiva. But he never wrote. He never recorded his poems. He used to always recite, that's all.

Once, Shiva himself came down as an old man and said, 'O Manickavasaga, I have heard that you sing beautiful songs about Shiva. Why don't you recite them for me? I am your disciple.'

Manickavasaga was in an ecstatic state. So in that ecstasy, he started singing everything. Shiva himself recorded the songs. Shiva himself recorded, put the songs in writing.

After recording, Shiva signed the palm-leaf document, 'Recited by Manickavasagar, written by Ambaravanan', Shiva Himself!

He placed the palm leaves at the entrance of the temple and disappeared. The next day morning, the priests saw the leaves. Suddenly, they realized, the signature said, 'Manickavasagar recited and I myself recorded this.'

Until the end, till his death, he never recorded his songs. Then all the disciples went and asked him, 'Oh master, please give us the meaning. Please explain the meaning of all these songs.'

He straightaway walked into the temple and said, 'He is the meaning of all the songs.' He pointed to the Lord and said, 'He is the meaning,' and walked into the deity and disappeared into the deity, into the Divine.

This story is a beautiful symbolic representation. He became one with the Divine. Till the end he never recorded his songs. Only somebody else recorded them. They were so beautiful, God himself came down and recorded them.

Unless you become part of the master, it is very difficult to understand his message. That is why Krishna says, 'Arjuna, this supreme science, the technique of entering into eternal bliss is today told by me to you, because you are my devotee as well as my friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.'

This cannot be told to a person who is not ready. And one more thing: When you speak the ultimate truth to a person who is not ready, it leads to many troubles. Not only does he not understand, but he also misunderstands and starts creating trouble for others.

With the right person, even a lie told by him will be good for society. In the wrong hands even truth will do harm to society. To whom it is delivered is important, rather than whether it is the truth or a lie.

With a wrong person, even a great truth like advaita (non-duality), 'I am God', may make him think he is God and make him start doing all nonsensical things. With a wrong person, great truths will become harmful things.

One more thing: A wrong person can never understand the truth told by Krishna. For example, Krishna says, 'I am God. I am everything. Surrender unto me.' If the person is not completely devoted, if the person is not in tune with Krishna, if he has not understood Krishna, what will he think? 'What an egoistic person he is! How dare he tell me to surrender to him?' Naturally the person, instead of understanding Krishna, will create more trouble for Krishna.

Here, the qualification to receive the truth is devotion. If you have heard all the things I have said in the other three chapters of the Gita, it is okay, because it is expressed logically. Until this point, I am able to bring both logic and spirituality together.

Now the time has come when I have to give the pure truth as truth. Please be very clear, great things can never be expressed by logic, because logic is not sharp enough! Logic is not so sharp as to express the ultimate truth.

Somebody asked me, ‘Swamiji, why don’t you prove God logically?’ I told him, ‘If I can prove God logically, then logic would become God!’ Logic will become greater than God. God is great because He cannot be proved by logic. He is beyond your logic.

Here, Krishna is going to speak about something that is beyond logic. This is where you leave your logic behind, become completely open, sit in a totally passive mood, open up your being and be ready to receive.

One thing, with logic, either you will understand everything or you will not understand anything. That’s all. There is no other danger. When it comes to the deeper level teachings, either you understand, or you misunderstand.

The teachings which Krishna is going to deliver now are much deeper. They are much more subtler than the teachings which were delivered in the last two or three chapters.

That is why He says, ‘Now I am telling you these secrets just because you are my devotee and friend, just because you are near and dear to me. You are my own.’ That is the reason He uses the word bhaktosi. He says, ‘You are my devotee, and you are my friend.’ Sakha means friend.

The person who is not completely in tune with Krishna, the person who is not ready to trust the master, cannot receive the message. He cannot understand it. Not only will he not understand, he will misunderstand. Misunderstanding always leads to complications.

Now Krishna enters into the deeper level truths, where you need to come down from your head to your heart, where you need to sit with your whole being and listen to the truths.

