Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

The concept nithyam or nithya means the Eternal Truth and refers here to the intellectual understanding of this Truth. Dhyanam, which means meditation, here refers to the technique of changing the intellectual understanding into an emotional experience. Anandam is perpetual bliss and is the result of the merging of nithyam and dhyanam.

This is the way for the ultimate goal of life. Nithyam is the intellectual understanding of what is true and what is untrue. In Sanskrit, they say, 'Nithya anithya vasthu viveka.' Nithya is the intellectual understanding of what is eternal and what is ephemeral. Then dhyanam, which is to make the intellectual understanding an emotional experience, internalizing the intellectual understanding and anandam, the result or the ultimate experience.

This is also expressed as, 'shravanam mananam nidhidhyasam.' Shravanam is the knowledge of the Ultimate Truth. Mananam is experiencing it. Nidhidhyasam is the outcome or bliss.

Nithyam is actually creating a new mental set-up which will guide you from inside. Usually we are all used to guidance from external sources. By relying on an external source for guidance, you will be dependent. The external source of guidance will not be available all the time and it will not be one hundred percent correct. In whatever problem you may have, you cannot express the problem, or present the exact situation to a third person. So the guidance, which is based on your presentation, cannot be one hundred percent correct. No external source of guidance can feel the situation exactly as you do. Moreover, it will not be available all the time.

So, the guidance should be customized to come from inside. That is why Masters, the enlightened Masters, have created some ways, some techniques, for getting guidance from within. When the Masters achieved the ultimate success, their own realization of Truth, they created a formula by which they, themselves, achieved the goal, so that all others could achieve the same goal. Just as a scientist creates a formula for getting the same result in an experiment that he did in his research center in the outer world, Masters created a formula for the ultimate experience in the inner world. They are called 'teachings' and 'meditation techniques'. When a Master gives some way or formula for having the same experience that he had spontaneously, that becomes a technique. When you listen to the Master's words, the mere listening will create a new mental set-up called nithya. Intellectual understanding itself will be sufficient. It will give you the power, the courage, to lead your life smoothly. People often think that mere intellectual understanding is a waste but intellectual understanding alone can make a change in your mental set-up. It is the only way for changing the mental set-up from mithya, which is untruth, to nithya, Eternal Truth.

Normally, our mental set-up is addicted to worry and fear. We continuously go on worrying. We create our own long list of worries. If, occasionally, the list of reasons to worry is finished, instead of worrying for the same reason and getting bored, we start worrying for no reason at all!

Usually we worry about external things. If there are no external causes for worries, we start creating them. This may be astonishing. The agony is, this is the simple truth. One day, if we feel there is no reason to worry, we start thinking, 'Oh, today, I have nothing to worry about. That means something really big is waiting. Tomorrow it may unearth. What shall I do?'

Moreover, our mental set-up fuels it. It adds various 'past experiences' of ours or something picked up as information on the way.

Once, a middle-aged man approached me, seeking my blessings for his divorce. I asked for the reason. The man

said, "You don't know, Swamiji. No man can live with her peacefully. Yesterday morning, while serving my morning tea, she spilled the full cup of hot tea on me. I can't bear it anymore.'

I said, 'See, spilling a cup of tea is not a crime and not a reason for divorce. She might not have done it intentionally. Please think it over. This reason is not solid.'

The man was not ready to give up. He said, 'Swamiji, no. Today it was tea, tomorrow it may be acid.' See the mental set-up? Once he has decided to go for the divorce, his mind builds up from what he might have seen in films or crime novels.

This is our present mental set-up. We go on worrying. At one point in time, if we feel it is too much, if we feel totally exhausted, we just go for some medication and settle down for some time. We enjoy some peace. We experience a ray of energy, guidance from inside. Once our energy is regained, once we feel energetic, we again dive into worry. This way, the way of mental set-up, of continuously diving into suffering, is called mithya: unreality or untruth.

Psychologists say, 'If our enemy is strong, we feel ourselves to be great.'

By the same token, we also think ourselves to be great if we have too many worries in store. Throughout our life, we travel the same path, worrying for some time, relaxing for awhile and then again, worrying. We have made worry a basic necessity of life. Our mind lives on it. It is the axis around which our mind revolves. If we suddenly realize that all our worries have gone, we feel rattled. We feel lonely. With worries we are comfortable.

