Day 1: 14ᵗʰ April🔗

Swamiji enters and seats himself. He greets the crowd with a Namskaar. The crowd returns the greeting and settles down.

[ Obeisance to the Sadguru (Master) He who is Bliss Absolute, Bestower of Supreme Joy Embodiment of Knowledge Beyond Duality, Expansive like the Sky The object of Mahakaavyas like Tat-tvam-asi (Thou art that) Peerless, Eternal, Pure, Steady Witness to all Thoughts Beyond all Modifications of body and mind And above the three Qualities of Purity, Passion and Passivity! ]

My beloved friends, I welcome you all to this meditation camp.

Each of you has come here looking for something. Do you know what it is? You may have come here expecting to gain some insights into meditation, some experience, some knowledge. But what kind of knowledge will you gain here?

Broadly speaking, knowledge is of three types. The most basic kind of knowledge is intellectual knowledge. This is the knowledge you get from the outside world. If you just use your head, use your mind, that is enough to pick up this knowledge. Like how you learn in school, in our regular academic system. Just concentrate, and you can do it. Logic, arithmetic, come under this category.

The next type of knowledge is knowledge from the heart: like art, like music, like poetry. This kind of knowledge cannot be learnt with the head. For this the head is of no use. If you want to learn poetry, can you do it with your head? In fact, it can't be learnt at all. At the most it can be picked up. better word... This knowledge can neither be taught nor picked up. It can only be transmitted from Being to Being. Listen clearly – it cannot be taught or learnt. We are speaking about something which cannot be spoken about!

So, you are not here to learn anything. Be very clear, I am not going to give you any philosophy, any system. I am here to give you the Light which is in my heart. That is what is going to happen, all these six days. I am going to give you a glimpse of satori, or spiritual experience – whatever you may call it. In these six days, you will get a glimpse of your Being.

Why are you all sitting like this? Come here. (beckons) Come and sit close to me. Whoever can sit on the floor, come and sit here. Otherwise of course, you can use the chair. And I don’t want these kind of distinctions! I don’t want anyone sitting near their relatives. Come on, get mingled – get confused! (laughs) Someone from that side, come here – you go there. Just make sure you’re not sitting next to your relatives or friends.

So the seating arrangement is over! Before we start the class, some instructions. When you leave the room, please enter your name in the register. And one more thing: please be punctual. It is just the respect we pay each other. I think none of us is here without any work..? All that in the very first session, you will get to experience God, or something like that! In a light and easy mood, without expectations, you will be able to receive much more from me. If you come with a prejudiced mind, full of expectations, you will be thinking only of your expectations. You are not here to focus on your expectations. You are here to focus simply on what I say.

Second thing, when you leave your shoes outside this room, please leave your mind also there. (Astonished laughter from audience) What I mean is – you might have attended so many meditation classes, read so many spiritual books, listened to so many spiritual discourses – I’m sure you must have done all these things! Not that these things haven’t helped you, surely they have their benefits – but now, here, the system is going to be totally different. I want you to be prepared to receive it as it is. Come with a fresh mind. Listen without comparison. You will be able to receive my message totally.

Because - for example - when I use the word atman, I give it a completely different meaning. If you have heard it earlier, from another master - he must have interpreted it in a totally different way. If you carry that interpretation with you into this class, how can you listen to me? You will be too busy listening to your own mind!

If you already have some ideas, some understanding (or what you think is understanding!), those ideas are going to be confused with my own. Then how can things be worked out?

I think we are all already quite confused, that's why we are here! Is there anyone here who feels no confusion? If you aren't confused, if you are already in clarity – there is no need for this meditation class. If you already know your way, if you've already attained in the spiritual world, you don't need to be here... I think all of us have come here to pick up something?

