Dear friends,
Greetings!
It’s a great pleasure to relate to you once again in this Nature Camp at Yeoor. This is fourth Nature Camp for our members. I love this place for various reasons apart from its cool weather and natural scenic beauty. This hillock has a special place and significance in my life. There are various secrets of life and living, which I have learnt on this hillock. We shall be sharing those secrets in this Nature Camp.

Many of you have come from far away places to attend this Nature Camp. Our host Mr. Bhagwanrao Patwardhan deserves hearty congratulations for organizing and hosting this Nature Camp.

Most of you have scientific background, and there are many accomplished technocrats, Scientists and Industry leaders in this group. This Nature Camp is a special opportunity for all of us to look at spirituality from scientific angle.

India has great tradition of scientific spirituality, pioneered by great sages like Patanjali, Adi Shankara and Gorakhnath. As there were no proper means of storing the knowledge, most of the ancient knowledge now available is through "Guru-Shishya parampara" or "word of mouth transference". Over the period of time, many secrets were not understood properly by certain links in the traditions and that’s how the original things got distorted and lost their significance. Today, many of us appreciate the scientific temperament of sage Patanjali for his Yoga-sutras but how many really know and appreciate Gorakhnath who tried various thing which were not understood by the contemporaries of Gorakh and hence they were misinterpreted as "Gorakh-Dhandha"!

If we really want to derive some value out of this two-day camp, we must adopt the scientific approach. Who is a scientist? Whosoever has an open mind, without any preconceived notions and one who is ready to experiment is a Scientist. So, if we fulfill these conditions, then we are ready to learn and grow.

Early morning as we were approaching this place, negotiating the sharp curves up the Yeoor Hills, we saw various shades of Green, so very distinct. Some of the spots on the way have great scenic beauty.

As you come closer to nature, you get engrossed in it. It has the healing effect, which is natural. Today, let us learn something consciously from nature!

You look around in nature… Look at that tree. It’s growing. It’s evolving. Growth or evolution is the natural phenomenon. The tree, if it’s not growing, it starts dying. In existence, everything is changing, evolving.

Many of you have already studied in our previous camps the evolution of consciousness from Mineral Kingdom to Plant Kingdom to Animal Kingdom to Human Kingdom. Today, let us understand, how at every stage a new dimension is added.

In Mineral Kingdom, the consciousness is at its lowest as far as its expression is concerned. The growth and evolution is very slow. Compared to that in plant kingdom, the Growth and movement of evolution is seen well. Dr. Jagdishchandra Bose proved scientifically that plants are living organisms and they do respond to a stimulus like music. This means Plant has greater capacity to sense and respond to the environment. Now, with the same logic if we continue and come to the Animal Kingdom, there is one more new dimension added. It is the dimension of the movement. Plants can’t move much from the place where they are rooted, but animals can move. They have the freedom of movement. There is also the development of memory- mind, even-though their major life is governed through natural instincts, which is nothing but the genetic programming. There is the survival instinct that manifests itself through reproduction and that’s how the species survive and continue. The next level of evolution is the Human-Body. (At this stage I consciously avoid using the term Human Being)

The human body is the highest on the evolutionary ladder on the planet earth. It has the most potent and highly developed brain. It is this Brain which is the Hardware that makes it possible to run the Software called Mind. Human mind is well developed with its various aspects such as Memory, Imagination, Power to Compare, Calculate & rationalize. It has the most potent tool in the form of Intellect, which is the sense of discrimination. It is this development of Brain & Mind that makes it possible for human to express. So it is this development of Mind, which is the new dimension which is not fully available to Animals. This is how a new dimension is added every time there is evolution. But at the present level of evolution, the Human bodies are nothing more than the Thinking Animals or Intellectual Animals. The dimension of "being" needs to be added for us to be human-beings.

We can understand this aspect of "Dimensions" with a different perspective also. Take an example of an Ant moving on a very thin wire. It can move forward or backward but only in one line. This is one-dimensional movement in the straight line. Next, take the example of an Ant moving on a plane paper. It is a two dimensional object. You may call it as X & Y dimension. As long as an Ant is moving on paper, it has no idea of the third dimension, which is the height or the Z dimension. The moment Ant develops its wings to fly, It becomes capable of the movement in three dimensions. If you stretch this logic further, can you think of what is the fourth dimension?

