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1968 October 13th And 20th Kusc Fm Raqdio Mystical Insights 6 7pm

Understanding Audio Transcript

Recording structure

• [00:00] Opening remarks and introduction
• [13:34] Main address
• [41:28] Development of the main themes
• [01:01:49] Questions and closing discussion

Hover your cursor over the sentence to see the timestamp.

[00:00] Opening remarks and introduction

If you and your wife have been expecting a child for about six months, yes, it is so, that I was a swami, a renunciate, attired in a traditional orange cloth, he added politely. Pray inform me how you know of my affairs. When he heard about Kashi and the promise I had given, the astonished man believed my story. A male child of fair complexion will be born to you, I told him. He will have a broad face, with a cowlick atop his forehead.

His disposition will be notably spiritual. I felt certain that Kashi, that the child would bear these resemblances to Kashi. Later I visited the child whose parents had given him the old name of Kashi. Even in infancy, he was strikingly similar in appearance to my dear ranchi student. The child showed me an instantaneous affection. The attraction of the past awoke with redoubled intensity. Years later, the teenage boy wrote me during my stay in America. He explained his deep longing to follow the path of a renunciate.

I directed him. I directed him to a Himalayan master who accepted as a disciple the reborn Kashi. And Paramahansa Yogananda also gives a very interesting comment on the reincarnation cycle which man goes through. The astral world is a world which is a subtle, fine world which we all pass on to, our consciousness passes on to us, even as Evans Wentz states in his Tibetan Book of the Dead, which we will have some more excerpts from. Paramahansa Yogananda states here. that though many men after physical death remain in the astral world for five hundred or a thousand years, there is no invariable rule about the length of time between incarnations.

The man's allotted span in the physical or astral embodiment is karmically predetermined. Death and indeed sleep, the little deaths, are a mortal necessity, freeing the unenlightened man from being constantly haphazard by the sense-trials. a man is unable to reach his true self without the ability of the divine . karmically predetermined. As man's essential nature is spirit, he receives in sleep and in death certain revivifying reminders of his impropriety. The equilibrating law of karma, as expounded in the Hindu scriptures,

is that of action and reaction, cause and effect, sowing and reaping, as Manli Piyahol just heard in his record. In the course of natural righteousness, rita, each man by his thoughts and actions becomes the molder of his destiny. Whatever universal energy he himself, wisely or unwisely, has set in motion, must return to him at their starting point, like a circle inexorably completing itself. The world looks like a mathematical equation, which in turn, it balances itself.

Every secret is told, every crime is punished, every virtue is rewarded, every wrong redressed in silence and uncertainty. Emerson, in. An understanding of karma, as the law of justice underlying life's inequality, serves to free the human mind from resentment against God and man. So we can see from this story of Kashi that there are many different quotes relating to the evidence of reincarnation, especially ones that are so obvious. Another one, which Paramahansa Yogananda refers to,

many times, he published in a magazine, a magazine put out by the Self-Realization Fellowship, called Self-Realization Magazine, that was the March through April 1957 issue. The article was called Interesting Facts About Reincarnation. Here he speaks more on reincarnation and some interesting incidents. You may find that you have a strong affinity to certain foreign languages, and that you are able to learn them quickly,

Madame Gallaghersey, for example, amazed me with the quickness with which she learned many phrases in Bengali. A love of certain languages is a result of past life's association. You are attracted to German, or French, or Chinese, or Bengali, because you have spoken them before. In traveling, you begin to like certain scenes more than others. If some place stands out above all the rest in its attraction for you, you have probably been in that vicinity before.

So, by these various clues, you may discover certain general ideas about your past lives. From this point on, meditation can bring about a deeper knowledge of what you were before. So, by these various clues, we also can go to a certain place and recognize there are the scenes. But the people whom you once associated with in those scenes are gone. And sometimes you meet people who feel you knew before. With me, recognition has always been instant, especially of those that had been your disciples before. The following authentic case of remembrance of past life experience became world famous. A little girl born in a small village in India began inexplicably to pine away for a village in another part of India.

Her condition became so serious that a doctor advised that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that a doctor advised that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that a doctor advised that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that a doctor advised that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor.

Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor. Her condition became so serious that she be taken to a doctor.

although she had never been before to this age, and went directly to a certain home where she called a man by name, saying that he had been her brother in her previous life. Nor did she stop there. She explained that in her past incarnation she had hidden some gold pieces in a brick wall of the same house,

but that she had died without ever having told anyone about it. The little girl went to the place in the wall, and lo, there the gold pieces were still there. She described her clothes and how they had been packed away, and they were found to be exactly as she had said. Then she also, in the face of such evidence, she also said that

these things had come to her instantly the minute she had come into the room and were relayed to her exactly as a part of her own past memory, somehow jumping out from the subconscious to the real world. There is another case of a saint in India who went to a certain temple on a river bank

and said, My temple was near here. It is now in the river. Divers went down and found under the water a very old temple. This man had been in a previous life the saint to whom the temple had been dedicated. There are a great number of excerpts

which relate to reincarnation, but I think one of them, one of the most important, to the West, is that we realize that the doctrine of Christianity also propounded the belief in reincarnation. I have a quote of an excerpt

from the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Evans Wentz, the world's foremost leading Orientalist, who states that in the Christian church at Oregon, the people, the people of St. Clement of Alexandria, and the best informed

and most learned of the church fathers who held the doctrine of rebirth and karma to be Christian and against whom, 299 years after he was dead, excommunication was decreed by the exoteric church on account of his beliefs.