The third thing... let me tell you a small story, a beautiful story: Once there was a great Zen Buddhist monk, an enlightened master. Once the Japanese governor came to visit the monk. When his turn came, the governor sent in his visiting card to the monk. It bore the words, 'Zak-San - Governor of Japan'. The master took one look at the card and said – (Zen masters can be very harsh sometimes, when they want to break somebody's mind, they use ugly words) – he said, I have no business with this idiot! Ask him to leave this very minute! But the governor was a very intelligent man... not just intellectual, but intelligent! When the card and message were returned to him, he quietly struck out the words, Governor of Japan, and returned the card to the master.

Be open, and even without your knowledge, you will receive what I teach.

(suddenly)

See, someone’s sleeping!

(the class becomes suddenly alert)

Swamiji (laughing mischievously) : No no, no one’s sleeping yet. I just said that to wake up some people who are almost asleep! See, this is what happens if you just keep hearing me talk, without actually listening, without interacting!

There are two ways in which I don’t want you to listen to me: One is, with doubt.

Doubt is the way of the intellectual mind. Too much logic and reason will come in the way of your receiving me into yourself.

The second is, with belief.

If you believe in me, you are lost. Don’t believe in anybody, not even me. If you believe, you will not practise. The so-called believers are the weakest people. Because it takes great courage to live without beliefs. Then you don’t need a readymade idea to tell you what to think and how to act. Both faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin – your Mind. At a very deep level, your greatest doubt will carry some faith, your greatest faith will have some doubt in it. I assure you!

Then what to do?

A third way exists: listen with trust.

Trust is the energy, the ability to translate teachings into practical life. When I tell you, The sun rises in the east, you neither need to believe nor doubt – you know. Or if it is something you haven’t noticed, you get up the next morning and check it out – as an experiment! This is the attitude I want from you. So have trust, not faith. Take what I say as a hypothesis, integrate it into your life and see for yourself whether it works or not. Drop the coin of the Mind!

(introductions are completed) So we have all introduced ourselves to each other? Or rather, in so many ways, we have tried to introduce ourselves to each other… Now let us see if we can introduce ourselves to ourselves!

Let us say, you are a doctor. Society calls you a doctor. But are you a doctor? Are you a doctor? (gestures to a doctor in the audience) You are not a doctor, your profession is ‘Doctor’. Suppose your name is Sita. Are you a Sita? No, your name is Sita. Do you understand? You are not a Sita. You are not a Rama. These are just names. So who are you? Not yet... not yet. But you have heard about it from books, from the scriptures? You have heard, but you have not experienced. What does this mean? It means you have eaten, but you have not digested. When you have eaten, but not digested, what happens? Tell me. Either indigestion – or vomiting! At least, with indigestion, only you suffer. If you vomit, others are going to be suffering! (laughter from audience) When we talk, most of us are just vomiting ideas. We simply gather ideas which we can't digest, and vomit them upon others. Especially when the ideas are half-cooked, the more the urge to vomit them! So please don't cling to both these ideas... okay?

Now let's come to the point – of introducing ourselves to ourselves. So, you say that you are Rama, you are Sita. Just turn inwards and ask, Am I Rama? No! It is just a label given to you by society. Do you understand me? The exact word is 'label'. As we label things, parcels, houses – in the same way, you have been labeled by society. You are not this name. Am I right? If anybody here can't accept this idea, if you are not able to

agree – you can raise your hand. (from audience) That is right, Swamiji. Hmmm...(laughs) So then, who are you? (gesturing to the person who has spoken) Who are you? That you have to explain, Swamiji! (laughter) Ha ha ha - no, no, no! I cannot explain! Actually it means, we are coming to the conclusion that we don’t know who we are! Once we accept that we don’t know who we are, we begin to start knowing. When we know that we don’t know, we at least know that we don’t know. We at least know that much. But when we don’t know that we don’t know, we don’t even know that we don’t know!

Yes? (from audience) Is it necessary to know? Yes, a beautiful question. Actually, if you feel that it is not necessary to know, that is well and good. Just drop everything and be happy. All this confusion ends, and you can simply rest.

(from audience) But is it possible? See, that is where the problem starts! She asked the right question, Is it possible? Actually, it is impossible.

You can relax. If you aren’t concerned, if you are already at ease – it is perfectly OK. There is no compulsion to do the meditation.

