1. Some of us still struggle to feel comfortable with a personal divine connection with you. For many westerners, we find it difficult to worship a living person. How can you help us with this?

Yes. So it must be understood that Oneness is not a cult. If it were a cult then we would say only relate to one being, a particular teaching, a particular ritual. That is not the case here.

The Sri Murthi of AmmaBhagavan is there, what you have got to do is, you have to invoke that teacher, that master, that God with whom you could relate and to his teachings you have to invoke his teachings. Now for example let us say, you have focused on Christ's teachings and you would like to discover the truth in his teaching 'love thy neighbour as thyself', then you've got to chant that particular teaching 49 minutes. When you chant for 49 minutes, the teaching enters the deeper levels of consciousness, which in turn gets programmed. Then you've got to take a Deeksha. If that is the teaching you are going to make use of, you must chant that teaching, then you must invoke Christ in the Sri Murthi, not AmmaBhagavan, and relate to Christ the way you are expected to relate to Christ, or the way you have been relating to Christ. And if you do it correctly you would actually see Christ in the Sri Murthi. And if you are touching the padukas, you should be aware that you are touching the Divine feet of Christ. So that is how we are going to go about it.

And let us say you were to invoke the teaching, 'all things' are empty'; that of course is a Bhuddist teaching, in which case you've got to chant that teaching for 49 minutes, and invoke the Buddha, and you will see the Buddha in the Sri Murthi. The same thing applies to the padukas, and the same thing applies to Islam, or in case you are with a Taoist teacher, the same thing has to be repeated.

So it is not that you have got to invoke AmmaBhagavan, no. AmmaBhagavan Sri Murthi is there, the padukas are there. What we have done is we have done an ancient what is called Avahanum which is impregnating our consciousness into the Sri Murthi and the Padukas. Thereafter however many copies you make of the Sri Murthi, they have the same power, that's all.

Now in case you want to invoke our teaching, for example our teaching is 'love yourself', then you must say 'I love myself', I love myself, 49 minutes, you keep repeating, in that case you have to invoke AmmaBhagavan. So if you are using our teachings, you've got to invoke AmmaBhagavan. And the best way to relate to AmmaBhagavan is as mother and father, or as a friend. So you have to choose the divine which means you are choosing a personality in the divine.

The Divine itself, if you are to invoke Divine, divine, divine... nothing is going to happen, because who are you? There's no person there. There are only personalities. What is there is 'existence, consciousness, bliss`. Similarly, the divine too, there is no person there, there are only personalities. The divine also is 'existence, consciousness, bliss.' Since you are 'existence, consciousness, bliss', the Divine or God is 'existence, consciousness, bliss', you and God are one and the same. The only difference is in the personalities.

Now what are the Lord's personalities, or God's personalities? All the awakened beings from the beginning of time, and all those who are God realized, they are the personalities of the divine. If you are to remove all those things and say 'divine, divine God, God, universal energy, universal love`, nothing is going to happen. Just like if I were to invoke Homo Sapiens, Homo Sapiens, Homo Sapiens - nothing will happen. [Laughter.] There is no personality. So, you have complete freedom to invoke anybody you like. The only thing is that person must be Awakened or God realized. It could have happened 100 years earlier, or 100 million years ago, that's not a problem. Every one of those people have become the personality of the Divine. You have the right to choose, but you must choose their teaching.

The rituals, it is not that you've got to do these rituals or these bhajans. We are doing this because it is the only thing we know. We want you to observe this and then create your own rituals based on your culture, and your conditioning and your background. You have total freedom.

So remember, Oneness is there to set man totally and unconditionally free. That must be borne in the mind. That is why we are being very, very careful in releasing this process for fear that it could be made into a cult. So that's why it's taking a long time and some precautions, and taking the necessary steps. We are giving this to you. It is your responsibility to see that this does not become a cult. 

So if you make these changes, I don't think you'll have any difficulty in praying to the Sri Murthi. You can pray to AmmaBhagavan or the Sri Murthi there, you could invoke the being with whom you could relate and it would work very, very beautifully, and you'll be able to see that divine, the way they were on this planet. You'll see that.

2.  Is it assured that we will move into the Golden Age at this time? And if that is so, is there any point in continuing to work on environmental protection?

Yes! It is very, very important because as we move into the Golden Age, more and more people will be working for the environment. Right now we do not see a majority of people working for the environment. And once the Golden Age comes, I think everybody will be involved in this important work. So that's what it means. So the Golden Age does not mean you stop all environmental work. In fact you'll be more aggressively involved in it.
 

3. I really feel that we are back on track in the UK. Do you feel that too?

Yes, looking at you all I feel that we are back on track!
 

4. In the last few weeks I've experienced some huge shifts and now I walk around and see the beauty in everything  - the worms, the birds, the clouds, the trees, everything. But I still feel separation from people. Why is this?

Normally it is very easy to feel connected with animals, plants and other living creatures. It becomes quite difficult when it comes to man. But if this were to happen, normally it takes about 3-6 weeks before you'll get this connection too. So you don't have to have to do anything special because it will very naturally and automatically happen.

5. I am still not able to let go of my past, even though after trying to be with the suffering or pain. What other approach can I use to handle this?

It is not a question of your giving up the past or letting go. It must drop down of its own accord, like a dry leaf falling of its own accord it has to fall of its own accord. You should not try to give it up. The very trying to give up the past will make you hold on to the past. So become aware of the fact that you are trying to give up the past. And once you take Deekshas, they will do the job. You cannot do anything about it except becoming helpless. Your job, your effort is to see that you are helpless. That's all. All effort ends there. The only effort is to see that you are helpless. Then the process begins, the deeksha takes over and it naturally happens.
 

6.  Yesterday I felt overcome with the divine and this felt a bit scary. Please comment and help.

This will only be scary if your God is a very punishing God. [Laughter in the audience.] Otherwise there should be no problem at all. You must check about your concept about God and if you elect to have a very friendly God this problem will cease. Check out about your concept about God.
 

7. How can we know that we are awakened? Is talking to you like my best friend, hearing your voice as guidance for everything a path to awakening? I sometimes get intuitions about dates and literally that thing happens that day.

Yes. The awakened person knows that one is awakened. However, we have been giving teachings every week to tell you what it is like to be awakened. Now, in case if there is a little doubt, the teachings will help you to realize that you are awakened. But that's not so important. What is important is these teachings would help you realize that you're not awakened. [Laughter]
 

8.  I feel I have surrendered many times to the divine, but nothing seems to happen. Please can you help?

It looks like you're trying to surrender to the divine but that won't help. Surrender by what we mean is, you've got to realize that there is nothing more you could do about it. It's like ?? 13:17 ?? you give up. Because you know, there is nothing much you could do. That is the surrender we are talking about. The moment that happens, the process begins. But if you are trying to surrender nothing is going to happen.
 

9. While so much has changed in my life by your grace, I am experiencing a lot of crying this weekend and at other times. Please help me with this.

Well this kind of crying is a very good sign, and it's part of the process which means you are very close to becoming awakened. It's a very good sign. It is a classical sign.


Shall we move into meditation...