Publisher:

Divine Radiance Publication

Brahmarishi Ashram, Virat Nagar

Pinjore (Haryana)

© Brahmrishi Vishvatma Bawra

Compiled by: Margot Milcetich

Edited by: Swami Brahmrita Parivarajika

First edition Jan 2003

Content

Preface 5

Dedication 6

Three guided meditations of Mahayoga 8

Introduction 14

Sacrifice of Body, Senses and Mind 17

Sacrifice of Ego 26

Sacrifice of Intellect 38

Sacrifice of Breath 50

Sacrifice of Food 60

Sacrifice of Self Interest 68

3

4

Foreword

The book `Nature of Scrifice´ were lectures on the 4th

chap-

ter of the Shirmad Bhagavad Gita given by our reverend Gurudev

H.H. Brahmrishi Vishvatma Baraji Maharaj in Kent, Ohio U.S.A.

These were compiled by Margot Milcetich (Devhuti) guruji’s dear

disciple.

In this book reverend Gurudev has explained the art of

living which Lord Krishna has propounded in the Gita. ‘Sacrifice’ is

the base and main there of life. Because you can get contentment,

peace and happiness by ‘giving’ only not by hoarding or accumulat-

ing.

Each person has five instruments i.e. intellect, ego, mind,

senses and gross body and a human being can achieve divinity by

performing five sacrifices which Gurudev has explained in detail in

this book.

I hope this book will be a mile stone to the common man.

The whole expenditure on this book was given by Margot of U.S.A.

May God bless her and give her more prosperity and power to do

such kind of righteous deeds.

With best wishes and blessings –

Didi Brahmrita Parivarajika

5

Preface

The Nature of Sacrifice is an edited series of lectures given

by Brahmrishi Vishvatma Bawraji in Kent, Ohia, 1995. the material

of the text is based on the inspiration of verses 28 through 33 of the

fourth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.

The value of the lectures is in our own practice. Knowledge

put into practice creates a living philosophy that supports the divine

in human life. To this end, the lectures often opened with an expla-

nation of practice and its value. Some meditation practices are in-

clude on the chapter on meditation.

The language is kept as close to the original as possible.

Guruji’s idioms are retained where the shift in language assist our

understanding of a different consciousness. An example is his use of

the term to be “aware about” an experience as opposed to “aware

of”. Awareness “about” implies a more global consciousness as con-

trasted with the limited focus of the mind.

Margot Milcetich

Kent, Ohio

6

Dedication

This book on “The nature of sacrifice” is dedicated to

Bhaiji, our Guruji’s brother. Bhaiji left his body the day before my

husband and I left India in October of 2000. he has spoken on the

phone to the ashram on the morning of his death, which was sud-

den. The whole ashram felt his passing as one body takes a blow.

When I last saw Bhaiji, most of the ashram members were

setting out for the Himalayas. He was strolling in the hot sun to his

room wearing his usual dark glasses. He had just left Guruji´s room.

I had been there with them and others for a time, watching the hu-

morous emptying of a lower shelf of it’s cache of donated shoes and

slippers for Guruji, ones intended to protect him from the cold in

winter. Mostly our Guruji prefers wooden sandals. So he was smil-

ing at each new pair of footwear and the chorus of wise creacks

that attended his sampling. There were orange and white tennis

shoes, embroidered gentleman’s slippers, and other, less defined

footwear flattened with neglect. When I caught a glimpse of Bhaiji

going to his room, he was wearing a white pair of canvas loafers,

and has two pairs of shoes cradled in his arms. He was content.

When my husband returned from his first trip to India in

1984, the person he spoke of as he emptied his suitcase was Bhaiji.

Neither of them spoke the other’s language, but that did not inhibit

the growth of connection that gradually shifted through gestures of

friendship to shared words. I came to know Bhaiji as the one who

raised our teacher’s children. Our Guruji, Brahmrishi Vishvatma

Bawraji took sanyas after he had started a family at a young age. He have his chil-

dren into his brother´s care in the lap of their village. Subsequently, in later years,

Bhaiji helped raise Guruji grand children when Guruji´s son went off to Canada to

work as a pandit. He raised his own grand children when his son went to work as

a temple priest in Canada.

Bhaiji has little pretension, and much humour and good will. He lived the

spirit of sacrifice as it is understood in the tradition of the Vedas and in Yoga. Sac-

rifice is not what we give up to gain a goal, sacrifice is what we offer to life. As

these lectures will clarify, the transformation of elements one into the other is

what creates the flow of change in the world of nature. Were it not for the quality

of transformation, we would not have life as we know it. Sacrifice is what we offer

into the flow of life in the spirit of transformation. Through sacrifice we transform

our humanity into divinity. There is no happiness without it.

May we live in the light of wisdom.

Margot Milcetich

Kent, Ohio

U.S.A.

7

8

THREE GUIDED MEDITATIONS

OF MAHAYOGA

Mahayoga combines four aspects, usually through a progression

towards greater subtlety:

1. Hath or the use of breath for collection of body and senses

2. Mantra for quieting the mind

3. Raja for an analysis of our real position

4. Laya for surrender to the source

1. Meditation of the spine, pratyahar (inward turning of the

senses), our “real position”, and the chakras with pranav Om:

We should try to meditate for a few minutes. Extend to-

wards the heavens through the backbone. During meditation, cre-

ate a straight line from tailbone to the top of the head. Your spinal

cord must be straight so that the vital centers located in your spinal

cord will be balanced. When you keep your backbone straight, your

brain can regulate the vital centers properly. Your breath can also

be easy and full if the spine is straight. Blood circulated freely from

head to toe when you take ample oxygen from outside and dis-

charge carbon dioxide. So keep your backbone straight, and close

the eyes and mouth.

There are nine doors in your body and among those only

three doors are under your control, the two eyes and one mouth.

The other doors can’t be closed. The nostrils stay open for breath.

The other senses are turned inward gradually. At the base of the spine the doors

for the organs of elimination are held gently but firmly up toward the center. So

close the eyes and mouth and relax the body. Each part of body should be re-

laxed, and the mind should be tensionless. Be alert inside, not outside. Steadily

collect your senses and thought from outside and move inside.

Now visualise divine space filled with divine energy. You know that space

is filled with divine energy; oxygen is merely a projection of divine energy. Energy

is flooding in space. And visualize the globe in the space and yourself sitting on

the globe. This is your real position. You are sitting on the globe in space and di-

vine energy is flooding and surrounding your body. The same energy is entering in

your body through your nostrils in the form of breath and giving you life. It means

you are receiving life energy from an infinite source. When you will place your

attention on the movement of breath, you will realize that the source of life is

one. Not only one person, all beings are receiving life energy from one course.

Each person may have separate lungs, nostrils, bodies, but we are united in one

source enlivening us through the breath. All physical, sensual, mental and intellec-

tual activities are due to your breath. When the breath stops, all movement will

be stopped. Be aware about the source of life through your breath. Watch your

breath, feel your breath, and take long deep breaths, as deep as you can. In this

process you will receive more oxygen and discharge more carbon dioxide. If oxy-

gen increases in the blood then it will be thinner, and the blood will circulate

freely keeping the brain alert. Receive more oxygen by exhaling totally, inhaling

fully, slowly, gently. Take deep breaths and watch your breath.

Watch the point where the breath is entering the nostrils. If you have a

mantra, relate your mantra with breath to quiet the mind. Put your tongue on the

palette to stabilize the movement of the mind. Be aware about the source of

breath, the infinite energy flooding beyond your nostrils. Allow the mind to dwell

on the vastness of which we are a projection. If your mind moves, breathe deeply

9

again and again. Returning to the breath, your mind will become stable gradually

and effortlessly. Be calm and quiet. Relate mantra with inhaling and exhaling.

Now, place your attention on the subtle body. There are eight vital cen-

ters in your body along the spine and into the head, and the highest center is the

brahma chakra. It is situated on the top of your head near to the pineal gland and

is the abode of your real Self. Be aware about it. Your brain is receiving conscious-

ness from that divine spot and radiating that consciousness from head to toes,

throughout the whole body. Five of the eight vital centers are situated on the spi-

nal cord and three are situated in the head. Place your attention on each sequen-

tially and create the sound of Om with a long exhale, visualizing the elevation of

consciousness from lower to higher. The lowest vital center is situated near to the

tailbone. Second is situated in the root of the generative organs. Third is the na-

vel. Fourth is near to your heart. Fifth is in the thyroid, sixth is above the palette,

and seventh is between the eyebrows. These are seven centers. Beyond these is

the brahma chakra above the head, the real abode of your soul. Supreme con-

sciousness, situated at the top of head is called Brahma Chakra. So start with the

lowest chakra and recite the holy sound of Om, ascending one vital center at a

time. Om is the root of all divine sounds. Om is called the unstruck sound. It is an

eternal vibration. Other sounds are expressions of your tongue hitting and shap-

ing sound with other part of your mouth, but in making this sound, the tongue

and mouth are moving with the breath, without striking. Breath creates this

sound.

If you can master this practice, one day you will realize that not only are

you a master of your body, senses, mind, ego and intellect, you are also a master

of the whole universe.

10

2. Meditation on Prana Apana:

Try to create straight line from tailbone to the top of the head. Bring

your chest ahead and bend your neck a little then you can do it. Be free of ten-

sion, close your eyes and mouth. Visualize endless space filled with divine energy,

and visualize the globe of the earth in the space. Your little body is sitting on the

globe in the space. Subtle energy is flooding in space; space is nothing but an

ocean of energy, surrounding your body. The same energy is entering your nos-

trils in the form of breath and giving you life. Just beyond your nostrils is an ocean

of energy, and you are submerged in it. Inside and outside of you there is nothing

but energy. As a fish is living in the ocean, you are living in the ocean of energy.

Inside, every side, up and down, there is nothing but energy. And that life energy

comes from an infinite source.

Inhaling and exhaling process is continual. When you are inhaling you are

receiving oxygen, when you are exhaling you are discharging carbon dioxide. By

virtue of this process a special fire appears in your body and creates temperature.

The fire is called the gastric fire that digests your food and creates heat and en-

ergy in you body. You are alive due to that. Be aware about the ocean of energy.

Pay your heed and try to take deep, long breaths, as long as you can. Take the

breath gently, slowly, rhythmically. If you have a mantra, relate it to your breath,

both with inhaling and exhaling. Watch your breath, put your attention on the

breath and meditate on the breath with sound. In this process your sound, mind

and breath will be one. This is the process of mahayoga. And put the tip of the

tongue on the palate, the roof of the mouth to help quiet and focus the mind.

11

3. Meditation through body awareness, pratyahar, and our “real position”:

In meditation, conserve energy by closing the eyes and mouth. Relax

your body. Every part of your body should be relaxed, without strain or tension.

And relax your mind too. In the beginning when you sit you should try to watch

each part of body mentally, think that you are relaxing each part of body from top

to toes. Keep your spinal cord straight. The body should be relaxed but the mind

and heart are open. With the spine straight, keep the mind and heart aware.

Close your eyes and mouth and be aware inside. As the great seer Kabir told,

“Close your external doors and try to open your internal doors.” Visualize infinite

space, the globe in the space, and your body sitting on the globe in the space. As I

told you many times, space is filled with divine energy. Space is nothing but an

ocean of energy. Energy is flooding, surrounding your body. And the same energy

is entering through your nostrils in the form of breath and giving you life. Be

aware about this fact. So you should try to pay your attention on your breath and

the source of breath too. When you will be aware about the source of breath,

then you will realize unity in diversity. All finite matter is a projection of infinity.

You will realize this fact. As a finite bubble is a projection of a vast ocean of water,

in the same way, you can think about your own self too. So place your full atten-

tion on your breath, and take long deep breaths, gently, rhythmically and relate

your mantra with breath. Mentally recite the sound with inhaling and exhaling,

continuously. Meditate on the breath, calmly, quietly. When you chant your man-

tra with breath mentally, then sound, mind and breath will be one. This is the

process of mahayoga, a great and mystical process. Turn your tongue so the tip

touches the palate, the roof of the mouth. Now continue.

The Brahma chakra is the real abode of your divine self. And your self is

flooding its own light and energy from that place to all the different centers. Due

to that your body is active. In meditation, we turn to seek out the source. The

purpose of meditation is to elevate your energy from lower to higher and

12

centralize your life energy into your brahma chakra. Then you will be one with

that supreme cause. Now you should pay your attention on the lowest chakra

that is situated near to your tailbone. Second is the root of generative organ, third

is in your navel, fourth is near to heart, fifth is in thyroid, sixth is in the palate and

seventh is in middle of eyebrows and eighth is on top of head, that is crown

chakra. Now chant the long sound of Om, sequentially with each center.

May God bless you all.

May He lead you all from darkness to light,

from unreal to real, from death to immortality.

May He shower upon you all His divine grace.

May He bestow upon you all His divine love and wisdom.

Om Kham Brahma

13

14

INTRODUCTION

Our great seers declared that human beings are suffering

due to ignorance. Lord Kapila, Veda Vyasa and Patanjali declared

the same idea. When one removes ignorance and is aware about

truth, suffering will be gone. You must turn inside to realize truth. If

you look outside you will not free yourself. Ultimately you will

waste time and energy, ability, potential and whatever capacity you

have for action. Only when you turn your energy inside you will find

truth. When you realize truth you will be the happiest person in the

world. Ecstasy will flow from your own self. So try to turn inside.