(from audience) Suppose a man has knowledge worth 100 marks, but wants to gain 101 or 102 marks... suppose you’ve reached a certain level, and still you want to know more, so you come? In the spiritual life, there are only 2 categories – either you know, or you don’t know. There is no such thing as 100 marks or 120 marks. In the spiritual world, there is no possibility of knowing 70% and not knowing 30%. When you know about something, when you want to gather knowledge, you can do it in bits and pieces. But to know about is very different from to know. To know is to experience. Can you say, I know 50% of how this rose smells? Hmmm..? You either know or you don’t know, that’s all. There is no third category.

(from audience) But Swamiji, how many people actually ask this question? One in a million? Two in a million? Why do you bother about how many others ask this question? All you have to know is, Am I asking? Is this question there in me? That is what I am concerned with. Whether you are asking or not - each of you. I am not concerned with the masses. I am talking to you.

Let me tell you one thing. In a deep spiritual experience, there will be no traveling. It is a moment's experience. In imagining that we are traveling, getting somewhere spiritually, we are simply cheating ourselves. We are unable to take a real leap into spirituality, and at the same time we are not ready to confess that we don't know anything about it – what a shame that would be! So to keep our ego happy we create our own philosophies: short of enlightenment, I know everything about spirituality! Haven't you cheated yourself enough already? Wake up!

In the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna Vishaada Yoga (The Yoga of Arjuna's Grief), Arjuna talks throughout and Krishna remains silent. It is only when Arjuna finally surrenders, saying I know nothing!, that he is at last ready to receive Krishna's message. Although Krishna and Arjuna were friends and childhood playmates, though there might have been hundreds of other more relaxed situations, the Gita was not delivered to Arjuna anytime earlier. Why? Because until then, Arjuna was not ripe to receive the Gita! It is only when he utters the words, I don't know, that he becomes qualified to know. The basic condition for spiritual progress is this: to know very clearly that you don't know. This is the first step towards really knowing. So today we will end on the right beginning... thank you.

Swamiji, how to start knowing?

Ha, ha! Don't worry about that just now. From tomorrow I'll be guiding you on all these things – how to, when to and all that.

(from audience) But first my ego has to surrender...

There is no need to get tense and have so many questions inside your head!

Just having listened to this is enough. Tomorrow I will be giving you meditation techniques that will take care of all these issues.

(to all) From tomorrow, we will have be having daily meditation sessions.

I will be giving you techniques to cleanse and heal your physical, mental and spiritual energies.

Please wear loose white clothes. And no cellphones, please.

Every day you will be given an exercise as homework. So do it properly and bring it back to me!

(laughter from all)

This is not the usual kind of homework. You will be given an idea which you have to work out the whole day, and give me a report the next day. Please do it sincerely. I trust you are all intelligent people? Now it is up to you to prove your intelligence!

Thank you.

You are the chosen few.

You are the few who are courageous enough to attend the second session. I am very happy to see you all, and I must ask you to excuse me for the way I was yesterday – a little too fiery, hmmm? Please excuse me, there was no other way to filter the crowd. That is why I make the first session so hard for you... it helps to filter the crowd. These are a few of the techniques used by the master. After a while the ones who are merely curious will naturally drop out. Now that has happened, we are a seekers' group. Now I can share anything with you all, it will only help you. Why did I do this? You see, even the right knowledge shared with the wrong person will always produce wrong results. Even knowledge, in the hands of a person who lacks the maturity to handle it, can be a dangerous thing. It is like giving a knife in the hands of a child. Shakti (power) cannot be handed over to one who does not possess Buddhi (intelligence)!

Today, we have enough nuclear power, enough weaponry to destroy the earth not once, but 700 times over!

What is the reason? The right knowledge in the hands of the wrong persons. This is what happens when Shakti works without Buddhi. It is the surest way to destroy humanity.

Today's subject for the day is Wisdom of the body – that is, the body's subjective intelligence.

