Where Do We Go From Here?

14.18 Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the mode of ignorance go down to the worlds below.

14.19 When we see that there is nothing beyond these modes of nature in all activities and that the Supreme Lord is transcendental to all these modes, then we can know My spiritual nature.

14.20 When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes, he can become free from birth, death, old age and their distresses and can enjoy nectar even in this life.

Krishna provides the key to liberation here. Those who go beyond the three gunas, beyond the activityproducing attributes, become free of bondages and enjoy bliss in this world. This is the assurance of the Master. This is a guarantee.

These words are a great technique. Step one is when we realize that each of our activities arises from one of the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. Step two is the understanding about which guna it is and exactly what that guna is doing to us. Step three is to move out of that guna into the sattva guna. Finally we transcend out of sattva guna into nirguna or no guna.

Whatever we are doing, whatever is happening to us, we need to become aware of the attribute, the guna that is driving us. If it is a fantasy, we work out of tamas. If it is fear and greed, we work out of rajas. And if we are unattached and undisturbed by all that is happening around us, we act out of sattva.

Many psychological systems are offered as solutions to relationship problems. In one of these, people are supposed to act out of one of three modes: adult, child or parent. The adult is nonjudgmental, the parent is critical and child is defensive. The training teaches which role we act out of most of the time and shifts us into the adult frame that is considered to be the right role.

In theory this is a reasonable system and takes into account the influence of conditioning upon us. If brought up by critical parents, someone remains a child all one's life. One would constantly look for appreciation, or at the least, a lack of criticism. Just because some people express in the critical parental fashion doesn't mean they are being good parents at that time. In fact, their parent mask hides the defensive child in them. The control freak aspect of being a parent is a powerful response to being controlled as a child. So one becomes a 'parent' part of the time, trying to control those that they can control. At other times, one becomes a defensive child with those whom one fears.

Moving out of either role requires de-conditioning from samskaras, the embedded memories in our unconscious. This is difficult to do at the conscious level and dangerous to do at the unconscious level. It needs to be done at the superconscious level through meditative practices such as we do in our NSP courses.

What do I mean by this? We've talked about the samskaras that are engraved memories buried in our unconscious. They drive us through one of these attributes (gunas). We think and act out of one attribute or a mixture of attributes. These thoughts and actions when repeated again and again furrow the samskaras, or its subtler mindset, vasanas, deep into our psyche. Conscious, logical and analytical procedures cannot easily identify them, let alone remove or repair them. That is why so-called catharsis processes that aim to rid us of negative emotions give only temporary relief. The basic negativity remains buried.

Unconscious, or what is mistakenly called subconscious processes, can open up and reveal the samskaras. However, we have no control over the process, nor does the expert who supposedly helps us. It is a Pandora's box and once opened what happens is out of our control. Processes such as creative visualization, hypnotic regression and self-hypnotic suggestions can be extremely dangerous. It is not that they do not work; they do. However, we have no control over what happens. This is why the proverb: Be careful of what you wish for, you may get it; and surely, you will regret it.

We get more than what we bargained for. It is like the customer who walks into a restaurant and orders everything on the menu. When he is about to walk out, they give him the bill. Can he justify that he did not order the bill? When we order the food, we ought to know we will get the bill. Yet in the case of unconscious processes, we do not think about the bill. We go on ordering. When the bill comes, we are in for a deep, unpleasant experience.

A few devotees used these processes and even taught them. They told me how dangerous these are. They had not understood why these processes were dangerous until they went through our meditation programs. They knew bad experiences had resulted, yet did not know why. When we discussed these cases, they understood what had happened.

Visualizing consciously or unconsciously does not take us out of rajas and tamas. We can be dragged deeper into

the fantasyland of tamas. The only way to move into sattva and dissolve samskaras is to move into a superconscious state through meditation. There is no other way that we can achieve it ourselves. Superconscious visualization carried out in a systematic way can dissolve samskaras, the engraved memories, and burn out our vasanas, the mindset that is developed through these samskaras. It is the only way. All other techniques do only one thing; they make money for those who promote them and put those who are seeking help into deeper trouble.