Our great seer told ---

Paranch ikhani Vytrinat swayambhooh

tasmat parangpashyati nantaratman.

Kaschid dheerah pratyagatmamaikshat

avritt chakshuh amritatvam ichan.

(Kath. 2/1-1)

“Our senses are looking outside because their mouth is

outside, their faces are outside. They don’t know what is inside”.

Kaschid dhirah, means a few wise men. Dhirah means wise man, the

root ‘dhi’ means wisdom ‘rah’ means light. Those who have lightful

wisdom are dhirah. “Only a few wise men become eager to realize

pratyagatman, the spirit or consciousness that enlightens this

body”. Kaschid dhirah pratyagatman aikshat, ‘they become able to

see That, to realize That, to achieve That.’ Then they achieve

Amritam. Amritam means immortality. ‘Those who realize the Real Self is immor-

tal.’ Immortal means free from death and fear of death, free from any sense of

lackness. In other words, he who realizes the Self is perfect, immortal, and one with

infinity. So try to run your eyes inside. Try to devote your time to searching inside.

Try to spend time for knowing your own self, rather than spending dollars

to achieve the things of the world. A dollar can’t buy you peace. If you want to

achieve peace, Lord Krishna stated in the Bhagavad Gita ---

Na sti buddhirayuktasya na cayuktasya bhavana.

Na cabhavayatah shatirashantasya kutah sukham.

(Gita 2/66)

“He who is not one with Supreme Cause has no pure wisdom, and he who

has no pure wisdom has no generosity, no pure heart. And he who has no pure

heart how will he achieve peace? And he who has no peace how will he be happy?”

So happiness is residing in peace. Peace is related with generosity. Generosity is

related with pure wisdom and pure wisdom is the result of meditation and realizing

union with Supreme Cause.

This is the real religion, whatever I am telling you. Religion means, re-

ligere. ‘Liger’ means to bind. ‘Re’ means back. Re-ligion is a Latin word that means

to turn back to your source and bind back to your cause. So when you will turn to

the Cause of your life then you will be religious person. If you are not turning to

your Cause and searching for that, how can you say you are a religious person?

Faith alone can’t lead you to your destination. Be aware. Faith without wisdom will

lead you into darkness. Our great seers declared that our faith must be enlightened

by supreme light. When you will use your faith in the light of wisdom, then you will

achieve your destination. Then you will be a religious person. Without being a reli-

gious person, you can’t achieve happiness, you can’t be perfect, you can’t be im-

mortal. Whatever is your inner demand for wholeness, you can’t fulfil that without

15

being a religious person.

This is a scientific era and our quest should be related with logic and rea-

soning. If you use logic and reasoning to search out that Truth, then you can be a

religious person within humanity, not within any creed. Our great seers declared

that you will be religious when you fulfil your inner demand from your own Self.

16

17

SACRIFICE OF BODY, SENSES,

AND MIND

I would like to tell you about the mystery of your life. Be

aware that what I will say is not new. You may feel that it is new,

but it is very ancient, thousands upon thousands of years old. This

knowledge was revealed by great seers. In their time, the earth was

not divided into many countries, and humanity was no divided into

so many creeds, castes and cultures. There were no religions as we

know them now. There was only the earth and the human beings

who lived on the earth. The great seers felt that the whole universe

was their won abode and the earth was their mother. Supreme Con-

sciousness was their real father. So they understood that we are all

children of the same parents, the same father and same mother.

Due to that they were teaching a unifying and high ideology for hu-

mankind. The gist of their teaching is to be free from limitations. If

you remove all limitations, you will be free and you can realize

truth. Truth cannot be realized by those who are covering their

minds, by those who are attached with their intellect, nor by those

who are content with belief and are not eager to know what is the

reality behind all these natural phenomena.

Those great seers did not belong to any country, any caste,

any cult, any creed, community, or religion. They were free people,

and they were trying to make others free from all kinds of barriers

and limitations. They invented this process of Yoga and meditation.

They told, ‘don’t search outside yourself. Search inside.’ And they

taught how one can turn inside. Your senses are always looking outside; they are

not aware about inside. They can give you information from outside. Your eyes

see outside. Your ears hear outside. Your tongue, your nostrils, your touch, all

your cognitive senses give you information, but only information, not knowledge.

Whatever is going on inside, they are not aware about that because their face is

outside, not inside.

The mystery of life can be discovered inside not outside. Your real Self is

inside. If you are not aware about your real Self, and you are acutely aware about

the world, the external awareness will have no meaning for you. If you are not

aware about your real position internally, and you are only aware about your ex-

ternal position, then your place in society and the world will have no meaning for

you. Our great seers taught that you must try to turn inside and search for your

own Self, the fullness of what you are. Human life, they declared, is the model of

cosmic life. You are part and partial of cosmic life. Whatever exists in cosmic life,

you will find the same properties, the same qualities in your own Self.

You have five levels of consciousness, physical, sensual, mental, egoistic,

and intellectual: the body, senses, mind, ego, and intellect. Every person is no

different, whether he be a saint, a prophet, a great man, yourself or even an in-

carnation of God. Every person has the same properties and the same potential.

There are no differences in divine law. Every person has these five levels of con-

sciousness, and beyond these five is your real Self. You are not body, you are not

senses, you are not mind, you are not ego or intellect. You are the seer of all, the

knower of all. You are user of all, the master and governor of all because you are

knower of all. All these exist due to your own Self. If your Self departs from this

body, then all these will finish automatically. You are above these five. And what

you truly are is for you to search out. I can tell you that you are pure Conscious-

ness, but my words have no meaning unless you realize this fact.

When you will come to realize that you are pure Consciousness, you will

find that your real Self is beyond limitation. Consciousness is not a component

18

thing and whatever is non-component is infinite. Whatever is infinite is

limitless, beyond obstacles, beyond barriers, beyond limitations. Your real Self is a

projection and a reflection of all-pervasive Supreme consciousness. When you will

realize your own Self, you will see that you are not a tiny person. You are not a

small being. You are not a limited body. You are really infinite power and infinite

consciousness. You are appearing or manifesting in this body and using this body

as your instrument.

How can you realize the truth of you real Self? It is very hard, but not

impossible. It is difficult because, due to the pull of the external world, you are

identified with body, senses, mind, ego and intellect. You become one with these

instruments and you think whatever the instruments are doing you are doing.

When you will become aware that these are only instruments, then you will real-

ize your real Self, not before then.

How can one realize this Self? What is the process? Our great seers

taught that first you should try to elevate yourself from body consciousness. Then

from body consciousness, elevate to the mind, and from mind to ego, and ego to

intellect. From intellect, you will merge into that Supreme cause. Elevate yourself

step by step. Then one day will come in your life when you will feel that you are

supreme, divine, immortal, and perfect. You will realize the truth that you are

whole, and not lacking in any way. This is our aim of life. Nobody can be peaceful,

and nobody can achieve real happiness without realizing this truth. This is your

inner demand. Does anyone like a feeling of emptiness? Does anyone love igno-

rance? No, everyone likes perfection. Everyone likes a feeling of immortality and

happiness. Limitation is not dear to any person. Everyone wants to feel infinite

and whole, not separate.

Reality is with us always but we are not finding it. Whatever effort you

are putting forth day and night for fulfilling your inner demand in the external

world is giving you the opposite result. You are working for peace and you are

19

gaining disturbance. This is your experience. You want peace and happiness, but

you receive grief and sorrow because your effort is misdirected. If a medicine is

not curing disease it means there is something wrong. Either there is something

wrong in diagnosis, or there is something wrong in the medicine, or something

wrong in the process of taking the medicine. If your effort is not giving the desired

result then what is the cause? Why are you getting the reverse result? When you

will pay your attention you will find out the cause.

Whatever our senses are doing we are responsible for that. Whatever

our body is doing, we are responsible for that. Whatever our mind is doing we

are responsible for that. Whatever ego and intellect are doing we are responsible

for that. But your real Self is not responsible for that. Then who is responsible?

These instruments are projection of nature and nature is inanimate? Inanimate

nature cannot be responsible for all these projections. And your real Self is part

and parcel of consciousness. That is infinite. That is an all-pervasive power. Infin-

ity cannot be responsible for any finite activities. So if infinity or spirit is not re-

sponsible, and nature is not responsible, then who is responsible for the variety of

activities? And if your real Self is not responsible then why is he suffering due to

activities and karmas. The question is, what is the cause of suffering? You have

the ability and potential to search out the source of your real Self and realize

truth. When you will be fully aware about truth, a day will come in your life when

you will be free from the bad results of your actions, and whatever you want to

be will come in your life. You will be free from what is against your wish because

your wish will be the divine will. Your personal desires will be aligned with divine

will. Divine will is always fruitful, and human will is mostly fruitless. So there is a

cause that you should try to search out. If you are not aware about that cause

then you will suffer. Suffering will be your destiny. That suffering will be your

own. It will be no one else’s and it will be due to no one else. Others can show

sympathy but they can’t share your pain whether it be physical, mental, egoistic,

or intellectual. No kind of pain can be shared with another person. As in the

20

21

Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna stated –

Uddhared atmana atmanam naatmanam avasadayet

(Gita 6/5)

“Man is responsible for his own upliftment and his own downfall.” Man is

responsible, no other person, or being is responsible. If you are acting according

to your desire, according to your natural demand, then you will suffer. But if you

act in the light of your wisdom, in the light of your real Self, then you will enjoy.

Happiness is residing in the light of your real Self, and suffering is always the re-

sult of your limitless and often unknown desire.

There are five levels of consciousness and for each there is a process.

Each level can be controlled by a specific effort. The first sacrifice is related with

your body, second sacrifice is related with your senses, third is with your mind,

fourth is with your ego and fifth is related with you intellect. These are five instru-

ments and five levels of consciousness and each level will be pure when you per-

form sacrifice. Sacrifice is a very great word. When we talk casually and say, “I will

sacrifice myself for you,” this is not what we mean by sacrifice. There are two very

common phrases among human society. One is “I love you” and the other is “I will

sacrifice for you”. Really, without realizing that Supreme Truth, no one can love

another without selfish motive. And without realizing oneness, nobody can sacri-

fice for another person. These two words are very pious, love and sacrifice. One

can only fulfil the meaning of the words when he becomes selfless, desireless, and

pure. A person full of selfish motive cannot love another or sacrifice for others. Be

aware about it. Lord stated in the Bhagavad Gita that there are five kinds of sacri-

fices:

Dravyayagyastapoyagya yogayagyastathapare.

Svadhyayagyanayagyasca yatayah samsitavratah.

(Gita 4/28)

A person of firm faith always does these five kinds of sacrifices. The first is related

with the gross, physical world. If a person is hungry and he asks you for food, will

you say, “you will feel better when I give you a good lecture on delicious food”?

“When you have listened to me, your hunger will be gone”? No. then how does

hunger disappear? When you put something in the stomach. When you offer

something to a hungry person with your hands, not your mind, hunger will be

fulfilled. Hunger is a physical demand, not an intellectual demand, not an egoistic

demand. By giving or hearing a lecture, you can fulfil intellectual, mental and ego-

istic demands. Three kinds of demands can be fulfilled by a lecture, but not a sen-

sual demand or physical demand. So the first sacrifice one should do is dravya

yagya. Dravya yagya means to sacrifice related with gross matter. Help others.

Try to feed others. Offer help to the physical well being of others. Start sacrifice

from that point. If you are hoarding day and night, collecting day and night, accu-

mulating day and night, and thinking you will achieve peace, you have a wrong

notion. It is impossible to achieve peace by hoarding. A great seer declared –

Na vitten tarpaniyo manushya

“A human being can’t be satisfied with wealth.” Countless wealth will not

satisfy one’s greed. If one becomes emperor of this whole world, not only one

country, still he will not be satisfied because when he will be the emperor of this

earth, he will think that whatever he has is mortal and perishable. Then he will

want to be emperor of heaven. And after heaven, he will try to go farther. A hu-

man being can’t be satisfied by wealth. Due to that, whatever you have in gross

form, try to help others, those who are needy and disabled. If you feed a healthy

person then you are creating trouble in society. India has suffered due to that

practice.

There is an example from the life of Lord Buddha. He declared that if you

22

follow me you will achieve nirvana, and there were no qualifications for following

him other than leaving all attachments and responsibilities. Thousands and thou-

sands of people left homes and followed him. Lord Buddha made thousands and

thousands of monks without any other qualification than they had left their

homes. The monks wandered doing nothing, and the people who remained in

their homes fulfilled the needs of the monks for food and other facilities. Millions

of beggars moved in every part of India. As a result they became lazy and a bur-

den on society. Whether they had achieved nirvana or not, God knows, but they

enjoyed their life without any work. We see the same things in the European

countries and in America. Because of welfare, people are enjoying all kinds of ma-

terial comfort without working. This is not sacrifice because it is done without

wisdom. Real sacrifice is to help those people who are disabled and have no abil-

ity to help themselves. Or you can help those who are concentrating on their

studies rather than on earning a living. They are true vessels of your compassion.

Helping those is called physical sacrifice. Such kind of sacrifice is related with your

substances, your food and other goods. The first sacrifice is related with the body.

