the beginning, sense perceptions are in different forms and include many things—our eating, our drinking, all sorts of habits and many other things. Thus the best of our energies are swallowed up, as it were, by these things. The Yogis claim that the nerve centers—the lower nerve centers—have absorbed these energies and the energies are chained there, or enslaved there, and you have to release them. There are two sides, the physiological and mental. Physiologically, when we begin to practise concentration, this energy is gradually released from the lower centers. It is called the awakening of Kundalini—coiled-up energy—energy in latent form or enslaved form. Simultaneously our mind is released from its impressions and begins to work in a higher realm.

Time will not permit me to enter into the details of this subject, but I just want to touch upon some important points, so that you will think and study and investigate more.

A few points I must try to impress upon your mind. I must repeat that first of all these things should be studied under the guidance of proper teachers, and secondly, that you need not believe anything blindly. I want to impress this upon your mind because these things are established facts and those who have experienced them know these things. They are not the results of mere speculation, or mere imagination, because those teachers who would try to teach you will tell you from the beginning that you have to eliminate all the ideas of imagination. You must give up imagining things. Many of us have a tendency to imagine too much, constantly seeing visions and other things. You must eliminate those notions from the beginning, and must try to live in realities, in facts and true experiences. So you must not accept anything credulously, but try to study and investigate for yourself.

The Yogis declare that there is a hollow canal in the spinal column, and that the base of the spinal column, in the majority of persons, is closed. When these energies are released, they must find a passage and they must be allowed to go through this canal, and as this released energy rises into higher and higher centers, we enter into inner and inner stages of illumination. And when that energy reaches the brain—the highest center, the pineal gland—there the illumination becomes absolute; that is, we reach that pure state of consciousness of which I have spoken.

You will find as you progress that there are physiological experiences and mental experiences. As we have physiological experiences we shall see that the whole nervous system is changing. Our bodies are full of vibrating currents. Our whole life is full of vibrating currents, and we must know how to direct them, how to adjust them. And that is why I said the teachers would ask you to give up that idea of imagining things. We imagine and speculate too much. We must not accept anything unless it is realized, and that is why the student must be properly directed.

And why is it necessary that the student should be directed? Because of ignorance of the subtle forces involved. As these physiological experiences go on, layer after layer of the mind is opened up, but you must let these experiences alone. You must not identify yourself with them. Do you not see that in order to eliminate these external conditions and enter into the inner realms of consciousness, we have to rise above the body consciousness? Therefore, if we identify ourselves with these vibrations, or any kind of physiological experiences, we are going against what we are trying to accomplish. We would be inconsistent. So put the chemicals together and let the crystallization take care of itself. Gradually the latent energy awakens, and the energy working in the life is concentrated. Gradually you will see a new vista of knowledge and wisdom opening before you. A new land, a