The subject of today’s discourse is “Human Life and Its [[Goal]]”. Humans come to this earth for a very short span. And within this short span they are to do so many duties. When the span is short, not a moment should be wasted. And it is desirable that they know their goal and the path from the very beginning of their life. One must not wait for old age. That is, one should know the correct path, one should know the correct destination or desideratum, from an early stage of one’s life. But what is the goal, and what is the path? – that is the question.

So many books, so many scriptures, say so many things: “Do this.” “Do that.” So what should one do? A common person fails to understand what to do and what not to do. There are so many social codes – what to do and what not do. There are so many dos and so many don’ts. Spiritual aspirants fail to know what to do. The great men who reached the goal say, “Don’t be misguided by so many books and so many theories and so many dogmas. Be guided by the established yogis.”

Who is a yogi? And what is yoga? There are so many definitions by so many scholars. But the accepted principle regarding yoga is Saḿyoga yoga ityukto jiivátma Paramátmanah.

Other people say that yoga means Yogashcittavrttinirodhah, and that one who has become established in this practice is a yogi. And what is Yogashcittavrttinirodhah? Nirodha means “suspension”. That is, cittavrttinirodha means “suspension of all psychic propensities”. You know, if all psychic propensities are suspended, the mind becomes actionless. But actionlessness of mind doesn’t mean that you have achieved the goal. Because when a person is in a senseless condition, in that case also the mind remains actionless. So this definition of yoga cannot be accepted.

Another definition of yoga is Sarvacintáparityágo nishcinto yoga ucyate. “When there is thoughtlessness, that stage is yoga.” But when the mind becomes free from all thoughts, that is also a stage of vacuum. That cannot be yoga, because the word yoga means “unification”, and thoughtlessness is a negative stage. Cittavrttinirodha, that is, suspension of propensities, is also a negative stage.

The correct interpretation is, “Yoga means ‘unification’.” Unification by whom, with whom? Saḿyoga yoga ityukto jiivátma Paramátmanah. “Unification of the unit self with the Cosmic Self is yoga.” When your little “I” becomes one with your great “I”, that state is the state of yoga. And the spiritual aspirant who has attained that state, that stage, is a yogi. You will have to follow the path of the yogi.

And where doth lie the desideratum, the goal of life? It is hidden within your “I” feeling. It lies covert within your “I” feeling.

What is the “I” feeling? Everybody has a sense of “I”. “I am doing.” “I am Mr. Kennedy.” “I am such-and-such.” “I belong to Iceland.” “I am Josephine.” “I am the owner of this house.” “I go to the airport to receive Bábá.” [laughter] So many “I”s; a crowd of “I”s.

Now what is “I”? When you come in contact with something, something external, in the first phase your eye is the subject – this eye [gestures], not the pronoun “I”. Your eye is the subject, and that object which you see is the object. So in the first phase, your eyes are “I”.

Then what happens? These eyes are mere gates of your sense of vision. And the optical nerve is the medium. So then this particular point in the brain becomes the subject, and these external eyes are the objects. So in the second phase, a particular portion of your brain is your “I”, and these physical eyes are the object.

Then in the third phase, your doer “I” – “I am doing,” “I am seeing,” “I am eating” – becomes the subject. That “I” is your “I”. And that particular portion of the brain is the object “I”.

That object “I” cannot see without your support. Suppose you are moving along the road, and thinking something – that is, your doer “I” is engaged in some other business. In that case, if an elephant comes in front of you, you won’t see it, because you are engaged in thought. So that doer “I” is the “I”, the inner “I”, with whose permission that portion of the brain sees the external object with the help of your eyes, your gates of vision.

And finally the feeling that “I exist,” “I am,” becomes “I”. But that “I” is not the Supreme “I” either. “I exist” is not the Supreme. Behind that “I exist” feeling there is another “I”, “I know that I exist.” This “I” of “I know” is the actual “I”. Everybody knows that he or she exists. That knowing entity is the “I”, and the existing entity is the second phase of “I”, not the final “I”.

And then there is the universal Supreme “I”, who knows that you know that you exist. Who knows that you know that you exist. That “I” is the Supreme “I”, that “I” is Supreme Consciousness. That “I” is Parama Puruśa. And for that “I”, common people use the term “God”. Nothing can be done secretly. That “I” sees everything. And if you always remain conscious of the fact that that Supreme “I” is seeing whatever you are doing – and not only whatever you are doing, but whatever you are thinking – you won’t become depraved, you won’t get degenerated in your life. And that “I” is the desideratum, that “I” is the final terminus of all your marches through different [expressions] of propensities. So suspension of mind, or making the mind free from all thoughts, is not the last word of yoga. The last word is: moving your individual supreme “I” towards that universal Supreme “I”, and unifying your individual supreme “I” with that universal Supreme “I”. That is the final word of yoga.

Now regarding the goal, regarding the desideratum, that is the final word. But what should be the path? What should be the mode of our thoughts? How to do it? How to come in close contact with Him? How to become one with Him – how to become unified with Him?

Some people say, “Go on doing good work, you will come in contact with Him. You will become one with Him.” But let us see what is what.

