Live In Me Always

12.8 You fix your mind on Me alone, establish your mind in Me. You will live in Me always. There is no doubt in it.

'Just fix your mind upon Me, the supreme personality of the Divine and engage all your mind, body and senses in Me and you will thus live in Me always, without a doubt.'

'Na samshayah, without a doubt,' He says. Now He comes to the technique. At one point the virtuous circle must begin. First, He explains the virtuous circle of the ultimate experience and expression. Now He comes to the technique.

Please understand that love is not a mood. It is not a mere emotion. It is our very Existence. As long as it is our mood, it will come and go.

There are two kinds of love, horizontal love and vertical love. Let me explain. Horizontal love is like a horizontal line, flat. It is related to time, it starts and ends. Anything that starts must end. If it takes more time to end, don't think it is permanent. Anything that starts must end. It may take a few years or a few months, but it ends. It is impermanent and time bound. This is horizontal love. Horizontal love is related to time.

Vertical love is related to consciousness. Vertical love neither starts nor ends. It does not discriminate. It is our very quality. It flows. If we discriminate and love, it cannot be love. It is an infatuation. As long as the other person fits into our frame, our love grows. The moment the other person doesn't fit into our frame, our love disappears.

In the first session of our meditation camp, I ask people to make an honest list of at least one or two persons in their lives that they really love. Usually, in the beginning, people come up with a big list: husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister and so on. They include people whom they would like to please or need to please in order to be happy and undisturbed themselves.

When I begin the discourse, people start crossing out names of people from their list, one by one. Understand, if you cross out something, then it was not love even in the first place. However, people get stuck when they come to the names of their sons or daughters.

I say that all your love is for some reason. Whether it is for economical benefit or psychological support, you hang onto these relationships. You have somebody as your family or as your community so that at the time of trouble they may support you psychologically or materially.

The next reason we love is to receive good certificates, positive recognition. Sometimes we share love and show love. We may not do so for economical benefits or psychological support, but we may expect a good certificate or attention for being loving and kind. Some need for attention is always present. There is always some dependent need in us that motivates us to express love. It is never unconditional.

People say, 'No Master. I don't love my son or daughter for any of these three reasons.'

I ask them, 'Alright, if suddenly your son starts to decide things on his own, if he doesn't fit into your frame, if he doesn't follow your guidance, if he doesn't live according to your rules, will your love be the same? Enquire honestly.'

Naturally people say, 'No, it will not be, the love will reduce a little.'

What does this mean? We love our next generation as long as they are extensions of our life. We fulfill our desires through them. We fulfill our lives through them. Whatever we couldn't accomplish, we try to accomplish through them. As long as they act and live as an extension of our life, the relationship is beautiful. But the moment they start deciding on their own, the moment they feel we are suffocating them, the moment they stand up and say 'no', the relationship takes a different turn.

Children feel they are adults only when they say 'no' to their parents. It is a basic instinct. When they say 'no'; they feel they are established as an individual. They don't bother about what you say. All they know is one word, 'no'. They do not know anything else. They feel strong when they say 'no'. That is why, all over the world youngsters always rebel. Whether it is in the West, or in the East, in all countries all over the world, in all cultures, the youth say 'no'. When they say 'no', they feel they are strong. The word 'no' gives a certain kind of strength to them.

But our love is dependent only upon 'yes'. As long as we receive 'yes', our love also is 'yes'. When we get a 'no', we too start saying 'no'. This is horizontal love. That is why it ends with some reason. Vertical love never ends because it never starts. Suddenly, at some point we realize, we are living inside everybody just as we live inside our own body.

There is a beautiful example given in the Upanishads.

A Master asked a disciple, 'Do you enjoy all your five senses'? The disciple said, 'Yes.'

The Master asked, 'What if one of your senses was missing, would you have the same amount of joy?'

The disciple replied, 'No, it would be twenty percent less, and if two of my senses were missing, it would be forty percent less.'

The Master suddenly said, 'What if you had five more senses?' The disciple answered, 'Naturally my enjoyment would be a hundred percent extra. If I am given one more body, naturally I will enjoy everything twice as much. Or if I am given five bodies, naturally I will enjoy things five times as much.'

If we experience that we are living in all the bodies of this world, how much joy or ecstasy would we experience? It would be immeasurable, eternal and ultimate. That is what enlightened people experience all the time! When they experience themselves as the whole universe, or as being in everybody, they experience tremendous ecstasy, pleasure or bliss. That is why they don't need anything from the outer world.