I said, But that there should be certain doctrines not made known to the multitude which are revealed after the exoteric ones have been taught is not a peculiarity of Christianity alone, but also of philosophic systems

in which certain truths are exoteric and others esoteric. From the Oregon Contra fills in Book 1, page 7. The Oregon was a sound Christian in this view, despite his condemnation as a heretic.

For the corrupt Second Council, Council of Constantinople, held by the exoteric church, is clear from sayings attributed to the founder of Christianity himself. Unto you, the chosen disciples, it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.

But unto them that are without, that is, the multitude, all these things are done in parables. But seeing that they may, seeing they may and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, Mark 4, verses 11 through 12.

So, Evans once finds many, many references to the fact of reincarnation. There is a beautiful representation of reincarnation in a recently brought out collected anthology called Reincarnation in East West Anthology

and it was compiled by Joseph Head and S. L. Cranston. It is put out by Quest Publishers and is a phenomenal thing. It can be bought from many of the books, stores in L.A. or it is published by the Theosophical Society in America.

From it I have a number of interesting quotes which relate to reincarnation. One of them, from which I think all of us will be interested, is Shakespeare. William Shakespeare states from his sonnet 59

the following, quote, If there be nothing new but that which is hath been before, how our brains are beguiled, which laboring for invention bear amidst the second person,

bearing of a former child, oh, that record with a backward look, even of five hundred courses of the sun, show me your image in some antique book. Since mind at first in character was done,

that I might see what the old world would say to this composed, closed wonder of your frame. Whether we are amended, or whether better they, or whether the revolution be the same, oh, sure, I am the wits of former days,

to subject words hath been given admiring praise. And again from King Henry VI, Act II, Scene III. No, no, I am but a shadow of myself. You are deceived. My substance is not there, for what you see

is but the smallest part, and with a whole frame here, it is of such spacious, lofty pitch, your words were not sufficient to contain it. And again from Mahatma Gandhi, in one of his letters to a disciple,

quote, The more I observe and study things, the more convinced I become that sorrow over separation and death is perhaps the greatest delusion. To realize that it is a delusion is to become free. There is no death,

no separation, no liberation of the substance, and yet the tragedy of it is that, though we love the friends for the substance we recognize in them, we deplore the destruction of the insubstantial that covers the substance for the time being.

Whereas real friendship should be used to reach the whole through the fragment. You seem to have got the proof for the moment. Let it abide forever. What you say about rebirth is sound. It is nature's kindness

that we do not remember past births. Where is the good either of knowing in detail the numberless births we have gone through? Life would be a burden if we carried such tremendous load of memories. A wise man deliberately forgets many things, even as a lawyer forgets the cases and their details as soon as they are disclosed.

Yes, death is but a sleep and a forgetting. Mother is slowly going. It will be well if the end comes soon. It is better to leave the body that one has outgrown. To wish to see the dearest ones as long as possible in the flesh

is a selfish desire, and it comes out of weakness or one of faith in the survival of the soul

[13:34] Main address

after the dissolution of the changes. True love consists in transferring itself from the body to the dweller within, and then necessarily realizing the oneness of all life-inhabiting numberless bodies before both death and birth are great mysteries.

If death is not a prelude to another life, the indeterminate period is a cruel mockery. There are so many quotes from the East West Anthology that it's hard to really try to choose which ones would be best for us

to discuss and go over. But I think that rebirth in its essence and the law of karma, which there is no true English equivalent of one word, but it states that all men are karmically determined and that their span is determined

by their own karma, and that they go through a series of incarnations, learning, as Manly Hall said, in a little red schoolhouse. I hope next week that we can discuss and investigate some more of the concepts

of Eastern philosophy, and go into detail more about the theory of reincarnation. Paramahansa Yogananda in his Autobiography of a Yogi relates the three worlds of existence, in which he explains that birth into one world

is death of that world into another, so that as though it seems of death in this world we are at that instant being born, and as many sages and seers have said, they have seen no difference between life and death. This is mystical information,

mystical insights, and I'm Dan Steffens. This is KUSC-FM in Los Angeles. Stay tuned for the Free University next on KUSC in conjunction with KRLA. From the University of Southern California, this is KUSC Los Angeles. East meets West.

I'm Dan Steffens, and this is Mystical Insights, a once-a-week program devoted to exploring the concepts of Eastern philosophy, unity of all religions, through the mystical perspective, and ways in which one may expand his consciousness through meditation techniques.

