We're all animals, basically human society is a Zoo. A free animal in a zoo is actually quite free, but when it lives in a cage its freedom is greatly restricted. Similarly, when it lives in human society, being still basically a wild animal, it is actually free to live according to its own nature. It can live in harmony with others. It can live in harmony with Nature. It can live in harmony with the Divine, but when imprisoned within the limits of human society, it loses all freedom. Let us imagine that we are children again, just born into the world, without any knowledge or experience whatsoever. We are like animals in the forest. We do not know anything about what is outside us; we do not know how to catch what there is to catch; we do not even know what there is to catch; we simply move about and attempt to satisfy our desires and cravings. That is how we move through life—uttering cries for food, for love, for other things which do not exist—thus causing pain and suffering to ourselves and to other people around us! And that is how we grow up, that is how we come out of childhood? No! That is not how children grow up or become adults. There is a great deal of difference between the life of a child and the life of an adult. To become an adult one must cease to be a child; one must grow beyond the needs and demands of the ordinary mind. And that is why, as I said, children are such a nuisance. They often represent what we most need to be rid of. That is why we say that children ought to be made to study. They ought to study mathematics and physics and chemistry and biology and so on: these sciences, which means pressure and demand and competition, afford them exactly the opportunity they need for developing themselves out of their childhood. This is what we mean by education—education, that is to say, learning through pressure and demand and competition. We all know how many children there are in the world who have never learnt anything at all! If instead of teaching them something useless—something which does not help them in their normal existence—we taught them something useful—science for example, then they would grow up much quicker than those who go to school or learn from books or from parents or lecture-rooms. Look, listen to all this, listen to all the noise that is going on in the world. Don’t take sides, don’t jump to any conclusions, but just listen. Don’t say one noise is better than another noise; they are all noises, so just listen first. And listen also to your own noise, your chattering, your wishes I want to be this and I don’t want to be that’—and find out what it means to listen. Find out, don’t be told. Discuss it with me and find out what it means first. Find out what it means to think, why you think, what is the background of your thinking. Watch yourself, but don’t become self-centered in that watching. Be tremendously concerned, in watching, about further enlargement of yourself and your consciousness. Be very watchful and alert and silent, but at the same time be intensely serious and attentive. And whatever the state of consciousness you are in, whatever the thought you may be thinking or feeling, whatever the mood you may be in, be careful not to obscure your consciousness. Whence comes all this noise? Where does it come from? It comes from the dark well of the unconscious mind. And man does not know what is down there. What he knows is only a small fraction of what is there. There is something much deeper than that which has come up and expressed itself on the surface, and that too is very much simpler and unspoiled than what we think we know. As I was saying, whenever we rise above our animal nature and become conscious,—not just conscious, but conscious at a much higher level than that which is normally called our consciousness—there come into our being thoughts from a different source from our normal thoughts. There are thoughts from another source, from a deeper source, from a broader source. In other words, if we keep on rising towards higher levels of consciousness, one after another, there will come a time when we find within us a place where things come into our awareness from another world—the world of the Spirit. Everything that moves us, all that attracts us or repels us—and it moves us not only in the physical field but also in the vital field and even beyond—all that moves us can be called a movement of grace or an influence from another being or being known as God or from another being known as Satan or Antichrist or whatever you please! There is no difference between them as far as it goes. But if you keep on rising towards higher levels you will find out as you go up, as you rise higher and higher—I have spoken to you about these things before—there comes into your mind other ideas and other thoughts which are not your normal thoughts: they have been given to you by a power which is beyond your normal self-consciousness. It is a power which seeks to lead you to a knowledge of the Divine beyond your normal self-consciousness; otherwise it would not seek to do so; it would descend upon your normal consciousness; it would put its own ideas into your mind; it would make such things appear before your eyes which are useful for its purpose and serve its purpose; but for human beings like yourself there must come always something else! You must know then that these supernal influences do not always enter into the mental field; they can enter into other realms also where they express themselves differently and differently because of their essence and origin. It is for this reason that I tell you, take care not to let yourself be guided by what you find in your mind, but rather let it be the guidance of the Divine. It makes no difference to you whether you follow after a mental guide or a Divine Guide. If you follow after the Divine Guide, you will not only gain, but your gain will be much bigger than if you follow after the human guide. You will gain much more than if you follow after the mind—for the mind has its tricks and devices and is full of trickery, it is full of dilettante, arbitrary opinions; but if you follow behind the Divine Guide, then there are no more dilettantes, no more opinions based upon your own ideas; everything becomes simple and transparent because behind all there is simplicity itself—benevolence itself,—the Will of the Divine,—a Power which does not leave us in doubt or hesitation or anything else. That is how we should proceed. THERE are many ways of escaping pain. You can escape pain by being an ascetic or becoming a saint or by engaging in some religious activity. Some people escape pain by resort to drugs or alcohol or whatever they happen to choose at the time. Others think that it is possible to avoid pain altogether. They think that there is no pain in the world; they say all is good and all is beautiful, and they are always happy. But I tell you that it is not possible to escape pain