Index of Inspired Talks
Preraka Vārtānukramaṇī
प्रेरक वार्तानुक्रमणी
HE PRISTINE WISDOM YOU FIND IN MERGING WITH ŚIVA WAS SPOKEN FORTH BY GURUDEVA AND RECORDED BY HIS MONASTIC DURING FIFTY YEARS OF HINDU MINISTRY. HERE WE ENDEAVOR TO RECORD THE DATE AND CIRCUMSTANCES EACH WAS GIVEN. The bold, numbered headings are the titles of chapters (or sections). Each chapter contains one or more inspired talks.
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The Self God
An inspired talk given by Gurudeva at the San Francisco Sacramento Street Temple to a group of karma yoga initiates on October 3, 1959, the day before he flew to Oahu, Hawaii, for the first time. In the original recording we can hear the waterfall splashing on the altar at which Gurudeva gave discourses from 1957 to 1969. In this temple, Swami Chinmayananda, just beginning his Hindu renaissance career, gave one of his earliest lectures.§
1: How to Realize God
An inspired talk given at Kauai Aadheenam, January 1, 1984, in which he answers a disciple’s questions about God Realization. The section at the veryend of this chapter is Gurudeva speaking on the Śaiva Saints in the Kadavul Hindu Temple after a procession following his pāda pūjā during Satguru Pūrṇimā, July 7, 1998, at the headquarters established in 1970, originally named Śivāshram. §
2-3: All Knowing Is Within You & What Is the Meaning of Life?
Drawn from the 1970 Audio Cassette Edition of The Master Course, recorded in the Guru Pīṭham (the seat of spiritual power from which the Satguru presides) at Kauai Aadheenam. About thirty Himalayan Academy students had come to the Garden Island of Kauai to be with Gurudeva. He gave dozens of recorded talks during this Innersearch Travel-Study Program, sharing personal details about his spiritual path, his teachers and more. §
4: The River of Life
An inspired talk given in 1957 at Gurudeva’s first temple on Sutter Street in San Francisco (where he had the vision of Śiva dancing above his head). “The River of Life” was a central lesson in the World Fellowship of Yoga Correspondence Course, 1960. It was also published in 1972 as one of six books in the Pathfinder’s Library series. At this temple, the eminent Swami Vishnudevananda gave one of his first talks in America, accompanied by Swami Radha, who later founded an ashram in Canada. The title of his talk was “Bhakti Yoga.” §
5-7: The Story of Awareness, Wisdom’s Path & Willpower
Drawn from Gurudeva’s 12-hour 1970 Audio Cassette Edition of The Master Course and earlier manuscripts.§
8: The Clear White Light
Handwritten by Gurudeva during hours of seclusion on August 13, 1967, at Carl Jung’s lakeside Casa Eranos villa on Lago Maggiore during the 1967 Innersearch Travel/Study Program in Ascona, Switzerland. It was at this same chalet on the large lake connecting Switzerland and Italy that Gurudeva revealed Shūm, the language of meditation, the following year. §
9: Lotus of the Heart
An inspired talk given in 1972 and published by Comstock House as one of six books in the On the Path series.§
10: From Darkness to Light
Given in the San Francisco Temple on Sacramento Street in 1965, where Gurudeva gave weekly Sunday sermons without fail for seventeen years. Saturday and Sunday’s lessons comprise “The Yoga Break,” first published in 1964. §
11: The Power of Affirmation
An inspiring inspired talk given in 1958 in San Francisco and published in the World Fellowship of Yoga Correspondence Course, 1960; the 1967 Master Course and, in 1972, as part of the Pathfinder’s Library series.§
12: Beginning to Meditate
Compiled from “The Intensity of Meditation,” an inspired talk published in 1965, and “Beginning to Meditate,” given at his San Francisco Temple, the first Hindu temple in America, October 19, 1970 (beginning with Wednesday’s lesson, third paragraph). Sunday’s lesson is an upadeśa from the 1970s.§
