Peace

Whose name is written on these open skies?

Who were these strangers whose death we have gathered here to celebrate? The sifting wind whispers a name in the desert night. Who hears the whispered name?

See, these footprints on the snow. Hear the echoes of your own screams in the graveyards. Feel your dreams haunt you.

Don’t say we did not know how the death entered our homes. It’s you who mastered this method of collective suicide. So it’s you it will come back to haunt.

True, people still breathe behind closed doors. But see what ghouls, what ghosts dance in the empty streets!

Night, come out of your bunker and kiss us! Kiss our eyes. We are now accustomed to staying wide-eyed at night and sleeping during the day, away from the sunlight.

Come; let’s sweep the sand from these old tombs. Come; let’s mourn together for those who went before us. Maybe future generations will mourn us, too.

Look outside. The entire street is deserted. The lonely electric pole is not enough to resist the night. In a while, the last stop of the last bus of this route will be no more than a memory.
Then the old, emaciated owner of this roadside tea stall will collect his broken benches and return to some ancient tomb.

Come, let’s go and write our names on the doors. Tomorrow, when no one will be left to know us, these names may help others mark our graves.

Listen, the mosques call the faithful and the temple bells ring for the worshippers. The old warrior tells his son: “I killed four enemy soldiers, one after another. The fifth shot me in the stomach and I fainted.”

There is a crowd in the crossroads, difficult to see from here who they are! They look alike on both sides of the dividing line.

The blind rage oozes from their pores. They have now learned a new method of collective suicide. Years of mutual hate found a new opening. Like a volcano, it is ready to explode.

So don’t say we did not know how the death entered our homes.

Other people will mark our melted bones and use them to decorate museums. Students will read about our madness in their textbooks.

The crowd on the crossroads chants slogans. “People, mark your enemies. Look, like you they have brown faces, black eyes and black hair. Their traditions, their habits and their
desires resemble yours. Even their joys and sorrow are the same. But do not let this mislead you. Know your enemies well,” says the orator.

The crowd chants, “Death to them! We want a long life!”

This continuing hatred, transferred from generation to generation, has reached a new peak. Wait for it to explode.

Whose names are written on the open skies? Whose names do the ghouls chant in the streets below? What is this smoke coming from the earth?

Don’t say we did not know how the death entered our homes.

In my home, darkness defeated the light. In dark, moonless nights the dead come into the city, following the footsteps they left behind.

Do you know who your ancestors were? Magicians of ancient Egypt? Lost craftsmen of the Indus valley? Silk traders from Central Asia or wild, warrior tribes from the steppes?

We may never know who they were, but we feel we must fight in their names. Who owns the land? Who can say they own this land? But we still kill for it. And even if we do own it, for how long?

Have you not seen children blown out of their cradles? Have you not seen young men and women shot through their eyes? Have not seen the old struggling with terminal diseases until they are carried to their graves?

Who lays claim to the earth? Who lays waste to the earth? You, who feel protected behind closed-doors, look up and see whose name is written on the skies.

Tied to our lust and desires, we will move from place to place, dancing on the beat of a pulsating drum. Look, it calls again! Can you see where the kite fell? Yet, we fight for the kite we cannot find, for the place we cannot own.

Let me share my moments of glory with you. Last night, there was a blackout and for the first time I saw the full moon, free of neon signs and electric bulbs. I can die in peace,
knowing that the moon will outlive me.

And in the apartment facing my abode, a candle enlarged the shadow of the neighbourhood girl dancing to the beats of her heart.

I could not see her. But I could feel how she, the moon and the winter night were connected to each other. It was a cold night, so nobody watched them and yet they had a soothing effect on all. They made me smile.

This was my glory.

Bombs do not excite me. Death, even of an enemy, I do not celebrate.

Fear, I do not relish.

The moon does make me happy. So does the sun when I see it smiling on the tiny money plant in my window.

Establish a link with your chair, books and the glass you keep beside your bed at night. Connect with your room, your home, your road, the city you live in and the one you do not.

Learn to love them all: your home and your enemy’s, and of those you do not even know. Learn to love before it is too late.

And don’t say we did not know how the death entered our homes.

Astrology - a science of non-duality

Astrology is perhaps the most ancient subject and also in a way the most tabooed. It is the most ancient because as far back as we have been able to investigate the history of mankind, astrology has been in existence.

Astrological inscriptions have been found on bone remnants from the Sumerian civilization which existed twenty-five thousand years before Jesus. Bone remnants have been discovered with astrological inscriptions and with an outline of the moon's orbit in the sky. But in India this science is even older. In the Rigveda, reference is made to a certain constellation of the stars which could only have occurred ninety-five thousand years ago.
Because of this, Lokmanya Tilak concluded that the Vedas must certainly be even more ancient: the constellation of the stars as the Vedas described it could only have occurred at a certain moment ninety-five thousand years ago, so that particular vedic reference must be at least ninety-five thousand years old. That particular vedic reference could not have been added at a later period. Other, younger generations would not have been able to work out a constellation that existed many years before. But now we have scientific methods which we can use to discover where the stars were at a particular moment in the distant past. The deepest laws of astrology were first discovered in India.

In fact it was only because of astrology that mathematics was born. To make astrological calculations, first mathematics was needed.

 The digits used in arithmetic were invented in India -- the numbers one to ten which exist in all the world's languages are basically Indian in origin. And throughout the world the decimal system has been accepted: the decimal system was born in India, and it slowly spread throughout the entire world. When you say "nine" in English, it is only a modification of the Sanskrit word nav. When you say "eight" in English, it is only a modification of the Sanskrit word acht. The numerals one to nine, prevalent in all the world's languages, came into existence only because of the influence of Indian astrology.

 The first knowledge about the existence of astrology reached the Sumerian civilization from India. Six thousand years before Jesus, the Sumerians were the first to open the doors of astrology to the Western world. The Sumerians laid the foundation for the scientific study of the constellation. They constructed a gigantic tower, seven hundred feet tall, and from that tower Sumerian priests used to observe the sky twenty-four hours a day. Sumerian metaphysicians soon learned that whatever happens to mankind is somehow ultimately connected with the stars -- they are the source. Six thousand years before Jesus, it was the view in Sumeria that whenever illness occurs, whenever epidemics are born, the stars are somehow connected. These days there is a scientific basis for this view. And those who understand the science of astrology today say it was the Sumerians who began the history of mankind.

 In 1920 a Russian scientist, Chijevsky, investigated this matter deeply and discovered that every eleven years, enormous explosions take place on the sun. Every eleven years a nuclear explosion occurs on the sun. Chijevsky discovered that whenever such nuclear explosions occur on the sun, wars and revolutions commence on earth. According to him, during the past seven hundred years, whenever such phenomena have occurred on the sun, there have been disasters on earth. Chijevsky could not be proved wrong. His seven hundred year calculation was so scientific, the connection he established between explosions on the sun and phenomena on the earth was so close, that to prove him wrong was difficult. The sun is not a static ball of fire, as we ordinarily think, but rather an infinitely alive and dynamic, fiery organism. Every moment the sun changes its mood. And when the sun changes its mood even a little bit, life on earth trembles. Nothing happens on the earth without something happening on the sun. When there is a solar eclipse, the birds in the jungle stop singing twenty-four hours before. During the entire time of the eclipse the whole earth becomes silent. The birds stop their singing and all of the animals in the jungle become oppressed and frightened, full of apprehension. The monkeys abandon their trees and come down below. They form themselves into groups, apparently as a means of protection. And it is a surprising thing that these monkeys, who are always gossiping and making a hue and cry, become so quiet at the time of the eclipse. Up until now this discovery could not be considered valid because astrology is such an ignored subject -- the most ancient, the most ignored, and the most respected at the same time. It is estimated that throughout the world, seventy-eight percent of people believe in astrology. This seventy-eight percent who believe in astrology includes a very large number of scientists, thinkers, and other intelligent people.

C.J. Jung said that the doors of the universities have been closed to astrology for three hundred years, but that in the coming thirty years astrology will open those doors and again enter the university. It will be able to because claims that astrology has made which have up to now been unproved can now be proved. Pythagoras gave birth to one discovery -- that man becomes ill only when the harmonious relationship between him and the constellation of the stars at his birth somehow breaks down. Pythagoras gave birth to the very valuable principle of planetary harmony. When Pythagoras proclaimed this principle in Greece, he had just returned from a journey to Egypt and India. Pythagoras believed that every star, every planet and every satellite gives out a unique vibration through its movement as it travels in space. Every movement of the stars gives out a vibration, and every star has its own individual movement. All the vibrations of the stars together make a musical harmony which he called the harmony of the universe.

 When you are born, the melody that is created by the tuning of the stars at that time is inscribed on your mind in its freshest, most unsophisticated, and most sensitive state -- that of birth. Throughout your life this will cause good health or ill health. When you live in tune with the original musical harmony that existed at the time of your birth, then you are healthy. And whenever your tuning with this fundamental musical harmony breaks down, you become ill. In this connection, Paracelsus has done very significant work. He would not prescribe medicine to any patient until he had seen his kundali -- his astrological birth chart. And it is a surprising thing that after having examined a patient's birth chart, Paracelsus would cure patients who had confused other physicians -- patients who could not be cured by any other physician. He used to say, "Until I know the position of the stars at the time of this man's birth, it is not possible to know the notes of his inner harmony. Unless I know the arrangement of his inner harmony, how can this man be made healthy?"

 But what is meant by health? This we must try to understand. Ordinarily, if we ask a physician what the definition of health is, he will only say that health is the absence of sickness. But this definition is negative. It is unfortunate that we must define health in terms of illness. Health is a positive thing, a positive state: illness is negative. Health is our nature; illness is an attack on nature. So it is very strange that we must define health in terms of illness. To define the host in terms of the guest -- this is very strange. Health coexists with us; illness comes occasionally. Health accompanies us at birth; illness is a superficial phenomenon. But if we ask a physician what is the meaning of health, he can only say that health is present when illness is absent. 

Paracelsus used to say that this interpretation is wrong -- the concept of health needs to be positively defined. But how can we reach a positive definition, an interpretation of the concept of health that will be creative? Paracelsus used to say, "Until we know the state of your inner harmony, we can at the most release you from your illness -- because your inner harmony is the source of your health. But when we release you from one illness, you will immediately catch another, because nothing has been done about your inner harmony. Your inner harmony has to be supported." Five hundred years have passed since Paracelsus, and his discoveries have disappeared into oblivion.

But now, astrology has re-emerged.

The whole universe is one body. If my finger is hurt, then my whole body is affected. "Body" means that no limb is separate, all are joined together. If my eye is in pain, then my big toe also experiences that pain. If my foot is hurt, the message reaches the heart. If my mind is ill, my entire body will be disturbed. If my whole body is destroyed, then it will be difficult for my mind to find anywhere to be. The body is an organic unity: touch a single part and the whole body vibrates; all parts are affected. Cosmic chemistry says that the entire cosmos is a body. Nothing in it stands apart, all things are joined together.

So no matter how distant a star may be from us, when it changes our heartbeats also change. And no matter how far away the sun may be, when it becomes very disturbed our blood circulation is also disturbed. Every eleven years an atomic storm occurs on the sun. The last time such a great atomic storm and fiery explosions were going on, a Japanese doctor named Tamatto made an amazing discovery. This doctor had been doing work on women's blood for twenty years. There is one property unique to female blood which is absent in the blood of males. At the time of menstruation the blood of women becomes thin, but men's blood always remains the same. Women's blood at the time of menstruation grows thin; at the time of pregnancy also their blood grows thin. This is one basic difference between the blood of men and women, according to Tamatto. But when atomic energy storms were occurring on the sun with great intensity, the blood of men also grew thin. This was a very novel phenomenon. Before this it had never been recorded that men's blood was affected by disturbances on the sun. And if blood can be so affected, then anything can be affected.

