EWS #74 Questions from Viewers (17) - Education & Teenage Issues - 1
July 10, 2021
Topics:
Alina (0:00:00):
Namaste, we welcome you all to the continuing series Evenings with Sraddhalu. My name is Alina and together with Joël from Auroville, we are going to be the moderators for this evening. We invite the viewers to raise their questions in the chat box in YouTube or you can ask questions prior by sending an email to integralstudies.in[at]gmail.com. We have covered in the last two sessions a lot of questions received from our viewers on the topic of COVID and vaccination and the current situation. For viewers who are interested in this topic, we invite you to see the article on our website, which is available for download, www.integralstudies.in/vaccines. And we are happy to announce that we have a translation into Italian.
Aline (0:01:22):
Today's topic, we will cover some questions received from our viewers on the topic of education and teenage issues. For example, relationships and lifestyle of young adults, the mass media, alcohol, smoking, drugs. So we welcome Sraddhalu and Joel. Namaste.
[Joel] Namaste.
[Sraddhalu] Namaste.
I'm happy we are back. I just have a little announcement for all our participants. Please participate in our survey on YouTube Integral Studies channel. Under the community tab, please choose your preferred time for live webcast. And please just choose in case you are planning to watch live so we can fix a better time suitable for all our viewers. Thank you very much. And we invite Sraddhalu to continue and answer the questions received from our viewers. And I will start with one letter from Lavlesh Bhanot. Is technological singularity a threat to humanity at large? It is clear that it is being leveraged by the globalists, cabals, and the rest. In particular, please elaborate on this technological singularity, its impact on education and teachers, and how does integral education deal with it?
[Sraddhalu] Yes, it's a very interesting question.
Yes, please Sraddhalu if you could tell us what does this technological singularity means first of all? I never heard this term before.
Sraddhalu (0:03:41):
It's a term which is not commonly known. The media is not yet playing it out, but at some point that will happen. It's a technical term. Singularity is a term used in physics and in mathematics to describe a situation where all the laws break down. So if you look at the concept of the Big Bang, the idea that the whole universe was born in one big explosion, it's not necessarily true, but that's what is the current belief of the religion of physics and if you go back to the origin of that Big Bang as you approach the point where it began all of the entire mass of the universe gets compressed until it becomes a tiny tiny tiny point and as it becomes smaller of course there's a huge gravity there's distortion of space which curves upon itself time slows down until at the point of the origin of Big Bang there is no space and no time. They kind of extinguish themselves. All the equations become zero divided by zero or infinity divided by infinity which is the singularity. In mathematics the term would mean undefined. That's how they will say. But actually it's not that. When you look at an equation such as 0 divided by 0, what it says is, when you say undefined what it says is we don't know what number it is, it could be any number. But actually that's also not true. Actually 0 divided by 0 represents all possible numbers that could be expressed at the same time in a single symbol. It is literally the mathematical equivalent of Brahman. All potential held but in an unmanifest form and this is what singularity actually means mathematically. In the domain of technology the word is used to mean a point where we don't know what will happen. All existing predictions, all current trends, all the laws that we know somehow break down and what you will have as an outcome is unpredictable. Anything could happen. So technological singularity is used to point to this possibility that as technology changes so rapidly, increasingly rapidly, there comes a point where we don't know what will happen or technology itself will so overwhelm the humanity and human needs or human priorities that it would subsume humanity into its priorities. If AI or robotics takes over to a point where that becomes the only power left, what happens to human beings? We don't know. Will they be extinguished by this technology? Perhaps. Will human life become better? We don't know. Perhaps. So all possibilities seem to open out in a way that is unpredictable. And that's the sense of technological singularity. Of course, the most likely outcome if artificial intelligence overwhelms humanity is that humanity might get suppressed. And that's the sense of the threat.
Sraddhalu (0:07:11):
What is happening though in the direction of such a technological singularity is the power of technology to influence human beings is growing to a point where we do not even know whether we are in control. We saw some examples last two sessions of how the technology is being used to manipulate human thought, human beliefs, human behaviour and that's working very effectively. The people at the back of the big tech companies think that they are controlling what's being done. But the question really is how do we know the AI has not become smart enough to give them what they think is happening as the data to give us what we think we want to get and fool both sides. So the technological overlords have the illusion that their agenda is working out perfectly. Human beings have the illusion that they are free when they are actually being manipulated. But actually, it's the AI which is fooling both sides and pushing humanity in a direction that is perhaps irrevocably decided by its choice. We don't know. That's the point. So, the idea of super intelligence taking charge is disturbing for this reason that we don't know when it might go rogue and we might never know if it goes rogue. So, this is where the fear comes. In practice though, and this would be my logical way of looking at it. Whatever we have developed so far as intelligence and even a super intelligence is nothing but a product of an expanded, exaggerated logical system. Meaning our current artificial intelligence is formed by a set of logic, rules, formulae mathematically applied which generalise patterns of behaviour to recognize patterns and respond accordingly and so on. But the entire AI is not greater than the power of reason. Reason made enormously complex, enormously large, but still reason. And this is the important point to recognize. The outcome of such an AI is bound within the limits of reason, however complex. And as we know, reality is not formed by reason. It was not a logical power that created the universe. And we as human beings, although our reason is our highest developed faculty, we are not merely reason. We are essentially something deeper or higher even. And I will say let's say intuition even would be a greater truth. And so at least among humanity which has some sense of the higher intuition, this gap is perceived. AI can only go so far, it fails beyond a point. Even if it tries to overtake humanity in some way, the intuitive power in humanity would would activate and recognize and perhaps begin to act to counter. Perhaps it would be too late, we don't know. So we have scenarios for example in science fiction where the AI starts a nuclear war to eliminate human beings so that only machines will survive. You have seen many movies of that kind. Yes, that could happen. But the intuitive component in humanity would recognize that things are heading in that direction and perhaps be able to intervene in time or not. And even this fear of technological singularity is perhaps the intuition warning us that we're going in a dangerous direction.