That is, some people say, “Follow the path of the actional faculty and you will become one with Him.” What is action? What is the actional faculty? Action means change of place. The bolster is here… now it is here. There has been a change of place. So I have done some action. Action means change of place. Now in the physical stratum, you are always engaged in actional faculties and in changes of place. We are moving, we are loving, we are eating, we are laughing – we do so many things. All are actions. But how can one come in contact with Him by dint of one’s actional faculty? And there is another thing: action may lead you towards the goal, towards the Universal Self, or action may drift you away from the Universal Self. There may be bad actions. So one may or may not reach the destination by dint of the actional faculty. So through the actional faculty, one may or one may not reach the goal.

And some people say, “By dint of one’s knowledge, spiritual knowledge, one will attain salvation, one will reach the goal.” Now let us see. What is knowledge? The word “knowledge” is a very old word, about fifteen thousand years old. The [original] word is jiṋánam, a Sanskrit word, an old Sanskrit word – about fifteen thousand years old. Jiṋánam. From jiṋánam it developed into g’e’no [pronounced “kyahno”] in old Latin. From g’e’no it has become “know” in modern English. Although the “k” is silent, mute, still the “k” is there, because the root word is “kenow”. K-E-N-O-W. Now what is jiṋána? What is knowledge? Knowledge is subjectivization of external objectivity. Suppose you are in front of an elephant. When you subjectivize that elephant through extro-internal projection, that is, when that elephant becomes an internal object by extro-internal projection, and you have subjectivized that elephant, we will say you have “known” the elephant. This process of subjectivization may be extro-internal subjectivization, or may be pure internal subjectivization. When it is pure internal, then it is proper spiritual knowledge. But this phase of pure internal is the second phase. The first phase is extro-internal. And in this sphere of knowledge there can be degradation, because in the first phase, when it is extro-internal, that external object may or may not be good. It may lead you towards the crude world of crude enjoyment, and in that case there will be degradation. You will go below the standard of humanity. So through knowledge, or the faculty of subjectivization, the result may or may not be in your favour. The result may or may not be of a spiritual order.

Now there remains the third course. It is the course of devotion. What is devotion? Devotion is withdrawing all your propensities from all external objects, and also from all psychic objects or psychic pabula, and goading that collective propensity unto the Supreme Universal “I”. “O Supreme Entity, O Parama Puruśa, I love nothing else, I love You.” And why do I love You?

In the first phase the spiritual aspirant, the spiritual devotee, says, “O Lord, I love You. Why? Because by loving You I get pleasure. And for nothing else. I want nothing from You. I want nothing from You. I want You. I don’t want anything from You. Because if I want something else from You, that something will be something external, something of the objective world. And everything of the objective world is finite. And that finite object, or those finite objects, cannot give me pleasure of permanent nature. But, O Supreme Entity, O Parama Puruśa, You are infinite. You are of infinite attributions and qualifications. So if I get You I’ll get infinite pleasure from You. That’s why You are my goal, and not the objects that I expect, or expected from You in the past.” This is the first phase of devotion.

But in the final phase of devotion, the devotee says, “No, no, no. I love You not because I get pleasure by loving You. I love You because I want that You should get pleasure by my love. That is, my love is just to give You pleasure, not to give me pleasure. In order to give You pleasure, I love You. I want nothing. And I don’t want You – I want that I should be Yours. I don’t want You – I want that I should be yours.”

This is the final phase of devotion, and this is the final word of bhakti, or devotion. So the path of spirituality is very simple, it is not at all complicated. Your goal is the Supreme “I”, the Supreme Universal “I”, the Supreme Creator. I said just now, devotion for whom? In ordinary language we use the word “God” for the Supreme Entity – the Supreme Generator, Operator, and Destroyer. For “Generation”, you use “g”, for “Operator” you use “o”, and for “Destruction”, “Destroyer”, you use “d”. G-O-D. He is the goal. And nothing else in this universe can be your goal or desideratum.

Once I said that the word “desideratum” should always remain in singular number and never be “desiderata” – because the goal is a Singular Entity. There cannot be any plural form of “desideratum”. And the second thing is that your approach should be the approach of devotion. You cannot get Him by going through volumes of books or by becoming worms of books.

There are so many worms in books. And do they get salvation? Do they come in contact with the Supreme Entity? No, no, they are ordinary insects, dirty insects. Mmm. And those who think that they will get Him through the actional faculty are finally engaged in actional infighting. “I did this, I did that, I’m not an ordinary man” – like this.

In devotion there is no scope for being puffed up with vanity. Because in devotion finally you want to surrender yourself. You want, finally you want – “O Lord, I love You just to give you pleasure. And, O Lord, I don’t want You, You just take me as Yours.” One must follow the path of the yogi, and one must accept that Universal Entity as one’s supreme goal. There is no alternative. As the universal “I” is the Supreme Creator, Supreme Generator, everything in this universe is His progeny, and He is the progenitor. He is the Supreme Father. You have a family relation with that Supreme Entity, and not a relationship of external formality. He is yours, and you should also remember that nothing is external for Him. Everything is within, nothing is without. So you have been created by Him and you are in Him, and, because He is your supreme goal, finally you will be with Him, you will be one with Him. For this you require no special education, no knowledge of philosophy, and no other external attributions. Supreme love for the Supreme Universal Entity will make you one with Him.