All That You Always Wanted to Know About YOGA

To most, especially in the western societies, when we think of yoga, we immediately associate it with a series of yoga asana (physical postures), flawlessly executed to promote strength, flexibility and balance in the physical body. Yoga is more or less promoted today as a physical form of exercise to reach optimum fitness.

It is common for newcomers at yoga studios to immediately ask if the practice of yoga is an effective way to lose weight and strengthen the body. Of course, these are wonderful aspirations and we can gain great physical benefits from practicing yoga asana; however, the concept of yoga needs to be examined at a deeper level. The meaning of yoga is not merely limited to exercise or to movement of the body.

In Sanskrit, the word Yoga literally means 'to unite', or 'to become one with'. In very broad terms, yoga is a means to unite with our higher Self. It means to come together, or unite, the body, mind and spirit. Therefore, yoga implies a movement from the outer experience to the inner experience. In very traditional terms, yoga means union.

The only side effect of walking the path of yoga and achieving the union of yoga is ananda or bliss. The coming together, the union of body, mind and spirit will allow us to experience nothing but bliss.

What is bliss?

Normally we associate the word 'bliss' with the happiness that we feel in our day to day lives. And, if we look

closely, we will find that this ordinary happiness usually results from an event outside of ourselves.

In the Life Bliss Meditation Program, participants are asked by Acharya (teachers) to close their eyes for a moment and recall and relive their happiest moment, the most blissful moment of their entire life. After participants perform this activity, they are asked to share their blissful memory with the group. What's found is that in nearly all cases each student will describe an experience of bliss which has its source in something external such as a happy occasion or when they have benefited materially or when they heard good news about a relationship, person or event in the outside world.

This feeling of happiness is usually temporary and is purely dependant on people and circumstances outside, in the external world. Unfortunately, even these most pleasurable experiences ultimately lead to unhappiness. In fact, all happiness eventually leads to sadness because all of our happy moments are only temporary. That is because all of the circumstances and the people around us are constantly changing. When others around us change, when their behavior fluctuates, our happiness is affected. When our own inner peace is absent, then we try to snatch peace for ourselves from the external world.

When I first came to the U.S.A, my devotees took me to entertainment parks like Disneyland and Universal Studios thinking that I would feel delighted and happy. On the contrary, all I felt was a deep sadness and pity for the people of the USA. The fact that so much external entertainment was required to experience bliss only proved that the country was joyless.

Trying to snatch joy and bliss from the external world is nothing but trying to make a thread out of stone. Impossible! In Bharat, they make thread from the banana tree and it is used to make flower garlands. If we try to make a thread from a stone we will not succeed. Similarly, if we attempt to find enjoyment in the outer world, we will not succeed.

All of our external activities are nothing but techniques to escape from our own selves. When we are not at ease with ourselves, we engage in various external activities. But the truth is, unless an individual is totally comfortable or at ease and relaxed within him or herself, it is impossible to find lasting joy in the external world. Joy is within, not outside. Our very nature is bliss. However, we constantly disturb our natural state of inner bliss due to the infinite longing we create in our mind. When a mirror is dusty, how can the reflection be clear? Similarly, when our mind is cluttered, we cannot extract joy from the external world.

The bliss I am talking about is different. It is not a temporary feeling. Bliss is our core and permanent state. It is purely a state inside our Self and it can in no way ever be affected by external world influences.

The Sanskrit, the word ananda, means 'that which cannot be reduced'. Therefore, the bliss I am talking about is an experience that cannot be reduced by outer influences. The bliss we are working to uncover and experience is solid and stable. It is Nithyananda – Eternal Bliss.

By our very nature, we are bliss.

What is the authority on which this statement is made?

First of all, we are all born into this world at an elevated level of consciousness and pure awareness. Every baby that is received into the world is perfect proof of our natural and inherent state of bliss. In fact, we are born in the state of yoga (union of body, mind and spirit).

Secondly, it must be understood that all of the great Masters, not just limited to Hindu Mystics, but including Masters of all the religions, groups and sectors, all agree on one particular concept: 'That by nature we are intelligence and by nature we are bliss'. Understand, that no spiritual Master will agree with any other Master on any other one concept. It is just the opposite in the fields of medicine and mathematics. In these fields, scientists have easily agreed on many concepts and theories.

But, when it comes to spirituality, things are different. There is a beautiful statement: 'If two Rishi (sages) agree on one concept, be aware that one of the Rishi is a fake.' All spiritual Masters have their individual theories, their own expressions and their own experiences. That is why it is virtually impossible for them to agree on any one single concept, apart from agreeing on the one fact, that by nature we are bliss. It also helps that the presence of bliss existing within our make-up has been directly experienced.

In order to understand the bliss experienced as the union of mind, body and spirit according to our holistic concept of yoga, let us examine in detail the constitution of the body. According to the Upanishad, the oldest treaties on spirituality, we have 5 sheaths called Kosha in Sanskrit.

These 5 sheaths surround and enclose our atman or soul. These follow in the order of their subtlety:

This body constitutes the gross human body which is visible to the eye. The body is made of flesh and bones. Also, the body is composed of the 5 primordial elements: fire, water, earth, air and space and is directly under the control and influence of the Pranic body.

Prana is our life force or energy. This force includes the act of inhaling and exhaling and also includes all of the other prana or life forces moving within us and energizing our body. The Pranic body is also directly linked to the 7 major energy centers (chakra) in our system.

The next 3 bodies that are listed below are in the order of becoming progressively subtler. They relate predominantly to a person's mental faculty.

Mana means mind and therefore is the layer in which our inner chattering (constant mental activity) occurs. This is the body in which are our senses (sight, sound, taste) are interpreted, and our thoughts are processed. This kosha is central to human existence. It is more gross than the bodies it precedes (wisdom and bliss bodies) although it is subtler to the physical and pranic bodies.

This is the level at which you experience the state of deep

sleep and also the feeling of freshness and revitalization when you wake up from a deep and dreamless sleep. Vigyana means knowing or wisdom. The faculty of intelligence and reasoning are also associated with this body.

The final and innermost kosha which is also in the closest proximity to Being is anandamya kosha.

Ananda means bliss. It is rare that people experience this Anandamaya Kosha. When our mind is totally at peace and when our mind is totally in silence, when there is nothing but pure space, this is the experience of Anandamaya Kosha. This is the true experience of inner bliss. Bliss exists within us. Our very nature is bliss. It is always there. However, it is more or less a part of ourselves which has become remote, completely forgotten.

It is at the level of the anandamaya kosha that true yoga happens, where the union of mind, body and spirit takes place. We are one with the cosmic energy at this layer.

Our mind body spirit system can also be looked at a seven layered entity. These seven layers have similarities to the five sheaths, the kosha, we just now looked at, but somewhat different in their conceptual framework.

The first layer is the physical body. The second is the pranic body. There are seven such energy layers of the body. These energy layers can be represented as concentric circles with the physical layer as the outermost circle and the seventh layer, the nirvanic body as the innermost.

We go into complete detail into these seven layers of bodies during the Spurana Program (NSP), our second level meditation program.

Now, in a physical layer, you, God and I can be represented as three different points in the outermost concentric circle. In the physical level, the distance is too much. If you come down a little bit to the pranic level, the distance is reduced. If you come down deeper to the mental level, the distance between you and me is still reduced and so is the distance between you, God and I. When you go deeper and deeper, these three entities finally merge into one. Please be very clear that at the deep end of all these layers, God, you and I are one. There is no distance.

Once you become aware and realize that you are a part of collective consciousness, that you don't have an individual identity, you realize that you do not have a separate ego.

You think you own your individual identity. In Existence, there is no such thing as a separate individual identity. Once you know this truth, you go beyond pain, sufferings,

depressions and diseases.

Understand this: as long as you are individually conscious, you shall still be continuously suffering. Why do you think you are continuously resisting nature? Whatever nature offers, you resist.

There is a beautiful saying:

Man as a rule is a fool When it is hot asking for cool When it is cool asking for hot Always asking what is not

When it is cool, you resist. You think you are different from Existence. I have seen sanyasi, monks, living in Himalayas living almost nude in the cold, in the snow. I have myself lived but the body was never disturbed, I never had a problem. I never thought that I was different from the atmosphere, never had the feeling of separation from the nature. It is only when you start thinking that you are different from the atmosphere, from the air that is around you, you start resisting it.

The other day I read an interesting interview of this man who survived his jump into the Niagara falls. If you have been to the Niagara Falls, you can imagine the depth of the fact that someone survived jumping down the Niagara Falls. I cannot imagine someone surviving that Niagara Falls. He says beautifully, 'When I jumped, I became a part of that Niagara Falls. I felt like I was a part of it. I never felt that I was a different part of that falls.'

When you are in tune with Collective Consciousness, when

you become a part of the Collective Consciousness, nature is with you, nature is your friend and nature will protect you. Nature will not harm you. When you think that you are different from the nature; as long as you think that you are an individual consciousness, nature will protest you. As long as you are in tune with Collective Consciousness, nature protects you.

A very simple thing, you can practice now, if you are feeling cold, just relax, identify the area where you are feeling cold, witness that area. In that area, don't resist the atmosphere, don't resist the air, don't resist the temperature, don't resist the nature and don't resist Existence. Just say to yourself, 'I am not going to resist the nature, I am not going to resist the temperature, I am not going to resist Existence, let me relax.' Be conscious and decide; with this you shall see the body relaxing and the idea of cold disappearing from that part and you become completely comfortable. When you think you are something different from nature, you are disturbed by nature.

The Whole, the universe, is a hologram of which you are a part. Just as in a hologram, every single part reflects the totality of that hologram even if it is split, you reflect the totality of the whole that is the universe.

Another example, when a living person falls in a well and dies, the dead body floats. The dead body is heavier than water. Yet, it floats. But a living body, which is lighter, does not float. It drowns. Why do you think this is so? As long as you are living, you are not able to relate with water. Your ego prevents that; your mind prevents that. In the dead body there is no mind and no ego.

Wherever you want to achieve success, in a social or an economical way, only when you feel in tune with the whole group, fall in tune with the collective consciousness; then you will be able to achieve what you want to achieve. As long as you feel you are an individual, you want to have an idea that you are somebody, an identity, be very clear that you will be resisted and you will be resisting. Whether it is home or office or workplace or office or industry, this will happen.

If you disappear into the Collective Consciousness, you will be again and again protected and taken care. You will attain complete success, not only socially and economically, but you will experience it. It will be a feeling of fulfillment.

As long as you resist the current, whether it is your workplace or your house or your company or any place for that matter, as long as you do not disappear into the Collective Consciousness, you will be continuously creating hell for yourself and for others.

Even if in the physical layer, if you think you are something separate, be very clear, you will be inviting diseases. One more thing, in the mental layer, if you think you are separate, an individual, again and again, you will be sowing the seeds of violence. The seeds of violence will be created when you feel you are an individual. With collective consciousness, you unify but with individual consciousness, you dissect, you cut things in pieces. Logic always breaks. Intuition always unites. At the soul level, if you think you are an individual, there is no possibility of any spiritual growth.

First thing, even at the physical level, you are not an

individual. Your body and the body of the sun are straightaway connected. Any small change in the body of the sun can make changes in your body. Any small change in your body can change the body of the moon. Even if you are not able to logically relate, it is true.

In the mental layer, also, you are not alone. Any thought which is put in anyone else's head comes and touches you and any thought created in someone else's mind goes and touches someone else. Any thought sowed by someone can touch you and affect you.

It is like ripples created in the water on a lake. If you are creating a strong wave, you will be creating an impression with your thought. You will be leading and inspiring others with your thought. If your thoughts are not solid enough, other waves will impress you.

Either you live like a leader or you will be a follower. There is no in between. You always think, I will not I be a leader, I cannot do that much. I will not be a follower either; I shall maintain my own stand. This is simply impractical. There is no such thing as my own stand. Either you lead or you follow.

In the mental level also, again and again, if you think you are an individual, you will be resisted. The moment you understand that you are a part of the collective consciousness, you will not be resisted but will be actually welcomed and accepted.

In the ultimate way, at the spiritual level, the moment you understand that you are deeply connected, totally connected, intensely connected to the whole universe, not

only do you start experiencing the bliss, but you really start living, opening many dimensions of your being.

See, right with this one body, you can think so much, enjoy so much. If you disappear into this Collective Consciousness, you will experience so many dimensions, so many possibilities, you cannot imagine.

See, now that you have one body, you can enjoy so much. Imagine what you can do if you have two bodies. Just imagine what you can do when you have so many bodies. Imagine one body is an air conditioner and the other one is a heater. Imagine three different bodies in different countries enjoying different cultures. Similarly if the multitudes of bodies increase, so would be the joy, the bliss. The same thing you will experience when you are a part of Collective Consciousness.

During the Hindu festival day of Holi, raas purnima, Radha and the gopi experienced the collective Consciousness; that is when Krishna gave Collective Consciousness to groups of gopi and Radha. We have a very wrong idea about this raas leela. We think that this raas leela is something where Krishna had a relationship with so many women. This is a wrong concept. Krishna was just 10 years old then! We have not read the original scriptures and have come up with our own conclusions. We pick up and support what we want. We just want some support from some scripture and some master so that we can do something behind his back. So we just start blaming Krishna. What happened actually was that He gave Collective Consciousness experiences to whole group of gopika and Radha. The Collective Consciousness is what I call God.

During the entire NSP, the THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Spurana Program, you will realize that you are a part of the Collective Consciousness. Not only that you are a part but you are the Collective Consciousness. You are not an individual consciousness as you think. Layer by layer when we go deeper and deeper, you will realize that you are just one with everything. So, automatically the diseases disappear. You start feeling the well being in the mental layer, the pranic layer, the etheric layer, the physical layer and all the other layers.

You are like an onion. If you peel the onion layer by layer, what is there inside, just emptiness! The onion thinks it has got something solid but when it is opened layer by layer, it is empty. Similarly, you think that you are individual consciousness, but if you peel the individual layers, you will experience you are nothing but the Cosmic Consciousness, the Collective Consciousness.

In the NSP, that is what we do, opening of your minds. You are asked to write for yourself, about your pains, desires, guilt and pleasures. You are not going to show these to anyone else. People ask me why I am asking them to write all this. You are not going to show me or anybody else. People ask me that when I know, why I should write it down. I tell people by writing it down you are opening your mind in my presence. You are opening your mind and hence I can heal your mind.

First of all you should understand that I do not heal. My presence heals. When the sun rises, lotus blooms by itself. The sun need not go and open the petals of the lotus. Similarly, in the presence of the Master, healing happens. Healing is not done, it happens. I can heal your body as it is in my presence.

In the same way, if you open your mind, it can be healed. If you open it, the sun can heal it. The energy heals all the wounds. NSP is opening up your energy layers one by one and your pains, pleasures, guilt and desires are opened up. When they open up, you experience God; not only do you search for God but experience God, since pure mind is God itself and not something separate from it.

When we are perfectly choiceless and when we accept the current flow, we end up in bliss. For some people, there is the concern that they will feel inadequate if they do not feel that they are continuously making choices in life. They ask themselves, 'how can I end up in bliss when I cannot make a choice in my life?' The important thing to realize here is that being choiceless is only the acceptance of reality as it is. Choicelessness is not a form of suppression, but rather a form of acceptance.

When we truly understand the energy that moves the earth around the sun, the energy which makes life evolve and sustains nature in perfect equilibrium, then we realize that it is the same energy that is taking care of every individual and thing in the universe. The universe is so abundant and so generous that it wants to see each and every individual succeed. Our individual choices or interventions are not required to make things happen. When we understand this, we end up in a state of choicelessness or bliss and we start enjoying the divine play.

If we closely analyze ourselves, we will realize that we have been postponing the bliss all of our lives. When we were in Bharat, we thought that if we got a US visa we would be happy. Once we got the visa, we started worrying about getting a good job. Once we got the good job we started thinking about a house in the U.S. After that we start thinking about a green card and then citizenship and the process continued. By the time we had a family, we had mortgaged our lives.

People come and ask me all of the time which is more important, their spiritual life or their material life? This is the million dollar question, which every so-called spiritual seeker has had at one time or another.

Today, existing in the world there are people in various professions, professional doctors, professional lawyers and there is another group of professionals, those who regard themselves as professional seekers. The job of the professional seeker consists of reading some books and continuously window shopping from Master to Master, from group to group and proclaiming that they are great spiritual seekers. There are thousands of these spiritual seekers out there. They always pose that one question though, asking whether they should put more energy into their spiritual life or their material life.

Be very clear, the moment we choose to pursue our spiritual life and turn our back on the material life or vice versa, we have begun to suffer. If we choose the material life, we feel we are missing the spiritual life. We start visualizing what we are missing. If we choose the spiritual life, we will start missing the material life. We always have that dilemma about which one to choose.

I assure you, there is no need to choose. Material life is the horizontal line and spiritual life is the vertical line. If we look deeply into our Being, if we deeply meditate, we will understand that we do not have to choose either the horizontal line or the vertical line. We have the ability to explode in both directions at the same time and space. This is what I call 'Quantum Spirituality'.

To most people, material life represents all that they have in life, physical, emotional, economic and intellectual, which seemingly brings them unhappiness. Contrarily spiritual life is the greener grass that beckons, that they do not have, and which seems to have all that is missing from their current life. By giving up one for the other they seek happiness, peace of mind and bliss.

Being in the present is the key to awareness; awareness is the door that opens to bliss. To be in the present one needs to reach the state of 'no mind', a state where there are no thoughts. Once we reach this point the seeming contradiction of being at the same time in the vertical axis of spirituality while straddling the horizontal axis of materialism disappears.

When you are in this state of mind, of the present, of the here and now, you are in a no thought zone. This is what is called the 'Zero TPS state'; TPS is thoughts per second. This is the state of Samadhi, the Ananda Gandha, Satori, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM state, Enlightenment, Salvation etc. You will have complete awareness and total consciousness but you will not have any thoughts.

The shaft in the center represents 'Time'. The horizontal axis has Future on the right constantly moving to the Past on the left. The vertical axis represents thoughts per second, TPS going higher as one goes higher.

At any given time, greater one's TPS or thoughts per second, more far-flung one is from consciousness of the present moment. You are simply worrying about the future, allowing it to slip into the past, without ever getting a glimpse of the present.

When your TPS comes down, you enter more and more into the present and when this happens, you have a clearer vision of the past and the future. Familiar incidents from even past births and intuitions of the future start to surface in you.