One elderly person came to one of our programs. Afterward, he said to me with a lot of sympathy, 'You have become a Master and an ascetic at such a young age. You have missed life.' He expressed his compassion. He felt that I had missed out. I told him, 'Don't be sympathetic towards me. Actually I should feel sympathetic towards you. Even after sixty years, you are unable to liberate yourself. Even after sixty years, you are suffering in samsara, the illusion of worldly life. Don't be sympathetic towards me. I should be sympathetic towards you!'

When we experience ecstasy and bliss inside, we don't feel we are missing anything from the outside world. We don't feel we need something. Real renunciation is not about our renouncing the world. It is about the world renouncing us. When we have that joy, ecstasy and bliss, we automatically radiate that bliss. We never feel that we miss anything or that we have lost something.

I tell people not to renounce the world unless they feel ecstasy inside. Never renounce. Work towards ecstasy. When that happens, renunciation automatically happens. If you renounce the outer world without having established the inner world, you will fall into depression.

I have seen many sanyasis who have taken this path without achieving the inner experience. They are caught in social service and then fall into depression. Around the age of forty to forty-five, they become depressed. They counsel the whole world while they are depressed. So many monks have fallen prey to depression. Never renounce the world unless you have a solid experience inside.

When you have the experience, you don't need to renounce. Automatically renunciation happens. All these things drop you. Instead of you dropping them, they drop you. You dropping these things always creates problems. When they drop you, it is the right thing. When you have that joy inside, when you start experiencing the joy in you, nothing needs to be renounced, automatically renunciation happens.

Here, Krishna gives techniques to start the virtuous circle. 'Fix your mind on Me. Establish your intelligence in Me. In this way, after acquiring the boundary-less consciousness, you will live in Me always.'

How should we establish our intelligence in Him? Continuously try to put these thoughts and ideas that Krishna teaches, inside you. Ramakrishna says that what we belch depends upon what we eat. For instance, if we eat some kind of vegetable or fruit, the smell of that comes out when we belch.

In the same way, if we add these ideas continuously into our mind and consciousness, we naturally radiate them. They start shining through our Being. When He tells you to let your intelligence be established in Him, it means that when we are in trouble, the solution should automatically come to us based upon these ideas.

As of now we run and refer to a book, which means we have a guru only in the outer world. If we try and digest these ideas, even when we don't have problems, they will lodge themselves in us and take us to higher and higher levels of awareness. When we have problems, they will guide us.

If you read books only when you are in trouble or when you are seeking a solution, you will not digest the ideas because your mind will be confused. How will you receive them? How can you digest them when you are troubled and confused? It can't happen this way.

When your mind is in the normal state, receive these ideas as a regular habit. Let it became your normal life style. Just as you eat and bathe everyday, in the same way, absorb these ideas regularly.

In his commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad, Sankara has written beautifully about the sutra on ahara sudhi, purification of food*.*

ahara suddho satva suddho dhruvaa smrutih

When our ahara, food, is purified, our memory is purified.

Please understand that ahara doesn't mean just the food that we eat. It refers to whatever we take in through the five senses. Television programs that we watch are ahara. Music that we listen to is ahara. The food that we eat is ahara. The smells that we smell are ahara. The touch that we enjoy is ahara.

So, all that we take in through the five senses should be pure. Only then can we radiate purity, can we radiate bliss, can we radiate ecstasy, can we radiate divine intelligence. Unless we purify the ahara that is ingested through the other senses as well, we cannot expect purification of our memories. I feel blessed that when I was born and brought up, there was no television in my village.

People ask me, 'Master how do you grasp things so easily?' Of course, I somehow pick up things easily, quickly. One small fact: only a few years ago I started speaking English. I studied a little bit of English in school but that was through my native language, Tamil, in which I learned everything. I started speaking English regularly only when I came to America in August 2003.

I was asked how I grasp things so quickly. It is because I continuously read. People frequently ask me, 'How do you read so many books?' I never watched television when I was growing up. Television directly destroys our consciousness. Please understand, it affects not only our eyes, it straightaway destroys our consciousness.

Let me tell you an important thing. Understand this example. You are traveling in a vehicle. If you are moving at forty miles per hour, you can see everything on the road, billboards and signboards. Whatever there is to see on the road, you can see them clearly. However, if you drive at 100 miles per hour, will you be able to see anything? You can't. You will not see anything clearly. This is because you are now seeing an increased number of frames per second. That's why you can't see anything clearly. You can't discern the images.

Normally, your eyes can receive, analyze, process and file information as long as the given speed is up to six frames per second. If there is change in front of your eyes up to six frames per second, your eyes take that message, analyze it, categorize it and put it in your consciousness, put it in your memory. But if there are more than six frames per second, your logic loses its balance.