So first become aware of your thoughts and actions. Identify which guna they come from. If it is a fantasy, rooted in tamas, drop the fantasy and move into the present reality. The problem that you face is that fantasies are more interesting than the way you lead your lives! That is why you prefer to stay in fantasy and out of touch with reality. You need to realize that you are operating out of sheer ignorance and this will not help you in any way. This realization and awareness that will help you move out of the zone of fantasies, can only come as a result of meditation, which leads to selfawareness.

Similarly, we are driven by rajas when we run after something that attracts us or run away from something that disturbs us. We need to realize that this is a vicious cycle: this cycle of attachment and aversion, of greed and fear. More and more of what we desire will give us less and less happiness. Unless we turn and face what we are afraid of, the fear remains rooted. Again, meditation is the key. It leads to the awareness of this vicious cycle and helps us stay detached.

Through repeated practice of meditation techniques, we can burn out our samskaras and shift out of the gunas that we are currently rooted in. We can move into a state of nonattachment by dropping the emotional load of our memories. We can be cleansed of negativities and unblock and energize our chakras through meditation. That is the key.

In our first level meditation programs, called Ananda Spurana Program in Bharat and LBP or Life Bliss Program overseas, we teach meditation techniques to energize the seven chakras, our energy centers. The first session focuses on the heart center, anahata chakra. The meditation used for anahata chakra, the Mahamantra, is an extremely powerful meditation. When practiced regularly, this meditation helps us radiate unconditional love through the energized anahata.

I advise those who have done this first level program to use this awakened anahata to improve relationships. Whenever anyone interacts with us and we interact with others, it is from one of the energy centers. Each chakra has its emotional basis, which is blocked or energized depending on its level of awakening. The anahata is blocked by attention need. Most of the time we desperately seek attention from others. We are unhappy without approval from others. We still behave like a child seeking approval from the parent. When the anahata is energized, we radiate love unconditionally. We are no longer dependent on others to approve us. We do not

need a smile from someone to make our day. We have our reservoir of smiles to sustain us and to give others to enhance their lives.

Irrespective of which emotional state someone approaches us with, whether anger, greed, fear, worry, attention need, jealousy, ego or discontentment, respond with an open anahata. Respond with unconditional love. That is all we need to do. We soon find others responding to us from their anahata.

This is not easy at first. It is especially difficult with those whom we really love, ones we are close to. It is easy to put on a mask and a smile and pretend to radiate love to those whom we hardly know. It is easy to love the world since the world does not have a face. It is difficult to love our neighbor who has a face. It is more difficult to open up unconditionally to our spouse. Yet that is where the payoff is.

Our muladhara chakra, the root center, is all about survival instincts. It is the root of all our fantasies, our tamas. Greed, lust, anger and guilt arise from a blocked muladhara. When the muladhara is energized and unblocked, we move out of tamas. We move into reality. When someone approaches us from a blocked muladhara, it is with greed, anger and lust. We can still respond with unconditional love from our anahata.

When the swadishthana chakra is blocked, it is the root of all our fears and insecurities. Manipuraka chakra is the seat of worries and stress. Anahata is blocked by attention need, the desperate need for approval. Vishuddhi chakra is blocked by jealousy, ajna is blocked by ego and sahasrara is blocked by discontentment. We can recognize the blocked energy center a person approaches us from, by understanding the emotions they approach us with. However, it doesn't matter. We have the choice to respond to any approach with our awakened anahata.

Someone in the Hollywood film industry told me that all movie story plots are based upon one of these chakra emotional blocks. It is not merely our real life that is affected, even our fantasy movie life revolves around the chakras! To understand the chakras and their emotional blocks is to understand our gunas. And to understand our gunas is to find the way and to open the door to bliss.

Q: How do we develop spiritually? You said we are eccentric, that we try to keep moving inwards and are dragged outwards. What is the way to keep going inwards?

This question is important. This realization that you need to go inwards and that you have a problem in moving outwards is enough to keep you going inwards. The sheer awareness that the outward journey will not fulfill you and that it will only mire you in ignorance and drag you into depression will keep you moving towards the center.

We can talk about how the move to the center can be accelerated via techniques; this is unnecessary. The realization to move to the center is more important. The

grace, guidance and influence of a Master will make the journey effective. The journey of a disciple is the safest possible journey to the center.