When this happens to you without your consciously attempting it, be very clear, that for those few moments, your TPS has dropped and you are more in the present. When your TPS is zero, you can clearly see the entire past and future. When people experience déjà vu feelings they drop accidentally into a zero TPS state.

Mind enslaves you to make you believe that you can only travel in one way, horizontally or vertically, spiritually or materially. That is why you do not grow in many spiritual sadhanas which force you to choose between the two, material and spiritual.

Instead of two axes you now have multiple axes, infinite axes that offer infinite possibilities in the past, present and future, as well as across all points in space. Being in the 'here and now' helps transcend barriers of time and space so that one can be every where at all times.

This phenomenon of singularity, that Hindu scriptures call Brahman, Buddhists call 'akasic record' and generally referred to as Universal Consciousness, refers to this state of penetration of the time shaft at which point one is simultaneously in a state of past, present and future.

This is also the state of enlightenment, as the ego or mind breaks down at this point. It is an explosion within one's mind that is multi dimensional in time and space frame in the total absence of thoughts.

To reach this state all one has to do is to stay in the present and suspend wasteful thoughts of past and future. As for the present just focus on what you are doing at that time.

Buddhism refers to this as the mindful state. Techniques such as vipassana seek to introduce us to this state of mindfulness. Most of us when we eat do everything else but focus on the food. We talk, watch TV, or read books paying scant attention to the food we consume. The food energy in turn pays scant attention to us. It turns into garbage and sits on our waist and hips instead of being the energy it could have been.

Stay in the present with whatever you do; when you take the next step; when you brush your teeth; when you smile at some one; just focus on what you are doing at that point in time. If other thoughts fleet by witness them as an observer without getting involved. These thoughts will die down by themselves. As thoughts slow down, gradually to disappear, you near the time shaft interface. When all thoughts are suspended you are in the time shaft, with the entire time frame of past to future spreading in front of you.

At this point there is no past; therefore no baggage of the past can be accumulated; you can not therefore accumulate karmic baggage in this state.

At this point the future is known; therefore even as you focus only on the present you are aware of the future and what you decide to do in the present is with complete precognition of what the future entails.

Real spirituality begins when we start living in the moment and stop choosing between the spiritual life and material life. When we choose, we exclude the other. Real spirituality is all inclusive. When we restrict our life only to the so-called spiritual life, we reduce this all encompassing, all inclusive truth to a concept which we have about spiritual life. When we start living in the moment we naturally explode. We start expressing ourselves in our material life as well as our spiritual life.

All that matters is whether we live our life with awareness or without awareness. When we meditate, automatically our life is flooded with this awareness. We simply flood awareness into our Being and automatically we enter a new dimension of our Being. We begin to enjoy life truly, the material life and the spiritual life.

We look upon a spiritual person as being something different from the outer world; however, a spiritual person is made up of the same material as we. He or she eats the same kind of food we eat, sleeps like us and undertakes the same daily chores as we do. They are identical to us in all physical manifestation.

In the ancient scriptures, it does not actually specify whether Krishna used the bathroom or not. No scripture talks about His bodily functions. We have all of these preconceived notions regarding how a spiritual person is supposed to be. So when we choose the spiritual life, we automatically try to imitate a spiritual person. We try to match that stereotype. Imitating a spiritual person, won't make us spiritual. Imitating a spiritual person perfectly will only just provide a boost for our ego. Instead of trying to achieve a spiritual person's status, we should be working to attain their state of consciousness.

Life is a whole. Only when we start living intensely do we start enjoying the whole. Simply living in the moment with no concern about the past or the future is what I consider as living intensely. It is the present moment that determines our future, not our imagination of the future or our memories of the past. In the present, there is no problem with working towards our imagination; however, there is no requirement to remember that imagination again and again in the present.

We can use our past experiences in the present, however it is not necessary to be in fear as a result of our past experiences. When we set a goal, forget the goal and simply start working. We don't need to worry about the goal or constantly keep reminding ourselves of it.

There are two types of planning. Chronological planning is the first type. Chronological planning is on a timescale. We decide, I will get up at 7 am in the morning, finish getting ready for work by 8 am, arrive at the office at 9 am and I need to complete these specific tasks by 5 pm. This type of planning is okay because it is practical and allows us to organize our lives efficiently and encourages the best results. Also, it is okay because it doesn't take too much energy.

On the other hand, psychological planning is the worry that will hurt us and drain a lot of our energy. This is a type of planning that goes on in our head with no relevance to time. It is continuous and serious planning that plays over and over in our mind. In contrast, when we live in the moment we actually live the whole. Life is neither the past nor the future, it is the now. That is why we are now here or nowhere.

For most of us, we are running constantly through this life. When we reach the end of our lives, we suddenly start asking ourselves, 'why have we been running all this time?' We are just contestants in a race, a big rat race.

Even if you win the race, you are still a rat. I don't think anyone wants to be a rat just for the sake of winning.

Around the age of 40 – 45 we enter into a new phase of our life which I call 'depression of success.' It means that during our entire life, we have worked hard and struggled to get what we wanted and, suddenly, after acquiring it all we don't know what to do with it. Many people come to me and tell me they have everything a man could ask for, yet somehow they do not feel at all happy. They do not feel at home. When you reach this phase, you all of a sudden start making major decisions in your life. This is the time when you try to change everything including your car, house, and wife or husband.

Many professional people, including doctors, come to me and tell me, 'Master, I don't believe in my profession, therefore how can I practice it? I feel I am not in the right place. I feel totally misplaced.' Their Being is completely filled with agony and misery. We have to understand, it is not important what we are doing. The state of our Being is what matters. Only changing our inner space will allow us to feel peace and contentment with whatever situation is present in our lives.

Most of us will continuously try to change what we are doing or our present situation, be it our job, our house, our wife or husband. We firmly believe that these external things or situations are the cause for our misery. However, it doesn't matter how many careers we try, how many different homes we live in or how many different relationships we enter into. If we are not in tune with ourselves, we will continuously feel that restlessness, that frustration and agony within.

Either we start changing things or we become addicted to something to escape from ourselves. Addictions are not just limited to alcohol and drugs but people can also become television addicts. Television is a familiar method of escaping oneself. We refuse to sit with ourselves so we make every effort to surround ourselves with entertainment. If we really become aware of ourselves while watching television, we will notice how deeply restless we are. That is why within just 15 minutes we can flick through the whole channel availability. We can't even sit with one channel for more than 15 minutes.

The other day, an advertisement producer came to meet me. He divulged results of a survey showing that people can only watch an advertisement for the maximum of 60 seconds. Any longer than that, you have lost the viewer. I was shocked to hear this. People cannot trust anybody for more than 60 seconds because within 60 seconds their decision changes.

If some person helps you escape from yourself by entertaining you, you call them a good entertainer. If some program helps you escape from yourself, you call it a good entertainment program. How long will we continue going out of our way to escape from ourselves? The longer we postpone becoming comfortable with ourselves, the more emptiness we will feel from within.

When we are totally at ease with ourselves, when we radiate bliss, only then will we understand the purpose of our existence in this universe. We will understand the purpose for all of our actions and we won't be left in the dilemma of wondering why we have done the things we have done our whole life.

We are convinced that bliss is dependant on our outer life. That is the reason why we try to make our outer life perfect. However, we are missing one important thing. Bliss is not based on quantity, it is based on quality. Our ability to sit with ourselves is determined by our inner quality. Our inner quality determines our level of bliss and not the outer quantity. I am not against quality. You can enjoy all of the best things in life, all of the worldly comforts.

Tantra (an ancient Hindu text) says beautifully,

'You don't need to sell your inner space in order to have your outer space.'

There is no need to disturb or damage your inner space in order to have the outer. We sell our sleep to earn enough money to purchase an expensive bed. We sell our eyes to watch late night movies. We sell our stomachs to enjoy and relish tasty food. This is where we go wrong.

We might visit the beach one day and automatically feel a sudden peace or calmness in our mind. We think, 'Oh this beach gives me such a feeling of peace and calmness', so you endeavor to visit the same beach every day. Then what do we start experiencing? Instead of experiencing the peace and calmness, we sit there and start our regular worrying. This is why I tell people, it is not the outer space that decides, it is the inner space that decides. That is why a person who can't create an inner space of bliss can never have a vacation.

Understand this one example:

If we are sitting in our office worrying, it is work. If we are sitting in our home worrying, it is homework. If we are sitting on the beach and worrying, it is a vacation.

When we constantly associate bliss or peace with the outer space or scenery or the outer situations and outer things, we start to believe that this is the only way to experience joy. However, we will find that we cannot experience the same calmness, same joy, same peace and same ananda by putting ourselves in that space outside of ourselves again and again.

It is possible to create enough energy, richness and quality in our inner space and at the same time also enjoy the outer space. There is a technique to achieve this. The technique to attain this inner quality and space is meditation. If you can spend at least 20 to 30 minutes during the day with yourself to enrich your inner space and to maintain the quality of your inner space, then you can't help but radiate bliss. It is so fulfilling that you will also excel in all facets of your life whether it is professional life, family life or social life.

So what stands between us and experiencing the oneness of yoga and permanent bliss that is not influenced by the outer world?

Our mind is what is standing between ourselves and Ourselves. The mind is the major influence that is postponing THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM - Eternal Bliss. The mind is responsible for destroying the quality and richness of our inner space.

YOGA POSTPONED YOGA POSTPONED

'Our mind is our major dilemma.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

The presence of our mind is the major obstacle in our path of yoga. We allow the mind to enjoy far too much power. As long as the mind is allowed this power, it is our Master and we remain the servant. As long as this situation remains, so does the confusion and dilemma in our lives.

A young American man was visiting London and was traveling in a train. Sitting beside him in the train was an elderly British couple. The British lady had a pet dog with her, which she was carrying on her lap. All of a sudden, the pet dog jumped from her lap onto the lap of the American guy and vomited on him. The elderly lady, instead of apologizing to the American became anxious about her dog. She started patting the dog saying, 'Oh, what is wrong with you? Your stomach must be upset.' The young American chose to stay silent.

A few minutes later, the dog again jumped onto the American's lap and urinated on him. Again, the elderly lady, instead of apologizing to the American about this incident, just started patting the dog profusely, expressing concern regarding the dog's health. 'I must take you to the vet! I don't know what has happened to you!' She completely ignored the young man and was not at all concerned about the inconvenience that was being caused by her dog.

After sometime, again the dog jumped on to the American's lap and this time defecated on him. Even still, the British lady did not apologize to the American, however started worrying and fussing over the dog, feeding it food and treats. All the while, the American guy was sitting in silence, watching everything. However, by this third incident, his patience had been tested enough. The American man silently stood up, picked up the dog and threw the dog out of the train window.

After this incident, the husband of the British lady got up out of his seat and shouted at the American guy, 'You Americans are dumb; you drive on the wrong side of the road, use the wrong scale for measurement and now you have thrown the wrong bitch out the window!'

The story above, perfectly illustrates our lives. We always throw the wrong things out of the window.

In the above story, the dog was not at fault. The poor animal was obviously sick and was, of course, just an animal with no means of expressing itself. The person who was at fault in this story was the British lady since she was oblivious to the inconvenience caused to another person and not at all apologetic for her dog's actions. I am not implying that the American should have thrown the British lady out of the window instead. The point I am attempting to make is that the American failed in analyzing the situation thoroughly and made a poor decision by throwing the poor, helpless dog out of the train window.

Similarly, most of our decisions end in dilemma. This dilemma is the term I use to describe our mind. The mind can be defined in countless ways; however, the most appropriate word that can describe our mind is 'dilemma'. There is no better way of defining it.

When you close your eyes, the mind is whatever you think and whatever you can think, whatever you visualize and whatever you can visualize and finally, whatever you experience and whatever you can experience. This entire whole is what I call the mind.

Vacillating from one extreme to the other is the very nature of our mind. Jumping from one thought to the other is the very nature of our mind. The mind is never convinced or satisfied with its own decisions. Instead it tries to judge and compare its decisions with the past memories. The mind never stays in the current moment. We are in the habit of making too many unconscious decisions and regretting them later. If we can just accept the current moment, existence as it is, we can go beyond the mind. We will experience a state of satori (no mind) which we refer to as enlightenment or super consciousness.

How does the mind actually work? The diagram below illustrates simply how we all perceive things. According to Yoga, this is the way information is processed inside of our system.

Firstly, when we see something through our eyes, the information that is received through our eyes is digitized by what is known in Sanskrit as chakshu. This chakshu is like a digital signal processor (DSP). The information which is received through the eyes is digitized in the chakshu and it is converted into a digital file.

Let us case of all of you listening to me speaking to you now. What the chakshu captures is my images that it passes on as a digital file.

Next, the digitized file goes to memory which is known in Sanskrit as chitta. In chitta, the elimination process takes place; exclusion occurs. For example, if you are seeing me (THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM), the image seen through the eyes goes directly to chakshu. In chakshu the whole signal is digitized, and then the file goes to chitta (memory) whereby memory starts to analyze the information it has received. It determines that this is not an animal, this is not a plant, this is not a tree, this is not a mountain. This elimination is done by the chakshu. Then the memory function determines that 'this is not, this is not, this is not'.

In the third step, the whole file goes to the mind. In Sanskrit, mind is translated as manas. The mind's role is to identify. So all of a sudden, one will identify that they are seeing a Master or a meditation teacher. The mind will identify and conclude that 'this is it, this is it, this is it.'

Finally, the file will take a quantum leap to the ego. Here it is decided what benefit, if any, the information received (for this example; the Master or meditation teacher) will have for the individual. Once the mind has concluded that the Master or a meditation teacher is being seen, the ego will step in and, depending on one's past experiences with Masters or meditation teachers, it will determine whether or not the viewer will continue to sit and participate.

If someone previously has had a good experience with a Master or meditation teacher, then the ego will identify that there will be something of value. We may decide that this is a good place and decide to continue and sit. On the other hand, if we have previously had a bad experience with a Master or a meditation teacher then we might decide that 'this is not for me and I don't want to continue to sit here.' The ego gives this command to the mind and the command is executed.

To clarify the process:

• 1. EYE Seeing the Master/meditation teacher.
• 2. DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSOR (DSP)The eye passes the information to the digital signal processor.
• 3. MEMORYThe DSP passes the information to the memory which does the job of eliminating unwanted information.
• 4. MIND - Then the memory passes this reduced information to the mind which does the job of the identification.
• 5. EGOFinally the whole file takes a quantum leap to the ego, which makes the decision based on our past experiences.

The time for processing between the EYE and the MIND can be called 'Tp' (processing time). This processing time between the eye and the mind is logical and conscious. It happens with our complete awareness.

The time for the processing during the quantum leap from the MIND to the EGO can be called 'Tq' (quantum time). This processing time between the mind and the ego is mostly unconscious. It is an unconscious process for us. It happens without our awareness. During this time we decide quickly and illogically based on past experiences and it usually results in poor, rash decisions which is usually followed with regret.

For example, let's takes the habit of smoking. Logically, people who smoke regularly know that smoking is injurious to the body and mind. When we are in the Tp level, we make this conclusion because the process between the EYE and the MIND is totally conscious and logical (the conscious zone). At this level, smokers understand logically that smoking is bad.

However, in the Tq level, which can be referred to as the unconscious zone, the quantum leap from the MIND to the EGO occurs and this process is unconscious. This process happens without our awareness. During this time, illogical decisions occur. Although we can logically conclude that smoking can have detrimental effects on our health, people addicted to smoking, again and again continue to make the decision to smoke.

This person came and saw me one time. He told me that he had recently read a book about the negative effects that smoking had on our Being. He said, 'After that I stopped.' I told him, 'Oh that is nice. You have decided to stop smoking.'

He said, 'No Master, I decided to stop reading such confusing books.'

Many times, we know what is right and what is wrong, however, we are not able to decide with our straight, logical data. However, if we made decisions based on our logic, then our entire life would be conscious. So, what causes us to decide illogically and irrationally? Why is it so common for us to make such bad decisions that ultimately result in regret and dilemma?

The reason for making poor and illogical decisions over and over again rests in our Tp level. It is because our Tp level, or the unconscious zone, is filled with negative memories. These negative memories tend to be deeply engraved in our Being and are defined in the field of psychology as engrams. In Sanskrit, these engrams are referred to as samskara. Samskara are stored in the unconscious zone.

So, while logically we know that smoking can be damaging to our health, we might continue to smoke because of the deeply engraved memories. The memory or habit of smoking is inscribed in our system. Samskara are so powerful that they will cause us to act in the same way again and again.

Samskara have tremendous force and power over our Being. They more or less control our lives. All of our hasty and often harmful decisions are made as a result of these samskara. Samskara are the root cause for stress and also responsible for all psychosomatic illnesses.

I have at least 600 American doctors initiated to provide Ananda healing. And our latest count shows there are over 5000 healers worldwide serving society through 800 healing centers. On average, our records show us that 50,000 people are touched by our healers everyday around the globe. I can tell you, from my experience, that many of the psychosomatic illnesses reported have taken root as the result of samskara. Fortunately, it is possible to abolish these samskara through meditation. If people would eliminate their samskara through meditation, this would be a huge service to humanity.

The more samskara we have*,* the more the fight. The more samskara we have existing within, the more stress that manifests in our life. The more samskara we have, the more difficult it is to move in life. Whether it is in relationships or has to do with our profession, it will prove extremely difficult to make any decision. Even small decisions look too big! The more samskara, the longer it will take to make any choice. That is why many times we are not able to decide about something for 10 years. By the time people decide whether or not to get married life is over. Many times we can't decide because there are too many engrams.

Our entire ability to move in life is completely disturbed as a result of our engraved memories.

Humans normally operate on 3 levels: instinct, intellect and intuition. The relative length of time it takes for the conscious process to happen versus the time it takes for the unconscious process to happen, determines whether we are operating on the level of instinct, intellect or intuition.

The first level of operation, or processing is referred to as instinct. This is the very basic level, where we exhibit animal instincts. On seeing a sweet in front of us, we pounce on it, just as an animal would pounce. Similarly, the habit of smoking is also an instinct.

The second level is the intellect level, where we choose our responses intellectually. The moment we start choosing intellectually, we give power to our mind. Our habit of choosing usually stems from greed or fear. Greed motivates us to choose and fear motivates us to escape from certain things. On seeing a sweet, we start analyzing whether we should have it or not. If we already have a full stomach our level of greed determines whether we will choose to eat the sweet or not. Or if we have diabetes, our fear of aggravating the condition will determine whether we eat the sweet or not. Ultimately, if we choose intellectually, it will only end in worry, confusion and dilemma.