For two thousand years after Aristotle, in the West it was thought that space is empty, that nothing is there: two hundred miles away from earth the atmosphere ceases and there is empty space. But the investigations of space travelers have proved this notion to be wrong. Space is not empty, it is very full. It is neither empty nor dead -- it is extremely alive.

 A seed lying in the ground, grows only in relation to the sun. The sun alone arouses it and encourages it to emerge. The sun alone summons the embryo plant and induces its growth. When a child is born, at that moment many stars are emerging all around the earth's horizon. Just as the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, so stars rise and set in space twenty-four hours a day. If a child is being born at six o'clock in the morning, at that time the sun too is rising. At that time some stars are also being birth, and other stars are setting. Some stars are ascendant; some stars are on the decline, other stars are rising. This child is being born into a certain arrangement of stars in space. Up until now we have doubted -- and even now many people not deeply familiar with the subject still doubt -- that the moon and stars can have anything to do with man.

It has been thought that astrology is a science which, because it originated in an earlier time, could not develop. But in my view the situation is just the opposite. Astrology was an infinitely developed science in some extremely advanced civilization, but that civilization has been lost and only incomplete fragments of its astrology has remained in our hands. Astrology is not a new science which needs to be developed, but a science which was at one time very advanced. Then the civilization which developed it was lost.

Civilizations come and go every day: the fundamentals, the basic sayings and the basic principles of those things which have been developed by them, become lost. Today, science is approaching the point where it will accept the thesis that life as a whole is affected by the movements of the stars.

We should try to understand the phenomenon of twins. Two types of twins exist. One is identical twins -- those who are born from one egg. The other type is those who, although they are twins, are born from separate eggs; in the mother's womb two eggs become fertilized, and two children are born. The first type is more rare -- two children from one egg. They are very significant subjects to study, because they are born at the same time. Out of necessity we call the children born from separate eggs, "twins," but the moment of their birth is not exactly the same.

It must be understood that birth is an ambiguous phenomenon. The first aspect of birth is conception -- the actual birth takes place on the day when the foetus is conceived in the mother's womb. This is actual birth. What you call birth is really birth number two -- when the child comes out of the mother's womb. If we were to carry out a complete astrological investigation -- as the Hindus alone have done, and done very thoroughly -- then our actual concern would not begin when the child is born. Our actual concern begins when the child starts its journey in the mother's womb, when the embryo takes shape -- because that is the actual birth.

So Hindus have also come to feel that if a particular type of child is to take birth, it will be born if intercourse and pregnancy occur under an arrangement of planets and constellation most suitable for that type. Now I will explain to you a little of the background of this, because much work has been done in this area and many things have become clear.

Ordinarily, when a child is born at six o'clock in the morning, we think that the constellation which exists at that time influences the child. My view is  Just because a child is born at six o'clock in the morning the stars don't cast their influence over him. No. Rather, the child chooses to be born under those stars which will influence him as he wishes to be influenced. This is a radically different thing. When the child is taking birth, then it chooses the planets and stars and the moment at which it will take birth. And if we go still more deeply, then the child also chooses the time of its conception. Every soul chooses its own time of conception -- when it will accept a womb, at which moment.

The moment of conception is not insignificant. It is significant in that it is a question of how the entire universe exists at that moment and to what sort of possibilities the universe opens the door at that moment. When two children are conceived together from one egg, then the moment of their conception is the same and the moment of their birth is the same. It is interesting that the lives of the two children who have taken birth from one egg are so alike that it is difficult to say that the moment of birth has no influence. The I.Q. of twins born from one egg is just about equal. And the fractional difference which arises -- those who know say that it is because of our faulty measuring devices. Even now we have not been able to develop adequate criteria by which we can quantitatively measure intelligence. Even if twins born from the same egg are brought up far apart from each other, still their I.Q.'s do not differ. Even if one child is raised in India and another in China, and neither is aware of the existence of the other, this will still be true. Cases have occurred where such twins have been raised far apart from each other until they have attained maturity, but their I.Q.'s did not differ. It is surprising that the I.Q. can be associated with the child's potential at birth. When the twin who lives in China suffers from a cold, at that time its twin in India also suffers from a cold.

Generally, twins born from one egg die in the same year. At the most, three years elapse between their deaths, and at the least, three days -- but never more than three years. If one twin has died then we can assume that after three days or within three years, the other will die. Their attitudes, their behavior, their feelings, are parallel, and it seems that the two live in almost exactly the same way. Their similarity is seen in many other things also -- each acts like a copy of the other. Is the moment of birth so influential that their lifetimes are of about the same lengths, that their I.Q.'s are almost equal, that their bodily behavior is the same, that when the two fall ill it is from the same illness, and that when the two become well again it is from the same medicine? Can the moment of birth be so influential?

 Astrology has been saying that the moment of birth is even more important than this. Up until now science has not agreed with astrology, but now it is beginning to do so. In coming to this increasing agreement, some new experiments have been helpful. For example.... At the time when we launched an artificial satellite into space, we learnt that a network of infinite types of radiation continuously pour out from the universe and from the constellations, and are diffused throughout the earth. On the earth, nothing is unaffected by this phenomenon. We know that the ocean is influenced by the moon, but we have not taken into consideration the fact that the same relative proportion of water and salt that occurs in the ocean occurs also in the human body -- the same proportion. Forty-five percent of the human body consists of water, and the proportion of salt contained in that water is the same as is contained in thousands of bays. If the water in the ocean is affected by the moon, then how could the water inside the human body remain unaffected?

 Some three thousand years ago, the thought came to men that the moon does something to the insane. But if it does something to the insane, then how can it avoid affecting the sane? In the final analysis, the construction of the brain and the internal composition of the body are the same for all. Yes, it may be that the moon affects madmen to a greater extent, and the sane to a lesser extent. This is simply a quantitative difference. But it is impossible that the sane remain completely unaffected by the moon. If that was true, then nobody could go mad -- because everyone who goes mad was once sane. The moon must first do something to those who are sane.

 Professor Brown made an interesting study. He was a man completely without faith in astrology. He was a disbeliever, and in his earlier writings he had very much ridiculed astrology. But despite his skepticism he began some investigation. He gathered together the kundali, the birth charts of many famous generals, doctors, and other professions. But then he found himself in great difficulty because he discovered that members of a certain profession were born under a special planet, under the same constellation. For instance, among all famous generals the influence of Mars upon their lives is very strong. In the lives of professors the influence of Mars is completely absent. The study which Brown carried out on some fifty thousand men who are generals, reveals that in the lives of these men the influence of Mars is very strong. Generally, when such personalities take birth, the planet Mars is ascending. The moment of their birth is the moment that Mars begins to rise. Just the opposite to this, no matter how many professors there are in the world, they never take birth at the time of the planet Mars' ascension. If it happened only occasionally, you could think it a coincidence -- but there cannot be a hundred thousand cases of coincidence. Mathematicians are born under a specific constellation; poets are never born under this same constellation. In an occasional case there can be a coincidence, but when it happens so often it cannot be a coincidence. In fact there is a great difference in behavior among people of different professions and occupations -- for example, between poets, mathematicians, generals, and pacifists.

On the one hand there can be a man like Bertrand Russell who says that there should be peace in the world, and on the other hand a man like Nietzsche who says that the day war ceases the world will cease to be meaningful. Between them is there only an intellectual dispute, or also a dispute of stars? Is there only an intellectual distance between them, or does the moment of their births also separate them? The more research is done, the more it is being discovered that the talents of a man are revealed by the time of his birth. Those who know even a little bit about astrology say that this happens by his being born under a specific constellation. But  that man chooses the constellation under which he is to be born. According to what he wants to be -- whatever his innate possibilities, whatever the shape of his last life taken in its entirety, whatever his motivating consciousness -- he will be born under the appropriate constellation.

Every child, every new life, insists on a specific moment for birth before its entry. It wants to be born at a specific moment, only at this moment does it wish to be conceived. His desire and that moment are interdependent. The water of the ocean is subject to certain influences. But all life is created out of water; without water, no life is possible. So in ancient Greece, seers used to say that only from water is life born, that water is life. Ancient Indian, Chinese and other mythologies also say this. Today scientists who believe in evolution also say that life was born in water, that perhaps the first life on the planet lived in the water. This was the first form of life, and then out of this, man eventually evolved. Water is the most mysterious element of all. Whatever influences from the stars reach man from the universe, from space, reach him through the medium of water. Having once affected the water in a man's body, any radiation can gain entrance into him. Water possesses a lot of sensitivity. Whatever influences are active from any direction in life are first felt by water. The water in us is the first thing to be affected. Once the water in us is influenced, then it will be very difficult for us to avoid being influenced.

Its surprising to learn that when the child swims in the mother's womb, he swims just as if he were in the ocean. The water in which the child swims in the mother's womb possesses the same proportion of salt as is present in the ocean. Whatever influences reach the child from the mother's body do not reach him directly; between the mother and the child growing in her womb there is no direct connection. Water is the mediator. Whatever influences reach the child from the mother do so through the medium of water; there is no direct relationship.

Then throughout our lives the water in our bodies behaves just as the water in the sea. Fish in the ocean have been much studied. There are fish which come onto the seashore and lay their eggs when the tides of the ocean are ebbing, when the sea is receding. Riding with the waves, the fish come onto the sand, lay their eggs, and return with the ocean waves. At a fixed time the ocean waves return. By then the eggs will have burst and the spawn will have come out. Then the incoming waves will take the spawn back out to sea. 

Scientists who studied these fish were very surprised, because the fish always come to lay their eggs at the time when the tide is ebbing. If they were to lay their eggs while the tide is rising then the eggs would be washed away in the flood. They lay their eggs when the tide is going down, and withdraw for a little time in the recess of the waves. The waves do not wash a second time over the place they lay their eggs, otherwise the waves would wash the eggs away. Scientists are very puzzled as to how these fish know when the tide will go down -- when the time of the ebb-tide has arrived. If there were even the slightest mistake in timing, the eggs would be washed away. But they have never made a mistake in hundreds of thousands of years. If they had made an error they would have disappeared as a species. But they have never made any error.

What equipment do these fish possess by which they can know about the tides? What sense organ do they possess that tells them when the tide will ebb? A hundred thousand fish will be gathered together at one time over the entire seashore.... There must be some code, some informative mechanism in the possession of these fish. A hundred thousand fish will come from thousands of miles away to lay their eggs on the ocean beach -- and all at the same time. Those who study the phenomenon say that besides the moon there can be no other source. The moon is the source of the fish's intuition, nothing else. It is from intuition that the fish know when the tide is ebbing and when the tide is rising. The impact of the moon is the only way they have of knowing the tides. There is another possibility. It has been conjectured that these fish might somehow be informed by the waves of the sea.