13: Five Steps to Enlightenment
Drawn from the 1970 Audio Cassette Edition of The Master Course.§
14: Life, the Great Experience
An inspired talk given in 1957 at the Sutter Street Temple in San Francisco, which Gurudeva established at age 30. It served as his teaching center for the first year before he purchased the Sacramento Street property. §
15: Facing Life’s Tests
An early inspired talk drawn from The Master Course, 1967 edition, assembled by the monks of the Subramuniya Yoga Order at Gurudeva’s Mountain Desert Monastery in Virginia City, Nevada, along with “Changing Your Circumstances,” given in San Francisco in 1964 (beginning with Saturday’s lesson).§
16: I’m All Right, Right Now
Questions and answers recorded October, 1972, and published as a popular booklet in the Pathfinder’s Library series. Sunday is drawn from “Anticipated Reactions of the Subconscious Mind,” a Sunday lecture given July 19, 1958.§
17: The Eternal Now
An inspired talk given at the San Francisco Temple in 1961. Saturday’s and Sunday’s lessons are drawn from upadeśas given in the early 1970s. §
18: Love Is the Sum of the Law
Compiled from a pamphlet by the same name published in the early ’60s, along with “The Yoga Called Bhakti,” published in The Lotus of the Heart, 1972 (beginning with Wednesday’s lesson), concluding with excerpts from “Bhakti Yoga,” a talk given in the late ’50s.§
19-20: Love of the Gods & The Esoterics of Worship
An inspired talk given in the Kadavul Hindu Temple, on the Garden Island of Kauai, on October 11, 1978. Governor Arioshi later placed in the state archives acknowledgement of this first Hindu Temple in Hawaii.§
21: Total Surrender
A series of upadeśas given in Hawaii, August, 1990, at Gurudeva’s afternoon editing sessions which he faithfully held each day from 1975 onward.§
22: The Path of Egoity
A series of afternoon upadeśas given in Hawaii, December, 1989.§
23: The Yoga of Incantation
A series of six afternoon upadeśas given in Hawaii, August 12-17, 1990.§
24-29: The Universe of the Mind & chapters on the five states of mind
Drawn from The Master Course, 1967, as well as from the 1970 Audio Cassette Edition, and subsequent upadeśas, including a series of talks on the sub of the subconscious mind given in 1990.§
30: The Nature of Thought
Compiled from two unpublished talks given in Hawaii in the 1970s: “The Nature of Thought” and “Be a Witness.”§
31-32: The Physical and Prāṇic Bodies & The Astral Body
From “Man, His Seven Aspects,” published in the World Fellowship of Yoga Correspondence Course, 1960 and The Master Course, 1967.§
33-34: The Human Aura & Colors’ Magic
Drawn from the World Fellowship of Yoga Correspondence Course, The Master Course and a series of upadeśas given during the 1986 Mauritius Innersearch Program of Himalayan Academy. §
35: Sleep and Dreams
A series of afternoon upadeshas given by Gurudeva in Hawaii, on May 9, 21, 27-31, and June 4, 5 & 8, 1990.§
36: Karma, the Natural Law
Drawn from The Master Course, 1967 edition, and from upadeśas on karma given in the 1970s and the 1990s. The last four paragraphs of Saturday are drawn from talks Gurudeva gave during Innersearch Northern Europe, 2001.§
37: The Fine Art of Meditation
Questions and answers recorded in Gurudeva’s San Francisco Hindu Temple on the evening of November 5, 1972, for a “Meeting of the Ways” radio program and published as part of the Pathfinder’s Library series. §
38: Powers of the Spine
Drawn from the The Master Course, 1967 and 1970 editions.§
39-40: Renunciate Life and the Two Paths & Men and Women Are Not the Same
From “The Two Paths,” an early-1970s manuscript based on “Man’s Key to a Woman’s Mind,” which was composed in the early ’60s. §