Not choosing and just accepting the flow is what I call intelligence. Simply going with the flow. When we understand and accept the will of Parasakti (which is the universal cosmic/primal energy or supreme power), we also enter into the higher level of intuition. At this level, the divine energy starts flowing through our Being. We become an instrument of the divine cosmic law. When we continuously operate in this level, we reach the state of enlightenment. We become God.

Intuition is a very difficult word for logical people to understand. It is hard for logical people to believe that something called intuition actually exists. To most of us, we consider intuitive people as somewhat special, blessed or gifted individuals. When any of us have ever had an intuitive moment, we normally brush it off as being a mere coincidence.

I have often heard people use these terms interchangeably, without seeming to understand the difference. They say, my intuition told me to do that, whereas what they actually mean is instinct. Instinct is driven by the reptilian brain that stores all the memories of our evolution. This is part of the unconscious part of our brain. This part of the brain operates and decides at lightning speed.

It has been established that the unconscious brain can process around 60 million bytes of information per second if needed whereas during the same period the conscious part of the brain can only process 60! So, when it comes to who decides, the conscious brain does not sand a chance!

Instinct and intuition operate at opposite ends of the spectrum. Instinct operates from the unconscious brain whereas intuition operates from the super conscious brain.

Have you ever been sitting at a party when you suddenly get the feeling that within five minutes, somebody is going to arrive or something is going to happen? After sometime

this person arrives or the thing that you thought was going to happen actually happens. Or, has the telephone started ringing in your house and suddenly you remember a friend that you have not seen in 10 years. You pick up the phone and this friend is there on the line. Or, has the doorbell sounded and suddenly you remember some relative's name? You go and answer the door and who is standing there? That relative.

Sometimes people tell me that they have gone to visit a friend's house for the first time. They tell me that they felt as if they had been there before. They suddenly are able to identify, even before seeing, items that are there in other rooms. Whenever I hold discourses relating to this subject of intuition, I always ask the gathering if they have at least once in their lives, had any experiences such as these. In any gathering, always more than 80% of people raise their hands.

If these moments of intuition had only happened in one individual's life, maybe once or twice, we could easily reject the idea of intuition and call it as a mere 'coincidence.' However, when it obviously occurs in the lives of so many individuals, it is something more than coincidence. Research is always being done to try and explain the phenomenon of intuition. This can be explained in accordance with yoga.

At the moment of intuition, knowingly or unknowingly, we come to the present moment. When we come to the present moment, we have the power and the energy to see what will happen next. There is almost no confusion. The file reaches our EGO without the influence of any samskara that are sitting there in our unconscious zone. The whole process is totally conscious. That is why we suddenly get a glimpse of intuition. And, I tell you, it is possible to stay continuously in that same state of practice.

Einstein said, 'Logic is a servant and intuition is a gift from a higher energy.' I don't agree. If it is a gift, we will have to wait. Who will give the gift? When will they give the gift? What time? Will it come or not!?

Intuition is not a gift. We can actually make it like a salary. We can work for it. We can achieve it. We can make it a part of our lives. We can eventually stay in a permanent state of intuition. Intuition is a side effect of the elimination of the negative memories (samskara) that are stored in the unconscious zone.

The dilemma in our lives is caused by these samskara stored in our minds. These samskara are the cause for our bad decision making, our bad habits, our physical and mental disease, our poor intuition and our overall lack of well being and peace. The way to change our lives from dilemma to divine is through the removal of these samskara. What is the prescribed technique recommended for the removal of samskara?

Part 2: All That You Always Wanted to Know About YOGA

'The thoughts that are embedded and repeated in our mind are a projection of our life.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

Between the body and the mind exists our verbalization. This verbalization is also referred to as our inner chattering. Inner chattering is the bridge between our body and our mind. It cannot be regarded as the mind, because the mind is something more than inner chattering. Additionally it cannot be regarded as the body, because the body is physical; it exists in-between.

This inner chattering that continuously goes on within us directly stems from our samskara. Again and again, the great Masters declare you are Atman (the individual Self/ part of the universal intelligent energy).

The Upanishad say beautifully;

'Whatever you can express inside in your inner space, you can express it in the outer world. Whatever you can create in your dream state, you have the ability to create it in your waking state.'

In our dreams, we have the ability to create an entire and complete world. So why can we not create the same world in our waking state? There is no reason why we should not or can not make our own world in the waking state. To tell you honestly, if we look deeply into our Being, we can understand that this world is made up of the same things of which our dreams are made. This statement is quite shaking and for some, quite difficult to believe.

Any scientific discovery, whether it is in the field of medicine or physics, has to first be created in the mind of the scientist. It must first be created within their inner space, and only then can they present the discovery to others in the outer world. In our dream state, we do the same thing. We create in our inner space and project it into the outer world.

In the waking state, we also create ideas in our inner space and project them into the outer space. Our verbalization or our inner chattering is where these ideas are created and usually reside and get repeated indefinitely.

When we create in our inner space, we are all bound to make mistakes or blunders. Although we are all capable of creating positive ideas in our inner space, we are also capable of creating negative ideas. Of course, both the positive and the negative will be projected into our outer world. When we start to experience the results that stem from our negative projections we ask, 'how can this be my creation? If I really have created my outer world, I would have surely created it in a much better way.'

If we can work on the model created inside, if we can correct the negative ideas created in our inner space through our inner chattering, we will have the ability to project what we want to project. Over time, we will cultivate the understanding that the whole world is our projection.

When we correct the current mistakes we are repeating in our inner verbalization, we will achieve two things: First, we will achieve the sakti (energy) to realize our dreams and then turn our dreams into reality and second, the buddhi (intelligence) to realize that our reality itself is nothing but our dream.

Even once if we can create a model in our inner space

and project it into our outer world clearly, we will realize that we have the ability to create. When we realize that we can make our dreams into reality, immediately we will realize that whatever we believe is our reality is nothing but our own dream. We will have the realization of both at the same time.

We generate approximately 70,000 thoughts per day. Ninety-percent of these thoughts are the same thoughts we had from the day before and the day before that and the day before that. As we go about our daily routines, we are unconsciously repeating the same thought patterns everyday.

For example, if we work 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday in an office, on Saturday our mind will naturally be repeating the same words or generating the same thoughts that we had in the office all week. One part of our mind will alert us that today is Saturday, that it is the weekend and it is time for us to relax. Even so, our minds will refuse to listen. Our mind is in the habit of simply repeating words without our awareness.

Every morning when we wake up and get out of bed, if we observe, our mind will be repeating the same thoughts it has at this time every morning. When we go and brush our teeth, this is also evident. There will be the same repetition of words without our being conscious.

When we think of an overhead projector, whatever slide is put over the lamp, it will be projected for everyone to see. We will see the reality on the screen. In the same way, whatever slides we keep inside our mind, in front of our consciousness, immediately it will be projected and experienced as our reality. This inner chattering that goes on continuously and unconsciously plays a major role in our lives. It has the power to project and create our life.

Self-contradicting samskara are those samskara or engrams which we create to gain a particular result but, in fact, create the opposite of our original intention. We give a lot of power to these self–contradicting samskara and they, more or less, determine the quality of our life.

For example, when we want to be cured from a certain disease, we might repeat the words, 'I want to get rid of this disease.' The more we repeat the word 'disease', the more power we are actually supplying to the word 'disease'. As a consequence, this samskara or this imprint, becomes more deeply embedded within our system and reduces our chance of being cured from that disease. We inadvertently give the disease more power.

In the Ramayana (an Hindu epic), there is a character named Vali, who is the king of monkeys. Vali has been granted a great 'boon' or gift, that says if anybody challenges him then immediately half of their power will go to him. No one can ever defeat or conquer Vali because he already has his own power plus half of the other's power. Naturally the other person will be defeated, as Vali is too powerful.

All of our samskara are like Vali. The moment we face them, the moment we give them our attention, we give them half of our energy, thus they gain more power. That is why, with all self-contradicting samskara, the more power we give to them, the harder it is for us to defeat them. We will fail in any attempt to get rid of them.

This is the reason why so many people find it extremely difficult and often impossible to quit smoking. They can never defeat the habit because they are continuously giving power to the word 'smoking'. They continuously repeat, 'I will quit smoking, I will quit smoking'. It can never happen, because the moment you give power to this engram, you also give power to the habit of smoking.

Until we are able to completely drop the mind, until we reach Enlightenment, verbalization (inner chattering) will exist within. Thoughts of all kinds are going to be constantly repeated within us. We have already established that all thoughts that are repeated within our system will be projected in our lives. Our thoughts ultimately create our reality. Therefore, to enjoy a positive, blissful and healthy life, we should work on generating and repeating nothing but positive thoughts within.

As far as possible, we should avoid allowing any single negative word to be repeated within our being. We should welcome only positive words to be repeated in our being. Whatever word we are in a habit of continuously repeating within ourselves, be it positive or negative, either will be given power.

Instead of repeating, 'I want to get rid of this disease', rather we should be repeating, 'I am healthy'. Words which are straightforward, words which will create only a positive memory within us should be given power. When we are repeating 'I should become healthy', again and again we will be remembering our health or well being and therefore the idea of health will be given tremendous power. We are more likely to experience health. We are more likely to experience progress in our life.

We will only experience trouble and suffering in our lives if we allow negativity to be repeated inside our Being. We will end up in depression, develop a split personality or even worse, develop schizophrenia.

A small story.

A man wanted to have miraculous powers. He went to the Himalayas to see a Master hoping to acquire these miraculous powers. When he stood before the Master and made his request, the Master advised him, 'No, you shouldn't ask for miraculous powers! Ask for meditation and enlightenment. This is the right thing to ask for.' However, this person was not ready to listen to the Master. He replied, 'Give me what I want, I didn't ask for your advice.' (In those days, spirituality was a sellers market and now it is a buyers market).

The ignorant man said again, 'Give me what I want or I will simply go elsewhere'. The Master not having much choice finally said, 'Okay, I will give you some medicine to take back to your home. You are allowed to drink it on one condition: you should not remember a monkey when you drink this.' The man immediately questioned, 'What should I do if I remember a monkey?' The Master replied, 'You must bathe yourself and only after that, will you be ready to take the medicine.' (Already you probably know where this story is going and understand that this person is in big trouble.)

The man thought this was not such a big deal and returned home. Immediately he felt he should drink some of the medicine. The moment he picked up the bottle he thought, 'I should not remember the monkey.' He realized instantly that he had made the mistake of thinking of the monkey. 'Oh no', he thought. 'Now I have to go and take a bath!' He went and bathed, came out of the bathroom, picked up the medicine bottle and you don't need me to tell you what happened. Again he remembered the monkey. He ran back into the bathroom, bathed again, came back and remembered the monkey. For the next half and hour, this guy is just running from the bathroom to the bottle and after sometime he is simply just screaming 'monkey, monkey, monkey!'

After 2 or 3 days, he understood the whole drama. He ran back to the Master and said, 'Please relieve me from these monkeys. Please just do this one favor for me! I don't want your medicine or miraculous powers, just relieve me from these monkeys!'

Question from the audience: Master, I sometimes find it difficult to sleep. If I repeat at night, 'I have to sleep', would this be considered as a positive engram or a negative engram?

Answer: I would actually recommend simply repeating, 'I'll sleep'. Furthermore, these words will have one thousand times more power and effectiveness if you consciously repeat them with your awareness, which will filter into your unconsciousness. Always be careful and be aware. Avoid allowing a single negative word into your unconsciousness.

Question: Master, I believe that at times people might be afraid to say something positive because they might not get it in the time that they are expecting it, and they are afraid.

Answer: With that fear, they are only repeating negative words and it will only result in negativity. Whether we actually receive what we are asking for or not is secondary. Be aware, that by repeating the negativity, we are not going to get the positive result; however, we will simply create more trouble for ourselves.

Negativity is not the substitute for when we don't receive the positive things. At least with positive engrams, we have a hope. The hope itself will give us enough energy to move on our path. It will pull our life. However, with negativity only the hope itself is over. There is no way of moving. We will simply be stuck. We will be in tamas (inertia). You would rather be in rajas (active).

Question: One thing I could not understand Master, was your statement regarding the mind and how it is in a habit of repeating words and, in particular, words that hurt us. I feel I have not yet experienced sickness or disease resulting from my thoughts.

Answer: Samskara are not just limited to repeated negative thoughts or words that cause sickness, disease or depression. They can include any thought that is continuously repeated or embedded in our Being.

For example, if we have a coffee addiction and we have a coffee at 7 am everyday, even when we can't see the time, automatically at 7 am the bells will go off inside. Our Being, will simply call out 'Coffeeeeee!' Our system will orient us as to the time and remind us that it is waiting for its caffeine fix. This is an example of a samskara. It is an embedded memory that is continuously being repeated inside our system.

Even though we may not have directly experienced the above example I have given, we would have all naturally experienced something similar in our lifetime

Question: Master, you said that we are responsible for our dreams and we create them. I don't really understand or believe that. I just believe that they naturally occur and we don't create them.

Answer: First, when I made that statement I was actually referring to our dreams that are created in the waking state, our 'daydreams' if you like. However, even our dreams which we have during the night, while in the dream state, they are also created by us.

If we deeply analyze our dreams we have while we sleep, we can gain the understanding that they are nothing but a mixture of our suppressed desires and fears. Actually, if we deeply analyze our day dreams or observe our line of thought during the day, the thoughts are nothing but an expression of the night dreams.

The way we think should be understood at a much deeper level. Our thoughts just move. Sigmund Freud said, 'we don't think, we associate.' For example, if we are walking down the street and we see a dog, immediately we will remember our pet dog with which we played, during our childhood. That thought may then lead us to think of our teacher with whom we studied with as a child. Then we might suddenly remember our school that we learned at when we were a child and so on. The thoughts will simply just keep flowing. There is no logical connection between the dog and the teacher; however, our mind is simply moving through mere association. Our thinking is association and, therefore, our dreams are also created through association.

When we develop a little awareness, we will understand that our day dreaming and our night dreaming are very closely related. Both stem from the roots of desires and fear. From these desires and fears, different combinations are created. Our mind, more or less, elaborates on them.

The seven colors of the rainbow can be used to illustrate this point further. There are obviously 7 base colors, they are essentially the roots. From these 7 base colors, we can create thousands of different shades. Similarly, our roots are desire and fear, so every day and every night in our dreams, we can also create thousands of different shades or different combinations. We can't say that these shades are not our creation, therefore, it shows that we are completely responsible for our dreams, whether in the waking state or in the state of sleep.

Question: Master, for most of us living in the west, it is a struggle to begin practicing vegetarianism. Additionally, it has been proven that diabetes can stem from a vegetarian diet as it consists of many carbohydrate rich foods. This is my struggle. Do I compromise my health and risk developing diabetes in order to accelerate my spiritual growth?

Answer: According to my understanding, our engrams or our mental ideas play a major role. To tell you honestly, if we make up our mind that we will be affected negatively by consuming a certain food, there is a good chance that this will actually occur.

For you personally, before you have even entered into the vegetarian lifestyle, you have already decided that it could possibly be detrimental to your health. You have already developed a negative concept regarding vegetarianism. You have repeated within yourself that you will develop diabetes if you practice vegetarianism. This is of course a negative engram. It is a fear you have and a fear you are continuously expressing within yourself. You are more or less giving power to that fear which in all possibility could result in suffering.

You also raised concern in regards to accelerating your spiritual growth through vegetarianism. Understand that becoming a vegetarian is in no way related to spiritual growth. There are many non-vegetarians who have become enlightened. You don't have to force yourself to become a vegetarian because you fear without it your spiritual growth will be hindered.

The last thing I would do is put vegetarianism as a basic condition for spiritual growth. If we put vegetarianism as a basic condition for spiritual growth, we would be excluding half of humanity from spiritual life. For me personally, being a vegetarian is a lifestyle, I love it. I enjoy it and that is where it is different.

I tell you honestly, I have seen some people eat nonvegetarian food for 15 minutes of the day and then they forget about it. To the other extreme, I have seen people who don't eat non-vegetarian food; however for 24 hours of the day, they think about it! Therefore, it is much better to have non-vegetarian food for 15 minutes of the day than 24 hours of mentally having non-vegetarian food. Also understand that a non-vegetarian person will actually become closer to God than a vegetarian person who is egoistic in regards to their vegetarianism. It is common for some vegetarians to create an ego. They start to believe they are in someway holier than everyone else.

Any morality we follow, which happens out of an overflowing or a feeling of fulfillment will never give us an ego. On the other hand, any morality we follow through force, by bending over backwards, by torturing ourselves and by suffering, will only give us a strong ego. It is not certain whether we will gain spiritual growth; however, it is certain we will become egoistic.

By forcing moralities on ourselves, we are not the only ones who will suffer. We will begin torturing our relatives, our friends, our neighbors. We will be continuously speaking about our important morality and also start forcing others to follow it, or at least, start forcing them to respect us for it. We will constantly be seeking approval from the people around us and wanting them to acknowledge that we are in someway great.

We should never force ourselves into any morality. Let things happen through our understanding. If we force, the outcome will never be permanent.

The quality of our decisions, our relationships, our health, the way we influence our children, every aspect of our lives is completely dependant upon the quality of our inner space. It is completely dependant upon the quality of our unconscious zone. This space needs to be clean and peaceful.

As I have already said, the unconscious zone is filled to the brim with negativity. This negativity, these deeply engraved memories that are stored there influence every decision our mind makes. This negativity is the stuff that is repeated over and over in our mind. It constitutes our inner chattering. If this space continues to hoard all of this negativity, only negativity will manifest in our lives. Nothing good can result from being filled with negativity.

To experience yoga, to experience our inherent nature of bliss that is not dependant on the external world, we need to infuse peace into this unconscious zone. We need to clear out the negativity and flood this space with peace and awareness. The technique to infuse peace and develop richness in our inner space, to experience bliss and to achieve the oneness of yoga is known as dhyana or meditation. Since our mind is the obstacle standing in the way experiencing of all these things, meditation is prescribed to promote a peaceful mind; a mind that constitutes positivism and clarity.

Meditation is the technique to clear all negativity from our system.

Doctors, in particular are exposed to a lot of negativity. When they see and examine their patients they are also exposed to their patient's negativity. The doctors listen to their problems and hear about their various diseases and all the while they are unconsciously swallowing all of the patient's negativity. They are continuously meditating on negative things.

