36. *Be aware, become blissful!*

When I tell people these things, they tell me, 'Swamiji, I understand what you are saying but I am not able to overcome it*.*' I tell them, 'Just allow my words to penetrate you and create a new space in you; that is enough.' This is where meditation can help. What I do in my meditation camps is, I give you the intellectual understanding and then work on it penetrating you through meditation.

But people tell me, 'Swamiji, we have our work to do, bills to pay, deadlines to meet; how do we then meditate?' I answer them with a simple meditation technique: Whether you have time to pay your bills or to meet your deadlines or not, you surely have time to breathe? Otherwise, you would not be alive! Now, you simply add awareness to your breathing, that's all. That is the meditation. Just watch your breath. That is the simplest and most powerful meditation you can do.

Every time you remember this technique, practice it. Soon, it will become a habit. When you infuse awareness into your breath, you will be in the present moment. Living in the present takes you to bliss. The power of NOW is the straight way to bliss. Simply add awareness to every inhalation and exhalation.

So to attain bliss, you don't need any separate time. You need not take time off and go to any retreat or meditation camp. You can continue with your daily activity. With the increased awareness that you will be creating, your deadlines and other targets will get done much more efficiently.

Meditation is nothing but a shift in your consciousness. It is an 'energy shift' in your being. It is not sitting in a corner, crosslegged and straight-backed, trying to control the mind. If you try doing this, you will only land up with neck pain and back pain! You will have one more worry that you are not able to sit and do meditation.

All you need to do is, try to live in the present, now and here. When you are in the present, you will move in tune with Existence. When you are in the present, Existence itself will teach you.

Existence is the greatest Master. This is what they mean when they say that life is a great teacher. When you miss it, you take your own sweet time to learn. You learn for lives together. When you take your own sweet time to learn, life gives some shocks so that you wake up and learn quicker!

Now, you are either running behind the past with regret or behind the future with anxiety. You completely destroy the present because of this pattern. What happens is, you never really act properly, you simply 'react' based on the regret of your past or anxiety of the future. When you react, you are not using your whole potential. You are simply behaving like a programmed robot; you function out of blind logic, not out of awareness or intelligence.

80% of your energy is locked in the past and future. Only 20% is available to you in the present. That is why you feel dull and sapped of your energy. With increased awareness, this situation can be turned around and your life can be lived on a higher plane, blissfully, joyfully, with excitement!

Q: So you are saying that simply by witnessing our breath, we can achieve bliss?

Yes. It is a very powerful technique. You see, when you watch your breath, your awareness is intense and no thought can escape you unconsciously. When every thought starts passing through your awareness, you will automatically not create negative thoughts for yourself.

You don't have to spend any time in correcting your thoughts; the awareness will do it for you. Your thinking system will automatically become restructured. The power of awareness is such that it transforms your thinking system to positive energy.

Integrate your thoughts, words and actions

Actually, we have been trained to think that only if we work and experience pain in some form, we are worthy of happiness. So we run until we get pain; we run until we hit the fence. We are so used to the concept of a fence that even if we are told that there is no fence, no boundary, we are not ready to believe it. We run and somehow hit a fence and feel pain; then we stop, satisfied in having felt pain. We always feel that we have to go through anxiety and worry in order to be worthy of being showered.

There are some other people who create worries for themselves and then drink to forget the worries! This is a very common thing today. It is something like this: a pig is not able to bear the smell of its own habitat and so plunges its nose inside it to escape from it. You think you have beaten all your worries by drinking, when in reality you have actually plunged headlong into more of it.

We want something but we work towards creating something contradictory to it..This is what I mean when I say you should integrate your thoughts, words and deeds, otherwise you will create contradictory results in your life.

A small story:

An unwelcome visitor came to a man's house.

The man screamed to his wife who was inside the kitchen to bring coffee for the visitor.

The wife screamed back that there was no coffee in the house and that there was no money to buy it either.

The husband got angry and started scolding his wife and finally gave her a slap for not being able to serve coffee. The wife started crying.

The visitor saw what was happening and slowly got up and went away.

The wife wiped her tears and triumphantly told the husband, 'Did you see that? I pretended to cry and sent him away!'

The husband replied, 'Well! I pretended to be angry with you and made you cry!'

The visitor joined them, 'I pretended to walk away and I have now come back!'

Our thoughts are different from our words, our words are different from our actions, so we invite contradictory things into

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our lives continuously! Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says, 'Uniting our thoughts and words is like doing penance.' But what do we do? We edit our thoughts and bring them out as words. There is so much calculation that goes on inside before the words come out. We see 'profit and loss' and go into the future to analyze before we start talking. Our personality never gets integrated because of this and we remain fragmented.

People ask me how I am able to talk for hours together without any preparation. You see, I talk the truth as it is, spontaneously, that's all. I am not worried about exposing the truth! I never edit my words. For me, thinking is talking. For you, first thinking happens; then editing is done on it and only then comes talking. The innocence is lost in the whole process and you are caught with so many words also.

You are able to listen for hours together to me only because I am talking spontaneously. Otherwise, you will get restless. The fact that you are here without being bothered about the time passing by is enough proof for what I am telling you.

