Kathopanishad #17

Altogether there are one hundred and one nadis of the heart. Of these, one nadi rises toward the crown, the skull; this alone is called Sushumna. Through it, going to the higher realms, man attains immortality. The other one hundred nadis, at the time of death, carry the jiva into manifold wombs.

Yoga has its own distinctive science regarding the nadis. Modern anatomy does not agree with it. The nadis of which yoga speaks are not found by scientists within man in that way. Or, where nadis are found, there is no correspondence with the nadis propounded by yoga. Yogis have made great efforts in this matter. Especially yogis educated in the West, or those physicians and anatomists familiar with yoga, have made tireless attempts to correlate the yogic nadis with the nadis discovered by modern science in the human body. But that effort cannot be completed, because fundamentally it is misconceived. This point needs to be understood rightly.

The nadis of which yoga speaks are not precisely the nadis of this physical body. Therefore they cannot be found in this physical body. And those who attempt to establish a correspondence with the physical body's nerves do no service to yoga; they harm it.

Yoga is speaking of another body altogether, called the subtle body. It is hidden within this very body. But it is not gross; it is subtle. Subtle means that body is less material, more of energy. It is an energy-body, or what Russian scientists call bio-electricity — the body of life-electricity.

Hidden right within this body is a body of electricity. Scientific evidence for this is now available. And this very electric body runs this physical body.

In Russia, a very great experiment is going on. There is a scientific thinker, a painter and photographer, who has developed a new kind of photography — Kirlian. This photography takes pictures of the electric body of human beings, animals, and plants. Just as the X-ray gives you a picture of the bones within — passing through the body and catching your inner framework — so Kirlian has developed photography that catches the energy-body of your organism.

This energy-body — in those persons in whom the energy-current enters the one-hundred-and-first nadi — forms around their brain a halo, an aura. Around the pictures of Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira and Christ you will have seen a halo. That halo is not visible to ordinary eyes. But when in the brain — what yoga calls Sushumna, the one-hundred-and-first nadi — when life-energy enters it, then an electric ring is formed all around the brain.

This electric ring becomes visible to those who have attained to meditation. The more silent one becomes, the more this electric ring begins to be seen; it begins to be seen around others as well. Such an electric field is around every living being. And that electric field tells in what state the being is.

Kirlian says that any disease enters the human body only after it has first entered the electric body. And the interval is six months. If you are going to fall ill with tuberculosis, then six months later... today your electric body will have become sick, and six months later your physical body will be sick. The journey from the electric body to the physical body takes six months.

Kirlian says, if this electric energy can be captured in a picture, then before a man falls ill we can make him healthy. This is among the greatest and most modern discoveries. Because once a man has fallen ill, then making him healthy is extremely arduous. Before this physical body falls ill, it can be made healthy.

But even the patient does not know, six months earlier, that he is falling ill. Yet the imprints are recorded on the electric body. The electric body becomes melancholy; its energy becomes sluggish. As if the current in a bulb suddenly lessened — it grows dim, yellow. When a person is healthy, the electricity of his body shines. It awakens in its full energy. And as one approaches illness, the energy becomes dim. Less electricity runs in the body. Six months later the physical body will be affected. And if this becomes known, treatment can be done beforehand. Before the patient becomes ill, before he himself knows it, he can be freed from illness.

In the last twenty-five years a very great work has been done in this direction in Russia. A bud blossoms into a flower; hours earlier the energy-body hidden within the bud has already blossomed. When that energy-body blossoms — which we cannot see, but Kirlian photographs it; he has produced very sensitive films — when that electric body blossoms, after a few hours the physical body of the bud blossoms too. If Kirlian takes a photograph of a closed rosebud, then the photograph of its energy-body that comes — later when the flower opens, it will open exactly as the energy-body had already opened.

The nadis of which yoga speaks are of this electric body. There is no direct connection with the physical body — though effects will occur upon the physical body. Whatever changes occur in the electric body, their effects will be upon the physical body too. Therefore a yogi can declare his death six months in advance. We have heard this many times. Kirlian has now proved scientifically this six-month interval.

Yoga's experience is that exactly six months before dying, the electric energy becomes utterly feeble — only flickering. From that it is known that now this body can continue for at most six months. Six months before dying a man's nose ceases to be visible to him. And when your own nose ceases to be seen to you, understand that within six months you will dissolve. Kirlian also says that this event occurs.