Please be very clear, for most meditation may be a luxury, however for doctors, it is a necessity. Doctors being exposed to depressed and sick patients, day in and day out will also end up in sickness and depression without meditation. I have seen some doctors saying, 'No Master, I am a professional doctor. I disconnect myself from my patient's problems.' Consciously you can disconnect yourself, but we are never aware of our unconscious activity which is going on in our mind.

Many books have been written in recent times by eminent doctors, which recount how during surgical procedures, under anesthesia, patients remember what is being said. After coming out of the operation, patients recall that the doctor said this and that to the nurse or another person. Negative comments have retarded the progress of the patient and positive comments have enhanced recovery.

Now, doctors I am told are advised to be careful about what they speak in the operation theatre, because patients can actually hear them even under anesthesia. Wise doctors would therefore use this positively to aid the recovery of their patients.

If under anesthesia, a patient can recall and be affected by what is being said, why wouldn't a doctor not be affected by what he sees and hears, hour after hour, day after day. This is why psychiatrists are the most disturbed people on earth, not their patients!

In Bharat, everyday people come to see me for counseling and healing. I listen to their problems and I give them the healing touch. People come and ask me, 'Master, how do you manage to sit so long and see so many people everyday?' I tell them it is not such a big thing. It is very easy and anyone can do it. The most important thing is disconnecting from their problems.

There was some research conducted in a particular medical school which proved that 40% of students involved in a discussion, say on a headache, knee pain or back pain, would begin to experience the same symptoms in their own body. It showed that by listening to peoples' various problems and discussing certain ailments, we unconsciously start to exhibit the characteristics of that problem or disease. When we constantly hear about something, we start unconsciously meditating and contemplating on it.

One important concept we need to understand is the pain body which is inside our system. It consists of the memories of our pains and sufferings. This pain body attracts more and more pain into our system. Anything which is inside our system has its own instinct, the survival instinct. It tries to multiply. It can only survive by multiplying and expanding its boundary. So this pain body expands itself by attracting more pain and suffering. The moment we start listening to the pain and suffering of others, we immediately plant the seed of that pain for ourselves.

All physical diseases have their roots in the mind. Unless we manage to completely seclude ourselves from society

we cannot avoid the constant influx of negative information. The only way to save ourselves is by clearing that negative information through meditation.

In the yoga system, after providing healing for someone, all healers are advised to meditate apart from just taking a physical bath. They are asked to meditate so that they can clean their inner space which may have been contaminated during the healing process. Just as we wash our hands and our external body after coming out from visiting a hospital to avoid viruses and infection, similarly we need to meditate daily so we can internally cleanse. Just as we cleanse our external body daily with soap and water, we also need to clean our inner space with meditation. We need to take a shower of bliss so that we don't attract any negativity from our surroundings.

Please be very clear, no doctor and no healer can disconnect themselves from the patient unless he or she meditates. Unconsciously we will be repeating the word which we received from our patients and we will be creating those engraved memories. The etheric connection between the healer and patient continues to exist unless the healer meditates.

Whether we are a healer, doctor, psychologist, parent or any human being that is exposed to society and its negativity, we need to meditate. If we have a mind, we need to cleanse it daily through yoga, through meditation.

Most of us would not go a day without having a shower. Most of us would not want to walk out the front door to go about our daily routine, interacting with other people without first being clean externally. However, when it comes to our mind being cleansed daily, it is our last priority. It is no problem for most of us to walk out of the front door and start interacting with others with our mind not cleansed and our inner space negative and depressed.

Some people will make any excuse not to meditate: I am too busy, I have appointments all day, I have children to look after, I have cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking to do, I have responsibilities. Responsibilities are a figment of our mind. Our responsibilities, ultimately, are unto ourselves. When we learn to fulfill these responsibilities to ourselves in full, we also move towards fulfilling what we believe are obligations unto others. Understand, there are 24 hours in a day and all you need to devote is 20 minutes to yourself. We will give appointments to everyone else except our own selves. We ignore our own Being constantly.

If we devote just 15 - 20 minutes a day to clean our inner space, this is enough for the next 24 hours. For the next 24 hours, the quality of our inner space will remain the same; clear, peaceful and rich. After practicing meditation for a while, we start to understand that the effect we experience from meditation doesn't actually depend on the quantity, but rather the quality. It depends on how intensely we can sit. After a while, we can realize that we don't even need 15 – 20 minutes a day to meditate. 5 minutes a day becomes more than enough.

Eventually, just remembrance is enough. That's right! Eventually, mere remembrance will capably clean your inner space!

This is the scale; when we close our eyes, we should feel the inner space radiating nothing but peace. We should simply feel a continuous sense of well being and health. This is not just limited to physical health or being free of diseases. Real health is something more than just being free of disease. If we feel alive, bubbling and simply oozing bliss, that is what I determine as health. If when we close our eyes we can instantaneously feel that mood, than we have reached the inner space. We have reached meditation.

It is the mind that makes us attached to something and repulsed to something else. When we are not in the clutches of the mind, we are free.

Even though we do actions because the senses by nature have to perform their functions like the eyes see, the ears hear, the tongue tastes, the nose smells and the skin feels, yet, we are free from the bondage of action because we do not have any identification with the action, we do not have any emotional attachment to anything. So, naturally, we are free and we are liberated and we can do what we are doing most beautifully without expecting any particular result or being bothered by the results of the action.

This is what is being 'unclutched'. Being 'unclutched' is the state where you are free and liberated. Let me expand on the word 'unclutching', what I mean by the word 'unclutching'.

Constantly you are connecting all your thoughts and creating shafts in your mind. For example, the headache which happened 10 years ago, the headache which happened 9 years ago, the headache which happened 8 years ago, the headache which happened yesterday, they are all independent experiences which happened in your life.

For the sake of easy reference, you categorize all these experiences in your mind into one category of headache. It is archived just for utility purpose, to serve as reference. Just like how you file documents in your office in various categories, in various files. But, what happens? By and by, you start believing that all these experiences are all connected.

The suffering which happened 10 years ago happened for a different reason, in a different place; it was a totally unique experience. The suffering which happened 9 years ago happened for a totally different reason; it was a completely different experience. The suffering which happened 8 years ago was again for a different reason.

Initially for the sake of ease, you archive them in the same place, for easy reference. By and by you start believing they are connected. When you start believing they are connected you create a shaft.

If you connect all the painful memories, you create a pain shaft: 'My life is suffering, my life is pain.' You start believing your whole life is a chain of suffering, a long chain of suffering.

When you start believing your whole life is suffering you have created a pain shaft and you are waiting in your life only for painful incidents, so that you can elongate that shaft.

One more thing you should understand, whatever you believe, you expand it. If you believe something, you will again and again see that in your life.

That is why again and again Vedic rishi say, you create what you want. You create what you desire. You see, by seeing you create. What ever you believe you will create it, you will expand it.

Once you start believing your life is pain, you are waiting unconsciously for painful incidents to strengthen that belief, to strengthen that judgment.

We don't usually collect arguments to pass judgments; we collect arguments to support our judgments. The judgment is ready, we only collect arguments to support it. When you are clear that your life is a pain shaft, a big chain of pains, you are waiting for some more judgments to support your faith, some more judgments to support your belief.

Second thing, whenever you are adding the painful incidents unconsciously, constantly, consciously, you will be trying to break that shaft.

If you believe your whole life is a shaft of joyful experiences, which we do very rarely, constantly you are in fear, will it continue? You think, will it continue in the same way?

If you believe life is a shaft of painful incidents, you do two things: unconsciously gathering more and more incidents and strengthening your faith and consciously trying to break the shaft. If you believe life is a chain of joyful incidents, unconsciously you will be in fear that it will end and consciously you will try to prolong it. Understand these two big dramas we do with ourselves.

But the big difficulty, the important thing that we forget is that you can neither break the shaft nor elongate it, because the shaft itself does not exist.

The shaft does not exist. You can neither elongate it nor break it. When you started archiving all the incidents in your life for the sake of easy reference, by and by you started believing that they are really existentially connected.

When you start believing that they are existentially connected together you believe your life as a pain shaft or a joy shaft. When you start believing life as a pain shaft you try to break it; when you believe it as a joy shaft, you try to elongate it.

But one important thing you forget, you can neither break nor elongate because the shaft itself does not exist.

Just try this experiment:

Sit down for ten minutes with a pen and paper. Now, just start jotting down whatever comes in your mind. Please do not edit your thoughts; write them down as it is. Do not judge yourself and try to control what comes in your mind. If you try to judge, you are playing a hypocritical game with yourself, that's all. Just write down whatever comes.

Now, read whatever you have written. You can see for yourself how unconnected, illogical your thoughts are!

You will be sitting here and thinking, 'I think tomorrow I

should go to my office', then 'No, no no, I should just wake up and decide then', then, 'What should I do about dinner tonight?'

Have you seen a fish tank? Have you seen how the bubbles rise up in a fish tank? There is a gap between one bubble and the next. But, the gap is too small; it looks like a continuous stream.

Just like the bubbles in a fish tank, there is a gap between one thought and another thought in your mind as well. If you look a little deeply you will realize your thoughts, by their very nature are independent.

For example, if you see a dog in the street, suddenly you remember your pet you used to play with as a child. Then you will remember your teacher you studied with as a child, then, where your teacher used to stay.

If you look at it logically, you will see logically that the dog in street and the teacher are not connected. There is no logical connection, but simply your mind flows, it is simply flowing. If you look a little deep you will understand your thoughts are illogical, independent, unconnected.

When you believe that your mind is logical, when you believe that your mind has got its own logic, you have created the first original sin for yourself. That is the original sin. Believing your mind is logic is the first sin.

Understand by your very nature you are unclutched. By your very nature you are unconnected.

It is like you trash all your emails but you pick some up emails from the trash. Similarly, every moment the thoughts are being renounced by you, by your very nature. New thought appearing means the old thought has been renounced. But even after renouncing you try to pick up the thoughts from the dust bin and try to create a new shaft.

You feel that some valuable thoughts have been dropped in the dust bin, so you pick up some thoughts here and there. You pick up these thoughts from the dust bin and put near your bed and put on a little scent and keep it a little bit nice and pretty!

All you need to do is few things. First, have a clear understanding that you are creating a shaft, shaft of pain, or shaft of joy and trying to fight with it, by either trying to elongate or by trying to break.

Second thing, you don't even have to unclutch yourself. By your very nature if you stop creating a shaft you are unclutched. You don't need to unclutch.

Then we start asking, 'How will I do my job? How will I take care of my things? Will I not just lie down in my bed?' Understand, the moment I say these things, the first question people ask is, 'If I am unclutched, why should I go to my job?' I ask, why should you not go to your job?

The moment you say you will not go for your job, it means you have a little hatred or a little vengeance against the job. That is why the moment you get some excuse you want to escape from that. You are expressing your anger, your violence against your routine, nothing else.

I always tell people, alright, don't do anything; just be unclutched; how many days will you be lying in your bed? Maybe ten days, until your tamas (laziness) gets exhausted. See, you have a certain amount of tamas in you, one of the three attributes of satva (virtuous action), rajas (passion) and tamas (laziness). Until your tamas gets exhausted you will lie there, but after that what will you do? Naturally, you will start working, you will start moving. Do not be afraid; do not be afraid that if you are unclutched, you will not do your daily routine.

We cannot by nature by inactive. You will day dream if nothing else. You will clutch on to fantasies. You will try to escape from reality by deluding yourself, because your mind is clutched onto soft and easy dream shaft.

When you truly unclutch, when you are in the present moment, without any attachment to the past and future, you will realize that you are full of energy. You just cannot keep quiet. You will have to do something. That something will be dictated by your present moment awareness, not by fantasies.

I tell you, what you think as you is not necessary to run your day to day life. This is the basic truth. What you think as you is not necessary to run your day to day life. This truth hurts us.

See, if somebody is happy independent of us, we can't tolerate it, it is too much. Constantly we feel we are needed. That is why we project our sufferings, so that we feel important. What you think as you is not necessary to run your day to day life.

People come and ask me, 'Constantly I repeat the positive affirmations, I should stop smoking, I should stop smoking, it is not working, why Master?' All these creative visualizations create more and more trouble. Because the very word, 'I should stop smoking', the very word 'smoking' is contradicting.

When you decide I should get rid of the headache, constantly you are remembering the headache.

Instead you can do a very simple thing like decide to have a glass of water. The moment you decide to have a glass of water, you have a new thought. The old thought of 'headache' has to disappear because the new thought has to come in its place.

You ask me, 'How can it be so simple, Master?' It is simple. Constantly you are taught that it is not so simple. It is simple. If you really understand that, it is so simple.

But, soon after, the thought of headache may come back, what to do? Understand: your faith in it is what brings it back; that is the basic problem.

And one more thing: if it comes back, it goes also. Why don't you celebrate those moments in which it left you? Why do you constantly remember the moments it comes back?

People ask me again and again, 'I fail when I try to unclutch Master.' I tell them, why are you connecting your past failure with your present failure? When you connect all the past failures, you create one more word, 'failure'. The failure that happened 9 years ago, the failure that

happened 8 years ago, the failure that happened yesterday are independent incidents. Why do you connect all of them and create the next experience also?

Just relax and stop connecting and suddenly you will see such a deep inner healing happening in you, such a deep peace happening in you. Suddenly you will see you have dropped out of the war, the constant running. Just relax.

I tell you when you become a drop out, when you drop out of this war, when you drop from this whole game, suddenly you realize the whole thing is just a psycho drama happening. Because you are constantly supporting it, you are creating these shafts.

Try this simple meditation:

Just close your eyes. Whatever words are rising in you, just let them rise. Just do not connect them with any other thought. Just don't create a shaft. Just unclutch.

If you feel bored, or if your mind asks what to do, just unclutch from that thought. Do not even connect with that thought. Just sit, be unclutched. If your mind connects with a thought, just unclutch. Do not create, maintain, or destroy thoughts.

Try this for a few minutes and you can see the effect for yourself.

To understand what meditation is, you need to understand what meditation is not.

In my programs, I spend a day and a half explaining what

meditation is not and less than half a day about meditation. It is the same thing about Healing. For two full days people are explained what Healing is not with the help of a detailed manual! Then I come in and ordain the Healers, which takes only half an hour!

When you unclutch, you are seemingly in inaction. However, the removal of the bondages of the various shafts of pain, pleasure, fantasies etc releases so much of energy within you that you are now actively passive. You are at the height of potential energy, ready to release that energy for what ever purpose you decide in that present moment.

If instead, you are actively day dreaming, caught in the web of your shafts of fantasies and pleasures intermingled with sorrow and pain, you are seemingly active, very busy, but totally uselessly busy. In fact, counterproductively busy, as you are then digging into more suffering!

In the process of unclutching, you transcend both action and inaction. You have destroyed the false notion of connectivity of thoughts and have reached the state of the present moment, the state of no mind, and the state of dropping thoughts.

In this present moment of unclutched condition, you are active and yet not attached to any activity. You are truly in the Consciousness of Awareness.

Our mind should not be regarded as a dilemma. It should be regarded as a pure inner space, free from negativity and full of awareness. The only way to assure that our mind stays dilemma free is through unclutching, the meditation. We should honor the people around us, our children, our husband or wife, our patients, our colleagues and society in general by honoring ourselves; by making a daily appointment with ourselves. By prescribing to ourselves the technique that will promote peace and clarity within: meditation.

Question: Isn't meditation religious, and practiced only by Hindus and Buddhists?

Answer: Meditation has nothing to do with any religion, nor is it patented by any one spiritual Master. Meditation is looking inwards, looking for one's own self, looking to understand one Self.

Christ, time and again, talked of repentance. The word 'repent' in those days means just this: go back to where you came from. Go find your roots. Go find your Self.

The Sanskrit word samadhi is synonymous with 'repent'. It means to go back to the original state. The path of Yoga leads to samadhi.

Great Sufi masters, many Christian saints and masters from other faiths have practiced meditation. People who are afraid of looking within, who would rather be exploited by their senses senselessly, would like others to think that meditation belongs to cult groups. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

When you are afraid to face yourself, you naturally live in fear of every one else, and everything else. When fear rules, violence results. Terrorism is a result of this mindless fear; fear that arises because we do not wish to look within.

Question: Master, when is a good time to meditate?

Answer: The best times to meditate are when we immediately wake up or just before we go to sleep. These are the two most recommended times.

In regards to meditation, there are 2 techniques. They are passive and active meditation. In regards to active techniques, the involvement of our physical body is required. Passive meditation techniques do not require the use of our physical body. They usually just involve some visualization. They allow us to rest with ourselves; perfect before we go to sleep.

Question: What is the difference between prayer and meditation?

Answer: When we pray, we pray to God. When we meditate, we become God. That's all. We become that energy towards where our prayer is directed.

First, prayer is beautiful and it's a good start, however it doesn't end there. Just like first grade or second grade at school, it's a good start but it doesn't end there.

Second, prayer requires faith and belief and, ultimately, these requirements are outdated. No matter how hard we believe in God, there is always one part of our Being that is potentially inclined to raise doubts. As long as God answers all of our prayers, we give him permission to sit on the throne of God. As soon as we believe he has failed us in relation to some request we have put forth, immediately, He will be dethroned. His integrity will be questioned.

In the modern day, people can only believe by looking, seeing and experiencing. People in this generation can't relate with words such as belief, faith and trust. These words have lost their meaning and we simply cannot relate with them. If an attempt is made by an individual to believe in something and have faith and trust in it, this attempt is primarily motivated by fear and greed, never out of love and understanding.

Furthermore, fear and greed are the basis for all of our socalled prayers. Anything that stems from fear and greed, however, will fail to be long lasting. Fear will disappear when we feel secure and greed will disappear when our desires are met. Prayer will give an immediate effect but not a long lasting effect.

It is better that we build and promote an understanding of life on the basis of meditation. It is a solid base and a base that imposes no requirement to believe or have faith in anyone. Meditation does, however, require a little more intelligence and patience on our part. It is a process of understanding certain concepts, internalizing them and finally expressing them in our everyday lives.

Question: I have a question about the interference of depression and pain in the flow of joy. You described the sadness you felt when you toured Universal Studios. How do you metabolize or understand that sadness in the context of constant joyfulness? It's a very personal thing to me. At times, I have often enquired within myself and I have observed sadness arising.

Answer: Over time, we suppress so much sadness in our Being that whenever we sit alone in silence, it erupts! This is why we avoid spending time with ourselves. We avoid spending time by ourselves because we become overwhelmed with sadness.