Just watch your body. How many mysterious, unexplainable things are happening in your body! Just look in and you'll find that a giant factory is running inside. Even the word factory is too small! An industry – a whole industrial estate! If you just think about all the mysteries in your body, you will see the glory of Existence. In Sanskrit, the body is called the pindaanda, and Existence or Parashakti, the cosmic body, is called the Brahmaanda. Everything that happens in the universe also happens in your body. Just look in, and you will be wonderstruck! The body has a deep, intrinsic intelligence. Yesterday we all heard and spoke about Who am I? - the system which enquires, Who am I? If you have really enquired, if it has become a quest in you, not just a question.... mind you, there is a tremendous difference between a question and a quest. Yesterday we asked Who am I? just as a question. It has not become a quest in us. When that question truly becomes a watch TV till 12 o'clock, your eyes start aching. Your body is screaming, I want to go to sleep! I need rest! But do we allow it? And the next morning we condemn our body because it is not in top form! Can anyone contradict that?

Generally we all carry this opinion in our minds, that our senses are destroying us, that the body is our enemy. We are taught from a young age that the body is our enemy.

(from audience) No, Swamiji... I don't think so. Why do you say that? Just look around you. In society, in many spiritual books, we see it mentioned that the body is to be neglected. The very idea of controlling the body arises from the idea that the body is our enemy. Do you understand? When you start loving the body, you don't have to control it. You will have a deep relationship with the body. So do you understand the idea?

(from audience) Not the body, but the senses have to be controlled... Yes, the panchendriyas (five senses) have to be controlled. But can you clearly tell the difference between the panchendriyas and the body? In a practical sense, we cannot tell the difference between the two. Indriya means that which is working inside your eyes, inside your ears. But can

Sri Ramakrishna says beautifully: There are two ways to cross the river of Maya. One is by summoning all your strength and leaping across the river. The other way is to stand before it with folded hands and request, O Maya, please allow me to get across!

The first path is almost impossible. It might take you janmas, many lives to summon sufficient energy to take that leap. First you have to control your senses, then the mind, then the chitta, then the ego – and finally you attain to enlightenment. It is a process that takes many lifetimes. Very few people have the courage or ability to take this path. But today is the jet-age. Everyone is looking for instant solutions. Like instant coffee, you are looking for instant meditation! You need techniques that can fetch you immediate results. In the jet-age, only jet-age techniques can work. For our time, the right path is to co-operate with your body, to trust in your body wisdom. So the first thing – drop all negativity, all hostility, all idea of controlling the body, from your mind. You are your body.

(from audience) But how can we drop control, without being sure? Unless you drop it, how will you know? Just drop the negativity and see!

A small story: One poornima (full moon) night, an enlightened man - a the body? There are so many ways we change the natural functioning of the body, especially for social reasons. For example, you may want to sleep till 7.30 a.m., you may enjoy sleeping at that time...

Swamiji, you mean the body wants to sleep, or...? Yes, I'm coming to that. I'll give you the exact clarification... hmmm? So, you may want to sleep. But you may have read somewhere that the brahma muhurta (4.30 a.m.- 6.30 a.m.) is the right time to meditate. So you imagine that you need to wake up early and meditate - you set the alarm for 4.30 a.m. And when the alarm rings, what do you do? Switch it off and go back to sleep! After a while, you finally get up and try to meditate, but your body refuses to co-operate. Still you force it to function according to your idea of what is right for it.

Do you know, research has now proved that of the eight hours that you sleep, only two hours are you actually sleeping! During this period, your body temperature actually goes down by 2 degrees! At all other times, you are simply falling into the dream state, and rising out of it. Now if you can find out which those two hours are for you, and sleep only during that time, you can keep awake the rest of the night. On the other hand, if you happen to be awake during those two hours, even if you get ten hours of sleep later, you will keep feeling drowsy through the day. These two hours differ from person to person. In general, there are two kinds of bodies: sauramana shareera and chandramana shareera. The sauramana body needs to sleep early and wake early. It needs sleep compulsorily between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. The chandramana body needs sleep early in the morning. You can clearly see this in your own routines – especially when you are young, when you are studying for exams! Some people are easily able to keep awake late, while others can get up early but cannot stay awake late in the night. So if you simply read spiritual books which ask you to wake up before sunrise, and try to follow those rules, it may not work for you.