Some connections are like the nose and thinking. Ordinarily the nose on our face is the symbol of ego. The proud man's nose betrays him. The humble man's nose betrays him. If only the nose were studied, much could be said about the man within. Six months before death the ego begins to break inside. Therefore the energy-body of the nose disappears. First of all, in the body the energy-body of the nose vanishes. Then it becomes difficult to see the nose. Only an empty shell remains.

The nose is the symbol of honor — of ego. People say, take care that your nose is not cut. People say, guard the prestige of your nose. Popular sayings too have some deep meaning somewhere. Nothing becomes prevalent without cause.

On the face as a whole, in the nose there is personality. If the nose is removed, the entire personality is lost from the face. No two men's noses are alike. Just as no two men's thumbprints are alike, so no two men's noses are alike. A very subtle ego makes the difference there.

Exactly behind this body, hidden within this body, is an electric body. We carry this electric body with us. In the previous birth when you came to an end, your physical body fell away, but your electric body, subtle body, astral body — whatever name you give it — that was freed. That same subtle body enters the new womb.

This subtle body is destroyed only when someone attains Samadhi. Therefore, once the subtle body is destroyed, there is no possibility of birth. You cannot enter a body again. Between the body and you there is a bridge of an electric current. When that breaks, you can no longer enter a new body.

When an ordinary man dies, only the physical body dies. And when an extraordinary man dies — a man who has attained to knowing dies — then his electric body dies. As soon as the electric body dies, consciousness is freed from the body, and entry into new bodies stops.

At the time of death, with the sort of energy a person goes, into that same sort of womb he enters. You have heard this — it is also a proverb and very meaningful. Because for thousands upon thousands of years, when some people believe something, then behind it somewhere some principle, some seed, is hidden.

You have heard that the knower's death happens by breaking the skull. His energy bursts out from the brain. The lustful man's death happens from the genitals. And different deaths happen from different levels. All people do not die alike. Nor do all people live alike, nor do all people die alike. We have individuality in living, and in dying as well.

Only because this came into experience — that the knower's death happens by breaking the skull — Hindus began to break the skulls of their dead. So the son goes and breaks the father's head with a staff. It is only a sign. In breaking the dead father's head there is no meaning. The life has gone. But the symbol remained. Because the deaths of the supremely knowing have happened by breaking the skull and they attained the supreme state, every son desires that his father too attain the supreme. Therefore we have continued to break the skull.

But breaking the skull of the dead has no meaning. And by your breaking, no difference occurs. Only when the person himself, lifting his energy upward, has brought it to the skull, does death happen by breaking the skull. And from which center death happens — from which center in the body the prana goes out — from that it is known into which womb you will go. This is the whole science of the wombs.

Yoga says, there are one hundred and one nadis in the heart. A hundred nadis lead into the world, and one nadi leads into moksha. Those hundred are a hundred paths. And along those different nadis, journeys into different wombs occur. From which nadi's gate a person goes out of life, out of this body, from that alone it is decided into which womb he will enter.

There is only one non-womb nadi, by which there is no entry into the world again — life attains the upward movement. The name of that one nadi is Sushumna. And how the energy of life may enter that nadi — this is the essence of yoga; how life-energy may rise and enter into that single nadi, where the connection with the world drops away.

Ordinarily our energy is collected at the sex-center. Nature needs it there. Nature has little concern for you. Her greater concern is that the continuous stream not be broken. Whether you perish or are made is not the great question, but that your child, and your children's children, continue.

Nature is interested in lineage, not in individuals. The stream must continue. Therefore sex has such influence that even though you make a thousand attempts, lust seizes you. Because nature gives so much force to that center that you become utterly helpless. Lust seizes you. Passion surrounds you.

All your energy is gathered at the sex-center. And there is only one flow of that energy — in lust. This very energy has to be brought upward. It has to be raised. These are the two poles — the brain, which we call Sahasrar, and the sex-center, which we call Muladhar. These are the two ends.

In Muladhar the energy is collected. And from there it has to be brought to Sahasrar. And the nadi along which the journey will be made is Sushumna, by which energy will rise higher, and higher, and higher. This is an absolutely scientific event — the rising of energy. And as this energy rises, transformations begin to happen in a man's personality. Wherever energy resides, the personality becomes of that kind.

