1. 108 New-Clear Bombs - from Nithya Satsang

A small child goes to her mother and asks, 'Mom, how did human beings happen?' Mom says, 'Oh, God created Adam and Eve, and they created kids, and those kids created more kids, and they created more kids ... and that is the way human beings have come.' After a few days, the child goes to her father and asks, 'Dad, how did human beings happen?"

Dad says, 'Human beings came from the monkeys. Long long ago, there were only monkeys on our planet, no people. The human race evolved from the monkeys.'

The child is thoroughly confused. She goes to the mother and asks again, 'Mom, you said God created Adam and Eve, and the human race happened from them. But Dad says that long ago there were monkeys and we came from them! Which is true?"

Mom says. "Very simple, dear! I told you about my side of the family, your father told you about his side of the family!"

Understand, you can see yourself either as Divine, or as a monkey! But never forget that whatever it is, it is your choice!

Once a small town was visited by a saint. As he passed by a small hut, a woman came to him and begged him to pray for her critically ill child.

Since the saint was new to the town, a group gathered around him to see if he can do anything.

The woman brought the sick child to him and he chanted a prayer over her.

'Do you really think your prayers will help her when medicine has failed? After all, they are just some words!', yelled a man from the crowd.

"You idiot! You have no idea what I am doing! So just shut up and get out of here!", shouted the saint to the man.

The man grew furious and he became hot and red. "How dare you speak to me like that!", he fumed.

'Well, if one word has the power to make you so furious, why can't another word have the power to heal this child?', asked the saint with a smile.

Be careful what words you use to others and to yourself, because words have unimaginable power!

I want to share a small story which I read on Facebook! A beautiful story!

A merchant and his assistant come to a town. That town has a big problem: monkeys! That town is troubled by monkeys, monkeys, thousands of monkeys, hordes of monkeys everywhere! Monkey menace!

Seeing this, the merchant makes an announcement to the townfolk: '1 will pay Rs.10 for each monkey that you bring me!' Whoever brings me monkeys will be paid Rs.10 per monkey.'

The townfolk are puzzled hearing this. Nobody in the town understands this. But anyhow, they start catching the monkeys and giving them to the merchant, who pays them Rs.10 for every monkey that they bring. Soon the merchant has thousands of monkeys!

The merchant now raises the offer. "For each monkey you bring, I will pay Rs.201' he announces.

So the people continue to catch the monkeys and sell them to the merchant and get paid Rs.20 for each monkey that they sell him.

After a month, the merchant raises the offer to Rs. 100 for each monkey given to him. The people are thrilled with this new offer. With great difficulty, they trap the remaining monkeys and hand them over to the merchant for Rs.100 per monkey.

Within a few days, there are no more monkeys freely roaming in the town. The people of the town are rid of the monkey menace. And in the bargain, they have also earned money also by selling the trapped monkeys to the merchant. So they are very happy.

Around this time, the merchant goes out of town for a few days on business. His assistant stays back in the town. One day, the assistant secretly calls the town and makes them a surprising offer: "I will sell all these monkeys back to you for Rs.50. When the merchant comes back, you sell it to him for Rs.100 and give me Rs.25.'

The townfolk are very happy. They say, 'Okay!'

So, like this, the assistant starts earning money for himself. And soon, all the monkeys are sold.

And then, one fine morning, the townfolk wake up to find that the assistant has gone missing! The merchant also has not come back! Both have disappeared! Only the monkeys are left in the town!

This is what our stock-markets are like! This is the philosophy of the stock-market! Finally who is the winner? Who is the intelligent guy? If you think deeply, you will understand that these are the tricks of the trade!

A drunk man is stopped by the police around midnight and asked where he is going at this time of the night.

The man replies, 'I am going to attend a lecture on alcohol abuse and the ill-effects of alcohol on my health."

The officer says: "Wow! Really? That sounds interesting! Who is giving that lecture at this time of the night?"

The man replies, 'My WIFE!'

There is no situation in life which cannot be perceived positively. There is no situation in life which cannot be perceived negatively. Like the glass of water which can be seen as half full or half empty, whether you see your life as a success or a failure, as a sweet comedy or a horrible tragedy, is entirely up to you!

I have a story about aging gracefully. Please listen!

A sixty-year-old lady, who is not willing to age gracefully, spends all her husband's income on lipstick, make-up and 'miracle' anti-aging products from head to toe, and as many 'spare parts' as possible, as many coats of polish as possible.

One day, after emptying out her husband's monthly retirement income on make-up, she comes and stands in front of him and asks, "Honey, how old do I look?"

He says. 'Darling! If I look at your hair, I would say you look only twenty! If I look at your cheeks, just twenty-fivel If I look at your skin, you look less than eighteen! If I look at your eyes and lips, less than twentyl

She is floored and blushing. She says. 'Stop, honey, you are too much!'

He says, "Wait, dearl I haven't added it all up yet!"

Listen: it is the pain and incompletions you carry inside that makes aging look so ugly. When you complete with pain, aging happens gracefully.

Driving your life with incompletion and frustration is like driving your car with the handbrake on - or even worse, like having your wife in the back seat!

I have a story for you:

A wife was making breakfast for her husband.

Suddenly her husband burst into the kitchen and started shouting, 'Carefull Put in some more butter! Turn it over now! Careful! Careful! You never listen to me! You know you always forget to add salti Use salti Use salti The saaaalitttillill'

The wife stared at him, 'What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to make some breakfast?"

The husband calmly replied, 'No - but I just wanted to show you what it feels like when 1 am driving!"

A few days ago I was telling a story.

A Hindu politician (MP) travels to America and is hosted by a senator. The senator has a huge bungalow and he takes wonderful care of the MP. Pleased by the hospitality of the senator, the MP asks, 'How did you manage to build this huge house and earn so much wealth?' The senator takes the MP to the window and asks. 'Do you see a river there in the distance?' The MP says, "Yes, 1 see it." 'Do you see a bridge over it?' The MP says, "Yes, 1 see it." "Ten percent!" says the senator with a wink. And the MP also understands. They smile at each other and leave it at that.

After a few months, the senator visits Bharat and is hosted by the same MP. who lavishes hospitality on him. Looking around the MP's palatial residence, the senator asks, "How can you possibly afford this on your salary?" The MP takes the senator to the window and asks, "Do you see a river in the distance?" The senator says, "Yes, I see it."

'Do you see a bridge over it?'

The senator is confused, peers closely and says, 'No! I don't see any bridge.'

The MP winks and says, "Hundred percent"

In any field of life, whenever people have power in their hands, they become corrupt; dangerous to others. Only in spirituality, as you become more and more powerful, you become purer and purer, and you are a blessing to others!

Listen! I have a story about bringing awareness into your thinking.

A man walks into a shop and sees a cute little dog. He asks the shopkeeper, 'Does your dog bite?' The shopkeeper says, 'No. My dog doesn't bite.' The man tries to pet the dog, and the dog bites him hardl 'Ouch!', the man screams, and shouts at the shopkeeper, 'You said that your dog doesn't bitel'

The shopkeeper said, 'My dog doesn't bite. But that is not my dogl'

Bring awareness into your thinking. Don't take the gaps, the missing parts, for granted. Don't assume that you know Life completely. Then Life won't take you by surprise!

A guy walks into a post office on the eve of Valentine's Day to see a middle-aged, bald man standing at the counter, methodically placing 'Love' stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. Then he takes out a perfume bottle and starts spraying scent all over them.

This guy is really curious. What is this? On Valentine's Day, you normally send a card to

only one person; some people may send to two people; rarely, three or four people. But this man is sending out a thousand Valentine cards!

He goes near the man and sees that all the cards have different addresses on them.

The guy asks the bald man, "What are you doing?"

The man says. "Well, I am sending a thousand Valentine cards signed "Guess who?" to a thousand different people."

The guy asks, "But why?I"

The man says, 'Because I am a divorce lawyer!'

Understand, we know only this much love! One anonymous card and it's all over! We only know the love of the rose that fades in a few days. We know only superficial love, pseudo love, changing love . We don't know the stable love that lasts forever.

A man went to a doctor for treatment of severe back pain. A number of tests were conducted on him. Finally the doctor diagnosed his problem and told him, "The pain can be cured by an operation. It will be a major operation, so you will need to be in hospital for a month and then take six months bed-rest."

The man replied, 'Doctor, that' II be too expensive for mel'

The doctor replied. 'Oh! In that case, I can touch up the X-ray for ten dollars!'

If we look at our life, we also keep the pain alive without going to the source of the pain and healing it, completing it. We think that we can somehow manage our life just by doing some touch-ups. But how long will you do touch-ups? Unless you complete, all your entertainment in life is nothing but touching up the X-ray.

A woman was trying to fix her expensive new fur coat.

Standing in front of the mirror, she was looking this way and that way to see how it looks on her.

Her little daughter entered the room and asked, 'Mom, don't you understand how much that poor animal would have suffered, just for you to have this coat?'

The woman was shocked. She turned around and cried, 'What? How dare you speak like that about your father?"

You give your own meaning to others' words!

In all your relationships, so much miscommunication, misunderstanding, incompletion happens only because each person is busy giving their own meaning to others' words.

This is a true story.

It is about how, when you allow your patterns and incompletions to stay inside you, they can take over your life.

A girl comes to a monastery saying that she was working under her sister's husband, and he was continuously abusing her. She cries, saying that even to get some food, she has to bear his abuse.

The sannyasi (monk) who takes care of the monastery says, 'Alright! Let her be given food and a job here."

After some time, this girl asks for sannyas. And the monk even gives her sannyas.

But the incompletions carried by the girl are so powerful that she is not able to have the decent food of a sannyasi, because she is habituated to getting abused in return for foodl Habituated to getting abused!

So, naturally, she starts looking here and there for somebody who will abuse her freely.

But naturally, she doesn't find anyone in the monastery.

And finally, understand - it is a very important thing - she leaves the monastery, just because she is not able to live a decent, respectable life!

Understand, if the incompletions you carry inside you are so powerful, they will not let you live a decent life. Instead of disassociating with your patterns and incompletions and completing them, you hug your incompletions tightly and say, 'I will listen only to you. Please tell me, what should I do? I will do whatever you want!' And one day these incompletions will take away your life.

In any crisis situation, you always make the mistake of thinking that by escaping from the situation, you can come out of the fear. But again and again, life will teach you that only by completing with fear will you get out of any fear - never by escaping from the situation. But what to do? Everybody thinks the solution in front of the easiest solution - and they think it will be a permanent solution. Nol

I have a story for you:

A woman takes her lover home during the day while her husband is at work. Unknown to her, her nine-year-old son is hiding in the bedroom closet. Suddenly, her husband comes home unexpectedly, so she asks her lover to hide in the closet. The lover enters the dark closet and closes the door. Suddenly the little boy says, 'Dark in here!' The man, the lover, is shocked to find that the little boy is also sitting there in the closet. "Yes, it is," he says.

The boy says, 'I have a baseball.'

The man says, "That's nice." The boy asks, 'Want to buy it?' The man says. 'No, thanks.' The boy says, 'My dad is outsidel' The man says. 'Okay, okay! How much?' The boy says, '$250.' The man buys it.

After a few weeks it so happens that the boy and the woman's lover are again together in the closet.

The boy says. 'Dark in here.' The man says, "Yes, it is." The boy says, 'I have a baseball glove.' The man, remembering the last time, asks the boy, 'How much?' The boy says, "$750." The man says, 'Finel What to do? I will buy.' So the deal is done.

A few days later, the boy's father tells him. 'Come on son! Grab your glove, get your baseball! Let's play some baseball!" The boy says, 'No dad, I can't, because I sold both of them.' The father asks, "You sold them? How much did you sell them for?" Son says, 'For $1,000. The ball for $250, and the glove for $750.' The father says. 'That's terrible, to overcharge your friends like this! That's way more than those two things cost! 1 am going to take you to church and make you confess!"

They both go to church and the father makes the little boy sit in the confession booth and he closes the door to start the confession.

The boy says, 'Dark in here."

The priest says, 'Don't start that again!'

The unfortunate thing is, everyone thinks that if you just handle the current situation and escape, you can save yourself. The priest thinks that if he just buys the baseball, he will be saved. He doesn't know that the baseball glove is coming, and next something will be coming, and next something else is going to come .. I

Listen: Any addiction you carry, whether it is alcohol, smoking, or even an addiction to worrying, shows clearly that you don't have respect for your life. Any incompletion you carry shows that you don't have respect for Life!

And many times, because you don't have respect for Life, Life responds the same way towards you.

A shy guy goes into a bar. He sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar.

After an hour, gathering up his courage - this guy must be an NRI (Non-Resident Hindu) newly gone to the West from a Hindu villagel - he finally goes over to her and asks, 'Do you mind if I chat with you for a while?'

The woman responds by yelling at the top of her lungs, 'WHAT? What do you mean? No, 1 won't sleep with you tonight!"

The guy is shocked. Everyone in the bar is now staring at them. Naturally, the guy is now hopelessly and completely embarrassed. He just slinks back to his table. He sits quietly, putting his head down.

After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says. 'I am sorry if I embarrassed you. I am a journalist and I have an assignment to study how people respond to embarassing situations. So I was studying how you would respond.'

Suddenly, this guy raises his head and shouts at the top of his lungs, 'WHAT? What do you mean you need two hundred dollars?"

Understand, when you yell at life, life yells at you. When you try to embarrass life, life embarrasses you. When you don't respect life, life will not respect you.

And don't imagine that you continuously respect life. If you are spending your time in

worrying, you don't have respect for life! If you are spending your time in incompletion, you are embarrassing life. If you are not looking into your life, you are disrespecting life. Please understand, if you yell at Life, naturally Life will be waiting to yell at you.

Please listen to this story.

A lion lived in a forest where a flock of sheep used to graze. Every day a sheep would come and stand in front of this lion, start a conversation, and then the lion would kill that sheep and eat it. Every day, this is happening.

One day, a fox came to eat the remaining meat. He got his food and he started staying there. The fox was really surprised seeing this strange thing happening every single day. He went and asked the lion. 'How is it that every day, one sheep comes to you and starts a conversation, spends time with you, and you kill that sheep and eat it? What is the secret?'

The lion laughed and said, 'It is nothing! One day I called the whole flock of sheep and made them believe that they are all lions and very powerful, and nothing can be done to them. I invited each one to come and spend some time with me alone. So every day one sheep comes for a friendly chat with me, believing that nothing can be done to it! After that it is easy for me to just kill it and eat it!"

Please understand, this is exactly the story I will use to describe the freedom of the press in some countries! This is the right example for press freedom. The media makes you believe that YOU are empowered because of its freedom! It constantly makes you believe that its freedom is your freedom, and makes you trust it more than your own common sense - which is the surest way to destroy yourself!

There is a story from the Mahabharata which is taught in many of our schools in Bharat.

Once the elders of the family wanted to test who is more intelligent - the Kaurava kids or the Pandava kids. So they had a competition for the kids: they gave each group one gold coin and told them that they have to fill a house with it. You will be given only one gold coin; with that, you have to fill a house!

The Kauravas took their gold coin and sat together. The Kauravas are a hundred brothers! Naturally, a hundred messy brains trying to work together will mess up anything! Listen: you can have a hundred hands, but not a hundred brains. Be very clear. all great things are done by a hundred hands and a hundred legs, but not a hundred brains. The brain should be only one. But unfortunately, we usually have thousands and thousands of brains, but not a single hand!

So, these hundred brains sat together, discussed left and right, argued, shouted, fought

among themselves, saying, "How can we fill the whole house with just one gold coin?"

They finally came to the conclusion, 'The elders are all cheats, they are abusing us, they are trying to exploit us, they want to make us feel we are failures !'

After this whole drama, they finally decided that for one gold coin, you can get nothing but hay! So all of them went to the market and bought loads and loads of hay. They filled the whole house with hay, and in the end all of them were standing outside the house!

The five Pandavas also sat together and discussed. One good thing with the Pandavas is, even though each of them has specialized in one field, they all align under Dharmaraja, under Yudhishthira. Bhima represents physical valor. Arjuna represents physiological power. Nakula represents intelligence. Sahadeva is the aligner of Time; he is a

great astrologer. But because all of them are always aligned under Yudhishthira, it is like one brain with ten hands.

So they sat together and discussed, 'What will fill the whole house? How to fill the whole house with just one gold coin? When our elders say it is possible, it must be possible.'

Kauravas: These elders are all cranky. They don't know what they are asking us to do; just trying to prove we are small fellows.' This is the thought-trend of the Kauravas.

Pandavas: 'When the elders say, there must be a way. They are trying to teach us something, they are trying to educate us through this. When the elders say, it must be possible."

So, finally, the Pandavas also decided to fill the house with one gold coin. How they did it. Iet us see.

The time came for the inspection. All the elders - Bhishma, Drona, all the elders - arrived for the inspection. They first went to the Kauravas' house. The moment they reached there, they saw that the whole house was filled with hay, and all the Kauravas were standing outside, because they could not even get into the housel

Bhishma asked. "What happened? Why are you guys standing outside?"

The Kauravas replied, 'What do you mean? You told us that we have to fill the whole house with one gold coin. What else can we buy with one gold coin which will fill the whole house? This is the cheapest item in the market."

So all these fellows were standing outside. Neither were they able to enter the house, nor were the people who had come to inspect it!

Dhritarashtra, the father of the Kauravas, was very happy. 'See my sons and their intelligence! They filled the whole house with just one gold coin! They should be dedared victorious. They have won the game."

But Bhishma said, 'No, nol Let us go to the other house also.'

So they went to the other house to see how the Pandavas had filled it. There they saw that the whole house was filled with light and fragrance! Understand, for that one gold coin, the Pandavas had bought lamps, oil and incense, and filled the house with light and fragrance. The moment the elders arrived, the Pandavas washed their feet, invited them in, gave them seats to sit, and paid their respects to them. The elders were very pleased, and declared that the Pandavas had won the game.

Is your life like the Kauravas' house or the Pandavas' house? Have you filled your house with hay, or with light and fragrance? Is your inner space like the Kauravas or the Pandavas? Please understand, incompletion keeps you full, but never fulfilled! Completion keeps you full and also gives you the space to live.