The next is tapo yagya. Whatever your stomach demands you can satisfy

that demand, but whatever your senses demand can never be fulfilled. Sensual

demand is limitless. Among all five cognitive senses, the scope of the demands of

the senses is virtually limitless. Rather than seeking to satisfy them, one should

moderate them. Moderating, controlling and checking the senses is a kind of sac-

rifice called tapo yagya, sacrifice related with austerity. The focus of this sacrifice

is penance, moderation and control. This is a great sacrifice. When you are con-

trolling your senses, you are controlling the whole world. We know because the

inverse is true. You are a slave of the universe when you are a slave to the de-

mands of the senses. Sensual demand increases daily and makes you a slave of

society, nature, and the world.

In today’s world, the human has become a slave of nature. He is not

23

governing nature, he is running behind nature because he is seeking to satisfy a

limitless sensual demand. It is impossible. Only if you try to moderate the demand

will you achieve something. That is the great sacrifice of the senses called the sac-

rifice of austerity or penance, tapo yagya.

And third is your mind. Yoga yagya, the sacrifice of meditation. Medita-

tion is related with your mind. Your mind is in middle. Lower than mind there are

two levels of consciousness, sensual and physical. Above your mind there are two

levels of consciousness, egoistic and intellectual. Two levels of consciousness are

above your mind and two levels of consciousness are lower than your mind. If

your mind will tend toward your senses and your physique then your mind will

not lead you up to your destination but lead you into hell. And you will suffer. No

power can protect you. Be aware about it. No God can help you. No prophet can

help you. No incarnation, no master of guru can help you if your mind is intended

toward your senses and your physique. It will lead you into hell. You should try to

divert your mind. Divert your mind towards divinity. Not toward lower conscious-

ness but to higher consciousness. Your mind is a projection of your ego, your I-am

-ness. So when your mind will turn towards its own cause then it will lead you up

to your destination. It will lead you up to your perfection. Then you will achieve

not only happiness, but blissfulness and ecstasy. And you will be a perfect person.

So try to turn your mind. When you are turning your mind towards its own cause

that is called yoga.

There are two words in Sanskrit that are useful here. When you are turn-

ing your mind towards its own cause that is called yoga. When you are turning

your mind towards senses and physique that is called bhoga. There are two kinds

of bhogas. Engaging is one kind causes only suffering. The other kind of bhoga will

give the hope of happiness, not happiness itself. Suffering will be your destiny. Be

aware about it. Try to turn your mind from lower to higher, from down to up,

from senses and physique to ego and intellect. So when you turn your mind that is

called yoga and that is called yoga sacrifice, in other words, sacrifice of union with

24

its own cause. So this is the third kind of sacrifice.

First sacrifice is of worldly affairs, second is related with your senses, and

third is related with your mind. You have two other very powerful instruments,

ego and intellect. How can you devote your ego and intellect? How you can use

ego and intellect for sacrifice? It is very hard, not hard to say, but hard to do. It is

difficult but not impossible.

Many things are very hard. Standing, walking, and eating are difficult at

first. A little child, he can’t walk, stand or eat by himself. It is very hard for him but

not for you because you have gradually learned to stand, walk, eat and run. What-

ever is beyond your capacity is very hard. Whatever is under your capacity is very

easy. One needs preparation, preparation of the previous sacrifices of dravya

yagya, tapo yagya, and yoga yagya.

25

26

SACRIFICE OF EGO

If one wants to practice meditation. He or she must pre-

pare the body with hatha yoga exercises and breathing exercises.

The hatha yoga postures prepare the body to sit calmly. Without

the breathing exercises, the postures have less value.

During breathing exercises, you receive fresh oxygen and

discharge carbon dioxide. When your body is filled with fresh oxy-

gen, then the blood will be very fine, thin and pure, and it can circu-

late freely from head to toes without obstacles. Through this proc-

ess your body becomes tender. Then do stretching exercises.

Stretching creates elasticity that allows you to sit easily. You will be

able to sit without obstacles, without trouble. When you are able to

sit calmly, quietly, then your mind will be stable. Then you can

meditate. If while you are sitting, you are changing your posture

every two or three minutes, how will you meditate? How can you

concentrate on one point? Try to prepare yourself to sit. If your

food is good then you will have success quickly.

The purpose of this process is to achieve divinity in human

garb. The human potential has qualities of the divine and the de-

monic. Two kinds of impressions reside in your subtle body, or, in

other words, your mind. Demonic impressions are animal instinct.

You can observe in a young child both animal instinct and divine

qualities. If you practice yoga exercises, breathing and meditation,

you can attenuate and eventually annihilate animal instinct and you

can increase divine qualities. Gradually, divinity will grow in your life

and one day you will be divine. Divine means peaceful, gentle and

helpful for others. If you have peace, you can achieve happiness, because happi-

ness is the result of peace. So yoga is a great method to achieve divinity in human

garb. When you practice, automatically you benefit.

Previously, I told you that you have five levels of consciousness, physical,

sensual, mental, egoistic, and intellectual. These are five sheaths, according to

Vedanta philosophy, five sheaths of your soul. Your soul is residing in your

brahma chakra. That is the real place of your self. That self is enlightening your

mind. The mind is acting through brain cells. Different parts of the brain are used

by the mind for different actions. The brain is an instrument of your mind, and

mind is the projection of your I-amness. Your I-amness is ego, and ego is nothing

but a manifestation of your consciousness. And that consciousness manifest

through your intellect. So the base of your existence is your intellect, a very subtle

thing, subtler that space. How one can believe that there is intellect? Because we

see the effect of the intellect. The effect of the intellect is intelligence. Everybody

has intelligence consciousness, and that very intelligence consciousness is the

property of your intellect, nothing else, and that is the base of your ego. So there

are five sheaths, physical, sensual, mental, egoistic and intellectual. Supreme con-

sciousness is an all-pervasive power as energy is an all-pervasive power. Energy is

an all-pervasive power that manifest in the material realm, consciousness is a

spiritual power that manifest as intelligence. There are two fundamental aspects

of life, nature and spirit. Similarly, you can differentiate the body from the exis-

tence of your self. These are called body and soul, or body and self. The body is a

projection of nature, but your soul is not. Nature is inanimate. Inanimate nature

can’t be cause of sentient being. Your real self is sentient, not insentient. Your real

self is full of consciousness, nothing else. Your real soul is only a reflection, or a

projection of supreme consciousness, an all-pervasive power. When you are able

to centralize your consciousness in the brahma chakra, you will realize all-

pervasive consciousness. There is no doubt. Realization of all-pervasive conscious-

ness is called Samadhi. Samadhi means complete absorption into consciousness.

27

When your little I-amness merges into cosmic consciousness, then you will realize

all-pervasive consciousness in the state called Samadhi.

So there are five levels of consciousness. Consciousness appears in us

and works on five levels, first in intellect, then in ego, then in mind, then in senses

and then in the gross body. If someone touches your body, naturally you feel and

perceive that someone is touching you. That feeling is coming on a very gross,

physical level. Sometimes a person becomes merged in consciousness with an

object outside himself. He can feel how if anyone touches that thing he touches

me. Sometimes it happens. It means that your consciousness can act on any level,

but naturally it operatives on five levels.

So the practice of transforming our humanity into divinity is to sacrifice.

Sacrifice is a very pious word. Sacrifice does not mean that you kill any person, or

being, or body. Sacrifice means to surrender. The first sacrifice is related with

your physical world. When you devote your consciousness to work, you can offer

that work to divinity. Then you will be able to realize that cause. Any work related

with the physical world, your wealth, food and shelter, all work and all posses-

sions can be offered not to any person, but on behalf of Godhead, on behalf of

Supreme Consciousness, on behalf of Supreme Power. Understand that the same

Supreme Power is manifesting in each name and form, whatever we are seeing.

As we sit here, we are all receiving life energy from one source. Nobody can claim

this source is mine though we are receiving oxygen. It is due to the same source

of oxygen that we live. If it ceases to exist, we will all cease and be here no more.

So we are receiving life energy from the same source and that source is

infinite, not finite. It is endless and it is related with all beings, not only human

beings. A little ant receives life energy from same source too. That ant is sharing

the source of life, and that little ant has the same right to receive life energy from

the source. By thinking in this way, you can realize how diversity exists on the

base of unity. Base is one. That is unity, and diversity always exists on the base of

unity. When you will realize unity in diversity, you will realize oneness in all. The

28

same life is acting in different names and forms. When you will think in this way

and realize the truth about this fact, then whatever you possess, you will offer

that back to the source. Your devotion will start from your physical world. Try to

devote whatever you have, and after that try to moderate yours senses, try to

control your senses.

Strive to moderate your senses because nobody can fulfil your sensual

demand, it is impossible. We are seeing in our past history no single person who

fulfilled his sensual demand. And in the present and future, there will be no per-

son because sensual demand cannot be fulfilled. You can only moderate it. You

can control it. Control of senses is called tapo yagya, sacrifice of the senses.

The third sacrifice is your mind, yoga yagya. After devoting all things of

the body to a higher source, and after moderating the senses, try to devote your

min towards the divine cause. Your mind is always living in the middle of your

experience. Body and senses are outside. Ego and intellect are inside. When your

mind is tending towards the senses and body, then you will reach up to hell. That

is, following the extroversion of the mind, unchecked, is cause of your suffering.

But if you turn your mind towards its own cause then you will be a divine person.

Divinity will come in your life, and a day will arrive when you will be a perfect per-

son. A perfect person means one who is free of limitations, free of suffering. You

will be desireless, lustless, and doubtless. So try to devote your mind to the divine

path. Try to collect your mind from outside and fix your mind on the divine power,

on unity, on infinity, then you will do the third kind of sacrifice, the sacrifice of

yoga. Yogic sacrifice is the sacrifice of meditation. This is a great sacrifice. You

know that whatever you are doing by your physique, by your body, by your

senses, has no great meaning. Whatever you are doing by your mind, that has

great meaning. Your mind is more powerful than your senses and physique. Your

mind is the cause of your upliftment and your downfall.

29

There is a good hymn in the Vedas –

Manaeva manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayoh.

“Only the mind of human kind is cause of bondage and emancipation.”

When mind becomes attached with sensual objects, it becomes bound. When the

mind is detached, it becomes free. So freedom and bondage are both related with

your mind. When you meditate, and you take the mind to one point, that point of

concentration should be infinite, not finite. So we use the breath as a focus of the

mind. Your breath is coming from infinity. A great seer Patanjali told –

Prayatnashaithilyaanantasamapattibhyam.

(Yoga Sutra 2/47)

“You should try to stop all kinds of activities in the physical and sensual

world and try to put your mind into infinity.” When you will devote your mind into

infinity, then you will be free from limitations. All kinds of suffering are related

with your limitations, nothing else. Limitation is not related with your real self, it

is related with your mind. Your mind accepts limitation. When your mind accepts

limitation, then you are bound. So try to be free of all imitations, and try to re-

move all kinds of barriers surrounding your own self that you have created, and

then you will be free.

During meditation, visualize your breath as coming from infinity and visualize that

you are one with infinity then all kinds of barriers and limitations will finish with-

out effort. Try this sacrifice of meditation. It has great meaning. All limitations are

created by your mind and can be removed by your mind. No power can remove

your limitations, not even God. Yes, we believe in God and we believe that God is

omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent but be aware, God has no power to

remove your limitations if you are not eager to remove them. If you are not ready

30

to remove them, thousands and thousands of prophets, millions of incarnations of

God, not only one, but countless Gods, cannot remove your limitations if you are

not eager to remove them. This limitation was created by your own self, accepted

by your own self, due to ignorance. When you are ready to remove your own ob-

stacles and limitations, automatically divine power will help you. Then a guru will

come to help you. All deities, divine power, everybody will be a helper. Every

power will be a helper, if you are ready. If you are not eager and interested, no

power can do anything. Merciful God is residing everywhere. Every religious per-

son believes in this fact. It may be his own conception, but every religious person

believes in the fact that God is merciful and He is residing everywhere because He

is an all pervasive power. But people are suffering due to their own ignorance and

mental projections, and God can’t do anything. God still exists. There is no doubt.

As surely as your self exists, the source if self must also exist, and source of self is

God. God is the source of self, and the cause of your individuation.

Whatever is limited cannot be a cause. It must be the effect. Whatever

you see in finite form that is the effect of a cause. The cause is infinity. God is infi-

nite, absolute, the cause of all projections. That cause always exists but still people

are suffering. Why? Because they are not eager to remove their limitations. They

are not eager to realize unity in diversity. They believe in some diverse aspect of

life. Their eyes are fixed on diversity. They accept diversity as the ultimate reality,

the only reality. If you believe that diversity is the ultimate reality then no power

can make you happy. Where there is diversity, there is limitation. Where there is

limitation there is a feeling of lack, and emptiness. Where there is feeling of lack,

desire sprouts. Where there is desire, there is effort. Where there is effort, there is

a demand of achievement in this world. Due to the increase in desire for the things

of the external world, this world of diversity is increasing day and night and there

is no end. So be aware about that truth. When you will devote your mind towards

that divine power, then you will do the sacrifice of – Yoga, yoga yagya.