Understand it like this. There is a small child; he knows nothing yet of lust. Lust is hidden in him, but the sex-center has not yet become active. As soon as he becomes mature sexually, the sex-center will become active, and his whole mind, his whole personality, his whole conduct will be filled with lust. Thinking, getting up, sitting, dreaming — lust will surround him. Only one flavor will remain everywhere. What has happened? Such a sudden transformation in the entire personality!

Therefore, between fourteen and eighteen, children fall into great restlessness and trouble. They themselves do not understand what is happening. This age between fourteen and eighteen is an age of great restlessness. They can tell no one, and no one tells them anything. So many transformations are occurring within, and their whole consciousness is so badly besieged by lust that nothing else occurs to them. Nothing else can occur. This event happens from the sex-center becoming active.

The day Sahasrar becomes active, that day a similar event happens. That day the person becomes filled with the Divine, just as upon the sex-center becoming active, he becomes besieged by desire and passion. And the day energy manifests at the Sahasrar, that day nothing is seen anywhere except the Divine.

At the sex-center nature takes hold; at the Sahasrar the Divine takes hold.

How this energy may go upward — this is the question. First thing: whenever lust arises in the mind, then close your eyes and draw the whole sexual apparatus upward. As the energy is going downward, draw the whole sex mechanism upward, contract it. And keep only one inner notion — that this energy which is affecting the sex-center is flowing upward, is rising.

After only a few days of practice you will be amazed that whenever lust arises, if you pull the sex mechanism wholly upward, draw it inward, the sex-center will instantly become empty of energy. And you will find that some hot element in your spine is rising upward. There will be a clear experience that some heat is flowing upward. Sometimes the heat is so clear that if another person touches your spine, he can say that some fire is going upward.

This is the very use of Shirshasana — that when lust arises, if you strongly contract the whole apparatus upward and stand on the head, the journey of the sex-energy becomes easy. Because any energy finds it easy to flow downward, as water flows downward. If you are standing in Shirshasana and are drawing the sex-energy upward — that is, in headstand drawing it downward — then the energy will begin to flow toward the head.

Shirshasana is not merely exercise; Shirshasana is a deep experiment in Brahmacharya. And if you can link it with sex-energy, then in only a few days you will find that some new event is happening in your brain. Some current has arrived. As if some flood has come. Within, each cord, each nerve, is trembling, vibrating. Within, a humming will begin to be heard in the brain — as if some silence were resonating inside, as if many bees were making noise within.

This noise, this inner tingling in the brain, is a very auspicious news. It is the news that energy has reached the brain. And bringing this energy to the brain is your work; Sahasrar will begin to blossom of itself. As soon as that bud begins to receive power, it will begin to open. As soon as it opens, showers of nectar descend. Showers of bliss descend. A flavor never known, a sweetness never known, a supermundane experience never known begins to happen.

Then you still remain upon this earth, yet you do not walk upon this earth. The feet fall here — only to others they appear to fall here — your feet no longer fall upon this earth. You then soar as if in the sky. Everything suddenly becomes light. The earth's attraction, gravitation, is lost. Those stories that a yogi rises from the ground — they have sometimes been true. But one thing is certainly true: whosoever's energy enters Sahasrar, going through the gate of Sushumna into Sahasrar, suddenly finds that he has risen from the earth.

If you are sitting in meditation and such an event happens, then with eyes closed you will find that you have risen at least four hand-spans above the ground. Opening the eyes, perhaps you will find that you are sitting on the ground, not risen. Because what is rising is the inner energy-body. But sometimes the current is so strong that this physical body also rises with it. But this happens only sometimes. The energy-body, however, rises continually in whomever the energy enters within.

In Europe there is a woman who rises four feet high merely by sitting silently. Thousands of pictures of her have been taken. All kinds of scientific experiments have been made. Beyond their understanding is what is happening. Because rising above the earth is a very astonishing thing — the earth is pulling with full power. The law of gravitation — this breaks it. And when the woman was asked what she does, she said, I do nothing. I only become more and more and more quiet. As soon as a moment of silence comes in which no thoughts remain within, suddenly I find, I have risen. She goes four feet up.