From time to time, we will interview various individuals from organizations such as Self-Realization Fellowship, the Vedanta Society of Southern California, the Philosophical Research Society, and the East-West Cultural Center. Hopefully, next week,

we'll add to our program the telephone talk line so that we can rap with some of you every week from then on. Tonight, we have another record by Manley Hall called The Guardian of Light, a mystical story relating to man's search

for the eternal. And this story is filled with symbologies which convey many deep meanings in life, and we will discuss after the record is over. Once in a little town whose name is no longer remembered, there lived a lonely one. Who had wandered in many lands

and among many people, searching for the answer to the riddle of life. He had prayed again and again to be entrusted with that light which alone can dispel the shadows from the hearts of men. He had asked to be tried,

to have the opportunity to prove his worth before his God and his fellow men. But the passing years left his soul in darkness and the truths his spirit longed for ever eluded his search. It chanced that on a certain evening

he wandered far away from the little home in the valley on the outskirts of that nameless village where he had taken up his abode. Above that valley, hidden among the hills, mighty mountains raised their heads to touch the deep blue of the sky.

Looking up he was amazed to see a little star of light shining out clearly from the highest point of the snow-capped ridge. At the same instant a voice within him whispered that he should climb to that lofty peak.

It told him that this little flame which flickered throughout the eventide was the light that he had sought in his pilgrimage through the world below. While he gazed upward his heart grew faint within him for great cliffs rose steeply from the valley.

Not even a bird could find space to build a nest on their precipitous walls. The tops of the mountains were white with a snow that never melted. Chilly glaciers glistened like precious stones. Even when the valley below

was parched and withered by the heated winds of summer. The pilgrim determined to ascend the mountain. And hour after hour trudged along his eyes fixed on the little light above. Drawing close to the foot of the cliff he discovered to his great joy

that a tiny path led up around the rocks. A twisting byway which could not be seen from below and which might never have been found had he not first resolved to climb the sheer precipices at any cost. Picking up a dead branch for a staff the pilgrim mounted slowly this broken path

around jagged rocks and over heaps of earth where the rains had caused the disintegrating cliffs to collapse upon the road. He soon realized that he was leaving the little village far below.

The distant lights of the hamlet gleamed brightly in the darkness while the purple shadows concealed in their misty depths the world that he had known. While climbing the wanderer kept looking to the top of the peak

where the lonely little light shone ever more brightly as he drew nearer to its gleaming heart. That the glowing spark would burn there was itself a miracle and the pilgrim could not help wondering what could be the source of the light

and what purpose it served. Surely, he reasoned, that is not a fire nor can it shine from the window of a house for no one can live on the top of this mountain with nothing but ice and snow and the chilly blasts of eternal winter. It's too lonely, too cold, too desolate.

Yet the beam is there. He rubbed his eyes. Can this be some trick of the imagination? he asked himself, looking again. Still the light shone. Day came and went. The second night found the pilgrim on a little plateau

where he rested at the edge of the snow line, contemplating the mountains which stood like hoary patriarchs raising their heads in adoration to their maker. Some rose far higher than others and he counted six of these great peaks

beside the one on the slope of which he stood. Amazement filled his heart for on the very top of each flickered a solitary flame. Many times in the years that had passed, the wanderer as a youth had climbed among these cliffs and scaled these mountains,

but never before had he seen those lights which gleamed like jewels in the diadems of kings. Filled with desire to solve the mystery, the wayfarer climbed the narrow path with renewed vigor, creeping along shelves of rock where one misstep would have meant destruction.

Cliffs towered above him and deep canyons yawned below. As he mounted higher, the air grew chilly and he could see snow among the crevices about him. The cold blast from the glaciers caused him to shiver and draw his garments more closely about him.

The light he sought grew ever brighter and now each footstep brought nearer the gleaming star that he had wandered so far to find. The pilgrim soon began to distinguish a solitary figure standing on the very crest of the highest glacier,

holding aloft a lighted lamp. Coming closer, he saw the form was that of an old man robed from head to foot in flowing garments, which the wind sweeping among the cliffs blew out in trails of white. His sandal feet were in the snow

and his head was bent forward as he leaned upon an ancient staff cut from some mystic tree, mayhap even from the tree of life itself. The traveler could see that the old man was weary for he swayed and seemed about to fall, but the arm holding the light never wavered.

In the lamp of old and tonished brass burned a mysterious flame and from that flickering light thousands of little rays like winged creatures streamed forth to disappear in the darkness of the great unknown. As the pilgrim watched, he realized that these rays

in an endless processional swept round the world. At last, breathless from his long climb, chilled by the darkness and cold, shrouded in a night that knew no day, with even the lights of the village screened from his view by a seething mass of clouds, the pilgrim reached the lonely figure.

Seeing the traveler approaching, the aged man raised his noble head, crowned with silver, and his great kindly eyes, second only in their brilliance to the light he carried, returned upon the pilgrim. My son,

he called in a deep mellow voice, what seekest thou here amid these mountain peaks in the darkness of such a night as this? The wanderer answered, I saw the light you held while I was down in the valley and have come to ascertain what it was.

The old man, gazing lovingly at his little lamp, replied, The light thou seest is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. The light I carry is the life of men.