41-42: Spinning Wheels of Consciousness & Evolution of Consciousness
Drawn from The Master Course, 1967 and 1970 editions, and from upadeśas given at Kauai Aadheenam, July-August, 1989.§
43: Force Fields and Psychic Protection
Drawn from the 1970 Audio Cassette Edition of The Master Course, along with upadeśas on psychic protection given in the early ’90s, and two unpublished manuscripts dictated on Kauai in the early 1970s: “Sensitivity” (beginning at Friday’s lesson, paragraph 2) and “Force Fields” (from Saturday, paragraph 2).§
44-45: Darshan, Grace of the Guru & Spiritual Training
An upadeśa entitled “Darshan,” given in 1972 at the Maharaja’s Lake Palace in Udaipur, India, to 72 pilgrims who joined Gurudeva on a three-month Indian Odyssey, the largest tour group at that time to enter India. “Darshan” was partially published as The Search Is Within, in the On the Path Series, 1972. Chapter 45 concludes with an upadeśa on bhakti given in Hawaii, 1990. §
46: Jñānīs and the Path They Teach
An upadeśa given at Kauai Aadheenam in February, 1984, published in HINDUISM TODAY that same year. §
47: The Two Perfections of Our Soul
An inspired talk given to his Śaiva Swāmi Saṅgam at Kauai Aadheenam on May 18, 1981. Thursday’s lesson begins “On the Brink of the Absolute,” August 28, 1960, followed by “Everything Is Within You,” 1959, both given at the San Francisco Hindu Temple.§
48: Soul, Self and Samādhi
A short afternoon upadeśa comparing the Self to a neutron star, given in Hawaii on October 13, 1990; followed by (in Tuesday’s lesson onward) an upadeśa on the nature of the soul, circa 1975.§
49: The Responsibility of Enlightenment
A talk originally entitled “Samādhi,” given at Gurudeva’s Mountain Desert Monastery in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1967, followed by “The Responsibility of Enlightenment,” given in Hawaii on July 16, 1990 (beginning in Saturday’s lesson, paragraph 3), with other discourses. §
50: Reincarnation
From the 1958 and 1967 Master Course and subsequent upadeśas.§
51: Death and Dying
A series of five afternoon upadeśas given in Hawaii, August 8, 16 & 23, September 6 and February 9, 1990 (typed on a Sony Typecorder). §
52: Final Conclusions for All Mankind
An inspired talk given October 10, 1978, in Hawaii. Gurudeva dictated the final day of study, “Eternal Questions,” at the monastery’s Hale Makai seaside retreat in Kapaa on June 13, 1998. §
Part Four: Cognizantability
Aphorisms brought through from the inner skies in 195o in Oakland, California, during the year following Gurudeva’s first breakthrough into Self Realization. The commentaries came seven years later, in 1957, in Denver, Colorado. Sections One and Two of Cognizantability were first published in 1958 in book form, in the World Fellowship of Yoga Correspondence Course, 1960, and in 1970 as Rāja Yoga. Section Three, “Journey of Awareness,” consists of unpublished aphorisms which Gurudeva brought through in 195o to which he dictated commentaries on November 29, December 7 & 12, 1989, and January 1, 8 & 9, 1990, on Kauai.§
Resource One: A Key to the Astral Colors
Drawn from The Human Aura, a charming, mystical book written by Swami Panchadasi in 1912, which Gurudeva wished to share with readers to show the connection of color psychology with ancient Indian teachings. §
Resource Two: Song of the Sannyāsin
Swami Vivekananda’s ode to renunciates. It catalyzed Gurudeva’s own spiritual quest at an early age, and he loved to recite it aloud with his monks, who took turns reading it to him during his final fast. §
Resource Three: Charts
Three charts which help correlate Gurudeva’s personal insights with the Upanishadic/Sanskritic teachings on the chakras and the nature of reality.§