Meditation has always been postponed. We put it last, we procrastinate and as a result we move further away from our Being. Additionally, we have always associated peace with sadness. Somehow our mind does not associate peace with bliss. This is why, we feel sadness instantly when we sit with ourselves. Meditation is the only technique that will banish all of our sadness. When we sit with ourselves and meditate for a few minutes a day, we will automatically feel tremendous joy and ecstasy flowing through us.

When I was taken to Universal Studios, I did not feel sad for myself. I felt sad for others when I saw the plastic smiles on everyone's face. The same people claiming that this is the world's happiest place. I just felt it was all so ridiculous!

Bliss is our very nature. If we are really happy, it can never be associated with some place or event. We will just be happy! It will be joy without any cause. It will be 'causeless joy.' The moment we start associating our joy with a particular place or time, we have started choosing. So it cannot be happiness. In fact, all that we are doing is just temporarily escaping from our miseries. It is just a change. Whenever there is a change, we feel excited. This excitement is not bliss. It's just an excitement. It is nice to experience the excitement, I am not saying there is anything wrong with it, but ultimately, it's not enough.

Question: Master, you spoke briefly about window shopping for a guru or peace. Also you spoke in regards to people not knowing whom to follow or what to do. I have spent some time in my job and have looked after my kids. I was kept busy with my routine. However, when my children grew up and started living their own lives, I started to feel a kind of emptiness. That's when I started to ask myself 'What am I here for?' and other such similar questions. Personally, I am a beginner on the spiritual path. I really don't know where to start or what to do and I know that this is the same for others too.

Answer: First of all, the emptiness you felt inside of you is a form or depression. The first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is called Arjuna Vishada Yoga. Vishad means depression. Arjuna, an intellectual, who has everything he wants in life, falls into depression when he has to face the prospect of fighting his kith and kin.

At a certain stage in our life we can fall victim to a kind of depression referred to as 'depression of success'. You have achieved all that you have set out to achieve. You have fulfilled all the requirements by which society evaluates you to be a success. The, suddenly you start asking yourself, yes, I have achieved, but what for have I achieved?

When people are suddenly not around us anymore, in your case your children, it is then we start searching. We start asking questions like 'what are we here for?' We face the reality of aloneness, so naturally we turn to our Being.

Second of all, for you as a beginner, I always advise beginners to go and try at least 10 – 15 types of traditions. Something will just click. Once something happens beyond your intellect then you can start following that particular system, tradition or Master. Until that happens, continue your search. When you meet the right Master your heart will automatically start flowing.

However, don't make the mistake of assuming that a particular Master is wrong in someway just because you don't feel in tune with that Master. Every Master is real. But when you meet the Master with whom you are going to grow, naturally you will feel something happening inside your being. Until you find the right Master continue seeking.

Question: What are your comments about Japa (chanting a mantra repeatedly)?

Answer: With Japa, you are repeating a word unconsciously and you repeat it simply for the sake of repeating it. You repeat and repeat because maybe some guru has inspired you or somebody has told you to. At some moment, you may have experienced a feeling of ecstasy, therefore you continuously repeat. Repeating and repeating without awareness becomes an unconscious process and it doesn't help us and it is potentially very dangerous.

Our thinking is comprised of two parts. One is verbalization and the other is visualization. Both should be engaged while practicing Japa. Only then will it be of help. If only verbalization is engaged and the visualization is left out, there is every chance we might develop a split

personality.

Be very clear with Japa, when we engage in the repetition of a mantra, this verbalization should be complemented with some visualization. If we repeat a certain mantra, either we should contemplate on the meaning of that mantra, or the deity of that mantra or a letter in that mantra. When we repeat, we must be conscious of the word we are repeating. Be aware of the meaning of the word. Let both our verbalization and visualization be engaged in the Japa.

Question: Master, what are your comments regarding Mantra Meditation?

Answer: Honestly, repeating some mantra or meditating on some deity are techniques designed for the age of the bullock cart! It is now the jet age and we have available to us so many more developed and sophisticated techniques, which can directly lead us to that conscious experience. Meditating on some mantra or some deity is a good initial level step. However, being inside our own Being or entering into our consciousness is the real thing that needs to be achieved.

Deities are an expression of enlightenment. They are an expression of the higher consciousness. They are a beautiful expression and when we concentrate on them, we can also reach the same experience. However, please understand this is a round about way.

Available to us now are direct, straightforward and powerful techniques to reach that experience.

Question: What is the role of Karma?

Answer: Nice question. Would you like a social answer or an honest answer? To tell you honestly, I have read enough books, philosophical books, literature in Sanskrit and English on this karma theory. In the end, I can say one thing honestly. The very concept of karma, the very idea of karma is nothing but nonsense! It has nothing to do with your life. It's just your faith in it that creates all trouble.

I have meditated enough and worked with millions of people face to face through various mass meditation programs and believe me, from my experience, the very idea of karma is nothing but our faith in it.

All negativity has just one power over us, our faith in it. Whether it is 7.5 years sani dosha (evil effect of the planet Saturn, considered to be a malefic influence in Hindu astrology), astrology, ashtami, numerology or anyology, all of these things only have power over you because of your faith in it. There is a beautiful sloka in jyotisha, that only when we know that we have a sani dosha, sani will start working on us. Only when we know that he is looking, his eyes fall on us. Only when we understand or only when we believe that we have that dosha or that graha, we have that problem, it starts working on us. Till then it never works on us.

What does this all mean?

All these people who will say it is karma will noticeably only say it is karma after the incident happens, never before. Be very clear about this. From my experience I am

telling you, it is just better to forget all of these things. Just be confident and have enough independence to decide about your future. It is in your hands. Even if it is in somebody else's hands, by you knowing that, what is it going to change?

We cannot change it by knowing it. We are only going to be in more trouble and depression. That is what they call self fulfilling prophecies, self fulfilling predictions. Just by knowing there is going to be some trouble, we will actually start to create it or associate ourselves with it.

It is just better to relax from this concept of karma. This is the honest answer.

This is a simple and practical meditation technique which I prescribe to promote a peaceful mind. It is a technique that cleans our inner space of negativity and infuses peace and bliss into our Being. It is a very simple initial level meditation technique and I always encourage beginners to practice this particular meditation. A seemingly simple and basic technique, however, it is an extremely powerful technique. When you practice it, you will understand.

The meditation technique is called the Mahamantra and it is taken from Tibetan Buddhism. There are four instructions;

• 1. First you must sit in a comfortable position. You can sit cross legged on the floor however, if you feel more comfortable you can sit in a sofa or a chair. Importantly, when you meditate you must ensure that the spine, neck and head are in a straight line, and that you are comfortable.
• 2. The second instruction is to close your eyes. Please understand that when I instruct you to close your eyes, I don't mean just physically. Something more must be done. When you physically close your eyes, we all still see things in the inner space. There will an inner TV operating. These visualizations must also be stopped. When you close your eyes, for 30 seconds or so, create pressure on the eye ball mentally. Not physically, but mentally create pressure in the eye lids and the inner visualization will come down.
• 3. The third instruction is to keep the lips together and just create the sound 'Mmmmm….' It is not a 'Hum' or an 'Om' mantra sound, it is simply keeping the lips together and creating the sound 'Mmmm…', like the humming sound of a bee. Imagine your body as an empty vessel. If you put your mouth to it and hum, what sound do you hear? Create that same vibration inside yourself.

Just make this sound as loudly, as deeply and as intensely as possible. Create this humming sound in your inner space. Just fill your inner space with this vibration and naturally you will put your engrams to rest. You will infuse peace into your unconscious zone. When you produce this humming, automatically the thoughts will not be there. Allow whatever happens to happen. If tears roll, let them roll. Laughter, coughing, shivering, let it happen. Let it out. Don't hold back anything. Become the sound, become the vibration.

Produce the humming sound for 21 minutes.

• 4. At the end of 21 minutes, I will instruct you to stop*.* Instantly stop your humming. For another 10 minutes, you remain in your seated position, eyes closed and remain silent. Thoughts will slowly start entering into this silence. Don't stop them; don't enter into them. Simply witness these thoughts. Remain silent, blissful and peaceful. During this final 10 minutes, the energy created by the 21 minutes of humming will enter all corners of you Being. The peace will be infused deeply into your Being.

**'**We are the creators of our own reality. Whatever is repeated in our mind is projected as our reality.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

By nature, our body is intelligence. It is not just a biomechanism or force; however, it is force with intelligence and it has the ability to respond to every single thought produced in our minds. That is why our body is created, maintained and destroyed according to our thoughts. We are Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Rudra the destroyer of our body.

'We are what our perceptions are; as are our perceptions, so become our actions; as are our actions, so becomes our destiny.'

This quote is not from the Brihadaranya Upanishad, but from Dr Bruce Lipton's classic 'Biology of Beliefs.' Bruce Lipton is a celebrated molecular cellular biologist who has rewritten the basic tenets of how cells behave. We have all been taught that we behave the way our genes are designed. Dr Lipton disagrees. He declares that the design of our genes is determined by the way we behave.

Our body-mind system constantly transforms itself. Billions of cells are born, live, die and get reborn. All of us are totally new Beings every one or two years. If our body is constantly going through regeneration and being reborn every couple of years, why is it that we continue to carry the same physical and mental diseases? This problem stems from our mind and our deeply embedded memories, beliefs and values (samskara) that are inscribed in our unconscious zone.

Whatever we believe our past to be, we ultimately believe that it will also represent our future. If we believe that our whole past has been depression, we come to the conclusion that our future, too, will be depressed. If we have suffered with a lot of pain in our body in the past, we draw the conclusion that we will continue to suffer with this pain.

We are the creators of our own reality. Whatever is repeated in our mind is projected as our reality. Whatever we believe we are, that is what we are. If we believe that we are depressed, we will be depressed. If we believe that we are blissful, we will be blissful.

We ultimately have the power to reprogram and rewire ourselves, to transform a cellular structure, to redesign our genes, our body and therefore, our lives. This is a truth that the Eastern sages and mystics who practiced the inner science knew tens of thousands of years ago and they recorded it in the scriptures. What may have been heresy to scientists a decade ago is now the truth that is being slowly accepted.

The reason we have this body is to achieve the 'zone of intelligence', or the space of consciousness, which resides within. This is the goal. Our body is alive and functioning primarily to reach this space in which we can experience a deep and restful awareness. The reason for our very existence is to achieve the ultimate experience of our consciousness and to achieve the ultimate state of bliss. Although our very existence is to experience this consciousness and experience the bliss which is our birthright, we don't. Why?

We accumulate too many negative emotions in our system. Our body is not simply material as it appears to be; again, it is energy and has the capacity to hold thoughts and memories, both negative and positive.

In our form, we are complete memory. All of our memories are recorded in our form, in our body. Therefore, if we can't remember our form, we can't proceed to think. We cannot have a single thought unless we remember our form, because in our form we have all of our memories. We store our emotions, whether they are positive or negative, within our Being.

We are now teaching Nithya Yoga, which is what the great sage Patanjali intended Yoga to be. Nithya Yoga is far more than asana and pranayama, postures and breathing control. It is a mind body spirit integration using meditation as the key.

One of the beautiful revelations in Nithya Yoga - 'Yoga for Eternity', and the effectiveness of it, depends completely on our intention. Many people, especially in the West, practice yoga asana for health. We practice a specific asana (posture) to benefit a particular part of our physical body. We practice this asana to help heal some disease. We practice that asana to address that ailment. This connection between disease and asana has become so prominent in the West.

It is a shocking revelation, however, that if we move our body or bend our body with any particular intention, that memory, that intention will be completely inserted in our body and mind. That intention will be recorded in our

body. It becomes a positive engraved memory (samskara) and starts to express in our body.

Whether we believe it or not, we are an expression of selfhypnosis. We are an expression of our own self-hypnosis! Anyway we move the body with the faith that this or that will happen in us, simply it will start expressing in us. The way in which we choose to move our body with this intention is irrelevant. If we wish to practice yoga asana with the intention and belief that we are blissful, this is what will be inscribed in our system and start expressing.

In the practice of Nithya Yoga, we use the simple technique of visualizing our body as a 'bliss bag.' When we get up in the morning, we imagine that our body is a 'bliss bag' and simply we move our body for 10 minutes in whatever way we wish. Whether we bend this way or that way, practice a certain posture or stand on our head, the way in which you move isn't important. What is important is our intention. Simply, we visualize our body as a bliss bag and move it in any fashion for just 10 minutes.

We will see that our body becomes matured and holds that intention, that bliss for a long time. We will remain in that same state of higher consciousness for a remarkably longer time; even ordinary sitting. If we choose to sit on a lounge chair and we believe that by sitting, we will have health and then we sit solely for health, simply we will see the health happening in us.

The purpose of Nithya Yoga is to experience our birthright – which is bliss. We must 'unclutch' from old and negative beliefs and insert positive beliefs into our system; working towards bliss, experiencing bliss and expressing bliss. The capacity to experience bliss will just explode in our inner space and the capacity to radiate bliss will start happening in our body.

We never think we are good enough physically; another major reason that postpones our enjoyment and expression of our true nature of bliss. We all have the idea that we are not enough unto ourselves. We are continuously made to believe by society that we are not beautiful. The moment we start actually believing that we are not beautiful, we start hiding behind cosmetics.

At a more extreme level, some will try to alter their bodies through plastic surgery. This is extreme and is a highly encouraged and popular practice in the modern day. What's even more disgusting is that they have invented reality television shows such as 'Extreme Makeover' and 'Make me Beautiful'. These shows encourage men and women of all ages to list all of the physical things they would like to have changed by surgeons. Basically, the more things they feel need to be changed in regards to their physical body, the better candidate they are for the television program.

There is no scale of beauty; however, we all have an idea, a scale, a certain set of measurements we continuously believe we need to match. If God were an engineer, he would have created moulds of Miss World and Mister World and commenced a mass production. He would have simply made all of us the same, from the same mould. However, God is not an engineer, he is an artist. He carves every one of us. He paints every one of us. We are all unique. Be very clear, we are not equal but unique. The very idea that everyone is equal is totally wrong.

If we look deeply into ourselves, we can see that we never feel relaxed and never feel comfortable with our own body. When we look at someone else and decide that they are beautiful and we feel we actually want to look like them, immediately we create a gap between ourselves and our bodies. We put a wedge between ourselves and our body. In Bharat, when they break large pieces of wood, they will insert a wedge so that the two pieces won't reunite. Similarly, when we start believing that we are not beautiful, we insert a wedge between ourselves and our body, and there is less chance of us reuniting with our body.

A male feeling attracted towards a female or vice versa is completely normal. However, if a male looks at another male who is a model and immediately feels he would like to look like he does, this is not natural. If a female looks at another female who is a model and immediately feels she would like to look like her, understand, there is something seriously wrong in your Being. Once we can relax with the idea that we are all created differently in our own unique way, we will start to experience a tremendous homely feeling within our body.

If we look deeply into our Being, we constantly feel uneasy with our body and this uneasiness is the root cause for all of our diseases. We avoid the body. All of our pain and disease is nothing but our body asking for our presence, our energy and our attention. If we concentrate on giving attention to our body, naturally there will not be any problems. We all know, if we don't give enough attention to our home, it will fall apart. Our body is our home, therefore, to prevent it falling to pieces, start giving it some attention, some energy and some love.

Today, we will practice a meditation to allow us to relax into our body, to enter into our home. I am reminded of a beautiful book in Advaita Vedanta. Included in this book is a beautiful concept called Swarjya Siddhi. It says:

'To reclaim your own kingdom, to achieve your own kingdom, firstly you need to achieve your body.'

However, we are not living inside our body. We are almost living like a ghost. While our body is there, we are somewhere else. Before anything, we need to enter into our own bodies and start living inside. First, we need to be inside our boundary.

Question: Master, how do we pay attention to our body?

Answer: We spend at least 2–3 hours a day with our body. We shower, groom, brush our teeth, dress ourselves, and eat. However, if we observe ourselves closely while undertaking these activities directly related to our bodies, we are never inside our boundary. Essentially, we are never actually in tune with or feeling how our body is responding to these activities.

It is obvious. When we are brushing our teeth, we are thinking about our business. When we are showering, we are thinking about our patients. Surely we cannot examine your patients while we are in the shower! Therefore, while we are doing anything related to our body, simply we should be there inside our boundary. Have no thought about anyone or anything. Nothing else! Just decide we will be inside our own body.

However, most of us don't really want to be with our bodies. If we see our routines, we will do everything possible to avoid looking at our bodies. We avoid looking at them deeply, penetrating them. We find it impossible to relax with our body. Instead, we will bend over backwards in an attempt to change our bodies and as a result end up depressed, upset and frustrated by being unable to meet the high standard of beauty, society has imposed on us.

The moment we actually start accepting our body for what it is, the moment we relax with our body, we achieve something far greater than beauty and that is grace. It is not beauty, it is grace. Beauty comes from make up and plastic surgery. Grace comes from accepting and relaxing with ourselves.

In the Hindu epic Ramayana, it is told that when the daughter of Janaka, Sita, walked into the court of Janaka, everyone including the great sages and Janaka himself stood up to pay their respect to her. Sita, the daughter of Janaka, simply exuded such an amazing grace that she was highly admired and respected.

We need to relax within ourselves. Everyday, whenever we find ourselves doing anything related to our body, we should decide to be inside our boundary. We should avoid thinking about anything or anyone else. We should witness what is happening within our body and how our body is responding. When we brush our teeth, we should witness how our mouth is feeling. When we have our shower, we should become aware of how our body is responding to the sensation of the water. When we dress ourselves, we need to notice how our body is feeling. Understand, our body responds to every single thought created by our mind. We have the ability to restructure our whole body with our mind.

In the East, there is a beautiful philosophy known as samudrika lakshana. The theory encompasses how our entire mind can be studied. A person who has mastered this art can understand the exact nature of a person's mind, simply by visually observing their body; reason being, the body is an expression of our mind. Our body is created by our mind.

Question: Master, would you consider being inside the body as selfishness?

Answer: Selfishness is snatching something away from others. I am not asking you to snatch something from others. I am not telling you to take anything from others or disturb others. I am simply telling you to reclaim what you already have. Unless you are happy with yourself, you can't be selfless. Unless you have achieved bliss, you cannot give bliss to others.