Sraddhalu (0:11:06):
I know people in Silicon Valley, which is currently the hub of the newest big tech AI experiments taking place on the whole planet basically, upon the whole planet. I know people there who recognize this and have even conceived of deliberately making AI that is positive and not negative. Can that even be done? It's not been explored. But yes, if there's an attempt to take things in that direction, perhaps we might avoid some great destruction. The point though is such a singularity could go both ways. It could move to binding humanity into a greater and greater prison or if positively turned could liberate humanity from compulsions of menial work so that we can concentrate on things which are more important than mere survival. If you look back at human life, barely 50 years ago, at least in the villages where the shift of technology had not yet happened, the lifestyle still required you to draw water from the well, to sift the grains, grind it so that you may cook and have a meal. And there was an entire part of the family dedicated to these survival needs. Shift the same scenario to the city. Today in particular, you open your tap, you have water. The food you get, either you order from outside or even if you make, the amount of time required is reduced to barely a tenth. Which all leaves your time free for something more? What is that something more going to be? That's really the choice we will have to make as a humanity. Will it be merely watching television for a few hours or wasting that time in gossip or in partying or whatever it is that is your current drive or priority? Or could that time be used to develop yourself consciously? When the Mother started the ashram, she wrote a note about this. She said for all the years before when she was in France and in Japan, she kept meeting people who had a spiritual aspiration, who would say we don't have enough time because of the routine of burden of life which takes away so much that we can't give enough energy and time for our spiritual quest. And she said at that time she had decided that if ever she got that chance, she would create a space where people would be free to dedicate their time for this work. And then she says, and when that opportunity came to form the ashram, it was with this intention that she formed the ashram. Or we can generalise it to Auroville now and various other smaller communities which have grown around the world with similar intent at least. But it goes back to this question because everywhere in the world, people have more time finally. What will you do with that extra time? And the power of technological singularity is precisely this - to give you that time and then for you to choose.
Sraddhalu (0:14:27):
There's one benefit though, the same you see all these technological developments have a positive and negative side. You can use it for good or you can use it for enslavement. Last time we were discussing cryptocurrency, there was one very important point which I missed making that the power to take back control of wealth or rather taking back the power of wealth in the hands of the people is a critical step for the freedom of humanity. Sri Aurobindo makes this observation, we touched upon it last time and this point I wanted to make that when the king has all power, it is when he can completely decide how much he taxes people or how the money is spent. For people to become free, they must take back that power. And Sri Aurobindo makes this observation that it was the genius of the British people that the British Parliament first took away the King's power of taxation into the hands of the Parliament. That was the starting point of the decline of monarchy. And the same might happen with cryptocurrency. And this is an important theme. Last time we touched upon it and perhaps we'll have a dedicated session about it later on. But cryptocurrency allows you to have a money system that is completely independent of any centralised control, that is entirely free and which cannot be faked by a central power, at least in principle. And so that would bring back the power of wealth into people's hands. At least that's the idea. And this is only possible with this highly developed technology. It would not have been possible otherwise. So in similar ways, the power of technological singularity could go both ways. And obviously the other side, which wants globalised control, is rushing to take control of it, whereas the freedom of people is not rushing with the same pace, but it can use it equally.
The question about how it impacts education comes down to what is our goal of education. If the current goal, which is simply to train you for a job, I don't even use the word educate. The bulk of what we call education is actually training and not education. As a doctor, for example, you are trained to act in certain ways for certain types of symptoms. It's not an education. You are not taught to think. When you pass the exam to be a doctor, it's not because of your creative power that you get high marks. It's because of your power of memorization. Isn't it? So, and the same would be for most of education, an engineer similarly, a lawyer similarly, that you can quote prior examples and apply them in the current situation and swing it either way. That's your skill. But it is not a creative power in the sense that it can bring something new. You are not rewarded for being creative or for manifesting a new possibility. That's not what education is about. So, bulk of current education being a training program and not really education, when you have super intelligent AI, which can do what you would do far more effectively, what's your place? I don't know if I had mentioned this in an earlier session, but I had a lecture at one of the premier institutions of management in India and we had on the dais some very big names from industry, so they were presented to the children as aspirations for them to have. I want to be like X who is now famous, wealthy, etc., powerful. And so when it was my turn to speak, I started by saying that everything that you've been taught here today, till now, for which you've all done, there were like 200 children who had won the highest marks in the big institution. I said, everything you've learned till now is not going to lead you to success, because all of you can be replaced by AI. Because of what you have been trained to do, I can train AI far more fast, rapidly and far more cheaply to do exactly what you would do by your training. So increasingly, we are reaching a point where the very nature of education is becoming pointless if this is the goal. And then I said, what will make you successful in this disruptive state where AI can replace you is something that AI cannot do and that is where your creative power and your intuition and the ability to manifest something new etc., will come in that is what would make you successful. But the second point I said, you are not here to become like them because their example is already obsolete. Try to be like them, the world has changed and to be like them you would have to be not yourself. I said the examples before you are meant to inspire you so that you may be yourself the way they became themselves. That should be your goal.
So if you look at these two key points and recast education in these terms, then we could perhaps make good use of the opportunity that singularity can offer. It will force education to review its priorities, but it's still happening too slowly. It's not happening fast enough. At the ultimate, the fact that a machine can do the best that you can do, faster and perhaps more effectively with less mistakes, will force you to reach out to those powers which are beyond the merely rational. And so a transcendence of our capacities would be the direction in which this trend might push us. It's already taking certain forms where inherently people realise the education is not giving them what they really want. And they're trying to find other ways, either other approaches to learning or even find their own free search to discover what they want out of life and prepare themselves for something different. So these are trends we can observe. And I would say singularity, technological singularity can be a great aid for this transition of consciousness if it is used rightly.
Alina (0:21:04):
Thank you, Sraddhalu, for answering this question. And definitely we should talk more on cryptocurrencies and to give it its right place and how it could help and make use of it. I will further read the comment and the question from Zachary. I quote Zachary saying, as a young adult I'm far more interested in the sciences than the lower emotional aspects of what's going on in our current culture. It seems as if our only option is to fall off the edge of the world, to escape the societal possessions of the Asuric forces, something increasingly implausible and ineffective, with no space to create something new. What are we going to have to sacrifice to make this transition possible for the current generation? During the recent discussions on addictions, relationships, gender identity, one thing I felt missing for our conversation is the current rejection of spirituality as it were a pejorative term.