This mental set-up is dangerous. This is a vicious cycle. This has to be changed; the entire mental set-up needs to be changed. If you go on addressing the present problem alone, the external causes of worry alone, you will be traveling on the same path again and again. This path is of worrying for some time, feeling exhausted, relaxing, regaining energy, then again starting to worry. Some technique should be worked out to address the entire problem.

If we need to weed out a thorny bush, is it sufficient to cut off its leaves? No, the bush should be removed from the root. Not only that. Something else should be planted there. Otherwise, the bush will grow again and again.

Likewise, some way should be found to change the entire mental set-up.

For change to take place, for the cognitive shift to happen, our first step should be intellectual understanding. We should first understand our mental path, the way in which our mind reacts. Only then, our intelligence will start yearning for a change.

In Sanskrit, there is a beautiful word 'tat tvam asi', which means, 'You are that'. Whatever we think of as ourselves, we are that. Ultimately, we are That, the Self, the Truth and the Divinity within us.

If you think yourself a hero, you are that. If you take yourself for a mediocre person, you are that. If you condemn yourself for being a failure, you are that. Hero or Zero, the choice is yours.

Thinking of ourselves as heroes, taking responsibility for ourselves, is what we call liberation. At whatever level we take responsibility, we are liberated to such an extent. Taking responsibility cuts the mental path of going continuously towards suffering. Once we feel responsible, we will stop thinking about the external factors as being responsible for our suffering. We will slowly move towards realizing that only our own actions are responsible for our suffering. We will start yearning for a way to come out of it. In this way, we are liberated, liberated from the vicious cycle of mithya unreality, untruth and illusion.

Then the cognitive shift happens and we turn towards nithya, understanding of Truth, reality.

In ancient times, society was divided into four levels, or varnas, now called the caste system. Each caste was set up based on the percentage of liberation, level of consciousness and the level of expression, not by birth but by mental setup. It was declared 'guna karma vibhagama', by their mental set-up and deeds.

Those who sold their time were on the basic, first level. They were called shudra. The very word shudra means 'formula'. They were at the very base of society. They were the foundation stone on which the entire society could safely stand.

The next set of people was those who sold products. They were called vaishya.

Those who were confident, who could give protection, those who could protect in the outer world, were called kshatriya. Leaders and warriors fell into this group.

The creamy upper layer, those who sold wisdom, who were able to give protection not only in the outer world, but also in the inner world, were called brahmana. Those who could build confidence in the masses about the inner world, who could give courage to society to travel in the inner world, who could guide and assure safety in the inner search, were called brahmana.

Their feeling of responsibility towards society was the only criteria. If we can strongly feel responsible for our existence, at our being level, if we have the courage to shoulder the whole responsibility, we will start feeling and radiating the joy, the bliss, the ananda.

The brahmana group was a spiritual group. They became spiritual beings or enlightened Masters.

For the kshatriya, the leadership group, those who led the mass in the outer world, one day or the other, they would face the 'depression of success' in their life. Then, they would turn towards spirituality. They would eventually turn their journey to the inner world from their previous focus on the outer world alone. This is called 'vishada yoga', or the path of confusion. Leaders, after they feel they have achieved everything they wanted to achieve, not knowing for what and why they wanted to achieve, feel depressed. This is called depression of success.

At this point, they turn towards spirituality.

For the vaishyas and sudras group, satsang, or participation in a spiritual group, will be the starting point. A beautiful hymn by Sankara says:

Satsangatve nissangatvam Nissangatve nirmohatvam Nirmohatve nischala tatvam Nischala tatve Jeevan Muktihi.

It means, just by being in satsang, one can be liberated. In satsang, we continuously hear and receive spiritual information, again and again. We have the path shown to us. This is what is known as shravana or nithya.

The clear understanding of the message leads to a turn in our journey towards our inner world. We will stop running towards material success, outer world success and start journeying towards the ultimate success. This turn is the cognitive shift.

The path of the journey is mananam or dhyana.

The solution here is not readymade. In this area, readymade solutions seldom work. Readymade solutions cannot be permanent. They tend to change.

A small story:

Once, a young man wanted to cross a forest. He approached an old man, who had crossed the forest earlier, for guidance. The old man said, 'Walk straight into the forest for one kilometer. You will see a lion. Take a left turn and walk for half a kilometer. You will see an elephant. Take a right turn and walk for one kilometer. You will have crossed the forest.'

Will it work? But he had no other way, no one else to guide him. Readymade solutions tend to be of this sort only. He can guide you only by his experience but the lion and the elephant may not be there. What to do?