Man is born as a seed. The fragrance is there, although it is hidden, unmanifest. The seed must grow and become a tree. The seed must wait for spring, the awakening. One day, suddenly the seed becomes a tree and the fragrance is released.

To be a disciple means that you are falling as a seed into the soil of the Master. You are dissolving yourself in the soil. To be a disciple requires enough trust so that one is ready to die. The seed must die before it can grow into a tree. So the first need is trust in the Master, trust in Existence.

The second need is to continuously grow in every possible way. People remain stuck. They go so far and think, 'This is the end. There could be no more to life.' There is no end; life is an eternal pilgrimage. The deeper you go into it, the more you will encounter mysteries. The more you know, the more you will be wonderstruck. Much more has to be known. It is an unending process.

So the second thing to remember is: keep growing. Grow in love, bliss, and in meditation. Grow in all possible ways - in sensitivity, awareness and creativity.

The third thing is the waiting. Impatience is a hindrance. Make every effort to grow; however, let the expansion and flowering happen in its own time. Nothing happens before the right time and one never knows when the right time will come. Wait for the spring. Flowers cannot be forced to come out of the trees. They come when they come. Spiritual flowering is not a process that can be forced. It requires patience.

If these three things are fulfilled, the day when your fragrance will be released is not far away.

Let this sink deep into the heart; this is fundamental to spiritual progress. Once we feel that God cares for us, our anxieties disappear and anguish simply dissolves. The deeper we feel God's love, the more and more open we become. Fear makes us closed and love makes us open. God's love means that the whole Existence loves you: the sun, moon, stars, trees, and people. From all directions love is showered upon you.

Start seeing it and feeling it. When the sun's rays fall on your face, remember it. When the lake reflects your face, remember it. When the fragrance of the flowers reaches you, remember it. Remember it as many times as possible, in as many situations as possible so that it becomes a constant phenomenon, an undercurrent in your life. It will give you roots in the Divine. It will make you rooted, centered, and it will help to easily and effortlessly dissolve the mind with all its problems.

Entering into the path is a Divine decision. It is not yours. It is God's. There is an ancient saying: Before a man decides to seek God, God has already decided to seek him. Without His decision, our decisions are impotent.

Only when He decides, our decisions have power enough to become fulfilled. Our decisions are always wavering, always divided. Our decision is at the most a majority decision, a parliamentary decision. However, that which is in the minority may become the majority tomorrow; and that which is in the majority today may not be in the majority tomorrow. Our decisions are unreliable; they are not total.

When God decides in our innermost core, the decision and commitment are total. The involvement is irrevocable. We cannot go back. The decision is bigger than us. It possesses us and we become overwhelmed by it. Only then is true discipleship born. Without God deciding for us, our decisions are of little value.

Remember that this is God's decision on your behalf. You are a medium, a vehicle for His decision to be fulfilled in life. Then things will start happening with such intensity, depth, and speed, that one remains constantly in surprise at what is happening and why it is happening, because we don't feel ourselves worthy enough and yet it happens anyway.

Blissful effort is needed for growth. Ordinary effort won't do. It must be blissful. The moment effort becomes blissful it is almost effortless. It is effortless effort when it is blissful. When it is not blissful, it is a strain. And one can enter into the world of God only in a deep, restful mood. Hence, the seeker must fulfill a paradox. He must make efforts, certainly; he must be industrious. But his effort must be a special kind of effort. It must be effortless. There should be no strain or tension in it. It should be more like play than work.

One should enjoy it. One should not do it like a duty. One should make it a joy unto itself, as if one is unconcerned about the result. The result comes whenever we are ripe. There is no need to think about it.

It comes of its own accord. Existence is fair and just. It gives what you deserve. There is not a moment's delay. If you don't deserve it, it doesn't happen no matter how much effort you make.

Right effort is effort that is not an effort. It is joy, play, love and bliss. Then miracles start happening. We are entitled to miracles, yet we never fulfill the basic condition. This is the basic condition. Then miracles are as ordinary as everything else.

The Master appearing is a summons. It is God calling you. It is good that you heard it!