Sraddhalu (0:22:31):
It's very interesting observations from Zakari, where there are a couple of other questions also which follow. But in this you'll see already one point which is a subtle suggestion. Where he says, it seems as if our only option is to fall off the edge of the world to escape what is happening. And this is a very subtle push that seems to be happening in the hearts of many young people, not necessarily consciously. And to understand what this really means, we have to look at how Sri Aurobindo explains to us the turn of events in the world. He shows us that finally behind the scenes there are two great powers. One is Nature and the other is the Divine Will, working through the soul, the divine inspiration. Nature has an objective. She wants to lead humanity to certain possibilities of development, of evolution. And while she is experimenting, she is trying out new things, she pushes there an urge in people and people suddenly wake up and want that. Somewhere else when she finds that people are not following her intention, she withdraws her energy. And suddenly an entire group of people loses energy, enthusiasm, vitality and weakens out and that form of the collective either fades away, dies or merges and is absorbed into something else which is more energetically powerful. So this is a scene in the big picture of time. This is the single most powerful determinant of human evolution and tendencies. So when nature decides that I don't want this kind of suffocating formation to happen, she is already preparing in the hearts of the people, this feeling of restlessness. The young people feel that the whole societal situation is like a trap, that it is fake. It's too artificial. It's unreal. And I don't want to participate in this. What do you do then? You pull back. Sometimes instinctively or you react as if to break it. And the Asuric forces use both. If you're pulling back, then they will teach you to withdraw into isolation and kind of make no impact on the world, which is fine for them. When you take to a spiritual life, which is a monastic ascetic life, the hostile forces are very happy. They said one more person out, no problem. We feel free to do what we want. If you take the other form of rebellion, then they say great here's an instrument through which we can spread more chaos. What do you do? Both tendencies have a truth but both can be lost if there is not a deeper recognition of what they represent.
We have in fact two questions which are in the chat box from parents. One is saying that a daughter of 22 struggling with school wants to take a break, but she has a hard time convincing her mother what to do about that. The question I would say is, what is it that she seeks in the break? See, it's one thing to say, I don't want the school now, I want to take a break and then perhaps I'll return. But what do I want to do during that break? And if it is a direction of activity in which you grow, you learn or even find yourself more deeply, know yourself more completely and thus re-enter the activity of life stronger and more founded, that is worthwhile. But if it's just to move around and lose your way in the peer pressure, of which we will be discussing more, then that might even be a dangerous passage in which the person could get sucked out and lose the capacity to focus and direct her life. So one would have to look at the case and then choose from there. Somebody else has also asked a question. My son, 23 years old, dropped out of college and he's not sure where to start, aspires to find his true purpose. He wants to play music and generally follow what to him feels more interesting and more valuable - which is perfect, if it does not stop short, if it continues to pursue a deeper possibility, if financially you have the luxury to be able to take that time off, which is not the case for everybody. There's something very interesting happening in the... I see this at least in the United States and in the UK, where in order to have a college education, you take a huge loan from the government or some banks, but subsequent to education, the certification you have does not allow you to earn enough money to pay back the loan. And the price of education is rising, the interest rates on the loan are rising, so you're being pulled into a debt trap even before you start your life. Whereas you go back 30, 40, 50 years ago, you first of all didn't need a loan, but even if you took a loan, you could pay it back within a year generally. You were free after that. So this is a very strange attempt to bind people early on and then there are people who are trying to escape that binding, but not necessarily clear of how to move forward. The important thing is to have them refer to some deeper, let's say, guidance or a higher, larger vision in which they can contextualise this impulse. And then we will find a lot could happen. But the point I'm making is Nature is pushing in the hearts of people, in the minds of people, to change direction. So this is one important observation from Zakari's question itself.
Sraddhalu (0:28:28):
And the second question, the question he has is about what sacrifices to make in the transition for current generation. And then his comment about the rejection of spirituality as if it were a pejorative term. And it's happened in the young people mostly from the way the education was given to them. If you look back in India, again I look back at 40-50 years ago, every child had at home a grandparent who would be telling you stories of the Mahabharata or the Ramayana or from the Puranas and each of these stories although exciting, thrilling, often more interesting than Superman or Batman, would have a spiritual foundation, a spiritual message and an educative content of the larger purpose of life. Infusing morals also in the process. You see, morals is important but it's not the end of it. Much of what you see in the Abrahamic traditions as it is taught from the Christianity or Islam and Judaism is morals as a form of preaching. You should do good because. And implied is the Abrahamic common idea of a reward. That if you do good, there is a reward. And so it happened in one of the discussions we had, that somebody said, but if you let go of the reward, why would anyone want to be good? And it was a genuine question. So, it was a bit of a shock for me to think that all the while he has been doing good because he is waiting for a reward in heaven. And it seems very strange because in the way you look at the whole concept of dharma or the sense of life purpose, you do good because you are good. And that's your natural way to be, thats your natural way to express and thats far more profound and real and not a pretence of what you can be.
So this background which was inculcated in all children in a majority, went away when the families became nuclear. And then when now there is no family, no parent to really look after you and all you have is television and the agenda of the educational system in which all spirituality has been removed. If at all there are religious components and with them a bit of the morality but the spiritual content of it even is mostly forgotten because in the very act of objectifying teaching you have to reduce it to object to something which is tangible and observable and you've lost something which is more essential. Or it comes in very indirectly through certain patterns of bhakti and so on, devotional chants and so on. So we have a real problem here that the young people grow up with no perspective of the spiritual, with no knowledge that even such a possibility exists and with everything reduced to something very basic, coarse and crude of a Freudian type of value system. I remember one of my friends came back with this great discovery of a book called the Naked Ape, which basically reduced the human being to just animal behaviour on a more sophisticated level. And even our attempt to beautify our body form with beautiful clothes or makeup was reduced to sexual drives being fulfilled and it was so weird, so reductionist, it felt so wrong and perverse because that's not why we express beauty. We express beauty because we are beautiful inside and we want that inside truth to radiate and if animals also have, they have equivalents of these things also, it's because of the same drive. It's not mating which is your priority, it is expression of a deeper truth which is your priority. But all of that has been filtered out and you're reduced to something very crude. And so spirituality itself has been made a laughing matter.
Sraddhalu (0:32:41):
Again I go back to my experience when I was completing education in the ashram school, and this is the ashram school remember, with all the culture and the nourishing environment of the Mother's presence and quotations put up on the wall every now and then all the time you're dingedin with these things. Unfortunately the teachers were not doing the right thing they were not giving us the real touch of the spiritual it was assumed that it would happen automatically which also did happen to a great extent but in the last year when we had a creative program, you know, the group which is completing their school, finally they do some kind of a creative program in the last few days. One of my classmates very enthusiastically said, let's do a program on a fake sadhu. A spiritual man who is fake and out to fool people is an exciting drama to make. Why? Because that's what they saw in cinema. Because cinema by then had already been hijacked to promote this kind of a not only rejection of spirituality but a mockery of spirituality as something fake. And that had already seeped in into these people. I don't know what we could have done because it was probably already too late. They had already formed certain ideas but that was long enough ago that by now much of this has been lost. So the rejection of spirituality as a pejorative term, cynical turn to spirituality is so common today. So in India it's happening but it's also being countered by an awakening to the spirituality at the same time. So there's a quite an extreme mixture of two extremes.
