How do we deepen an experience when it comes?
Question:
Everything is emerging from the Source so when we were singing, energetically something happened in me and I was looking at it: what happens with my voice and what it does with my body and how it rises. I presume that the Source is behind that. What can I do to dive deeper in it?
Sri Vasudeva:
There is only so much you can do. You need to follow the experience. You’re telling me that when you sing you’re beginning to observe the process – what is happening as you sing. So follow the process deeper and deeper and it will take you to a certain place but it will only take you so much. That’s where your consciousness level is.
If you want to go to a deeper level of consciousness (or it is said “higher” – higher and deeper means the same in this case) you need to open up the centres more, the energy body needs to be more activated. That happens by discipline, by grace, by effort, by association, by commitment. But awakening the consciousness, moving the consciousness to another level to be able to see more is the goal. It’s not an easy process. At every stage you need to observe where you are in your consciousness, how much you can see.
Don’t frustrate yourself if you think you’re not seeing enough. Try to allow it to unfold, like when you put a plant into the ground (a seed into the ground) don’t frustrate yourself; it’s not growing as much as it should every day. Water it as much as you can, put fertilizer so that you can accelerate the growth but you have to sit back and watch and enjoy. Don’t get frustrated that the fruits are not coming up yet. That’s the process of trying to observe spiritual experiences. You work at them but if they’re not coming up right away, you look for where blocks are or weaknesses are in your process, work at them again and whatever results you get, be satisfied. That’s where you are, satisfied with the results but willing to go further to experience more.
Question:
What’s the difference between awareness and Guru awareness?
Sri Vasudeva:
Awareness can be limited or can be greater. For example if you walk into the room, your awareness may allow you to see only certain things in the room but if you open your awareness and think that “I want to see more things in this room,” then you may notice where the clocks are or that we have two clocks, you notice how many cupboards we have or you may notice a number a different things because you want to improve your awareness… but if you come in with a limited awareness, that you’re only looking to see how many people are in here, because that’s the kind of awareness that you have (just to see how many people are in here) then that’s all you will see. So Guru awareness is a bigger awareness.
Question:
Is it possible to broaden your awareness of the Source through the Guru?
Sri Vasudeva:
When you say “through you” you know the body is not the Guru right? And you know this mind is not the Guru right? What is behind all of it…is also in you – so it’s really the Guru Principle. The Guru Principle operating in a person is what the Guru is; the Guru quality operating in a person.
The reason you recognize what the Guru is saying is because the Guru in you is also being stimulated and that’s why you say “Oh I know that,” because the Guru in you is also remembering. I don’t want you to think that, “this is the Guru”. Sri Vasudeva, this body is the Guru or the mind is the Guru… It’s much more than that.
You were asking if the Guru can help you? What is happening in Sri Vasudeva is that the Higher Self has been given permission (as it were), the individual ego has surrendered so a greater power can act in and through this Sri Vasudeva. So when this Sri Vasudeva is talking it is because this Sri Vasudeva is allowing the Source to use him to connect with the Universe and to serve the Unvierse. So when this Sri Vasudeva is talking to you, the Source is being able to channel through a human being. It’s also stimulating the Source in you to remember its presence. It’s Source connecting with Source through someone who is a little more open to the Source. That’s the difference.
The process by which gurus operate is they try to kindle the Guru in you, to wake up your light. It’s not to give you something and say “take this,” – they’re trying to awaken something in you.
Question:
Why can we feel the Source easily when we are without thoughts? Why are thoughts so strong in keeping us away from the Source?
Sri Vasudeva:
Thoughts pull us in limitation, in ideas. Thought by very nature, pulls us into a certain limited idea. So when you… if you are not established in that big space inside, then when a thought pulls you, based on your conditioning or based on what you have in your memory bank or based on the memory patterns you have within you, when a thought pulls you back into its limited space of course the Source will be gone.