So scientists put them in a place where there are no ocean waves: in water, in an unlit room. But the results turned out to be very surprising. The fish were enveloped in darkness, the moon was not in view. No light was in view at all, but when the moon reached the exact point at which the fish in the ocean would go and lay their eggs on the shore, at just exactly the same moment the fish in the laboratory laid their eggs. What does this fact show? That it is not a question of the ocean waves. Someone may say that the race begins only when the fish receive signals from each other, but this hypothesis cannot stand either. Scientists have witnessed the fish when they were isolated from each other. They have tried to disturb the brains of these fish in every way. They have placed the fish in darkness for twenty-four hours so that the fish do not know when it is morning and when it is night. They have observed these fish after placing them under a bright light for twenty-four hours so that the fish would not know when it is day. They have observed them after setting up an artificial moon, and daily they either lessened or increased its brilliance. But these fish could not be fooled. When the authentic moon came to the right point, at that moment only did the fish lay their eggs. Wherever they were, they would lay their eggs at that moment.

 A hundred thousand birds every year fly hundreds and hundreds of miles. The winter is on its way, and soon snow will fall, so the birds begin fly away from the areas where snow will fall. They will stop at a place thousands of miles away. To reach their winter encampment, two months are required. These birds depart exactly one month before the coming of snow. At the time of departure snow has not yet begun to fall, but after exactly a month it will fall. How do these birds calculate the date on which snow will fall? Our weathermen, who have the most elaborate observatories, cannot come up with such exact information. The arrangements which man has made seem juvenile. Birds know a month and a half or two months before snow falls. After thousands of experiments it has been observed that the day birds fly is fixed for every type of bird. Every year the date changes, because there is no fixed date for snow to fall. But it is certain that every bird will fly away one month before snow falls. If snow is to fall ten days later than the previous year, then they will fly ten days later. If snow falls ten days earlier, they will fly ten days earlier. If the date of the first snowfall is uncertain, then how are these birds informed? There is certain birds which evacuates a town twenty-four hours before an earthquake occurs. It is just an ordinary town bird -- in every town there are many of them -- but twenty-four hours before an earthquake these birds will evacuate the town.

At present, scientists are unable to predict whether an earthquake is coming, even two hours beforehand. Two hours before they are still uncertain, they are still unsure. There is only a probability, a possibility, that an earthquake can happen. But in Japan, people know twenty-four hours in advance that an earthquake is coming. From whichever town this bird flies away, the people of that town know that now there is only twenty-four hours' time. This bird has retreated; not a single one of that species remains in the town.

How does this bird become informed? every organism possesses an internal sense organ which feels the outside world. Perhaps man too possesses it, but has lost it through depending on his intellect. Man is the only living being in the world who has, through intelligence, lost many things which he once had. Through the same creative intelligence he has also gained many things he did not have, but at a great loss. What he had he has lost, what he did not have he has invented. But even miniature organisms possess an inner source of feeling. And now scientific data is becoming available which proves that such an inner source exists. This discovery of an inner source makes us aware that nothing alive on this earth is isolated or separate.

Everything is joined to the cosmos. If anything happens anywhere its results will begin to be felt here. Science is also arriving at the conclusion that when spots emerge and grow on the sun, illness on the earth increases, and that when sunspots decrease, illness on the earth also decreases. We will never get rid of disease on earth while sunspots last. Every eleven years there is great turmoil on the sun and huge explosions take place. When explosions and turmoil occur on the sun, at that time wars and disturbances occur on earth. The wars that take place on earth follow a ten-year sequence. Epidemics also follow a ten or eleven-year sequence. Revolutions also follow approximately a ten or eleven-year sequence.

 Once you have the idea that we are not separate or isolated but joined together in an organic way, then it will be easy to understand astrology. Some men have thought, and even now think, that astrology is superstition, blind faith. To a great extent this seems to be true. Those things that it is difficult to find a scientific explanation for seem to us to be based only on blind faith. But astrology is very scientific. The meaning of science is the investigation of the relationship between cause and effect. Astrology says that whatever happens on this earth is not uncaused. However, we may not be aware of the causes. Astrology says that the shape which the future will take cannot be isolated from the past but must be joined to it: what you will be tomorrow will be joined to what you are today; what you were until today is joined to what you will be tomorrow.

 Astrology is a very scientific way of thinking. It says that the future will emerge only out of the past: your today has emerged from your yesterday; your tomorrow will emerge from your today. Astrology also says that whatever will happen tomorrow is in some subtle way present even today. Now try to understand a little about this. Three days before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln dreamt that he had been murdered and that his corpse was lying in a special room in the White House. He even noted the number of his room. At that point his sleep was broken, and when he woke up, he laughed. He said to his wife, "I dreamt that I was murdered and that my body was lying in such-and-such-number room, and in such-and-such wing of the White House" -- he was sleeping in that wing of the White House. "You stood at my head, and such-and-such people were standing all around." It was a joke, a laughing matter to him. Lincoln and his wife went back to sleep. Three days later Lincoln's assassination took place. Three days later his body was lying in that number room, in that very place, and in that sequence people were standing around his body. If what was to occur three days later had not in some fashion already occurred, then how could such a dream have taken place? How could the dream resemble, in such detail, what actually took place? Such a glimpse is given in a dream only if in some way it is already implied in the present moment. Then only can we get a glimpse of what will take place in the future. If we open the window of the present, then we will be able to see that the future is just outside this window. It is the thesis of astrology that the future is simply our ignorance -- so, it is "the future." If we were to see, then the future would not be a "happening" for us -- we would know it is already present here and now.

Mahavira used to say that whatever is happening has in some sense already happened: if you are walking, then in a sense you have already arrived at the destination; if you are growing old, then in a sense you have already grown old. Mahavira used to say that whatever is happening, whatever is in process, has already occurred. When Mahavira used to say that whatever is happening has already happened, he was saying that whatever is happening is the present, whatever may be is the future.

The bud which is coming into blossom somewhere has already blossomed, so it will blossom, it will become a flower. Right now the bud is in the process of flowering, right now it is only a bud. But if it is in the process of flowering, then it will flower. Its having flowered has also in a sense already occurred somewhere. Now we should look at this from another angle. It will be a little difficult. We always look from the viewpoint of the past. The bud is blossoming, but our thinking is generally past-oriented -- bound to the past. We say that the bud is blossoming, that it is becoming a flower, that the bud will become a flower. But the reverse may be the case.

Astrology recognizes the incompleteness of the view that the past gives the impetus and that the future happens as a result. If one views a phenomenon in its totality, one sees that the past is providing the impetus, but also that the future is exercising a pull, an attraction. The bud becoming a flower is not all that is happening. The flower is calling out to the bud to become a flower; it is exercising a pull. The past is behind; the future is ahead. Now, in the present moment, there is a bud. The entire past is pushing the bud to become a flower and the entire future is calling on the bud to become a flower. Under pressure from both directions, past and future, the bud will become a flower. If there were no future, then the past by itself would not be able to create the flower, because the future must provide space for the bud to become a flower. In the future a place, a space, is necessary. If the future provides a place, only then will the bud be able to flower. If there were no future, then no matter how much the past tried.

For my pushing, a space in the future is needed. The past does the work; the future gives space. It is the view of astrology that looking from the standpoint of the past alone is insufficient and only partially scientific. The future is calling all the time, drawing us all the time. We do not know, we are not aware. This is the weakness of our eyes, this is our shortsightedness -- we cannot see very far. About tomorrow nothing is revealed to us. The future is not utterly uncertain. Our knowledge is uncertain; our ignorance is weighty.

Nothing of the future seems to be revealed to us. We are blind; nothing at all of the future is revealed to us. Because nothing seems to be revealed to us, we say it is uncertain. But something of the future is revealed to us -- and astrology is not merely the study of what the stars and planets say or of calculating their significance. This is only one dimension of astrology. Then there are other dimensions of knowing the future too.

People have lines on the palms of their hands, people have lines on their foreheads, people have lines on the soles of their feet -- but this too is superficial. In the human body there are hidden chakras. Every chakra has its own unique sensation. Every chakra vibrates in its own unique fashion, at its own frequency, all the time. There are ways to check what these are. Human beings have concealed within them the mental impressions or seeds of the past. There is a scientific theory of (in East it is ancient thought), time track. Hubbard thinks that in whatever form a man has lived -- whether as man or beast, whether as plant or stone... in whatever form he has lived throughout his infinite span of lives, this entire stream of memories is still contained within him. This stream can be exposed, and a man can even be made to re-experience those memories.

 Within man there are engrams. On the one hand, we possess a memory by which we recall what happened yesterday and what happened the day before. This is our "working" memory, this is our everyday memory. Just as every shopkeeper or office worker keeps a daily register, this is our working memory. It becomes useless every day. In fact, it does not exist -- it is not at all permanent. This is the working memory through which we do our work every day, and then every day we throw it out. But even deeper than this is a memory which is not merely for getting the work done -- which is our life, which sums up our entire experience, the accumulated essence of our experience throughout countless lives on the path. This has been called engram -- it has become ingrained within us. It lies in its entirety, locked deep within, just as if a tape is kept locked in your pocket. It can be opened, and when it is opened, it becomes what Mahavira used to call race memory. Neo-science calls it time track -- it makes it possible for you to go back in time.

When it is opened the experience is not that you are remembering; it is not as though you are remembering, you relive the experience. Now it is unlocked. When the time track is unlocked, you do not feel "I am remembering" -- no. You relive it. Try to understand. If your time track is unlocked, it will not be difficult. In fact, without it astrology is incomplete.

 The deepest realization of astrology is that your past must be unlocked -- because if you become aware of your entire past, then you will be aware of your entire future, because your future will emerge out of your past. Without knowing your past you cannot know your future, because your future will be the child of your past, your future will be born out of your past. So first it is necessary that your entire memory track be exposed to view. If your memory track is unlocked -- and for this there are techniques and methods -- then if you think that you will remember how you were a six-year-old child and your father slapped you, you are incorrect.

You will not remember how you were when you were six years old, you will relive it. You will relive the event. Also, at the time you are reliving it, if I ask, "What is your name?" you will reply "Junior," not "William Smith Junior." A six-year-old child will be replying. You will be reliving the event at this time; you will not be remembering. William Smith Junior is not remembering when he was six years old, no, William Smith Junior has become six years old. Now he will answer "Junior"; whatever reply he gives will be the reply of a six-year-old child. Many illnesses come to you only because of this time track. Many illnesses fit into this category -- for instance, hay fever or asthma. For the patient who suffers from hay fever, there exists a fixed date: every year at the same date, at the same time, his hay fever returns. So there can be no remedy for hay fever. Why? -- because hay fever is not actually a bodily illness, it is a time track illness. Somewhere a memory has been fixed, somewhere a memory has been blocked. For instance, a man may remember the twelfth of a month during the rainy season. When the twelfth comes, when the rainy season comes, the man is getting ready; he is already afraid of what will happen. You will be surprised that the hay fever which will now attack him is just something he is reliving -- it is not real hay fever at all. He is only reliving what occurred on the twelfth, the previous year. If you give him any treatment now, you will only be putting him in trouble. Treatment is of no use because he is not the same man who existed a year ago and who at that time could have been treated. You are unnecessarily throwing away medicine -- because it is going into the man who exists now, not into the man who was sick a year ago. There is no connection between the two, no relationship. Every medicine will fail, every medicine will only increase his hay fever, so he will say that nothing is happening. He is again getting ready to repeat what happened the previous year. Seventy percent of our illnesses have happened through the time track -- they have been caught and grasped so tightly that again and again we relive them.