Listen: your anger, your agitation, your restlessness - these are also patterns. These are also incompletions.

How many of you cognize that many a time, just because you are unable to tolerate the agitation. you make a certain decision even though you know it is not the solution for the problem? You make a decision just because you have to do something to release the agitation inside you. When you understand your conflicting patterns, when you complete with your conflicting patterns, the source of the problems melts away; the source itself melts away.

A story for you:

A businessman makes a call to his home. An unfamiliar male voice answers the phone. The businessman asks. "Who is this?" The person at the other end says, "I am the new servant." The businessman says. 'I want to speak to Madam.' The servant says, 'Sir, she is in the bedroom with her husband.' The businessman shouts angrily, "What? I am her husband!"

The servant asks, 'Oh! Now what should I do, sir?'

The businessman says, 'Go to the study room; there is a cabinet there. I have kept my gun in one of the drawers. Take it and kill them both! Then come and tell me. I will be on the line.'

The servant does the job and returns. He asks, 'What should I do with the bodies, sir?'

The businessman says, 'Dump them in our swimming pool.'

The servant says, "Pool ... ? But there is no pool in the house, sin"

The businessman exclaims, "What?! No swimming pool?"

The servant replies, "No, sir!"

The businessman says, 'Oops! Wrong number ... "

A woman going to Spain asks her husband, 'What should I bring you from Spain?' Her husband says, 'A Spanish girl!' On her return, her husband asks, "Where is my gift?"

The wife says, 'Wait for nine months!'

When you talk from your incompletions, naturally, she will talk from her incompletions! We always respond to other people's problems by pouring our own problems and incompletions on them. But we can never kill incompletion with incompletion; only acting from the space of completion can heal the other and heal you also.

Two lawyers were walking through a forest.

Suddenly both of them spotted a vicious-looking bear.

The first lawyer immediately opened his briefcase, pulled out a pair of sneakers and started putting them on.

The second lawyer looked at him and said, "You are crazy! You will never be able to outrun that bear! Do you think you can outrun that bear?"

The first lawyer said, 'I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you!'

Many a time, if you win over whoever you perceive as your competitors, you think your life is successful. If you are richer than your neighbor. you think you are successful. If you have a better job than your brothers, you think you are successful.

Understand: even if you are a millionaire, if you are measuring your own success against someone else's failure, you are in poverty; you are in perpetual crisis, just fighting for survival.

It is the nature of human beings to resist expansion. Please understand, incarnations happen on the planet to remind human beings that they have possibilities! That is why, again and again, we are doubted, we are resisted! We are resisted because we are trying to remind you of that possibility in you which you neither saw nor wanted to see - because it awakens you.

A mother goes to her son's bedroom one morning and wakes him up. She says, 'Come on, my dear, wake up! It's 8 am already; you have to go to school.' The son resists, "Tell me at least three reasons why I should go to school, then I will go!' Mother says, 'First: all the teachers and students will be waiting for you. Second: it is already late. Third: you are the Headmaster of the school!"

Understand, many a time, you don't want to wake up to your possibility, because possibility brings responsibility!

A Jewish man lives in a Catholic neighborhood. Every Friday, the Catholics are driven crazy, because while they are eating fish, the Jew is outside barbecuing delicious steak, which they cannot eat.

So the Catholics decide to work on the Jew to convert him to Catholicism. Finally, after many threats and much pleading, the Catholics succeed. They take the Jew to a priest, who sprinkles holy water on him and says, 'Born a Jew, raised a Jew, now a Catholic!' The Catholics are ecstatic! No more delicious but maddening smells every Friday evening!

But the next Friday evening, the smell of barbecue wafts through the neighborhood. The Catholics all rush to the Jew's house to remind him of his new diet. They see him standing over a fire, cooking steak. He is sprinkling water on the meat and saying, "Born a cow, raised a cow, now a fish!"

Conversion is one of the worst kinds of foolishness! The intelligent thing to work for is the transformation of the other, not their conversion. Always support transformation, never conversion!

Three mad guys want to get discharged from the mental asylum. They go to the doctor and beg, "Please release us. We want to go back home." The doctor says, 'Come back tomorrow morning. I will give you all a test, and based on how you perform, I will decide whether you can go back or not.'

So the next day all of them come to take the test. The doctor takes them to a swimming pool which is empty. He tells the first mad guy, "Jump in and swim!" The guy jumps in - and breaks his hand! Then he calls the second guy and says. "Jump in and swim!" The second guy also jumps, and breaks his leg. Then the doctor calls the third guy and says, "Jump in and swim" The third guy says, 'No, I will not jump! Don't try to trick me!'

The doctor is very happy. Yes, now this fellow can be discharged!

He says, 'You can go back home! You are not mad anymore. You are cured! Come to the office and finish the paperwork, and then you can leave."

So the guy goes to the office, finishes the paperwork and signs the exit form. When he is on his way out, the doctor

casually asks, "May I know why you did not jump in the pool? Forgive my asking, it is just my curiosity."

The guy says, 'What do you mean? How can you ask me to jump in the pool when I don't know how to swim!'

Right decision taken for wrong reason! Remember, even if you are taking the right decision for the wrong reason, you are in danger!

One evening, Ram Singh was searching for something under the streetlight.

A passerby asked him, 'What are you searching for?'

Ram Singh said, 'I am searching for my diamond ring.'

So the passerby also joined in the search.

Soon, more and more people gathered around him, and they also started searching for the lost diamond ring.

Finally, after two hours of searching, they asked, "Where exactly did you lose it?"

Ram Singh said, 'I lost it inside the house.'

They asked, "What! Then why are you searching for it out on the street?"

Ram Singh said, 'But inside the house, there is no light. So I am searching for it here under the streetlight!'

Listen: when you come to know that the treasure you lost is in your very home, in your very inner space, you will stop searching for it on the streets!

There is a beautiful story:

During a Hindu village festival, the villagers were taking the temple deity in a procession on a donkey.

The procession went around the village.

In the very first street, everyone gathered around, offering flowers, arati, incense, worshipping the deity on the donkey.

The donkey was shocked. He thought, "What happened to these people? Usually they beat me and drive me out! Sometimes these kids put crackers on my tail and tease me. But today these fellows are worshipping me!'

Then slowly he thought, 'Oh, I think only now this village has recognized my greatness!' In the second street, the same thing happened. He felt really proud and thought. "Maybe I have become enlightened! See how the whole village is worshipping me!'

In the third street, the same thing was repeated. The donkey was now walking down the street with a swagger, nodding at all the people and blessing them with a smile.

While walking in the fourth street, the donkey suddenly thought. "Now it is obvious that I am enlightened. Then why should I carry this stupid statue and walk around?"

So he just shook himself and dropped the deity!

You can imagine what would have happened next! The donkey got a very strong and powerful puja (worship) from the whole village!

Understand, the donkey is worshipped as long as it carries the deity! Your body is great as long as it remembers it carries the superconsciousness, and acts as an instrument to express the superconsciousness, not as an impediment to your superconsciousness.

The body and mind should be beautiful tools for you to express the glory of consciousness. Then they are worth worshipping, not otherwise.

Listen: the belief you carry about you plays a major role in your life. Whatever you believe, you become that, you are that. The external situation is not going to decide what you are; it is the ideas you carry about you, the stuff out of which you are made, which decides that.

If you believe that the body is you, you will be only that. I feel so bad about the people who believe that they are only body, who believe they have only one birth, because they stop the possibility of growth.

That is exactly what happened with Ahalya.

The story of Ahalya in Ramayana says that she turned into a stone and remained as a stone for many ages.

Finally, when the great incarnation Sri Rama just touched her with his foot, she was awakened again.

When people believe that they are only the body, when they believe that they have only one birth, when such people die, they are stuck in a zone called 'causal layer'. They are just kept there in the Waiting Lounge for ages, because of what they believed when they were in the body. That was the layer in which Ahalya was stuck, and Rama liberated her.

Ahalya got stuck in the wrong belief about life. She stopped growing. She stopped expanding. She thought that the moment death comes, life is over, because it is all about body; her being is nothing but body.

She was stuck with that, and Rama came and liberated her from that space.

The good news is: if you have some immature belief, you can transform it; the possibility is available to you.

And the great news is: it is very simple! With completion, you can do it.

Q: Dear Swamiji, you said that when I want a headache to disappear, I have given more energy for it to stay in me. In that case, why have I not given more energy to spiritual experiences like Samadhi or Kundalini energy, even though 1 want it? - Rupak

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Please understand, wanting it is one thing; believing it is possible, trusting it is possible, is another thing! Let me give you a small story.

A man was trying his best to get a boon from Shiva.

So every morning he would pour water, milk, all kinds of offerings, on the Shiva deity, and sit and chant 'Namah Shivaya', and literally nag Shiva to give him a boon! But Shiva was not responding.

Finally one day he became angry. When the greed is not fulfilled, it turns into anger. So the man became angry and decided to tease Shiva.

He brought a Vishnu deity and started performing all the worship only for Vishnu.

He lit an incense stick for Vishnu, but because of a breeze, the incense smoke started going towards Shiva.

The man could not tolerate that! The incense he lit for Vishnu was going to Shiva!

He jumped up and caught hold of the nose of the Shiva deity and said. "You should NOT smell the incense I lit for Vishnu!'

Suddenly, he felt that he was holding somebody's real nose, real flesh!

Then he saw - Shiva was sitting there!

The moment he saw Shiva, his pseudo anger went away.

He fell at Shiva's feet and asked, "Lord, please forgive me!'

Shiva asked, "What do you want, my son?" The man asked for the boon, and Shiva gave it to him.

Suddenly the man had a doubt. He asked, 'Lord, I was doing so much puja. repetition of your name, everything, for you. Why did you not appear then, and why did you appear now, when I was angry with you?'

Then Shiva said beautifully, 'Even in your greed.

you did not have a strong trust that I am actually present in that deity. You were only imagining that Shiva is there, but one corner of your mind was always doubting your actions. There was never 100% doubtless trust.

But in your anger, when you held my nose strongly, you did not have a doubt for even one second that I was there! Your mind was not saying. "Who knows if Shiva is really there?" You just know Shiva is there and you want to take revenge on him! That strong authentic doubtless trust is the key. That is what makes me appear. When you have that trust, I have no other way! I have to appear!"

Understand, Rupak - maybe you wanted your kundalini to awaken, maybe you wanted samadhi to happen. But behind that, your mind, your unconscious, is constantly denying all this. Your trust in samadhi is not as strong as your trust in headache! Rupak, contemplate on this story. Contemplate on it, you will understand - authentic trust is the essence.

A taxi driver picks up a girl and takes her somewhere and does what he does. When they are leaving, the girl says, "That just cost you $200." "What are you saying?' asks the guy. The girl smiles and says, "Well, I am a call girl." The guy is shocked, but silently hands her the money. She gets into his car and he drives her back. Just as she is getting out of the car, he says, "That just cost you $200." 'What do you mean?' asks the girl angrily. The guy smiles and says, 'Well, I am a taxi driver!'

If you are thinking of money, it is an arrangement of convenience, not a relationship! When you are really in a relationship, suddenly money becomes useless in your life. When you are in love, the fulfillment center in you is awakened, and it does not let you think about money, about your future security. When love is awakened, suddenly your thinking becomes fulfillment-based and insecurity gives way. This is the scale I am giving you to find out if you are in love or not!

Two fellows are sitting and having a friendly chat outside a tea shop in a remote Hindu village.

One fellow says, 'If I win a lottery, I will buy plenty of cows, bulls and buffaloes!' The other fellow says. I will buy 1000 acres of land.'

Then he asks the first fellow, 'How will you feed your cows? Why don't you buy some land first?"

The first fellow says, 'I don't need to buy land, because I can graze my cows on your land.' The second fellow gets furious and picks a fight with him. Both of them start fighting! They neither have any money, nor are they doing anything to get it. It is all just ifs and buts.

This is the exact way you talk inside your head! You don't even need another person to fight with! Just your own mind is enough. Unfortunately, your mind does not want to live with solutions. Unless there are constantly unsolved problems, you don't feel life is moving! I tell you: if you can learn to think without the words 'if' and 'but' in your inner space for just 11 days, you will experience honesty, you will experience authenticity.

Recently, a guy came to me and asked, 'Swamiji, I am going to get married, please bless me.'

I knew that person was in love with somebody.

I said. "Oh, so the decision is made and you guys have decided to get married!' He said suddenly, 'No Swamiji, I am not getting married to that person. It is another person."

I asked. 'Why? I know you guys are in love. Then why are you getting married to another person?'

He said, "I decided to marry the girl chosen by my parents."

I asked. 'Why? When you are in love with somebody, why do you want to go for an arranged marriage?"

He said, "If I go for an arranged marriage, if something goes wrong, at least I will have somebody to blame! If I myself choose the person, then I will not have anybody to blame."

I asked, 'What do you mean?'

He said, 'Anyway marriage is a failure, Swamiji. Anyway it is going to be a failure in one way or the other. But with an arranged marriage, at least I will have somebody to blame if something goes wrong! If I choose the girl and marry her, they will be blaming me if something goes wrong!'

Understand, many a time you surrender so that you will have somebody to blame if something goes wrong later!

No! Real surrender is active surrender, where your surrender is responsible, intelligent, useful surrender.

A sailor and his new bride were travelling in a ship. Suddenly strong winds started shaking the ship. The wife was terrified and started crying. The sailor just sat down calmly and started praying.

The wife was shocked. She cried, "How can you be so calm when we are going to die? Aren't you going to do something about it?'

Suddenly, the sailor picked up a knife lying nearby and held it to the throat of his wife. 'Aren't you afraid now that I am going to kill you?' he asked.

Without a bit of fear, she blushed and said, 'When the knife is in the hands of my beloved, why should I be afraid?"

The sailor smiled and said. 'In the same way, when my life is in the hands of God, why should I be afraid."

When the knife is in the hands of your beloved, you don't have the fear that you will be killed. When your life is in the hands of the Divine, why are you afraid that you will be destroyed?

Three priests were talking over lunch.

They were discussing how much money they take for themselves from the collection box, and how much they spend on their religious institution.

The first priest said, 'All the money I collect, I draw a line on the ground and throw all the money up in the air. Whatever falls this side of the line is mine and whatever falls the other side is God's!'

The second priest said, 'I do the same! I draw a big circle on the ground and throw all the money up in the air. Whatever falls outside the circle, I give it to God, and whatever falls inside the circle, I take it for myself!"

Then came the third priest - a very intelligent guy. He said, 1 always let God decide how much He wants.'

'Really? How do you do that?', asked the other two priests in surprise.

"Well, I just throw everything up in the air and yell out to God, "Take whatever you want!" Whatever God doesn't take falls down, and it's mine!'

This is how we try to cheat Life, this is how we try to outsmart Life. But Life is too intelligent to be cheated! When you try to cheat Life, you will be cheated by Life. When you try to outsmart Life, you will be outsmarted by Life.

A young man comes up to his father and shares. 'Dad. I'm in love with the pretty young girl next door, and I'm going to propose to her!" The father immediately says, 'Oh, no! You can't do that!' 'But why?' asks the son. 'Because she's your half-sister!' says the father. The son is shocked to hear this, but he obeys his father's words.

A month later, he comes to his father and says. 'Dad, you remember the girl who stays opposite us? I plan to start dating her."

Again, the father cries out, 'Don't do that! She's your half-sister! And please don't tell your mother about it!'

The son is really mad at his father, but he shuts up and listens to him.

The third time, the son finds another girl, and his father repeats the same thing.

This time, the son decides that it is too much. He rushes to his mother and tells her everything. He says, 'See what Dad has done! He has ruined your life, and now he is ruining my life also. Whichever girl 1 choose, he says she is my half-sister!"

The mother says, 'Don't worry, son. You can marry any of the three girls, because he is not your father!"

Never imagine that you can live a good life when the people around you are living without integrity and authenticity! Any completion, any fulfilment, any success, is possible in your life only if the people in your life are also living these principles.

One of the biggest problems that people face is, 'I understand what is wrong, but I forget and do my own thing!" For all the people who think like this, I have a story.

Four co-workers were sharing a table at lunchtime.

One of them, a young man who had joined the company recently, opened his lunch box and saw that it contained tomato rice. He made a face and ate it.

The next day, the same group was sitting at the table, when the young man opened his lunch box, saw that it contained tomato rice and grumblingly ate it.

The third day, the same thing happened, and this time the young man complained loudly, "Oh no! Not tomato rice again!"

The fourth day, when he saw that the box contained tomato rice again, he quietly walked over to the waste bin and emptied the box into it. His co-workers marveled at his patience, but didn't ask any questions.

The fifth day, when the young man opened his lunch box, his co-workers watched anxiously. And sure enough, it was tomato rice again!

"If I have to see tomato rice ONE MORE DAY, I am going to walk off the balcony!', he announced grimly.

'But why don't you just tell your wife to stop packing tomato rice for your lunch every single day?' asked one of the co-workers in panic.

The young man looked startled.

"Wife? What wife?', he said. "I am not married! I cook my own lunch."

A man dies in a car accident.

When he wakes up, he finds himself in a beautiful place. Many celestial beings are standing around him and asking him. 'What do you want? You only have to ask!'

The man orders food and drink, all kinds of things. Everything is immediately delivered, and he enjoys himself immensely.

The next day he asks for expensive clothes, a palace, beautiful women. The instant he asks, everything is given.

The third day, he is busy searching for things to ask! Somehow he asks for this and that, and everything is instantly delivered. Whatever he asks for is given.

How many days can you live like this? You will die out of sheer boredom, because whatever you can think of is there.

After a week, he tells one of the celestial beings, "I am getting a bit bored of being in heaven'. Just for a change, can 1 go to hell and see how it feels?'

The being asks him, "Where do you think you are right now?"

Listen: if all your dreams are constantly fulfilled, if you don't have to struggle to achieve any of your desires, suddenly you will feel empty. This is the truth.

You find that whatever you wanted has been achieved, but that sense of fulfillment FOR WHICH you did everything is still not there.