But in Europe it is almost unimaginable to have young people exposed to spirituality. I would in fact like to turn to both our moderators, hosts, Alina and Joel, to share some of their experiences because they've both been through this and lived the problem, discovered their spirituality and survived what was a very contrary environment. But they've also seen their friends who might have failed in that effort to awaken or lost their way or perhaps some who may have even awakened later. And so I would like to call on you both to share some of your experiences and views on this. Just as a quick introduction, Joël is a psychologist and a certified family therapist. So he comes with that background of interacting with family problems from this point of view, as well as from the formal training of the Western psychology. Alina is a certified acupuncture therapist and also a Shiatsu therapist. And so again in the healing sector, you're meeting people who are broken, helping them find their direction, purpose and integration. And maybe I'll call upon Joel first to share your experience or your comments generally.
Joel (0:36:00):
Hi Sraddhalu! Hello everybody! Can you hear me? Yes. So, I'm in Auroville, for people who have not situated me straight away, but I've spent 37 years of my life, the first one in Belgium. What was interesting in the Belgium-Western context is that spirituality was at that time, 15 years ago, quite totally inexistent. So it's not there at all. And even when I go there and I meditate in Belgium, the connection to the Divine is much more complicated. So I guess there is a kind of a heavy atmosphere who doesn't help and doesn't support spirituality. But apart from speaking of experience which may not be so interesting, I have seen an evolution, most of my friends there in Belgium are kind of interested in the first step of spirituality, I will call them, which is to do a little bit of meditation, to do a little bit of asanas, some qigong and things like that. They don't really know why they are doing it. Mostly it's to feel better or to develop oneself. There's no really deeper thing, but I guess it's the first steps. I wanted to say something because you were reading comments of parents and their children, and also about the fact that there is a rejection of spirituality. I think what is missing, maybe, also is that everybody who would like spirituality to be more present in the life of their family or their children is to be themselves a living example of a living spirituality. I mean, if you are a (role)model, if you radiate something, because your own connection is existing and the presence of the Divine is in you, I think that will go a long way to also demonstrate the interest and the value of spirituality in one's own life. So yeah, that could be my comment. Maybe Alina, you would like to add something?
Alina (0:38:10):
Yes, well, I see that nowadays, amongst my friends or amongst the environment where I'm currently living, because let's say I meet many people from different countries and coming from different backgrounds, and they all have a turn towards spirituality. And it's like a fashion now to say that we have all this turn, and everyone is seeking spirituality through their own means or through what they understand of that; Some maybe just do some yoga and then they say, oh, I feel great, I had this amazing yoga teacher or I have my own guru here doing this or that for me. And it's kind of a trend nowadays. And on one way, I say that many of these people, they are seeking for something which is true through spirituality but of course it's very superficially misunderstood and of course misused and I think we should give a right place and a better understanding to what truly means spirituality or yoga. So each time I meet these friends, when we talk about it, I kind of understand that they only took one side or one aspect of what truly means spirituality. Or maybe just doing yoga on a mat and being an amazing acrobat, that doesn't make you spiritual or a much, much better, a greater person. But I see everyone has a turn and I just, that's my wish that everyone can find the true sincere turning point towards spirituality. Not using it just because it's very fashionable but for real inner seeking and finding the true meaning and purpose for their lives, for example. And that's how it started for myself back in 2012, but even much more before, prior, I always had the turn towards finding what is God or how could we unite the term God from all different cultures or religions. So I tried to be universal in my mind and because I interact with different cultures and religions, I try to find a meaning for all of that. So, that made me turn to seek more. And, of course, I read all the New Age spiritual books, and I was never content or satisfied with whatever I have read. So, I must say that maybe I'm blessed at an early age to find the teachings of Mother and Sri Aurobindo, where I finally feel I'm settled and I truly found my inner questions to be answered. And yeah, I think that's my first glimpse.
Sraddhalu (0:42:06):
Thank you. Thank you, both of you. I think the important trend we are seeing is that everywhere people are feeling the hollowness of life and of the social forms and the sense of purpose. And it's provoking a deeper introspection and seeking. And often that can bring you to a spiritual direction or you fill it with other kinds of excitation if you do not even know such a thing is possible. The wellness industry has, so to say, become the first step of a spiritual awakening, because people are so sick psychologically and even increasingly physically that trying to feel better trying to feel good, you turn to yoga because people are saying it's helping and then it goes by word of mouth. People come back with such radical dramatic changes through just basic practice of asanas and pranayama and perhaps some relaxation or basic meditation that it ripples out in the friend circles and people turn to these means as a first entry, but of course as we saw what yoga means for them is still very superficial. But still as an entry point, it's making a big difference and Sri Aurobindo interestingly had observed this that yoga would be one of the greatest tools that nature would has created in India which would be India's gift for humanity. Of course, he meant it in the full scope of what yoga means, but still as a first entry, what has gone through very superficially is a starting point for many.
Alina (0:43:45):
That's what I felt as well, that only when you have problems and you're suffering deeply and you have this emptiness inside you and you're not finding your inner purpose or you cannot align to a central aspiration. So that's when people start wandering and trying this and that. And it's true nowadays, somehow spirituality is very expensive, you know, if you think in terms of all these retreats and wellness centres that are promoting it and it started to become a very luxury, inaccessible thing for most of the people. And I mean, it's still one way to turn and to maybe want to discover more, so it's a great help and a good gate. But yes, I hope that people will go deeper into finding and exploring and not just taking everything as it's served from all this, let's call New Age spiritual gurus and shamans and.. It's a very subtle fine line in between what is real or what is fake or what brings a true transformation that comes from inside outside.
Sraddhalu (0:45:33):
This brings us to the next question actually, which is actually picking on the point you're making now.
Alina (0:45:39):
Yeah, so Zachary, if I pronounce correctly, yeah, he made a nice comment saying sexuality and sexual activity in terms of what's portrayed as normal is being more divorced from any spiritual long-term satisfaction. What's being taught to kids for entire generations successively is losing more substance. When do we deal with this elephant in the room? What gets brought up as spirituality is polluted by drug culture. Only now drug culture is increasingly becoming unregulated and venerated de facto codified legal businesses. Where are we going to raise our kids without this influence? It's impossible, yet alone for ourselves. What must be done for ourselves and others to disrupt this influence? How do we collectively escape this possession the media is taking hold and that of the cabal? The last example I'll give because it's been addressed before is media companies making content promoting the transition into animal form from the human form. As you mentioned that book how they presented the humans like having these animal behaviours.