 Astrology is not merely the study of the stars, although it includes that. We will talk about this. Besides the study of the stars, there are other, separate dimensions by which astrology tries to probe man's future, by which it can get hold of the future. To become aware of the future, it is necessary to become aware of the past. To be aware of the past, it is necessary to read the inscriptions traced on your body and on your mind. On your body there are inscriptions and on your mind there are also inscriptions. From the time astrology became obsessed with these bodily inscriptions it could not go very deep, because these bodily inscriptions are very superficial. If your mind undergoes a change, then the lines on your palm will immediately change. If under hypnosis you are assured that after fifteen days you will die, and if every day for fifteen days you are made unconscious and assured in your unconscious state that after fifteen days you will die whether you like it or not, then by the fifteenth day your age line will be broken. A gap will have appeared in your age line; the body will accept the notion that death is on its way. The lines traced on the body are a very superficial phenomenon. Deep within is the mind. The mind with which you are familiar, however, does not exist deep down; it is superficial. Deep down there is a mind which you do not know at all. The centers that exist deep within this body alone, which Yoga calls chakras, are the accumulated forms of many lives. One who knows can, by placing his hand on a particular chakra, discover how active it is. By touching your seven chakras, it can be known whether you have ever experienced them or not.

If a man who has experienced them comes to me and I can see that all his seven chakras are in motion, then it can be said that this is his last birth. Then there will be no next birth, because if all seven chakras are in motion, then there is no possibility of a next life.


This life will be nirvana, this life will be liberation. Astrology is an attempt to probe the future by many, many paths. Among these -- the most commonly used path -- is the study of how the planets and stars influence man. For this, more scientific evidence is becoming available every day. This much has been decided -- that life is affected and cannot avoid being affected by these influences.

 Nature can give each man a thumb that is uniquely his, that is individual and unrepeated. Nature can keep such a subtle account that it gives to each man a thumb which is uniquely his and a thumb print which can never belong to anyone else, neither now nor in the future. Several billion people may have lived on the earth, several billion people may live in the future on the earth, but my thumb print will not be repeated. You may be surprised to learn that in the case of twins born out of one egg, even their thumb prints will differ from one another. If nature can bestow so much individuality on each man with regard to a worthless thing like a thumb -- a thing which is of no special value and which seems to fulfill no special purpose -- if nature can even give a thumb a uniqueness, then can't it give each man a unique life and a unique spirit? There seems to be no reason why not. But science moves in slow motion -- and it is good! For science, slow motion is good. Until a fact has been completely proved, it is not good to move forward even an inch. But Seers can take a leap. That which will happen a thousand or even a hundred thousand years later, they can declare right now.

 Science moves forward inch by inch. It sees only facts -- facts, that can be experimented upon. Dreaming is of no use to science -- but Seers can discover truth even in dreams. For them, even the future is just the expanded present. Astrology is basically the investigation of the future. And science is basically the investigation of the past and the present. Science is the investigation of what is today and what is its cause. Astrology is the investigation of what tomorrow will be and what will be its consequences. Between the two there is a huge gap. But every day science experiences new things, and theories to which it has become attached can never be proved absolutely correct -- they only seem correct. Science has only recently accepted that every man is born with built-in individuality. For a long time it has been reluctant to accept the validity of this idea. But astrology has always been saying this. Just try to understand.... For instance a seed, a mango seed: when we sow the mango seed there must be contained within it some sort of built-in program, there must be a blueprint. If this were not so the seed would be helpless. It neither takes advice from a specialist nor does it study at a university. How then can a mango tree develop out of this seed? Still, it produces the mango tree leaf, it bears the mango fruit. In the stone-like seed there must be concealed a complete program. If not, without such a program what can the seed do? Everything must be present within it. Whatever the tree will be must somehow be concealed within the seed. It is not visible to us. We can smash it and dissect it, and still it will not be visible. But it must be there somehow, otherwise a neem tree might possibly emerge from the mango seed...! It seems that there is never a mistake. Only a mango tree emerges; everything is repeated correctly. In this tiny seed is stored all the information which relates to what the seed must do. How it must sprout, what type of leaf, how many branches to produce, how big a tree to become, for how long it will grow, how tall it will grow -- all this must be hidden within the seed. How many fruits, how sweet, whether they will ripen or not -- all this must be concealed within the seed. If all this is concealed within a mango seed, then when you come into your mother's womb will there be nothing latent in your seed? Now scientists agree that even at this stage the color of your eyes must lie concealed, that the color of your hair must lie concealed, that the height of your body must lie concealed, that the possibilities of health and ill health must lie concealed, and that even your I.Q. must lie concealed -- because without it how will you develop, and by what means? You must have a program that is built in advance. How will certain bones join together as a hand, others as a foot? One bone will begin to see, another bone will begin to hear. How can all this be? Scientists used to say that it is just coincidence. But the word coincidence seems very unscientific. Coincidence means chance. By chance a foot may begin to see and a hand to hear.

But there does not seem to be much coincidence; everything seems to be in order, prearranged. Astrology says a more scientific thing. It says that everything is available within the seed. Astrology says that if we can study the seed, if we can discover the language of the seed, if we can decode this language -- if we can ask the seed, "What is your intention?" -- then we will be able to draw up the complete blueprint of a human being too. Scientists have already begun to draw up such blueprints for plants. Up to now we have considered astrology to be superstition, a matter of blind faith. But if science draws up such blueprints, then it will in fact become astrology -- and science has certainly begun to draw up such blueprints. Astrology declares that if by divine grace we come to know the whole, then the future as such will not exist at all. But because we do not know the whole -- only a little fragment -- what we do not know becomes "the future." We are obliged to say, "Perhaps it may be like this," because much is unknown to us. If the whole were to be known then we could say, "It will be like this" -- and it will be exactly so. If everything is latent within the human seed, then it is only a matter of studying the seed. What I am talking about today must in some form have existed in my seed as a potentiality; otherwise, how can I talk about all this? If some day it becomes possible to observe a human seed, then after observing my seed, a blueprint could be drawn up indicating what I will say in this life, what I will become, what I will not become, what I will make of myself, what I will not make of myself, what will happen. All this could be forecast. It will not be surprising when tomorrow, if not today, we have the capacity to peep into the human seed. The first steps have already been taken in this direction. Birth charts and horoscopes are only for probing into all these matters. For thousands of years we have tried, when a child is born, to find out what will happen to him. If we could get some estimate, then perhaps we could make some arrangements, perhaps we could increase the child's opportunities. Then whatever is to happen, we could become accepting of it.

 Astrology investigates many things. To whatever is inevitable, it lends a cooperative hand. Whatever is to be, it does not madly struggle against. Whatever is not to be, it does not demand, does not reach out towards. Astrology was a means for making man religious -- for bringing him to suchness, for bringing him to an ultimate acceptance. It has many dimensions, it has many aspects. The universe is a living body, an organic unit. In it nothing is isolated, all is joined together. Whatever is far away is joined to that which is near -- nothing is separate. So no one should misunderstand this. No one is an isolated island, no one is aloof. Each is joined to the whole, and each one is all the time affecting the other and being affected by the other. Even when you pass by a stone lying on the road, it is throwing its vibrations in your direction. The flowers too are throwing out their vibrations. And you are not just passing by, you too are throwing out your vibrations. A tiny blade of grass has an impact on the sun, and the sun has its impact on the blade of grass. The blade of grass is not so tiny that the sun can say, "I do not care about you," nor is the sun so big that it can say, "What can this blade of grass do for me?" Life is joined together. Here nothing is big or small; everything is one organic unity. Life is a whole. If you can perceive this wholeness, only then will you understand astrology; otherwise you will not. Astrology is an aspect of spirituality, a dimension of spirituality. It is the science of wholeness, unity, nonduality.

The Secret of Shapes, Sounds and Fragrances

Suppose we have a key in our hands. We cannot directly understand the purpose of it from the key itself, nor is it possible to imagine from the key itself that a great treasure is likely to be revealed with its help. There is no hidden indication in the key regarding the treasure; the key itself is closed. Even if we break it or cut it into pieces, we may find the metal of which it is made, but we cannot learn anything about the hidden treasure which the key is capable of revealing. And whenever such a key is preserved for a long time, it only becomes a burden in our life.
In life there are many such keys which can open the doors of treasures even today, but unfortunately we neither know anything about those treasures nor about those locks which can be opened. When we do not know either about the treasures or the locks, then what is left in our hands cannot even be called a key. It can only be a key if it opens a lock. This same key may have revealed treasures some time in the past, but because today nothing can be unlocked, the key has become a burden. But even so, somehow we do not feel like throwing it away.

The key has left a sort of lingering fragrance in the unconscious mind of man. Maybe some four thousand years ago that key did open some locks, and treasures were found: the remembrance of that in the unconscious mind makes us carry the burden of that key to this day. However much one may be persuaded about the uselessness of the key, we cannot gather the courage to throw it away. In some unknown corner of the heart there still lingers the hope that some day some lock might be opened by it.

Take, for example, temples.... There is no sect on earth which has not built something like a temple -- it doesn't matter whether it is called a masjid or a church or a gurudwara. Today it is possible for us to learn something from other sects, but there was a time when we did not even know about the existence of other sects, so there was no way to learn from others. The temple is not the fanciful result of the imagination of some eccentric people, but its roots lie somewhere deep in the inner consciousness of man.

Man may have lived far away in a forest, or on a mountain, or in a cave, or on the bank of a river -- he may have lived anywhere for that matter -- but wherever he has lived man has built something resembling a temple. Something has come out of his consciousness. There is no blind imitation in it; they were not constructed by looking at other temples. So all temples have been of different shapes and types, but they have always existed.

There is a lot of difference between a temple and a masjid, their arrangement and planning are quite different from each other, but there is no difference in man's aspiration or inner urge. Man may be anywhere; however unfamiliar and unacquainted he is with others, he carries the same latent seed somewhere in his consciousness.

Another thing worth noting is that though thousands of years have passed and we have no clue about the locks or the hidden treasures, still we continue to carry strange keys as though under the spell of some lingering memory. Despite all the attacks on this -- reason tries to shatter it from all sides; the so-called modern intellectual doesn't accept it -- still the human heart treasures this memory and continues to be fascinated by it. So we ought to remember that though today man is not aware of it, yet somewhere in his unconscious there is a resounding echo which tells us that some locks once used to open.

Why is this stored in the unconscious? It is because none of us is new to this world. All of us are born again and again, and there was never a time when we did not exist. What we knew consciously in days past is now, today, unconscious, buried within us under thousands of layers as the unconscious. If in days past we knew the significance and deeper secrets of a temple and experienced the opening of some inner door, then somewhere in the deep recesses of the unconscious that memory still lies embedded. The intellect may totally deny its existence, but intellect cannot reach that depth where the memory is retained.

So despite all obstacles, despite its appearing meaningless in every way, this is something which persists, which can't be removed. It may take new forms, but it continues. This is only possible if we have known something an infinite number of times in our infinitely long journey of births and deaths -- though we may not remember it today.

Apart from having an outward use -- as a means to an end -- each of these things also have a deeper significance and purpose.

The universal appeal for making a temple is inherent only in man. Animals make their dwellings, and birds build nests, but they do not build temples. When distinguishing man from animals, one prominent feature is that man is a temple-making animal; no other animal makes temples. To provide some shelter for oneself is absolutely natural because it is done by every creature. Birds and animals do it, even small insects do it, but to build a house the divine is a distinctive feature of man.