Even if you see the way we eat – long after the stomach is full, we continue to eat. Simply because we enjoy the taste of the food, even if our stomach is telling us it doesn't need any more food! Or even worse, I hear people say, especially at social functions – see, they have served me too much, but I am eating so as not to waste the food. Otherwise, what will the host think? What an atrocity to commit on your body! Tell me, is it better to waste the food outside, or push it through your body and then waste it? Either way it will be a waste, because your body doesn't need that food. (much laughter) Why are you laughing? Isn't this the truth? Don't we all do this? smoked a whole pack of cigarettes, just to spite his father! In that way he gradually got addicted.

When he asked me how to drop it, I told him, Don't drop it. Go ahead and smoke. But don't do it to prove anything to anybody. Don't do it to spite your father. And don't imagine that you have become mature and independent by smoking! Every time you pick up a cigarette, do it silently, be conscious of why you are smoking. You will realize on your own.

After just a few days, the boy returned to me. He said, Swamiji, I'm not able to smoke anymore! Doing it consciously, I realized that I was not smoking for the sake of smoking. Smoking is not that important to me.

Then he added something which made me very happy. He said, Swamiji, I feel now, why did I abuse my body all these days, pushing smoke into my system!

When you become conscious of what you are doing, many things drop on their own. This is the only permanent solution.

Of course, it may take a few days to awaken the intelligence. The patience to wait till then is what is called tapasya.

In the meantime, don't fall back on second-rate intelligence that you have picked up from society, from moral codes set down by society. Have trust in your body! We always live in deep fear of our bodies. We are afraid of what might happen if we don't control our bodies. We feel as if we are sitting on a volcano! The moment we sense a cold or fever coming up, the day we have the slightest headache, we reach out for a pill. It

(from audience) But not everybody, Swamiji! No, not everybody. In fact, people who have to be alert the whole day, they don't daydream. So they are more successful in whatever they do. Because when you stop living in dreams, you start living in reality. That's why, the possibility of becoming rich is more, when you are always alert. When you are more aware, not only money, but all kinds of success will start flowing towards you.

But without dreaming, Swamiji, we can't work! See, there are two things: planning and dreaming. Planning is always chronological, down-to-earth, physical, realistic. Dreaming is always fantasy-based. If your real ability is to earn a hundred rupees, your fantasy will be to earn a thousand rupees. And by the time you earn a thousand, you have already started dreaming about a million rupees! Only you can find out whether your plans are plans or dreams. I can give you the torch, but it is up to you to use it, and find out in your day-to-day life, which are the plans and which are the dreams. With a plan, if you have done your best, even if it doesn't work out you won't feel that you have failed. With dreams, even if you are successful, you will feel that you have failed! You can never be satisfied - because the next dream is already on its way!

Swamiji, are you saying that if we feel content with our says, Watch the duets on TV and be satisfied! That is the reason, everywhere you find the TV constantly on, duets constantly being played everywhere.

So just by watching, we learn to fulfil ourselves. This is called cerebral enjoyment. With the awakening of cerebral intelligence, our body intelligence has been destroyed, our minds have become complicated. In ancient times, controlling the body was not such a difficult thing – because this layer was not there. So people had only two options: either they would enjoy, they would go and dance with whoever they wanted to dance with. Or they wouldn’t enjoy, that’s all.

Now, there is a third option. You don’t enjoy physically, but mentally you enjoy the same thing continuously! At least with physical indulgence, there will be an end to it somewhere. With cerebral enjoyment, the process is continuous. Through the media, advertisements, internet, movies, TV – we can make a whole list. You have no idea how deep advertisements penetrate into your being! Without your even being conscious of it, hundreds of messages are being recorded in your system every day. It’s a subtle kind of mass hypnosis! In just a flash, just when your car passes a hoarding, you absorb a message – without even realizing that you have seen it. But a week later, when you go to the supermarket, you will find yourself picking up exactly the same product! Do you know, in marketing terminology, there is a phrase called creating a need. Imagine! Their job is to first create a need that you don't feel right now, and then plug in their product to fill that need! This is the cerebral layer at work.