Hundreds of people have risen above the ground hundreds of times. But the rising of this body has no great value. It is a spectacle. But if the inner body rises, that has great value. Because as soon as it rises, the influences of the earth upon you are destroyed.

The influences of earth are deep. As I said to you, your whole body is made of hormones, chemical elements. From the earth you have received all the elements. And the earth is pulling you down at every instant. The earth is not only pulling things downward; it is pulling your personality, your mind, downward as well. The day your energy rises within, you become like a balloon. You become so light that the earth cannot pull you.

As gravitation is a law, so in yoga there is a law — levitation. Gravitation pulls downward. There is another, an aerial attraction, which pulls upward. But it depends upon the event within you whether you will be influenced from above or from below. If your energy is at the lower center, you will be influenced from below. If your energy is at the upper center, you will be influenced from above.

Whenever lust is aroused, then close your eyes, contract the sex mechanism upward, and conceive that power is going upward. Instantly the sex-center will become flaccid. And in the spine something will be felt sliding — as if many ants were going upward, or some heated thing were flowing upward, some melted lava flowing upward. As soon as this is felt, be happy, rejoice; accept it with grateful wonder. And do every experiment you can to draw it upward.

If Shirshasana is not possible, still a man can do at least this much — lie down on some slope, some incline, with the head toward the lower side; or make your cot such that the feet legs are higher and the head legs lower, and lie upon the cot and only keep the feeling that the energy is coming upward. As the energy comes upward, thoughts will lessen. Or, if thoughts lessen, energy begins to come upward. These two are joint events.

Hatha Yoga tries to bring the energy upward. Raja Yoga tries to free you from thoughts. Both travel in the same direction. Hatha Yoga's concern is that the energy should come upward; therefore there is Shirshasana, there are mudras by which the energy can be pulled upward; there are bandhas by which energy can be drawn upward. Hatha Yoga does not concern itself with thoughts. It says, the energy will come upward and thoughts will be destroyed by themselves.

Raja Yoga does not concern itself with energy. It says, if thoughts become silent, energy will of itself come upward. Both are joint events. One can begin from anywhere. If your trust is very much in the body, then Hatha Yoga is the path for you. And if your trust is more in the mind, then Raja Yoga is the path for you. And besides the two there is no other path.

Either make the brain a void...

Remember, there is a law — nature fills the void. Wherever a vacuum is, power rushes to fill it. You draw a potful from the river. As soon as you fill the pot, a hollow is formed; water from all around runs to fill the hollow. Heat comes, then after heat the rains come. Because heat so inflames the air that the air becomes rarefied, thin; the rarefied air begins to rise and hollows form here and there in the air. To fill those hollows, clouds come running. You may think someone brings the clouds. No; only the hollows attract them. Wherever there is intense heat, wherever hollows form in the air, there clouds run and come, and fill. Nature does not like a vacuum.

Make the brain a void. You have simply left a space empty. Power from below will begin to run upward. Raja Yoga is the experiment of making the brain a void. Hatha Yoga does not bother about the brain. It says, bring the energy; as soon as the energy comes, thought will become void.

The experiment we are doing is a combined experiment of both. It is the joint process of Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga. In the first three stages we are making every effort through Hatha Yoga that the energy come upward, and in the fourth we are making the effort through Raja Yoga that the mind become void. And if both processes are joined, the result comes swiftly, with double speed. We are making the mind void, and we are also drawing the energy upward.

This sound of Hoo is the attempt to strike the energy, so that the energy starts being flung upward.

Two kinds of blows can fall upon the sex-center. One is when you are attracted to a person of the opposite sex — then a blow falls. On seeing a beautiful woman, a slight shock falls at your sex-center. Therefore man has put such insistence upon the wearing of clothes. Without clothing your passion will become immediately manifest, manifest here and there.

It is very surprising that in the West, especially in America's nudist clubs, where men and women meet naked, play, jump, sit — one very strange experience occurred, one that was not expected. Ordinarily our notion is that a woman will experience greater difficulty in being nude, will feel shy; but this has not been the experience. In all the nudist clubs of the world, the result is this — women are ready to be nude very quickly; the man creates the difficulty.