Be very clear, if all your desires are fulfilled, you are in hell, because there is nothing left to hope for! When you realize that even if all your desires are fulfilled, it cannot bring inter fulfillment, you take the first step on the spiritual path.

A really small story!

Once a man fell down from the third floor of a building. When he hit the ground, he was not injured, but he was in a state of shock. Somebody asked him out of concern, 'Did the fall hurt?"

The man replied, 'The fall did not hurt. Only the stopping of the fall hurt! Only the landing hurt!"

Life is like this! As long as you flow with it, nothing hurts! Only when something stops the flow, only when there is some resistance, you feel the pain!

The ancient King Harishchandra is known to have lived his whole life based on truthfulness and being in integrity with his word. The story of Harishchandra says that at one point he even sold his wife and children in order not to compromise his integrity.

Once, in a village, a preacher was narrating the story of Harishchandra. After the narration he asked a man. 'What did you learn from this story?" The man replied, 'I learnt that I should always be truthful, no matter what price I have to pay for it."

The preacher was happy.

Then he asked another man, 'What did you learn?'

The second man said, "I learnt that in an emergency, you can even sell your wife, nothing wrong!"

Understand, you can learn two very different things from the same story! You never experience Life as IT is, but as YOU are - because each of you sees the whole Life through the filter of your own patterns and incompletions.

Once, a tired traveler decided to rest under a tree. The tree happened to be a kalpatanu, a wishfulfilling tree.

While he was resting, he had a passing thought, 'How nice it would be if I got some good food now!' The moment the thought came, a plate of delicious food appeared in front of him. He was delighted and ate to his heart's content.

After the satisfying meal, he thought, 'It would be good if I could get a comfortable bed to lie on.' No sooner did the thought come than a luxurious king-size bed appeared in front of him. He was amazed! He lay down on the bed.

As his head touched the pillow, he thought it would be really good if somebody fanned him while he slept. In an instant, a young girl appeared with a fan in her hand and started fanning him. Suddenly, a thought came to the man, '1 am in the middle of a forest! What if a tiger suddenly appears and eats me?"

The moment the thought came, a tiger appeared in front of him, pounced on him and ate him up!

Understand: The whole of Life is a kalpataru, a wish-fulfilling tree! The ideas that we carry about ourselves and Life are constantly getting fulfilled, whether we realize it or not.

The whole universe is a constant "Tathaastu! Tathaastu! So be it!"

So complete with all the negative words and thoughts you are carrying inside you from the past. Declare and create a new future for yourself.

The FBI had an opening for an assassin, so they started interviewing people. After all the background checks, interviews and tests were done, there were three finalists two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agent took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun, saying, 'We need to be sure that you will follow instructions, no matter what the circumstances.

Inside this room, you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill her and come out.'

The man was shocked. He said. "You can't be serious! I can't shoot my wife!" The agent said, "Then you are not the right man for the job. Take your wife and go home."

The second man was given the same task. He went inside, and all was quiet for five minutes. Then the man came out in tears and said to the agent, 'I cannot do it, I cannot kill'

The agent said, "You are not the right man. Take your wife and go back home."

Finally it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instruction to kill her husband.

She took the gun and went into the room.

Shots were heard one after another; then they heard screaming, crashing, banging on walls.

Then all was quiet.

The door opened slowly.

There stood the woman, wiping the sweat from her brow.

The agent asked. "What happened?"

She said. 'It turned out that this gun was loaded with blanks, so I had to beat him with the chair."

Many a time, life gives you a gun filled with blanks, just to test you. But unfortunately, you make a mess of it. When the wave of greed takes over, when the wave of fear takes over, when the wave of pain takes over, you forget that Life need not be a struggle!

A guy goes to the doctor and says. 'Doctor, I have pain all over my body! It is excruciating. I think all my bones are fractured'.

The doctor says, 'Please put your finger on the exact spot where you feel the pain.'

The guy puts his finger on his shoulder and cries. 'Ouch, it hurts here!'

Then he puts his finger on his chest and cries. 'It hurts here too!"

Then he puts his finger on his stomach and cries, 'It hurts here too! I can't tolerate it!' He puts his finger on almost every part of his body, crying. "It hurts here too!" The doctor just picks up the guy's finger, bandages it and says, "Don't worry. All you have is a fracture in your finger!"

Understand: when your finger is fractured, every spot you touch is going to seem painful. When you are carrying incompletions inside you, everything in life will appear painful. Life itself is not pain! The finger with which you are touching Life is causing the pain. So look in. You need to heal the finger, not try to change Life!

A crooked thief was sitting on a tree in a forest, looking for somebody to loot. He saw a sadhu passing by quietly below. Just to test the sadhu, he threw a stone on him. That sadhu just looked up, but by his nature he was such a soft, happy, graceful person, that he did not react with any anger. He thought that maybe this man is mentally sick, that is why he is throwing stones at people. So he raised his hand and blessed the thief, thinking, 'Let you be blessed, let you be healed, so that you will not do this kind of thing again!'

The thief thought, 'Ahl I think, in this part of the country, people bless you if you throw stones at them!"

Soon, a king who was on a hunting trip arrived on the same route with his retinue. What do you think this foolish thief did? He threw a stone on king also! The king's people just caught him and cut off his head!

Understand: the thief gave what he had, the sadhu gave what he had and the king gave what he had! The sadhu had a healing nature, so he healed the thief's nature was to be violent, so naturally he attracted his own destruction at the hands of the king.

In my young age I read a story - a funny but very sad story. A very childish story, but there is a big truth in it.

A guy is standing at the edge of the world and holding the whole sky on his head. It is too heavy, but he cannot move unless he gets somebody else to hold that weight. Another guy happens to come there and asks him. 'What happened? Why are you standing like that?"

This fellow tries to give a big smile and says, "Oh, you don't know, it is such a joyful, wonderful feeling, holding up the sky like this!"

The second guy says, 'Really? Will you allow me to hold it up for half an hour, just half an hour?"

The first guy says. 'No, half an hour is too much. Maybe I will give you five minutes, till I go to the bathroom and come back.' And he leaves the weight on this guy and runs away; that's all! After that, the second guy is waiting for the next person to come, to tell him the same lie and dump the weight on him.

Just like in this story. Time is a huge weight that everyone is carrying on his head, waiting for somebody else to come and give a big smile, that dirty party smile.

Why don't you reveal the truth that the whole human civilization is hypocrisy? Why don't you allow the truths of the enlightened beings to penetrate the mainstream human civilization? Why are you guys suffering and continuously transmitting this suffering to the planet earth, and making human beings believe that they inherit only suffering, but in the name of that big plastered smile, plastic sugared smile?

O human civilization! I call upon you to taste the ultimate truth which I tasted. O new generation. O human civilization which is ready to think - realize, Time is the worst myth taught to you!

Part 3: 108 'New-Clear Bombs' - from Nithya Satsang_English_part_3.md

Please understand, this is a basic truth: whatever you see and experience is because of your thought patterns. Whatever you see in the outer world - whether it is your health, body, mind, world, relationships - everything is because of your thought patterns. Everything is just your thought patterns!

Let me tell you this one small story about how our life experiences are changed just by our thought patterns.

Once an old villager traveled to a nearby village for some work. On his way back, he saw from a distance that his house was on fire.

He started rolling on the ground and crying. 'My house, my house is gonel'

Hearing the noise, his first son came running and said, 'Father, don't worry. Don't you remember, you sold that house just two days back?

The villager suddenly stood up and wiped his tears, 'Oh yes, yes, yes! I remember!' He was completely relaxed.

Suddenly his second son ran towards him and said, 'Father, it is true we sold the house, but we still have not got the payment!"

Again the villager fell down and started rolling on the ground. "Oh, my house is on fire, is there nobody to save it?"

He started calling out to all the gods. In Bharat that is the only 911/

Within a few minutes, his third son arrived, saying, 'Don't worry father, just this morning I received the payment and deposited it in the bank. The others don't know about it yet. So it is not our house anymore."

Then immediately the villager sat up again, smiling, "Thank God, everything is okay! Everything is okay."

Please understand: the same situation, the same person - one moment he is feeling the deep suffering, but the next moment, he is completely relaxed. Just see how your thought patterns can influence your response even to critical situations! Without your knowledge, your life is being run by your thought patterns.

A singer was singing in a Carnatic music concert. He chose his favorite raga and went on for half an hour - Aaaah ... Ooooh ... Nanananana ... I

When he finally finished, the whole audience shouted, 'Once more! Once more!'

The singer was pleased. He sang the whole song again.

When he finished, the audience again shouted, 'Once more! Once more!'

The singer thought, 'Wow, looks like 1 am doing a wonderful job! The people are all enjoying so much!"

So he sang again, and it went on like this five times.

Suddenly the singer had a doubt.

He asked the audience, 'Is my singing that wonderful? Why are you asking me to repeat the same song again and again?"

They said, 'No! Till you sing the song properly at least once, we are not going to leave you!'

Be very clear: till you learn the lesson, life is not going to leave you alone!

There was once a great war between two countries.

On a hot afternoon, a man in civilian clothes was riding past a small group of tired soldiers who were digging a huge pit.

The group leader was shouting orders and threatening to punish them if the work was not completed within an hour.

The man riding the horse stopped and asked. 'Sir, why don't you help them?' The group leader replied, 'I am their leader. The men do as I tell them. If you feel so strongly about it, you go help them!"

The man calmly got off the horse and started working with the job was finished. Before leaving, he congratulated the soldiers for their work, and approaching the group leader said, 'The next time your status prevents you from supporting your people, inform your higher authorities and they will provide a more permanent solution.'

At that moment, another soldier came running up and saluted the man and spoke a few words to him. The man nodded and got onto his horse and rode away.

'Who is that man?' asked the group leader.

'Don't you know?', said the soldier, 'He is the Army General!'

A true leader is a person who is ready to take responsibility consciously. He is ready to handle life consciously and respond spontaneously to life. He approaches life with tremendous awareness, sensitivity and maturity.

A small story about philosophers! I don't think it needs any explanation!

Ten philosophers were imprisoned in a country. They were kept together in one prison cell. They decided that somehow they should escape from the prison. So they sat and made a big plan.

They got the mold of the prison door key and made a duplicate key. Finally, they chose the date of escape. The whole plan was clearly laid out.

They decided that on the particular night, two of them will open the prison door with the duplicate key and signal to the others would escape and these two would follow after locking the door behind them.

The day of escape dawned and two of them went to open the door. The rest of them waited for the signal. They waited and waited but never got any signal.

Three hours passed.

Suddenly the two philosophers who had gone to open the door came back and said. 'We have to drop our plan to escape. It can't happen today. We will have to do it some other day. We will have to reschedule our escape."

The others asked, "Why, what happened?"

They replied, "What to do? The foolish guards forgot to lock the prison door!"

A young man went to an enlightened master and said, 'Master, I am very keen to renounce the world. However, I am very worried about what will happen to my family. They will not be able to bear my being away from them!"

The master listened to him with a smile and said, 'Alright, I will teach you a yogic secret that you can use to cause temporary death. Let us first test whether your family has the strength to handle it!"

The disciple agreed. He went through the yogic process and temporarily

appeared dead, though he could hear everything that was being said around him.

His family members started crying and shouting. 'Oh, why did you leave us and go away? How can we bear it ?"

Suddenly, the master walked in and saw the scene.

He told them, 'I know the way to bring him back to life, but one of you has to be willing to die in his place. Which of you would like to volunteer?'

The master asked each family member, one by one, but not one of them was willing to die for him, including his parents and wife. The disciple was shocked to hear each of them giving some reason or other why they couldn't do it.

Finally they just said, 'It's ok. We will manage without himl'

All your greatest worries are like this! They are just your imagination about events that may never happen in your life. I tell you: 99% of your worries never come true, and the remaining 1% that do come true are good for you!

A ninety-year-old man used to sit every day at the beach from morning to evening, watching people going by.

Another man who noticed this went up to him and asked him. "What do you actually do sitting here every day?"

The old man replied, 'I am searching for the perfect woman to be my wife.'

The man was simply shocked at this reply and asked him. "Why did you not search in your youth?"

The old man replied, "I have been searching since I was twenty years oldl'

The man asked, 'And you haven't found her yet?'

'Yes, I did find one perfect woman'', replied the old man enthusiastically.

'Then why didn't you marry her?', asked the man.

The old man replied. 'Because she was waiting for the perfect manl'

When your fantasies are too high, you can never be satisfied with reality. But finally, only reality can fulfil you; no fantasy can fulfil you, because it has to break somewhere, it has to come to an end somewhere.

There is a small story about Buddha and his disciples:

One day Buddha arrived for his usual morning discourse with his disciples.

He had a knotted handkerchief in his hand. He showed the handkerchief to the disciples and asked if any of them could come up and untie the knot.

One disciple went up and tried to untie it. He pulled and pulled and the knot tightened. Another disciple went up. He looked at the knot for a few seconds and easily untied it.

All he did was look at the knot and immediately he knot was made in the first place. So, he just reversed the whole thing and untied it! The knot itself taught him how to untie it.

Your negative patterns and incompletions are nothing but the knots in the handkerchief. If you look at a pattern with awareness, you will see exactly how it was created, so you will understand the right way to 'untie' it. The pattern itself will show you the way out of the pattern!

A man was feeling very burdened by his suffering.

Every day he would pray to God, 'Everybody is so happy, why do only I have to suffer?' One day, he was really depressed and prayed. 11 am not able to bear my pain anymore. Please take it away! Even if I have to take someone else's pain in exchange, I am ready to do that.'

That night he had a dream where he saw God telling everyone in his village to bring all their sufferings to Him.

So everybody gathered their sufferings in big bags and they all rushed to God.

Then God said, 'Now you can keep your bags around me.'

Everybody was very happy to get rid of their sufferings and dropped off their bags.

Then, as they had asked in their prayers. God said, 'Ok, now you can pick up any bag you want.'

Suddenly, everybody including this man, rushed to take his own bag!

Not only he, but all the others were also doing the same thing.

For the first time, each one had seen others' sufferings and their bag was not as big as those around them.

Also, each person had become used to his own sufferings. Nobody wanted to risk taking somebody else's unknown sufferings instead of their own known ones!

The man suddenly woke up and prayed to God, 'Thank you for opening my eyes! I know what I have is what is necessary for me. That is why you have given my circumstances to mel'

A king once went to an enlightened master to ask for a technique to become more powerful than his neighboring kings.

He sat in front of the master and started telling him the purpose of his visit.

The master listened patiently to the king.

He then told the king to go into the royal garden where a rose plant and a cypress plant were growing side by side.

He told the king, 'They are your teachers. They can teach you what you need to learn.'

The king went into the garden and saw the two plants, but could not understand what he was meant to learn from them.

He went back to the master and asked, 'What do you mean, master? I am not able to understand what and how these plants will teach me.'

The master took the king to the plants and explained. This cypress plant has been next to the rose plant for so many years. Never once has it desired to become a rose plant.

Same way, the rose plant has never ever desired to become a cypress plant.

If man had been the cypress plant, he would have compared himself with the rose plant and felt jealous at the attention that the rose plant was getting from people.

Or if man were the rose plant, he would have looked at the cypress plant enviously, thinking how peaceful the plant was, without the torture of getting plucked by people all day!"

The two plants flourished together because each plant used its energy for its own growth, not to compare itself with the other plant. The moment you stop comparing, jealousy simply disappears! You will realize that you are unique.

A man was narrating to his friend how he got lost in a desert one day.

He told the friend, "In despair, I knelt down and prayed that I should be guided out of the desert." The friend was pleased by the story and asked. 'So God answered your prayer?' The man replied, 'Oh, no! Before that, a traveler appeared from nowhere and showed me the way."

Miracles are continuously happening in front of your eyes. But you continuously miss them! Only because you miss them, life appears to be so dull. When we start becoming aware of the everyday miracles in our life, our whole sensitivity and gratitude to Life will go to the next level.

A man was told by a group of people that his wife had fallen in the river and he needed to jump in and save her. He immediately rushed to the river, jumped in and started swimming against the current.

Everybody was surprised and shouted out to him. "Hey! Why are you swimming against the current? She would have obviously gone downward with the current." He replied, "You guys don't know my wife. Even if she falls in the river, she will fight it like she fights everything else! She will move only against the current!"

As long as you resist the current, you will continuously create hell for yourself and for others. Not resisting the flow of life is living enlightenment.

Once two brothers met a sage who was known to be able to look into the future. The brothers paid their respects to the sage and asked him if he could tell them about their future.

The hermit advised them. 'It may not be good for you to know your future. Besides, your future can change later even if I tell you now.'

But the brothers insisted on knowing their future.

The sage looked at the elder brother and said, 'You will become a king in a year.' Looking at the younger brother, he said, "You are destined to die at the hands of a murderer in a year's time."

The brothers started walking back home. The elder brother was overjoyed, while the younger one was depressed.

Now the elder brother started creating his fantasy world, dreaming of becoming a king, The younger brother, who was destined to have less than a year to live, started spending his time in spiritual activities. He used his time to serve everyone and soon came out of his depression.

Eleven months passed.

One day, the elder brother invited the younger one to join him on a journey. He wanted to look for a piece of land for a grand palace that he was planning to build, since very soon he would become a king.

They were crossing an open land, when the elder brother stumbled on a half-buried pot. The brothers dug out the pot and opened it. It was filled with gold coins.

The elder brother was thrilled and started shouting. "This treasure is just for me to set up my palace and kingdom!"

Just then, a bandit jumped out from a bush, gave a blow on the elder brother's head and tried to snatch the pot from him.

The younger brother jumped at the bandit to protect his brother. But the bandit attacked him with a dagger he had in his hand and wounded him slightly.

During the struggle, the bandit dropped the pot and ran away.

The elder brother was very thankful to the younger brother for saving his life and offered him half the gold coins. The younger brother politely refused, saying that he was not going to live much longer in any case.

The elder brother started living a lavish life with his new treasure - eating, drinking and being merry.

One year passed. There was no sign of any crown for the elder brother. The younger brother was also enjoying good health. They decided to visit the sage again. They met him and asked. 'How did your predictions go wrong?"

The sage was also surprised and went into meditation to find out the reason.