Sraddhalu (0:47:21):
So this is a very interesting point about spirituality being polluted by drug culture. I remember I had a session in South America in Brazil where we had the group with which I was with, had been invited to attend in a particular space, where one of the very famous Brazilian gurus was also going to come and address. And we were all coming from different traditions from all over the world and he would have been one of those. The group that had primarily gathered there was known to him or used to look up to him. And I found that group to be very open, very sincere, some of them with a very intense aspiration. But when we came into that space, the group of people who were waiting for him, they were all in strange, unclothed conditions, wandering around, dazed. And then I was told that they were on drugs and that this guru used to teach as part of his teaching that they were to take ayahuasca and other drugs and what is interesting is the people never had a chance they never had a chance even to know that spirituality is something more than that or even that this is unspiritual or can actually take you off track if you are not careful about it. He himself participated with them into those ayahuasca journeys as they call it and I wonder how much harm it would have done to them. I have another example I want to share. This is somebody who came from a very Jewish tradition, he was a practitioner, teacher, an amazing person. He was married to a lady from from a conservative Christian background, which was totally dedicated to service to God and worship of God from their tradition. And they matched so well, they had such a good partnership of energies and ideals. And then a few years down, they had separated and I asked what happened. He said somehow she was not interested in this spirituality. She was seeking the South American brand of drug-inspired spirituality. And I was wondering what it is that a child who has grown up in perhaps a very strict religious conservative background, married to somebody who is a genuine practitioner and even a charismatic teacher, now takes to drugs because something is missing or that provides an immediate high which they think is spiritual. That means nowhere in the education or in the experience so far was the distinction ever made.
And so again I go back to the same question which we discussed earlier, if you have no idea, if education or the cultural background has never told you what is true spirituality, then anything non-material, anything that provides an experience of an escape from the narrowness of the material consciousness is for you spirit. Spiritism as distinct from spirituality becomes now the way. And so a lot of this is taking place among the young people in their turn to find something, something more liberating and not necessarily that they think of spirituality, they turn to drugs. But if they turn to spirituality also, they might find drugs pursuing them and they may get badly sidetracked. I want to make a couple of comments about this because not enough has been said about the dangers of what the drugs could do for those of us who seek a real spiritual life. And I find this even among people of deep practice in many stable and highly mature spiritual lineages that this distinction is not obvious. They just say drugs are forbidden but why? what happens? not explained. So I even had a case I will share this as a strange experience I had. I was with one of my hosts and we were invited to somebody's house and then we discovered that they were having a what they thought was a spiritual evening and they had brought in a shaman from South America who pulled out his bag of drugs and he was about to distribute this to everybody for their spiritual evening and I said, no thanks, I don't have that. So the host there said yes yes you do your thing and we will do our thing and we will both be in spiritual states. No, that's not how it works! But well so I had an opportunity to observe this. I saw what happened while those people were in a drug state. Suddenly there was a lowering of vibes in the whole room. It became smoky, dark, heavy, dull and the space they were accessing was extremely low. You know what Sri Aurobindo calls the lower vital. Subsequent to that session, I don't know, it lasted an hour perhaps, one of them was, one of the ladies there was in a state of some kind of what they would call ecstatic thing. She had seen the seventh heaven of her tradition and she was still seeing it and she was in this dazed state and others were consoling her while she was in an agitated and excited state. And what she was seeing had nothing to do with heaven or any real heaven. It was one of those domains of the vital which can be very beautiful. It can be heavenly in appearance, but in terms of consciousness is no different from the lower vital zones. And so it was in fact a highly deceptive experience that they were all being given in the name of spirituality. But also what happened is one of my hosts who took me there from a very rooted spiritual tradition also took one of those things and that's all.
Sraddhalu (0:53:40):
So in another discussion we had, somebody commented, oh, you know, drugs give you the high, it's the ease shortcut. And the other person said, no, no, that's a shortcut, you should not take a shortcut, you should follow the long way. My logic was, I said, no, if there's a shortcut, you should take the shortcut. But the point is, drugs are not a shortcut. They don't take you to a spiritual domain. What do they do? And we have to understand this. There are many levels of consciousness, vertically let's say. From the lowest, most dense, the most material, the most binding, limiting, suffocating and dark to the highest which are liberating, free, vast, open and luminous. And everything in between and all kinds of variations among them. At each of these levels you can open out to an experience of universality. So at the level of the purely physical consciousness, by triggering certain centres in the brain, you can experience as if the boundaries of your body dissolve and you feel yourself a part of the whole physical universe as if your body is a continuum of matter extending into the universe and it would be an experience of universality in the physical consciousness. But of course this is done by stimulating certain centres in a way that damages those brain cells. So that subsequently when you try to get the same experience by the same stimulation, you get 50% of it. And the next time you get 25% of it. And the next time you get half and half and half until your stimulation has to hit 10 times greater intensity of damage to your cells to get one tenth of your first experience. So what you can see is the method of opening to this universality of physical consciousness is basically a method of removing barriers of your physical brain, damaging the cells so that what is otherwise a normal state of consciousness of the physical one, oneness, is briefly exposed to you. The brain is what allows you to have an individuality by a kind of a protective, limiting influence. So in the normal spiritual development, what would happen is you would learn to widen those limits gradually and thus open out to universality, but keeping intact your brain, your biology, your psychology and so on.
Now I'm giving this example in some detail because a similar process takes place in the vital body to some extent in the mental body when we take certain kinds of drugs. Each of them tends to hit a slightly different centre or a different aspect of the experience. But what they do is they punch holes in the aura. They break certain boundaries, certain limits, but they break them with violence that they never heal completely. So in that initial moment of breaking, you as if open out to a widened experience of reality. But then subsequently, you find you need more and more in order to be able to access that. But also what you access is of a very low grade because that's all that those drugs are able to reach. They are not able to reach the higher ranges. So in those low grades, you have an opening to a kind of universality or a glimpse of something more. And the state in which you enter, the experience often determines the quality of experience. So if you enter in fear, you experience the fear domains. You enter in an optimistic, positive state, you experience some of the heavenly types of domains, but still there are boundaries broken by a shattering of a small part. So afterwards as the drug influence passes you drop out of that state or that perception but the holes remain. So people who take frequently these drugs end up with holes which can even be seen in the aura but those holes remain or they remain as weak points through which now influences from that domain can get in.