Without man's having some deep awareness of the divine, a temple could not be built. Even if that awareness is later lost, the temple will still remain; and it is quite certain that it could not have been built without a deep experience of the divine.

You make a guest house because guests go on visiting you. If there were no guests, you wouldn't waste money on a guest house. But even though there may be no guests now, the guest house remains. So the whole idea of building temples or shrines for the divine must have been conceived of in such moments when the divine was not just a matter of imagination but a living reality for people. The very process of the incarnation of the divine on earth made it necessary to have special places in every nook and corner of the world which could serve as special abodes for him. To properly receive anything, adequate arrangements have to be made.

It can be understood this way.... Radio waves are passing by all around us, but they cannot be picked up without a radio receiver. Tomorrow, if there was a third world war and if all technology was destroyed but somehow a radio receiver was luckily left intact, you wouldn't want to throw it away. Though you know that you can't broadcast, or tune in to any program, or even find a technician to repair it, you wouldn't want to throw the radio away.

After several generations in your family, if anyone were to ask the use of the radio, none of your family members alive then would be able to reply. They might only say that their fathers and their forefathers were insistent on its being preserved, so they continue to keep it. Their forefathers never told them what it was for, they don't know its use and so it is of no help to them; even if that radio is dismantled nothing could be known. By opening the radio it couldn't be known that some time in the past music and talks could be heard through it. The radio only used to act as a receiving station for some happening elsewhere, but it could pick up the waves and act as a medium to present them as sounds to listeners.

Exactly in the same manner, temples used to function as receptive instruments.

Though godliness is everywhere and human beings are also present everywhere, only in some specific circumstances within us do we become attuned to that godliness. So temples served as centers of receptivity to enable us to feel the divine existence, godliness, spiritual elevation. The whole arrangement in temples was motivated with this end in view. Different types of people thought up various arrangements, but that is not of much consequence. It makes no difference if various manufacturers produce radios incorporating their own specialities, with different shapes and forms, as long as the ultimate purpose is the same.

The temples in India were mostly constructed from one of three or four patterns; other temples were just copies of these. The domes of the temples were based on the model of the sky. There was an underlying purpose to this. If I sit under the open sky and repeat "Aum," my voice will get lost, because the strength of an individual voice will be enveloped by the vastness of the sky. I will not be able to hear the reverberation, the echo of my chanting -- all my prayers will get lost in the vastness of the sky.

Domes were constructed so that the resonance of our prayers can rebound on us. The dome is just a small, semicircular prototype of the sky. It has the same shape as the sky touching the earth on all four sides. Whatever prayers or chantings are made under its canopy will not get lost as they would in the vast sky, because the dome will throw them back towards the supplicant. The rounder the dome, the easier it is for the sound to travel back, and its echo increases in the same proportion.

As time passed even stones were discovered which could multiply the resonance to a tremendous degree.

There is a Buddhist prayer hall in the Ajanta caves where the stones echo sound with the same intensity as that of the Indian musical instrument, the tabla. If we strike those stones with the same force as is used in playing the tabla, they will give out the same volume of sound. Ordinary stones used in the construction of domes do not possess the capacity to echo certain very subtle sounds, and so that specific type of stone was employed.

What is the purpose behind all this? The purpose is that when anyone chants "Aum," and it is done very intensely, the dome of the temple makes the sound reverberate, forming a circle of the chanting or sound. The dome of the temple, by the very nature of its design, helps in the formation of a circle by echoing the sound. Such a sound circle is unique. If "Aum" is chanted under the wide open sky, no sound circle will be formed, and you will never experience that joy.

When the formation of the circle happens, you don't remain just a humble supplicant before the divine, but you become a recipient -- that is to say, the one whose prayers are answered. And with that resonance, the divine experience begins to enter you. Although the sound produced in the chanting is human, when it is echoed it resounds with a new speed, and as it is imbibed, other potentialities are released.

The dome-shaped temples were used to form sound circles through the chanting of mantras. If one does the chanting sitting all alone in perfect peace and silence, then as soon as the sound circle is formed, thoughts will stop. On one side the circle is formed, and on the other, thoughts come to a stop. As I have often said, a circle of energy is formed even in the act of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman, and when the formation of such a circle takes place -- that is the moment pointing toward superconsciousness.

Look at the statues of Buddha and Mahavira in padmasan or siddhasan. These indicate other methods for the formation of such circles. When we sit putting both our feet together and our hands on our legs, then the whole body begins to act as a circle. Then the body electricity cannot escape, and a circuit is created. As soon as the circuit is created, one becomes thoughtless. If we use the language of an electrical engineer, it could be said that the crowd of noisy thoughts within the mind is because of our not creating a circuit of inner electricity. As soon as the circuit is created the inner energy becomes balanced and silent. So, creating a circle of energy with the help of the temple's dome was a great process, and this was its purpose and deep significance.

We find big bells or gongs at the entrance of temples, and these serve the same purpose. When you chant "Aum," although you may be doing so very quietly and your attention may be elsewhere, the sound of the bell will instantly bring your attention back to the circle of sound created by the vibrating bell. It is just like when a stone is thrown into a pond, creating ripple upon ripple.

In Tibetan temples instead of a bell or gong they keep a bowl-shaped vessel made from various metals, and a wooden stick to revolve inside it. The stick is rotated within the vessel seven times, and then it is struck once on the bowl with a loud bang. The vibrations created in the bowl produce a sound like, "Mani padme hum" -- the whole mantra. The bowl echoes the sound, "Mani padme hum," not once, but seven times. Turn the stick inside the bowl rapidly, seven times, strike the bowl and then take the stick out -- and then you will hear the echo of the mantra, "Mani padme hum," seven times. Though the sound will gradually become softer and softer, it will be heard seven times.

Similarly, in a domed temple create within yourself of the mantra, "Aum mani padme hum," and listen: the temple will echo it. Every cell of your body will receive the vibration and return it with a deeper resonance. After a few moments neither you nor the temple will be there -- only circles of energy will be left.

It should be remembered that sound is a subtle form of electricity. Now even science agrees with this. In fact, everything is a form of electricity. But the Indian sages go one step further and say that electricity is a form of sound, that sound is the base, not electricity. That is why they call the supreme being shabda-brahma -- "sound is the ultimate reality."

There is now a great similarity of approach between Eastern thinkers and modern scientists, the only difference being over which of the two is primary. The scientist says that electricity is primary, whereas the sage says that density of sound produces electricity. This means that in the near future science will have to research the absolute aspect of sound.

The sage's understanding stems from the experience of the sounds produced under the dome of a temple. When the intense sound of "Aum" is created in a temple by a devotee, within a few minutes he feels that neither he nor the temple is there, but only electricity remains. This conclusion is not reached in any laboratory -- those who made such declarations had no laboratories, their temple served as their only laboratory. There they experienced that although they started with sound, what remained in the end was electricity.

To experience this transformation of sound, dome-shaped temples were made.

When Westerners saw Indian temples for the first time, they thought they were very unhygienic. By the very nature of their conception the temples could not have many doors and windows. There could only be one door, and that too was very small. The idea behind this was to ensure that the circle of sound being created in the temple didn't become obstructed. It is no wonder then that those Westerners went away with the impression that the temples were dingy, dark and dirty, and that even fresh air could not enter them. By comparison, their own churches were airy and clean and had many big doors and windows through which light and fresh air could easily enter and keep them hygienic.

I have told you earlier that when the secret of using a key is forgotten, all sorts of difficulties crop up. Today not one person in India will be able to say why temples were not provided with windows and many doors. So when asked we also felt inclined to agree that our temples are unhygienic; no one could argue that in these temples lived the most healthy people and that no disease had been allowed to enter. The people who used to pray and worship there happened to be some of the healthiest people, in the true sense of the term.

Why? Slowly it began to be realized that the sound produced by the chanting of "Aum" has a unique purifying effect. There are certain sounds which have a purifying effect, and there are others which contaminate. Some particular sounds act as deterrents for diseases, and there are others which invite disease. The whole science of sound, however, is lost.

Those who have said that sound is the absolute being have said the ultimate that can be said about sound. There is no experience greater than the absolute being, and they had not known anything deeper than sound which they could use to express themselves.
All the melodies and modes and their modifications are born in the East. These are the extensions of the experiences of the absolute being in the form of sound. Musical compositions, as well as all dance forms, originated in temples and later on developed elsewhere as specific arts. It was only in the temple that a devotee experienced the effects of sound in its innumerable variations -- so many that it is difficult to keep any count.

Just forty years ago there lived a recluse in Varanasi called Vishuddhananda. He gave hundreds of demonstrations to prove that through some special sound it is possible to kill somebody. This sadhu used to sit under a dome in a temple, a temple which could be said to be utterly unhygienic according to modern terminology. For the first time, in the presence of three doctors from England, an experiment was carried out. The doctors took a sparrow into the temple with them. Vishuddhananda made certain sounds: the sparrow fluttered about for a while and then fell dead. The doctors examined it and pronounced it dead. Then Vishuddhananda made some other sounds: he sparrow came back to life and began fluttering about again. Then it was realized for the first time that the impact of sound can produce specific effects.

Now we readily accept that certain effects are produced by certain sounds because science can prove it. We now say that if a particular light ray falls on your body, it will bring particular results; if a specific medicine is administered to a patient, it will produce specific results; if special colors are used, they bring about special effects. Why then shouldn't special sounds cause certain effects?

Now there are some laboratories in the West which are actively engaged in investigating the relationship between sound and life, and two or three laboratories have arrived at conclusions of deep significance.

In two laboratories scientists succeeded in proving that special sounds can produce more milk in lactating mothers. Through certain sounds plants can be made to blossom within two months instead of the usual six months. And cows yield double the quantity of milk if soft music is played at the time of milking. All the dairies in Russia today employ this latest method at the time of milking. And the day is not far off when all fruits and vegetables will be grown with the help of special sounds. Demonstrations have already been made in laboratories, and it is only a matter of time until it is done on a broader scale. If fruit, vegetables and milk are influenced by sound, should not be influenced by sound.

Disease and health are dependent on special sound waves, so in the past people made hygienic arrangements in their temples which were not in any way dependent on air. They did not believe that only an abundant air supply lead to good health. Otherwise, it is inconceivable that over a period of five thousand years they could not hit upon the idea of proper ventilation in their places of worship.

The Indian recluse usually sits in caves where no light or air enters, or he sits in temples with small doors where one has to bend low to enter. There are some temples where you have to lie down and crawl in to enter; and there are even some temples one can enter only by chanting. In spite of this, there were no ill effects on the health of devotees. That is our experience over thousands of years. But when, under the influence of Westerners, we can began to doubt that for the first time, our temple doors were made bigger and windows were installed. We modernized the temples; but in doing so we converted them into ordinary houses.

The acoustics and the architecture of a temple have a deep connection.

There is a specific stipulation as to the angle at which a sound is to be made. There are stipulations for making a sound while standing and while sitting. It is even stipulated which sounds can be made only while lying down, because the impact of the sound will have a certain affect when made standing, and will change again when made while you are sitting down. It is also clarified which sounds should be made together and which are to be made separately. So it is interesting to note the confusion that was created when vedic literature was translated into Western languages.