31

The next subtler layer than the mind is sheath of the ego, I-amness. Your ego is

the first manifestation of your individuation. You are able to realize your own ex-

istence due to your ego. Where there is no ego, there is no individuation, and no

knowledge of individuation, even though it still exists. When you enter into deep

sleep, not dreaming state, you have no knowledge of your individuation. When

you life in the waking state, you can realize your own individuation and that of so

many other individual beings. When you enter into the dream state, there also

you have awareness of your individuation. In the dream state, your ego is work-

ing. It recognizes itself there. You roam in the realm of diversity in the dream

state as well. And you feel happiness and pain, as in the waking state. Where

there is diversity, there is both pleasure and pain. Pleasure is small and fleeting,

and pain is great. If you add up the moments in your life, you will find that pleas-

ure exists in a small amount. You spend a great deal of time in the hope of pleas-

ure, the hope of happiness not in the state of happiness. You spend more time

arranging for happiness than in happiness. When you enter into deep sleep, you

lose your individuation. There is no I-amness, no individuation in deep sleep.

What is there? There is peace, divine peace. There is ecstasy, not happiness. Hap-

piness is the result of sensual and mental feelings. Ecstasy is the experience of the

self and the source, without the limitation of individuation. In the blissful peace of

deep sleep there is no mind because mind is the projection of the ego. When the

cause of mind, the ego, dissolves into its own source, how could the mind exist?

So there is no mind in your deep sleep state. Naturally, the senses are not active

either. We perceive with the senses through the mind. In the deep sleep state you

are not aware about your senses, or your body. You are not aware about any-

thing. You are not aware about the universe, which still exists in that state.

What occurs in the state of deep sleep? You are receiving energy. You

are re-energizing your own self. Because of working hard and thinking hard, a

person becomes perfectly and completely exhausted. Then he goes in deep sleep,

because only in that state can he receive energy. At any time that his ego is

32

wakeful, he is using energy, discharging energy, but not receiving and preserving

energy. When exhaustion is great, we always know that we need deep sleep. If a

person is unable to go into deep sleep, then after a few days a doctor might de-

clare him mad. The thoughts are distorted because without sleep, there is no way

to receive restorative energy. You receive energy, you are re-energizing your self

in that deep sleep state where you lose your ego.

Deep sleep is a state where we re-energize ourselves but it is a place of

darkness. Sleep is a state of tamoguna. Tamoguna means inertia, darkness. What

meditation teaches us is to reach into that state of deep rest while alert. If you

can enter into that stage, where the ego is lost while remaining conscious, than

you are a yogi. A person who is achieving mergence of mind into ego and ego into

its own cause in a conscious state is in Samadhi. The same state in an unconscious

position is called deep sleep. The difference between deep sleep and Samadhi is

the quality of sattoguna, or light.

There are three gunas or attributes of nature and energy, the gross state,

the subtle state, and the causal state. The causal state of energy is called sat-

toguna. The subtle state of energy is called rajoguna, and the gross state of en-

ergy is called tamoguna. These are three states of energy. This space is filled with

divine energy. Energy is flooding in the space. But that energy is not creating any

kind of veil. We are seeing each other though energy exists here between us.

Here in space, energy exists in causal form. In causal form, energy is light, full of

light. When energy appears in a subtle form, it comes as a fog. Nobody can catch

it. If you try to catch fog and put it in a basket, can you do it? But that fog creates

a subtle veil and we are unable to see each other clearly. In a dense fog, me might

see someone is there, but we cannot see who it is. The same energy is in the form

of a fog. When that energy comes into gross form, it creates a wall and we can’t

see each other at all. We can’t realize or know each other. This wall is nothing but

a manifested form of energy.

33

Material Science has clarified the different states of energy and matter, and the

same truth was declared by the seers, Kapila and Patanjali. Energy has three lev-

els, gross, subtle, and causal. In causal form, energy is luminous, in subtle form it

is a gas, and in gross form, energy appears solid. Same energy appears in the form

of a proton, neutron, and electron to create an atom and that atom is luminous.

But when atoms get together and create a form that is solid, it is dark. There is no

light in that state. So my dear, I was telling you that this divine nature has three

stages, causal, subtle, and gross, and when your ego enters into the dark, inert

stage, that is called deep sleep, and when your mind and ego enter in a lightful,

causal phenomena of energy that is called samadhi. Lightful is sattoguna and

darkness is called tamoguna. The third guna, in the middle, is rajoguna. All activi-

ties are related with rajoguna.

You should try to understand your own root cause of individuation and

that individuation is related with ego, I-amness. And try to devote your I-amness

for divine service. When you devote your ego for divine service then that will be

the sacrifice of ego. In our holy sciptures, they say that when the ego appears,

then a person says ‘main’, which is the word ‘I am’ in Sanskrit. We all know that

the little lamb always says, ‘main’, also. ‘Main’ means I am. Lamb and God are

always saying ‘main’. When a man is saying ‘main, main’, in this stage the ego is

expressing its self. The holy scriptures say this ‘main’ must be sacrificed, this I-

amness must be sacrificed and surrendered to divine power.

After this story was related through the scriptures, what happened? Some igno-

rant person thought the ‘main main’ should be sacrificed, so they started to kill

goats and lambs, those poor beings that are not harmful for any person. The baby

animals became prey of those people who wanted to worship divine power. The

indication from the scripture was for an inner experience. The sacrifice of the ego

is self-study. There are five kinds of sacrifices.

34

Dravyayagyas tapoyagya yogayagyas tathapare.

Svadhyayagyanayagyasca yatayah samsitavratah.

(Gita 4/28)

Drav yagya, tapo yagya, yoga yagya, svadhyaya yagya, and gyana yagya,

there are five forms of sacrifices. First is physical, second is sensual, third is men-

tal, and fourth is egoistic. Try to sacrifice your own I-amness. That kind of sacrifice

is called self-study. Search out what I-amness is, then you can sacrifice it. How will

you sacrifice it without knowing it? When you have found it, you can search out

the cause of I-amness. And when you will search for that, one day will come when

you will find there is no place of I-amness. The entity is nothing. This I-amness is

nothing but a result of the union of nature and spirit when spirit appears in place

of your intellect and spirit and intellect become united with each other, then I-

amness appears. I-amness or ego is the result of a union. Intellect is a subtle pro-

jection of nature. Nature and spirit are both infinite. One is infinite power and

other is infinite knowledge. One is infinite energy and other is infinite conscious-

ness. Infinite consciousness is called spirit and infinite energy is called nature.

Because spirit is absolute and infinite consciousness, due to that, that spirit is

master, governor, ruler, enjoyer, and consumer of that energy. And there is an

ocean of infinite energy, the sum and substance of the infinite enjoyment and

consumption. Due to that, nature is called parartha. Nature does not exist for

nature, nature is in the service of spirit. A house does not exist for its own sake. A

house exists for the person who lives in it. Cloth has no meaning on its own. It

exists for the wearer. Whatever is a natural substance, all of them exist for the

indwelling spirit, not for themselves.

Spirit is eternal. Nature is eternal but with different qualities. Spirit is

imperishable and unchangeable. Nature is perishable and changeable, changing

continually and always perishing. Perishing means that for change to occur some-

thing always must end or die, for the new to come forth. Changeable nature

35

appears in the form of your body, your senses, your mind, your ego, and your

intellect. All are projections of nature, but your soul is a projection of one su-

preme spirit. Ego is nothing but an agent of supreme spirit. And in practice and in

life, your intention is to devote and to surrender ego into the holy feet of su-

preme spirit. When that day comes when your ego is surrendered, you will fully

understand that your ego has no separate existence, no separate entity. It is a

result of the union of nature and spirit.

The union of nature and spirit is not truly a union. It is not real. Nature

simply has the capacity to reflect divine spirit. Spirit is reflecting into intellect and

enlivening your intelligence. The ego has no existence, no real entity, and no eter-

nity by itself. When nature and spirit separate, your ego will finish. When you are

able to realize this truth, automatically your ego will finish by surrendering into its

own cause. For this sacrifice, you must do self-study, svadhyaya yagya. Svadhyaya

yagya means self-introspection. Bring your attention inside and try to understand

your self, how it works, how it acts, where it comes from, and what is its aim.

When you will search out these realities then you will reach to that state where

you will be able to do this great sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-study.

The fifth sacrifice is of knowledge. Gyana yagya is the sacrifice of the

knowledge of cause and effect. One learns to sacrifice knowledge about nature

and its effect, knowledge about nature, and knowledge about knower of nature,

seer of nature, and enlightener of nature. In the thirteenth chapter of the Bhaga-

vad Gita, Lord Krishna stated –

Ksetraksetragyayorgyanam yattaj gyanam matam mama.

(Gita 13/2)

What is knowledge? He told, “Knowledge is to know what nature is and what

spirit is.” Nature of nature and nature of spirit should be known.

36

If you will come to know the nature of nature and the nature of spirit you will be

all-knower because there is nothing beyond these two. You will be omniscient.

Idam gyanamupasritya mama sadharmyamagatah.

(Gita 14/2)

“When a person will achieve this knowledge, he will achieve Godhood,”

He told. Godhood is the aim of life and should be achieved by all persons. How

can one achieve Godhood? When he does this sacrifice of knowledge.

So be aware about it, sacrifice if self-study is related with your I-amness,

your ego. Sacrifice of knowledge is related with your intellect. This is the last in-

strument. Intellect and ego both are instruments. And with body, senses and

mind they make up the five sheaths of your real soul. Your real soul is residing in

the intellect, appearing in the from of I-amness, acting through mind, using

senses, and residing in this human garb, this body. All five are instruments of your

own soul.

Be fully aware that you are not a slave of senses. You are a master of all

the senses. Merely due to your own weakness, your own ignorance, you become

a slave of the senses. And not just the senses themselves, millions of people are

slaves of the object of senses. Those people who become slave of the objects of

senses devote their lives to collecting the objects of the senses, they have no time

to enjoy them. They earn more and more wealth to ensure that they can have the

objects around them. If you ask, are you enjoying your wealth? They will say they

have no time to enjoy. They have no time to enjoy whatever they have collected

by their hard work. So be aware and try to do these five kinds of sacrifices. Each

person has these five instruments and it is essential for each person to do the five

kinds of sacrifices. In this way, we can reach the highest good.

37

38

SACRIFICE OF INTELLECT

A fine dust mixed with water becomes a lump of clay.

When a pot maker puts the clay on his wheel he creates a pot.

When he puts the pot into the fire, then it becomes solid. If he

would but water into the unfired pot, it would not hold water for

long. But if the potter fires the pot and makes it solid, then the wa-

ter can be held for a long time. This is the story of every person’s

life. A body is like a pot but the body has no ability to receive en-

ergy, keep energy, and hold it steady. If anyone tries to increase the

energy in the body without “firing” it, without making it solid and

stable, his body will become the abode of many kinds of diseases.

Yoga practice is a kind of fire, a yogic fire. The fire comes through

your breathing exercises.

Normally you take a breath from the outside and discharge

it from the inside. This normal process creates a heat in your body,

which is called temperature. The normal process of breathing is

continuously creating a heat that digests your food and makes your

body active. When you add your full attention, when you exhale

totally, and inhale fully, receiving more oxygen in your body then

more heat will appear. That heat will make your body solid, strong

and stable. In that state you can receive and preserve more energy.

Power will be in your body. The practice of breathing exercises is a

great process.

That is why I am teaching that in the beginning of your

meditation you must take long breaths, as long as you can. Exhale

totally but gently, not harshly. And inhale fully. When you inhale

39

your lungs should be filled with oxygen. When you exhale, your diaphragm and

lungs should be empty. When you sit for half an hour, devote the first ten minutes

to the long, full breath, and you will become a healthy person. You will be able to

receive more energy. In this process, you will energize yourself. After energizing,

start a subtler practice of meditation, and you will be able to sit as long as you

want. If you are not doing this exercise you will not be able to sit as long as you

want. You will be shifting and restless, changing your posture. If your body is not

stable, how can you meditate? When you are restless, the mind is not under your

control. First put the body under your control, make it stable. Then the time will

come when you will be able to make your mind stable too. The first stability

should come in the body, then in the senses, then in the mind. This is a process.

Don’t try to jump. Go simply, step by step. Do yoga postures to help to create the

stable body. Breathing exercises will make the postures more useful. Then sit

calmly and quietly. Patanjali recommended that one have a stable seat that is

calm and quiet. He was not concerned with many postures.

Sthirasukhamasanam.

(Yoga Sutras 2/46)

Make your body stable:

Prayatnashaithilyananta.

(Yoga Sutras 2/47)

By relaxation of effort. Don’t do any kind of movement in any part of body, and –

ananta samapattibhyam.

(Yoga Sutras 2/47)

your attention in infinity. Space is infinite. Devote your mind in infinite space. In

this position you will be able to make your body stable. Then you should start

your breathing practice, the conscious awareness of full breaths. And be aware

about three things. Don’t do this after taking meal. The gap should be about three

hours. If you are hungry you can take some milk and wait for half and hour. Don’t

eat foods that are hard for digestion, especially non-vegetarian foods. Among

drinks, don’t use alcohol. It deteriorates practice. And avoid stimulating drinks.

And those who smoke should avoid breathing exercises because they will invite

many kinds of diseases. They will not benefit. Be aware bout all these things. If

you want to be divine you must adopt a divine process. This is a process through

which one can receive divine qualities in ones life.