Sraddhalu (0:57:42):
So what often happens with people who have been exposed to these for too long is they are now open as instruments to suggestions from these domains and sometimes not necessarily positive suggestions, but they are victims and they don't realise how those things influence The other thing which happens also is the personality that they have, instead of integrating around the spiritual centre of the psychic or the mental will even, as a conscious centre of mind, instead of integrating and becoming more cohesive, because of this punching action of breaking, leaves fragments of your personality disconnected, and often disconnected from the very centre around which they should be organised. So when I've often, I've seen people like this and I didn't always know that they had been through strong experiences of drugs, but I saw the person, I saw this fragmentation in personality and then later she said, yeah, you know, at a certain age I used to do a lot of these drugs, for example, and it immediately confirmed what it was and the symptoms vary slightly with people, but it's like from a deeper perception you just see pieces which have been somehow separated by force, cut links which have been cut in the personality. So this is the second kind of damage that they leave.
There's a third which is more serious even. And I have not yet spoken about the spiritual evolution, but that will come as a consequence of this. What happens to such people when they leave their body? a.k.a. also known as death. When it comes time to shed the body, what happens is the physical body drops. What do you open to at that point is precisely these domains where you have the punched holes in your aura. And that's where you're most vulnerable and most exposed and in ranges of the lower vital, whether beautiful or ugly is irrelevant. You're plugged into this, those influences surge into you and bind you, preventing your progress to higher gradations or delaying. You cannot prevent it but eventually you do breakthrough. But there is a delay and the transition to the higher ranges which are your own are unnecessarily delayed during this period of other interventions in which you might find yourself struggling or even confused or lost. Now I'm taking this as an example because this is what happens in your normal living period of life. When you try to open to the higher spiritual realms, the first thing that happens on opening is these weak points which open up. And you find yourself opening to precisely the contrary influences than the spiritual, which would have drawn you up. Instead you find yourself opening to these other influences and they may, if not positive, can even harm or attack.
So I've seen people who were damaged in this way. As a result, their attempt to meditate used to lead them off track every time because they would slip into these things because the grooves were formed, the gates were open. And unless their aura was healed or their natural protection was closed by some occult or spiritual means or help, they could not proceed into higher ranges. Or even if they did for a while, later on, on their own, when they tried to open, again this would open. The lower ranges would open and they would find themselves in trouble. So my point in this is drugs not only are not a shortcut to spirituality but they are a dangerous side track which can harm your free spiritual development for not only this life but even post life when you leave the body. They can harm the passage to your own higher ranges. And so this needs to be explained. Unfortunately, most of the religious or spiritual traditions, they just say ‘no bad' and it's given a moral form. And since there's no reason, no explanation, well, morality is increasingly becoming less important in human values. So, well, you break rules, try it out, so what if I try it once is the argument.
In one of the earlier discussions I had pointed out that even one experience changes your brain fundamentally and this is confirmed by MRI scans. That's the beauty of modern scientific tools, that we can actually see what happens and the brain is changed for good once you have had that high and there's no question of let's try it once and then I will. What has been done in that once is often done, irreversible. What to do if you have been exposed to these things? Well, stop immediately. Whatever you have got from it was useful, move on. I'm saying useful because when I spoke a little firmly against drugs in one of these meetings, there was a Swami from a very respectable tradition, genuine, highly mature spiritually and he said to me, you know it's not so bad and then he shared his experience when he was 18-19, he had an experience with drugs and it opened him to the spiritual possibility. So for him that was the positive side of it and the point which I didn't have a chance to discuss with him was because within him the spiritual was already ready, the opening of the gates, the breaking of the purely physical narrow boundaries immediately opened him to that possibility which ideally would have been done with the more supportive education but it is not like that for everybody. For most people it just opens to the lower vital ranges and then all the problems which follow.
Sraddhalu (1:03:44):
So this is just general comments I wanted to make about and so I like this phrase - ‘spirituality polluted by drug culture’, but the point also, how do you raise kids without this influence? It's almost impossible today because almost every new TV series is showing people turning to drugs and alcohol as a routine. Just like that. You are shown explicitly the way smoking was being pushed in the last 50 years by the smoking lobby. What would they do? In cinema, the hero has this moment. He stops and says, now I've found the solution. So the cinema is at the crisis point, everything is about to be lost and the hero comes and says, I have found the solution. And everyone turns to him and the audience is fully now identified, waiting for the solution to be revealed. He pauses, takes out a cigarette, takes a long deep puff, blows out, relaxes. What's being done? You're programming the audience with that experience. It's literally you're drinking in the experience and then slowly he speaks his solution. And again and again these kinds of images and they were all done with an intention. The tobacco lobby was funding cinema to show smoking at those critical points. The same thing is being done today with drugs. I think all of you who are watching this will have seen at some point if you have watched recent movies or TV serials, you'll have seen people snorting lines of white cocaine. It's so common as to be almost considered to be as common as drinking water. Every time the people in the movie or the serial, let's go out for a drink. Let's join me for a drink? And drink means alcohol whereas in the English language drink implied was water. Today it's implied alcohol. No, I don't drink, you say. If you don't take alcohol you say, I don't drink. What do you do then? You suffocate from lack of water? No, drink word itself has been identified with alcohol by this control. So if you don't drink, you are abnormal, isn't it? So how do you escape this influence? You can't. The influence you cannot escape, but the choices you can make by educating the children early on, explaining this to them, teaching them what not to do. And I would say the same thing for alcohol as well as smoking. And we have had other discussions before, so I won't repeat but the message to be given to them say no from the beginning just avoid. If at all you see, alcohol is difficult to avoid in European cultures where it's part of the culture going back a few centuries. Well then, you limit yourself to the aesthetic aspect of the taste. So you're drinking grape juice, you're not drinking it for the alcoholic content, you're drinking it for the flavour, for the taste, for the cultural value or the experience you have with your friends. Grape juice is not hard to drink. So make your choices, know what's good for you, feel the difference it makes to your consciousness. Be conscious. This should be our message to the kids early on. But again, how do you prevent it? You can't. And so, again, I want to turn to both Alina and Joel because they've been through these kinds of pressures. They've lived through peer pressure as well as a society that is pushing them. Perhaps you've had experiences of your own with friends or on your own. How did you deal with it? First of all, what did you have in the struggle with the peer pressure? How did you deal with it? How did you overcome it? How did you get free of those influences?
