The world of imagination exists within the substance of the mind always in a state of creation. By seeing physical objects as reality, we can lose touch with the spiritual realm. Withdraw from the world of things; go within; unfold on the inner planes of consciousness. Physical bodies then begin to fade. Awareness is always awake flowing in the depths of the mind where all objects are sound, vibration and color. The quest is to flow awareness into the vastness of the Self God where awareness, aware of itself dissolves and merges into timelessness, causelessness, spacelessness, into Siva. Protect your inner life, live two thirds within; satsang with like minded good people. Wisdom and understanding will be resultant. Experience the unveiling grace of Lord Siva.

Master Course Trilogy, "Merging with Siva" Lessons 228, 229.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone; nice to see you all.

We are continuing in our "Merging with Siva" series. Chapter 33, The Human Aura, talk given in 1960.

"The Art of Seeing Auras

"The big question always arises, 'How do we know whether or not we are seeing an aura, or if it is just our imagination?' Actually, there is no such thing as imagination, according to the general use of the word. When we go within ourselves, we find that each thing that is so-called imagination, or 'in the world of image,' actually exists within the refined substance of the mind, and we are just becoming aware of it where it is imprinted in the vast internal substance of the mind. Only when we become aware of something that we imagine for a long enough period do we bring it out of the subtle areas of the mind and impress it upon the memory patterns of the physical brain. At that point we do not call it imagination. We begin to call it real. Finally, if we can bring it into physical manifestation, then we really begin to call it real. I suppose that this is the way man's individual awareness has become externalized, so that he looks at the external world as real and the internal, refined areas of the mind as being unreal or elusive. It was not always so, however, because with the absence of the things to externalize man's individual awareness, man is naturally within himself."

So my commentary:

Shows us a big challenge of modern society is that modern society is adding more and more things to the external world and most recently category, the most recently created category of things are in the realm of being digital which is kind of unlimited. So the ramification is, has been done on quite a large scale and therefore, there is a need to withdraw from the world of things on a regular basis to maintain the state of mind that is also focused on the spiritual realms within us. So, we just can't go along constantly involved in these external physical objects, digital objects, people etcetera without taking a break from it. Otherwise we lose touch with the spiritual realms within us, we get seriously externalized.

Back to the text:

"When awareness is within the very depths of the mind, so that color and light and sound are one and the same to him, he then looks at his fellow man from the inside out. He would first see the spine of someone he was looking at, and the lights within the spine, and then he would see the inner aura, then the outer aura of the individual, and last he would see the physical body. When awareness is externalized to the point where we see physical things as reality, then we see the physical body first, and have to strain to see the aura and the internal layers of consciousness.

"Go within yourself and all things will be unfolded to you on the inner planes of consciousness, as well as in the external states of mind. You will begin to see through them all. Seeing an aura is like seeing through someone. Their physical body begins to fade just a little bit, and we see where their awareness is flowing in the wonderful world of the mind.

"The colors around the person are first seen within your own mind. You would not clearly see them around their physical body. Later, after becoming adjusted to this new form of sight, you may see colors around an individual's physical body.

"Where do these colors come from? All things in the mind are sound and color. Look around you and observe each vibratory rate of every physical object as having a sound as well as a color. Everything is sound. Everything is color. Everything is shape. Therefore, in the refined areas of the mind, all things are color and all things are sound, recognizable through the sixth sense of the all-seeing eye. This faculty is always awake. You only have to learn how to be aware of and use it, in a similar way an artist must learn to distinguish with his physical eyes between one shade of color and another and between the dimensions in a painting."

So my commentary is:

This is a great meditation. Look around you and observe each vibratory rate of every physical object as having a sound as well as a color. Sounds very interesting to do.

Back to the text:

"The mystic learns how to use his already developed sixth sense, his third eye. It is used all the time, constantly, day in and day out, though not consciously. For example, someone may walk into your home. You look at him and say, 'You are not feeling very well today. You seem disturbed.' How do you know? Inside yourself you are seeing his aura. If he enters looking bright and shiny, you know how he feels inside because you see his aura.