This practice demands proper companions or friends. If your friends are

not doing practice and their lifestyle is not careful, not based on purity, watch

that one day you also do not turn and you lose all your effort. Make good friends,

those who are interested in achieving divinity and want to lead a pure, healthful,

and divine life. Be aware about all these things because the environment has a

great meaning. You should try to create your own good environment. Try to cre-

ate good friends, a group of people with whom you can meditate, where you can

talk about divinity, where you can live in a divine atmosphere. If you will do all

these tings then you will achieve eternal peace in your life. Otherwise people are

suffering day and night due to their egoistic nature. You should try to arrive at

your own freedom, step by step.

Now the sacrifice of intellect is next. We are human beings due to intel-

lect. We have uniqueness from other beings due to intellect. We are superior to

other beings due to intellect. We are thinking about divinity due to intellect. Intel-

lect is not the result of our own effort; that is a divine gift. The greatest gift of

divinity is the intellect. Be are about it. According to Upanishads, intellect is the

charioteer of this chariot. This body is considered a chariot, and your senses are

horses. Your mind is the reins, and your intellect is the charioteer. Lord Krishna

stated in the Bhagavad Gita that you are as your intellect is. Your whole personal-

ity is based on your intellect. Your personality is not based on your physical,

40

mental , sensual or egoistic consciousness.

Yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah.

(Gita 17/3)

‘You are what your shraddha is’ (more explanation is needed here to

connect shraddha with buddhi).

So be aware that this is a great instrument. Your intellect is the closest

instrument to Godhead, and it is the cause of your existence. You exist as a hu-

man being due to your intellect. Because the intellect is the first manifestation of

divine energy, it has a special quality and potential. It has the ability to receive the

reflection of divine consciousness. You can understand your intellect through a

simple analogy. If you put an iron ball in a fire, after a few minutes you will see a

fiery ball, not a dark iron ball. The iron has a quality that allows it to receive the

property of fire and be one with fire. If you place the iron ball outside the fire,

after a few minutes it will look like iron again. This is the nature of your intellect.

As an iron ball becomes a fiery ball when it has contact with fire, in the same way

your intellect becomes conscious through contact with conscious being. This is

the nature of your intellect. Intellect is finite, not infinite. It is a projection of infi-

nite energy that appears in a finite form, although a very subtle form. So when

your intellect becomes conscious, in the light of that consciousness, it projects I-

amness. I-amness is the child of your intellect. In other words, I-amness is the

effect of your intellect. Intellect is the cause of your I-amness. As mother cannot

produce a child without relations with a husband, in the same way, your intellect

cannot produce I-amness without the light of consciousness. Due to that, all-

pervasive consciousness is called the father of soul, and that very intellect is

called the mother of soul. I-amness is called Jivatma. Jivatma means a small soul,

a small consciousness.

The intellect is your own intellect. The part of consciousness that is ap-

pearing in the intellect is the master of intellect. Being the enlightener, the

41

consciousness is the master of the intellect, the controller of the intellect. Be-

cause consciousness is beyond intellect, it is not intellect itself. In the third chap-

ter of the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna stated –

Indriyani pranyahurindriyebhyah param manah.

Manasastu para buddhiryo buddheh paratastu sah.

(Gita 3/42)

“Your senses are greater than the objects of senses, but your mind is

greater than your senses. And beyond your mind is your intellect. And whatever is

beyond your intellect is your real self.” That divine self is supreme consciousness,

nothing else, and that supreme consciousness is your source of life. Logically then,

when you are in your real self, you are master of the intellect. When you come to

realize this truth, you will see that you are master of intellect. And remember that

your I-amness is only a child, a projection of intellect.

In one Upanishad there is a good mystical description. Sitting on one tree

are two birds. Both have the same qualities, the same nature, and the same form.

Everything is the same because one is real and the other is a shadow. In truth

there are not two birds but people are seeing two birds. One bird is real. The

other is the shadow.

Chhayaatapo Brahma vido vadanti.

(Mundako 3/1/1)

Who is shadow, the shadow of what? Little soul, the Jivatma, is the

shadow, and what is real is Suparna, God as supreme consciousness. So supreme

consciousness and little soul are both residing in the tree of this body, on the

place of the brahma chakra. Beyond brahma chakra is supreme consciousness

and in brahma chakra is little consciousness. Little consciousness is the shadow of

supreme consciousness. Little consciousness is called jiva. Causal power of little

42

consciousness is called God. Understanding the idea of shadow, the reality is that

both are one, not two. If you remove the covering on the brahma chakra, if you

remove the colouring of your intellect, you will discover they are one.

Ultimately there is no duality, both are one. You can realize this by un-

derstanding what stands in the middle and creates a shadow. A shadow is due to

light and some media that is standing in the light. Its existence is due to some

media. The media in this case is the intellect. If you remove the intellect, then you

will see there is nothing but one supreme consciousness. How can one remove

the intellect? It can’t be removed. The intellect can be devoted, which is called

sacrifice. The sacrifice of knowledge is called gyana yagya. To reiterate, there are

five kinds of yagya –

Dravyayagyas tapoyagya yogayagyas tathapare.

Svadhyayagyanayagyasca yatayah samsitavratah.

(Gita 4/28)

These five are the sacrifice or the material world, the sacrifice of pen-

ance, the sacrifice of yoga, the sacrifice of self-study, and the last, the sacrifice of

knowledge. Sacrifice of worldly objects is related with your gross body, sacrifice of

penance is related with your senses, sacrifice of yoga is related with your mind,

sacrifice of self-study is related with your ego. Sacrifice of knowledge is related

with your intellect.

What is the real meaning of sacrifice? It is difficult to find an English

equivalent in the dictionary, for yagya is a very mystical word. It was translated as

a sacrifice but the word does not convey the true meaning. The word yagya indi-

cated three things.

Yajadeva pujayam yajsangatikarne yajdane.

43

The three meanings of yagya come from yaj, the root of yagya. In Sanskrit every

word has its root and the meaning of the word is derived from the root. The com-

plete meaning of each root has a special depth. The root word, yaj, has three

meanings. The first is yaj adeva pujayam. Puja means meditation, devotion, wor-

ship, and respect. Devapujayam, means to be one with divine power. Those great

seers believed that when you place your attention on the divine power and medi-

tate on that, you would be one with that. In that way, you would receive divine

power and energy in your own self. This process is not different than what we

practise in your relationships with our loved ones. When you look at loved ones,

you whish is to be one with them.

This divine law is working everywhere. There are many divine powers,

sun, moon, and the whole earth. The wind on the earth is itself a divine power.

The deep ocean is a divine power. What is the sign of divine power? Whatsoever

is essential for your life, without which you would not exist. All the elements of

earth, water, fire, air and space are essential for your existence. Without one, you

could not survive. If there were no sun, no moon there would be no life. All are

manifestation of infinity. All are sources of special kinds of energy. Similarly, in

your body there are many glands, and each gland is producing a special juice, or

hormone, that is essential. Though all the hormones and glands are the projection

of material life, they each have unique quality in the balance of life. In the same

way, whatever we are seeing in this divine world, all are projections of divine en-

ergy. Sun, moon, all planets are playing a great role, all are projections of the

same divine energy but in different forms. Each has its own unique quality and

role. So these are manifestations of divine power.

So the word yagya means to fix your mind on divine power and meditate

on it. Resultantly you will receive divine energy. When you will receive divine en-

ergy, then try to hold that energy and spread that energy for others. Try to donate

that energy for others. The three meanings of yagya are deva pujayam, sangati-

karne, and dane. All three are called sacrifices. The first is deva puja, to put your

44

mind on divine power, meditate on it and receive divine energy. The second is

sangatikarne, establish that divine energy and maintain it in a proper way. Make

yourself like the fired pot, able to contain the energy. And then offer to others,

dane.

Sacrifice of knowledge is related with your intellect. When the intellect

has pure knowledge, it can guide the mind inward. The mind can seek the source

of knowledge. You should try to put your intellect in divine power and the source

of divine power. What is source of divine power? Power or energy becomes divine

due to the light of consciousness. Divine means full of light. In Sanskrit, divine is

deva. Devata means full of light. Whatever is full of light is divine, whatever is

dark is demonic. An iron ball can be either full of light or inert and dark, the intel-

lect can be filled with divine consciousness or covered with the darkness of the

world. Try to turn your mind and intellect on divine power, the source of light.

Pure light and only light is supreme consciousness. Whatever light you see in the

world is only a part of supreme consciousness. It is a projection of supreme con-

sciousness and energy. The light of the world is not the source of light in con-

sciousness. Effulgent light may be outside of you, but if you have not found your

real self inside, then all will be dark. So light in the sense of deva is related with

your self, which is part of Supreme Consciousness. When you meditate, turn your

intellect into Supreme Consciousness by thought, by knowledge, by awareness.

You can place your attention perfectly through the analytic process because your

intellect can analyse what is real and what is unreal, what is divine and what is

demonic. What is eternal and what is changeable, what is imperishable and what

is perishable, all these things are defined in the light of your intellect. So try to

devote your intellect and search out what reality is. When you will pay attention,

when you pay your heed, when you devote your intellect for that divine power,

then you will receive more energy, more power from divinity and your life will be

divine. Your life will be divine, nothing else. As Lord Krishna stated in the Bhaga-

vad Gita, you will achieve godhood.

45

Idam gyanamupasritya mamasadharmyamagatah.

(Gita 14/2)

This verse means that a person adopting this knowledge achieves god-

hood. “Whatever qualities I have he becomes that. He becomes the same, he

achieves my qualities,” He told. So it is a very great thing my dear, if you will put

your intellect into divine, think about divinity always, talk about divinity, analyze

divinity, then your intellect will be busy with the divine. This is very hard. This is

not so easy.

You know in our tradition we are seeing, mother always loves her child

more than her husband. This becomes very complicated sometimes. A woman

who is not fully aware about her duty loves her child more that her husband. The

same law applies to your intellect. Samkhya philosophers have thought us to be

aware that this is the nature of a woman. Because her son is her projection, part

of her, she loves her son more than her husband. This means that you should be

aware that your intellect would naturally love her son. The child, the son of the

intellect is the ego. Your intellect loves the ego more than supreme conscious-

ness. Supreme consciousness is the enlighter, her husband. That is her master. In

Sanskrit, instead of the terms husband and wife, we use, pati and patni, which

have a subtler meaning. So the intellect always loves her child, the ego. And fur-

ther, she becomes attached to her grand children. The grand children of the intel-

lect are the senses, the objects of the senses and the mind. They are grand chil-

dren because they are projections of the ego. So the intellect becomes busy with

her family. Due to that she has no time to see her husband or take care of him.

Due to this tendency we are all suffering. So Samkhya philosophers told to be

aware and try to devote the intellect to her enlightener, supreme consciousness.

As Lord Krishna told in the 14th

chapter of the Bhagavad Gita –

46

Mama yonirmahadbrahma tasmingarbham dadhamyaham.

Sambhavah sarvabhutanam tato bhavati bharata.

(Gita 14/3)

“Cosmic intellect is my dear wife. I put my seed into her, I give my light,

when she becomes impregnated, she gives birth to all beings.” All beings, not just

human beings, are children of the divine wife. Cosmic intellect is mother of all

beings, which makes our intellect the mother of all we possess. The same law ap-

plies at every stage.

So our intellect becomes busy with her children. What is our duty? Our

duty is to be aware. When your intellect will analyze reality then automatically

the intellect will be devoted toward the supreme cause. That is called the sacrifice

of knowledge. Real sacrifice is when your intellect becomes one with the supreme

cause. Turn the face of your intellect. When we say, “turn your eyes inward,” that

does not mean the eyes themselves, that means, “turn the eye of wisdom,” the

eye of the intellect. Turn your intellect toward her master, the divine light, and try

to realize that supremacy. When you realize supremacy, you realize oneness with

that and you will be divine. Then you will be free from all kinds of suffering and

bondage.

There are three phases of this sacrifice of knowledge. First put your intel-

lect into divinity. Receive divine power and qualities, then preserve and hold that

light and power, and then offer to others. Divinity is not for enjoyment. A divine

person will never try to enjoy with that. When divinity appears automatically your

heart will be filled with compassion. When your heart is filled with compassion,

automatically you will devote life for the welfare of all beings.

You know the story of Lord Buddha? He left his kingdom, his wife, and his

newborn son. He went outside his kingdom and surrendered himself at the divine

feet of a great yogi who was a Sankhayacharya. He spent six years with him,

studying philosophy and beginning practice. Then he went to other places for

47

further penance and meditation. He spent ten years, six years for study, and four

years for practice. After ten years he did not gain full realization. So he decided to

leave food and drink. His body became like a skeleton. No flesh was on it, and it

was then that he heard a song. A lady was singing a song to herself, and the words

were about not to tune the strings of your instrument tightly or the strings will be

broken. When he heard these words he thought she was guiding him. He thought

to himself, my body is like an instrument, and I am doing such hard penance. I am

treating it so harshly that one day it will be broken. He decided then to leave is

hard practices. At that moment as he sat there, the same lady came over to him.

When she saw him she was stunned. She saw only a person sitting like a skeleton

under a fig tree. She became filled with mercy. She asked, “Sir! Are you hungry?”