Alternatively, he could give a torch and say, 'Go ahead. You will find your way across the forest for yourself.' This is the right solution.

In this journey, we will go on experiencing one thing after another, one truth after another. We will continue our

journey saying 'na iti, na iti', 'this is not true', this is not true'. This is called 'nissangatvam', discrimination between truth and untruth, reality and illusion.

We will not be attached to the by-products. We will be in 'nirmohatvam', in a detached state.

The final experience, the ultimate success, is bliss, ananda or nidhidhyasam, that which is experienced. That is jeevan mukthi or liberation.

We may doubt whether liberation of the whole society and making everybody a Brahmana will affect the social set-up. Will it not interrupt and unsettle the workings of society?

Once we are liberated, we start feeling the responsibility. We start feeling energetic and we will be fond of doing our work. Society will flower in joy. If now we are selling our time, and we feel our responsibility, we will start strongly feeling we are selling only our time and we will not be able to waste even a second of it. We will be more devoted to our job.

Only when we are not feeling responsible, boredom occurs in our job. We feel stress and strain.

Once our internal intelligence starts feeling the change, the shift begins happening but for the shift to happen, the feeling should be conscious. There are two things, conscious and unconscious understanding.

If one is consciously aware of the fact that smoking is injurious to health, giving it up will be easier. If one is aware that smoking is injurious to health but are unable to avoid smoking, that is unconscious understanding.

For a change to happen, the understanding should be conscious. If we are consciously aware of the vicious cycle in which our mind works, the need for a change will come up.

There are many meditation techniques to change our mental set-up. If, by any one such technique, the new mental setup is experienced, the need will become an urge. If the new mental set-up is once tasted, the longing will be intensified.

A small story:

Once there was a queen by name of Madalasa. She gave birth to seven children. All of them got enlightened by age seven and moved out of the kingdom. Their father, the king, was puzzled. How could all seven in a row get enlightened? He probed into the issue and found that Madalasa had taught them one simple word 'tat tvam asi', 'you are that what you are'. Just by internalizing the very word tat tvam asi, they got enlightened.

The present mental set-up is in the instinct level. This is the level of just responding to the situation and reacting without thinking of its repercussions. The intellectual understanding takes us to the level of intuition. This is the state of responding to the inner voice and hearing the internal guidance. Once the internal guidance is heard, the question becomes the quest, the urge becomes urgent, and the cognitive shift happens.

Now, there is only one choice before us, accepting the truth, moving into dhyana, meditation and liberation, experiencing and radiating bliss. The other choice is refusing the truth and continuing to be in bondage. Whether we accept it or not, we agree or not, we take it or not, the truth is truth.

There are many fish in a river. Some swim downstream, along with the current. Some swim upstream, against the current but both are in the same river. In the same way, whether we realize it or not, we like it or not, we are in bondage. We have only one choice, moving into meditation or dhyana and being liberated, or simply continuing with our own routine and being in bondage. The choice is clearly ours. Both ways we are responsible for our position.

Just be aware. We are responsible for our position. In whatever position we may be, strongly be conscious of the fact that only we are responsible for our position. Feel strongly that we are responsible for everything. It may be anything, a boon or an accident but be sure, we are fully responsible. We are responsible for the accident, also.

You may ask, 'How Swamiji, how can I be responsible for accidents?' Be very clear, there can be no effect without a cause. Every effect has a cause. If we are unable to see a logical cause, we name it as an accident. So be sure, only we are responsible for the accidents occurring to us. By feeling responsible, we will start enjoying the happening. Without waiting for the result, the happening itself will be enjoyable. We will start bubbling with joy. We will start radiating bliss. In the outer world, even if we succeed, we may end up in depression of success. It may create a low mood but, in the inner world, action itself will give us peace and joy. In the scriptures, it is said, 'Separation from Krishna is also a joy.' Even if the result of the action is suffering, it will also be enjoyable.

People often complain of lack of time to meditate. It is not lack of time; it is a lack of responsibility. If we strongly feel that we are responsible for our present position and consciously are aware that, by meditation,we can have a change, we will find sufficient time to meditate.

Just for the next twenty-four hours, feel responsible for each and every thing. Let this be your meditation. Feel responsible for your existence. Feel responsible for the boons you enjoy. Feel equally responsible for the accidents, also. Let this 'responsibility feeling' solidify in you. May the cognitive shift happen in you.