We are constantly taught to disrespect ourselves. By society, we are constantly made to believe that we are not enough unto ourselves. That is why we can never believe that we are God. People come and ask me, 'Master, are you God?' I tell them, 'I am not here to prove I am God, I am here to prove you are God.' Be very clear that we can all experience this.

Part 3: All That You Always Wanted to Know About YOGA_English_part_3.md

I do realize however, that in one corner of your mind you will be thinking, 'Oh, this Master speaks nicely, He speaks of good things, but really, what does he mean that we are God?' We have all created an idea that God is beyond our reach. We actually feel cozy and comfortable with this idea that we cannot be God.

Ultimately, none of us want solutions to our problems. We just want someone to support our problems. People come and tell me, 'Master, my wife has so many troubles and it is disturbing for me. Please can you give me a solution for her?' I tell them, that the wife does not really need a solution given to her, she simply needs support. She really just wants someone to listen. Don't be mistaken, she is not asking for a solution. For that matter, don't even think that you are intelligent enough to give her a solution.

However, I am qualified to give you a solution and that is, meditation. Prayer is support and meditation is the solution. What you want, well you have to decide for yourself.

Question: In early life, every individual male and female passes through a certain stage of development where they love their body. It is known as autoamorphism. After this stage of development, the love that the man or woman has developed for their body suddenly disappears. What is the reason for this?

Answer: Simply, society does not allow us to linger with this love for our body. When a person loves their body, they will be in ecstasy. They will continuously be smiling for no obvious reason. They will be bubbling and dancing.

In Ayurveda, there is a beautiful definition for the word health. Being free of disease is only one clinical aspect included in the definition of health. The definition of health in Ayurveda is having the feeling of wanting to dance. When we wake up in the morning, our steps from the bed to the bathroom should be more like a dance.

The people you can observe that are completely within their boundary, that have a deep connection and love with their body, are the people that constantly look alive, ecstatic and joyful. If they laugh, you will notice that their whole body laughs. If they smile, you we see that their whole body will smile.

Society simply cannot tolerate the type of person described above. Society, cannot handle if someone is naturally happy with themselves. If someone is just laughing, bubbling, dancing, loving and expressing him or herself, it is unacceptable. We feel uneasy, uncomfortable and deeply disturbed. If we notice someone sitting by themselves, looking subdued and depressed, we feel that this person is normal, similar to ourselves.

Children, if you observe them, are constantly expressing love towards their bodies. They put their thumbs inside their mouths and play. You can see kids whirling and spinning, eating with both of their hands, playing with their genitals, playing with their whole body, continuously expressing love towards their body. They constantly express the homeliness and happiness they feel with their body. They are more or less in ecstasy.

However, as adults we ruin this for them. We suppress our kids. When they spin around, do we let them continue? As a Hindu parent, if your child eats with their left hand, do you allow them? No. We continuously suppress their joy. We teach them that their left hand is unclean and they should not touch food with left hand.

As parents, we should encourage our children to express themselves. We should allow them to live with and express their body. If they are having a bath and they jump in the water, allow them. If they spin and spin, just put a mattress down in case they should fall. Never stop them! If they eat with both hands, just ensure that their hands are clean. Allow them to use their left and right sides equally. Additionally, avoid separating the upper half and lower half of their body. When we wear tight clothes we separate the upper body energy from the lower body energy.

There is a beautiful technique that will help to kindle comfort and love for your own body and it is taken from the Sufi tradition.

All of our skin diseases take root from the hatred of our own bodies. A lady with a severe case of psoriasis, a chronic and often incurable skin disease, came to me for healing. While being healed she confided that she had suffered a traumatic childhood that left her with self hatred as well as self guilt. I told her to practice this meditation for 21 days. She exploded crying: 'How do expect me to love myself the way I am?' I said: 'You have lived in misery for 20 years. Try this just for 21 days.'

In 15 days, the lady was rid of her ailment forever!

Practice this meditation just as you awaken in the morning before you actually get out of bed, when your subtle dream body is still settling into your physical gross body.

Starting from your head, touch each part of your body, one by one, lovingly, down to the soles of your feet. As you touch each part, each limb, say how much you love that part or limb, and express gratitude to the Existence for having blessed you with your body. It does not matter even if you do not believe your body is great, just express the idea that it is great and express your love and gratitude.

Within days you will find a deep love and peace within your self. It is only when you are filled with love you can express love to others.

I often am questioned by people, 'Is it necessary to do meditation only with a Master present?' I tell them no. At least the meditation techniques that I am spreading, my presence is not necessary. Your presence is enough. Let your body have your presence.

This meditation technique is from Kularnava Tantra, an ancient scripture attributed to Siva. From my experience, I can say that this is the oldest book written on yoga and meditation.

This meditation is comprised of three, ten minute parts. Practicing this meditation will result in you resting, relaxing and feeling at home with your body. You will reclaim your body. You will start living inside your system,

inside your boundary with full awareness. There are three instructions.

• 1. For the first ten minutes, inhale and exhale as deeply and as chaotically as possible. It should be deep and quick. It is almost like you will be melting your body. You will be melting your body through Prana Sakti (healing energy). We have a lot of toxins and a lot of unnecessary negative emotions and negative energy inside of our bodies. For the first ten minutes, you will be melting all of the negative emotions and cleaning the system through this particular breathing cycle.
• 2. For the second ten minutes, completely shake your whole body and mind. Just shake, shake without a pattern, randomly. This shaking will awaken the Kundalini Shakti (existential energy) which is residing within our being. Shake your body. Shake your legs, your arms, your head, everything! To shake your mind, you must hum very mildly. Don't hum too loudly otherwise you will start thinking about it. Hum continuously but mildly. Shake your body and mind together for 10 minutes. Shake your body physically and shake your mind with the humming.
• 3. For the final 10 minutes, just sit and simply allow yourself to relax into your body. Be with your body. Relax into the body and be in the present moment.

'To reach the Being level, have the courage to experiment with the truth.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

The Sanksrit word for 'Being' is Atman. Atman, the Self, has best been described as the indescribable. Patanjali speaks of the Purusha which means literally 'the Godhead that dwells within the body.'

If we are asked to describe our Being, we cannot. Ultimately, we can't say anything about Being because it is beyond our mind. It is beyond our intellect and logic. Because it is beyond our mind, it cannot be expressed in a single word. Whatever we can easily express in a single word is only because it is directly related to the mind.

Although 'Being' cannot be expressed in a single word, for the sake of this discussion, we can translate it superficially as 'consciousness'. Consciousness is not the equivalent or the exact translation for atman. The word 'soul' is used frequently to describe what 'Being' is, however the word 'consciousness' is more traditional.

At the beginning of this series on Yoga, the first day, somebody asked me, 'Master, educate us about 'enlightenment'. How did you have that experience? What do you mean by the word 'enlightenment?'

Understand, 'enlightenment' doesn't mean that you become extraordinary, some kind of super human or become someway superlative. Having supernatural powers is no way related to enlightenment. Please understand, some powers may express through enlightened persons. That is different. However, the powers are not the criteria. Just doing some magic or miracle is no way related to enlightenment.

When you reach enlightenment, you achieve one thing, a deep homely feeling. You feel deeply rooted, centered in your Being. Enlightenment is a deep feeling, deep subtleness or total relaxation which happens inside your Being. When we know our Being and when we feel in tune with our Being or when we experience our true energy, we have achieved the state of enlightenment.

The Rishi and the Great Masters again and again insisted on us reaching that state of Being. In Bharat, this was one of the first lessons in life. The moment a child turned seven years old, the first lesson taught to them was how to connect with their Being level and to stay there using the Gayatri mantra.

The following verse, the Gayatri mantra, is in no way related to any ritual, any puja or any worship. It is a basic technique that we practice to fall in tune with our Being. The mantra is:

The meaning of the Gayatri mantra is:

'Let me meditate on the energy which awakens the Consciousness in me. Let the Consciousness help me meditate on it.'

That is all it is. There is no mention of any Devata, any God or any ritual. It is just a straightforward technique to

tune us into that Being level.

If we somehow learn the technique to tune ourselves with our Being and open the Anandamaya Kosha, this space of bliss, then continuously we will be able to stay in that space. Continuously staying in that space is what I call Nithya Ananda – Eternal Bliss. That is what I call the state of Being.

Some people exist only in the level of doing. These individual's who operate in the level of doing do things just for the sake of the ego. They are centered in the level of 'I'.

These people are usually referred to as 'workaholics', and are the type of people who find it difficult to relax. In Ayurvedic terms, they can be described as Rajasic or restless. The moment they relax from work, they feel that they are not needed. Even if they don't earn money, they will not be able to relax from work.

Many people I have seen take up some form of social service, because they can't relax or keep quiet due to their workaholic attitude. Sadly, their egoism is the primary motivation for undertaking voluntary work. They want to have that feeling they are needed and as a condition of the service, they feel they should be recognized, their name should be displayed. They feel that they should be given priority. They feel it's their place and believe that they deserve to have things their way.

When it comes down to it, we are basically striving to prove in someway how great we are. Why do you think these so called religious followers erect such tall structures? It is not to show the greatness of God, it is only to prove their own greatness. In Bharat, there are these industrialists 'Birlas' who have designed and erected certain temples. These temples are actually called Birla Temples. Temples are built for God. However, once you build a temple to prove your greatness, the temple will accordingly be named after you! Not after God!

There is a beautiful Zen saying;

However, ordinary and egoistic people, even if they serve others, will only result in the disturbance of others. Unless we are totally in tune with ourselves, how do you think we can help others? How can we serve others? It comes down to the quality of our Being, which decides whether we are going to do good or bad to society and to humanity as a whole. In all truth, if you do things as an extension of your Being, the service itself is the reward.

A small story.

The Bodhi Dharma went to China. There he was received by the King of China on the border. This King was tremendously devoted to Buddhism and as a means of proving his devotion he had built thousands of monasteries. In addition, he had translated all of the scriptures into the Chinese language. The King had done everything possible to spread Buddhism.

After receiving the Bodhi Dharma the King asked, 'Buddha, please tell me. I have done so much service for Buddhism. What will I receive after my death? What will I receive in return for having done so much service?'

It is a wonderful story…. The King continues, 'I have asked so many Buddhist monks. They have all told me that I will reach the seventh heaven. However, I want to hear this from you. What will I receive after my death?'

The Bodhi Dharma was a very honest man and it made no difference to him that he was talking to the King of the country. He replied straightaway, 'I can be sure of one thing. You will only reach the seventh hell.'

The King was totally shaken by this statement. In disbelief he replied, 'What are you talking about? How can you say that I will reach the seventh hell instead of the seventh heaven! After all the things I have done to spread Buddhism!'

The Bodhi Dharma makes a beautiful statement. 'If you have really done the service, the very service itself is the reward. If you really have done these things out of your Being, in joy and bliss, the very service itself is the reward.'

Bodhi Dharma further points out, 'That all of our so called service is an act from our doing level, not from our Being level. If you have done this service from your level of doing, just because you can't stay quiet, be very clear you will only reach seventh hell.'

Additionally, there is one more beautiful statement that the Bodhi Dharma makes. He says, 'Don't think that by committing sins you will go to hell. Understand that the only reason you commit sins is because you already are in hell.'

We will never commit sins, be violent or hurtful towards others if we are happy and peaceful within ourselves. Ultimately, the very mood with which we undertake activities is heaven or hell. Do not believe that if we commit sinful acts we will go to hell and don't believe that if we do good deeds we will go to heaven. Heaven and hell are psychological. We believe that heaven and hell are geographical. We believe we will reach somewhere. It is actually the present that determines whether we are in heaven or hell.

This is another level in which we exist. This level is associated with another kind of restlessness, the people who are centered on having. People, who are centered on 'having' are centered in the level of 'mine'.

I' is continuously doing. 'Mine' is continuously having.

I have seen these people continuously acquiring things but never living them, never enjoying them. People find themselves sitting in an ordinary car and all of a sudden, they are fantasizing about owning an SUV. When they have the SUV, they start to think about owning a Mercedes. When they have the Mercedes, they imagine themselves driving a Rolls Royce. Once they have the Rolls Royce, they start thinking about acquiring an executive jet. Continuously we run behind 'having'. But we never actually stop and focus on living and enjoying what we already have.

Continuously, we are trying to expand our boundary. I have seen people if they have 5 acres they will be standing near their boundary trying to expand their boundary a little more. Suddenly, by fortune, if they acquire 500 acres, still they won't be satisfied. They will continue to stand near the boundary and further try to expand it even by a few inches or 3 to 4 feet. Whether it is 5 acres or 500 acres, these people are, either way, going to stand near the boundary. They are more or less bound to the boundary. They just can't be happy for what they have acquired; they can't resume living happily inside their home.

These people, whose personalities are based on having, only feel happy, secure and relaxed when they gradually possess more and more things. Continuously possessing things only rises out of a deep feeling of insecurity. If we deeply penetrate our Being, we will see it is feeling nothing but deeply insecure. So this insecurity, this deep seated fear, creates within us greed and the desire to accumulate more things. Everything we possess and the consistent want to possess more and more gives us a feeling of security. The more friends, relatives and material things we have surrounding us, the more secure we feel. We believe that because we have more around us, we won't be taken away from this world.

The Mahabharata is one of the two major ancient Sanskrit epics of Bharat. The title may be translated as "History of the Great Bharat". Contained in the Mahabharata is a beautiful sloka. Dharma is a hero of the Mahabharata. He was asked beautiful questions by a Demi–God.

'Kim Aashcharyam Ithah param?' Translated as 'What is the greatest surprise of the planet earth, in this universe? What is the greatest surprise you are witnessing in the universe?'

Dharma answers beautifully. 'Ahanyahani boothani gachchanti iha yama mandiram. Seshas sthiramichchanthi kim aascharyam ithah param.' The running translation goes like this:

'Everyday, we are seeing so many beings reaching the abode of Yama (the Lord of death's house). But even after witnessing this, we still feel that we are going to be here eternally.'

We ultimately think that we are going to be forever. We never think and our Being feels that we will eventually have to leave. Truth be told, we refuse to accept that we will eventually have to leave. We are in denial. We refuse to think about it. We turn our backs on the reality and we avoid preparing ourselves consciously for the whole life and death. We don't want to acknowledge the whole event and see both sides. Therefore, we start expanding our boundary. We try to avoid the inevitable, we try to hide ourselves and forget everything by expanding our boundary.

'If you stay in the level of doing, or in the level of having, unless you reach the level of being, you will not be able to relax, you will not be able to experience what life really is.'

If a person is born blind, we can never make that person understand what he is missing. Really think about it. Would you personally be able to give that person an understanding of what they are missing? No. In the same way, the person who has not experienced the ecstasy of Being, the bliss of Being, can't explain to another person what they are missing, what they are not experiencing. The feeling that we are missing, by not entering into that space of Being, simply cannot be expressed or explained by words.

When I use the word Being, I mean thoughtless awareness (awareness with no thoughts). Your doing and having are like two zeros. Unless there is a Being (Oneness), these zeros will have no value. Only when you achieve your Being these zeros will have value.

If you don't have the Being, what can you enjoy? If we aren't in the Being level, but in the doing and having levels, we will constantly jump from one place to the other. We will be constantly changing the space, our atmosphere. We are living like ghosts. Our physical body is there and we are moving; however, the Being, the feeling of homeliness is missing.

Let me tell you about an incident which happened in my life. My native place is Thiruvannamalai, in South Bharat. When I was 10 years old, my parents took me to see a great master, Annamalai Swamigal. In Bharat, parents usually force their kids to go and see swamis and visit various temples. My parents also took me by force.

When we arrived, Annamalai Swamigal was talking to a group of Westerners. He was saying things like, 'Everything is maya (illusion). We are not bodies, we are not disturbed, and we will not have any pain or sufferings. We are beyond pains and beyond sufferings.' All these great vedantic things he was talking about.

However, when he said that we will not be affected by pain, I felt surprised. How could this be true? When my Mum beats me, I feel pain. Of course, in Bharat, you realize children will be beaten by their parents. Further, when he said, 'you won't feel any suffering', again I felt surprised. When my teacher yells at me, I feel suffering. I couldn't understand how he could justify these statements.

I decided I would undertake a small experiment to test whether or not I would be affected by pain. So on returning home, I took a knife and I cut myself on the thigh to test if I would feel pain or not. Of course, I felt pain and I was rushed to the doctor so the large cut could be stitched up!

A few days later, I went back to the Swami and asked him, 'What have you taught me? You said that we would not be affected by pain and we wouldn't suffer any sufferings. I went and cut myself on the thigh, to test whether or not what you told me was true!' The Swami said to me, 'My son, do not worry. Now, you may have not understood what I said, but when the time comes, you will understand and realize what I said.'

He then gave me a simple meditation technique. He said, 'Whenever you have spare time, just sit and try to see from whom all your thoughts are coming. Just search the source of all your thoughts.' I was grateful for the technique, but I still could not understand why he hadn't given it to me earlier. I still wanted to know why he had said we wouldn't be affected by pain or feel suffering.

He said this beautiful statement, 'Don't bother about this suffering. The courage to experiment with the truth, which you have, is more than enough. That will liberate you. If there are one or two small mistakes, small incidents along the way, don't bother about it. It is worth it. It is trouble worth facing. The courage to experiment with the truth, that is the greatest thing anybody can have. You have that. That is enough. That will guide you. That will lead you to the ultimate experience or to the end of life.'

'To reach the Being level, we need to do only one thing:

Have the courage to experiment with the Truth. Have the courage to go behind the Truth, no matter where it leads us.'

This one statement, gave me the courage to experiment with all Truths. I have seen a lot of people, they want to understand and live by these higher ideals. However, they approach them in a very shallow, very superficial way. They approach them almost as a means to be entertained.

People come and ask me, 'Master, tell me something about God, how to realize, how to achieve spirituality.' I say to them, 'Please be seated and let us talk.' They say, 'No, no I have to catch a bus. Could you please just tell me something quickly? I have about 10 minutes.' So, as you can see, the question is shallow, just to pass the time.

Someone came to me and asked me, 'Master, please tell me how to achieve God. How can I reach enlightenment? Please teach me.' I did not answer him. Instead I just initiated a friendly conversation with him. I just started asking him things like, 'What do you do for a profession? What does your wife do? How many kids do you have?' He of course just sat and happily answered all of my questions. It just turned into a friendly conversation. A conversation, that lasted for three hours. In the duration of the three hours, that whole time he sat with me, he did not even raise that question again. He had completely forgotten about it.