Of course, it is not as if the cerebral layer has not created anything positive. It is entirely responsible for scientific knowledge, for modern technology, for all the comforts we have in our daily lives. These things are useful within limits – as long as you're in control of them, not the other way around! TV is neither good nor bad. The solution is not breaking the TV. It is simply having the sense to know when to switch it off.

Not just the external TV, but the internal TV too, the TV that is constantly playing in your mind. When you learn to put off the TV inside, your body intelligence will automatically start functioning. So when our Zen monk says When I eat, I eat. When I sleep, I sleep., this is what he means. Whatever you do, do with totality.

(from audience) You mean, single-mindedness? Ahh! No, I would say, no-mindedness! When your thoughts disappear, your intelligence is awakened.

If I tell you that you yourself choose your parents when you enter the body, can you believe it? These are all deep truths, ‘mystical science’, you could call it! The truth is, you choose your parents – and so in a way, you are inviting their diseases upon yourself.

So now let us see, how not to invite these diseases.

First, what is this cerebral layer?

(from audience) The subconscious? Yes, that is right. What is meant by the subconscious?

(from audience) What we are not conscious about! Meaning...?

(Silence) Alright, let me explain. You are happily driving your second-hand car on a busy road. At a traffic signal, a brand new car comes and stops next to you. Suddenly, a deep desire arises in your mind to possess that car. Of course, you immediately suppress the desire, because you know you won’t be able to afford such a car. But that thought which arises – that is the Unconscious.

But Swamiji, how can I shut out that desire? You can’t shut it out! That’s why I’m going to tell you how to drop it, not how to force it down. As it is, for too long you have been repressing your desires. Neither expression nor suppression works. You can't give expression to the desire - you can't go and grab the car from the owner. Nor should you suppress it. Then what can you do? Simply drop the desire.

Swamiji, isn't it possible to keep the desire and achieve the goal? Yes, but is that your final desire? Believe me, the moment you fulfil one desire, your mind will move to the next one. The moment you sit behind the steering of your Ikon, a desire for a Rolls Royce will arise! So when the desire arises, expressing it will result in kopa (anger) or jealousy. That means, you will turn hostile towards the other person, simply because he possesses an object that you desire. Some people turn the anger inward, towards themselves, resulting in an inferiority complex. This is known as repression. Subconscious is nothing but the collective term for all the suppressed desires, suppressed emotions.

At the office, suppose your boss gets mad at you. When he yells at you, a wave of anger arises inside you also. You just can't help it. In fact, medical research has proved that when you get angry, chemicals are produced in your body to help you express that anger! So the energy to attack a man is automatically produced by your body the moment you get your actions. As we know, whatever you suppress in the waking state, appears strongly in your dream state. If a beautiful woman passes by and you don't look at her out of loyalty to your wife, be sure she will appear in your dreams! Or if there is an unhappy event you don't want to recall, you may succeed in forgetting about it during the day, but it will be there to haunt you at night.

A small story: Once there was a man who wanted to attain siddhis, miraculous powers. So he went to a Himalayan guru and asked him to teach him how to achieve these powers. The guru tried explaining to him, Why do you want to attain these siddhis? They won't help you in life. Try meditation instead, it will help you grow spiritually. But the man was adamant. So finally the guru gave him a bottle of medicine, telling him, Have this medicine three times a day for a fortnight, and you will attain some rare siddhis. There is only one condition. At the moment when you drink this medicine, be sure not to think of monkeys. Immediately the man asked, What if I remember? Imagine! Otherwise who thinks of monkeys? But the moment the master asked him not to, the man became afraid. If you happen to think of a monkey, you will have to purify yourself by taking a bath, and only then have the medicine, said the guru. As soon as he got home, the man took out the bottle of so much so that you are afraid to even look at the picture of a woman! You are afraid it might bring out the desires you have tried so hard to repress. And the same with greed..! These are the three major causes of all our misery – Anger, Lust, Greed.

