We are very fortunate to have attended this convention, and hear the very learned and experienced speakers and teachers from different parts of Europe. Before this, I was in Zinal, which was also a fantastic convention in which more than forty-eight countries participated. Previous to that I was in Spain, where we must have had a thousand yoga teachers of high standing from all over Europe.
This is a feast for me because all the time I think about these things in yoga. After all, we do not know where we stand, we do not know where our consciousness is. We have made certain imaginary caricatures about ourselves. So we have to be sure who we are and that we are not a game of time, space and mind. Maybe we are as the scientists used to say. We may be just a game, just a creation of time, space and mind. If that is what we are, then we should know it; and if we are not, then we should also know that.
The whole process of yoga as was pointed out yesterday morning by Mr Kent is body, mind and soul. We have to start yoga and we have to complete it; we have started it and we shall complete it no matter how difficult it is. Do not get frightened about kundalini yoga, every adventure has its own risk. When I think I travel on planes throughout the year, that is the greatest risk I take; kundalini risk is much less than that. If at all I go wrong in kundalini, there are so many good swamis, teachers and good brothers who can set me right, but if once the jumbo falls, there is no hope.
Don’t be afraid of pranayama, it is the most pleasing and, I think, the nicest thing in life to sit down quietly, breathe in and hold the breath for one minute or half a minute, it does not matter. No, don’t be frightened about any yogic practice. If at all things are being said against it, they are being said by people who have no personal experience or who have no scientific evidence to substantiate their claims. If someone has been practising kriya yoga, kundalini yoga and pranayama, and if something happens to him that does not make it law or truth. It doesn’t make it a principle that because many people die on the train when you go on a train you die. No, there need be no fear of yoga whether it is asana, pranayama, mudra or bandha.
People are afraid of fasting; they all want protein, calcium continuously in their life. Try one month without calcium, the result will be no high blood pressure, no arthritis. Man has created his own fears about those things which are responsible for his physical, mental and spiritual evolution.
When you practise kundalini yoga and awakening of kundalini takes place, what happens? Just for a few days, you don’t like to do anything, you understand? For a few days you are not interested in anything, not interested in eating, not interested in talking, or working, you just want experience.
Many people have undergone terrible states of depression, they don’t want to eat, talk, think; they don’t want to do anything.
There is a swami in our ashram from London, and he used to tell me, “I don’t want to eat.” I said, “Fast.” He said, “I don’t want to fast.” Well he is there, he is my right hand, an absolute one hundred percent Englishman. I told him, “Okay, go and rest.” He said, “I don’t want rest.” I said, “Then work in the garden.” He said, “That is what I don’t want to do.” I said, “Then do some typing for me.” He said, “I don’t want to type.” I said, “Okay then read some books.” “No, I don’t want to do that.” I said, “Well, what DO you want to do?” He said, “I want to die.” I said, “Okay.” “But,” he said, “I don’t want to die.” This is what we call a nervous breakdown.
How did this swami get well? That is a beautiful story, a funny story; you may not believe it and I don’t believe it even now, but it finished at ten am. After ten, he was okay, he was a perfect Englishman. There was no problem in his personality after ten, but up to ten he was horrible. I thought one day, he would commit suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of my ashram, so I used to tell the swamis, “Keep an eye on him.”
One fine morning from the rooftop he saw a pig jumping on some human dung and relishing it. At that moment, he saw a vision. It was a recapitulation, a memory from when he was eight years old and used to go fishing. He used to have a little tin where he put worms and flies. For about one week he did not go fishing and when he checked his tin the little worms had grown little wings, so they all came flying upon him. Harmless creatures, harmless flies, but he was a child. When he saw the pig relishing the human dung, it kicked his mind and he saw one particular instance of his life which was connected with his present problems. From the next day, he didn’t have any more symptoms. You can ask him; he is in Munger. It is something wonderful how the samskaras and karma affects our diseases.
I was telling you that when the awakening of kundalini takes place, for a few days you want to remain immersed in the experience. You have no interest in anything. Is that bad? After all, this awakening is one of man’s greatest achievements? All of us have been waiting for that great day when we shall be able to cross the boundaries of life and step into a different dimension of consciousness, from where we shall be able to see both in and out. I don’t believe in seeing in only, I believe in seeing in and out both. That day will be the greatest day for man, when he shall be able to bring about a total unity between the inner and outer experience.
At the moment outer and inner experiences are two different areas. After the awakening of kundalini these two areas of experience do not exist anymore, because if you are able to experience inside and you are able to experience outside, how can you say that there are two areas of experiences? There is only one area of experience, but man does not see the whole, and therefore we are blind.
In this convention we have had a lot of nice things. We shall live again, one by one, and hope to be together again. The next convention will be a mammoth one in Bogotá, and I plan to invite a few of the learned people who are here to enlighten us. This convention is organized by our ashram in Munger and our establishment in Latin American countries. We have already had one convention there in 1975, and we shall be having it again in October 1980.
That will be a great joy for the people who speak Spanish, and you know my swamis love Spanish more than they love English. Maybe there is one in the ashram that has weakness for English, but generally my swamis have no weakness for English. The whole group of swamis speak Spanish fluently, and so they look forward to when they can go and say, Gracias Señor, gracias!
September 1979, Dublin, Eire, International Yoga Convention in Saint Patrick’s College, Dublin, Ireland, organized by the Belfast and Dublin Yoga Centres