Are You Your Friend Or Enemy? 2

We always complain about the senses. Again and again, we say that our senses are spoiling us. No, we are spoiling them. Don't put the responsibility on the senses. We are spoiling them. We destroy them. We abuse them. We must look into our life. It might be late at night even two am, but we will still watch our baseball or soccer game on television. Our eyes are begging for some rest. When the advertisements come on, our eyes close automatically by themselves. But we continue to sit and watch the rest of the game. We abuse our eyes because we want to enjoy ourselves.

It is the same story with the gongura chutney (extremely spicy side dish). Our tongue burns and our eyes pour tears but we continue to put large quantities of it into our mouth! Just the mention of it is enough; I can

see how many mouths are salivating just now! We abuse and disrespect them. Please be very clear, our senses are not disturbing us. It is we who are disturbing them. It is this link: 'What is there for me?' that destroys the whole thing. This is where the whole trouble starts. This 'I', 'I', 'I', 'I' is where we start abusing the senses. All we need to do is control the mind, not the senses.

Another simple thing: hot and sweet tastes are just one and the same. Today just try this simple experiment: stretch out your tongue and concentrate on the tongue. Visualize your tongue as a highway and that you are walking on your tongue. Then take a chili and a sugar candy. Touch one corner of your tongue with the chili and the other corner with sugar candy. Deeply witness what happens. You will see that when you touch with the chili and when you touch with the sugar candy, both feel one and the same! When we do this experiment, we understand that if we go a little deeper into our system, the experience of hot and sweet both are one and the same.

Only when we put a rubber stamp on it saying, 'This is hot, this is not good for me,' or 'This is sweet, I like this,' the trouble starts. Only when we label it, the trouble starts. As a process in nature, both are one and the same. We label these experiences based on our belief. Based on our earlier belief system, we pigeonhole our experiences. Based on our recorded memory, we start thinking that this is not good for me. As a result of which we really begin to feel that it is not good for us.

We need to understand one more thing: our thoughts create our senses. Our mind creates our senses. Don't think we are living with what we have. We create what we want to have. Our thoughts are so powerful and our mind is so powerful, it can just change the whole body. For example, just think of one thought that creates disturbance inside. Or just think of an enemy. Or think of a person who took money from you and has not returned it. Consider a person who loaned you money and now asks for it. Immediately, we experience the change happening in our system. The body chemistry changes. Our blood is boils, our blood pressure rises, our heart rate and pulse rate rise. Just one thought and our whole system changes. A single thought can change the whole chemistry. Or one thought that creates lust, one advertisement, and immediately our body chemistry changes. Our whole body becomes ready to respond.

Please be very clear that a single thought can change the chemistry of our body. Our body is created only by our thoughts. It is our thoughts that create the body. In Bharat there is a great science called samudrika lakshana. Just by seeing the face, the body, the way of standing, sitting and walking, the trained sage can tell the quality of the mind. They can tell everything about the person's mind. This is because the sage knows the secret that the mind creates the body. The body is the outer expression of the mind. The mind is the inner experience of the body. If our mind changes, our body can be changed and our whole system can be changed.

A man whose mind is clearly reprogrammed according to spiritual ideas can completely change his senses. As of

now, our mind is programmed for misery. It is looking outward. If we can reprogram our mind to look inward, towards bliss, our entire sense experience can be changed.

Please be very clear, all we need to do is to reprogram our mind to look in. This is the gist of this whole chapter.

And Krishna says one more important thing about heat and cold. I don't know how you can believe this, but I have seen people living in the Himalayas with just two pieces of cloth. Let me tell you very clearly, I lived in the Himalayas and I used to sleep on the snow with this same cotton dress. It may be very difficult to believe but it was done. All we need to do is stop resisting, that's all.

Just try this experiment: the moment you feel the cool breeze, don't create the idea, 'It is cold, I may catch a cold, I may have wheezing. I may develop sinus problems. I may get asthma.' Just don't create such words. Especially in the west, you learned all of these big negative words. The more words you know about diseases, the greater is the possibility of getting those diseases in you. Whenever we repeat something, we create that quality in us.

Here is a simple experiment you can do:

Close your eyes and repeat ten times: 'Shanti, Shanti, Shanti', you will have peace inside (shanti means peace in Sanskrit). The only thing is your wife's name should not be Shanti! If you just repeat the word 'shanti', you will start experiencing the word 'shanti' in you. The quality of peace will start happening in you. In the same way, if you repeat the names of diseases, you will start creating those diseases in you.

I encountered some research recently that I want to share you. I went to the AAPI (Association of American Physicians of Hindu Origin) convention. There they showed me a book containing their research works. One such study shows that in medical colleges, if lessons are being taught about a particular disease, more than forty percent of the students start showing symptoms of that disease. I know this is difficult to accept but the reason for this phenomenon is that the students are continuously thinking about those symptoms. Another big problem is that whenever we hear about a disease, the first thing we tend to do is to check and see if we have those symptoms. 'Do I have it?' We check to see if we have the symptoms.