He then explained, 'I told you that your destiny can be changed.'

He looked at the elder brother and said, "Your destiny changed because of your irresponsible actions over the past months. The crown that you were to get was reduced to a pot of gold.' He looked at the younger brother and said, "Your spiritual life, trust and surrender to the Divine changed your destiny also. Death at the murderer's hands was reduced to only being wounded by the bandit."

Understand, destiny is not something written in stone. You can choose how to respond to every situation life presents to you. When you respond with awareness, you will have the intelligence and the courage to change the flow of events in your life.

Once there lived a king who had a very faithful servant.

He was so loyal that he had even risked his life to save the life of the king on a couple of occasions.

On one such occasion, the king was very pleased with the servant and told him to ask for anything he wanted.

The servant humbly replied, 'I don't need anything, O King. You have given me everything I need."

But the king insisted.

Finally, the servant said, 'If you really want to give me something, please make me king for one day."

The king was a bit uncomfortable with this, but he had already promised and had to keep it up. The next morning the servant became king for a day.

The moment he wore the crown. the servant simply pointed to the king and ordered the royal guards, 'Kill himl'

The king was shocked! He shouted at the servant. "What nonsense are you talking?"

The servant calmly replied, 'I am the king today. I can do whatever | wish to.'

So the king was killed, and the servant remained king forever.

As long as your mind is in your control, as long as it is a tool in your hands, it serves you very well, it can be very useful to you. Nothing wrong.

The problem happens when you trust your mind so much that you make it your master!

There was a guy who had a compulsive worrying pattern which was ruining his health and his life.

He went to a psychiatrist, who recommended a specialist who could help him.

Soon, his friend noticed a dramatic change in the behavior of this guy and asked. "What happened? Nothing seems to worry you anymore!"

This guy said, 'I hired a professional worrier for myself, and I have not had a worry since. Now he does all my worrying for mel'

'A professional worrier? Never heard of such a thing! Is he expensive?' the friend asked.

This guy said, "Yes, he charges five thousand dollars a month."

'But how will you pay him that much every month?'. asked the friend.

'Of course I can't pay him that much every month!' said this guy. "But I don't worry about it. HE has to worry about it, that is his job!'

All your entertainment, all your relationships, all your vacations, are nothing but your search for a professional worrier, on whom you can dump your problems and be free of your worries at least for some time!

God and Adam are walking through the Garden of Eden, discussing various things. At one point, Adam exclaims, 'God, you have done a great job by making Eve so beautiful! Amazing! She is really beautifull'

God says, "Yes, my son, I made her beautiful so you would love her very, very deeply."

After some time, I think Adam felt he had praised her too much. Men will usually add a 'but' if they feel they have praised you too much! After some time, Adam also adds his 'but'. 'But, Lord, you have made her not too smart! In fact, you have made her dumb!' God said. "Yes, I made her dumb so that she would love you very, very deeply!"

Of course there is a root; there is a reason for every happening in Existence. Find out the root of your happening. When you find your root pattern and complete with it, you will understand your praarabdha, the purpose of your life.

A wife was busy with her make-up when the servant rushed into her room and cried. 'Hurry, Madam! Your husband is lying unconscious in the hall with a piece of paper clutched in his hand! And beside him is a large round box, I don't know what it is.'

'Really?'. said the wife, 'I am coming right away!'

She rushed to the hall and straightaway pounced on the box in delight, crying, "I knew it! Oh, how exciting! My fur coat has come! My fur coat has comel'

Understand, sometimes you catch the fur coat and forget the husband! Because only what you live, breathe and think about gets recorded in you; not everything. Don't imagine that everything that is going on around you and inside you gets recorded in your system.

Only what you live intensely becomes part of you.

In a motivational seminar, three men are asked to come up onto the stage. They are all asked, 'When you are in your coffin, what would you like to hear people say about you?"

The first guy comes up and says, "I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor of my time, and a great family man.'

The second guy says, "I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and a school teacher who made a huge difference to our citizens of tomorrow.'

The last guy replies, 'I would like to hear them say, "Look, look! He is moving!""

Listen: you don't have to prove your importance by dying! You don't have to wait to die to prove your greatness. Prove your importance by living! Let your life prove your greatness, not your death.

After twenty five years of married life, one day when the wife was going through the contents of her husband's closet, she discovered a box with three soy bean seeds and thirty dollars in cash.

She went to him and asked with a lot of curiosity, 'What is this? Why three soy beans and thirty dollars cash? How did it come? What is the meaning?"

He said. 'Now I have to confess to you: whenever I cheated on you. I put one soy bean in that box."

The wife was shocked, but was a little consoled that he had cheated on her only three times in twenty five years.

She then asked, 'And what about the thirty dollars?'

The husband replied, 'Well, whenever soy beans were ten dollars per kilo, I sold them!'

In life, in your relationships, many a time you only see the three soy beans, but you miss the thirty dollars behind it! Understanding all about the three soy beans and the thirty dollars and more than that, and still trusting life and continuing to live is called liberation, living Advaita.

This is an incident from my wandering days.

When I was wandering in the villages of northern Bharat, I had often noticed the villagers using a novel trap to catch birds:

They would suspend a stick horizontally from the branch of a tree. The stick will be hanging from the tree by a rope tied around its middle, that's all.

This stick is the trap!

You must be wondering how a stick can trap a birdl

Understand, when this stick is hanging freely, it is in a horizontal position.

When a bird comes and sits on one side of the stick goes down on that side because of the weight of the bird.

Like a see-saw, one side of the stick goes up, the other goes down, and the stick becomes almost vertical.

The bird will end up hanging topsy-turvy, upside downl The poor bird is terrified of hanging upside down.

But it thinks that if it lets go of the stick, it will fall head-first onto the ground and diel

I have seen birds clutching at the stick for hours together, afraid to let go.

It will be fluttering its wings, shaking its whole body, trying its best to the earlier position. But it won't dare let go of the stick!

Have you ever heard of a bird falling and breaking its head and dying? No!

But the foolish bird does not know that if it just lets go, it can fly ... I

It can be liberated.

After a few hours, the hunter comes along leisurely, simply catches hold of the bird and puts it in his cage.

Understand: this is the exact story of you and your mindl Just like the bird, you are hanging onto the very thing that is putting you into suffering!

Because the bird feels that the stick is its security, it hangs onto the stick. But when the hunter comes, not only does the bird lose the stick, but it is captured and caged too.

In the same way, you hold onto your mind, onto your life.

You think these things are your security. But when Yama, Death, comes, not only does all your so-called security become worthless, you are also put to death.

Very rarely, a bird which was once stuck in the trap but had the courage to let go and fly, comes back to save the other birds.

It nudges the bird which is hanging upside down, saying, "Let go! Do not be afraid. Once, I was in the same state as you. But when I let go, I just started flying! I became liberated. All it will take you to regain your balance is a few seconds. Have courage and do it.'

Since the bird is hanging topsy-turvy, when it lets go of the stick, maybe for a couple of seconds it will start falling.

Then it will just simply turn upwards and start flying! Courageously facing those few seconds, that chaos, is what I call tapas - spiritual practice.

An enlightened master is traveling through a forest. At a distance, he sees a man sleeping under an apple tree with his mouth wide open. When he comes nearer, he suddenly notices that a small poisonous snake is about to enter the mouth of the man. The man is so fast asleep that he does not even realize that a snake is getting into his mouth! The master rushes towards the man, but it is too late; the snake has already entered inside. Now there is no time! Before the poison goes into the blood, something has to be done. He looks around and sees that there is nothing but rotten apples lying all around.

So he gives the man a few sharp slaps and wakes him up. The man wakes up and asks, 'What is the matter with you? Why are you abusing me like this?' But the master has no time to explain. He starts picking up the rotten apples and stuffing them down the throat of the shocked man. The man starts shouting, 'Who are you? I don't even know you! Why do you have so much anger against me? Why are you doing this to me?'

The master is not even listening! He is just pushing the rotten apples into the man's mouth even as he is shouting, screaming; he just holds the man's head and literally pushes all the rotten apples down his throat, and a little mud also!

Finally this man can't tolerate it any more and starts screaming. 'Help! This man is killing me? But still the master does not stop. In his deep compassion, he forces the man to swallow more and more apples. In a few minutes, because of all the rotten apples and mud in his stomach, the man started feeling nauseous, and he vomits everything; he just throws everything out. Not only do the rotten apples and the mud come out, but the snake also. Everything comes out. The man watches in shock and finally he understands. He falls at the feet of the master saying, 'Forgive me for suspecting your motives! You are not just my master, you are my Godl'

Understand, you always project your own negative patterns on the enlightened masters and use that scale to judge them! That's why the masters say, even the actions that you believe to be wrong, if they are done by an enlightened master, simply accept them, because your narrow logic cannot grasp the great compassion of an enlightened beingl

Listen! Master is a new possibility happening in your life. He is a new language. He is a new knowledge. Sometimes I have seen people saying. 'Why do we need a Master? I am doing pretty well in my life already!" Yes, you don't need a Master if you are just going to eat and die. You need a Master only when you want to achieve something extraordinary! The guy who doesn't have eyes, who is born blind, can never understand what he is missing. How much ever people with eyes try to explain to him, the guy will never understand what he is missing.

Same way, only a disciple can tell how much the Master has added to his life!

A small story:

A born-blind man was told by his friend that his newborn child was dead.

The blind man could not understand, "How can my child die? How did it happen? Tell mel" The friend said, 'When they were feeding milk to the child, it got stuck to the throat and the child died."

The blind man asked. "What is milk?" The friend said, 'It is a white ... you don't know what milk is?? It is white in color.' The blind man asked, "What is white color?" The friend said. 'Do you know about a bird called the crane? The color of the crane is white color."

The blind man asked. 'But what is the crane bird?'

The friend could not explain further. He was thoroughly confused. He just caught the man's hands and spread them wide. saying, 'This is how the crane looks!' The blind man said. 'Now I understand! But if you put such a big thing in a baby's mouth, naturally it is going to die!"

Listen: A born-blind man cannot understand what he is missing!

A man who has never tasted a Guru in his life will never understand what he is missing in his life!

He is a new language in your being. He is a new consciousness in your being. He is a new being in your life.

Even your faith, if it is established on incompletion, is dangerous, because you will not have adequate or right reasons for your faith.

Please understand, not having adequate or right reasons for your faith is the most dangerous thing in life.

I have seen people who start believing out of powerlessness. They feel powerless and they start saying, 'Oh. God! Come and take care of me! Why are you not taking care?' You approach Him only with "Why are you not taking care?"

Even with God, we never establish any completion, we never establish any understanding, but straightaway we start asking. 'Why are you not taking care of me?' Demanding! As if it is your right that God has to take care of you!

Please understand, faith based on incompletion is really, really, really dangerous!

I will tell you a story.

An elderly lady was well-known for her faith and for her boldness in talking about it. She would stand on her front porch and shout, 'Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lordl' One or two days you can bear this, but not every day.

And next door to her lived an atheist who would get so angry at her proclamations that he would shout, "There is no God! There is no God!"

Of course, atheists are really very good at shouting! See, when you say that there is a God. you have the big problem of naming him! You have to name him - Shiva, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, whatever. You need to shout a lot more words?

But the fellows who say there is no God don't need to memorize so many names. All they need to do is keep denying everything and just keep shouting. "There is no Godl" That is enough. So, atheists are professional shouters! They shout more loudly than the theists, the people who say that God is there.

Suddenly, hard times set in on the old lady. She started praying to God to send her some assistance.

She stood on her porch and shouted, 'Praise the Lord! Lord! Lord, I need some foodl Please send me some groceries!"

The next morning, the lady went out on her porch and found a large bag of groceries on the porch! She started crying, 'Praise the Lord! Praise the Lordl'

Suddenly, her atheist neighbor jumped out from behind a bush in the garden and said. 'Ahal I told you there is no Lord and no God! It is I who bought you these groceries, not Godl' Hearing this, the lady started jumping up and down, clapping her hands and shouting, "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lordl Not only has He sent me the groceries, He made the devil pay for it!'

Please understand, the moral I wanted to convey from this story is this: Let your faith not be based on the idea that of what God can do for you! God should be the quality of your life, not a utility in your life! As long as your faith is based on reasons, every moment there is a danger of your faith breaking down - if not today, tomorrow it will happen. When your faith cannot be shaken by anything that you perceive as failure, it blossoms into Trust.

Once a guru and his disciple were walking on a riverbank.

Suddenly, the disciple slipped and fell into the river.

He started shouting in fear. 'Master, please save mel I don't know how to swim! Save mel Save mel'

The Master said, 'Save yourself.'

The disciple panicked and screamed - 'No! No! The water is too deep! I don't know how to swim! If you don't help me now, I will surely drown! Please save me, Master" The Master again calmly instructed the disciple, "Save yourself!"

The disciple struggled in the water, screaming and crying, while the Master stood on the bank waiting for him.

Finally the Master shouted at the disciple: 'FOOL! JUST STAND UPI'

The disciple was so startled by the Master's command that he immediately stood up - and

Part 4: 108 'New-Clear Bombs' - from Nithya Satsang_English_part_4.md

realized that the water was only waist-deepl

I tell you, all your problems are just like this. All it takes is your decision to stand up! The fears you are carrying look so real to you, that you are afraid of your fears! The doubts and anxieties that you have cultivated in your inner space are like the river that only comes up to your waist! They can never drown you.

A man goes to the great saint Ramanuja and asks. 'Master I want to achieve God. I want to have enlightenment. Can you teach me something?'

Ramanuja asks him, 'Have you experienced love at any time in your life? Have you really lost yourself in love?"

The man is shocked. He cries, 'What are you talking? I am leading such a pure life! I am practicing self-control. I am doing all kinds of spiritual practices. I came to you to realize God, but you are talking about something else! I don't know what you are trying to teach me. I wonder if you are really enlightened or not ... "

Ramanuja replies, 'If you have not even experienced ordinary love-forget about Godl You cannot experience God."

Unless you learn to drop your logic at least once in ordinary love, unless you learn to surrender your logic to the experience of love, how will you even understand what happens when you are in love with the Divine?

You cannot even recognize, you cannot even have a glimpse of the divine experience, unless you have had some experience which is beyond all your logical calculations.

In the Zen tradition, there is a beautiful story:

Before you start seeking, a mountain is a mountain, a river is a river, a tree is a tree. During the period of seeking, a mountain is not a mountain, a river, a tree is not a tree.

After you are enlightened, a mountain is a mountain, a river is a river, a tree!

You need to know this truth! You need to know this truth.

Before you start on the path, you are ignorant, you are insensitive, you think you are ordinary, and you see the world also as ordinary.

While on the path, you think you are extraordinary, and everything around you is extraordinary - but you are still ordinary, because you have not yet achieved. After achieving, even though you are extraordinary, you understand you are ordinary and life is also ordinary! This is the ultimate understanding.

Today we complete with the whole past, even with the people who are no more in the body. Today, completion is taken to the next level - even with your parents, grandparents, forefathers, who are no more alive in the body, we do Completion.

This is the day all the pitrus (ancestors) are allowed to come to planet Earth, receive your pinda and shraarda offerings, bless everyone and go back.

There is a wonderful story about Mahalaya Amavasya!

I don't know whether it is in Vyasa's Mahabharata or any other version of Mahabharata, because we have around 2000 versions of Mahabharata and almost a million versions of Ramayana.

I don't know the source of the story, but the story itself is a source of inspiration! When the story itself is a source of inspiration, you don't need to find the source of the story!

The story goes that when the great warrior Kama died and went to heaven, all the charity he had done during his lifetime was showered back on him.

He was showered with gold, silver and land - but he got no food and water, because he had forgotten to do annadaan (feeding the needy) when he was alive!

Then Dharmadeva, the god of Death, said to him, 'Because you are a great dharmi, a generous giver, I will give you a chance. Go back to earth and perform annadaan and accumulate enough punya (merit) to return to heaven!"

So Karna came back on this same day and stayed on planet Earth for fourteen days, performing annadaan, giving food to the needy.

He accumulated the punya of annadaan, and when he returned to heaven, he got food and water therel

So at least on Mahalaya Amavasya, remember to give food and water to the needy, and to everyone. Feed the brahmanas, feed the sannyasis, feed the masters. Whatever annadaan you do during this whole period of fifteen days, that punya stays with you, expecially after you leave the body.

There are two major mistakes all seekers make: First: because of fear of facing conflicts, the fear of facing life, the fear of facing contradictions, you withdraw from life in the name of compassion.

Such a withdrawal cannot be called compassion! So don't withdraw from life in the name of compassion. Second: don't surrender to powerlessness of others!

There is a beautiful story from Sri Ramakrishna's teachings:

The guru teaches the disciples: 'Everything is God', but before the lesson is complete, he gives a break.

A disciple, who has only half understood the guru's teaching, steps out during the break to attend to some work.

While he is walking on the street, he sees a mad elephant and a mahout who is trying to control the elephant. The mahout is screaming, 'All of you get away, get away! This elephant is madl' Everyone else runs to safety, but this half-learned disciple thinks. "Everything is God. so why should I be afraid?"

He goes and stands in front of the mad elephant just picks him up and throws him asidel

After some time, the other disciples come to know about this, and they rush to the injured disciple and bring him to the guru.

The guru asks the disciple. "Why did you not run away from the mad elephant?"

The disciple says, "But you said everything is Godl So I tried to test that."

The guru smiles and says, 'Yes, but you forgot that the mahout who told you to run away and save yourself is also God!"

You need to know that the elephant is not under its own control; it is mad, powerless. It is not able to control itself.

If you surrender to the elephant at such a time, what will happen to you? Please understand, just going crazy and destroying everything is not cute; it shows your powerlessness, not your powerfulness! Going crazy and breaking everything does not prove your power! Being under control and establishing, creating, is what proves your power! Surrendering to others' powerlessness will only hurt you. This is not compassion; it is foolishness!

The story of Padmapada proves clearly that just by the feeling-connection with Adi Shankara, he has mastered Nature.

Here is the story of how it happened:

Once there was a great disciple of Adi Shankara.

He was not an intellectual like the others, but he was highly devoted, dedicated, integrated to the Master, integrated to his disciplehood.