Western languages emphasize the linguistic rather than the phonetic, whereas the vedic view gives more importance not so much to the meaning of the written or spoken word as to the special sound it should produce, and the composition of that sound. Hence the Sanskrit language is phonetic, not linguistic; the emphasis is more on the sound than on the word. And so, for thousands of years it was felt that these valuable scriptures should not be written down, because it was natural that no sooner would it be written down than the emphasis on sound would be lost. The insistence was that the knowledge be passed on by word of mouth, rather than in writing, because in writing words down -- they would be mere words, and the subtle sensations associated with the sound would be lost and so become meaningless.

If we write down the word Rama, those who are reading it will say the word in many different ways. Someone will put more emphasis on "r" and someone else, more emphasis on "a," and still somebody else will put more emphasis on "m." It will depend on the individual reader. So as soon as a word is written down, the effect of sound is destroyed. Now, to understand the effect of the sound of those words, a whole decoding exercise to pronounce the words correctly will have to be done. So for thousands of years there was a strong insistence on not writing down any scripture, because the ancient seers did not want the phonetic arrangement lost. The scripture had to be passed on to others directly by word of mouth, so scriptures were known as shrutis, meaning that which is learnt by listening.

What was passed down in the form of written books was never accepted as scripture. It was all scientifically based on the arrangement of sound. At some places the sound had to be soft, and at others it had to be loud. It was very difficult to write these words in script form. The day the scriptures were reduced to writing, the essential, inherent, original, inner arrangement of sound was lost. It was no longer necessary to understand only through listening. You can read a scripture -- it is available in the market. Now there is no relationship or relevance to sound.

It is important to note that the emphasis of the scriptures was never on the meaning. The emphasis on meaning became relevant later, when we reduced those scriptures to writing. If some thing written down has no meaning it will look insane, so meaning has necessarily to be given to the written word. There are still some parts of vedic lore where no meaning could be deciphered -- and these are the real parts, because they are totally phonetic. They do not convey any meaning.

For example, the question about the meaning of the Tibetan mantra, "Aum mani padme hum," does not arise because its significance is totally phonetic. Similarly, there is no question of any meaning in the mantra,"Aum," but it has a sound-based impact which creates a special effect. When a meditator repeats, "Aum mani padme hum," again and again, the sound affects the various chakras and they are activated. The question is not of the meaning, the significance concerns the sounds themselves. So the fact that the old scriptures did not lay any stress on the meaning, but on their utility -- the purpose for which they could be used and the benefits which could be derived from them -- deserves our special attention.

Buddha was once asked, "What is truth?" He replied, "Truth is that which can be used." The definition of truth is that which can be used. Science will define truth in the same way. Its definition will be pragmatic: Truth is that which can be made use of in life and which can be demonstrated.

If it is said that when hydrogen and oxygen are mixed, water is created, we don't care whether that statement is true or not; if we can see that water is made from mixing hydrogen and oxygen, it is true, otherwise not. The statement in itself has no validity, its validity is its utility. If it is possible to create water that way, it has to be proved by actual demonstration. Now science has adopted this definition of truth which religion accepted five thousand years ago. In religion utility was the test to verify a truth.

The mantra "Aum," has no meaning but it has utility; a temple has no meaning but it has utility. To make use of it is an art, and there is an inherent flow in all the arts which cannot be taught, but must be absorbed.

I have read that there was an emperor in China fifteen hundred years ago, who was very fond of meat -- so much so that he would have a cow or bull slaughtered right before his eyes. The same butcher slaughtered cattle in front of him regularly every morning for fifteen years. One day the emperor asked, "I haven't seen you sharpening your axe once in fifteen years. Doesn't its edge become blunt?"

The butcher replied, "No, Your Majesty, it doesn't. The edge becomes blunt only when the butcher is not an expert, if he does not know where to strike. The butcher must know where there are bones and joints, and then the axe can cut the animal in two with one blow. This art of cutting is passed on from one generation to the next. So not only does the edge not become blunt, it becomes sharper daily, with every fresh stroke."

The emperor asked the butcher to teach him the art.

The butcher replied, "It would be very difficult to. I have not learnt this art but imbibed it from watching my father since my early childhood. It wasn't taught to me, I absorbed the art through watching my father every day. Sometimes I would fetch the axe for him, and sometimes I would stack up the limbs of the animals. That was how I learnt the art. If you are ready to do the same -- standing beside me, sometimes handing over the axe to me and then putting it back, sometimes simply sitting and watching -- then perhaps you will learn the art. But I cannot teach it to you."

Science can be taught, but art has to be imbibed.

All these mantras have no meaning, but they have pragmatic value and we have made our children absorb them at a very early age. They used to learn the use of the temple without ever even being aware of what they had learnt. They would learn the art of entering a temple, how to sit there and how to make use of the sacred precincts. Whenever there was an emergency or any difficulties, they would run to the temple and then return home, having regained a balance and tranquility. Each morning they would go to the temple, because what they got there was not possible to find anywhere else. But all of this was not taught to them, they incorporated it at a very early stage in childhood. It was not taught to them but imbibed by them. Wherever there is art, it cannot be taught.

The effects of sound in the temple, and the temple itself, was an arrangement for experimentation. As long as the effect of the sound of a word was not understood, the whole experiment was meaningless.

For example, it was a convention that a mantra should only be given to a disciple by a master. The emphasis was on the mantra being recited by the master in the disciple's ear. You might have known the mantra for a long time, but still the master would whisper it in your ear.

You might wonder, "What is new in this? Couldn't I have done it without the master? Everybody knows how to repeat a mantra, and still this master has whispered it to me as if it is a great secret!" But what is to be understood is that when the master says it in the disciple's ear, he does it in a particular way, so as to emphasize certain sounds -- something which is not known to all. As a matter of fact there are various phonetic variations of "Ram" that have different effects.

We know the story of the sage Valmiki, but this tale has now lost its true significance and so seems rather childish. It is said that Valmiki was illiterate and a mere rustic. His master told him to repeat the mantra, "Rama, rama," but after some time he forgot and started chanting it in reverse, "Mara, mara" -- and became enlightened!

When the real keys to unravel such mysteries become lost, all sorts of troubles arise. The fact is that while chanting the mantra, "Rama, rama," after a period of time you automatically begin to chant, "Mara, mara," so creating a circuit. When "Rama, rama" is chanted quickly the chanting turns into "Mara, mara"; then it has the right phonetic emphasis. Then something unique happens: you cease to be, you are no more, and in that very moment when you cease to be or you die to your identity, the mantra becomes complete. That is the moment of real experience -- when you have ceased, your ego has died.

It is interesting to note that if this process is completed properly -- you will begin with the repetition of "Rama, rama," and very soon the moment will arise when you will be repeating, "Mara, mara" instead, and even if you want to say, "Rama," you will not be able to; your whole being will repeat, "Mara, mara".... At that moment you will die to yourself -- and that is the first step of meditation. When your dying to yourself is total, you will suddenly find that "Mara, mara" is beginning to revert to, "Rama, rama." When that "Rama, rama" begins from within you, without you doing it you will actually experience rama -- but not before that. In between, the transformation to "Mara" is essential.

So there are three parts to the mantra. Begin with "Rama," lose your identity in "Mara," and then the mantra will evolve into "Rama." The second step of "Mara" is the necessary part of the process; unless that happens in the middle, the real, ultimate rama experience in the third step won't happen. If you know the true phonetics and if you chant it properly -- if you lay stress on "ra" and less on "m," only then will "Rama" change into "Mara." When "m" has less emphasis, it becomes like a valley, and "r" becomes the crest, the highest peak. In your repeating the "m" of "rama" with less emphasis the transformation happens and very soon you will find that "m" becomes the peak and "r" becomes the valley. Then you are repeating, "Mara, mara" without your knowing it.

Like waves in the ocean, after every crest there is a valley. Like waves in the ocean, sound also has waves like a crescendo and diminuendo in music. Unless you are aware of the proper phonetic pronunciation, you can go on repeating a mantra but it will produce no results.

Whoever wrote this story about Valmiki repeating "Mara, mara" because he was illiterate and an ignorant rustic, is far from the truth. Valmiki was illiterate and a rustic, but in this particular instance he was quite clever. He knew the whole science of how to chant "Rama" to transform the sound into "Mara." Only after that intervening transformation will Rama be born. That "Rama" will not be the one spoken by you, because during that second step of "Mara" you cease to be. Who will repeat it? The real "Rama" that is born within you at the end of the second step will not be spoken by you but will be just a happening, in spite of you. It will happen automatically, it will not be your repetition.

The value of the shrutis -- meaning the scriptures that are heard or listened to -- is the phonetic emphasis. Only a person who knows the science of phonetics can pass on the knowledge of shruti; then only will it be useful. Otherwise the words will be the same as written in the book -- anybody can read them -- but the science will remain unknown. That science of sound -- its ascents and descents and the lengths of soundless intervals -- constitutes the whole mystery.

There used to be a complete scripture of mantras, and temples served as laboratories where they were tested. This was of great value for the seeker. The number of people experiencing god-realization within the precincts of temples has always been more than of those who have experienced it outside the temple. This has happened in spite of the fact that godliness is present outside the temples as much as inside.

eople like Mahavira, who had to experiment outside temples, had to find different methods, more painstaking than the ones used in temples. Mahavira had to spend years mastering many different types of postures so that he could create the circuit of energy within. He didn't want to use the help of the temple, but the alternative was a lengthy process of difficult practices which took years and which could only be accomplished by a man with the iron will of Mahavira.

Buddha also attained enlightenment without the help of a temple. But soon after the deaths of both Mahavira and Buddha temples had to be constructed because what a temple could offer to the ordinary man was not necessarily what was given by either Buddha or Mahavira. What Buddha and Mahavira advocated was not always possible for the common man to achieve.

Today, if we can fully understand the science of sound circuits we can invent better instruments than a temple. Now some research is already going on in this direction. It is possible to invent better instruments because now we know a lot about electricity. But such experiments can be dangerous too. Still, if properly scientific arrangements are set up, whatever help a temple used to give will be got from scientific technology, because the circle of energy that was created in a temple will now be created by some other method. Now, you can keep a small instrument in your pocket, which can activate an electric circuit within you. On that electronic instrument, you may even be able to store recorded sounds which may create circuits within you. Some research is presently in progress in this area in America.

Seven or eight scientists in America are now engaged in a fascinating study aimed at showing that all our experiences of pleasure and pain are nothing but electrical currents passing through some centers of the body.

For example, if your body is pricked all over with a needle, at some of those points you will not experience pain. There are a few dead spots in your body where you won't feel anything. If someone pricks your back at a dozen spots or so, three or four of those places will have no sensation. Exactly in the same way, there will be five or ten spots of great sensitivity where even the slightest pricking will cause a lot of pain.

Our head has many sensitive spots. There are millions of cells in the brain, and each one has a particular sensitivity. When you say you feel happy, electricity is flowing through one particular cell giving you a sense of happiness. Suppose you are sitting next to your beloved, holding her hand, and you say you are feeling happy. What is happening? If a scientist described this phenomenon, he would say that electricity is flowing through a particular center in your brain, and that it is only your past mental association with this person which makes you so happy in her presence. But you may not feel that happiness after two or three months, because if you use a certain center very often, letting the electricity flow through it frequently, that cell becomes insensitive.

For example, if you repeatedly prick your foot at a particular spot with a thorn, the pain will become less and less. Tomorrow the pain will be less than today, and the day after that it will be even less. If you go on doing it, that spot will develop a knot which will become insensitive and will not feel any pain at all. People who play the sitar develop insensitive surface skin on their fingers. Then any amount of plucking on the instrument's strings does not make any difference; their fingers don't feel any pain.