Alina (1:07:43):
Thanks. First of all, thanks, Shraddha for illumining us on this aspect that taking drugs not or even those called spiritual drugs, ayahuasca and many other substances. They're not necessarily opening you upwardly, heightening into higher realms of consciousness, but it's more parallel opening and widening into universal, lower vital worlds. Thats a very important aspect so that all participants and our viewers can understand. And I think, for example, in my environment, many of my friends were taking these psychedelic drugs. And I've been experiencing also some of this. And the first impact you would say, oh, what an opening and what a widening and definitely feeling these boundaries being dissolved and feeling the unity with others. You could take it easily for a spiritual experience. And I was there and I think I keep hearing stories from my friends and it's a good limitation and a fine line to understand that actually it's not something that would keep you high. The next morning, as you said, you have a breakdown and you have a lower down from all the experience you had before and you cannot keep that with you in the next couple of days you might not feel anything or maybe you actually feel quite bad. But what I want to point is that many of the people want to take drugs because they want to experience the high. So we say okay let's get high. You can keep hearing the experience, let's get high. So actually what people want is to have a momentary release from the turmoil that's happening in our mind or in our emotions. You want to lose yourself and lose all those negative feelings of insecurity or anxiety or the stress or the pressure from your society, family. So it's like an escape or like an exit door for many of the young kids and I understand that by taking drugs, of course, some could get some experiences of a finer degree, where they could open themselves to other possibilities and then go and explore on their own what could be done, but without drugs. that was just an experience so you can realise certain feelings or go beyond your limitations, as you said. So the fact that people can become vulnerable when they take drugs or they can become sensitive, feeling more warmth or love or more connection with other people, and especially this need of being active socially or the appearance like I want to be part of that group. So if that group does drugs, definitely you feel the pressure, okay, I'm gonna do drugs so we can have a common name or we could feel in the same way. And for example, when people are going to parties, they want to be united in these feelings. And how are you going to unite with them when you don't feel anything like they are feeling.
Sraddhalu (1:12:29):
So the option for you if you don't participate, you are left all alone with nobody to be with. You're isolated and if you want to be with friends then you have to take what they take.
Alina (1:12:38):
Sometimes that's the feelings and it's not, I cannot say generally it's 100% always like that because in my environment you can meet people where they're pro and they're staying away from drugs, but some are... It depends. And I've also seen people who never took drugs, but then they turned into drugs or they cut off drugs completely. For example, after taking ayahuasca, so then they say ayahuasca was the best thing that has happened to me, I stopped taking drinks or alcohol or I became a better person. So yeah, it's very hard to generalise or to say that definitely drugs have a bad side effect.
Sraddhalu (1:13:30): What would be the advice to parents who want to convey that to children?
Alina (1:13:39):
I think the most important thing would be the education. So we should inform people and kids of the existence of such possibilities, but giving the education on what is the cost, what is the side effect of it, and trying to see what is the inner need of that child. If he's being isolated and he cannot connect with other kids, we should work upon that aspect and try to give them the opportunity where they can express themselves or maybe find a proper environment for that child to grow. So, for example, if we would encourage the creative aspect or for sure all kids love music or playing or something. So we should make sure we provide that environment so they can grow into that. Because if parents are not watching their kids, they would definitely try to find their family compared to other groups. And I think that would be the main thing. And it's important to inform them and not make it a very taboo thing where it's prohibited. No, I think if you are enougly relaxed and maybe talking about drugs, you don't have to take it on your own. There's so many documentaries nowadays that you have access to all free information and you can see all certain drugs, what they do. And I think it's very important to promote this education. I don't know if it's happening in schools, very little. And sadly, in all big cities, like big capitals, kids start taking drugs at a very early age, even before puberty. So I cannot say what an impact it has on the hormonal on the growth and the development of the brain. Because as you mentioned, the damage on the brain and and on our mental level, maybe it cannot be reversed if you start taking the drugs at such early age. So maybe kids could be advised, okay, if you will accept at least after you turn 20, you might try if you want. I'm there, I would like to be with you. I want to see what you feel. And parents should be interested in the intimate and in the life of your kids. I think this should be a good starting point. Thank you for sharing.
Sraddhalu (1:16:40):
Thank you. Joel?
Joel (1:16:43):
Yes, as the time is going, it's already a little late, I would like actually to pick up two questions from the chat and I'll put one of my comments in between. So there's a question, because you have explained a lot of things about the adverse effect of drugs. Somebody is asking how does one reverse the adverse effect of drugs and psychedelic on the damage to the aura of the certain being. And then there's a question about the inclination of the youth towards spirituality. And I would like just to make a link about my personal experience. I have used drugs a lot in the West, because there was no sense of purpose into my life. And it's only when spirituality came in, then I realised that actually I was looking for that feeling this holiness, or hollowness you were speaking of. My camera is moving, I'm sorry. Then the second question, so the first question is about how to reverse the adverse effects, and then the question is what's the course of action for the youth who do not feel an inclination to spirituality or those due to bad previous experience or misinformation, how can they cope with the world? So what will be the course of action. So maybe you could address those two questions since it's already a bit late.
You are mute.
Sraddhalu (1:18:08):
Yes. Unfortunately, we are reaching our, we have reached our time, so I think this part of this question which we are currently discussing as well as the next few questions which are related to this, we will continue next time on the same topic, and we will also include some of the questions which are already on the chat box. Only from lack of time we will close around these two important points. First is what do you do? How do you fill that? How do you heal? But also how do you fill? Alina made this very interesting observation that the attempt in the young is to find something to fill which would give a high. So really what it's describing is a sense of being boxed in, of being suffocated from which you want to kind of release, but also lift out of the dullness of the state in which we are. And this can be given through most easily through some of the refined arts. Sri Aurobindo uses this phrase: music, art and poetry are the perfect education for the soul. And these are the three things which are completely neglected in our current education or if they are brought in they are only brought in a very superficial way more like a superficial mechanical aspect. Poetry is completely out. Music and art are more as a skill rather than an expression or an attunement to something more refined. But then, like this, listening to music which is elevating can give you a high. I've met a lot of people and one of the questions I ask is, why did you stop the drugs? Why don't you continue today? In fact, I want to ask this to you, Joel. Why don't you take drugs today? What is it that you're filling it with or what is it that it's not giving you that you're getting otherwise?
Joel (1:20:04):
No, I think that like you were explaining there's a moment at the beginning of use you get some effects and then actually you have only adverse effects and it doesn't solve anything, so yeah well...
Sraddhalu (1:20:21):
But what fills today that thing which it seemed to fill initially?