In me thou seest one of those who hath dedicated his soul to the light. I am one of the silent watchers, who through the darkness of ignorance and the night of men hold aloft this beacon which showeth that God

still keepeth his trust with his children. There are but seven sparks which light the whole world. Under many names men worship them, and under many forms he honoureth them.

But know this, they are but lights held in the hands of the compassionate ones. Thou seest them gleaming through the darkness on yonder mountain peaks. What mountains are these

that surround us? asked the pilgrim. And why stand you here alone? These are the lofty mountains, the high places of the world, which are always concealed from the world below by clouds and mists,

answered the old man. We are the sleepless watchers of the destiny of worlds. We stand on these lofty mountains that all the world may have these sparks of life. My torch was lighted on the altar of Cosmos

and hath never gone out. I have stood here since the dawn of time, since these mountains rose from the darkness of chaos, faithful to these children of men whose eyes have discerned the mountain peaks

from whence cometh their light. Are you not lonely here amid the ice and snow? Yea, verily, answered the old man, a strange sad look in his eyes, we are ever alone. We are the seven watchers

through the nights of human ignorance. The compassionate sons of humanity are our lords and masters. Here through the ages we stand. We are the lonely ones, and these mountain tops

are our homes. But surely, Father, others will come to relieve your vigil that you may rest, and they will hold aloft your lamp. Alas, my son, for ages we have waited,

but none will hold our lights. But surely some come to help you, some climb these mountains. Yes, replied the keeper of the lamp, the path has been worn smooth by many feet. But when those who come here felt the cold chill of the night

on the mountain top, heard the sighs of the wind chilled by the breath of glaciers, they stayed but a little while. Then they drew the folds of their garments about them, and returned again to the valley below.

It is too cold, too lonely, too silent. There is no glory in carrying this light, no honor in the sight of men, no reward but the endless vigil. Few indeed will even try

to keep alight this solitary flame. The pilgrim thought for a few moments, his heart too full for words. At last he turned to the old man, saying, Father, let me hold your lamp. Let me keep aloft your beacon light, that those upon the other mountains

shall know that you have been true to your trust. The lonely one raised his head, and his great eyes gazed long and searchingly at the pilgrim. Then he pointed upward to the skies, where far above the mountain tops the orbs of heaven shone down

in silent glory, and the great procession of the stars marched on through the night in perpetual pageantry. The old sentinel spoke, his voice thrilling with an eloquence divine. Yonder, my son, thou seest the lamps

that light the heavens. Each distant spark that shines forth signifies the pact between the creator and his creation, that it has not been broken. When I have found someone

to carry my light, to stand in my place faithful and true, I will journey to the stars. From the corners of the heavens from the mystic arches of creation, voice is called. The fires upon the unnumbered altars

must be kept burning through the darkness of creation's sleep. When one of earth is found to bear this flame, then indeed do the children of the heavens rejoice, and the one who is freed goeth forth

to hold a greater light. The pilgrim said to him, and he said to him, The pilgrim bowed his head in thought, and at last, walking over to the lonely figure, humbly said, Father,

I will carry the light. My hand shall hold it aloft, for you are old and I am young. Give me the lamp. I swear that I will serve it and feed it with all the love and compassion of my soul.

The face of the aged man lit up for a moment. And he gave the lamp to the pilgrim. My blessings are with you, my son. For while thy spirit is willing, beware lest the flesh be weak.

For ages, no one but myself has held the light. Since first these mountains came, I alone have supported it, watched it, protected it. For if its flickering gleams die out,

with them fails the light in the souls of men. We have never broken faith with man, nor with one another. And through the dim ages that have passed, when even our names were used

to curse our brother, we silent seven have loved those who have betrayed us, served those who have denied us, and illumined those who have ridiculed us. Do thou likewise,

that thou art no longer one of earth? I go to other works. Slowly the white-robed figure turned, and walked away over the crunching snow, growing smaller and smaller in the distance.

The watching pilgrim saw the feeble figure with its flowing beard, leaning heavily upon its staff, reach the very edge of the great cliff that rose from the valley below, then the old man

glided off into the sky, and with one last wave of the hand, passed gradually from sight amidst the stars of the firmament. It seemed that the lights of heaven shone brighter as he vanished among them,

while the beacons on the mountain swayed and gleamed with a more glorious splendor. The pilgrim, filled with the radiance of his ideal, stood holding the lamp, his heart filled with purest sentiments

and noblest purposes. He felt the majesty and the power that comes to one of the guardians of creation. The greatest and grandest in his nature spoke. The unselfish purpose of his labor thrilled him

with life and hope. So he stood, the winds and the snows beating against him. Great rumblings and roarings as of avalanches shooting down the mountainside, the crackling of glaciers,

and the howl of wolves broke the silence of his vigil. The hours passed. His arm grew weary, and he too swayed upon his staff with fatigue.

But for reasons unknown he could not lower the light. His fingers seemed fastened which glowed steadily in spite of his trembling arm. The chill of the snow came upon him, which only those know

who have faced death amidst these silent, silvery wastes. A great fear by degrees invaded the heart of the pilgrim. Must he stand upon the mountaintop forever? Would that night never have an end?