One day, he went to the opposite bank of the river near the ashram to wash the clothes of the master.

Some of the other disciples of Shankara who saw this were making fun of this disciple, saying 'What is this? This fellow is only washing clothes all the time! Did he come here to become a laundryman? If he is not studying the scriptures, not contemplating, when is he going to get enlightened? How is he going to master prakriti, Nature?"

Adi Shankara was listening to this conversation and just laughing inside. He knew that this disciple may be a little less intellectually capable than the others, but he was an amazingly intelligent being who was doing what needs to be done first, who was putting first things first.

Adi Shankara wanted to show this to the other disciples. So he just got up and called out to the disciple, 'Please come here immediately!'

The moment the master called, the disciple forgot everything.

In front of the other stunned disciples, he just started walking on the river to reach the master as fast as possible!

Then the river thought, 'Oh, God! Now I have to protect him! When somebody has such a deep space of trust with the whole Cosmos - the master is the representation of the whole Cosmos - I can't allow him to suffer! I can't let him down!'

So, the river just created lotus flowers to hold up his feet, wherever he put his feet! Please understand: lotuses can never bloom in a river, because they cannot grow in flowing water. They can only grow in stagnant water. But here, lotuses started springing up in the river just to help the disciple cross safely to the other side! Normally, people are anxious when they are crossing a river.

For the first time, a river was anxious when a person was crossing, because she has to reach him safely to the other side!

Because his feet were held up by the lotuses, the disciple came to be known as "Padmapada' (Lotus-Feet).

With this incident, Shankara demonstrated to all his disciples the need for the loving space and feeling-connection which are essential for the transmission of the Advaitic truth.

Understand: your birth itself has happened because you denied the truth of Advaita! A pattern so deep that it made you assume this human body and broken mind cannot be transcended unless you trust somebody more than your human body and broken mind. So the Master makes himself available for you to experience the completion of the Love Circle. He makes it possible for you to experience the completion of the Love Circle. Constantly reminding you of the context of Advaita is the constitution of the Master's space. Please understand, whatever he does, he is constantly reminding you of the context of Advaita, constantly reminding you to stand in the space of Advaita, cosmic non-duality.

There is a beautiful story about the holy city of Kashi, Varanasi. This city is considered to be a living intelligence, a goddess. She is worshipped as Kashika Devi, the living energy of the city.

It is said that Kashika Devi once asked Shiva for a boon, 'O Shiva, Mahadeva, please bless me that whoever enters into me should be liberated.'

So Mahadeva gave Kashika Devi three boons:

• 1. Whoever enters into Kashi and takes a dip in the river Ganga, their sins will be washed away.
• 2. Whoever dies in Kashi, they will be liberated.
• 3. Anyone whose body is brought into Kashi and cremated in Manikarnika Chat or Harischandra Ghat, they will be liberated."

Kashika Devi was so happy to receive the boons!

But Devi (Parvati) interfered and said, 'Mahadeva, don't you feel you made enlightenment too easy, liberation too cheap?'

Mahadeva said. 'Don't worry, I will take you to Kashi and show you something. Come with me.'

When they reached Kashi, they found that the boon which Mahadeva gave to Kashika Devi had become very popular. Thousands had gathered to take a bath in the Ganga at Kashi. Mahadeva said to Devi. 'Now let us both become human beings. I will lie down as a dead husband. You sit down here as the widow and cry. If anyone approaches you, tell them that if a person without sin touches me, I will come back to life. And if somebody with sin touches me and tries to bring me back to life, his head will burst and he will die.'

So Mahadeva lay down as a dead body, and Devi sat down next to him and started crying really loudly.

All the people who had come to take a bath in the Ganga came and asked Devi, "What happened? What happened? Why are you crying? Why is such a beautiful lady sitting and crying in front of such a beautiful man?'

Devi said, 'My young husband has died. If anybody without sin touches my husband's body, he will come back to life. But if you have committed some sin and you touch him, your head will burst and you will die! Can somebody please bring my husband back to life?' From morning to night, millions of people took a bath in the Ganga, but not a single fellow dared touch this body!

Late at night, a drunkard came by. He also asked Devi. "What happened." Devi said, "This is the story. If anybody without sin touches my husband, he will come back to life. But if a person with sin touches him, that person will die!'

Devi thought that this fellow will start running away like all the others.

But the drunken fellow looked at Devi and said, "Wait, wait, wait - 1 heard that Shiva has given a boon."

So he got into the Ganga and took a bath and came out. saying, 'I have committed all types of sins. But now, after taking a bath in the Ganga, I am free of all sins, because Shiva has given this boon.'

And he touched the body of the dead man. Naturally, Shiva came back to life and gave darshan to him and liberated him!

Then Mahadeva asked Devi, 'Do you see now? Millions may take a bath in the Ganga, but how many of them really believe in my boon?'

Millions may visit temples and perform religious rituals, but how many of them understand the context of what they are doing?

So don't worry, even if I shower everyone with boons, only those who are worthy, who are already in the space of completion and feeling-connection, will even be ready to receive them!"

Sadhu Om was a great sadhu, even though he was not very well known to the world. I am sharing a story narrated by him.

Every morning, a father and his little son used to go for a walk.

One morning, while they were walking, the son spotted an old bare tree which was standing in a lonely spot, and was frightened for some reason, thinking that there was a ghost in that tree!

He started crying and holding onto the father, screaming, "Father, please take me away from here! There is a ghost in that tree!"

Now what do you think the father should do in such a situation?

An intelligent father will carry the child and take the child near the tree, and show him that there is no ghost there, and remove the fear.

Instead, if he says, 'Oh my son, don't worry! If you are afraid of that ghost, I will take you away!' and takes the child away, the child will feel comfortable, but that fear will never be removed.

The child always wants to be taken away from whatever makes him afraid, because he doesn't want to face that fear.

When the father tries to remove the fear, he develops incompletion with the father - "You are insensitive to my fear!'

Even then, the father can console the child, but he has no right to take the child away from the tree without removing that fear pattern.

If the father takes the child away from the tree for the sake of comfort of the child, he is literally destroying the child, because the child will never know that there is no ghost in the tree. If he is afraid of this tree today, tomorrow he is going to be afraid of some other tree, and he is going to suffer his whole life with that pattern.

The father who doesn't take the responsibility of making the child understand and complete with that pattern is responsible for the child's lifelong suffering.

In this story, the child is just like the disciple, just like you. You never want to face your fears, your patterns. You don't want to see the ghost called your ego! You are not ready to come out of your comfort zone. But it is my job to make you come out and be liberated from all your fears - even if you feel that I am insensitive to you.

I tell you: if the father takes the child away from the tree, it is equivalent to me giving up on you! That is the worst thing that can happen in your life!

If you are given up on by the Master, even heaven will be the worst suffering.

If you are not given up on by the Master, even hell cannot touch you.

In a monastery, there lived a cat.

Every day, whenever the old Sannidhanam (pontiff) of the monastery was performing his daily worship, the cat used to jump here and there and create a big ruckus.

So one day the Sannidham said, 'Hey, first tie up that cat before I start my puja, so that the puja is not disturbed."

The disciples tied up the cat, and the Sannidhanam did the puja peacefully.

On the second day, they again tied up the cat, and the Sannidhanam did the puja. On the third day, they again tied up the cat, and the Sannidhanam did the puja. After some time, it became assomary to tie up the cat before the Sannidhanam started the puja every day.

One day, the old Sannidhanam died.

The new Sannidhanam who succeeded him also faithfully followed the practice of tying up the cat before starting his daily puja.

After some years, the cat died. Now the disciples don't know what to do! How to start the puja without the cat? And they started searching everywhere for another cat, but no cat could be found. And finally, that day the Sannidhanam could not perform the puja because there was no cat! A beautiful religious tradition which had been happening without a break for hundreds of years was stopped because of a wrong understanding.

Many times, the aachaara - the everyday practices you observe - get the status of religion. Sometimes, the aachaara even starts contradicting the core truth of the religion, but you continue to practice the aachaara, dropping the religion! This is because, again and again, we miss the real context of religion. That is why swami Vivekananda urges people to forget about all that they know as 'religion', and go back to the Upanishads, the Source. Drink from the Source; it will strengthen you.

There is a very beautiful story in Buddha's life.

One day Buddha arrives for satsang with a very beautiful lotus in his hand. He is just sitting and gazing at the lotus, and ten thousand Buddhas, his ten thousand sannyasis, are sitting in front of him. All of them are wondering what Buddha is doing! Usually, the moment he comes he starts his sermon, he starts talking. Why is he not talking? He is just sitting with this lotus, gazing at it, playing with it. Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine minds are restless, expecting Buddha's words, just because they are used to continuous monotonous rhythm of the sermon. But Buddha is engrossed in the lotus.

But there is one mind, one person, who is completely in restful awareness, ready to receive. That person is Mahakashyapa.

Buddha just lifts his face and sees Mahakyashyapa in the eternal, deep laughter.

And Buddha calls Mahakyashyapa and gives him that flower. And he says, 'Whatever can be said, I gave to all of you, to the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine of you. Whatever cannot be said, I am giving it to Mahakyashyapa."

That flower is turiya vana sampanna pushpam - the flower of the highest state of consciousness. This is the best gift you can receive from the master.

Listen: make this turiya vana sampanna pushpam into your bio-memory by constantly involving yourself in seva, enriching others.

Bend your body, bend your mind in seva.

Seva is not a moral duty. No! By constantly doing seva, you will see that the ideas and truths you receive from the highest state of consciousness becomes your bio-memory, becomes the garland of the deathless flower paarijaata, and you radiate the eternal fragrance of enlightenment.

This is a story about the great enlightened Vaishnava saint, Sri Ramanuja.

Once Ramanuja and his disciples undertake a pilgrimage to the holy town of Tirupati on the hills of Tirumala.

After staying in Tirupati for some days, they get ready to travel to the next destination. They pack their bags and carry some food for the journey and start walking down the hill. It is evening when they reach the foot of the hill, and they decide to have their evening meal.

But when they open the food packets, they find that they are full of ants.

The disciples start removing the ants from the food.

Suddenly Ramanuja notices what they are doing.

He immediately stops them and starts placing all the ants safely back in the food, not leaving out a single ant!

The disciples are puzzled; what is the master doing?

Then, carrying the food packets, Ramanuja starts walking back to Tirupati, all the way up the hill in the night.

His disciples follow him, of course, but they are hungry and tired. They are thinking, "We know he is a little crazy, but has he gone completely crazy now?' But nothing can be done. In those days, the disciples never questioned the master!

After reaching the top of the hill. Ramanuja says, 'Now open the food packets and leave the ants back here, because we don't know how many lifetimes they meditated and accumulated punya (merit) to take birth in Tirumala, the energy field of Venkateshwara! We have no right to disturb them by taking them out of this energy field.'

When enlightened masters come down to earth, even if they take the form of deities, many siddhas and evolved beings come to live around them and enjoy their presence. Understand: every tree, every ant, every leaf which is here in Bidadi, is here for my Presence. It is here for a purpose. It is not an accident, it is an Incident. Never forget that!

A very similar incident has been related in the life of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Bhagavan used to say to his disciples, 'Don't touch a single tree here. Don't disturb a single animal here'.

Still, one day an unfortunate incident happened.

Bhagavan had a pet dog. Every day it would come when he was eating, and he would give it a handful of food from his own leaf, and the dog would eat that and leave.

One day an orthodox devotee saw this and he was very angry, and started shouting at the dog, "How dare you put your mouth in Bhagavan's leaf and eat his food! It is such disrespect! Get out of here!"

He drove the dog away from there.

The dog was so depressed about this, that it just went and jumped into the ashram well and committed suicide!

When Bhagavan was informed about this, his eyes became watery, and he called that devotee and said. 'You don't know what you did. He was a siddha purusha who was living around me, just for my presence." Then he said. 'Do not touch a single tree, do not touch a single animal living in this area. They are all here for my satsang."

There are beings called yogabhrashthas, people who were on the verge of enlightenment, but lost the body through an accident or in some other way. These kinds of souls come down to earth again as animals and plants, live in the presence of the master and get liberated in a very short span of time, without wasting time by taking a human birth.

When you take a human birth, the human mind comes with it. With the human mind, there is always the possibility of taking a diversion, the possibility of being distracted by the outer world. Even if you have been with the master for a long time, till the ultimate enlightenment happens, there is always the danger of dropping out, taking a diversion, or even a U-tum! So these yogabhrashthas, siddhas, yoga purushas, ishvarakotis, they do not want to miss satsang. They assume an animal body or plant body and land on the planet earth and live around the masters and get liberated just through satsang. That is the power of satsang!

One day Narada and Vishnu were taking an evening walk. Suddenly Narada asked, 'Lord, what is Maya?' Vishnu said, 'Maya cannot be explained, it can only be experienced.' Narada said. 'I want to experience Mayal Please show me Maya.' Vishnu said, "You are asking for a dangerous thing; don't ask, or you may get caught in it!' Narada said. 1 will chant your name. 'Narayana', and no Maya can catch me. I will escapel" Narayana (Vishnu) said. 'No! Maya will make you even forget my name, that is the problem! You will even forget the medicine. If you know the medicine, then you can come out of any disease. But you will not even know the medicine! Don't take this risk'' But Narada was in an adamant mood! Suddenly Vishnu started having hiccups. Narada said, 'Come Lord, please drink some water, there is a river nearby.' Vishnu said, 'No, this part of the river is dirty, go upstream where there is clean water, and get me some water from there." So Narada ran to get water for Vishnu. Just as he was bending down to take the water from the river, he sucdenly saw a beautiful girl who had also come to get water from the river. Now you know the rest of the story .. ! He fell for her, she fell for him and they both fell on each other! Finally he got married, built a house and settled down, had five kids and huge wealth. He completely forgot that he had come to get water for Vishnul One day there was a heavy flood on the river. The whole area was flooded and Narada has to cross the river to reach a safe place. Carrying all his wealth, diamonds and gold in a bundle on his head, holding his wife with one hand and his children with the other hand. he was trying to wade across the river. But the current was so strong that the bundle of wealth slipped from his head and got washed away. He started crying, 'Oh, oh, my diamonds, my diamonds! How hard I worked and how many people 1 cheated and collected all this, and now it's gone .. " He was still struggling in the water when he suddenly found that the current was too much and he could not handle it anymore, so he thought. 'If I have a wife, at least I can have more kids.' So he let go of three kids, thinking, "At least I still have two kids left - one male, one female." But the current became more and more powerful, and he finally let go of all the kids. After some time he felt, 'The current is too strong, I don't think I can make it with my wife. At least let me reach the shore, so that I can marry once more." Finally, when his wife was also taken away by the flood, he screamed in agony - 'Oh God, this is too much of sufferingl' The moment he uttered 'Oh Godl', he remembered the name 'Narayana', and the moment he uttered 'Narayanal', he heard the sound of Vishnu's hiccups! Then he heard Vishnu's voice, 'Narada, where are you, I am waiting for the water!" Narada woke up from the whole thing and said. 'O Narayana. now I understand your Mayal" He realized that the whole thing was a dream, the whole thing was a dream. This is Mayal Finally, Narada came and fell at the feet of Vishnu. Vishnu said, 'My dear Narada, the first thing you should have understood is - can I have hiccups?? When you missed my Divine existence and execution - that is where Maya could enter you." This is the Zen Koan for today - 'Can Vishnu have hiccups??' The moment you think it may be true, you have fallen into the Narada state. 'Mama maya duratyayaa' - my illusion is difficult to cross! Now your day-mare starts, not just nightmare! So the sooner you wake up, the better for you.

There is a very beautiful story in the life of a saint called Ramdas. Ramdas was a great sadhu who lived in Varanasi a few hundred years ago. He belonged to the suppressed class of society - the so-called "low caste". He wanted to take deeksha (spiritual initiation) and practice spirituality. But the local Guru who was supposed to initiate him said, 'No, I will not initiate you, because then all the low-dass people will want the initiation and will make it impure." So Ramdas went to another guru and asked him for deeksha. This guru said, 'I am not qualified to initiate you, but I will tell you one trick. This Guru goes to the river Ganga every morning before dawn. If you lie down quietly on the riverbank steps before dawn, he will surely step on you by mistake in the dark. Being a pious man, when he steps on you, he will surely call out God's name - Rama, Rama or Shiva. Shiva! Take that as your mantra, and his touch on your body as the initiation!' So Ramdas went, and the whole thing was executed exactly as planned. But the Guru was not filled with God's name. To chant God's name at the moment of crisis, you should be filled with God's name. So the moment he slipped and saw Ramdas, he said, "You buffalol You are here!" But Ramdas was very sincere. He thought. "Whatever word came from my Guru's lips is my mantral' So he took 'buffalo' as his mantral He sat in one corner and started meditating on 'buffalo'l One day there was a festival in the local Shiva temple. The deity of Shiva was being brought out of the temple door for the procession. Suddenly, the deity was stuck at the door and not coming out! The priests who were carrying the deity didn't know what to do. They couldn't understand why the deity was not moving past the doors, even though they were wide open. Ramdas was sitting outside and watching the whole scene. To him the deity appeared in the form of a huge golden buffalo! He saw that it was stuck in the door because its big horns were coming in the way! So he shouted to the priests, 'Just bend the deity, it will come out.' They didn't understand why he was saying that, but they bent the deity, and it came out! Then Shiva appeared and gave darshan to all the people. Shiva wanted to show the whole world that he had accepted Ramdas' devotion. In whatever form you approach God. He is there for you. Understand this one truth. God Himself says that in whatever way you approach him, He also approaches you in the same way to complete you.

