Gopi Krishna: The Last Discourses

Gopi Krishna:

The Last Discourses

Published by:

The Institute for Consciousness Research

and

The Kundalini Research Foundation, Ltd.

Smashwords Edition

Gopi Krishna: The Last Discourses

Copyright ©2020 The Institute for Consciousness Research

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Published by:

The Institute for Consciousness Research

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The Kundalini Research Foundation, Ltd.

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International Standards Book Number: 978-0-9959961-8-2

Cover Design courtesy of Len Seeds

Table of Contents

Kundaliini: The Mystery of the Coiled Serpent - Philadelphia

International Transpersonal Association Conference - Davos

The Unifying Principle for Religion and Science - Alpbach

Speech to the Hopi Elders at the United Nations

The Last Discourses - Toronto

Part One

Questions and Answers 1

Part Two

Questions and Answers 2

Slide Presentation

Part Three

About the Author

Other Books by Gopi Krishna

Kundalini: The Mystery of the Coiled Serpent

Kundalini: The Mystery of the Coiled Serpent was a talk given by Gopi Krishna to the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship annual conference in Philadelphia in 1979. Although not one of his last discourses, it presents a clear summation of his views and theories.

My dear friends, I have to talk to you today about a subject which is rather out of the common, and maybe it may appear even outlandish, and I hope that you will bear with me with patience till I end my talk.

All of you are assembled here to know something about the universe, both the outer and the inner. About the outer universe our scientists have discovered a great deal, and every day, on the television, in the papers, journals, scientific magazines, you know what new discoveries are being made and what new secrets of Nature are being unearthed.

But about the spiritual world, what we know at present is generally through books or through talks of people, most of them not having any direct experience, ideas taken from other books, from the ancient scriptures, from the writings of mystics and other philosophers, and presenting them to the world.

This has created a rather confusing condition because in the case of scientific discoveries and findings, you have a certain school which is giving out a certain explanation for the phenomenon observed. But in the case of spiritual knowledge, more or less the information given is individualistic. Every teacher, every professor, every master gives his own version, his own methods and his own philosophy. The result is that there is confusion which it is very difficult to clear.

In the case of the physical world, we have our five senses and our intellect to see and analyze. In the case of the spiritual world, we have only the intuition, the direct contact of our own consciousness with the inner world. And one can have no proof of it. One cannot convince a critic because he cannot show him what he has experienced or observed.

Most of you have on your mind the problems of existence. Who are we? Why are we here? What is this universe? What Power is behind creation? Can we reach that Power? Can we know ourselves? These are the questions which weigh upon the minds of most people who have an urge for self-awareness. And then many of them, I know it because I receive hundreds of letters, turn from one school of thought to another, from one teacher to another in search of answers to these questions.

Why is this difficult? The reason why there is this difficulty is very simple. We have the five senses and our intellect for observing and analyzing the visible world. But Nature has provided us with another channel of perception which is developed only in rare cases, and it is only through that channel of perception, that only, that the invisible universe of our own self can be experienced and observed.

All the great mystics and all the great prophets, all the great saviors who came to the Earth and gave descriptions of their own contacts with this invisible universe were gifted with this channel of perception. It is variously called the ‘Third Eye’, or the ‘Tenth Door’, or the ‘Sixth Sense’, or the ‘Vision of God’. It is a new sense in human beings, a new channel of perception. And it is only through this channel of perception that we can have a view of the inner world. This channel of perception is created by Kundalini.

The history of India is at least 4,500 years old. It has been a very ancient civilization. Just as in Europe, so in India mystics were born from time to time. Just as we had here St. Theresa, St. John, Blake and other great mystics, so in India also mystics were born who narrated their experiences to the world.

Other people experimented on those experiences and Yoga was developed. Yoga is a practical method for inducing mystical experience. This has to be clearly understood. Yoga is not a method to gain psychic powers. I will discuss them also. Yoga is a method to have mystical experience and this method has been developed through centuries of civilization.

Most of the mystics have been born. Ramakrishna was born. Maharshi Ramana was born. Most of the mystics have been born. I call mystics not mystics but religious geniuses. They have been born. Then, on them studies were made in India and Yoga was developed by this study. Yoga is a method to induce mystical ecstasy, to develop that supersensory channel of cognition by which the invisible world of mind or soul can be observed.