Would the sun never shine again? The years rolled on, and ages were counted with the dead. But still the watcher, now old and grey himself, held the light

upon the mountaintop. But it was no longer with exultation in his heart, no longer for love of his task. His eyes were fixed longingly on the valleys below. His mind fashioned again and again

pictures of the things he had known. Smiling faces of those he had left behind forever kept forming in the reeling mist which eternally surrounded him. He had begun to feel what it was to be apart.

He was alone in a great silence, broken only by nature's sounds. He prayed that he might hear a human voice. His mind reeled. His brain grew hazy. And there was but one thought

He must leave that fearful place. He could not, would not, stand there through all eternity. He had not the strength to face the lonely, friendless ages which stretched out before him.

Slowly his agony consumed him until he raved at the very light he bore. Dying for friendship and love, solitary on the mountaintop, he cursed the very hours of war that had brought him into being.

Little by little the flame in his hand grew dim as the spark of truth in his own soul died until even the friendliness of its warming glow was denied him.

Yet he could not escape. He could not move. He must remain with his self-appointed task. He prayed unto God for mercy. He begged that the powers be with him. But still he stood there alone

in the fields of snow bearing aloft the light which grew feebler every day. At last the great despair seized him. The despair that many have felt. The helplessness.

The hopelessness without end. He pitied the lonely watcher whose place he had taken. He was conscious of the grey beard on his own cheek. He thought of the years of life which he felt were wasted. Then his eyes

turned to the other mountains on whose peaks the light still gleamed. And in spite of his great anguish his heart went out to them. Suddenly after what seemed an eternity his soul was filled with

joy and his life welled up again. For returning through the sky he saw the white robed form of the silent watcher. Like a drifting shadow of night the aged figure

walked across the arch of heaven and finally placed his sandaled foot upon the crunching snow of the mountain and staff in hand reached the side of the lonely one.

[41:28] Development of the main themes

My son through cosmos has come the call. Thou art not strong enough to carry the burden that thou wouldst. Too soon thou camest up the mountain but it is still within

thy power to choose. Wilt thou keep the light? Wilt thou be true to it through the ages? Oh father I cannot. It is so lonely nothing to think of, no one to talk to. If I

stay longer I shall go mad. Already my eyes have seen things not of earth, strange creatures, visions of delirium. The solitude, the silence, the darkness speaks to me with a thousand

tortured tongues. Oh God I cannot stay. Father take the light lest it go out. The old man grasped the lamp and as his fingers closed over its handle

the dying spark gleamed forth with renewed life while the rays streamed out again to every corner of the world. The broken hearted one relieved of his burden fell disconsolate

at the feet of the aged philosopher. A moment later he rose with one idea in his mind to escape from that terrible place. With his face between his hands half crazed with terror and despair

he rushed headlong down the mountain. He even feared to turn back and look at the light but at last he found courage to do so. And the tears came to his eyes as he saw the lonely figure of the silent watcher, his long

grey beard still lying upon his chest, his head bowed upon his staff, his right hand holding aloft the light of the world. Oh Father he sobbed. I would that I could stay.

Now I know what you have suffered. I know what the lonely ones have endured. I know the price that must be paid for the saviours of the world. But I cannot stay. I am not ready. I have not the understanding which would fill the emptiness

of my solitude. Turning he dashed half running half falling heedless of cliff and gully down into the mist that hid the world below. It seemed days before he reached the village he had left

but when he did so a cry burst from his lips. Happy faces no longer thronged the street. Laughing voices no longer rang. The hamlet was deserted. Only a heap of ruin remained.

So he wandered forth over hill and plain searching for those he had loved. But during the ages he had stood upon the mountain peak. All whom he had known had passed away. The things that to him had

once been dear were now but shams and follies. Although he had returned to the world he was not of the world. For his soul was still on the mountain top holding the light. For years he

searched but he could neither find the happiness he sought nor the mountain that touched the sky. He could not find the seven lights that gleamed from their ragged cliffs. Though now he played for them

as fervently as once he had begged to be freed from their service. At last upon a dusty roadway which for many years he had been traveling the lonely pilgrim sank to rise no more.

Broken in mind and body ages with sorrow and suffering the soul within at last waited liberation. A fellow wanderer on the great path found him there. The last spark

of light still gleaming faintly in the dying form. Brother whispered the pilgrim his eyes a far away look in them as he gazed into the darkness of the night. Can you see above you

seven lights shining in the sky on the crests of the eternal mountains? The wayfarer turned and looked. No I can see nothing he answered holding the dying form in his arms.

I can whispered the feeble voice. The expiring man held out his arms to the sky and half rising his faith illuminated with divine glory he cried out. Father Father

I come back to carry the light. Go again to the stars that call you with their beckoning lanterns in the sky. Tell them you need never return for this time I shall not fail.