Q: Nithyanandam Swamiji, why is the mind not getting the truth of reality and just coming out of Maya (delusion), even when the mind knows Maya is bad? PN: In Mundaka Upanishad, there is a story. There is a huge tall tree with many high and low branches and fruits. On the tallest branch, a golden bird is sitting, unclutched from everything, in bliss. On a lower branch, there is a small bird which jumps here and there eating the fruits. When it eats a bitter fruit, it feels bad, and looks up at the golden bird sitting in samadhi, in ecstary, and it feels, "Why should I also not be like that, out of all this Maya?" But unfortunately, when this same bird eats tasty fruits, it even forgets that it is caught in Mayal You are asking, When mind knows Maya is bad, why is it not coming out? Whenever it knows Maya is bad, it does come out! But after some time, it says, 'Maya is tasty.' Mind does not understand all 24 hours that Maya is badl

There is another beautiful story that happened in the life of Buddha. Once, when Buddha was teaching a group of people, a person in the group started abusing him angrily. Buddha listened patiently while the stranger vomited all his anger. Then he asked, 'If someone gives you a gift, and you refuse to accept it, with whom does the gift remain - with you, or with the other person?' 'With the other person, of coursel Any fool can see that', said the man angrily. 'Now', said Buddha, 'if I refuse to accept your abuse and your anger, where will it go? Who is going to suffer with it?' The man was so shocked that he just fell silent. His anger was gone. He was suddenly in the space of pure listening. Into that space of listening, Buddha then poured the teaching about taking complete responsibility for one's actions. Listen: you are responsible for all your actions, for the reactions you attract from others, and for all the happenings of your life. When you become aware of your words and thoughts, and understand how they impact your life, naturally you will become aware of your actions and their effects as well.

Part 5: 108 'New-Clear Bombs' - from Nithya Satsang_English_part_5.md

A disciple once went to his master and asked him. 'Master, when will I become a Buddha? How long will it take me to become enlightened?' In reply, the master gave him a hard slap on his facel In that moment, the disciple awakened to his true nature. How long can it take you to become something which you already are? What practice can you do to become what you already are? Whether you try to move inward or outward, as long as you are going somewhere, you are missing the truth. The very process of traveling takes you away from the truth.

When Queen Draupadi was being disrobed in public in the court of the Kauravas, she started crying out to Lord Krishna for help. Again and again, she cried out, "Krishna, help mel Krishna, help mel" But at the same time, she was clutching at hear saree (robes) with both hands. Finally, when she saw that she was on the verge of being totally undressed, she just threw up both her hands and called out, 'Krishna, help me!' This time, her prayer was answered instantaneously. Her saree reappeared miraculously and she was saved. Later, Draupadi complained to Krishna, 'My Lord, why did you take so long to come and save me? Did you not see that I was alone and helpless?' Krishna replied, 'Draupadi, you were calling me, but at the same time you were trying to protect yourself. Till the very end, you thought that you could manage by yourself. But at the end, when I saw you totally open, I had to come. I had to appear and take care of you!" This is what we all do in our life. We say that we have faith, but actually Existence or God is only our Plan B! God or the universal intelligence is our last resort. Total surrender is equal to enlightenment! Total surrender means simply dropping the lower intellect, the fighting logic, and allowing the higher intelligence to take over. But until you are fed up with your own logic, your own anningness and planning, you will not be able to surrender.

An enlightened master was training a small boy to be his successor. This little boy had a very deep, loving connection with the master, but he was a very naughty boy. He would try to behave in the same way as the master. He would try to imitate and make fun of the master, standing behind him. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM had a habit of always holding his thumb up whenever he wanted to emphasize a particular point. This boy would stand behind THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM and do the same thing! One day THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM noticed this. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM just took the knife THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was carrying and cut off the boy's thumb! Understand: the story says very beautifully that the trust and feeling-connection was so deep that the boy did not even think for a moment that something wrong was done to him. The disciple felt very clearly that if the master does something, it must be good for him. Just because of this deep trust and openness, that moment of intense pain burnt away his karmas and he became enlightened in that very moment. You need to understand two important things here. First thing, understand the depth of connection and trust in the master that the boy had. Second thing, he was willing to go through any amount of pain as a tapas or spiritual process. Tapas is nothing but being ready to undergo the process at any cost. Of course, such techniques can work only for those people for whom enlightenment has become the first and only priority!

Three persons go to a rishi (seer) and ask for the Truth. The rishi says to the first person, "Tat tvam asi - You are That. This is the Truth." This person thinks. 'Oh if I am the ultimate, then there is nothing left for me to achieve! Let me eat, drink and make merry!' He starts doing whatever he wants. He is a rakshasa, a person of very low consciousness. The second person comes, and the rishi repeats to him. "Tat tvam asi - You are That. This is the Truth." This person thinks, 'How can I be the ultimate? I don't understand. I should contemplate on this more.' He goes away and starts contemplating. He is a seeker. The third person comes, and the rishi repeats to him also, "Tat tvam asi - You are That. This is the Truth." This person thinks, 'My body cannot be the ultimate, because it will die one day. My mind cannot be the ultimate, because it changes every dayl So what I am beyond body and mind? Yes! The Consciousness which I experience as me is the ultimate. So I am pure Consciousness! He becomes enlightened. The same word can create different effects on different person, depending on the level of preparedness of the listener. The body and mind need to be prepared, in order to grasp the higher truths. Otherwise the click does not happen, the experience of initiation does not happen in you. If your body and mind are prepared, the experience of Samadhi can happen just by listening to a word of initiation.

There is a very beautiful Buddhist story which has a deep meaning. A very powerful metaphysical science is expressed through this story. Somebody asks Buddha, 'You talk so much about nibbana! When are you going to get into that state? Are you already in that state, or will you get into that state after leaving the body?"

Nibbana means the ultimate state of enlightenment - nirvana. In Sanskrit we call it nirvana, in Buddhism it is called nibbana. Nirvana means radiating enlightenment after you leave the body. The word is borrowed from Hinduism, from Shaiva Siddhanta.

Buddha laughs and says, 'Naturally, I cannot say I am in that state, because I am in the body."

And his next statement is shocking.

He says, "I am not going to achieve nibbana even if I leave the body. Only after the last person on the planet achieves it, I will achieve it. I will be waiting.'

That is why I tell you. Buddha is still waiting.

Till the last person achieves enlightenment, he is not going to have nirvana; he will be waiting. The masters who commit with their disciples make themselves continuously available. This is the extreme of compassion! Buddha works as if you are going to get enlightened today, but he is ready to wait till the last person gets enlightenment. The power of passion and the power of patience, both express in their extreme only when you are authentic.

Please understand, when a disciple feels, 'My master is responsible for my enlightenment,' the master fulfils your anyakaara, your expectation of him.

That is why, once I commit with you, I am with you become enlightened, in this life or whichever life. The energy which works through this body does its job and takes you to enlightenmentl

There is a very sweet story about Andal, a little girl who was a great devotee of Krishna. Her adoptive father Periyalvar was the priest in the temple of Krishna.

Every day he used to make fresh flower garlands for Krishna, and every day, without her father's knowledge. Andal used to wear these garlands before they were taken inside for the deityl

One day her father caught her doing this, and he was very angry with her for wearing the Lord's garland and making it impure.

So he made a new garland and took it to Krishna, but Krishna didn't want to wear it! The garland kept falling down again, and Periyalvar was afraid that the Lord was angry with him for letting Andal wear all the garlands earlier.

But the Lord said. 'Get me the garland worn by my devotee!'

Periyalvar was shocked! He then understood Andal's devotion and realized her glory.

It is told that when Andal was asked why she was wearing the garland meant for Krishna, she said very beautifully, 'I am wearing it for His pleasure! 1 am beautifying my body because

He is going to see me. He is going to enjoy me. He is going to experience me."

No more independent identity! Even the body is the naivedya offered to Krishna. That is why Krishna did not feel that she is a separate body - because there was nothing inside Andal except Krishna Himself.

When you are in bhakti (devotion), you don't possess bhakti; bhakti possesses you. It is not like one more thing you will have in your house. You can't own bhakti. Bhakti will own you. As long as you own bhakti, it is not bhakti; it is managed bhakti. When bhakti owns you, it is real bhakti:

prema bhakti.

There is a very beautiful story you all would have read in school!

There was a guru who had ten disciples. There was one chief disciple; very brilliant and highly spiritual. So naturally the guru was giving more attention to that disciple. Soon the jealousy started among other disciples. All the other disciples wanted to somehow defame the chief disciple who was getting too much of the master's attention. Somehow they wanted to move him out of the master's attention.

The master also observed this. He observes everything, even though you think he sits with closed eyes! He observes all the absurdity which goes on when he is sitting with closed eyes - or

when people think he is sitting with closed eyes!

One day, the guru wanted all the other disciples to know why he was giving more importance to the chief disciple; the sincere disciple.

So he called everybody and gave them a small test. He gave each of them a banana, telling them to go and eat it in a place where nobody would see them; where they were not observed by anybody.

All the fellows ran here and there. One ran behind the

kitchen, one ran near the pond, one ran outside the gate, one went and hid in the temple.

They all ate their bananas and came back - except the chief disciple.

He came back with the banana, without eating it.

All the disciples asked. 'Why, did you not find any place to eat your banana?' The chief disciple just kept quiet.

Then the guru asked, 'Did you not find any place where nobody was observing you?' The disciple said very beautifully, 'Master, I am not able to find any place where God is not observing me, where God is not seeing me. I feel His presence everywhere.'

Understand: there is no shortcut to spirituality, to enlightenment! A clear, intense awareness has to imbibed in everything. You have to iron out your complete 24 hours with a clear understanding, practicing the presence of God in your body, your mind and your actions.

There were four fools in a village.

They went to the village guru and asked for a spiritual practice. The guru said. 'Practise gratitude. Be grateful for everything.'

The four fools decided to follow this practice very sincerely.

Once, they used a boat to cross a river.

After crossing the river, they decided. "We should be grateful to this boat which helped us cross the river. We should not leave this boat like an orphan here and go away!' So all four of them started carrying the boat on their heads and going around. Whenever people asked, 'What are you doing?', they would say, 'We are being grateful to the boat which helped us cross the river!"

A good technique can take you a little further on the path. But if you cling to the technique even after it has become useless for you, you are like the fools carrying the boatl

There is a story in the traditional literature of Hinduism; the story of Rishi Jadabharata. This rishi was staying on the banks of a river. He had renounced all worldly pleasures and was meditating for enlightenment.

One day he saw a deer giving birth to its baby on the riverbank. Soon after giving birth, the mother deer died. Seeing the helpless orphaned baby deer, the rishi was overwhelmed with pity. He started taking care of the baby deer.

Gradually, the rishi started getting attached to the baby deer.

Slowly, slowly, the attachment grew so much, that even at the time when he left the body, Jadabharata was continuously thinking about the deer, worrying about the deer, wondering what would happen to the deer after his death.

Because of this strong attachment, the rishi was reborn as a deer and came back to live with the deer.

The uninterrupted flow of mind towards one object had happened in Jadabharata. But finally what was the result? He had to take birth as a deer and come back to live with the deer. That is not meditation! Meditation happens when the mind which is meditating and the object of the meditation, both lose their boundaries. When the boundaries are lost, you experience Samadhi, the extraordinary powers and siddhis and

realization.

There was once a merchant who used to sell puffed rice. He was a big miser. Once he was selling puffed rice during a temple festival in his village. Many bairagi sadhus and wandering mendicants came to the festival: many of them went to him for alms. He did not give even a handful of puffed rice to anyone and chased them all away.

Even the temple priest asked him for a handful of puffed rice for the temple deity, but the miserly merchant was not ready to give him anything!

Suddenly there was a strong wind. The puffed rice that the merchant was selling was lifted into the air and started getting scattered here and there. Now this guy couldn't do anything! So his great renunciation and devotion and spirituality was suddenly awakened, and he looked at the puffed rice (which was already scattered everywhere) and started chanting, 'Narayanaarpanamastu! Narayanaarpanamastu! | offer all this to Narayana, to the Lord!'

Renouncing because you don't have anything left to renounce is not renunciation! Renouncing because you don't have any other choice is not renunciation. You must first have to renounce. First have it, then you can offer it to the Lordl

Sri Ramakrishna tells a beautiful story.

There was a yogi who somehow achieved a siddhi which gave him the power to stop the natural movements of air in the environment. But unfortunately, his body and mind were not mature enough to handle this power in the right way.

One day there was an intense cyclone. The yogi saw that many boats in the sea were getting rocked because of the strong winds. Due to his immature cognition, the yogi decided to intervene, and he stopped the cyclone suddenly using his power. Because of the sudden stop, many boats overturned and people were drowned. The karma

of all those people's deaths came to the yogi, and the power which he had also left him.

On the spiritual path, don't have the greed for attaining powers before your body and mind are mature enough - it can be dangerous for you. Understand that your guru knows what to give. when to give and how to give. So drop the greed and the comparison; you will get everything you wish for, once you are ready.

Life is not just about breathing and staying alive. It is about being alive at the innermost being level, as a living Consciousness.

If you can express love, if you can experience Advaita, Oneness, that is the only way of being alive as a Consciousness.

If you don't experience and express love, you may inhale and exhale, but you can't say you are a living being.

There are so many animals, plants and other things that breathe day in and day out. You will continue to exist like them, that's all.

A disciple asked a Zen master, 'Does an enlightened master speak?'

The master said. 'No, an enlightened person never speaks. Only a person who doesn't know enlightenment speaks."

Then the disciple asked, 'So does an enlightened master keep quiet?'

The master said, 'No, an enlightened master never keeps quiet. If he keeps quiet, then he is not enlightened."

The disciple was puzzled. He asked, 'You say he neither speaks nor keeps quiet. What does he do?' The master replied, 'He singsl His being sings. He neither speaks nor keeps quiet. His very being sings."

Advaita is the ultimate experience of a human being. When the experience happens, we will not be able to possess the experience, only the experience will possess us! That is what the master means. When the experience possesses us, whatever we do will be like a beautiful song. Any word that comes out will be poetry. Our being will be so light. We will simply float. Our walking will be a dance. Our body language will radiate grace. All our expressions will be of great service to humanity.

There is a beautiful story in Srimad Bhagavatam, the life story of Krishna.

There was a rich man who was devoted to Krishna.

He used to observe the ekadashi vrata every month. He would fast on ekadashi day, and the next day he would feed the pious people, the devotees of Krishna.

It is considered a great punya, an act which will bring a lot of merit.

Pleased with his vrata, Krishna appeared before him one day and asked 'My son, ask me for a boon! You are doing so much wonderful work."

The rich man said. "If you bless me with more and more wealth, I will be happy to do this service on a large scale."

Krishna blessed him with abundant wealth and the man was very happy.

There was another devotee of Krishna, an old lady who used to think about Krishna and meditate on Krishna all the time; she was practically living with Krishna.

She was a poor lady and had only a cow as her property.

She also used to observe the ekadashi vrata, and the next day she would make a little butter

from her cow's milk and share it with a few devotees of Krishna.

One day, Krishna appeared in front of her, but he did not even ask her what she wants.

He just ate up all her butter and disappeared.

And that very day, the old lady's cow died!

Naturally, all the gopikas living around Krishna asked him, "What is this? That man is already rich. but you went and showered more wealth on him, and this poor old lady has only one cow, and you went and killed that cow and came back. What is this?'

Then Krishna said, 'See, that rich man still has a lot of desires. No problem. He asked for wealth and I gave him wealth; let him do good work and enjoy and finally exhaust all his desires. Let him come to me for enlightenment when he is ready!

But this old lady has no attachment other than that one cow. It is the only attachment which is stopping her from becoming enlightened and merging into me completely. So I took away that attachment, that's all! Now she will reach me completely. She will achieve jivanmukti, and the eternal abode of my feet."

So when God loves you, you can never be sure what will happen! Sometimes He gives, sometimes He takes away; you can't judge anything from outside. And many a time, understand that He is expressing His love more strongly when He takes away something from you!

Understand that when He takes away everything else from you, He is making a strong statement that you belong to Him alone!

A man once asked an enlightened master, 'Why don't you give enlightenment to everybody who wants it?"

The master said, 'Please go to the nearby village and find out who wants enlightenment. Bring them to me and I shall give it.'

The man walked through the whole village that day, asking who wanted enlightenment. He came back to the master in the evening with a low face.

The master asked him, "What happened? Nobody wants enlightenment, is it?"

The man replied a little cheerfully, 'No, no, two people want enlightenment.'

The master replied. 'Ok, get them right now. I will give them enlightenment.'

The man replied in a low voice, 'No, they don't want to come here. If you send it to where they are, they will accept it!"

Nobody really wants enlightenment in the real sense! They just want it as a utility or to keep in their showcase!

Understand, God gives you the freedom to be in bondage also. Enlightenment can never be forced on you. If it is forced, even freedom will become bondage.

Once a disciple went to his master and said. 'Master, I am not able to sit for meditation. My legs ache. I feel distracted."

The master just said, "It will pass."

After two weeks, the disciple went back to the master, this time saying, 'I am able to meditate beautifully. I feel so aware and blissful."

The master again replied, 'It will pass.'

Understand: Both pleasure and pain are from the mind. The root of pain and pleasure is the same. Meditation means dissolving the mind that experiences both.

A man came to a master with a question, 'Master, how can we avoid heat and cold?' The master replied, 'Be hot, be cold.'

Heat and cold are metaphorical representations of pleasure and pain.

How to avoid pleasure and pain? Just go through both in a witnessing state, that's all.

A blind man was wandering in the Himalayas. He was searching for a staff to guide himself. He stumbled upon a snake which was stiff and frozen due to the cold. He picked it up, thinking that it was a staff, and happily started using it.

An enlightened master who was passing by saw this shocking sight. He shouted, "What you are holding is a snake, not a staff! Drop it!" The blind man started shouting, 'Nol This is such a nice staff! Are you trying to steal it from me? You are asking me to drop it so that you can pick it upl' The master said. 'Fool! I don't need a staff. I am not blind. And what you are carrying is a snake! The sun will rise soon, the snake will come back to life and it will kill you.'

Even after this, the blind man was not ready to drop the staff. Then the master said. 'Even if you don't believe me, it is my responsibility to save you.' So he snatched the snake and tried to throw it away.

The blind man started beating the master with the same staff. But the master said, 'Even if you beat me, it is ok. It is my responsibility to save you because you don't know.' He took the snake and threw it away.

Soon the sun rose, and the snake came back to life. Another passerby who saw this started shouting, 'Snakel Snakel'

The blind man was shocked to know that it was indeed a snake that he

had been holding in his hands a few minutes back. He fell at the master's feet and begged his forgiveness for doubting him.