People are deaf and blind. Although they appear to have ears and eyes, they don't listen; they don't hear. And God goes on calling. To hear Him means a radical change in life. You can't live the old way. All priorities change. That which was important before becomes unimportant. That which was never important before becomes important. What was life before is no longer life and what was not even in your dreams becomes your existence.

Seeking is a call of God. And everybody is called! Sufis say that if one hundred people are called, only ten hear. Ninety never hear. Only ten percent act and respond. Nine never respond. That's why there are so few people whose existence can become a proof for God. So few people are full of the light and perfume that is beyond this worldly life.

All beauty is rooted in truth. Without truth, beauty is false. Unless it is part of truth, it is a dream, a fantasy or a projection. The poet lives in dreams. His vision of beauty is not that of truth. He creates his beauty. He is inventive. The seer does not create truth. Truth cannot be created. We can only discover it. It is already there. But the moment we discover truth, great beauty explodes within and without. The experience of truth makes us beautiful and transforms the whole experience into splendor.

That is the difference between the poet and the seer. The poet dreams about beauty. The seer experiences it. The poet remains far, far away. He speaks about beauty; however, it is only about beauty. The seer speaks beauty; it is not about beauty. He talks the truth. And truth is necessarily beautiful and good.

Meditation is a way to discover truth. Then beauty is discovered automatically. Beauty follows truth like a shadow. Existence can be lived in two ways: as prose or poetry. These are the two possible approaches. We can live it as logic. Then it is prose. Or we can live it as love. Then it is poetry. We can live it as mathematics. Then it is prose. We can live it as magic. Then it is poetry. Only if we live life as poetry, do we discover God.

You can not realize God with logic. And without God, there is no meaning or significance in life. Life becomes a burden. One lives because one must live. One lives because it doesn't feel right to commit suicide. One lives because one cannot gather courage to commit suicide.

One drags. One does not really live. One slowly dies because there isn't any thrill in the heart without poetry. There are no adventures. All is mundane. Nothing is sacred. Temples disappear from our life. There are only shopping malls. The bank balance and power and prestige are there but something in the deepest core of our being remains unfulfilled and empty. Life becomes a wound that becomes bigger and bigger everyday.

We want to drown it in work, constant worry, alcohol, shopping or sex. We want to drown the memory and feeling that something is missing. Yet we cannot drown it. It keeps knocking on our door and haunting us. It is something so essential that it must be fulfilled.

Jung used to say, 'In my whole life's practice I have observed that the patients who came to me after their fortieth year were not in need of psychological treatment. They needed some sort of religion. They needed some sort of meaning in their life.'

However, psychology cannot provide meaning. It can provide a certain adjustment to society, but society itself is neurotic. To be adjusted to society is to be neurotic. It is to be acceptably mad. Einstein has said that a genius is one who has escaped society's conditionings. So true!

Psychology can help us accept the drudgery of life, the routine and the dullness. However, it cannot help us transform it. Jung's insight is correct. In Eastern scriptures, the need for spirituality arises at age fortytwo. Just as at fourteen, the need for sex arises, at fortytwo the need for spirituality arises. If it is not fulfilled, we feel uprooted. It can only be fulfilled by spirituality.

There is no need to argue for spirituality. We don't argue for music: either we like it or not. Nobody can prove the beauty of music to anyone. You either like a rose or not. The rose either appears beautiful or not. Just because the rose isn't beautiful to someone doesn't mean the rose loses anything. But by denying the need for spirituality, a person loses a great chance to be in communion with nature, with God and their own divinity.

Ordinarily man is a slave to his unconscious instincts, a slave of his biology, a slave of his mind: it is a multidimensional slavery. This whole slavery must be destroyed from the roots. Only then will the consciousness rise in all its beauty and glory, in all its light and fragrance.

All the awakened ones followed the path of meditation. Be watchful. By being watchful, the territory of the unconscious, tamas, is reduced everyday. The more conscious we become, less territory of our being is in the unconscious zone, and less is in tamas. One day when we are one hundred per cent conscious, the unconsciousness disappears. And with that disappearance, biological, physiological and psychological slavery disappears. All kinds of slavery exist in the unconscious. By cutting the unconscious, we cut the very root. The key to selfmastery is meditation.