The fourth dimension is the time. The movement in the space takes some time, which is measurable. Now, as far as this time is concerned, I do not have at present the scientific data on how much time conscious these trees and creatures and animals are, but people of commercial city like Mumbai are very time conscious! Let us see why this sense of time is so very predominant in Human beings.

There are two ways in which we can look at the time. One is the chronological time. The time that we measure by seconds. The other is the psychological time. Because we think so there is time. If we do not think, there is no time. You don’t need to agree with the speaker. Just do the experiment and see it for yourself. Try for a while. Do not think and see what happens to your sense of time!

Now as you know, some of you are thinking of how not to think. Is it true?

This is the dimensional trap. Thinking human mind is trapped in thoughts. How can there be a dimensional breakthrough as long as you are thinking? The dimensional breakthrough is beyond thinking.

This is how we can understand various dimensions. Hope, we all are clear about X,Y & Z dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time created because of thinking mind. Now, can you think of the fifth dimension? The Ant, which is moving in two-dimensional plane, has no idea of the third dimension. Similarly, because we are trapped in the four dimensions, we have no idea of the fifth dimension!

We can have one more approach of understanding these dimensions. In a piece of this sponge, which is of one inch by one inch by one-inch dimensions, what all things are there in this space? There are sponge molecules, there are air molecules. Right?

Now, I dip this sponge in the hot water, which is also scented, and take it out. Now what all things are there in the same space? There are sponge molecules, there are air molecules, there are water molecules, there are scent molecules and there are heat molecules. All these things are now existing in exactly the same space!
In the similar manner all the dimensions of the existence are existing in the same space. There is nothing like above and below or higher and lower! Above or higher is used for subtler world while below or lower is used for grosser world. We are now talking of the gross dimensions and the subtler dimensions. Gross is that which we are able to see. But there are other subtle dimensions like ethereal plane and astral plane, which we are not able to see now. But they are all existing in the same space! We can understand this when we move from gross to subtle.

We all are aware of our bodies. We can see them. Now let us become aware of our breath, which is little subtler.

Can we see this breathing? Yes, I think it’s very easy for all of us to be aware of our breathing which is all the time happening right from the point of birth and will continue up to the point of death. Our body takes vitality from the air, which helps us to sustain. This is Prana, the life sustaining force.

In our scriptures, they talk about Annamaya kosha and Pranamaya kosha. Kosha means the sheath or the covering. The first sheath is that of Body which depends on the food or anna hence its known as Annamaya Kosha. The next is the Pranamaya Kosha, which means the vital body that depends on the vitality of Prana. This is also known as "Aura" or the electric double. This is the first subtler layer, which many of you have the ability to feel and see!

If you move further, there is the third layer called Manomaya Kosha or the mental sheath. It included the "Thought" as well as "Emotional" bodies. The emotions are stored in our Astral bodies. This is the cause of the astral world. This body remains even after the death of the Physical Body, hence the astral world. Now with the scientific equipment like Kirlian Photography, its possible to see ethereal as well as astral aura, which is the scientific proof of what we are talking about.

The next sheath is the Vignanmaya Kosha or the Intellectual Sheath. This is subtler than the previous three coverings. This is the sense of discrimination that we all have.

The next one is the Anandamaya Kosha or the Bliss Body. We all experience bliss through this body which is the subtlest of all the bodies. Without this body or sheath or the covering, it would not have been possible for us to feel the blissful joy of life!

All these five bodies form the "worlds" or the "Lokas". We have heard of Pishachloka, Pitruloka, Devaloka, Shukraloka etc., (Scriptures talk of fourteen lokas) these all are symbolic of these subtler worlds which are all existing in the same space (like the example of the sponge as mentioned earlier) but are of different frequencies.

We saw the Pancha-Koshas or the five-sheaths, they are all considered as coverings! What all these five bodies are covering? That which is the subtlest of all is the Consciousness, the substratum of all, which makes everything possible, is the real you.

To make it simpler, let us take an example of H2O. In its hardest crystallized form we call it Ice. In its normal liquid form we call it water and in its heated high-energy state, we call it steam. But in all the three forms, it’s nothing but H2O. Hope this makes gross, subtler and subtlest aspect very clear.

In the similar manner, body is the gross aspect, mind (+Intellect +Ego) is the subtler aspect and the consciousness is the subtlest of all. The experience and understanding of this subtlest knowledge is the self-realization that brings the clarity and balance in life. When this happens, you understand the fifth dimension that is beyond the thought mind!