After long ages of experimentation it was found that the success in Yoga is due to the opening of a center in the brain. This in India is known as Brahma-randhra—the cavity of Brahman. It is close to the fourth ventricle. In the normal individuals it is silent. As you know, we only utilize about one-tenth of the brain. In the view of some scientists, even less, maybe six percent or seven percent. But even assuming ten percent, the rest of the brain is not being utilized yet because man has not yet reached his full potential. He is evolving, and the more he evolves, the more control he will have over his brain.

Now this Brahma-randhra is represented as a lotus. You will find, when you see a statue of Buddha, that there is a sort of a cap around his head. This cap denotes the arousal, the opening of Brahma-randhra, and the bloom of the ‘Thousand Petalled Lotus’ in the head. That means activity of more area of the cortex. It means enlightenment. It means contact with the real elements, the real substance of the universe which is consciousness.

During the course of these experiments on Yoga it was found that when this Brahma-randhra opens, energy goes from the body into the brain, like a radiant stream of light. This energy they called Kundalini-Shakti. The enlightened person has these two characteristics—a new area in the brain springs to activity, and a new form of energy rises through the spinal cord into the brain. We are now conducting experiments to bring this subject into the realm of exact science. But how long it will take I cannot say.

The practices of Yoga, this interest in the supernormal, is the result of the activity of this channel of perception. I will give you an illustration. At the age of fifteen or sixteen years, or maybe even less or more, the young boy or girl feels an attraction for a member of the opposite sex. They do not know how it happens, but the attraction is there. Day and night they are now thinking of the opposite sex, of someone whom they love, and constantly reflecting, meditating, concentrating on it. And they are never tired of thinking or looking at the beloved object. It is always present in their mind. When they are working or reading, the beloved comes often to interrupt their thoughts. This is because our reproductive system, our generative system springs to activity and influences the brain so that we love the opposite sex.

In the case of spiritual activity, in the case of spiritual awakening, the same thing occurs in respect of the Divine. We feel an urge to know about it. We want to meditate on it. We want to have the picture of a God or a Goddess before our eyes. We are constantly thinking of Divine things—the same thing, the same phenomenon. In the first case, carnal love; in the second case, Divine love.

This Divine love has been a characteristic of all mystics born on the Earth. A very pronounced characteristic. They gave up their home. They gave up their family. They gave up the comforts of life. Sometimes they starved themselves. They imposed penance on themselves. They tormented themselves. Suso, the great mystic, was wearing a shirt with thorns, with small iron hooks under it to keep his thoughts away from sensual objects. This tremendous love for the Divine is the same as the tremendous love for a member of the opposite sex—for a beloved. In one case, it is towards a carnal object. In the other case it is towards the Divine.

Nature uses the same methods, both for propagation and evolution. We cannot question it. We cannot say, Why is it so? It is like this. It is the Divine Will like this. We cannot say why it has been like this. Who are we to question it? It is like this. The same Power which creates the urge to procreate, which creates the love for a beloved also creates love for God and the longing for self-awareness.

In the one case it works outward and downward. In the other case it acts upward and inward. The result is the same. In the first case, we beget a child, a small child; and we are happy. We become parents. And in the second case, it begets the infant Christ. It begets the Divine child. The person is transformed. The world is lost. A new world opens before the eyes. The Power, the energy is the same, and it is this energy which in India is known as Kundalini.

It is not a simple energy as is being given out by many people. It is the Holy Ghost. It is the creative energy of the Lord. It is the energy which rules the universe. It is the energy which creates the baby in the womb, from a small speck of matter, which takes care of it till a full grown child is born—with beautiful eyes, with every organ constructed, with almost a complete brain, in a marvelous and miraculous way in the womb of the mother, sheltered from the earth and the man, for we would interfere in it if we could.

It is the same energy. It is the same energy which keeps us living. We are very proud. We walk about. We hate. We love. We are angry. And we think we are somebody very important. But all in a borrowed dress. We know nothing about our brain. Nothing about our body. We know nothing, after we have eaten, how the food is distributed. We know nothing whether, after going to bed at night, we will be able to awaken in the morning. We are helpless beings. An invisible Power, which we never see, sustains us every moment in our life. We are not masters in this body.

The moment the Power which keeps it, maintains it, creates it, ceases to maintain it, we fall down dead. No physician on the face of the Earth can then revive it again. It is this mysterious Power which is known as Shakti in India. This mysterious Power of life, which has created millions of forms on the Earth; which is maintaining us every moment of our life; which is now speaking through my mouth; which is breathing in you; which is talking in you. We know nothing about the body. We know nothing about how our tongue is moving like this. We just will it, but something else is controlling everything, not we.

There are people who will talk and fall