altogether. Try to learn how to avoid taking drugs, alcohol or whatever you like, but do not try to avoid suffering. You must take it; if necessary, you must even welcome it; only on the other hand, you must know how to do this. If you know how to avoid suffering then you will create more suffering for yourself than if you try to avoid it. If you know how to avoid suffering then you will be creating still more suffering for yourself than if you try to avoid it. And so with pleasure. You must know how not to take pleasure in it, but welcome it even when it comes. But without being disturbed by it. And so with any kind of suffering or pleasure, physical or mental. Up above there are states of consciousness which are beyond all these things that come into our mind or into our being—states of consciousness which are far beyond mental consciousness where everything is pure light, where everything is peace and harmony, where there is no trouble or misery or suffering at all! There are better ways of escaping pain than the way I am telling you here. But if you want to escape from your animal nature, if you want to escape from your environment in order to be in harmony with the Divine consciousness, I tell you very clearly: this is the thing to do. It may not be the easiest way for your body, but it is absolutely essential for your soul." EDUCATION is one of our greatest blessings today when everything else seems to be against us when everything else seems bent on making us fail in our duty towards society. It seems as if our whole education has been directed towards making us fail in our duty towards society and towards ourselves. It seems as if we have been made into mere machines and that we were taught only how to become machines and lose all our original nature. But the truth is that we were never taught how to become machines; we were taught how to become citizens of the world; we were taught how to become good citizens of the world. We were never taught how to become ignorant and useless beings who do not know what to do with their lives, who have no purpose in life or who have no real need of any purpose in life. We have been given a wonderful education that will make you a perfect citizen of the world, a perfect citizen of science and of humanity. I am not talking of a political ideal, but a human ideal. It is by such an education that one becomes a true man, a true woman, a true citizen, a true being. If you want to be great you must rise by such an education. But if you wish to be great something else is required, something else must be taught you: the science of the Spirit. And that is the only way that will secure for you a future which will not bring disaster on you or on mankind. You must know then that all happiness or all pleasure is a result of ignorance and egoism—the ego has taken possession of everything. All pleasures are harmful because they obscure your vision, they disable your vision. The same principles apply here as in the physical world: these principles must be applied on this higher level also, otherwise you will continue in your ignorance and pain and suffering and evil which come from ignorance and egoism. There is no doubt about it: there are many ways of escaping pain: there are many ways which succeed in sparing us from pain but fail to give us real joy or real pleasure or happiness for which we really long because these ways are always based upon ignorance and egoism; they are only means; they are not ends; they are not ideals leading us to what we really seek for,—what you call heaven or nirvana or whatever it may be called,—they are very good means but not ideals. A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. The wisdom of the sage is to investigate the world and its mysteries, and then to go and preach about it—not to become a teacher. If your desires are not extravagant, they will be granted. If you know how to be satisfied, you will never be miserable. The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned. When you understand what the problem is, the solution becomes easy. When you are content, you are happy. When you reach beyond yourself, you become the world. He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened. He who thinks great thoughts, often makes great errors. He who is contented is rich. He who follows virtue will never be poor. He who has lost his peace of mind is dead to the world. Oppression can indeed make one great. The Spirit is the only reality: the world and all the appearances of the world are but its play and shadow and mirror. Therefore in order to be happy you must let go of yourself and abandon yourself to that which is beyond all change and passing, which is always here and already has taken possession of us. To be perfectly free from attachment to desires and passions and desires, to be perfectly calm and detached from all these things, these things must be completely rejected; all this must be put away; we must not allow ourselves to be governed by them in any way. Then we will find ourselves having quite easily a life in harmony with the Divine, in accordance with His will: we shall find ourselves in a life full of joy and pleasure and peace and happiness, because our whole being is unified with that which is behind; because our whole being becomes one with that which is beyond,—a perfect unison,—the Divine Consciousness itself. All our desires will come down to nothingness like drops of water in a heavy shower; it will be like seas without a storm because there will no longer be any movement upon the surface of life, everything will have reached its goal or achieved its purpose, everything will have been fulfilled." IT IS a very interesting study, this law of attraction between two souls. It is said that there are souls which are mirrors of one another, souls that attract each other mutually without even knowing it, because they have been created for each other. In fact each soul has been created for itself alone: it has no need to attract or repel anybody or anything, it simply exists! But when two souls happen to meet together in their ignorance or forgetfulness or ignorance even, then a strange thing happens: it seems as if they were made for each other! The two souls automatically feel attracted towards one another, they feel a necessity to meet again and again though they do not know why they feel so attracted towards one another. They think they have found something special in each other which fills them with an inexhaustible desire for more meetings again and again. Now if two souls meet together not knowing each other but accidentally or by chance then one immediately feels that this meeting was meant for him by the Divine Grace: the soul sees clearly that this meeting was arranged by the Divine Grace for his own protection; he feels certain that if he does not keep it up he may not be able to keep out of danger; he may even lose his way or be killed or lose his health or die soon;