The reason he had completely forgotten it was because of the level of sincerity of the question. It was just a casual question, simply asked to pass the time. He thought, just because I have this Master in front of me, I better ask a question. If the Master answers, that's okay. If he doesn't answer, it's still okay. The question the man had asked was not sincere. It wasn't a real problem.

When people come and see me they say, 'Master, before I came to see you today, I had prepared myself in regards to what I would ask you. I thought, oh I must ask him this question and I must ask him that question. But now I have come in front of you, I have forgotten all my questions!'

Understand, if this is what you also experience, than your questions are not worth answering. If the questions are superficial, naturally you will forget about them. If the questions are real, you will not be able to forget about them. The questions will be continuously haunting you. They will haunt you while you are sleeping, in your dreams. They will haunt you during the day. The questions will constantly plaguing your mind.

The questions should become your guests. Only when they become your guests, you will be able to grow towards the higher consciousness. Only then you can reach the flowering of your Being, what I call your consciousness or your spirit.

Please take this one message with you. Have the courage to experiment with the truth, whatever you believe is the truth. You don't have to go searching for the highest ultimate truth. First, people always want to know what the ultimate truth is; only then will they experiment with it.

Whatever you consider as a truth, try to experiment with it. That is the one and only way to reach the 'Being'. There is no other way. There is no other method. There is no other technique. Not even meditation will help you in comparison with this one statement. Actually, meditation is a truth and you will only practice the meditation if you have the courage to experiment.

Simply by coming and listening to one of my discourses, you must also come with the courage to experiment with the truth. There are generally two types who come and listen to my discourses. The first is the kind who sits during the discourse and agrees, believes in everything I say. So the whole time they will sit and think about what they will say to praise me afterwards. They will be sitting thinking, 'Oh these two days, Master has spoken really well. He is a good orator and even though he looks young, he is a good speaker.'

I have seen so many people. After the discourse, they come up to me and say, 'Master, you speak so beautifully, you have spoken today about such great things." I catch them out. I ask, 'Tell me what I spoke about?' They will reply, 'No, no, no. Don't ask me that. You spoke very nicely and you are a really great person. I have never heard such great discourses. I have never seen such a great person. You spoke so beautifully.'

Understand if you are coming up afterwards and telling me that I spoke beautifully, that only means you have not heard what I spoke about. I know that you were just sitting there the whole time preparing what you will come and say to me.

Also be very clear. We only praise others to get the attention of others, or we expect they will also praise us in return. We can't say directly, 'Please praise me.' We have to be a little more polite than that. We have to use a more diplomatic approach. So we throw good words at others, expecting we will get them back.

The second type of person is one that sits there the whole time arguing with himself because they don't agree with what I am saying. They sit there thinking, 'No, no, no, I don't believe this is the truth. I don't think what he is saying is right.'

Either way, if you are against what I am saying, if you are continuously questioning, you are missing the truth which is expressed. Or if you are trying to find words to praise me, again you are missing what is being expressed. Either way, you will miss out on what I am saying whether you have a negative attitude or a positive attitude. What you need is not faith or doubt. What you need is courage to experiment with the truth.

These so-called believers or so-called religious followers are the most cunning people. On the other hand, the atheists are the most honest people. They are more straightforward. They will be outright honest. If they don't feel the same, they are very straight. They will tell you. They don't care about what anyone thinks.

However, the so-called believers, who only believe out of fear and greed, who don't have the courage to experiment with truth, are more or less, hypocrites. They are egoistic. They will find, or actually design methods to escape from the truth. Instead, what they need to have is the courage to experiment with the truth.

Vivekananda says beautifully, 'Instead of reading libraries, volumes and volumes of books, just have the courage to experiment with a simple two or three concepts. Just two or three concepts and have the courage to experiment with them.'

This is enough! Instead of having the courage to experiment with a couple of truths, we go and read volumes and volumes and we end up turning ourselves into some intellectual. Our heads will only become heavier, because you will just accumulate too much in your head. If you eat food and it doesn't digest, what happens? You end up vomiting. It's the same thing, when you read and read and don't have the courage to experiment with the truth, you will start vomiting on others. What ever we read, we will almost have no choice but to start vomiting it on others.

Understand that all we need is one thing. Carry this one line as a message;

'Whatever you believe to be the truth, have the courage to experiment with that truth.'

Let us pray to the ultimate energy, the divine cosmic intelligence, cosmic energy. Let it give all of us the courage to experiment with the truth and Eternal Bliss.

Question: Master, could you please tell us something about 'Swaroopa samadhi.'

Oh nice. Two big words! In the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, he explained different kinds of Samadhi, the final state of mind body spirit union with the Self. To name a couple, there is Savikalpa samadhi and Nirvikalpa samadhi, quite well known types of samadhi. Savikalpa samadhi is characterized as a type of samadhi with which a person can lose all human consciousness for an hour or two.

Nirvikalpa samadhi is the highest samadhi one can reach, and it is the samadhi that most realized spiritual Masters attain. Nirvikalpa samadhi is the outcome of all spiritual practices. It is when a person directly becomes 'One' with their 'Being'. They continue to operate in Conscious awareness, without attachment.

If we meditate on some roopa (form) of God, just becoming one with it and having no other thought except that form, we reach the state of Swaroopa samadhi.

Additionally, there are four types of samadhi related to 'Swaroopa samadhi'. When we become part of that energy or we become one with that energy, then it is called in Sanskrit:

'Saalokya Samadhi', 'Saameepya Samadhi', 'Saaroopya Samadhi' and 'Saayujya Samadhi'.

If we are meditating on Vishnu, if we are given that state or if we are given the place in Vishnuloka, it is called 'Saalokya'.

If we are given the nearness it is called 'Saamepya'.

If we are given his own form it is call 'Saaroopya'.

Finally, if we just become one with him, it is called 'Saayujya'.

These are all deeper levels and there is no real need to do research on all of them. We should just follow any one method and simply we will reach that goal. Instead of analyzing the goal, we simply work on the path. It will prove to be much more beneficial for us.

Question: What are your suggestions for dealing with the truth?

Answer: Dealing with the truth is what I call 'experimenting with the truth.'

First of all, in reality, none of us really want to deal or experiment with the truth; we require buffer springs. In a car we have shock absorbers so that we will not feel the shock of the road. So just like that, in our life, we require shock absorbers. Continuously we keep ourselves away from the truth, the things that may shake us or shock us. Our fantasies and our hopes are like shock absorbers. We have fantasies or hopes only because we don't want to look at the truth directly, face to face.

Through our hopes and fantasies, we believe that truth can be postponed. We say, 'No, no, no tomorrow things will change, after sometime things will change, I think there is some hope.' Continuously, people fantasize about heaven simply because we are not able to face the truth of the present moment. Just because we are not happy with the present moment, our reality, the truth of this moment, we fantasize. We say, 'I will have heaven, I will have this, I will have that.'

Secondly, the reason we cannot deal with the truth is because we are, actually, not mature enough. Children are allowed to dream to cope with reality, however, if we find that when we reach maturity that we are still in the habit of dreaming as a means of coping with reality. Be very clear, we are still behaving childishly. Not child-like but childish.

Maturity is in no way related to turning 21 years of age; primarily, it is related to our Being. Maturity is measured by how well we are able to respond spontaneously to the present moment and how well that we can deal with reality. Maturity is nothing but the ability to face and respond to the truth as it is, without having our hopes and fantasies.

Whether we accept it or not, whether we want it or not, we have to deal with the truth. So deal with it through mature consciousness. Don't deal with it grudging or grumbling. Don't try to escape it. Just face it directly. Start living it.

Truth is like a diamond. It can be polished. It will mould

us. It will transform us. It has the ability to make us into a different person. In the process, it may shake us. During life, whenever we feel too insecure to face some truth, some reality or incident in our life, it shakes our entire Being. Allow the shaking to happen. Let the truth shake us. Let the truth penetrate us and by doing so, let it transform us.

Truth is intelligent. The truth will provide us with enough intelligence to face life. Only when we try to put a massive shield of protection around ourselves, we try to hide and escape from feeling the truth, we miss the outcome. Whenever our Being is depressed, we actually try to ignore it or escape that feeling of low mood. We'll do anything but face it. We'll go and drown our sorrows through drinking and partying or we will distract ourselves from facing the low mood by watching movies or television. The depression will always be there though. Waiting, running behind us, chasing us and the moment we don't have something to distract ourselves with, it will come up. When we are sitting by ourselves, when we are finally on our own, it will come up.

Whenever we are depressed or have negative emotions, we should confront them. Face them. How can we face anyone else if we can't face ourselves? If we don't want to be with our own Being, who else will want to be with us? So, we must face up to these things, we must acknowledge reality. We have to seek the truth, whether today or tomorrow, the earlier we seek the better.

Question: All of these steps – yogic disciplines, meditation, asana practice, all of these steps that we do to strengthen

the body and the mind, is it the common goal of them all, to help us reach the state of connectivness, the state of bliss or ananda?

Answer: The disciplines you are referring to as 'steps,' are not actually 'steps'. They are techniques. When you refer to these disciplines as being steps, it is implying that you do the steps and then you reach the blissful state.

When I say the word technique, by doing the technique itself you will reach bliss. It doesn't mean that you will try and practice the technique, master it and then as an outcome reach the bliss. It is just like, the earth will open and you will fall into bliss. It doesn't mean you will walk and reach the bliss. Just that the earth will open and you will dissolve into bliss.

This is the concept on which the entire system of Nithya Yoga is based. 'Bliss is the path and the goal.'

Patanjali uses the correct word – 'Ashtanga' Yoga. Anga means part*,* not steps. Ashtanga yoga is sometimes mistakenly translated as the 'Eight Steps to Yoga'. The Sanskrit and English translations miss the whole idea. It is not the 'Eight Steps to Yoga'. It is the 'Eight Parts of Yoga' or also popularly known as the 'Eight Limbs of Yoga', meaning that all parts should be practiced together.

The first step is yama and the second step is niyama. If we decide that we will only go to the second step once we have achieved the first step, we will never actually be able to go to the second step. We will never be able to go to the second step! Because the first step yama (truthfulness, non – stealing, non – violence etc) can only happen in us

only after we have experienced samadhi.

Question: As the Master has pointed out, there are so many Masters, so many different techniques and so many different schools that we have searched for or have stumbled upon. We try different Masters and techniques. Some things go well and sometimes things don't go well and we take them as all different experiences.

How do we know when we have found the right Master, or the right technique or discipline? There are so many different paths to choose from. Do all these paths all help us reach the state of bliss?

Answer: I have to say honestly, I don't know. I have not experimented with all the systems, will all the techniques and I realize that there are so many different Masters, so many techniques. Anything that you feel suits you, suits your system, you can follow it. So, how do you find out whether something suits you or not? Something will happen inside of you. Something beyond your intellect will act. You will simply feel connected.

People ask me, 'Master, should I accept you as my Guru? Should I remember you continuously? Should I meditate on you?'

I tell them, 'Do not make that mistake. If I am your Master, you won't be able to forget me. You will have no choice in the matter. I will be there with you when you are sleeping, in your dreams. I will be there in your mind continuously. You will not be able to get me out of your consciousness. You won't be able to do a thing. Simply you

will see that you are continuously remembering me.'

The acceptance and the remembering of the Master or the following of a system should just happen automatically. After this, all you need is again, the courage to experiment with the truth. Just experiment with these techniques or things you believe as the truth.

Just search, continue to search and at some point, with somebody, something will click. You will feel deeply connected and you will simply feel that he the Master for you. You will simply follow him. Something from you Being, beyond your intellect will tell you that He is the right person, the right path for you.

'All of our so-called bringing up of children only brings them down.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

As I mentioned at the beginning of this book, we are all born into this world in such a pure, highly conscious and meditative state. We are received into the world in a yogic state. We are born in the state of yoga. So what happens to this state? Why do we not remain in this state? The answer is that this state is suppressed as we grow up by our family and society.

If you observe kids, they are so alive and bubbling. People ask me frequently, 'Master, how do we bring up our children?' I simply advise them to relax. They will grow up automatically. I further advise people not to bring children up at all. Actually, you can't even define this duty as 'bringing up'. All of our so-called bringing up really only brings them down. Our method of bringing up children simply brings them down from their blissful awareness or restful, deep ecstasy.

I have said many times before that the greatest loss to Bharat has been the Gurukul system; the system whereby a child is allowed to evolve under the love and guidance of an Enlightened Master. In the earlier days of the Gurukul system, the parent's only responsibility was to give birth to the child. Actually, they did have one more responsibility and that was to hand over the child at an age as young as four to the Master.

How can a blind person lead another blind person? Only someone who is Buddha, who is awakened actually understands and has the capability to develop another Being. In the olden days, apart from the Gurukul system, it was possible for some parents to raise their own children. The only reason for that was because the parent's inner space was also pure.

Sometimes, the father and mother could be the guru for their children. They could undertake that role as their inner space was extremely pure. As long as we can maintain the quality of our inner space and maintain its purity, we also can be an inspiration for our children. We can help to inspire the next generation.

Yesterday I was listening to a beautiful discussion. It was about Hindu parents in the United States. The problem discussed involved the issue of raising children in the west. It was a nice discussion and it went on smoothly.

Once the discussion was over, I contemplated on the issues they had analyzed. I came to the conclusion that it is ultimately the parents that need to be more responsible. They need to strive to maintain the quality of their inner space so that they can have the patience and intelligence to deal with their children.

Parents need to set an example for their children through their own lifestyle. Our children are not going to listen to our rules, our advice and our regulations on morality unless they see us abiding by these rules. Stories like, 'In those days in Bharat, we used to live this way' or 'You are an Hindu child or you are a Bharatiya Nari (the ideal woman)' are not going to help. The children are not going to listen and retain all of this.

Kids learn far better by example and are not going to learn just through listening. They acquire attributes from their parents. It is only through our own life, our own example that we can teach our kids, not through admonishment and punishment. Instead of being a trainer we must be a role model for our children.

When we return home from work, our inner space will inevitably be contaminated. During the day, there is so much unconscious activity going on in our mind and as a result we are left feeling physically and mentally fatigued. So, on returning home we simply just want to enter into tamas (inaction). Because we have been in rajas (action) throughout the entire day our tendency is to enter into tamas as soon as we return home. We are not inspiring by the end of the day and all our kids observe are our tired and sorry faces. We are left with no energy to spend quality time with our kids.

How can we expect them learn or listen to us when all they see are our tired, morose and depressing faces? They will observe us returning home, laying down on the couch and flicking through television channels all afternoon as a means to escape from our restless self. They will soak this in and automatically follow our example.

Question: I always keep reminding my children to behave well. I tell them that they should develop moral values, you shouldn't date, you are Hindu, you can't live together yet, etc. I continuously keep telling them all of these things; however, since we reside in the USA and they are exposed to a culture different than Bharat, it is proving increasingly more difficult for me. Eventually, they are just going to do what they want. Master, they say that we are old fashioned. What would be your advice regarding this?

Answer: Please understand, these morals we are referring to are such beautiful things and we shouldn't convey them as moralities. We should give them to our children as understanding. Advise them if they start dating too young, they will absorb too many fantasies. Too many fantasies will never allow them to live with anyone happily.

In Sanskrit, there is no equivalent word for 'divorce'. The reason being, in those days, we were not infused and bombarded with fantasies. When we are flooded with fantasies, it is impossible to live happily with anyone. Even if you get Miss World or Mister World, you can't live happily with them.

Simply there is too much fantasy.

Question: Master, I don't agree with those statistics for depression in Bharat. I believe that there is just a lack of acceptance. In the United States, people at least accept they are depressed and take medication. There exists much more depression in Bharat.

Answer: Depression? Where? In Bharat?!

Please be very clear, I work with many villages in Bharat and I can be sure that Bharat is at least 10 times less depressed than any other country.

First of all, we can't say that medicines are not available. In this modern day, there are numerous social and nonprofit organizations that work to provide medicine and education in every village. Don't believe everything the media has to say. Don't believe by reading one press report that these villages have no means of education and medication to support depression.

I work with at least 8000 villages and our organization has direct representatives from these villages. I can assure you that every village has some non-profit organization or institution, at least, providing basic things.

Secondly, 50 percent of parents in the United States are single parents. Surely this is not the case in Bharat. In the idea of Saptapadi (the Hindu marriage system), once you take the Saptapadi vows, the only way you can escape the marriage is if one of you dies or takes Sannyas (renounces the material world). There is no other way of escaping the marriage. This is the way of life and it is possible because there is less fantasy. Too many fantasies will naturally disturb you and you will end up in depression.

Question: When we are raised and bought up in this country (USA), we teach our children what we think is right. How can we be sure that they will listen and understand?

Answer: We should take extra time to sit and talk with them. We should have a little patience and also intelligence to work with them. We should let go of that expectation that by simply telling them, they will obey our command.

Children are intelligent and these days there are more options, more possibilities and they will of course question. The best thing we can do is give them our ideas; however, the ideas should be given logically through our own experience and with a complete understanding on our part. Do not force any moralities on them and avoid giving them anything as a rule. If you do this, naturally you are simply giving them a rule, for them to break.

Question: Master, you are talking about seeking in a later stage of life. However, it is clear that children can also benefit from meditation.

Answer: Usually, people begin seeking at a later stage in life. I am not saying that you should start seeking later on. In fact, the earlier you start seeking, the better.

We should definitely give meditation to our children. We should give our wisdom and teach meditation to our kids, because it is their birthright. If we are Hindu, it is mandatory to teach our children meditation. They have chosen us as parents expecting that we will give our great ancient wisdom to them. To teach children meditation we, of course, need patience and a little intelligence. First, we, ourselves, need to understand and internalize concepts clearly. Only then will we be able to share with and inspire our kids.

When people consider meditation, they usually associate it with sitting cross-legged in a corner with back pain and knee pain and eyes closed with the aim and associated frustration of trying to keep the mind quite. No. This is not meditation.

Meditation is a shift in our consciousness. It is being aware and present in every moment. Anything in our life can be a meditation but it just depends on how present and aware we are.

Meditation is our ability to be in the moment without any worry of the past of the future. Have you ever seen a small child looking guilty and worried about things that have happened in the past? Or do we ever see small children fantasizing or worrying about the future? No. This is proof of their state of meditation. Children are in the present. They are aware, they are uninhibited and they radiate bliss.