On television, you witness at least sixteen frames per second. Information is immediately forced upon you into your unconscious zone without the control of your logic. This is analogous to having a security guard outside your home when a thief turns up.

Logic is your guard on duty. He stands guard. Whatever information comes to you, your logic analyzes it and says, 'This is true. This is a lie. That is a toy, this is a real man. This is a fake, and this is a doll.' The information is analyzed and recorded. When you watch a movie, when sixteen frames per second are flowing, when the information is forced upon you, your logic loses its ability to analyze. The frames are like the thief who attacks the security guard, your logic. When the logic is put to rest, without delay the frames reach your unconscious zone and gets recorded. The thief enters directly into your unconscious zone. Straightaway your unconscious is exploited. The information simply penetrates you. It is like a robber walking straight into your bedroom after killing the guard on duty.

Another important point about this is that because the information reaches you right away, you not only lose your logical and analyzing capacity, you lose your emotional balance as well. That is why, even when you know that the actor is still alive in real life, you weep when you see the actor killed in the movie! Automatically, you start weeping. Tears start rolling even though you know that it is not real, that it is not true. When they laugh, you laugh. When they cry, you cry.

According to the scenes, your moods also change. If you see a depressing scene, you feel depressed. Why? You are an educated person. You know it is a drama. You know the person is alive. You may have seen the actor a few days ago in person, but when you watch the movie and he dies, you experience grief. Why? Because the logic that analyzes this as a truth or lie is put to rest or pushed aside and information is directly flooded into your system. It is carried straight to your unconsciousness. So, never watch a program that creates depression or misery in you.

Of course, if you watch a program that gives joy, which makes you laugh, that does not hurt your consciousness directly. At the most, you may waste a little time or you may eat a little bit extra while watching the movie. Only the threat of obesity is present. Otherwise there's no problem. Surveys indicate that 80% of people eat while they watch television, and face weight problems because of this. This is only a small problem. But never watch anything that creates depression or brings your mood down. Then it becomes a big problem.

Let me answer one important question. People always ask me, 'Master is there anything such as spirits or ghosts?' Let me tell you clearly that there is no such thing as ghosts, spirits, demons, and no such thing as a devil. You may have one thousand references that say the opposite. I know your minds collect references from movies, and books. Your mind is always collecting references. Once your unconscious believes there are spirits, you project it and actually start seeing spirits. Whatever your unconscious believes, you project and see that.

Especially after a lot of research on hypnotism, they are coming up with great truths. If a person is hypnotized and given a hot object to hold and told by the hypnotist, 'You are holding a flower in your hand, you are holding a rose,' not only does his hand not get burned, but after the hot object is removed, the hand smells like a rose!

Hypnotism has so much power, which means your unconscious has so much power. You are unconsciously hypnotized and taught that things like ghosts exist. You end up projecting and seeing ghosts. When you have an experience, it becomes a solid faith.

There is an even more disturbing fact that they have discovered. In the US at least, in the last decade or so, many cases of childhood trauma have come up with children claiming sexual abuse by parents. These discoveries are usually made when as adults these depressed people go to psychiatrists and such traumatic happenings are discovered under hypnotic states. Cases are reported and investigated by police and regulatory authorities.

In a significant number of these cases, such abuses never really happened. It has been found that the patients developed these ideas under hypnosis as a result of judgmental probing by the psychiatrists. Treatment that was meant to cure people of their traumas ended up inducing traumas.

If you watch some horror movie continuously for three days, you will start seeing ghosts! Even a screen moving will look like a ghost. Even if your wife walks into the room…! Whatever happens around you, you will connect it with the impression of ghosts that was left on your unconscious.

For example, right after watching a horror movie, let us say you feel like drinking some water. You walk into the kitchen and suddenly the cat jumps on you. Now the whole scene is completed! You know for sure that ghosts exist. But it is purely your unconsciousness. Because you start believing it, you start projecting it. Once you start projecting it, your faith is strengthened. It is a vicious circle and you are caught in it.

Another thing, ghosts as such don't have a physical body. As ordinary humans, you have three bodies physical, subtle and causal. Even if spirit bodies exist, they don't have a physical body. Of course, first of all, they don't exist. But for argument's sake, if I collect all of your arguments and if I must argue and accept that they do exist, they exist only in the subtle body and causal body. They don't have a physical body.

No ghost comes to you with a physical body except your spouse! If at all it were true that ghosts exist, it means they have only 66% of your capacity since their energy can be only in the two bodies. You have three bodies that equal 100%. They have a maximum of two bodies, only 66%. It means they are less powerful than you. Even if they exist, you don't have to be afraid of them.