“Yes,” he told. “Okay wait a little, I will come shortly.” She went immediately and

prepared rice pudding, and then brought it and offered it to him. “Take it, sir”. He

took the rice pudding and she left.

After eating rice pudding, Lord Buddha sat properly as he was habitual to

meditate. At once a divine energy appeared in his body from muladhara to brah-

machakra. It passed through the spinal cord, and when that energy reached the

brahma chakra, be became enlightened. He went in Samadhi.

There had been a great obstacle. It was an egoistic obstacle “I am doing

great penance.” He was crushing his body, his senses, and his mind, but his intel-

lect was busy with her son, the ego. She was protecting her son, her ego. When

he ate the rice pudding, then he relinquished his penance, and his ego related

with the penance disappeared all at once. The ego was a great obstacle. When his

ego disappeared, then his life energy flowed at once from lower to higher. He

achieved Samadhi and sat not only one or two hours, but seven days. After seven

days, he returned to waking consciousness and though, “I am now Buddha.” Bud-

dha means to know everything, to realize truth.

Then he stared to shift his awareness to the people around him. He saw

from the realization of deep Samadhi that people were suffering without any

48

cause, due to their own ignorance. So he sought to make them aware. He adopted

the middle way, don’t do hard penance but don’t enjoy worldly enjoyment, don’t be

busy with worldly enjoyment. He taught moderation. Whatever Lord Krishna taught

before him, he accepted the same ideology. Whatever Samkhya philosophers taught

before him, he adopted the same philosophy. Whatever yoga philosophers taught,

he adopted the same philosophy. His philosophy was not new.

Lord Buddha adopted one ting that made his teaching for all people. Previ-

ously all great teachers taught ideology in the Sanskrit language, which was not

known by common people. So he adopted the teaching to his common language and

started to teach his own experience, whatsoever came from his sadhana, his prac-

tice. This is the origin of what is called Buddhism. Buddhism means how to be an

enlightened person. It does not refer to his name. His name was Siddhartha, and he

became Buddha, an enlightened person. He taught that in the light of your intellect

you can realize that truth. After his death, his disciples changed his teaching as it

always happens.

You must be aware about your intellect and try to devote your intellect for

divinity and try to receive divine power. When your mind will be filled with divine

power then automatically mercy and compassion will appear in your heart. Without

personal desire, without want for yourself, you will serve, not only humanity, you

will serve all beings. You will devote your life for all beings. This is the sign of a per-

fect person. If any person is living isolated from humanity, and he is thinking he is

realized person, but he is not devoting his life for welfare of all beings, he is pretend-

ing. He is egoistical. He is not realized because a realized person can’t keep himself

away, can’t preserve himself from devoting his life for the welfare of all beings.

Automatically his heart will be filled with compassion and he will devote his life for

the welfare of all beings. Either people receive or not, he will do his own work. This

is the sign of a perfect person. He becomes realized and devotes his life for all be-

ings. His own life becomes desireless. If a person has desire and says he is enlight-

ened, he is deceiving himself not others. Be aware about it.

49

50

SACRIFICE OF BREATH

Whatever we do in our life for achieving divinity, for uplift-

ment of our own self, is called yagya. Every living being, not only

the human being, performs yagya because without performing

yagya he would not survive, whether he is aware of it or not. In

order to live, we continually receive from outside and we discharge

from inside. Every living being is receiving from outside and dis-

charging from inside. This process is called yagya.

And what is the most precious and valuable yagya? You

know you can survive days without food. You can survive many days

without water, too. You can live well your whole life without

wealth, without a good building, without surrounding yourself with

material possessions. You can live happily without many things. In

fact, many possessions become the obstacle to happiness. Survival

is relatively simple, but it is not possible to survive a single moment

without breath. Without oxygen, we would not live.

You are receiving oxygen from outside and discharging

carbondioxide from inside. This process is continual and will be for

the length of your life. When you enter into deep sleep you lose

your thought, your consciousness, and your I-amness, but in that

state this yagya is going on, inhaling and exhaling. All beings are

receiving and discharging in every state of consciousness. In con-

sciousness, in sub-consciousness, and in unconsciousness, you are

performing this divine sacrifice. Lord Krishna stated in the Bhagavad

Gita that everyone offers prana into apana. Apana is like a fire in

the body, the heat of metabolism. You receive oxygen and offer into

51

apana. Apana is like a fire in the body, the heat of metabolism. You receive oxy-

gen and offer into apana. And everybody’s apana is offering apana into prana.

When you exhale you offer your carbondioxide into prana. Prana means the fresh

oxygen –

Apane juhvati pranam praneapanam tathapare.

Pranapanagati ruddhva pranayamaparayanah.

(Gita 4/29)

Lord Krishna told that this breath is like kind of oblation that you are of-

fering into the divine fire. This is a kind of yagya, a kind of sacrifice. Nobody can

survive without doing this sacrifice. It is essential; it is the base of our life.

All activities are related with prana. This is an active power. When your

soul appears in your brahma chakra, at that time two kinds of movement start.

First prana, this receiving and discharging that is called yagya, and the second is

thinking, thought, which is called tapah. Our great seers described yagya and

tapah, breathing and thinking, as two kinds of processes going on continually in

the light of your real self, yagya and tapah. But in deep sleep state, one stops.

Tapah, your thought, stops, while yagya keeps going. When yagya ends, your life

will end.

Not only thought, all activities are based on the yagya of breath. You are

acting and working day and night. You are earning money and enjoying with many

objects of senses. You are thinking, you are feeling, analyzing and realizing. Some-

times you are emotional. You enjoy with emotion and you suffer with emotion. All

kinds of activities, sensual, mental, emotional, and intellectual are based on your

breath. Think upon it deeply and you will be surprised how valuable this breath is.

Your wealth and your health are based on you breath. Your happiness and your

suffering are based on your breath. Your individuality and your relations are

based on the breath. Your upliftment and your downfall are related with your

breath. It means, really breath is the cause of all things. Due to that, in the Veda

we read –

Vayu tvameva pratyaksham Brahmasi.

“Oh Vayu, Oh source of breath, you are the visible form of the supreme

power, Brahma.” Pratakshyabrahma means visible Brahma. So sacrifice of breath

has a great meaning. But be aware, for what purpose are you sacrificing your

breath? For what actions are you devoting your breath?

An average, healthy person takes 21,600 breaths within 24 hours. That is

about 900 breaths within one hour. Your life span is based on the breath, not on

the span of time in months or years. Of you are devoting one hour for anything, it

means you are devoting 900 of your precious breaths on that thing. Be aware, you

are doing sacrifice, there is no doubt, and you cannot live without doing this sacri-

fice. But for whom are you offering it? For a divine purpose? For God? For your

destination? Mostly not. It is difficult to do so and people are not aware about the

yagya of the breath. They take this precious gift of breath for granted and use it

for no particular purpose. We are reading in our holy scriptures that some offer

the pious oblations of breath not into the flaming fire, but into ashes. If you offer

that oblation into ashes, what will you get? Nothing. It means you are wasting the

oblation. If you offer your precious breath only into ashes, it means you are wast-

ing time and energy. If you waste your time, you are wasting breath, either con-

sciously or unconsciously. Breathing is sacrifice, as Lord Krishna stated in fourth

chapter of the Bhagavad Gita –

Apane juhvati pranam praneapanam tathapare.

(Gita 4/29)

Juhvati means offering, as we are offering something into fire. In the same

52

same process we are offering fresh oxygen into this fire and we are offering our in-

ner energy into this oxygen. We are doing this great sacrificial activity always, but for

what?

If you are offering one hour to the task of earning a few dollars, or even a

hundred, two hundred, a thousand, may be a million dollars, can you buy one hour

again for the price of the money you have earned? Can anyone? What do you think?

Is one hour worth even a few dollars, let alone thousands?

Sometimes people talk with their friends without any sense. If some asks,

“What are you doing?” The answer is, “I am passing time.” Time will pass without

talking, without saying anything. You are not passing your time, you are killing your

self. That time is yourself, that breath is your self, and you are killing that breath.

Precious breath is wasted without any cause. Be aware always that the many ways

you engage with life and spend your time, all of them are valuable so long as you

have breath. When the great sacrifice of breath will near its end, then what will be?

Every valuable, precious thing that you keep near and dear to yourself will diminish

in meaning. Be aware about this truth and pay your heed.

Lord Krishna stated that there are many kinds of sacrificial activities that the

human kind is doing unconsciously. Because the process is unconscious, he gains no

benefit because he is not alert. You are engaging with this great yagya day and night,

in and out of deep sleep state without gaining any benefit because you are not

aware of its greatness. In the yoga process we teach how to control the breath with

breathing exercises. Through the practice of pranayama, you can receive more oxy-

gen and preserve it inside. The breath becomes quieter and then in one hour you

will not take 900 breaths. If you engage with the practice of holding your breath, half

a minute inside and half a minute outside, then you can reduce the number of

breaths per hour to 60 breaths. You can save the 800 and some breaths in one hour.

How precious that is! The main benefit is that you preserve energy and build poten-

tial energy. Mostly you know only how to lose energy, waste energy, and consume

energy. In the yoga process you receive energy, preserve energy, and hold energy.

53

Due to that Lord Krishna stated –

Pranapanagati ruddhva pranayamaparayanah.

(Gita 4/29)

“Stopping the coming and going breath, you will be master of your

breath.” You will be able to control your breath. When you are able to control

your breath and preserve your breath, and use your breath according to your own

will, then you will be master of life. This is very great sacrifice.

Yagya and tapah are great methods by which one can achieve divine

power. By yagya, this breathing process, one can achieve physical, sensual, and

mental power and ability. By tapah, one can achieve higher knowledge. As men-

tioned before, yagya is related with breath and tapah is related with thought, and

these two kinds of activitites are always going on in human life. But Lord Krishna

told that your yagya and tapah will be fruitful when you offer them for the wel-

fare of all beings. That is called dana.

Yagyadanatapahkarma na tyajayam karyameva tat.

Yagyo danam tapascaiva pavanani manisinam.

(Gita 18/5)

Yagya, dana, and tapah, or yagya, tapah and dana, are three steps. First

receive energy, gain strength, ability and power. Then use thought in the light of

wisdom by gaining knowledge. First, yagya and tapah, and then offer both abili-

ties for the welfare of all beings, dane. Dane means to gift, to donate, or to offer.

Then you will be a divine and pious person. Pavanani manisinam, these three ac-

tivities are the purifiers of the wise.

First you should try to control your breath, and hold it. Preserve your

energy, and then try to use your thought to analyze truth, and then be aware of

54

how you use all natural phenomena, all natural objects. There are two words in San-

skrit yogyata and samartha that means potentiality and ability. In the light of your

wisdom, when you devote your energy and ability for the welfare of all beings, divin-

ity will appear in your own life. If you are not aware about sacrifice, and the austerity

of thought, yagya and tapah, then you will gain nothing. If you have nothing, then

what will you offer to others? What will you devote for others? A person with noth-

ing to offer others is a slave of nature, a slave of senses, slavery is his destiny. He or

she will not be a great person.

So be aware about this truth, there are five kinds of yagyas related with

your body, mind, senses, ego, and intellect. And these yagyas are based on your

breath. Those practitioners who perform these five yagyas are called yati. A yati is a

practitioner who does higher practices with his own determination. Yatayah means

who are using effort for achieving the highest good.

Dravyayagyastapoyagya yogayagyas tathapare.

Svadhyayagyanayagyasca yatayah samsitavratah.

(Gita 4/28)

Yatayah, those who are doing effort for achieving highest good, such kind

of person is called yati. Then become aware of the nature of the breath behind the

other five. Breath is going on always by itself. To become fully aware of the nature of

breath is the sacrifice of breath.

Apane juhvati pranam praneapanam tathapare.

Pranapanagati ruddhva pranayamaparayanah.

(Gita 4/29)

Relate your mind with that, become aware, and control it. When you are able to

control the coming and going of the breath, you will be the master of breath, and

55

you will perform great yagya. Your yagya will be fruitful. When your breath will

stop coming and going, you will reach into Samadhi. You will reach into that

higher level of consciousness.

Through this one process, a practitioner of this yagya becomes master of

body, senses, mind, all instruments. He can control anything, whatsoever he likes

because the whole universe is moving due to prana. The source of prana is really

the sun and you know very well, not only earth, all planets move in their orbits

due to the sun. sun is the center of all. Due to that, in de Veda we find –

Suryo atma jagatastasthushcha

“Whatever is movable or immovable, whatever is sentient or insentient,

whatever is mutable or immutable, the sun is the soul of all and source of all.”

Now a days scientists are declaring the same truth. If there were no sun there

would be no life, no existence of anything. Due to that we believe that the sun is

God. We worship God in five aspects. The sun is one among those because the

sun the source of life. Furthermore, the Veda declares that breath is no more than

a projection of the sun. When you do breathing exercises, pay your attention on

the sun. when you will fix your mind on the sun then you will receive fresh en-

ergy. Direct energy from the sun will flow to you. This is a natural process. Wher-

ever you fix your mind you receive waves of energy from there. Subtle energy

always moves according to your thought. When you fix your mind on the sun then

you will receive solar energy. If you fix your mind perfectly and steadily, solar en-

ergy will come in your body, you will be one with that, and you will be enlight-

ened. Your pranayama done in the light of the sun god will be most fruitful. Be

aware about cause and effect and you will gain result. The sun is the cause of your

breath. Life energy comes from the sun. Breathing exercise done with this under-

standing is sacrifice of breath. Lord Krishna stated that this is not a practice re-

lated with mortal fire, or the fire that ends. He told that there are three kinds of

56

fire, immortal fire, divine fire and mortal fire. Mortal means what comes and goes.