Listen: the master's compassion is not the way you understand, the way you want it to be. The master does not show the soft compassion that will make you weak; his is the tough compassion that will wake you up to the snake you are holding in your hand!

Three fisherwomen went to the fish market. They sold their fish and were returning to their village. It was already dark, so on the way they asked for shelter in a flower shop. The flower seller said. 'Why not, you can spend the night here in my flower shop.' The fisherwomen lay down to rest in the shop, but they were not able to sleep - because of the unfamiliar fragrance of flowers! They kept tossing this way and that way. Suddenly they realized that they were not able to tolerate the sweet fragrance of the flowers. So they brought in their old fish baskets, sprinkled a little water on them to make the fish smell really strong, kept the baskets near their heads and slept peacefully!

Even when the beautiful flowers of higher states of consciousness, turiya vana sampanna pushpa, are being offered to you, you don't feel relaxed with them, you don't feel comfortable in that space.

Only when you are sitting with the dirty familiar smell of your patterns and incompletions, your wornes, your lust, your suffering, you are at peace!

A disciple goes to a master asking. 'Master, how can I become free? How can I attain liberation?'

The master asks him, 'Who has imprisoned you?"

The disciple replies, 'Nobody.'

The master asks, 'Where are the chains that bind you?'

The disciple replies, 'I have no chains.'

The master says, 'Then what are you trying to be free from?"

In a monastery, there was a competition among disciples over who had maintained the best garden.

One disciple was of a very serious nature. He took the competition quite seriously.

He always kept his garden neat, clean and well-swept. All the grass was of the same height.

All the bushes were neatly trimmed. He was sure that he would get the first prize.

On the day of the competition, the master went around all the gardens. Then he came back and ranked the gardens. This disciple's garden got the lowest ranking!

Everyone was shocked.

The disciple came running to the master and asked, 'Master, what is wrong with my garden? Why did you rank me the lowest?"

The master smiled at him and asked, 'Where are all the dead leaves?!'

The beauty of life is its chaos. There is a completion in that chaos! If you try to control life too much, you are denying the wholenes of Life! If you are not able to handle the chaos of life, then you lose spontaneity, beauty, romance, in your life.

Once there was a king who was very egoistic. His ego had grown to such a great extent that he started declaring, '1 can do everything God does. I am as great as God.' If someone objected to his views, immediately he would give the order, 'Kill him!'

There was an enlightened master in that kingdom.

When he came to the capital, he heard about the egoistic attitude of the king and wanted to show the king the truth. He went to the court and started praising the king, "O king, you are equal to God. You are God'.

The king was very happy and said, "Yes, you seem to be an intelligent person. Tell us what more you have realized."

The master said. 'O king, I have to tell you an important thing. There are some things you can do that even God can't dol"

Now the king was bursting with pride.

He said, 'Please tell us what it is that 1 can do that even God cannot dol'

The master replied calmly, 'O king, if you are angry with somebody, you can send him out of your kingdom, but God cannot do that!'

Understand: the whole universe is God's kingdom! So where will He send the person? Nobody can be sent out of God's kingdom - the space of enlightenment, the space of living Advaita - because that is your natural space.

There was once an enlightened master called Dakshinamurti Swamigal. He used to sit under a banyan tree in silence.

His presence was so intense that anyone could touch it, feel it, almost see it.

It was so powerful that neither did he need to talk, nor did the other feel the need to speak.

One of the court poets of the kingdom sang a thousand verses on Dakshinamurti Swamigal, hailing him as 'the greatest warrior'.

By tradition, you would be given the title of 'greatest warrior' only if you killed one thousand elephants in war.

This poet sang all one thousand verses praising the power and heroic qualities of Dakshinamurti Swamigal.

When the king heard this, his ego was hurt, because it was known throughout the kingdom that only he had killed a thousand elephants in war. Until that time, only the king had the title of 'the greatest warrior'.

So the king called the poet and angrily said. 'Justify your action of singing a thousand verses in praise of that naked beggar sitting under the banyan tree and calling him the greatest warrior! Otherwise, your head will be cut off!"

The poet said, 'I don't have any reason or justification. You can kill me. But there is something about his presence. I want to make a small request: if you have some time, go and sit in his presence just once. That's all I am asking, nothing else."

The king was curious to know more about Dakshinamurti Swamigal. Along with his entire army, he set off to meet himl Kings always travel with their paraphernalia, because they lose their identity without it! In contrast, Dakshinamurti Swamigal was a Paramahamsa, an enlightened master. The king found him sitting under a big banyan tree, with no paraphernalia, not even clothes. He was just blissful in himself.

Imagine the scene: this simple beggar sitting in a corner without even any clothes! He was merged in bliss and peace, completely lost in Existence. He sat in intense silence and peace. The silence penetrated anyone in his presence.

The king jumped down from his chariot and marched towards Dakshinamurti Swamigal. Dakshinamurti Swamigal did not even move. He opened his eyes and looked straight into the king's eyes. It was the first time someone had dared to look straight into the king's eyes. The king had always looked at others, and they had always put their heads down. For the first time, somebody looked straight into the eyes of the king. He was completely shaken. After a few seconds, the king put his head down.

He clearly felt something happening inside his being. Dakshinamurti Swamigal, the master, signalled to the king to sit down. The king simply sat down on the ground before him. All the ministers and the army dropped their weapons and also sat in silence. In ten minutes the entire army was sitting down.

Then two hours passed, three hours, and the evening came and went. One full day passed by. The master, the king and the whole army sat in silence. Not a single word was exchanged. Three days passed by. Then the master opened his eyes and said, "Now you can go."

The king fell flat at the geat master's feet, paid his respects to the master and left in silence. He reached his palace, summoned the poet who had written the thousand verses in praise of Dakshinamurti Swamigal and said. "Why did you write only a thousand verses in praise of that great master? You should write ten thousand verses!'

The poet then made a beautiful statement, 'Killing ten thousand elephants is easy. You just need the weapons to kill them. But killing one's mind is the real achievement"

Killing ten thousand elephants doesn't take courage. Killing your mind requires courage. Because Dakshinamurti Swamigal had killed his own mind, he could kill the mind of anybody who sat in his presence.

Three friends were walking near a garden that had a big wall around it. One of the friends climbed the wall and peeped inside. He saw that it was a beautiful garden with many trees and varieties of flowers and fruits. He cried out, 'Oh, such a beautiful garden!' He jumped into the garden and started enjoying the fruits. The second man also climbed the wall and saw the garden. He too felt it was beautiful, but he had a little bit of courtesy. He turned and said to the third man who was below, 'Dear friend, there is a beautiful garden here. Come, join me, I am going in.' Saying this, he jumped over the wall and started enjoying the fruits. The third man also climbed the wall and saw the garden. He saw his two friends and understood the joy and bliss that they were enjoying. Then he said to himself, "Let me go into the village and tell all the people about this beautiful paradise! I will bring them all here to enjoy this garden."

An Incarnation is someone who comes down to tell his fellow men about the blissful space that he has experienced. The man who descends from the Divine onto planet Earth to make you realize what he has experienced is an Incarnation.

A master and his disciple were walking along the banks of a lake. The disciple asked the master very longingly. 'Master, please give me enlightenment.' Suddenly the master turned, caught the disciple's head and pushed it into the water! The disciple was shocked and started struggling to get his head above the water. The master continued to strongly hold his head below the water. Now the disciple started struggling for breath. The master lifted the disciple's head for a moment and asked him, "What do you want?" 'Airl Airl', gasped the disciple. The master released the disciple. The disciple was completely shaken. The master said. "When you want enlightenment as much as you wanted air a few seconds ago, it will happen."

When the urge becomes urgent, when the question becomes a quest, the Ultimate happens in your life.

A Paramahamsa swan was once flying in the vast sky.

'Paramahamsa' means 'great swan'. Paramahamsa swan is special because it never touches the ground! It only flies high in the open sky, never touching the dust and dirt of the earth. Even when the Paramahamsa swan lays its eggs, the egg drops from the sky and hatches in mid-air, and the baby swan flies out before the egg touches the ground! In our Hindu scriptures, the Paramahamsa swan is the symbol of the enlightened being who always flies in the enlightened space and can never be caught in anything worldly.

This Paramahamsa swan was flying over a lake, and its reflection fell on the lake below. When the reflection fell on the water, the fish in the lake started jumping, 'Oh, a new big fish has come, a new big fish has come!', and they went around the reflection, admiring it. Some fish started jumping on the swan's reflection, some fish started dancing around the swan's reflection and some started making a fence in the water, saying. "This is the ashram for the big fish!' Some fish started finding ways to get close to the 'big fish'.

Some fish started crying, 'Oh, this big fish is so loving, so graceful and so beautiful!' Some other fish started jumping to the other side and saying, "No, this fish is not paying attention to me at all. It is not at all loving and caring!' Some fish started saying good things about the reflection and some fish started saying bad things about the reflection. Some fish start creating a place for the 'big fish' to live; some fish even threw a few stones at it.

Because of the very commotion created by the fish, the reflection of the swan appeared to be shaking and moving in the water. But seeing that, the fish started thinking that the 'big fish' is moving! After a while, the fish even started fighting among themselves, saying, 'I am doser to the big fish than youl"

Gradually, the swan crossed the lake and started flying above the ground. Naturally, the reflection also disappeared. All the fish started crying, saying, 'Oh, the big fish has disappeared, how can we live without it?'

One important thing: some fish praising, some fish blaming, some fish creating ashram, some fish playing, some fish going away, some fish jumping, some fish blaming - the swan is not even aware of anything: the swan doesn't even know about it! The swan is neither aware nor interested; it is just enjoying on its own. flying in the vast sky. Be very clear, the fish are not visible to the swan! Only eagles see the fish; swans don't see the fish, because they don't eat fish! The swan doesn't have to see the fish, because it needs nothing from the fish. It just flies in its own sky.

If at all you are intelligent, the moment you see the reflection, if you understand that this doesn't seem like a normal fish, you will start wondering, "From where is it coming?' If you are intelligent enough to look up and see the swan instead of the reflection, you will slowly understand that you are also a swan! Then you can also start flying - that's all. You can also just start flying! Are long as you are just fighting with other fish, playing with other fish, playing with the reflection. playing in the area where the reflection is happening, be very clear, you will simply be cheated, you will simply miss. You will simply miss.

If you have seen the swan and started flying, you are intelligent. The purpose of the swan in your life has been achievedl

Part 6: 108 'New-Clear Bombs' - from Nithya Satsang

There is a beautiful story in the Mahabharata about a courtesan and a monk.

There was a monk who lived across a courtesan's house.

He used to keep a count of the men coming to her house and used to imagine all kinds of things about her lifestyle.

The courtesan was a devotee of Krishna. She spent all her free time praying to Krishna to redeem her from her miserable life.

Whenever she saw the monk, she would pay her respects from a distance.

One day, they both died at the same time. Both reached the court of Yama. Yama looked at both their life records and gave the decision: the monk should go to hell and the courtesan should go to heaven!

The monk was shocked and started protesting. "I lived such a pious life! But look at that courtesan. she lived such an immoral life! How can I be sent to hell and she to heaven!'

Yama replied, 'In my court of judgment, your actions are of no value, only your intention matters. You wore a monk's robes and lived a good life outwardly, but your inner space was filled with lust. So in the outer world, your body is now being buried with honor, but you have to suffer hell. The courtesan's heart was always with Krishna, even while her body was sold to men. So her body doesn't even have anybody to even do the last rites, but she is going to heaven.'

Krishna says again and again in the Bhagavad Gita: intention is much more important than action. Action does not get recorded in the cosmos. Only intention gets recorded in the cosmos.

A young boy was considered to be very dull.

One day his father took him to the local school where all the boys of the village learnt their lessons.

He met the teacher and said. 'My son is not a bright student. Will you allow him to sit in the back row of the class so that he is in the atmosphere presided over by Goddess Saraswati? I know you are kind and compassionate. Please guide him. He will be lucky if he learns anything."

The teacher readily agreed, and the young boy joined the school.

He would be present every day before any of the other boys came in. He would dust, sweep and mop the room, set up the teacher's wooden table and chair and sit down in a corner to listen to the class most attentively.

No one expected him to gain anything out of the classes.

One day he humbly asked the teacher. 'Sir, when can you give me some guidance?' The teacher said, 'Right nowl Here it is: Aham Brahmasmi (I am That). Recte this audibly or silently, but continuously.'

With determination and inspiration, the young boy learnt the phrase without bothering to ask the meaning of it. Nor did the teacher bother to tell him the meaning. He did not feel the necessity to do so.

'Aham Brahmasmi,' the boy went on repeating at home. His father asked him, 'Do you know the meaning of those words?' The boy's eyes bulged out. 'Meaning?' he asked. It had never struck him that the words might have a meaning. The father told him. 'The words mean, I am That, I am Brahman.'

The boy went to his uncle's house the next day and continued reciting, 'Aham Brahmasmi, which means Father is Brahman."

The unde heard this and said, 'It doesn't mean that! It means: I am Brahman.'

The boy was surprised but kept quiet.

On the way back home he was reciting, "Aham Brahmasmi, which means Uncle is Brahman."

The village priest passed by and heard him reciting this.

He stopped him and said, 'Son, it does not mean Uncle is Brahman, it means I am Brahman.' The boy was amazed. "How can just two words mean so many things - father, uncle and the village priest are all Brahman!"

His head was reeling and he sat down on a nearby slab of stone.

He started reciting with the spirit of asking the words themselves what they really meant.

The sun went down and darkness came.

The stars and moon started shining.

The boy went on reciting 'Aham Brahmasmi' to find out its real meaning.

At dawn, the ultimate knowledge dawned on him: not just his father, his uncle and the village priest, but he too - and everybody else - was Brahman! Everyobdy and everything was Brahman. He experienced the state of Actvaita. He became a realized soul.

Understand, the moment the boy understood he was ignorant, an alchemy process was triggered in his system. When you don't know that you don't know, it is ignorance. When you know that you don't know, it is innocence. Then the knowing can start happening.

There was a man with a few disciples. He was not enlightened. He was just guiding the boys.

A new disciple joined the group one day. He was so humble, so pure and authentic, that the other disciples became jealous of him. They felt he would be the master's successor. There was a lot of politics, and they decided to somehow finish him off.

One day they said to him. "If you really believe in the master, can you jump off that cliff there? If your trust is true, no harm can happen to you."

The disciple readily agreed, and went and jumped off the cliff!

The rest of them rushed down almost five hundred feet below into the valley. They went to pick up his scattered bones. But he was sitting there in lotus posture, looking very happy. He opened his eyes and said. 'You are right, trust saves! Thank you for helping me understand this l'

The other disciples thought it must be some coincidence, and they created another plot to

kill him. A house caught fire one day and people were trying to resoue those who were trapped inside the house. They told him, 'If you love and trust our master, go in and save the woman and child who are trapped inside."

The disciple rushed in and after a few minutes came out safely with the woman and child.

The others still did not give up. One day they were going somewhere, and they had to cross a river. They told him. 'You need not go in the boat. You have such great trust. you can just walk on the water."

The disciple agreed and entered the river and started walking on the water! The others were simply shocked.

That was the first time the master saw him. He was not aware that he had been told to jump into the valley and told to go into the burning house. He saw him walking on the river and asked him, 'What are you doing? It is impossible!'

The disciple replied, 'It is not impossible at all I am doing it because of the power of your name, master!"

The master thought, "If my very name has the power to save this ignorant boy, then imagine who I am and what I can dol'

So he got up and tried to walk on the river - and drownedl

Trust has amazing power. It works beyond logic. Anything that works beyond logic is the direct truth. It never fails. The power of surrender is such that even if the being to whom you surrender is not enlightened, the surrender itself takes care of you!

Once upon a time, a pregnant lioness attacked a flock of sheep while hunting for food. As she pounced on one of the sheep, the strain became too much for her and she died, giving birth to a cub.

The newborn cub could barely open his eyes. He made some sounds and moved about on the ground helplessly.

The sheep saw the orphaned cub and felt compassionate towards him. You may wonder how sheep can feel compassion towards a lion cub. Understand, when the enemy does not disturb or hurt you, and you don't feel threatened in any way by his presence, you will feel compassionate towards him even if he is your enemy by naturel

Since the sheep did not feel threatened by the lion cub, they started showing love towards him. The sheep sensed that the cub was not going to attack them, so they were able to express compassion towards him. They looked after him, bringing him up in the manner they knew best. They showed him how to eat grass, drink their milk, live like them and even how to bleat like them - baaa, baaal

The lion arb also picked up the body language of the sheep. Right from his birth, no one had ever told him he was a lion, so he never knew what it was like to be a lion. So the cub grew up continuing to live like the sheep also were quite comfortable with the cub being one among them.

As the lion cub grew a little, he began to express his strength in the manner that was natural to him. When the other young sheep fought with him, he used to give them strong blows! The young sheep would complain to the mother sheep. "He is hitting us" The mother sheep would try her best to patch things up between the cub and the sheep by consoling the young sheep and advising them to forget about the fight.

One day a lion attacked the flock of sheep. The frightened sheep scattered in different directions. The lion then saw a lion cub also running away with the sheep, bleating like them! The lion could not believe his eyes! He could not understand why the cub was running away upon seeing him and why he was bleating like the sheep.

The next day the lion returned - not to hunt, but to look for the young aub. When he saw the cub, he slowly went up behind him and caught hold of him.

The moment the lion caught hold of the cub started shouting, 'Let me gol Let me gol Baa, baa ... '

The lion said, 'Fool! Don't be afraid. I am not going to kill you. Don't you know who you are?' The cub cried, "I am a sheep. Let me gol Let me gol"

The lion said, 'Fool! You are not a sheep. Don't be afraid of mel'

But the young aib was terrified and not ready to listen to anything. Somehow he managed to break free and ran away.

The next day the lion came back to where the sheep were grazing. He managed to catch the lion cub again. This time he held him firmly. The cub was struggling under the grip, but while one part of his mind told him strongly to escape, another part of him felt good at being touched by the lion. The reassuring, comfortable feeling of the lion's touch awakened something deep within the cub.