The form sent back while somewhere on the crests of the mountains a spirit that at last had climbed the heights took again the light to hold it forever. Its rays bright

with the glory of his own unfolded soul. This is KUSC FM in Los Angeles. I hope you all enjoyed the record. It was done by Manley Hall. Manley Hall is the president founder of the

Philosophical Research Society with its headquarters at 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The society is a non-profit organization chartered under the educational code of the state of California dedicated to the dissemination

of useful knowledge in the fields of philosophy, comparative religion, and psychology. During his long and impressive career as a lecturer, author, and educator, Mr. Hall has always emphasized the practical aspects of religion and philosophy as they apply to the life

of the individual. In his work he restates for modern man those spiritual and ethical doctrines which have given to humanity its noblest ideals and most adequate codes of conduct. He believes that philosophy is a working tool to help man in the building of a firm

foundation under his dreams and purposes. In the record I hope to discuss a few of the symbologies contained in it. I think one of the first things that appears in the record that is significant is the path

which the lonely wanderer finds as he climbs a mountain. Although he is not conscious or aware of this path when he first resolves to climb the mountain. And this is significant in the fact that many of us even in any task in life are

trying to find a way and yet in the beginning when we first resolve to go to a certain goal and attain that goal, we do not know the exact path. But here he finds the path after he has

made his initial resolve and travels upward. The path is also strewn with rocks and obstacles and crevices and these perhaps indicate some kind

of karma or past action which is in his own way, which he has made for himself. And this we find many, many times on the path to the eternal. The path worn smooth by many as the

Master had mentioned is a very significant symbol in the fact that many times we'll find those who start a path and yet don't know how much it's going to get them involved with. And they find that they're not ready to get involved with that much.

Or else that it was too difficult at that time and they didn't have really the ability. Of course, both are related. Another thing is the seven lights on top of the seven mountains. And these are truly

symbolical of many of the scriptures contained in the world, especially in a mystical sense. The seven lights especially relate to actually the New Testament in a mystical interpretation in St. John's Revelation of the New Testament. They speak of the

seven golden candlesticks. The seven lights are also spoken of as the seven cerebrospinal centers of consciousness which guide man to cosmic consciousness. And these are as contained in the body according to yoga philosophy.

The loneliness which the Master declares is, I think, in a sense not so much that he is lonely in himself, but the fact that he is trying to describe to the man the lonely wonder at first

that this is a task which will not be easy. It will be something completely different from which he has been accustomed to. And it will be in a way a void of all the friendliness as he then understood it in the world and in his

village. But the findings of the wonder are of course in the end resolved into a positive philosophy and experience. But I think the loneliness for the Master himself was an expression also

in another interpretive level that it indicates the fact that so few are in this state of enlightenment as was the Buddha. And Ramakrishna of the Vedanta Society who formed

the Vedanta Society, Paramahansa Yogananda, all were declared to be avatars and their gurus and Sri Krishna of India. Of course, mystical philosophy always declares that the great illumined sages of the world are the ones who are the avatars. In other words, those are the ones

who have in a previous lifetime gained enlightenment and then have come back and to spread the message of enlightenment or convey enlightenment through their very presence. In fact, Buddha for many years never spoke

a word, but yet his disciples gained the state of enlightenment just because of his presence. The presence of an avatar many times transmits the vibrations, the very, very high vibrations of one who has freed his mind

from hang-ups, worries, various common little problems that we all deal with. I might also mention that we can find literally just hundreds of symbols in the record,

but I think I'll leave some of them up to you and maybe later on in another one of the shows we'll come back to it and discuss it again, and if, for those who don't hear the show this time, we'll relate some of the story of the record back to them. The symbology

also has many levels of interpretation and I think this is significant. Also, we can interpret it on a very mundane level or a very, very high absolute non-dualistic level. What you might say

an overused term today, which a lot of us denote with a negative feeling in our mind and a negative opinion is the high spiritual level. Manly Hall, I should mention again, does have a library which is vast and expansive

in the mystical and philosophical fields and it contains books from all over the world which have been collected throughout his years of traveling and are books which are in all languages

Chinese, Arabic Aramaic Greek Egyptian and he has, for instance, a Tibetan prayer wheel which is let's say about six feet tall

and is an ancient relic and you probably wouldn't see it any other place, but it's extremely interesting to note and ask them at the library, the library in there about it, its history and they also have many other

object art Zen woodblock carvings that have been printed paintings by Zen masters on silk for and they also exhibit these at various times

usually once a month the lectures given by Mr. Hall are given once a week on Sundays and his library is open to all during the week in the afternoons and anyone may visit the library and

examine any of the volumes for study, research or just for the basic idea that they're interested probably any subject that you would be interested would be there or religion or yoga and many of the magazines put out by various organizations

are also contained in the library I'd like to speak a little bit more tonight about the concept of karma this is something that I think that so many people tend to

think they understand, but many times it's not a true understanding of it this is what the Buddha always called false knowledge wrong knowledge and of course in one of the eight steps he always spoke of right knowledge I might mention that the

eight steps that Buddha had should not be confused with the eight steps of Patanjali's yoga aphorisms which are eight steps in certain practices in yoga and many times they are confused

karma is a Sanskrit word meaning action or deed the derivative is kri to act karma is a universal law which states that no action is produced without a cause and a reaction

this law appears to be strikingly similar to Newton's third law of motion but upon close inspection we find that as the rishis first did in India thousands of years ago that its application to man is universal, that is