Here, Krishna gives a warning, rahasyaṁ hyetaduttamam. ‘I am giving you these secrets, the mysterious science of realizing the ultimate, my dear friend and devotee, Arjuna.’

So, now let us enter into the science that is taught by Krishna.

Let us begin with a small prayer to Krishna:

Understand, Vedānta always emphasizes on three things: Shravana, manana and nididhyāsana. Shravana means listening. Manana means meditating, contemplating on it. Nididhyāsana means expressing it in your life, or experiencing it in your life.

Here, these truths do not need these three steps. Just listening is enough. Just listening is enough for it to become an experience. Shravana is enough; proper shravana becomes nididhyāsana. Nothing more needs to be done. All you need to do is to sit with a complete open being, with complete openness, with a complete relaxed feeling.

These words are uttered for your sake, not for the sake of the master.

So we will just take a few minutes to meditate on Sri Krishna, the great enlightened master. Let us pray to Him to allow His words to penetrate our being. Let Him reside in our consciousness. Let Him lead us to eternal bliss.

Just take a few minutes, close your eyes and intensely pray to Him: Master, lead us to the experience. Give us the understanding.

Let Him raise our inner space by His presence. Let Him be in our inner space and enlighten our consciousness.

Q: Swamiji, you had said somewhere that rituals are not considered relevant now because we have lost the code to understand them. Is Krishna talking about the same thing when He says that the science has been lost?

You are right, that is what Krishna is talking about.

Whatever the great masters, including the incarnations, taught based on their experience, was not in such a form whether verbal or non-verbal, that everyone could understand. First of all, the concepts behind these experiences were not relevant to all. Secondly, in order to transmit the experiences to others, which was the intention of the great masters, it was necessary to prepare the recipients.

Both these considerations reduced the number of persons to whom these truths and these experiences could be conveyed and taught. When the disciples were sufficiently trained there was no need for verbal communication. It could be communicated in silence. It was an energy transfer between the master and the disciples, which was the most efficient and most effective way. For this to happen, the disciples had to be at the same energy level as the master; at least when the teaching had to be imparted.

This is possible, as my disciples know. The master can initiate and train his disciples to be at his energy level, so that they can imbibe his messages better.

At the earlier stage, and sometimes later as well, masters did use words; but these words had different meanings at different energy levels. Often these were coded as metaphors. They were coded as rituals.

When Jesus said that the bread he gave was his body and the wine he gave was his blood, he did not intend his chosen few to become cannibals. It was a metaphor about sharing his energy with them. Over time this was institutionalized as a ritual, which had meaning as long as there was readiness in the followers to accept the ritual with deep faith. When this became a routine, it lost its original energy and meaning.

The reason masters were secretive about the truths they transferred was because of the tremendous power of these truths. If misunderstood, the energy of these truths could have been misused, as indeed they have been from time to time, even with all their precautions. At the first level, they could harm the user, and at further levels they can be used to harm others. Intelligence is needed to use such energies.

For instance, when your third eye center is opened and energized, you can get the power to make anything happen. The third eye center, ājñā, is represented by a twin leaved lotus. One leaf represents śakti, power or energy, and the other buddhi, intelligence or wisdom. When this cakra, this energy center is energized, one gets the power to do anything, along with the wisdom to use that power. All your dreams can be realized; at the same time you will know that all that you realized are only dreams.

Only disciples with awakened ājñās were entrusted with the secrets of the experiences of these masters. As anyone who has tried would know, awakening the third eye is not easy. It is the control point of all energy in the mind-body-spirit system and your entire system must be energized correctly for the ājñā to be awakened. More than anything else, this needed the guidance and grace of the master.

The great enlightened master Ramana Maharshi taught mostly in silence. His teaching was seemingly simple. He said, 'Keep asking Who am I, and you will realize the truth.’ I was initiated into this technique when I was very young, by a disciple of Bhagavan Ramana, and I played around with this method, which was called self-enquiry. I had a deep spiritual experience as a result.

The lineage of the master-disciple system is a sacred one. When it is continuous, consciousness prevails in the planet; when it is broken, darkness descends.