But this fits with yoga. The man will create the difficulty. Because a woman's passion cannot be expressed through the body; a man's passion is immediately manifest. Therefore the man is more afraid of nakedness. In clothing he moves covered, maintaining his respectability, his decorum, his saintliness. Otherwise every beautiful woman affects him. And the effect is not only upon the mind; instantly — because the sex-center, a slight vibration in the mind, and it is affected at once.

A man's genitals will immediately give the news that he is lustful. He may avert his eyes, do whatever — it makes no difference. And there is a very important point — you can deceive all the organs in the body, you cannot deceive the genitals. They are the most authentic sense organ. If you wish to open the eyes, you can close them. If you wish to close them, you can open them. You can take contrary work from the eyes — but not from the genitals.

If the genitals are filled with lust, you can do nothing. And if they are not filled, you can do nothing to fill them. The genitals are automatic. There is so much energy in them that they function in their own rhythm.

In all the nude clubs it has been experienced that men fear being naked, feel shy, are frightened. Women are not frightened at all, because a woman's body is negative, passive, receptive. Her genitals are hidden. There is not so much need to cover them. Nothing is revealed by them of what is happening within her.

Then, since the whole operation of the woman is passive, until it is aroused it is not awake. The man's operation is aggressive; it is already awake. Only a small spark is needed and it will wake.

Man discovered clothing to hide lust, to cover it.

Whenever you have even the slightest thought that the sexual organ has become active and lust has filled you, immediately close your eyes, contract the whole mechanism upward, and be filled with only one notion — that the energy is flowing upward. Or, give the blow of Hoo.

One blow falls from outside, through the opposite sex. That is an outer blow; from that blow the energy will flow outward. One blow, through sound, falls within, by which the energy will break within and flow upward. The blow of Hoo falls exactly upon the sex-center. If you give the blow and observe, you will feel it instantly.

Many friends come and say to me that when we do this experiment of Hoo, very often lust is aroused. Natural. Because a blow is falling. But do not concern yourself with lust; do not even think about it. Even if it is aroused, do not worry. Keep giving the blow; in only a little while you will find that the sex mechanism has relaxed and the energy has begun to flow upward.

Therefore, in the third stage, I suggest the use of the great mantra Hoo. Because in the first stage there is such a shock to the breath that the whole energy becomes heated, is set ablaze, warms, melts, does not remain congealed. And in the second, all the distraction is thrown out. In that distraction, lust too is flung out.

You may not be aware that when, in the second stage, you begin to move, most of your movements are of lust. Or as if you are making love, your body begins to sway like that, tremble like that. Your mudras in the second stage are of passion. But it is appropriate that they be, so that lust be flung out of the mind. Then in the third stage the blow of Hoo is to be given. When lust has been flung out and the inner fire has become fluid, then the blow of Hoo will at once begin to lift it upward.

Some friends continually have such experiences in meditation — even here there are two or three friends — they suddenly stand in Shirshasana, without their knowing what is happening. What is happening is only this: when the energy of lust flows upward, for the body, Shirshasana is the most natural posture in that moment. There is no better mudra in that moment.

If you know how to do Shirshasana, it can be very useful. And if you can do the fourth stage in Shirshasana itself, then the results will be very deep, very valuable, and will come very swiftly. Do the first three stages standing, and after the third stage stand in Shirshasana; complete the fourth stage in Shirshasana — of becoming silent, of becoming still, of becoming inert. The power is still going toward the brain, but then it will be able to go with even greater intensity.

Altogether there are one hundred and one nadis of the heart. Of these, one nadi opens toward the skull; this alone is called Sushumna. Through it, going to the upper worlds, man attains immortality. The other hundred nadis, at the time of death, are for carrying the jiva into manifold wombs.

The inner indweller of all, measuring only a thumb's breadth, the Supreme Person, is always well entered into the hearts of men. The seeker should separate him from himself and from the body, slowly and with patience, as a stalk from a blade of munja grass; know him to be the pure essence of nectar, and know him to be of the pure nature of nectar.

The sutra says that within everyone that Paramatman is entered. He is present. One of his hands has reached within you. We dig a well; water comes into the well. Water means that the ocean has reached the well. Water means that this well is joined to the far ocean. And you go on bailing water out, and fresh water goes on coming.