Since the students are constantly meditating on the symptoms, forty percent of them express the same symptoms in their life. Whatever we think, we express. If we are constantly thinking about the wrong thing, our senses will be created in the same way. We need to do only one thing, work on the mind. Just liberate the mind. Then our whole system will be purified. Our senses will be reconstructed. Krishna gives us a beautiful technique to work on the mind.

He says one more important thing, 'Honor and dishonor will be the same.' This is very difficult to believe. Cold and heat can be the same. Hot and sweet can be the same. We can even accept that. But honor and dishonor, how can the two be the same? One word is enough to anger us. A single word thrown at us is enough to anger us and hurt our honor.

Someone asked me the other day, 'Master, why do we bother so much about others' opinions?'

We bother about others' opinions because we don't have an opinion about ourselves. We know about ourselves only through others' words and their opinions. We understand ourselves through others. If everybody says, 'You are beautiful,' we get that certificate. If everybody says, 'You are intelligent,' we get that certificate. If everybody says, 'You are great,' we get that certificate. We collect all these certificates and we build our personality with these certificates.

In our Life Bliss Program, the first session is about this. The first session is about why we get depressed, why we repeatedly fall into a low energy state. It is because our energy source is others' certificates. We don't have any self-respect. We respect ourselves based on other's opinions. If others' opinions about us are good, we think we are great. If others' opinions about us are not good, we immediately lose self-esteem.

Have you seen children build castles with playing cards? We too build castles with others' certificates. Our personality is nothing but a castle built with others' certificates. If one card is removed from that castle, what will happen to that castle? It just collapses. Similarly if a single person takes away his certificate, what happens to our personality? It just collapses. We fall into depression repeatedly.

Please be very clear, whenever we fall into depression, either somebody would have just taken away our certificate, or we would be afraid that somebody may take away our certificate. We know about ourselves only based on others' opinions and we build our personality only based on that. That is why we care so much for others' opinions. We have made them our lifeline.

Christ says, 'Love thy neighbor as you love thyself.' But we don't even love ourselves. That is why there is so much of hatred. We don't love ourselves. We don't have any self-respect. That is the reason for the wars all around us. The first session of the Life Bliss Program is about this. I tell people, if we want to live, we must learn how to stand on our own two feet, learn how to be with ourselves. As of now, our source of energy is others' opinions. If somebody tells us, 'You are really great', we may act humble and try our best to say, 'No, no, I am not,' but what happens inside us? 'Please tell me a little more!' Outside we feel shy but inside our mind we want them to go on and on.

We are constantly fuelled by others' opinions and we work to get others' opinions. Just meditate on this one thought. This is a great technique that can liberate us. Don't worry about others' opinions. Don't worry about what others are thinking about you. Because they are also busy worrying about what we think of them! If we

meditate on this one statement, it will completely liberate us from this problem of honour or dishonour.

We must look into our life. Whoever stands in our consciousness, whose opinions we are bothered about, realize that all of these people are also bothered about our opinion. Be very clear, if we are bothered about somebody's opinion, directly or indirectly, he is also bothered about our opinion. It is just a give and take game. Don't bother about others' opinions, because they are also bothered about our opinions. Meditate on this one statement and you will be liberated.

Krishna says, 'A person whose mind is content because of spiritual knowledge, who has subdued his senses and to whom stone and gold are the same and who is satisfied with what he has, is said to be established in Self-realization and is called an enlightened being.'

First we should understand why Krishna is speaking of all these qualities of a Master. Why is he explaining all of these qualities? These qualities are techniques. If we practice them we will reach the same enlightened state.

Please be very clear that an enlightened man's words are mantra, words that will transform us. His life is tantra, a technique that will transform us and his form is a yantra, a sacred image to be meditated upon. His actions, if replicated in our life will create the same quality of consciousness in our being. For example, if we listen to music that comes from the heart, like traditional Carnatic music, we will have that same experience. If we listen to music that comes from the muladhara (sex center) it will create the same lustful mood in us. If we meditate on some expression, we will have that same experience behind that expression. Experience leads to expression and expression leads to experience.

There are research reports on art therapy. Once, several mad people were asked to paint. They were given canvas and paint. We can imagine how they paint! They just did whatever they wanted. But the surprising thing is, when asked to paint everyday, they experienced a complete recovery within a six-month period. This is because the catharsis happened. They threw everything out. When catharsis happens, naturally people get healed.

And the next amazing thing is that the doctor who was doing research on this art therapy saw a pattern. He found that those who became mad because of money all painted and drew in the same manner. People who had become mad because of relationships, all painted in the same way and people who had become mad because of name and fame, painted in the same way.