So if you feel that your love has died after three or four months, or become less, it does not mean that your love was fragile, it only means that the point within you from where the feeling of happiness was coming has become insensitive because of frequent use. If she goes away for three or four months, when she returns she can make you feel happy again.

Scientists' experiments on mice are very revealing. They opened up the brain of a mouse, and a sort of window was kept open to observe what happens when a mouse is having sexual intercourse. The particular point through which the electric current was passing mouse ejaculated was marked. After that, that point was connected to an electrode, and the "window" was closed. The other end of the electrode was connected to a machine which can release a controlled amount of electricity. There was a switch, which could be operated by pressing it, which would release electricity -- the same intensity of electricity as flowed at the time of the mouse's ejaculation.

The mouse was taught how to operate the switch, and whenever it pressed it, the required amount of electricity was released by the machine, and that activated the point of the brain connected at the other end of the wire, giving the mouse the same pleasure as in sexual intercourse. The mouse felt very happy when it pressed the switch; it was so happy that it began to press the switch again and again. You will be surprised to know that the rat did not do anything else after that for the next twenty-four hours. It simply went on pushing the button -- six thousand times within each hour. It did not bother to eat or drink or sleep, but just kept pressing the switch until finally it collapsed, exhausted!

The scientist who was doing the experiment said that the mouse enjoyed the pleasure of sex so much -- more than it had ever done through intercourse, although it was not actually having intercourse but only experiencing sexual pleasure because of the electrical current released in its brain. The scientist claimed that very soon that same sensation would lose its charm for the mouse and become very ordinary.

The day we are able to connect the human brain to an electrode to receive the right electrical current at the right point, we will not be able to find anyone who will actually want to take part in sex -- because he gains practically nothing, and loses a lot of energy. He can have a small battery-operated device in his pocket, and whenever he wants to he can activate the sex center and experience the same joy as in sexual intercourse. But this has its own dangers.

Once it is possible to locate the various centers in the brain for doubt or for anger and so on, those centers can be surgically removed. The center connected with rebellion can be disconnected and man will become very docile. The government can misuse such scientific achievements.

Scientists do not know it, but it may be that with the help of scientific instruments we can provide a milieu like that which exists in a temple. The experiences which took hours, months and years to obtain with sound effects in a temple can be more easily created with scientific instruments. So I am saying that the temple was based on a very scientific foundation, and through using the medium of sound, feelings of happiness, peace, love and bliss were aroused. And in the presence of those feelings your whole attitude towards life was transformed.

On the other hand, what the scientists might do might be full of great dangers. The main danger is that whatever science does becomes technological, and consciousness does not play a part in it. It may be possible, with the use of electrical instruments, to bring about the same state as is possible through being in a temple, but then real transformation of consciousness will not be possible. The heights of consciousness and transformation cannot happen that way; what a man can get by pressing a switch will not bring about any fundamental transformation.

So I do not see any possibility that such instruments will fulfill the need for temples.

You may wonder if temples can be used today in these changed times. Yes, it is possible, but the conventional orthodox priest who is in the temple today will not be able to explain what was happening and how, in temples in ancient times. He still has the key but he does not have any idea of the hidden secrets behind it. The whole philosophy and science of temples can still be of use today. And we can create better temples now because we have better building materials. We can set up a whole sound system in such a way that sound can be magnified a thousandfold. Walls can be made that are so sensitive that if you chant the mantra "Aum" once, the walls will echo it thousands of times.

Today we have better instruments, but we should know the key which unlocks the secrets of our being.

In the old days there had to be at least one door in a temple, but now we can build a temple without any doors. In the old days generally the people who built the temples were living in houses like huts, made of cow-dung and clay. They did the best they could within their limitations, and what they did was great. Today we have wonderful technological skills, but we are not able to benefit from them.

So far we have been discussing the benefit of temples on those who entered them. But temples have their external significance and utility as well. So far we have discussed how a devotee would go into a temple and go deeper into meditation and prayer. But even a person just passing by a temple was also benefitted, though now that does not happen; today even those who go inside come out with nothing. But in those days the temple could help a person who had just been near it because those who were inside the temple were really doing something. Hundreds of devotees in the temple were activating special sound vibrations by which the whole atmosphere of the temple became charged. The temple was not just vibrating within, it was also vibrating outside, and spreading subtle waves outside as well. The whole environment became alive because the temple itself was alive.

The significance of a living temple was only this much. A living idol signified the same thing; they affected even those who had not come there for any particular benefit. A temple could only be called living if someone could pass by it casually and suddenly sense that the air had changed and the atmosphere had been transformed, even though he might not have known that there was a temple in the vicinity.

Suppose you are walking along a road on a dark night, and when you pass by a temple you experience some sudden change within you.... You were thinking of doing something wrong, and suddenly your thoughts change. You were thinking of killing someone, and suddenly you feel full of compassion. But this can happen only if the temple is charged. Every brick and stone of that temple, the doors and gates, should have become vibrant; then the whole temple will vibrate with sound.

A unique method is used to charge the bell that hangs in front of temples: whoever enters, rings the bell. He does it with total consciousness, not with a sleepy mind. When you ring the bell of a temple -- not half asleep but with alertness -- that creates a discontinuity in your thoughts, a sort of break in the chain of your thoughts, and you become aware of a changed atmosphere. There is a similarity between the sound of the bell and the sound of "Aum"; in fact there is some inner relationship. The sound of the bell continues charging the temple all the day long and the sound of "Aum" also charges the temple with its vibrations.

Many other things like that were made use of in the temple, they have their inner connections. It might be an earthen lamp filled with ghee, the burning of incense, or the use of sandalwood paste or flowers or any other fragrance -- all were related. It was not a question of a particular deity liking a specific flower, it was a question of the harmony of the temple. What type of sound and what type of fragrance was harmonious with the temple was decided through experiences. Only a certain flower with a certain fragrance which blended harmoniously with a certain sound was used; others with different fragrances were prohibited.

In a mosque only lobhan, benzoin oil creosote, could be used as incense, and dhoop and agarbatti incense in a temple. All these had their connections with sound. With the sound of "Allah," there is an inner harmony with the fragrance of lobhan. These links or connections were all discovered through the inner search for the ultimate; they were not found through any thinking process. I will tell you how this was done.

You may sit in a room where no lobhan has been burnt and repeat, "Allah" -- not just "Allah" but "Allahooh" with a special emphasis on "hoo." You will find that slowly that "Allah" sound disappears and automatically only "hoo" will go on being repeated. When this happens, suddenly you will find that your whole room is fragrant with the smell of lobhan. It was discovered that lobhan is similar to a substance that emanates from you. So lobhan is burnt in mosques with a view to helping people repeat "Hoo." Then the process is twofold: the emanation of the fragrance from within a person may take some time, but the same fragrance can initially be provided outwardly in the mosque. But the repetition of "Aum" can never bring about the fragrance of lobhan. This sound strikes another center which cannot produce this smell.

There are separate areas of fragrance within our body, and these are linked with our thoughts and feelings.

That is why Jainas believe that Mahavira's body never gave out any bad odor. His body had a certain fragrance, on the basis of which it was possible to recognize a tirthankara. In Mahavira's time, eight other people claimed to be tirthankaras, but this particular fragrance was not coming from them. None of them was less knowledgeable than Mahavira, they were of the same spiritual stature, but they were not practitioners of that system of spiritual discipline which produces this fragrance, so their claims were rejected.

Buddha also was in no way inferior to Mahavira. He was of the same caliber and state of consciousness as Mahavira, but because he was not following the same method as Mahavira, his body could not emit the same type of fragrance. That fragrance had also emanated from Parshwanath, a tirthankara who had died long before Mahavira's time. His contemporaries were still living and they confirmed that Mahavira's fragrance was similar to Parshwanath's. The ultimate result of a certain mantra process was that particular. The ultimate result of a certain mantra process was that particular fragrance.

This was a memory-based arrangement for determining the authenticity of a tirthankara. So though Mahavira never claimed that he was a tirthankara, he was readily proclaimed to be one. Makhkhali Goshal, on the other hand, did make the claim but could not prove it. You may wonder at how fragrance was used as the criterion. The test had to be that deep and infallible -- words cannot be relied on. The whole individuality of that person should emit the special fragrance that would indicate that a certain flowering had happened within him, that the culmination of the mantra process which gives birth to a tirthankara had happened.

Makhkhali Goshal, Ajitkesh Kambal and Sanjay Vilethiputra were all claimants, were very knowledgeable, were of equal caliber to Mahavira -- each of them had thousands of followers who claimed that their master was a tirthankara -- but they all disappeared into oblivion. On the other hand, Mahavira was absolutely silent on this point and never made any claim. But in the end it was decided that only that person's body that omitted that particular fragrance could be a tirthankara.

Every mantra creates its own fragrance. Those who have practiced chanting "Aum" have known a certain fragrance. Similarly, every mantra produces a particular type of inner light. How much light should be provided in a temple was decided on the basis of that inner light -- neither more nor less. The ignorance of those who sit under dazzling electric lights in temples is simply amazing. They are not needed at all, because only that much light is needed as is within the inner sky -- a very soft and inoffensive light. So a ghee lamp was used because it is not at all offensive and does not dazzle the eyes.

It may not be easy to understand the difference between a kerosene light and the ghee light because we have never experimented with meditating on light. Light a lamp filled with kerosene oil and concentrate on the flame for one hour: your eyes will start burning and become tired and painful. Then light another lamp with ghee in it, and concentrate on that flame for one hour: your eyes will feel cooler and soothed. The inner experiences of thousands of people revealed all this, and parallels were found which became external aids. Of course, it is not possible to provide a lamp exactly the same as the inner light, so only the most approximate was found. The exact fragrance which is produced within you after chanting a particular mantra cannot be found outside, so we have to be content with the nearest approximation.

Sandalwood paste became popular in all temples. The place on the forehead where the sandalwood paste is applied is called the agyna chakra in Yoga. Practicing certain mantras produces an inner experience of sandalwood perfume, but the source of that fragrance is the agya chakra. Whenever the third eye experience intensifies, the sandalwood perfume is given out, so the sandalwood perfume has become symbolic of that experience, hence we apply sandalwood paste to the forehead. When the agya chakra emits this fragrance there is a sort of coolness felt, as if you have put a piece of ice on the third eye. There is a difference between cooling things and soothing things -- just the same as between a kerosene oil lamp and a lamp filled with ghee.

Ice is cold, but it is not balmy or soothing. The cooling sensation of ice lasts only a short while and is followed by a feeling of heat. Ice is certainly cold, but not soothing or balmy. The ultimate feeling is bound to be that of heat; you feel a little more hot than before. But sandalwood paste is balmy and not cold; it only soothes. Coolness has a kind of depth. If ice is put on the agya chakra it will only make the surface cold. If sandalwood is applied to the agya chakra you will feel that its soothing effect is seeping into deeper layers beyond the skin. The coolness has to penetrate to where the third eye is located.

Those who experienced the working of the agya chakra and felt its balmy effect looked for a parallel and found it in sandalwood paste. It has the same fragrance as that which emanates from within.

All these external aids are just parallels. And when a temple is equipped with them, it becomes charged. So there is a stipulation that no one should go to a temple without a bath. Taking a cold bath breaks one's mechanicalness and thought associations. Nobody was allowed to enter the temple without ringing the bell. And nobody was to go into the temple in old or dirty clothes; in fact silk clothes had to be worn when visiting a temple, because silk helps in generating body electricity and protecting it, so silk clothes always remain fresh, however much you wear them.