Seeing the struggle of the cub, the lion let him go, saying, "I will come again tomorrow. But at that time, I will not be chasing you."

The lion went back into the forest. The lion cub stayed awake the whole night, unable to sleep. His mind was filled with so many thoughts ... " cannot accept what the lion said to mel ... But 1 think there may be some truth in what he said..? No. I don't think whatever he said is correct! I know I am a sheep. I have known it from birth. What he says does not make any sense to me. He is just lying to get something from me."

Understand, the lion has penetrated the cub in a way beyond the cub's logic. Let me be very clear, if the presence of the master affects you beyond your logic, the master in you has already been awakened! You cannot feel connected to the lion unless the lion in you awakens. If you feel some ecstasy, some comfort, through of the master, the lion, and if you find yourself trying to recreate again and again the same feelings that came up in your memory when you were with the lion, even if it is through visualization, be very clear, the lion has touched you deeply! A part of you has already started feeling soothed. A part of you has already started feeling there is something in what the master says.

The next day, when the lion arrived, the cub was standing there waiting for him. The cub was standing patiently at the edge of the forest, watching for the lion. But when the lion appeared, the cub started moving away from him, toward the herd of sheep! But he did not turn his face away from the lion, as he did not want to lose sight of the lion!

He just took a few steps back cautiously, telling the lion, "You stay where you are and I will stand where I am now. We can still talk. It is true that I am not able to forget you. But let us keep this distance between us."

The lion replied. "That is alright with me. You stay where you are. Now let us talk."

The lion continued, "Understand, you are a lion! You are ignoring your true nature by trying to be something else! Look carefully and you will see the difference between you and those sheep.' The cub cried. 'Nol Nol How can that be? I eat the same grass as them. I live exactly as the other sheep do."

The lion said, 'Fool! Understand this very basic thing. See for yourself. No other sheep feels attached to me. No other sheep is waiting for me. They are all terrified of me. Only you are waiting for me. Understand from this alone that there is something happening within you. What is the need for you to wait for me here? Come with me to the river nearby and look at your reflection in the water. You will be able to see your face and mine."

The cub felt scared to go with the lion and told him. 'No. Let us just stand here and talk. You stand where you are, I will stand where I am. You say whatever you want to say. I will stay right here and listen."

Then the lion said. Alright, let me tell you this. If you allow me, I can show you your true self in the river and prove to you that you are like me. But I will not force you. I will return after one week. If you are ready, come back to this place and wait for me. I will then take you with me to the river. If not, just forget me. Don't even try to remember mel'

The lion then left. After a week as promised, the lion arrived. The cub's mind was still confused,

'Should I go or not go to meet the lion?' Deep within, the cub really wanted to meet the lion, but at the same time he was very afraid of the lion.

Finally, the cub reached the place where he had met the lion the last time, and found the lion there. The lion looked up at him and stood up. He led the way and they slowly started walking towards the river.

As they were walking, the lion moved a little closer to the cub. The cub got scared and started shouting. 'No! No! You stay where you are. You just show me the path to the river. Please do not walk so close to me. I can walk to the river on my own!'

The lion moved away a little and started telling the cub stories about when he was a cub himself, and how he grew up to become a fully grown lion. Listening to these stories, the cub got so engrossed that he forgot to keep the distance between the two of them.

As they walked, the lion started getting closer to the cub. The cub was completely involved in the stories of the lion and was asking him. 'Is that so? Is that how it happened? Did you also have all these problems?' Without the cub realizing it, the lion had slowly come so near that he was now touching the cub as they continued their walk! Suddenly the young cub noticed this, but he found that it did not make him afraid at all. He felt the gentle touch of the lion so relaxing! He did not protest.

The lion continued talking and the cub was saying, 'Oh! That is nice ... that is interesting ... ' The lion was now almost holding the cub, but the cub was fully engrossed in the 'small stories' about the lion's early days.

As soon as they reached the river, the lion caught the cub and took him to the water. The cub

knew now that there was no escape! But he was surprised that he no longer had any desire to escapel Understand, the arb not only knew that he could he not escape, but he also did not want to escapel

But then, a little ego hiding in a comer of his mind troubled him and he said. 'Nol Nol Let me gol What are you doing to me? Why are you holding on to me?' The cub still had some fear in him.

The lion replied, '1 am not doing anything to you. Just look into the water.'

The cub looked into the water and said. 'Okay, I am looking into the water.'

The lion then asked, "What can you see in the water? Can you see two forms?"

The cub replied, "Yes."

The lion said, "Well, one lion is me and the other lion is you."

The cub repeated, "Two reflections: one mine and the other yours."

Then suddenly he realized what he was saying. He could not believe it and started shouting, "No! No! No! Both the reflections in the water must be yours!"

The lion shouted, 'Fooll Look' I am raising my hand. See which reflection is raising a hand.' The cub pointed to the reflection in the water and said, "Only that reflection is raising its hand."

The lion then said, 'Okay, now you raise your hand.'

The cub raised his own hand, looked at the reflections in the river and cried out, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! 1 seel | see!"

Then in a small, confused voice he asked, 'But ... how can I be a lion? Am I not a sheep ... ' The lion simply looked at him and said, 'I am not here to play with you.'

That is when a feeling of ecstasy began to rise up in the cub. He could sense something incredible was about to happen. But then again his mind stepped in and his mood went into a low and he started doubting in his mind, 'I think I have been hypnotized. This is not my true naturel

Something has happened to me. This is not me. I have never felt so blissful, so joyfull This is not me! He is doing something to me. He has already done something to me!"

The cub still resisted. He struggled to escape, but it was only a half-hearted attempt, an act actually, because he had no real desire to escape.

The cub started protesting. "No! No! Let me go! Let me go! I know that you are a great lion. As an offering for you. I will bring you the grass which I eat every day. I will bring you the milk which I drink every day. I will devote all my time to serve you. But don't tell me that I am also a lion - that I cannot believe!"

Finally the lion thought. 'I should leave him now. He can only understand this much for now.' So he told him, 'Alright, be very dear, we shall meet again tomorrow. I will not come to the boundary of the forest to bring you here. I will be in my own home. If you want to see me, find out where I live and come on your own to meet me there. I have no time to waste by coming all the way to your place to bring you here! If you don't want to come to me through your own effort, let it bel"

The lion told him this and left. This time the cub did not run away as he usually would. He walked back very slowly. He did not want to go, but on the other side his mind was pushing him to go back to the sheep. Three legs of the lion cub were not movingl Only one leg was able to move. Big drops of tears began to fall from his little eyes at the thought of this farewell.

The next day the lion was seated in a majestic pose in his home. Slowly, very slowly, the cub approached him with freshly-cut green grass, this is the best grass available anywhere', and set it down in front of the lion saying, "Please accept this offering I have brought you." The lion watched and thought to himself, 'Alright, if I take this grass, this fellow will feel connected to me. He might even allow this relationship to become more intense. Through this he might feel more connected to me."

So, even though a lion never eats grass, he picked up the grass, put it in his mouth and started eating it! He praised the cub, saying, "This grass you brought me tastes really goodl' The cub was very happy. The relationship started deepening between them when the lion began to eat the grass. Understand, the lion comes down and eats grass only to be able to bridge the gap between the cub and himself! Even though he never really eats grass, he acts as if he is eating it and loving it.

The cub immediately felt very comfortable. He could now connect with the lion. Now the cub decided. 'I must bring even better grass and fresher milk next time. I must do things the right way.' This is how the relationship started happening between the cub and the lion.

Now the aub started feeling free with the lion, and he started coming to the forest to see the lion. whenever he felt like it. The cub started feeling very comfortable around the lion, very relaxed. He did not know the 'master' plan of the 'master' lion!

One day, when the cub came as usual with grass and milk, he saw the lion sitting with a large chunk of meat in front of him. The moment the cub saw the got afraid and started crying. 'Oh, what is this? You are eating meat?! Whom did you kill? Are you going to kill me also? Oh, I am so afraid! I must escape before you kill mel Baaal Baaal Help! Help!'

This time the lion did not take the time or energy to explain anything. He simply caught hold of the neck of the cub, picked up some meat and forced it into the cub's mouth! The moment the meat entered his mouth, the cub tasted blood - and something suddenly happened within him.

The cub could not understand what was going on. He had tasted meat for the very first time - but he felt that this was his natural food! He was overwhelmed with the feeling that rose in him.

This is what happens during your first experience of bliss, satori! When you experience it, you will understandl

After tasting the meat, the cub suddenly let out a roar like a lion! He started roaring, announcing his true nature. He expressed his true nature.

Now the lion looked straight into the eyes of the cub and said. "Tat tvam asi" - That thou art - you are That." The initiation happened. That was all. The lion who thought he was a sheep became a lion at last!

His Holiness THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is recognized today as a clear, legitimate, apolitical voice of Sanatana Hindu Dharma, and revered as a living incarnation of superconsciousness by millions worldwide. He is a Mahamandaleshwar (spiritual head) of Mahanirvani Peeth, the world's most ancient apex body of Hinduism. He is the most watched spiritual teacher on YouTube.com with over 19 million views, and the author of more than 300 books published in over 20 languages.

His lectures are watched live every day on multiple international television channels and via video conferencing.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is considered the foremost authority in the world today in the field of Consciousness and Kundalini awakening. He has successfully demystified yogic sciences like THIR Eye Awakening ", spiritual healing, levitation, teleportation, anti-ageing and going beyond the need for food.

A spiritual genius with an enlightened insight into everything from management to meditation, relationships to religion, success to spirituality, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM brings to us a wealth of practical wisdom and techniques for lasting inner change.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is the spiritual head of several non-profit organizations worldwide which enrich lives through personal transformation programs and courses, publications, spreading Vedic sciences and wisdom, spiritual healing and humanitarian services.

As a global humanitarian, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is working to promote global peace through the transformation of the individual. His spiritual mission includes ashrams and centres worldwide, which serve as spiritual laboratories where inner growth is profound and outer growth is a natural consequence.

Service activities include conducting meditation and de-addiction camps, free medical camps and artificial limb donation for the needy, support for education and vocational training, support for children in rural areas, conducting meditation camps for prisoners and disaster relief activities.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is also deeply committed to creating international awareness about Hindu culture and the ancient Vedic tradition. As an enlightened mystic, a spiritual evolutionary, a trained yogi, a powerful healer and a siddha, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is an inspiring personality for millions of people worldwide. His authenticity, depth of experience and his rare gift for making spirituality both practical and enjoyable have allowed His teachings to reach far and wide. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has healed thousands of people of diseases ranging from depression

to cancer, often with a single touch. Working and sharing with over 10 million people worldwide every year, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM and His mission are committed to help humanity make the next big breakthrough: into Superconsciousness.

• Yoga, meditation and spiritual counseling centers and camps touching millions of people in many countries
• · Over thousands of ordained spiritual healers healing people globally every day
• · Over hundreds of ordained teachers guiding thousands in yoga, meditation, spiritual sciences and life solutions
• · Live online morning satsang by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM via live streaming and video conferencing, viewed in thousands of places in many countries every day
• · Annadaan - free meals distributed every day at ashrams, schools, medical camps and to the needy
• · Weekly medical camps offering conventional and alternative medical care, oral health, eye surgeries. prosthetics, etc. - including free consultation, medicines and follow-up.
• · Over a dozen Vedic temples and ashrams worldwide housing energized deities, including some of the tallest deities in the world.
• · Free kriya & meditation programs in prisons and schools
• · Nithyananda Lakshmi, a non-profit micro-financing scheme for rural entrepreneurs
• · Nithyananda Grama Seva Yojana (NGSY) empowering hundreds of villages in Kamataka by creating opportunities for their socio-economic development.
• · Nithyananda Vidyalayas Schools blending modern education with the Vedic system of learning
• · Support for schools in rural areas, including school uniforms, books, stationery and infrastructure

• · Over hundreds of books of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's teachings published in many languages
• · Over thousands of free talks by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM on crossing millions of views
• · Over hundreds of e-books and meditation techniques and solutions available free online
• · Nithyananda University offering courses in meditation, spiritual sciences and life skills being established across the world
• · Breakthrough research on mystical yogic sciences like kundalini awakening, levitation, teleportation and yogic age-reversal
• · The Nithyananda Order Hundreds of aspirants from various religions and walks of life receiving Intensive spiritual training and sannyas
• · Ananda Yogam free one-year residential program for youth aged 18-35 years, offering vocational and spiritual training for excellence and personal growth
• · A dynamic volunteer force, including over thousands of full-time resident volunteers, offering services such as disaster relief, counseling, initiatives for youth and women's empowerment
• · Nithya Kriyas and Sammyamas 108 authentic yogic solutions for physical and mental ailments
• · Holistic-lifestyle aids including devotional music, energized jewelry, sacred arts and sculpture. and natural siddha medicines

• Protecting, preserving and promoting Vedic Hindu tradition through Vedic Temples in Bharat, USA, Canada, Malaysia and other countries
• Inspiring families to live the Vedic tradition through over 400 Paduka Mandirs housing 3720 energized deities where daily worship is performed in the authentic Vedic tradition
• Thousands of people worldwide simultaneously perform Vedic rituals during the daily morning satsang, creating powerful positive vibrations
• Reviving Bharat's pilgrimage culture by requiarly leading yatras to spiritual energy fields like Kallash-Manasarovar, Char-Dhaam, Varanasi, Bodh Gaya, Angkor Wat, Kumbh Mela, etc.
• THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Sacred Arts to promote, support and preserve ancient temple arts and sculpture as the largest producer of metal, wood and stone deities in Bharat

• Daily morning live satsang by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM viewed online in over 40 countries through two-way video conferencing and Nithyananda TV.
• Daily spiritual talks by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM viewed on various TV channels
• Over 20 different types of meditation programs at various levels offered in corporates, schools, prisons, etc.
• Nithya Yoga & Nithya Kriya authentic yogic solutions for 108 physical & mental disorders
• Scientific & safe initiation into mystical yogic sciences like kundalini awakening, levitation, hunger-free Sammyama etc.
• The Nithyananda Sannyas Order for spreading and continuing the sannyas parampara (tradition)
• Nithyananda Gurukuls and eN-Vidyalayas offering holistic traditional and modern education in a healthy environment
• Inspiring the youth to be the ambassadors of Vedic tradition by enriching them through scripture study, rituals and kriyas

• More than free meals served each day in Nithyananda ashrams and centers worldwide.
• Nutritious vegetarian meals cooked using authentic sattvic methods in a hygienic environment
• Chanting of vedic mantras or keertans while cooking Infuse high-energy vibrations into the food.
• Free meal schemes are also offered in schools. prisons and temples.

• Emergency relief to victims of natural calamities such as tsunami, earthquake, floods etc
• Distribution of free through various relief measures, by offering clothes, food, water and most importantly, psychological support and trauma counseling.

• Fortnightly and monthly multispecialty medical camps offering all services
• Weekly mobile medical services including . free consultation and medicines in rural areas
• A 100% free dialysis clinic with dialysis machines catering to patients per day in the pipeline
• Free 100-bed hospital with all amenities planned for the needy

Scientific Resea Mystical Yogic Sc

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM WORKS WITH DOCTORS & RESEARC to understand and revive yogic sciences like kundalini awakening, levitation, teleportation, materialization, living on prana, etc.

• Awakening and activating the highest potential energy hidden in the body
• Safe and natural kundalini awakening for more than 100,000 people through personal initiation
• Leads to recovery from chronic illnesses and improves health
• Boosts memory, intelligence, decision-making, creativity
• Rapid dissolving of karmas and intense spiritual growth

• Yogic science of inter-converting energy and matterimpossible to duplicate in modern science
• Vibhooti, kumkum, honey etc. materializing on sacred objects and deities worldwide by a blessing from THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
• People worldwide are experiencing these miracles from thousands of miles away
• Materialized objects have strong positive vibrations and healing properties

• Hundreds worldwide are successfully living without food since August 201211
• Personal initiation by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM into hunger-free sammyama
• Awakens the body's ability to live on prana like trees and plants
• Breaks deep-rooted food patterns without the need for fasting
• An effortless weight loss technique & powerful spiritual practice

INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS OF NITHYANANDA DHYANAPEETAM located near Bangalore, Asia's fastest growing city

• A kalpa vriksha (boon giving tree) that has manifested millions of sincere prayers till date
• Body and mind are calmed and refreshed by the powerful positive vibrations here
• Thousands experience miraculous healing of diseases by meditating under this tree
• Lord Dakshinamurti graces the space and radiates blessings to all

• Delties of Shiva & Devi measuring 7 1/2 feet in height and weighing 2 1/2 tons
• Deities are made out of panchaloha (combination of five metals)
• A rare ancient swayambhu lingam found under the banyan tree is consecrated here
• Thousands gather for worship here on special occasions

• Majestic 21-foot shivalingam which has been made using Nava Pashana (a strong natural medicine made of healing herbs) and 1008 sacred herbs.
• Water from six fountains bathes the lingam and falls into Vaidya Sarovar, the healing pool below
• Even a single dip in this medicinal water can heal many diseases

Anyone who has attended His Holiness THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's vibrant satsangs will surely recall the many 'small stories' with which they are sprinkled.

Drawn from just about anywhere - various spiritual traditions. folk-tales, comic books, the internet and from His own unique experience - these stories are small only in size.

Hidden deep in each is a profound insight into human nature, which He draws out with characteristic bubbly humor.

In THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's own words, each story is a 'new-clear bomb' that can create a powerful cognitive shift in the listener.

108 of the best-remembered 'new-clear bombs' from Nithya Satsang have been presented in this book.

His Holiness THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is recognized today as a clear, legitimate, apolitical voice of Sanatana Hindu Dharma, and revered as a living incarnation of superconsciousness by millions worldwide. He is a Mahamandaleshwar (spiritual head) of Mahanirvani Peeth, the world's most ancient apex body of Hinduism. He is the most watched spiritual teacher on YouTube.com with over 19 million views, and the author of more than 300 books published in over 20 languages. His lectures are watched live every day. as well as on multiple international television channels and via video conferencing.