"The spiritual path to realization of the Self, however, is not to see and analyze auras. The quest is to flow awareness through even the core of energy itself, into the vastness of the Self God, where awareness completely aware of itself, dissolves in its own essence, and merges into timelessness, into causelessness, into spacelessness, into Siva, beyond that still, still area of the mind. Yes, learning to read auras can be a hindrance on the path to enlightenment because one can become the center of attraction, for everybody wants to know what his aura looks like. The aura is constantly changing. To give a reading of a friend's aura would be like telling him what kind of clothes he is wearing. The next day, he may be wearing something different. Also, when you can see someone's aura, quite often you do not notice it. Generally if you do have this awakened inner perception of auras, you would only notice someone's aura if it were peculiarly dull or strongly radiant. A mystic who has control of this faculty does not generally see auras all of the time, but just when he wants to. But if a person's aura were outstanding in a certain way, naturally it would stand out clearly and be seen easily. And so, when we look into such an aura, we are actually looking into the area of the mind in which his individual awareness is traveling, for the mind is always totally in a state of creation with awareness flowing through the mind just as the traveler roams the world.

"The mystic has to caution himself not to become overly involved in the emotions of others. He must protect his inner life by living two-thirds within and only one-third in the external realms of consciousness. And he must be wise enough to know that each one has to walk either over or around all the boulders in his path. In other words, if you are around people who are not good, who have dark auras, who have deep-rooted subconscious areas that represent a lot of black, gray, red, green blobs hidden in the psychic nerve currents of their chest, and you are not quite out of that area yourself, the vibratory rate of those people will draw you back into those areas of the mind. That is why those who live the contemplative life like to be among themselves. They like to be with people of the same lifestyle. It is extremely necessary to surround yourself with a good environment to make progress on the spiritual path past a certain point. You can meditate a little bit to move awareness into a peaceful area of the mind or get a little burst of inner light, or practice breathing and have a healthier body and a sound nerve system. But if you really want to go deep within toward your goal, you have to move awareness, physical body, emotional body, mental body, in with a group of people that are thinking along the same lines and living the same lifestyle. The group helps the individual and the individual helps the group."

So, commentary is my traditional story on this area. Every now and then I get an email from someone who says something like this: Recently I just started doing sadhana again and I haven't been doing it for quite a while, a number of years. But now I'm doing it again. What do you suggest?

What do you think I suggest? I suggest something in the spirit of the group helps the individual, that this person find a satsang group that meets regularly and participate in that because it's very hard to start up sadhana again after a few years of not doing it. And you really need the support of a group who's also doing sadhana in order to get your habit pattern re-established. And what do we have now? We have Zoom satsangs. Didn't used to have those, so not just us but other groups too have gone, gone into the Zoom world or other, or equivalents and hold regular satsangs. For example, we've participated in Yogaswami's Mahasamadhi event for one of the groups in Toronto. It's Jayanthi Nikhilanandhan's Yogaswami group. And she used to have them, before Covid she used to have the meeting on a Saturday or Sunday in the Richmond Hill Temple hall there in Toronto and get a small group. But because of Covid she went into the Zoom world and now she has people from all over the world, Europe and Australia, participating in a group so it's actually reaching a broader audience, being of more service because it has gone digital. So it's very interesting how satsangs have actually been strengthened I think because of the digital world.

Back to the text:

"The gift of psychic vision should be developed very gradually through the stages of sadhana. The veiling grace of Lord Siva is for very good reason. Some people are born with psychic sight and maintain it throughout their lifetime. As this faculty was developed in a prior birth, the wisdom and understanding of its proper use comes naturally to them. But more commonly, psychic sight develops slowly, almost imperceptibly, through an unbroken continuity of sadhana. Through the unveiling grace of Lord Siva we are allowed to see what needs to be seen at the proper time in our life when we can sustain the resultant reactions."

So you don't want to get into an inner realm if you're not able to sustain the resultant reactions. So that's why in the 60's and 70's Gurudeva was so outspoken against strong psychedelic drugs is it was doing that. It was awakening the psychic sight of individuals who weren't able to sustain the resultant reactions. Consequently the reaction to the experience was very disturbing to the natural life pattern.

"We often observe the facial expressions and body language of friends and strangers and thus learn the contents of their conscious and subconscious mind, and from this deduce how they are thinking and feeling. But much can be concealed if we see no deeper. For example, someone may be smiling when he is really feeling depressed. However, when we see with our astral vision, there is no mystery. When we peer into their subconscious mind, we see the colors of their moods and emotions that perhaps are not reflected in their faces. Yes, colors and auras do relate to the five states of mind, conscious, subconscious, sub of the subconscious, subsuperconscious and superconscious."

So, my comment is:

In other words, being able to see the aura of someone can help you understand the person's current state of mind and therefore communicate more effectively with him or her. So it can be a useful tool in addition to reading the meaning of gestures.

Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.