Children, as they grow up, will constantly be expressing this natural state of bliss. They are more or less in ecstasy. We can observe them spinning around, we can see them dancing and jumping around all over the place. They can laugh and giggle for no obvious reason at all. As adults, we suppress their joy. They get told 'don't spin you might hurt yourself, stop jumping around the house, what are you laughing at? Stop laughing!' We somehow have forgotten about this natural energy, this naturally uninhibited blissful state which we all expressed as a child and still have. It has however, been forgotten about due to all the suppression and conditioning we also received as a child. We suppress their joy constantly.

Children are already in meditation at every moment. They live each moment, in the moment and they enjoy. As a parent, our only responsibility is to allow them and encourage them to remain in this state. Just don't suppress them. We should never impose our seriousness on them. We always want to make our children like us. If they are constantly giggling for no reason, it leaves us feeling uncomfortable. We tell them they have had enough laughter.

Children are so innocent and so pure. Every child is born innocent. And all that the child needs from their parents and the society is not knowledge, but a deepening of innocence.

Most of the meditations I prescribe for children relate to how they already express themselves at a young age. They twirl and whirl, they laugh, they express love and gratitude towards their bodies and they also are known to go around making nonsensical noises and sounds. It is not like we have to go out of our way to ensure they participate in these kinds of meditations. A lot of the time, they are expressing these meditations because meditation is our inherent nature and as a parent, it is our responsibility to become aware of their expression and simply encourage them.

'Children are in the present. They are aware, they are uninhibited and they radiate bliss.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

When we see kids spinning and spinning, whirling, more than often we tell them, 'Stop being silly! You will get too dizzy, please stop, you might hurt yourself.' All these things we say.

Never stop them. Allow them to express. Whirling is actually a centering meditation technique taken from Sufism. But if you're worried about the children falling, just put a mattress down to break their fall or simply supervise them. Just allow them to enjoy what they are doing.

• 1) Ensure that you have an open space. The child must have enough space to move around.
• 2) Let the child whirl for as long as he can, even a half-hour to an hour. He can start out slowly and then build up speed over time. He will notice movement in his periphery but will feel a stillness within as if witnessing his action. Whirling should be anti clockwise.
• 3) When the whirling becomes so fast that he can't stand upright his body will fall by itself. Young, pliable bodies should not get hurt, but to ensure his safety there can be bedding on the sides of the area so the child can break his fall on something soft. When the child stops whirling, he should keep his eyes closed and lie with the belly touching the ground and feel as if he has become one with the earth.

• 1) Do not interfere while children are whirling or try to stop them.
• 2) Whirling meditation should be avoided directly after a meal.

Laughter is a meditation. When you are in no–mind, you are in the present. Therefore, when you laugh, you are in the present because when you laugh, there can be no thoughts. At the same time we are completely unaware that we are performing a great spiritual practice!

Laughing is a healing meditation. It has the power to heal any person at the physical, mental, emotional or psychological levels. Science has actually caught on to the healing effects of laughter. In the west, there are a growing abundance of 'laughter groups.' The purpose of these groups is to allow people to heal their bodies and their minds through laughter. These groups meet in parks and uproariously laugh together as a group for 40 minutes. Little do they know, they are actually in meditation for these 40 minutes. They don't realize they are expressing the highest spiritual quality, laughter.

We always think we need a reason to laugh. We don't. Children can laugh for no reason. It is our inherent nature to express laughter and joy without a reason. However, we carry something that they don't: our ego, our seriousness. We also want to make our children like us, serious. We suppress their happiness, their true nature.

The duration of a laughing meditation can be 21 minutes to 40 minutes.

The child should sit with his eyes closed and begin to laugh. At first if will be a bit of an effort. But soon real laughter will begin to bubble up inside. If nothing else, just the comic attempts at laughter will be enough to make the child really laugh! Once the laughter takes over, they should just let go. With practice they will find that they are able to sustain the laughter for longer and longer periods of time. The child should laugh as long as he can. The energy to keep laughing will surge up from inside. And, long after the child finishes laughing, the waves of laughter will still be there inside, just beneath the surface.

There are no other instructions. How can laughter come with more instructions? Laughter is an expression from your child's Being. Just allow them to express their nature. There are no rules. If they want to keep going after 21 or 40 minutes, allow them. There is really no time limit.

Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya is a cathartic technique taken from Sufism and Christianity. This technique bypasses mental processes and roots out worries in their most basic form by using gibberish. This technique specifically targets the Manipuraka Chakra (navel center), the area where a lot of worry and heaviness is stored.

It is not uncommon to observe children practicing gibberish in everyday life. Children at times go around making nonsensical sounds. When the child shouts absolute gibberish during this meditation, it opens out the unconscious so they can be relieved of deep emotions such as depression and anger from negative thought patterns. When they speak in gibberish, they are more or less vomiting out suppressed negativity and experience a great inner peace.

Depression in young children is not common and most likely this results from their tendency to make nonsensical sounds. They are frequently eliminating any stored negativity. Without any particular intention, when children speak in gibberish, in their own little language, they are effectively maintaining the purity and quality of their inner space. They essentially empty their worries, and consequently project a worry free, care free and blissful nature. This nature needs to be encouraged as they grow older.

This technique is taken from ancient Christianity and Sufism.

• 1) The child should stand with his eyes closed and allow his awareness to rest on the navel region. All of his worries and negativities will start rising in his mind. Encourage the child to imagine himself in a conflict, such as when fighting with someone or when something goes wrong. He may feel a heaviness in the navel area as a result of anger or worry or general negativity.
• 2) For the next 21 minutes the child should talk loudly out loud in a language that he doesn't

know; just a nonsense language, gibberish, and try to convey his pain or problem to an imaginary person. Let this child throw out his anger without censor; screaming, crying, making animal sounds, throwing arms around, kicking, it's all okay. This meditation should be done totally, with all one's might.

• 3) At the end of 21 minutes, with the instruction 'stop', the child should immediately become quiet, and sit down in silence with the eyes closed and awareness on the navel region for the next 10 minutes. During this time, thoughts and sensations are just witnessed and not acted upon while the child sits quietly.
• 4) After 10 minutes of silence, the child is instructed to open his eyes very slowly.

This meditation should be done on an empty stomach.

Dancing is a powerful form of meditation! Both formal dance and free dance can be meditation techniques. Free dance, especially for children, is also a great cathartic technique. Here the idea is to loose oneself in the dance. Free dancing just means that there are no steps, no rules, nothing. Just let your body move as it pleases. Let the dance flow freely. We have all seen children move playfully and innocently with the rhythm of music. They naturally become part of the tremendous energy of dance.

• 1) With eyes closed, instruct the child to begin to dance. Let the child know that there are no rules or steps. Just let the body be loose. Don't let him be concerned with how he looks; no one will be watching! Encourage him to enter deeply into the dance and dance as fast and freely as possible. Let the child become the dance. Let the dance become him. Dance like this for 21 minutes.
• 2) At the end of 21 minutes there will be an instruction of 'stop' and wherever the child is they should immediately stop in whatever position they are in and just drop down on the floor. Just fall! Lie down. Be silent and still. In the sudden change from frantic motion to sudden stillness, the child will experience a moment of blankness, of no thoughts, just silence. After a few moments when thoughts begin to come into the mind, the child should just watch them, not fighting them, just remaining aware. This silence and peace will permeate the entire day.

'Be aware of a lasting peace inside you, a great silence which remains with you after thoughts return and carry this peace, this silence with you throughout the day, and carry it into your sleep. Include everything in your Being. Don't say, I am Not. Instead, say I am.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is a Master and modern mystic living amidst us today. Starting out at a young age, and enduring years of intense penance, he persevered with the single-pointed vision of experiencing inner bliss. He traversed the length and breadth of the country studying yoga, tantra and other Eastern metaphysical sciences with great Masters in Bharat and Nepal. He had many profound spiritual experiences before experiencing inner bliss.

His mission is to help each individual actualize his inherent potential. With a pragmatic and compassionate approach, and an enlightened insight into the core of human nature, he has emerged as an inspiring personality who continues to touch and transform the lives of millions across the world.

Part 4: All That You Always Wanted to Know About YOGA_English_part_4.md

His divine healing touch has taken the shape of Nithya Spiritual Healing – a scientific system of spiritual healing through meditation. He heals people world over, through his direct touch and through ordained healers, curing illnesses ranging from migraine to cancer.

The Nithyananda Foundation is his worldwide movement to spread his message of meditation and bliss. With its spiritual nerve center in Bangalore, Bharat and the Western Hemisphere headquarters in Los Angeles, USA, it operates in centers across the world, working steadily in transformation of humanity through transformation of the individual.

His lucid explanation of practical issues and simple and dynamic meditation techniques, help individuals blossom at the physical, emotional and spiritual levels. Thousands of volunteers – Ananda Sevaks work to support the mission world over.

By offering himself as a living laboratory, he works with Scientists across the globe to bridge the modern Western system of logic and evidence and the ancient Eastern system of mysticism, thus bridging Science and Spirituality for the benefit of humanity.

Specialized meditation programs are designed and offered continuously worldwide to benefit millions of people at the levels of body, mind and spirit. Some of the meditation programs currently offered are as follows:

• Energize yourself!

The ASP or LBP is a chakra meditation camp.

It introduces us to the 7 vital energy centers in our body called the chakras, whose functioning has a direct bearing upon our physical and mental well-being. It explains the direct relationship between our emotions and these energy centers and offers simple meditation techniques for effective handling of our own emotions, better clarity and a positive mental setup, better interpersonal relationships, renewed and inspired attitude towards work, and a blissful life.

There is a similar such program designed for students, referred to as the student ASP or student LBP.

• Death demystified!

Death is the mystery of all mysteries. Our idea and fear of death pervades every moment of our lives and creates conflicting emotions in us. We simply miss out on the art of real living because of this.

This program clearly explains what happens at the time of death. It draws the relation between our created emotions of desire, fear, guilt, pain and pleasure with the seven energy bodies in us. It explains how each of these emotions arises from one of these seven bodies and how they work upon the departing soul as it crosses each of them. It brings to surface all our conscious and unconscious emotions that have been accumulated over the past lives, so we may be free from their clutches. It is like a complete spiritual bath to be reborn, equipped with the technique to live and leave joyously with astounding awareness to replace deep ignorance.

• Cleanse yourself!

This is a meditation program that gives us an insight into the 3 energy bodies in us that are the physical, subtle and causal bodies. Suppressed emotions, unfulfilled desires, restlessness, nervousness, lethargy and similar such emotions associated with these 3 energy bodies are dealt with. It offers solutions and techniques to kindle the inner intelligence to liberate ourselves from these emotions.

• Connect with your Self

Man is an integral part of Existence. When he realizes this experientially, he is enlightened. This meditation program describes the five body sheaths called koshas that stand in the way of man realising this truth. It offers techniques that pull our awareness through these sheaths to reach the Self.

• Enrich your emotional Being

Over passing years, the mind has taken over the being. Humanity has fallen victim to the futility of the intellect. The emotional being suffers as a result of this.

Bhakti or devotion is the language of the being. It is supreme love towards Existence or God. It frees us from base emotions, bringing equanimity of the mind and deep fulfillment. It fulfills all our wants and takes us beyond them. The Bhakti Spurana Program is a 4-day program that unfolds the path of bhakti to the modern man. It steers us from intellect to the being, from mundane worship to sheer intimacy - with the Divine.

• Enlightenment intensive…

This is an intense meditation camp; a unique and first ever offering of the technology of Bliss or Nithyanandam. All keys to the 'Experience of Enlightenment', are handed over in totality by the Master himself. This is an opportunity to go beyond body and mind and experience pure Consciousness.

• Mind is a myth; realize and liberate!

Our mind is nothing but a collection of our thoughts. By nature, our thoughts are unconnected, independent and illogical. But we try to connect all these thoughts and create suffering for ourselves. The moment we realize that our thoughts are unconnected and independent, we drop our mind and become un-clutched. The moment we drop our mind, we are liberated.

The Dhyana Spurana Program is a meditation program that helps us drop our mind and remain centered in pure Consciousness.

- Be healthy!

Arogya or Good Health is not just an absence of disease, it is a positive well-being ness.

The Arogya Spurana Program is an intense meditation camp, on the integrated science of body, mind and spirit. It is an opportunity to understand that our body is not just a bio-mechanism but one that has its roots in deep Consciousness and Intelligence.

The Arogya Spurana Meditation therapy is a health and healing program that takes you through meditation and healing to heal specific ailments, besides creating a new mental setup attuned towards a positive wellbeingness.

• become a healer!

The Nithya spiritual healing initiation is a scientific process by which you are initiated in the Ananda Gandha chakra to become a channel for the Divine Energy to flow through you to heal others. It works on the principle that Energy is Intelligence. The uniqueness of this is that, it not only heals the patient but also helps in your own spiritual growth. Outwardly it is Healing and inwardly it is Meditation.

• Expand and explode Ananda Yogam is a free one-year residential program for youth between 18 and 30 years of age. With its roots in the Eastern system of Mysticism and Vedic learning, this program is to empower the modern youth with

• Vocational skills

• Success Formulae and deeper Truths for Life

• Healing, meditation and yoga for overall well-being

• The capacity to actualize one's entire potential

• Creative intelligence and spontaneity

This program creates a clear and sound mental makeup in every individual. It unleashes the untapped and infinite capacity within, to excel in the outer world while remaining centered within. It instills in one, the essence of the ancient Vedic principles and the modern system of Logic. It creates individuals with a capacity to be economically and spiritually stable.

Above all, this is a lifetime opportunity to live and learn under the tutelage of an enlightened Master.

The Ananda Galleria offers a wide range of books in English, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Hindi, Portuguese, French and other languages, compiled from

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's discourses worldwide. Also available are THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's discourses in cassettes, Audio CDs and Video CDs. In addition are available a host of items like photographs of the Master, shawls, chanting boxes, malas, chain dollars, photograph of His eyes, T-shirts and so on.

SUGGESTED FOR FURTHER READING...

Guaranteed Solutions

Guaranteed Solutions is a book aimed at bringing a radical understanding of our emotions such as sex, fear, worry, attention-need, jealousy, ego and discontentment. The information is a compilation of the worldwide talks that THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has given in meditation camps such as the Ananda Spurana Program (ASP) and Life Bliss Program (LBP). It introduces us to the 7 vital Energy centers in our body called the chakras, whose functioning has a direct bearing upon our physical and mental well-being.

The ASP/ LBP meditation camps explain the direct relationship between our emotions and these Energy centers. We are educated on the subtle ways in which these emotions affect our overall well-being. In a very comprehensive manner we are taught how these debilitating emotions are mere shadows without objects. Powerful meditation techniques are imparted to handle these emotions. We are given the assurance that it is possible to lead a life free from the power these emotions wield over us. These camps provide tremendous scope to liberate ourselves from the dilemmas of the mind and depression of our Being; to be free from the mental slavery that is keeping our spirit in bondage. We are helped to create a space in us to flower and re-connect with our inner core, with our true Self - which is beyond the body and mind, which is pure and Eternal Bliss THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM! These meditation camps are continuously conducted worldwide by trained teachers of the Foundation.

Bliss is the Path and the Goal

This book is a compilation of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's discourses covering a range of subjects, from How the Mind Works to How we abuse our bodies to Coping with the duality of material and spiritual life. It answers many questions giving an updated understanding, kindling our inner intelligence, and tuning us to inner awareness. It is a handbook to guide us through the workings of the mind, body and being so that we may live our life in bliss.

Meditation is the way to unite, to commune between birth and death. It teaches the art of living and leaving. Else, we get caught in just one more cycle of life and death. In these pages, through his discourses, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM demystifies death and explains the need to understand it. He states with no uncertainty that unless we understand death, we will not be able to live life with richness.

In this book, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM takes us through Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Sutras by definition are epigrams that mean a lot by saying very little. There are many layers of meanings in each Sutra. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM comments on these timeless Truths, giving an updated understanding to the modern man. He answers questions that many spiritual seekers have through the aphorisms of Patanjali.

Upanishad means 'sitting at the feet of the Master'. Nithyopanishad is a compilation of a living enlightened Master's talks on the Master-disciple relationship. In a setting fit for the Gods, amidst the Himalayan mountains, in the lap of the sacred river Ganga, the Master expounds timeless Truths in the classic Upanishad tradition. Questions transform into doubts, doubts dissolve into awareness, as the Master spreads his energy over the group. Anyone who has himself the question, 'Why do I need a Guru?' will find his answers here.

What is Yoga? Is it a set of contorted postures and bellow like breathing? It's part of religious cults, isn't it?

What is meditation? How does sitting cross legged with eyes tightly shut produce any benefits? If anything, it takes you out of reality, isn't it?

Why do addictions persist? Why do diseases persist? We know that our cells die and regenerate, so why are memories retained?

I am always chasing targets and I am always under pressure to succeed. Where is the time for me to be truly happy?

All That You Always Wanted

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

All That You

Always Wanted

to Know About YOGA

The only side effect of walking the path of yoga and achieving its purpose is bliss. The coming

together, the union of body, mind and spirit will allow us to

The purpose of Nithya Yoga is to experience our birthright, which is bliss. We must un-clutch from old and negative beliefs and insert

positive beliefs into our system; w o r k i n g t o w a r d s b l iss,

experiencing bliss and expressing

For the meditation techniques that I am spreading, my presence is not necessary. Your presence is enough. Let your body have your

bliss.'

• THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

experience nothing but bliss.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

'Yoga is not Physical Exercise

Yoga Is not Breath control

It is an integration of body, Mind and spirit to awaken

In a series of lectures given in the US in 2006 to professionals, a Master explains what Yoga is and what it is not.

to Know About YOGA

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM addresses these and other relevant questions that trouble our daily lives with his characteristic candor and simplicity.

In this book, collected from his talks to groups of professional bodies such as Doctors in the United States, he explains how one can find happiness within one's crowded professional and business day. He affirms that there need be no separation between material happiness and spiritual happiness.

O u r b o d y m i n d s y s t e m

c o n s t a n t l y t r a n s fo r m s i t s e l f .

Billions of cells are born, live, die and get reborn. All of us are

totally new Beings every one or two years. If our body is

constantly going through regeneration and being reborn every couple of years, why is it

that we continue to carry the same physical and mental

diseases? This problem stems

from our mind and our deeply embedded memories, beliefs

and values that are inscribed in

Whatever we believe our past to be, we ultimately believe that it will also represent our future. If we believe that our whole past has been depression, we come to the conclusion that our future, too, will be depressed. If we have suffered with a lot of pain in our body in the past, we draw the conclusion that we will continue

our unconscious zone.

to suffer with this pain.