As man is mortal, every being is mortal because he is taking birth and dying in the

end. Due to that he is called mortal. In the Vedas also (reference) there is mortal

fire. Mortal fire is that which comes from fuel. As with a candle that we light and

when the fuel of the candle finishes, the light is gone. Immortal fire has no fuel, and

the light of that fire is eternal. In the middle is the divine fire, the sun god. The sun

offers its heat, light, and power for virtually all time, but it is not eternal. Think about

this divine fire as you offer the oblation of your breath, inhaling and exhaling. Both

are great sacrificial activities. When you are able to hold your breath, control your

breath and your life energy, then you will realize ultimate truth in Samadhi.

For this practice, first you should be aware about your surrounding, your

real position. We are sitting on the globe in the space, and space is filled with divine

energy, energy that comes from the sun. when you are aware about your real posi-

tion and pay your attention on your breath, then you will see that an ocean of en-

ergy is flooding and entering into your nostrils and giving you life. This process is

yagya. Place your awareness on this sacrificial activity that is going on always. This is

divine sacrifice, and if you are aware about it then this sacrifice will lead you up to

your destination.

Many people in a hospital are unconscious. For as long as one or two years,

people are in an unconscious state but you believe that they are alive. It means life is

not related with consciousness. If life were related with consciousness, then why

would you think that an unconscious person was alive? The sign of life is the breath

coming and going. If breath is there, the heart will work, the brain will work, every-

thing will work. The blood will circulate in the body. Your self existence remains. So if

you meditate on breath, you will reach up to the existence of your own self, and you

will realize your real self.

Lord Krishna told us that though there are many kinds of sacrificial activi-

ties, among all those, this sacrifice is related with divinity. This is not related with

your will. Nobody wants to stop breathing and finish his life, but without his or her

57

desire, one day it will stop. If you pay your heed, if you become aware about

breath and source of breath, then one day you will utilize it in the proper way. If

you are devoting your time for good purposes, then you are doing this sacrifice

for divine power. If you are devoting your life for some bad proposes, then you

are doing this sacrifice not for divinity but for a selfish end. If you use your breath

only for your own self without realizing that it is a divine gift, then you will suffer.

Demonic qualities will come in your life such as greed, lust, anger, passion, nar-

rowness, pride, infatuation, delusion, laziness, and lethargy. And the reverse is

true, when you devote your natural life to divine power then divine qualities will

come in your life without effort. The main effect of the demonic power is fear.

The main effect of divinity is fearlessness.

Abhayam satva samshuddhi gyanayoga vyavasthitih.

(Gita 16/1).

Lord stated, “fearlessness is the main divine quality, and fearful life is the

main demonic quality.” When demonic qualities will come in your life then fear

will be your destiny in every moment. But when divine qualities will come in your

life then fearlessness will be base of your own life. So my dear, try to devote your-

self to natural sacrificial activities, whatever is going on in your own life naturally

according to divine law for divine purposes. Try to offer it, try to devote your time

to collect knowledge, collect ability, collect power, collect strength and try to de-

vote all sacrificial activities for divine purposes, then your life will be a boon for

your self and for your society too. Otherwise if you are wasting your time, your

energy, your ability only for getting some transitory thing, some little sensual en-

joyment, or wasting your time by talking senselessly, then your life will not be

boon for others, nor for your own self. Rather your life will be curse for others

and curse for your own self too. Understand and practise this divine, sacrificial

movement of breath.

58

Apane juhvati pranam praneapanam tathapare.

Pranapanagati ruddhva pranayamaparayanah.

(Gita 4/29)

The next ideology is not natural. It is a great process that one can do with

proper guidance.

59

60

SACRIFICE OF FOOD

I am describing the mystical aspect of yagya. Yagya means

sacrifice in the sense of worship of divine power through the collec-

tion and use of divine qualities. Sacrifice includes charity, work for

the welfare of all beings.

Previously I described the great yagya that is going on al-

ways in your body, the yagya of prana, sacrifice of breath. Breath is

coming from an eternal, infinite source and giving you life. The re-

sult of breath goes out in the form of carbon dioxide. This is a divine

process of sacrifice that is going on always sin your body and your

life. Your life exists due to this sacrificial movement. Lord Krishna

taught that this sacrifice of breath is going on in all beings. It means

that all beings are doing this sacrificial work.

When the Bhagavad Gita was revealed on the earth, hu-

manity was not divided on behalf of religion. Religious sects came in

human society later. Initially, there was no Judaism, Christianity,

Islam or Zoroastrianism, no Taoism, no Confusianism, no Shintoism.

All these ‘isms’ sprang up about a thousand years later. Before,

there were only human beings, and one religion for humanity. Hu-

man beings were aware about the supreme cause and they were

worshipping it and performing different kinds of yagyas, sacrifices,

and each process of sacrifice was related with their self, their life.

When they offered oblation into fire, whatever they offered was

related with their own life. The word yagya is also understood to

mean the fire ceremony during which people offered oblations into

fire, such as a cow’s ghee (clarified butter) and rice pudding.

61

Many kinds of herbs were offered into the fire to release their healing

power and create a divine atmosphere. The great seers discovered many special

kinds of herbs, which, if offered into the fire, would release special benefits for

health in mind and body. They discovered that digesting herbs have far less bene-

fit than through fire. Herbs place on the fire produced thousands of times more

energy. Those sitting surrounding the fire would all gain the energy of the herb.

You can think of the effect in this way. You can enjoy a sweet fragrance by putting

it to your nostrils and making yourself happy, but if you put that into the fire and

release its fragrance into the air, maybe hundreds of people can benefit. The

same is true of bitter taste. If you eat green chilli and it has some bitter taste, only

your mouth and eyes are influenced by that bitter taste. But if you put one chilli

into the fire, thousands of times more bitterness will reach everyone’s eyes and

nostrils. People will run away from the effect of one chilli. Whatever you offer

into the fire, the result is magnified thousands of times more. Due to that our

great seers were offering some special kinds of herbs into fire in the morning and

evening time for the good effect on their body, mind, and intellect. You are more

familiar with the practice of putting herbs into boiled water and sitting over it to

clean the nostrils and lungs. The heat separates the herbs into many small parti-

cles thereby enhancing the effect.

I read in an ancient, holy book that if a person performs yagya daily, he

will be free from heart decease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Then a scien-

tist published an article describing how one of the herbs used in the fire cere-

mony can flush cholesterol from the blood stream. He recommended the same

herbs that were mentioned in the ancient text on yagya. Mostly people are not

aware about the health benefits of the herbs but to this day they perform yagya

and are healthy. Everything has its own quality and property, and is giving its ef-

fect whether you are conscious of it or not. If you put your hand in a fire it will

burn you whether you know that it will or not. This is the nature of fire.

So in ancient times the forefathers of mankind were engaging in this practice.

Lord Krishna stated in the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita that seven seers

and four Manus are the fathers of humankind –

Maharsayah sapta purve catvaro manavas tatha.

Madbhava manasa jata yesam loka imah prajah.

(Gita 10/6)

“All of human kind are the children of seven seers and four Manus, and

they appeared by my own sankalpa.” So my dear, I was telling you that this phi-

losophy was taught by great seers and by the Lord when human beings were hu-

man beings only. They were not divided on behalf of religion. Due to that, in the

Bhagavad Gita, the Lord Krishna stated –

Ye me matamidam nityamanutishthanti manavah.

(Gita 3/31)

“This is my teaching and if human kind will follow, then they will be

happy.” He taught this philosophy for humankind, not for any sect, creed, or col-

our.

So He taught that every human being is breathing, receiving oxygen from

outside and discharging carbon dioxide from inside. This is a divine yagya going

on always, but some are able to contain the process consciously. Willingly one can

receive more oxygen, and willingly one can discharge more carbon dioxide. He

can hold and control the breath. Using wisdom and intelligence, he will achieve

power. Further the Lord taught –

Apare niyataharah prananpranesu juhvati.

Sarve ‘pyete yagyavido yagyaksapitakalmasah.

(Gita 4/30)

62

“Sin can be removed or annihilated by sacrifice. Sin, vices, and all kinds of calamities,

can be removed by yagya.” Here yagya refers to many kinds of sacrifices, not only

one kind. Always sacrifice is related with the five sheaths of consciousness, physical,

sensual, mental, egoistic, and intellectual. Putting herbs into fire is for the health of

the body. Controlling the senses is austerity. Bearing the effect of lust and anger is

austerity. Lord Krishna told in the firth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita –

Saknotihaiva yah sodhum praksariravimoksanat.

Kamakrodhodbhavam vegam sa yuktah sa sukhi narah.

(Gita 5/23)

“He is a yogi who is facing and bearing the blow of lust and anger. He is the

happiest person in the world.” People mostly bow before their lust and anger. Those

who control their desire and passion are called renunciants, renouncers of the

senses. The third is sacrifice of yoga, putting your mind into God or in divine, eternal,

infinite power. Fourth is related with your ego, introspecting and understanding

what your ego is, then surrendering it. Fifth is related with your intellect, sacrifice of

knowledge. So sacrifice of oblation, austerity, yoga, self-study, and knowledge, are

the five kinds of sacrifices related with your five levels of consciousness.

All these kinds of sacrifices exist in your body if your breath is coming and

going. If your life breath stops there will be no intelligence, no ego, no mind, no

senses, and no body. All will finish. Due to that he told that the coming and going of

breath is a divine sacrifice. And in the end, he told that all these yagyas are able to

annihilate your calamities, sins and vices.

Those people who perform yagyas, they are knowers of yagyas. Without

knowing, how will they perform? And He told, “this is a great sacrifice.”

Apare niyataharah prananpranesu juhvati.

(Gita 4/30)

63

This verse has a great mystical meaning, pranan pranesu juhvati. Prana means

vital force. Those who understand yagya offer their prana into prana. The second

meaning of prana is the senses. Your senses are working due to prana. So offering

prana into prana means to offer the vital force into the senses. The senses are

under control. And how is this sacrifice done? Apare niyataharah, niyataharah

means moderation of food. By moderation of your food you are offering prana

into prana.

And what is the meaning of moderation of food? Whatever you receive

from outside that is your food. Don’t think that bread alone, or whatever you eat,

is meant by food. That is the food for your stomach. Similarly every sense de-

mands a special kind of food. Beautiful form is food for your eyes. Beautiful place,

beautiful form, whatever is beautiful or handsome, is the food of your eyes. Melo-

dious sound is the food of your ears. Good fragrance is the food of your nostrils.

Very soft, gentle, tender touch is the food of your touch. And sweet and delicious

meal is the food of your tongue. Divine ideas are the food of your mind. And di-

vine knowledge is the food of your intellect. There are seven senses receiving

food from outside, according to samkhya philosophy, five cognitive senses, the

mind and the intellect. In other words, there are seven mouths. In the Upnishads

they are called the seven tongues, sapta jihua. One who controls or moderates

the food of all senses, moderates food.

Mostly we understand that food is for the hunger of the stomach. But for

one who is not aware about health, food is not only for the stomach, it is for

taste. They think that the stomach should be fulfilled with a delicious, sweet taste.

A wise person knows that food is not only for taste and stomach, it is for health.

Whatever creates a healthy body is good food and it may have an enjoyable taste

as well. But Lord Krishna added more qualities to food. In the Bhagavad Gita, he

related six qualities –

Ayuh sattvabalarogya sukhapritivivardhanah. (Gita 17/8)

64

Your food impacts your span of age. If you want to die quickly, you can adjust your

food for that end. If you want to live long, you can make other choices. Modern Sci-

ence is examining the same thing. Longevity through good diet is ayuh. Next is intel-

lect. Your intellect has a great meaning in your life. If your food is not helping your

intellectual power, it is not good. Good food can increase comprehension and mem-

ory, reasoning and logic, whatever is related with your intellect, sattva. Thirdly, food

is related with your strength, bal. your food may be delicious, sweet, and desirable,

but if it is not strengthening your body, it is not good. Fourth is health. Physical

health, mental, and intellectual health are the first three. Because every person has

three bodies, gross body, subtle body and causal body, your food is related with

these three. When you are eating, your food is not merely nourishing the physical

body. Your food must be healthy for these three bodies. Firth quality is happiness,

sukha. Your food should increase happiness in your life. And sixth is love, prithi. If

your food is not increasing your life span, you intellectual power, your strength, your

health, your happiness, and in the end your love for all, that food is not good for

you. Food effects you in these six ways. So you should try to moderate your food,

taking what is good for you, eliminating what is bad.

How can we understand what is eatable? Lord Krishna have four qualities of

pure food.

Rasyah snigdhah sthira hrdya aharah sattvikapriyah.