The more established you are in the expansivity of the Source, even when a thought pulls you, you can actually even see the thought whilst you are still in expansivity – it calls for being stable in that expansive state within. That’s the goal. When you’re not stable there, you can be pulled back into limitation.
Then you have to work at going back there [into the Source] and then you’re pulled there [into limitation]. You have to work at going back there [into the Source]… The time will come when you’re really disciplined and you’ve earned a lot of grace, then you will stay at the bigger space more and more and no thought can ever pull you into its limitation. How’s that?
We need more clarity about what “God” is and isn’t
Comment:
Today you spoke about understanding what the Source is. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of misunderstanding so for me it was good for the clarity.
Sri Vasudeva:
The clarity that is required from the amount of misinterpretation and misunderstanding that we have about God. And a lot of the talk this morning has been based about that under the idea that we’ve grown up with ideas about God and to be faced with NEW ideas… It can challenge the mind but it can also be exciting and it can also bring more awareness and perhaps greater experiences. For me this is wonderful that we can experience God in a different way that moves us away from fear and reverence without true understanding.
Why do we need to start with the intellect to understand the Source?
Comment:
Today’s talk was slightly confusing for me as there were a couple lines that I maybe misunderstood. You said on the first page that “The more we understand what the Source is, the more we can keep our attention on the Source and later on the more we can channel the Source into our daily lives.” The way I’ve always done it because the Source is such an abstract thing that we can describe – I haven’t really tried to understand it but more to focus on it and to experience it and by doing that I was hoping that I’d understand it more eventually.
Sri Vasudeva:
That’s exactly what it’s saying.
The fact that the desire there is to understand is really pulling more attention to it. If you begin to think about the Source; if you begin to think of any power greater than who we are, then it draws our attention; and then by drawing our attention, it draws our investigation…or it draws our interest, and ultimately that’s going to take us to a deeper experience or awareness of it, if we have the right guidance.
To take your word “abstract” yes the Source is abstract but the Source has given us so many things that it’s supporting. When you look at this huge universe, this huge visible universe, it is telling us that something is holding this universe in its being. So just observing the complexity of the universe, the power that is generated by the activity in the universe and by our understanding of let’s say more than physics and electron theory, that electrons they disappear and they come from another space, we are actually realizing that this whole universe is supported by some other power. Even when we look at the visible, it draws our attention to the invisible. “Where is this coming from? What is the meaning of all of this?” The visible can also draw our attention to the invisible. Though it’s abstract in a way what it’s creating and supporting is certainly not abstract.
Comment:
I find the Source very hard to focus on the and I try to chop it up into pieces and focus on the part I want to develop because the Source is so big that it’s really hard for me to develop because I don’t know what to focus on.
Sri Vasudeva:
I like to say that if everything is supported by the Source, if every thought is supported by the Source, then I want to draw the Source in my powerful thoughts; in my disciplined thinking; in my projection of energy of thoughts…. I’m feeling more and more power as I focus on the thinking, as I focus on the brow, I’m feeling more and more power so I’m drawing the Source by connecting to this [brow]. If I’m running and I’m thinking I want more and more vitality here so Sri Vasudeva says, “Focus on the breathing. Focus on the navel” so I’m doing it, “Wow, I’m feeling more power now. I can go further,” so we’re drawing energy from the Source. Again, we’re using the visible to take us into the invisible.
Anything that you focus on in the material world is connected to the Source – so singing is, working is, thinking is, loving is… through every activity that you are engaged in – because we are a multi-dimensional being as I spoke about yesterday, we can engage the Source in any and everything that we do. The Source is that place where we can draw more power than the physical body can.
Question:
How do we do that?
Sri Vasudeva:
That’s what I’ve been teaching for so long… I’m saying in meditation begin to look deeper. Don’t see with the normal eyes of human beings who see only the things around: the food here and the thinking here and the this there – and they don’t see more than that – who look out into the night sky and just see some lights there but they don’t see the presence of energy. Learn to see more in everything you do. How can some people leap so high? How can some people sing so differently? How can some people make exercise like dance? What are they touching?