Today, we will enter into a meditation technique to kill Dukkha (misery). It is called Dukkha Harana. This meditation technique is designed to throw out the repressions, to subvert the subconscious. I call this only a technique – not a meditation. Because even the word meditation makes many people uneasy. If I give them one hundred rituals to perform, they'll do it happily. But to sit for half an hour and meditate – it makes them uneasy. It is easy to do outward things – but to look in? That is the most frightening thing! Because there is a Pandora's Box inside – who dares open that Pandora's Box?

(from audience) But Swamiji , if we don't control ourselves, what will happen? The question she has asked shows you exactly what I am saying! See, how fear resonates in the very question! We are all living in fear of the Pandora's Box inside us. That is why, the moment we hear the word meditation, we try to escape. So some people don't like the word because it makes them afraid, some people think it is too serious a thing, and somewhere along the way it has also got associated with religion. Actually meditation has nothing to do with religion. It has only to do with spirituality.

Swamiji, why should we do this meditation? To throw out the subconscious.

What happens if we fall asleep during meditation? Nothing wrong. Please, don't have any ideas about do's and don'ts! If you feel sleepy, sleep. When you finish sleeping, you can meditate, that's all.

Can we practise it along with any other meditation? Yes, it can be continued alongside any other meditation. There are no side-effects. Whichever technique you find helps you more, continue with that and drop the other. If both are helping you, continue both. But please don't keep comparing techniques, different techniques are designed for different types of people. So don't condemn any technique, each has its own value. Vivekananda goes so far as to say that even the sacrificial rites practised by tribals have their own value – so never condemn anything.

(elderly lady) But what about young people entering into all this? Ha ha ha! Do you think meditation is only for people of your age? We normally have this idea, that spirituality and meditation are only for those who have finished living their life. I say,

First, you will listen to music which will help you enter into the meditation.

This is a 30-minute meditation, with 3 parts of 10 minutes each.

For the first 10 minutes, we are going to work with breath. You are going to breathe deeply, chaotically.

During chaotic breathing, when the body intelligence is allowed to take over, the body will take in however much oxygen is needed. There is no need to control your breath - this is not pranayama.

Just breathe as deeply as you can - forget everything else, just breathe, breathe deeply - become the breathing!

If anyone has a heart problem, do it as much as you can without discomfort. The rest of you, put your whole energy into it!

The heat generated in these 10 minutes will melt all your solidified negative energies. The subconscious will be thrown open.

(from audience) Any particular breathing exercises?

No, nothing. Let your body behave as it wants. You have to be standing, that's all. There are no specific exercises. Just breathe, that's all!

The next 10 minutes is called catharsis. Here you will open the seed body which is inside your being. Just make your

You are going to just throw it out. You are all going to be blindfolded, so there is no need to worry about being seen. Don't be afraid of the violence that is coming up from inside you. Once all the violence is spent, a peace will start blooming inside your Being. Without your knowledge, from deep inside your consciousness, you will experience a stillness, a silence arising.

At the end of 10 minutes, you will hear the word, STOP! At that point, just stop – in whichever position you are. Just become a frozen statue. When you switch suddenly from frantic action to total silence, your mind is totally stopped, arrested for a moment. In that moment, you may even experience samadhi. This is especially possible in the master's presence. The moment your mind stops working, you will feel a tremendous energy rushing into you.

Actually, I make you all listen to me - for no reason! I have nothing to give you in words, nothing to tell you that is of any importance. If you are able to absorb my energy, you'll realize that I can give you much more in silence than I can give you in words. The reason I talk is this – if I don't talk, you will start talking with yourself! If I ask you all to sit in silence in my presence, what do you think will happen? After a couple of seconds, you are sure to start talking to yourself! So to stop your inner chatter, I am forced to talk. Carry this silence with you. Go to rest as early as possible. You will find that you will sleep beautifully and awaken in a peaceful mood.