(Gita 17/8)

Rasyah means juicy, natural juice such as what comes in fruits and vegeta-

bles. Snigdhah refers to milk products, a kind of fatty food. Sthirah means substain-

tial; the food will give you energy for hours. It is not good for human nature to eat

frequently as the animals graze. Food should be taken twice a day, according to the

Mahabharata. Then the food can be well digested. The next quality, hrdyah, means

agreeable, pious, like rice pudding. It is recommended that one should avoid the

65

flesh of animals. If your food is charming, your heart will be filled with joy. The

four qualities of pure food will give six kinds of results. If you moderate your food

you perform the sacrifice of food.

Moderation of food is the sacrifice of food. After moderation, yogis offer

the breath into breath –

Apare niyataharah prananpranesu juhvati.

(Gita 4/30)

Pranan pranesu juhvati, then after moderation when your tongue will

compel you to taste delicious food, you can let it go. You will question if the food

is useful for you and if not, you will leave it. You can control your senses. You will

send breath into breath. You will take the life force directly to the senses and they

will be satisfied. The senses will be controlled in their own place, without needing

the external taste.

The prana that you are sacrificing is the prana of all the senses, five cog-

nitive senses, mind and intelligence. The life energy gives power to all these seven

senses. You can control all the waves of the senses, like sustaining a blow. You can

feel it and let it go. So a yogi moderates his food and sacrifices breath into breath.

Sarvepyete yagyavido yagyaksapita kalmasah.

(Gita 4/30)

Sarvepyete yagyavido, “those who sacrifice in this way are knowers of

the glory of yagyas”. They are knowers of the purpose, the glory and the method

of sacrifice. Due to that, they are the performers of sacrifice. Yagyaksapita kalma-

sah, “and by performing yagyas they are removing all calamities, all sins and

vices.” They are making themselves pure because sacrifice always brings purity

and makes us divine. Yagya is that method through which one achieves divinity

66

in human life. Divine enjoyment can be lived on the earth, free from bondage. The

Lord stated –

Yagyarthat karmano’anyatra loko’yam karmabandhanah.

(Gita 3/9)

“Whatever you are doing in this world for sacrifice that is only divine, that

cannot be the cause of bondage.” Actions done in any other way are the cause of

bondage. So, whatever you are doing in the sacrificial process that gives you free-

dom and happiness. You are removing all calamities by performing yagya. Try to

understand and follow this practical process of leading a divine life. A great message

should always be practical. Whatever is not practical is not useful. This practical mes-

sage was given for all humanity, not any particular creed.

67

68

SACRIFICE OF SELF INTEREST

There is no doubt that if your life plan is good, God will help

you. If you let go of interest in your own needs, others will take care

of you. This is a divine law. Divinity has its own ways of working.

The Bhagavad Gita has many methods of achieving the high-

est good. Among those, the method of sacrifice has a very special

place. Earlier in this teaching, Lord Krishna stated that whatever you

do for sacrifice will make you free from bondage and whatever you

are doing for your self-interest will be the cause of bondage –

Yagyarthat karmano’anyatra loko’yam karmabandhanah.

(Gita 3/9)

Whatever you are doing for yagya will be helpful for your

freedom. Whatever you are doing for your self interest will be the

cause of your bondage.” Then he taught at the end of these verses

on sacrifice –

Yagyasistamritabhujo yanti brahma sanatanam.

(Gita 4/31)

“Those people who are enjoying the remnant of yagyas,

enjoy nectar.” But –

Nayam loko’styayagyasya kutoa’nyah kurusattama.

(Gita 4/31)

69

“Those who are not performing yagya, even this world is not for them. How will

they achieve a divine abode?” We all know that a selfish person has no respect in

this society. We always appreciate those people who sacrifice their own interest

for others and who devote their abilities for others. Those who are selfish, we

never appreciate or respect. May a person be a millionaire, an emperor, a presi-

dent of any country, but if that person is selfish, he has no respectful place in hu-

man society. Human society honours he who devotes his life for others. We al-

ways accept such kind of person as an ideal for society. More than honour, we

worship those of the past who were selfless, those who sacrifice self interest, en-

joyment, sometimes their own life for others.

So what is the real meaning of yagya? Sacrifice of self interest. Whatever

you have, you should offer to others first. If you are getting ready to eat and an-

other is hungry, share with him first. Let it be in your nature to offer all your ac-

tions to divinity, think about Godhead, pray to Godhead and after that partake of

food or whatever you are receiving of life. Then all your food will be the remnant

of yagya. This is a fundamental ideology in the Bhagavad Gita –

Yatkarosi yadasnasi yajjuhosi dadasi yat.

Yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kurusva madarpanam.

(Gita 9/27)

Here the Lord states, ‘Whatever you are doing, whatever you are eating,

whatever you are offering, whatever you are giving others, and whatever you are

doing of penance and austerity, moderation of these senses, first you should try

to offer all these things to Godhead then you should accept for yourself.”

What is the difference between a human being and other animals? If you

are offering anything to an animal, the animal will jump on it. Without paying

heed he will eat. If human beings are doing the same, I don’t think they are differ-

ent from or better than animals. As a human being, you should first be grateful

70

for divinity and the gifts of life. If you are enjoying with life, offer that to the di-

vine, and be thankful, then use the objects of enjoyment. If you act in this way

then you are taking only a remnant of yagya. Yagyasista means divine gift, prasa-

dam, given by Godhead for you. Prasadam means food for life energy and it is

taken respectfully, seated. In the old tradition, which our ashrams still maintain,

many wait as the food is served. They then pray together respectfully, appreciat-

ing the divine gift of life through the food.

In the Upnishads, there is a story about food as a manifest form of divin-

ity. An aspirant approached his guru and asked to be taught about absolute truth.

The guru told him that absolute divinity can be known by austerity. The teacher

said that austerity is absolute truth.

He said, “I will indicate to you that from which all these living and non-

living beings take birth, upon which all these living and non-living beings take life,

and in the end that into which al these living and non-living beings will merge,

that is absolute divinity, absolute Brahma. You can realize this Brahma by auster-

ity, there is no other way.” The disciple accepted what his master advised, and he

started penance. And what is penance? Sacrifice and penance are the two mani-

festations of divine power. Sacrifice is related with our breath and penance is re-

lated with thought, the mind. In the Upnishads, we read-

Yasya gyanamayam tapah.

This penance is related with your thought. So the disciple went away and

started to think and meditate on the cause of the universe, when gained some

realization, he returned to his master, and his master asked what he had found?

The disciple told, “food is absolute truth, anam brahma vijanat, because

whatever attributes you described I found in food. Because people are taking

birth by virtue of food, they survive on food, in the end they will merge into food.

Food is nothing but a manifest form of absolute divinity.”

71

According to the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita, food is the source of your intellect and

the source of your progeny. Your progeny is the result of your food. The soul comes

through food into the body. Then the soul takes birth in the form of your child. Now

you can analyze that whatever you are eating, the essence of your food turns in the

form of juice. Juice turns into the form of blood, then fat, then bone, then marrow,

and finally semen. Semen is the result of your food. And semen is the cause of your

progeny. If food is not divine then how can life come from that? Food has a great

place is your life.

Food is the gist of your intellect, too. Your intellect, your thought, your

ideas are the result of your food. You can analyze your own experience. Due to that,

in ancient cultures, food was accepted as a divine gift. And every civilized person was

thinking that his food was prasadam, which he took respectfully. In Veda we are

reading-

Anam manindyaanam ma parichakshi.

The teaching here is that when you take your meal, anam ma parichakshi,

don’t throw away even a little bit of food. Don’t waste your food at all. Take the

amount of food that you can finish. And further, anam manindya, don’t criticize your

food because that is a divine gift. Let go of the thought that it is not good enough or

delicious enough. When you understand your food is a manifested form of divine

power that is the source of life, then your eating will be a great yagya. As Lord

Krishna stated-

Aham vaisvanaro bhutva praninam dehamastritah.

Pranapanasamayuktah pacamyannam caturvidham.

(Gita 15/14)

72

“I Myself, am residing in every stomach in the form of gastric fire, digesting the

four kinds of food.” The four kinds of food are categorized by how they are taking,

eating, drinking, chewing and tasting. This means that offering food to the stom-

ach is a divine yagya. Your hand is offering food into the fire. And your stomach is

a big kunda, the place where the fire is burning. Your hunger is a gastric fire, a

form of divine power. When you can understand this then I don’t think that any-

time you will neglect your food in any way. Automatically you will pay your re-

spect for food and for the digestive power.

The ideology behind this teaching is that every activity is related with

yagya. Whatever you are taking is yagya. Whatever you are giving is yagya. What-

ever you offer to others is yagya because the divine fire manifests in every form.

Fire lives in the form of life. We read in the Vedas that our life is nothing but a

flame of mortal fire. One day it appears and one day the fuel will finish and it will

disappear. The fuel of this mortal fire is your previous karma. When it becomes

the fuel of your life span it is called prarabdha. Fire will always exist so long as the

supply of fuel lasts. So your life span will exist according to its fuel. So my dear, be

aware about this divine teaching. Perform yagya attentively. All your activities are

yagya. The actual oblation of material objects is only dravyayagya. Lord Krishna

stated-

Sreyan dravyamayad yagyaj gyanayagyah paramtapa.

(Gita 4/33)

“Oh my dear Partha, sacrifice of knowledge is greater and better than

sacrifice of object.” Sacrifice of objects is not as great as sacrifice of knowledge. If

you perform karma in the light of knowledge and wisdom, then you will perform a

great sacrificial ceremony. Your life will be divine. The purpose of sacrifice is for

divinity. You will be a divine person. In the end, the Lord told-

73

Yathecchasi tatha kuru.

(Gita 18/63)

“Whatever is good for you I taught you. Whatever is good for you, you can

do according to your own wish, your own will, your own desire. I can only guide you

and make suggestions. You are free to act according to your own will. I will not com-

pel any person, but if you will follow me,” He told,

Ye me matamidam nityam anutisthanti manavah.

(Gita 3/31)

“If human kind will follow, then they will enjoy. This is my divine message,

and it is eternal and perpetual.”

Sraddhavanto ‘nasuyanto mucyante te’pi karmabhih.

(Gita 3/31)

“If human kind will follow this teaching with deep regard, deep faith, and

stable mind, they will be free from all kinds of calamities, and will achieve the high-

est good.”

So my dear, whatever divine message the Lord gave was for humankind.

Human being means you are a human being first. No other ideologies are related to

your experience of being human. If you are a pure human being, nothing else, then

you can follow this ideology. Always you must act according you your own will with-

out compulsion or restriction. Every person is free and has the potential for both

good and bad.

So the Lord stated that yagya has great meaning in your life. If you perform

yagya in every way, you will achieve eternal happiness, and an eternal abode.

74

Yagyasistamritabhujo yanti brahma sanatanam.

(Gita 4/31)

“He will enjoy with nectar in this present life and, yanti brahma

sanatanam, in the end when he leaves this life, will achieve the highest good,

absolute Brahma.” Such kind of person is enjoying divinity on earth, and after

death will become one with Brahma. Sanatanam brahma means eternal, absolute

truth. But, He told-

Nayam loko’styayagyasya kuto’nyah kurusattama.

(Gita 4/31)

“He whose action is not related with divine ideas, he has no honourable

place in this society and no happy life on this earth. How then will he achieve

something after death.” If you are not divine in this world, how can you hope to

achieve divinity after death? Those people who ask you to believe in them and

they will send you to a divine abode are deceiving you. If you believe in them, you

are deceiving your own self. Be aware about it. If your life is not divine in present,

you can’t achieve divinity after death because your karma will follow you. You

can’t avoid your karma, so be aware. Try to perform each karma in the light of a

divine ideology. Try to enjoy divinity on the earth, and then after life you will

achieve divinity too. There is no doubt.

Divinity will be your life. When you follow this divine ideology, there will

be no distinction between humanity and divinity. You will change your humanity

into divinity. This is the purpose of this divine message. This is the purpose of hu-

man life. Human life is not an end in itself. If you follow this divine ideology, then

your humanity will change into divinity and you will enjoy divine enjoyment while

here, and after death you will achieve a divine abode. This is the message of Lord

Krishna for human kind-

75

Ye me matamidam nityam anutisthanti manavah.

(Gita 3/31)

He told my message is for humankind, manavah means humankind, no one

special. So you must become aware about this ideology and act according to that. If

humankind will follow this ideology, all kinds of struggle will finish. Whatever kinds

of struggles go on in society, and the world all would finish, but demonic people

have no respect for divine ideology. They always create trouble, barriers, differences

among humankind. Resultantly, everyone suffers. If you are living on the earth, you

can’t be free from the affect of demonic power. Whether you agree with it or not, its

impact will be in life. So we try to spread divinity, talk about divinity among mankind.

Tell all people to be human and achieve divinity. Invite humanity to use their wis-

dom.

Divinity is not related with any creed, caste, country, colour, or community.

Divinity is divinity. It is the abode of all beings, the source of all beings, and the end

of all beings whether you accept it or not. As sun gives life to all, the moon gives nec-

tar to all, the wind gives breath to all, fire gives heat, earth gives shelter, and water

gives life to all, this is a divine manifestation. Divinity has no barrier, restriction, divi-

sion, or discrimination. Divine powers do not even discriminate who is good or bad.

All of life is present for all whether you believe in divinity or not. All are benefited by

divine power. When you will be aware about divinity, then your life will be divine.

You will enjoy divinity now and in the end you will achieve the highest good. Your

life will be a blessing for yourself and for all others.

Hari om Tatsat