All these precautions and arrangements made the temple charged, and so anyone also just passing by was affected by the magnetic field of the temple.

It is said about Mahavira that within a certain radius around him -- wherever he might be -- it was impossible to commit any violence. It was his charged field, within which no violence was possible. He was like a walking temple, and within that sphere anything happening would suddenly be changed.

Teilhard de Chardin coined a new word, noosphere, in place of "atmosphere." Atmosphere means the external environment. Noosphere means the mental or psychological situation, and within that field, certain types of happenings do not take place at all.

In earlier days, schools were conducted by rishis. The surrounding atmosphere of the schools was considered pure, inviolable. If anything wrong happened among the disciples, the rishi punished himself, not them, because it meant that the field had lost its essential quality -- so the disciples couldn't be blamed. To reprimand them was futile; some untoward event only meant that the field had lost its sanctity. So the master himself would repent, undergo a fast and purify himself.

But this idea was misunderstood by Gandhi. Self-purification was not meant to be a way to reprove anyone else, it was not intended to put pressure on another person. The idea was not to torture oneself or to go on fasting to death to change someone else's heart or conscience. Gandhi didn't understand. The rishi was not purifying himself to change somebody else, he was doing it to recharge the field or purify the surroundings. If the thinking pattern is transformed, if the mental sphere is transformed, If the thinking pattern is transformed, if the mental sphere is transformed, the man living within it will also become transformed. There was no question of changing someone's conscience but of changing the surroundings and the magnetic field everybody carries around themselves.

People like Mahavira were like walking temples. Such people cannot be expected to stay permanently in one particular place. So we need something else, more stable, which can become the center of life for a whole town -- something around which the lives of people will go on being transformed. Around which the lives of people will go on being transformed. We need a place, a temple, where we make our daily offerings and receive something in return. We may not even be aware what is happening, everything happens by itself. Anyone passing by the temple received something invaluable. There was a huge magnetic field created around it, and just as an iron filing attracted by a magnet is caught in its magnetic field, so anyone passing by the temple would be attracted and influenced by its energy. The field of a temple was like that.

It is said about Moses that when he went to the mountain he saw a divine fire burning there. The whole bush was on fire, but in the middle of it there were some flowers in full bloom and green leaves. Moses had set out in search of God. He immediately stepped towards the bush and then suddenly heard a voice coming from it, saying, "You foolish man! Leave your shoes a few paces away before entering this bush!" There was no demarcation li undergrowth -- so Moses continued walking further, looking for the border where he could leave his shoes. When he crossed a certain point, he ceased to be Moses; something within him changed. Just outside the border he left his shoes, entered the field and prayed for forgiveness for desecrating that sacred place.

A temple has a charged field around it which is very vibrant, and that field had a helpful influence on the entire village. It is not a fiction; results were actually achieved. The characteristic simplicity, innocence and purity of Indian villages for thousands of years was more due to the charged field of the temples than to the villages themselves. However poor a village, the existence of a temple in it was absolutely necessary. Without a temple everything seemed chaotic, without a rhythm.

For thousands of years villages had a sort of sacredness, and there were great, invisible sources of that sacredness. The worst thing which could be done to destroy the Eastern culture was to destroy that charged field of the temples. With these vibrant temples destroyed, the entire Eastern culture crumbled. That is why today people are skeptical about the value of temples. Whoever has gone to school or college and has been taught only languages and logic -- who has only developed his intellect and his heart is closed -- never has any experience of the life of the temple. So temples are slowly losing their significance.

India cannot be India again until temples become alive again. The whole alchemy of India was in its temples; from its temples India received everything. There was a time when everything that happened in the life of a person was considered to be because of the temple. If he was sick he went to the temple, if he was unhappy he ran to the temple; even if he was happy he ran to the temple to give thanks. If something good happened in the family he went to the temple with fruits and flowers; if there were problems he would go to the temple to pray. For him the temple was all and everything. All his hopes, expectations and ambitions revolved around the temple. However poor he was, he kept the temple decorated with gold and silver and all sorts of jewels.

Today we think all that extravagance for the temple is mad. How stupid, when people are dying of hunger, that new temples are being built! Stop this! Make hospitals and schools; let the temples be opened up for refugees, let them be used. Because we have forgotten the real use of temples they have become useless. We think, "Why should gold and silver and jewels lie in temples when people are starving to death?" But it is worth remembering that only such hungry people have given the gold and diamonds to the temples; whatsoever they felt to be the most valuable, they gave to the temple, because whatsoever they had known of great value in their life, they learnt from the temple. There was nothing which would sufficiently repay their debt, so whatever they had they gave. Whatsoever was done was done for a reason, because nothing can continue for thousands of years without good reason. The invisible fruits of the temples' influence were continuously being received. There were clear and conscious benefits to being near a temple.

Man always forgets. Whatever is very high and of value we forget; whatever is trivial and commonplace we remember continually, twenty-four hours a day. We have to make an effort to remember God, but our desires and passions don't need to be remembered, they are there all the time. Going downhill is easy; going uphill is always difficult.

So the temple was built in the center of the village so that during the day one could go there as frequently as needed. It kept the search alive. Very few of us naturally remember what we are looking for; most of us only feel inspired when we actually see things. When there were no airplanes, we didn't have any desire to travel by airplane. Yes, someone like the Wright Brothers did dream of fly because they invented the airplane, but the ordinary person won't have such dreams unless he sees an airplane.

So when we could see godliness personified within the shape of a temple, something of godliness lingered on in our minds. This was especially so for people who could not visualize the unmanifest god. For those who could, there was no need for a temple. But in one way these people caused great harm to the temple because they said there was no use for temples and that they should be dispensed with.

I myself used to say that temples are useless, remove them; but slowly I began to realize that if temples are destroyed, how will those who can't visualize an unmanifest form of godliness be ever able even to think of godliness? From that angle sometimes difficulties do arise. If a person like Mahavira, who never needed a temple, speaks from his level of consciousness, he may want temples removed; but if he thinks about your need, he will stop saying so.

The temple remains a source of inspiration for the twenty-four hours of our day. You remember that there is one more door in life other than your shop or house, apart from your wife and wealth... a dimension which is neither part of the market nor of desires. It gives you neither wealth, nor fame, nor the satisfying of desires; the temple reminds you of that continuously. There are moments in life when you are tired of the marketplace, bored with your family: in such moments you can find harmony in the temple.

If the temple is destroyed then there is no other alternative. If you are tired of the food at home, you can go to a hotel or restaurant. If you are tired of the market, where will you go? The temple provides a different dimension, away from the world of give and take. So those who made temples like the marketplace have destroyed them. The temple is not a place for bargaining, it is a place for rest and relaxation, where, tired and exhausted from all your worldly activities you can find relief and peace. There are no conditions to enter the temple, the temple accepts you as you are. There does exist a place so simple that you are accepted as you are.

Many times you have become tired of the type of life you are living. At such times you might have felt the door to prayer open. And if even once the door opens then it can open again and again, even in your shop and your home. Whenever you want, that door should be easy for you to reach at any time -- because the moments that can be call truly great come rarely. It is not necessary to go on a pilgrimage, or in search of a Mahavira or Buddha. Such moments are too short-lived. There should be somewhere just near at hand which you can simply enter.

Childhood memories are very important. Scientists say that by the age of seven a child learns almost all the fundamentals; on that the superstructure of his knowledge is built. Very little that is new is added, but a of his knowledge is built. Very little that is new is added, but a few basic things can be added. If we are not able to form an association with the temple in the child's mind by the time he is seven then it becomes difficult, even impossible, to do so later. A lot of effort will be needed and then too the memory will only be superficial.

That is why we wanted the temple to be the child's first memory after birth. His surrounding were planned in such a way that he would grow up near the temple, gradually coming to know it and absorbing it in his life. The temple would become an integral part of his being, and when he entered the worldly life, the temple would have its own special place inside him because was to provide a retreat for him during all the hectic activities of his life. So we wanted the temple to have a place in his mind from his very birth; later on it would be difficult....

All those who lived in the vicinity of the temple had an impression of it imprinted on their minds. It went so deep into their unconscious that it was no longer a matter of thought but became a part of their being. So all the world over, the forms and shapes of temples may have differed, but the temple was indispensable.

Now in the world that is being shaped the temple is not considered indispensable; other things have taken that place -- schools, hospitals and position; other things have taken that place -- schools, hospitals and libraries. But they are very material and have no connection at all with the beyond. Instead, what is needed is something which indicates the transcendental. When we get up in the morning, we should hear the temple bells ringing; when we go to sleep at night, we should hear the religious songs from the temple.

There is an incident in Mahavira's life.... A thief was lying on his deathbed, and his son asked him to give him some final word of advice that would help him in his work. The thief said, "Don't have anything to do with a person called Mahavira. If you know he is in your village, run to another. If he passes your way on the road, hide somewhere on a side street. And if without realizing it you are somewhere where you can hear his words, close you beware of him!"

When the son asked him why he should be so afraid of Mahavira, his father told him not to argue: "Just listen to what I say. If you go near that man our business will be in danger and the family will starve."

What happens next is very interesting. The son of that thief always ran away from Mahavira, but one day he made a mistake. Mahavira was sitting silently in a mango grove, and, unknowingly, the thief's son happened to pass that way. Suddenly yyhavira started speaking. The thief heard half the sentence, closed his ears and ran. But he had already heard half the sentence, and that landed him in a lot of trouble.... He was being chased by the police -- the whole state police were after him for his thieving -- and after a few weeks he was eventually caught.

Thieving was in his family and so he was an expert in his trade. He was so clever that he never left behind any incriminating evidence. It was well known that he was a thief and had committed a lot of thefts; everybody knew about it, but there was no evidence. So there was no alternative but to make him confess.

He was made totally drunk and kept in such a state of intoxication that he remained unconscious for two or three days. When he did open his eyes again, he was still in a state of semi-consciousness. All around him he say beautiful women standing and he asked where he was. He was told that he had died, and that preparations were being made to take him either to heaven or hell. He was told that people were waiting for him to become conscious so that he could confess the sins he'd committed. If he did, he would be taken to heaven; otherwise he would be sent to hell. If he spoke the truth he would be saved.

He felt that now he should tell the truth and not lose the chance of going to heaven; now that he had died there was nothing to fear. But just at that moment he remembered that half-sentence he had heard Mahavira say. Mahavira had been talking about gods and ghosts. He had also hinted about the yamadoots, who take people to the worlds beyond death. The thief had heard him say that the toes of yamadoots are always inverted: he opened his eyes and saw that the feet of the people standing by him were normal, so he became alert. He now saw there was no need to confess. He saw through the trick, and said that he had not committed any sins; what could he confess? If they wanted they could take him to hell. But as he hadn't committed any sins, how could they? So they had to let him go.

He went running to Mahavira, fell at his feet, and asked him to complete the sentence which had saved him. When half of Mahavira's sentence had saved him, of how much more benefit would be the whole sentence! He said he was totally surrendered to Mahavira. Sometime or other he was bound to be caught and hanged but if he heard the rest of the sentence he might still be saved. So Mahavira used to say that even if half the sentence of an awakened one was heard, it could be useful one day.

Similarly, a man running past a temple, or just passing by casually, hears the sound vibrations coming from a temple or smells the fragrance of the place... and even that can be of help to him.