it extends its influence into all of Maya when I say Maya I mean creation duality relativistic universe karma includes all actions when related to man that is their desires

their thoughts, feelings and the physical actions which we most of the time would think would only relate to that Newton's law in terms of rigid science only admits its application in a limited form in other words if we took an infinite chain of actions

and reactions and reactions and we sliced out a segment consisting of just one action then this would cause the next action not only this process would continue indefinitely

karma admits the preceding law but it also states that many of the actions especially those initiated by humans are not necessarily reactions from those just preceding them in other words we can describe karma

in a way of using nature nature we find plants flowers, trees they are all as a result of one small seed and this seed produces various growth

and action in the biological tree or even the animal or human being and so there is what you might say a time limit on this

which is imposed at the very second at the very instant the action or the karma is produced many people consider karma fatalistic and I have a very interesting article relating to this

and this was actually out of a magazine the Self-Realization Magazine that is from the organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1925 and they reviewed in an article

by a man who was the late leader of the Swami order in India analogous to what you might say the Western Pope but with very very different ideals

and concepts and the way they follow their lives and their philosophy it was basically dialogues that had been recorded between disciple

and the teacher and various other encounters which he had had with students and friends and statesmen here he speaks on karma and he is called the Acharya or the disciple

or the teacher the Acharya is the teacher it's another word for Guru the disciple approached his holiness for instruction saying that he was unable to solve the problem of conflict between fate and free will the Acharya pointed out that the disciple

was in error in conceiving of the two as separate fate is past karma free will is present both are really one that is both are karma though they may differ in the matter of time there can be no conflict

when they are really one his holiness went on to expound how fate may serve as a guide to present conduct then the disciple asks does your holiness then mean to say that we must resign ourselves to fate his holiness

certainly not on the other hand you must resign yourself to free will how can that be asked this disciple his holiness fate is the result of the past exercise of your free will by exercising your free will in the past

you brought on the result in fate i want you to wipe out your past record if it hurts you or add to it if you find it enjoyable in any case whether for acquiring more happiness or for reducing misery you have to exercise your free will

in the present disciple but the exercise of free will however directed very often fails to secure the desired result as fate steps in and nullifies the action of free will his holiness you are ignoring our definition of fate

it is not an extraneous and new thing that steps in to nullify your free will on the other hand

[01:01:49] Questions and closing discussion

it is already in yourself disciple it may be so but in its existence its existence is felt only when it comes into conflict with free will how can we possibly wipe out the past record when we do not know or have the means of knowing what it is

his holiness except to very few highly advanced souls the past certainly remains unknown but even our ignorance of it is very often an advantage to us for if we happen to know all the limitless varieties of results which we have accumulated by our actions

in this life and in the countless lives that have preceded it we would simply be staggered at the magnitude and number of such results and give up in despair any attempt to overcome or mitigate them even in this life forgetfulness is a boon

that the merciful infinite has been pleased to bestow on us so that we may not be burdened at any moment by all that has taken place in the past similarly the divine spark in us is ever bright with hope and makes it possible for us confidently to exercise our free will

it is not for us to belittle the significance of these two boons forgetfulness of the past and hope for the future disciple our ignorance of the past may be useful in not deterring the exercise of free will and hope may stimulate that exercise

all the same it cannot be denied that fate very often does prevent any obstacle in the way of such an exercise his holiness it is not quite correct to say that fate places obstacles in the way of free will on the other hand by seeming to oppose our efforts

it tells the extent of free will that is necessary now to exert in order to bring about the desired result ordinarily for the purpose of securing a single benefit a particular activity is prescribed but we do not know how intensively

or how repeatedly that activity has to be pursued or persisted in if we do not succeed in the first attempt we can easily deduce that in the past we had exercised our free will in just the opposite direction that the result of the past activity has first to be eliminated

and that our present effort must be proportionate to that in the past activity brought on by yourself by exercising your free will in the other direction therefore you must now exercise your free will with redoubled vigor and persistence to achieve your object

know yourself that in as much as the seeming obstacle was of your own making it certainly also is within your own competence to overcome it if you do not succeed even after this renewed effort there is no justification for despair for fate being but a creature

of your own free will can never be stronger than your own free will your failure only means that your present exercise of free will is not sufficient to counteract the result of the past exercise of it in other words

there is no question of a relative proportion between fate and free will as distinct factors in life the result the relative proportion is only as between the intensity of our past action and the intensity of our present action but even so

the relative intensity can be realized only at the end of our present effort in particular action it is always so in the case of everything that is or unseen for example a nail driven into a wooden pillar when you see it for the first time

you actually see say of an inch of it projecting out of the pillar the rest of it has gone into the wood and you cannot now see what exact length of the nail has been embedded in the wood that length therefore is unseen

so far as you are concerned beautifully varnished as the pillar is you do not know what the composition of the wood is or in which the nail is driven that also is unseen or adrishta now suppose you want to pull out that nail

can you tell me how many pulls will be necessary and how powerful each pull has to be disciple how can I fix the number of pulls now the number and the intensity of pulls depend upon the length that has gone into the wood His Holiness certainly so