Every man is like a well. Every man is joined to the supreme consciousness. But we are like that well whose soil has not yet been removed; it is blocked. The source of water is within us, but in between there is a thick layer of earth. The person who breaks, exposes that layer and peeks within, attains to the source. That source is joined to the ocean. It is joined to the infinite. Therefore I go on telling you, after meditation, that whatever bliss is being experienced — bail it out, express it, throw it. Because the more you throw, the more it will go on increasing within. It is joined to the ocean; it has no end.

Keep one very precious sutra in mind. If sorrow is kept inside, it grows. If sorrow is kept inside, it grows, because it rots and becomes more poisonous. If sorrow is thrown out, it diminishes. If thrown out completely, it ends.

Bliss is utterly opposite to sorrow. If you throw it out, it grows. If you press it within, it diminishes. As if a well becomes miserly and does not allow water to go out — then it will rot, become dirty; its cleanliness will be lost. Its pores will slowly close. There is no need for them; they will slowly close. Stones and earth will gather upon them. If water is never drawn from a well, then slowly the well itself will end. Its connection with the ocean will break. From a well, the more water you draw, the faster the pores run with water. Because of the running of water, the pores grow larger, and springs keep manifesting.

If bliss is pressed within, it is destroyed. If sorrow is pressed within, it grows. If sorrow is thrown out, it diminishes. If bliss is thrown out, it grows. Their natures are opposite. Therefore never hide sorrow within.

In the second stage we are throwing sorrow out. And never press bliss within either. In the fifth stage we are bailing out bliss. And the more strongly you bail, you will find the more fresh bliss has filled within.

Kabir has said, bail with both hands. And bailing is just like when water begins to fill a boat, then the boatman begins to bail with both hands. In the same way, when bliss begins to fill within, bail it with both hands. And the more you bail, the more it will keep increasing.

We have altogether forgotten how to express bliss. Even when we laugh — we laugh as if weeping. To dance is impossible. Even when I say, dance, you only sway a little. Great poverty! As if the art of expression has been lost. As if you have been closed from all sides. Neither has anyone allowed you to laugh, nor to weep, nor to dance, nor to sing. Festival has been destroyed in your life.

From childhood itself we are after children that their festival be cut off, be destroyed. Every old person's effort is that as soon as a child is born, he should become old. Therefore all the sources of bliss have been broken. Your energy cannot make you vibrate totally.

And until this happens, that which is hidden within your life will not be experienced. It has to be brought out. It has to be pulled and expressed. It has to be made to glisten from every pore. It must flow from all sides; it must overflow — this care must be taken.

For the meditator, dance is very precious. And if the meditator cannot dance, then who will dance! Do not be miserly in it. So that that which is hidden within does not remain hidden. That Paramatman is hidden within all. But we must separate the body and him, to recognize. They are joined, standing very near, close to each other. And so near that we have forgotten that he is separate from our body. The body has become all. Nearness, proximity, has filled us with the body's color; identification has happened.

Gurdjieff used to say: only one work is worth doing — break identification, break the fusion. Let the realization happen that we are separate from the body. Our being one with the body — this alone is the root of all our trouble, of all disturbance.

Someone went to Sheikh Farid and asked: Farid, we have heard that when Mansoor's hands and feet were cut, even then he was laughing — we cannot believe this. If someone's hands and feet are cut, how can he laugh? And we have heard that when he was dying, even then he was happy; there was a smile upon his face. Even after dying, his corpse, his face, seemed to be smiling. We cannot believe this. This story is imaginary.

Sheikh Farid — there were coconuts lying near him — picked up one coconut, gave it to that man and said, break this and bring back its kernel intact. The man shook the coconut; it was raw, there was water inside. He said, forgive me. To bring back the kernel whole is difficult, because the kernel is still joined to the shell.

Farid gave him another coconut and said, bring back its kernel intact. He shook it, and inside the kernel rattled free. He said, this can be done, because the kernel has left the shell. Farid said, do not go anywhere; put both coconuts back.

Mansoor was like the dry coconut. His kernel and shell had become separate. You are like the raw coconut; your kernel and shell are together. Therefore if someone injures your shell, your kernel is injured. Mansoor's shell was cut away; yet his kernel was not hurt. Therefore he was laughing, therefore he was smiling. He was in truth saying this: you fools, that which you are cutting is not me. That which you are killing is not me. You cannot kill me. You are great fools. You are merely pulling down my house; you cannot pull me down.