Understand this logically: even if they exist, you don't need to be afraid of them. They are lower level beings. They are lower level entities. Firstly, they don't exist. But even for argument's sake, if I must argue, they are still lower level entities. You don't have to be afraid of them. So all this talking to ghosts, mediums, your dead relatives and such are purely stories. One story is built upon another story. The next story is built upon the third story. Purely fictional, nothing but fiction!

A small story:

A lady goes to a medium to talk to her recently departed husband. At first the medium waits, starts to mumble, and then starts to speak, 'Oh honey, I am here, ask me whatever you want.' At which point the wife asks, 'Please give me the names of all those who owe us money and where have you invested your money?' He replies, 'The milkman owes us thirty five thousand rupees, and I have deposited two hundred thousand in this bank, please take it. And our neighbor owes us one hundred thousand.' One by one the husband tells the names of all those who owe them money, and where all he had invested money. The lady dutifully notes down everything. All of these accounts go on when suddenly the husband says, 'Honey, I must tell you one more thing. I owe my friend a million rupees, please return that to him.' Suddenly the wife says, 'I don't think this is my husband. Is there anybody else there?'

As long as things support you, all these ideas are okay. Otherwise, it is a big danger for you! So I tell you, it is better not to believe in mediums and all such things. Don't waste your time talking to people who are dead. We barely have time to talk to people who are alive. Why waste time talking to people who are dead? Let us first talk to people who are directly related to our business and to our lives. Talk to them first. Work with them first. Why should we waste time with other things?

Never allow these horrible things that cause suffering, into your consciousness. If you don't allow these things into your consciousness, your intelligence will automatically be established in the Divine. The thoughts that you take in play a major role in the expression of your consciousness. Just take in this one concept that Krishna speaks of, 'Establishing your intelligence in Me.' Please understand that whatever you take in as your ahara, you establish your mind only on that. So let your ahara be purified. Let ahara shuddhi – purification of your sensory inputs - happen to you. Your consciousness will automatically be established in the Divine.

Again and again, try to absorb these ideas. Let these ideas penetrate you. Don't go behind ideas that make you feel low and that put you into depression. For example, for the last eleven days you have been listening to these ideas. Now, when a problem arises, you will automatically remember, 'Master said this. I heard this idea. I think this is what I must understand now.' This will start arising from your Being. The truth will begin to support you from within yourself.

If it starts coming up, you have heard what I have said. Otherwise, you are just a silent listener. A silent listener who is sitting here and seriously thinking of something else. Whether you are a silent listener or somebody that heard the discourse can only be determined by how much these words get repeated in you.

I tell people that when the source of the words is enlightened Consciousness, the words simply penetrate you and automatically come into your mind whenever you need their help. People ask me, 'Master, how can we remember these ideas and practice them?' I tell them, 'Never bother remembering them. Just listen, that's enough. These words are from my experience. So naturally they will penetrate your Being.'

Whenever it is necessary, you won't need to remember these words. The words will remember you. Without effort, these words will stay in you and surface. Automatically they will come up when needed. They will erupt in your consciousness, like a popup. Similar to the popup on your computer monitor, they come up in your consciousness and guide you. You don't need to do anything. All you need to do is listen as a means to put them into your Being. Listen to these words repeatedly. Naturally your consciousness will be established in the Divine.

Krishna says, 'Immerse your mind completely in Me. Focus your entire attention upon Me. Without a doubt you will reach the blissful state.'

Q: Respected Master, is shavasana okay for meditation or should we sit to meditate?

A: If you lie down, you will sleep. Even when you sit, you sleep! So naturally when you lie down, you sleep. Please don't lie down and meditate. See, when you sleep, you can meditate. However, when you meditate, you should not sleep. There is nothing wrong if you meditate when you are asleep. But if you sleep when you meditate, there is something seriously wrong. Don't do shavasana and meditate. But meditate when you do shavasana!

I normally recommend that you sit on the floor crosslegged. If you cannot be comfortable on the floor, sit on a chair. For Nithya Dhyaan meditation, I recommend the vajrasana posture of sitting on your haunches. What is important is that your head, neck and lower back should be aligned and you should not slouch. Slouching makes you drowsy and you will sleep while sitting. You do not need shavasana to sleep. Even padmasana and vajrasana can lead determined people to sleep!

When you are sufficiently adept, you do not need any particular posture to meditate. These instructions are necessary at the initial stages. When you are initiated as a Nithya Spiritual Healer into the ananda gandha meditation, you can learn to do it all the time with eyes open.

Meditation is awareness, that is all. Once you learn how to stay in the present moment, the awareness automatically happens. All these things that you do sitting in a specific posture is to bring your mind to the present moment. Meditation should become part of life instead of segregating it as a thirty-minute chore in your daily routine.