We need to look at those things; we need to see those things. So when you see the existence of power and beauty and strength in the universe, you are actually beginning to see manifestations of the Source and then if you begin to tap into it – learn from the people who know…you will tap into it.
Good question, because it draws so much into expression. The Source in you is asking that question and the Source in here is replying – so we are drawing the Source into conversation.
A deeper part of you could be seeking without you knowing it
Comment:
The part of it that impacts on me the most is really “Who really is God?” and I know when I first came here, it was actually through a life challenge that brought me suffering. That brought the chain reaction, the desire for the awareness,
Sri Vasudeva:
What you’re saying is that circumstances brought you into that place, not that you were directly seeking it. That’s very interesting because when that happened, you were able to recognize it. When the help came, you were able to recognize it. That means that a deeper part of you somewhere would have been seeking that, without naming it. “I wish I could be in a place of peace. I wish I could be happier. I wish I could get more out of this relationship. I wish I could get more out of this job. I wish there was more to life. I wish I could really relate to my children really in a deeper way. I wish I could relate to people in a deeper way.” All these are aspirations to the Source.
Then when you meet the person, when you’re challenged and you actually meet the help that the Source is bringing you – you’ve actually drawn it towards you and then you recognize it immediately, “Oh my God. This is what I need. Tell me more. Give me more. I want to experience more” because that’s the interest that you have.
How can I give up the ego?
Question:
How can I give up the ego?
Sri Vasudeva:
You don’t want to give up the ego, right? We have to keep this ego thing. This is going to stay with us right through the journey. You want to make sure to purify the ego, that the ego takes itself into a higher place. We are the ego but you can have a very pure ego, a very beautiful ego, a very spiritual ego or we could have a very selfish ego, very materialistic ego…so we need to transform the ego. And you transform the ego by striving to think better thoughts, more loving thoughts, to keep more loving feelings…by associating with people who are more loving, better and in these simple ways you can begin to transform the ego through self-discipline; through association; through spiritual activities – you can actually begin to transform the ego from the lower ego to the Higher Ego. Please don’t kill the ego.
Can I be with you during the Forty Days?
Question:
For me the morning meditation was so powerful. I felt this happiness hours after, and the people that interacted with me told me that my voice is different. Is this possible?
Sri Vasudeva:
Yes certainly it’s possible but what you are actually experiencing and manifesting is being very much in touch with what is happening here. I’m amazed that you can be in Romania physically but you are actually here because those are the kinds of experience in this kind of energy space – so you are actually being able to be in touch with the energy space of this centre whilst you are there. So you can see the subtle energy of the centre is expansive across the world. It’s like waves of energy across the world, you can tune into immediately. So I’m very very pleased. Yes, what’s happening with you is possible and it can continue to happen right through the Forty Days. You can be right here energetically even though your physical body is in Romania.
And this I am saying to all the people who are looking at me from all places in the world. You can be right here energetically even though you are physically placed somewhere else. That is a possibility. And especially if you have been here before, it makes it easy for you to tune into that. But it doesn’t necessarily mean if you have not been here before, or you haven’t been here before it’s going to be harder…you can also tune into that by giving attention to what you’re experiencing from the group, from the morning talks…you can actually begin, your soul will remember – you’ll begin to let these experiences come within you and pull your soul back into activation or into the experiences that your soul knew.
So if you find that you listen to these things and your soul begins to resonate, it is because your soul knew it before – so though you may not be physically here but your soul may have had similar kinds of experiences that this can bring into expression once again.
Is the Source energy the same when we’re embodied vs. when transitioned?
Question:
“Guruji, you wrote the Source from which everything emerges and into which everything merges, we can feel the wonderful energy of the Source during meditation. Do you think that we feel the same wonderful energy when we die, because it is one Source?”