and the length that has gone into the wood was not arbitrary but depended upon the number of strokes that drove it in and the intensity of such strokes the distance that the wood offered to them disciple it is so the number and intensity of pulls we have now

to give the nail depend therefore upon the number and intensity of the strokes that drove it in yes says the disciple His Holiness but the strokes that drove in the nail are now unseen and unseeable they relate to the past and are adrishta

disciple saying yes His Holiness do we desist from the attempt to pull out the nail simply because we happen to be ignorant of the length of the nail or in the wood or of the number and intensity of strokes that drove it in

or do we persist and persevere by increasing the number and intensity of our present efforts to pull it out certainly as practical men we adopt the latter course says the disciple His Holiness adopt the same course in every effort of yours exert yourself as much as you can

your will must succeed in the end I think this is an interesting excerpt from the book Dialogues with the Guru because it relates karma and to a

well known term fate and destroys all the what you would call wrong knowledge and substitutes right knowledge it clears up the semantic meaning and

the understanding of the term fate and then uses a practical example a concrete example which we can all visualize and see that of a nail and compares an abstract philosophy or idea which actually applies to everything we do in life

every action an interesting fact that is always good to discuss when we are speaking of karma is the fact that the avatars the ones who are avatar incidentally is the

Sanskrit word which means ava and tri comes from the two root derivatives which mean down to descend descend down and they mean literally down to descend from the infinite the absolute the taintless

and this is something which we have to really accept and cannot prove to ourselves unless we ourselves experience the state that they have and of course they have declared all of us are gods in the making

the avatar then is one who descends and has no karma of himself he acts but yet has no good or bad reactions in result to his actions upon the earth

Buddha was such a man Sri Krishna of which the Bhagavad Gita the Hindu scripture is about a discourse between the disciple Arjuna and the master Sri Krishna and also the fact that

Jesus was the man he was in a sense what the Easterners speak of as an avatar as the mystics speak of and the Christ principle of course is a completely different thing it's the concept of an infinite consciousness throughout the whole universe

I thought we might discuss one of the books that's of significant value and interest to all of you and for myself has been a great aid in understanding the Eastern scriptures

and that is the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda this book was written oh I guess about in the early 50s or late 40s the preface to the book is given by

W.Y. Evans Wentz he was the foremost renowned Orientalist and was in Tibet for many years he wrote the Tibetan Book of the Dead he wrote also the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines

and Tibet's great Yogi Milarepa here he talks and discusses the value of Yogananda's Autobiography and he says that it is greatly enhanced by the fact that it is one of the few books in English about the wise men of India

which have been written not by a journalist or by a foreigner but by one of their own race and training in short a book about yogis as an eye witness recountal of the extraordinary lives and powers of the modern Hindu saints

the book has importance both timely and timeless to its illustrious author who I have had the pleasure of knowing in both America and India may every reader render due appreciation and gratitude his unusual life document is certainly

one of the most revealing of the depths of the Hindu mind and heart the spiritual wealth of India ever to be published in the West and it has been my privilege to meet one of those sages whose life is herein narrated Sri Yukteswar Giri

a likeness of a venerable saint appeared as part of the frontispiece in my Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines it was at Puri in Orissa on the Bay of Bengal that I encountered Sri Yukteswar he was then the head of a quiet ashrama under the seashore there

and was chiefly occupied in the spiritual training of a group of youthful disciples he expressed keen interest in the welfare of the people of the United States and all of the Americas and of England too and questioned me about concerning the distant activities particularly those in California of his chief disciple Paramahansa Yogananda

whom he dearly loved and whom he had sent in 1920 as his emissary to the West I am glad indeed to be able to record this testimony to the high character and his holiness of Sri Yukteswar content to remain afar from the multitude

who gave himself unreservedly and in tranquility to that ideal life which Paramahansa Yogananda his disciple has now described for ages in the autobiography of the yogi Paramahansa describes his life some of the men he knew

Rabindranath Tagore winner of the world's Nobel Peace Prize for literature Mahatma Gandhi a disciple of Ramakrishna Master Mahasaya and Luther Burbank

one of his preeminent friends of science in the United States in establishing this work it has spread greatly all over the world and we can see the results of it today any of you can visit the Self-Realization Center down on the Hollywood and Edgemont

and it has services three times a week one on Thursday night at 8 o'clock and on Sunday in the regular Sunday service I hope you enjoyed Manly Hall's record and now I'd like to sign off the show with a little bit of music from

duets from India by Vidyalat Khan and Vismala Khan but before that I'd like to make an announcement that Yogacarya B'nai Narayan will give a lecture sponsored by the Forum for Student Awareness in Hancock Auditorium

on the 25th of October that's the Friday of this coming week and it will be at 1.15 all are invited by university students and students outside of the university I'd like to mention one last fact

that Paramahansa says and states in his latest magazine material science is more theoretical than true religion science is able to investigate for example the external nature

and behavior of the atom but the practice of meditation bestows omnipresence and is not only a once a week program tune in next week at 6 o'clock and we hope that we will have the phone lines open for a wrap show until then

this is Mystical Insights and I am Dan Steffens