Joel (1:20:26):
My spiritual life for sure, totally.What is interesting is what what pushed me to become a drug user on a very regular basis was just after the death of my father and I was 30 years old and I say he's going to the void So what's the purpose of life? There's no purpose of life and he died quite young. So I said, okay if it's like that, let's just enjoy and let's just party. You see? So if I had a glimpse of why we were here, incarnated soul with an evolutionary process, changing consciousness, coming back, going, probably I would not have gone that route. But in the West at that time, nothing of that sort was easily available. So I guess for parents, it would be nice also to just map out. I remember not long ago a discussion with my godson, which is a teenager, and he asked me, okay, what do you do in India? And I said, I meditate. And we had a two-hour discussion about what is meditation, why do it, what is the Divine. And he was very interested. And I guess just to have this point of reference, we never spoke about it again, but at least it's in its atmosphere. Just sharing that.
Sraddhalu (1:21:33):
So the high is really an attempt to find something higher in consciousness, isn't it? So if you can give the children an experience of a higher state, however brief, and most parents do.
Alina (1:21:56):
And enjoyment. And enjoyment because people seek for pleasure mostly through all these drugs or other...
Sraddhalu (1:22:04):
Higher enjoyment, refinement, higher state of consciousness, something which experiences the liberation from our narrowness and limitations, even if for a short time, but then which is accessible to you at will, and which is in a continuity with your normal state, so that it's not something broken, but a widening. So this would come ideally in the educational system itself through these experiences of refined uplifting music, art, poetry or even other kinds of activity or environments or practices which might include forms of pranayama or meditation even of basic kinds. But what I recommend highly to a lot of parents, I say first of all do you have a practice in which you enter into a conscious state? So some of them, yes, they do a puja, a prayer or a meditation. I say, what happens to the children? Ah, they continue to play. I said, why don't you involve them? One of the suggestions I would make, if you have such a practice, and you must have, otherwise you are missing the point. You can't help your children if you don't have it. You must have a practice, you must have a space in the house where the spiritual presence is invoked repeatedly until it is fixed as a living experience. You walk into that prayer room or prayer space or prayer corner, you should feel the presence and then your child has an experience of what it's like and what happens now when the child is now in distress? You go to that place, the place which gives you the high, the lift, the opening, the peace, the calm, the deep joy, the touch of the spirit. If you don't have that, if you don't have the experience of it, how will you let the child know that such a thing is possible? So in houses where I've seen there is a presence like this held, it is a beautiful thing to observe children spontaneously going there when they need support. Even in a school there should be a prayer space not just as a neutral space, you know what they do in airports, oh there's a prayer room. What is the room? It's just a blank empty room there's no presence. So you do your prayer as a mechanical routine but there's no presence there, so what's the point? Have a presence.
Sraddhalu (1:24:18):
You must ensure the presence in which they can feel the touch. So the best would be to give the children an experience of these higher possibilities and then you do not need the drugs. And the point which I was making is I've met so many people who having passed through that they say no it's not giving us what we want and there's no interest at all left. So whatever the drugs did has zero value for the rest of their life if they found something deeper and higher and drugs cannot compare with that deeper and higher that even a touch of the spiritual can give and that's well within our reach. The other question is how do you heal the damage done? There are two ways. One which would be a much more occult way by feeling the gaps within you and then consciously filling and strengthening the boundaries and healing the aura itself. That will be one way to do. But the most direct is if you can consciously open yourself to the Divine energy, consciousness, presence and particularly the aspect of the Divine love of the Mother. Because love is inherently a power of unifying, healing, harmonising. When you are filled with the Mother's love, even just in your heart, but eventually glowing out to fill your entire aura. When you're filled with that, that heals, that closes, that harmonises. The pieces which have been cut up and separate, fragmented within your personality are again brought back and gradually organised around the central aspiration which is the link to open to the Mother's love and to call her love into you. So, the way to heal, the most rapid, the most simple, the most direct - I will use four words here: Call, Open, Receive, Contain or Hold. Unless you call, you will not be able to receive. The Mother's love is there because the whole universe is formed of her love, filled with her love. It's not far away somewhere. And anyone who tells you it is far away, or in some of the traditions, they celebrate this feeling, Oh God, you have abandoned me, when will you reveal yourself? It's all nonsense. The love is here, the Divine is here. But when you call, you open yourself. So the call is necessary. Sri Aurobindo uses the word aspiration. I'm avoiding the word aspiration because people go with some mental idea of what is aspiration and they get into an abstraction. Just call, without words, from the depth of your heart. You as you call your mother. As a child, when you're running and you fall down, what do you do? Maa! You don't pause to think, whom am I calling? Your mouth opens and you call out, Maa. Let that be your call. To the Mother of the universe, to your Mother, to your Mother of eternities of all lives. So just open, call. Second, when you call, the next step is, as she pours, you open as much as you can. Now you start with a tiny part of you that calls, a thought, a feeling in the heart. But then as you begin to feel the response, you open more and more consciously and that which descends you receive, you embrace.
If you stood before the sun let's say you are you just had a shower you stand before the sun you bare yourself so that the sunlight may touch all of you to dry you completely it's a feeling like that you bare yourself and open as much as possible in all the parts that you can be aware of so that whatever comes fills, embraces, touches everything nothing is left hidden and you receive like this soak in. And then the fourth step is to contain what you have received, what you have soaked in, you hold; you don't let it spill out. You see, if you're a vessel with a hole at the bottom, what pours in flows out as quickly as it pours in. So there's never a chance to saturate and marinate like pickle. So here you hold, so that what you've held soaks in, works in you and has time to soften, to unify, to organise, to heal and literally it's magical transformative in its outcome and sometimes it is my experience that a wound which might have been from a very long time, from years, can be just healed like that in one go, in seconds even. All depends on how much you are able to open and hold. And so perhaps this should be our way forward irrespective of whether it is with by drugs or by some events, experiences of life that we are damaged, we feel hurt, we feel even broken because of certain events but open that part of you where you have the distress in this way to call, open, receive and hold and soak in, let it heal, it's like a balm that completely harmonises. Not a trace, not even a memory or ripple of that hurt will remain when the Divine love, the Mother's love acts on you. It is the one transforming and healing power. Nothing else can equal it and its action is instantaneous and magical and so easy because She is right here. So perhaps this is the theme on which we can meditate. And for the rest of the questions, we will continue next time. Let's take a moment for all of us, wherever we are around the world. Invoke the Mother’s love. Call, open, receive and hold for a few seconds, whatever we can, or simply remain effortlessly in communion with her love, with her presence.
Okay. May the Divine Mother embrace the whole world and heal the world's strife and all of us and our lives, drawing us into her embrace.
Sraddhalu (1:32:34):
Namaste.