Sri Vasudeva:
You don’t die. None of us are going to die. The body drops off. We don’t die. We’ll never die. The body drops off. The light shifts to another dimension but we don’t die. So we can continue to experience the Source all the time. When you take off a suit of clothes, you’re not changed. The experience might be different because now the clothes has been gone but YOU essentially have not changed. It’s the same.
Okay…anybody? Yes you’re taking time to absorb the energy or the new ideas? What happens is that the mind tends not to want to work when it begins to feel a very strong dose of the energy. It begins to become quiet and the discussion takes a new level. It takes a level where no one wants to speak but everyone wants to stay in that inner space. It’s a different kind of discussion.
Why is there duality and why should we choose the good?
Question:
So the Source creates the good…the mind classifies the good, the bad and the ugly but the Source is creating everything and yet we are trying to understand the Source. What my mind is trying to understand is that what’s the point in trying to be good if the Source is also good and bad at the same time?
Sri Vasudeva:
Right, so that’s a good question, which has two parts. The first is that the Source has created everything – the good, the bad and everything. And that allows us to see the world without seeing that there is some demon somewhere that creates what is bad. It allows us to see that whatever the Creator is, it has put all these experiences in the world for us. Now, by virtue of this dimension, we need high and low, night and day, light and darkness, death and health, we have a polar world (north pole, south pole) so when we have good what will we have? [response is “bad”] Right. So that’s the balance of the dual world. They both have different experiences, that’s why people gravitate to them. But the choice is always there for us.
The choice is always ours to experience what we want to. That’s what we have. We have the power of choice. So the universe is saying “I have created all of this,” because that’s how the dimension is. I need to move from low vibrations to high vibrations. So we have the whole multitude of vibrations that create our world. So I can choose to go into a world of low vibration or a place of high vibration. It’s created there for the sake of the dimension.
Now, in ignorance we choose some of the lower things because they seem attractive and as we become a little wiser, we tend to go across the band and choose the higher things. And ultimately we go to a place that is free from all of these, that we are able to watch the band and feel the freedom – even to be able to go wherever we want to, if we need to, without feeling that we are caught up in that or we are limited to that. So that’s where it is.
The experience of the Source is a transcendental experience beyond the good and bad and the ugly and everything else. It’s not a selective experience, to become more spiritual, or to become more enlightened or to become freer is not to choose the good – it is to go beyond good. But the good lead[s] us to go beyond good. You have to step from the bad to the good and then to beyond bad and good. That’s a steppingstone. You can’t go from the bad immediately… that’s the evolution process. Interesting isn’t it?
The Source is not to be blamed in any way. It has created the multiplicity of experiences but it gives us the choice, which makes life exciting.
Liberating thoughts about the Source
So it has been a wonderful discussion and I said I’ll give a few days to this subject because it’s extremely exciting. For me, what is exciting about this is that all the conditioning we have had that could be cleared up and allow us a more empowering view of the Universe or of the Source. The fact that there is no demon out in the universe to get us – and if we choose the demonic way, we are choosing the way of lower energy and that’s not a really comfortable place to be. And if we begin to change our ways and go to a place of higher, then we are able to create more balance and we have less destruction around us so we have the opportunity to move into a better place but not to think that there is some demon in the universe that is tying to destroy us, or not that there is some judge out there.
The Source is already supporting us and it is there for us. If we begin to go within and search for it, the journey becomes easier and easier. All we need to do is to keep and steady focus on wanting to go there, and using every opportunity that comes to us to assist us in getting there. And the truth is, when you create a desire to go there, a lot of things happen to support us on that journey.
How has your concept of God changed?
Let’s talk for a moment on…ideas about God. How have your ideas changed…? Because we are so challenged by religion, growing up in certain religions, we are taught that God is a God to be feared, God is a God who will judge us and there is a demon out there that is after us… I’m always very interested in seeing how people’s ideas[change], especially when they have been conditioned in so powerful a way…
Comment:
I grew up in a family that really didn’t push religion on me. I was given a choice to make my own decisions but I remember going to Sunday school as a child, hearing stories from the Bible and not really buying into these stories that these adults were claiming to be true so I decided that I didn’t want to continue and I wasn’t pressured to do that. And then I got to my point in my late teens and early twenties when I considered myself sort of atheist/agnostic because I was just disillusioned with the whole “God” idea but then I remember I read a book in my early twenties and I don’t remember what it was but it talked about “God is inside of us” and something clicked and ever since then that felt true to me. And so that sort of led me on the path that I’m on now
Sri Vasudeva:
Very nice … At least you were able to rise beyond. And the fact that you were given the choice earlier on is something nice because sometimes religion can be pushed on us and we are forced to believe.
Comment:
Before I learned to know you I was always wondering, “What’s God? What does it mean?” I didn’t have any conception [of God] I had questions but I couldn’t make contact. I couldn’t make relation.
Sri Vasudeva:
But you didn’t accept any of the ideas that you were given. It didn’t resonate with you.
Comment:
Resonate, that’s it… now I understand what God is. I think it’s a feeling inside I felt such more than happiness and I could see God shining through you and also very important was that I could see God in everyone and in the whole nature. Well now I had a real understanding of what God is, not before that.
Sri Vasudeva:
That’s beautiful.
Comment:
Today’s talk made me contemplate about how the Source is always there with me and guiding and protecting me always.
Sri Vasudeva:
Very nice – I’m happy to hear that and thanks for joining us.
Comment:
“I was very inspired by the talk today and recognize the worldly perception of God,” and he says he cried with relief.
Comment:
“In my youth God was just a name, something, somewhere but after Shaktipat and opening my eyebrow chakra, God is something wonderful for me, more than wonderful, a warm feeling, rest…I cannot name it. It is amazing, beautiful feeling.
Sri Vasudeva:
Thank you for sharing that.
Concluding remarks
Okay so it’s been a beautiful session. I’m always excited. I wish that you’ll engage me more and more but we had quite a bit of engagement today and quite a bit of excitement and clarification and recognition of the Source and I’m really happy about that. For me, my whole life has changed and my early experience of the Source has been that of energy. I could feel energy flowing out of me – as love, as vitality, ultimately more power in my mind and just being able to tap more energy inside and just being able to feel that there is some energy source supporting me during all my activities – that has been phenomenal. So that is how I first began to identify the Source at the age of twenty-one in India.
And just to say during the Forty Days of 1978, I’ve been thinking today (I always reflect on that beautiful period) and every time I go through these Forty Days, the days are so blissful. Yesterday I had to go outside of the ashram but just being here, not having to go anywhere and to be absorbed in the energy of the Forty Days is beautiful. But of course when you have to…when you can’t stay in a contained space, you can carry this with you if you carry the thoughts with you and you carry the feelings with you.
During these Forty Days I could actually feel all this energy and support like it was for me in 1978. In 1978 I had a few books with me and I had a few directions given to me from that Power inside and as I worked with it, every day I could see things clearer and clearer and the experiences just got deeper and deeper and deeper. It was just phenomenal. And I can feel it, every time we come into the Forty Days, as I craft these talks, as I engage in discussion with you, as we come into meditation – I can feel this wonderful exciting UNFOLDING consciousness and I say “Wow what Grace!”
And the Forty Day period is a period of Grace and it’s always exciting for me to bring all of us together, not just in the context of the Trinidad and Tobago Centre but in a global context. That makes me feel very happy and for a year now we’ve been using this technology to stream. And it’s wonderful to see the participation and the excitement across the world through these Forty Days. So thank you very much everyone. I’m so excited, so pleased and I look forward to tomorrow.
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