When spontaneity happens, the flow happens and so it is interesting. Otherwise, you stagnate in a one-track mind.

A small story:

A man was trying hard to sleep but could not, because his neighbor's dogs were barking persistently. This scene remained unchanged for a few nights. He finally decided to talk to the owner about it. He went to his house the next day and complained to him about it.

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The neighbor was unmoved and said, 'Nothing I can do about it. What do you plan to do?'

The man replied, 'Well, tonight I will tie the dogs in my backyard and then you will know what it is!'

Just think what foolishness it is to do what the man suggested! He is again and again going into the matter with a one-track mind. How will he find a solution? When you are spontaneous, you will never be challenged for even a moment. You will come back with a solution instantly. When you are spontaneous, you will simply jump off any cliff and build your wings on the way down!

Q: What would you say is the root cause for so much worry and tension in our lives?

The fact that you are asking these words shows that you are ready for the solution.

You see, we are continuously having some imagination about everything – about the people around us, the places where we live, the situations that arise, and the lifestyle that we follow. We are continuously fantasizing or expecting things to happen in a particular fashion. But reality is always different from this imagination. The gap between reality and our imagination gives rise to tension in our lives.

We have created a virtual world inside us and are continuously looking to realize it in reality. There is a gap between our fantasy and reality. The more we have imagined, the more will be this gap and the more will be the tension.

We always think that we are getting to the point of realizing our imagination but when we get to it, we find our imagination has grown further and so we never really get to it. This creates disappointment, tension and worry in us.

The fact is, we are not even aware that we are working with imagination. Our imagination has become such a solid thing for us that we can't even see it as imagination. We are caught up in it. If working towards something is causing tension in you, then you are not working in reality; you are working in your zone of imagination.

Every moment, we are trying to fulfill our expectations in the world outside. The expectations could be to do with people, material comfort, name and fame, anything. If people don't react or respond in the way we imagined, our expectation suffers. From minor to major things, we are always looking for a match for our imagination. It is an unconscious process inside us. Because it is unconscious, we are not even aware that we are doing it, which is why we don't understand the cause for tension. The cause is so subtly woven into the whole thing that it cannot be made out.

If you bring your awareness acutely to this point and watch yourself for just a few hours, you will understand how your whole mind works. Just decide to be a watcher of your mind and the people around you. You will see how subtly your mind is continuously creating expectations in every small thing you see and do, and how reality sometimes matches and sometimes misses your expectations and how feelings of tension and worry arise within you when this happens.

Just by flooding awareness into this whole thing, you can see how your mind plays and creates tension for you. Once you learn to become the watcher, your worries will drop and you will also not internalize any of the outer world incidents. When you internalize outer world incidents, you create a larger database of words inside you, out of which new worries will arise.

When you plan chronologically and work towards realizing your chronological plan without loss of time, you are on the path of reality. If you find yourself worrying more than working and not getting anywhere, then you are on a path of psychological worrying. Then there is a gap between reality and yourself. It is time to look in and straighten your thoughts.

Thinking to plan chronologically is alright, but thinking about how you are going to execute your plan is not alright. It becomes psychological worrying and this is what creates tension and worry.

If it takes just 2 hours to plan for yourself, then the remaining 22 hours are available to you to execute the plan. Why then is the plan not getting executed? Because, you waste more than 80% of the remaining time on worrying about how you are going to execute the plan.

When you keep repeating the plan to yourself, you are in effect draining your own energy into it. Instead of using the energy to execute the plan, you simply waste it. How will the job get done?

One more thing: If you really want the job to be done, you will get down to doing it without worrying. Actually, tension and worry are mere excuses for running away from doing things. Under the pretext of worry and tension, you escape from responsibility.

Every problem is pregnant with the solution. If you really want to solve it, you will do it. All you need to do is look at the problem with deep awareness, and the solution will stand out. Only when you don't want to solve it, you will feel comfortable just talking about it. And you will feel great that you have so much to worry about!

The best way to shrug responsibility is to get into a state of worry and tension. Most often, people suffering from depression feel comfortable in that state because they don't have to take up any responsibility.

A small story:

A man who was known to be a great healer visited a village.

Very soon, a crowd gathered around him.

He touched a man on his neck and the man who was suffering from chronic spondolosis became relieved of the pain instantly.

He then touched another man on his head and the man's headache disappeared that very moment.

He moved towards a man on crutches.

But the man on crutches moved away and said, 'Don't touch me!'

The healer was puzzled and asked why.

The man said, 'I have just applied for my Disability Benefit Claim.'

168 We talk endlessly about our problems, but when we are offered a solution, suddenly we become too relieved! We have never thought beyond our problems, so we find there is a void when our problems disappear!

So drop all your imagination about your lifestyle, people etc and start living in the present moment and things will automatically happen. Remember: you can't live in this comfort zone for long. Some time or the other, reality will find you. So start living consciously, make conscious decisions and take up responsibility for every decision you make.

It is very easy to go by another's decision and blame them at the end of it. It is the most foolish and cowardly thing to do. Never blame anyone for anything. Remember, only when you are unable to handle something, you will allow to take the responsibility and also blame them for it.

Q: Swamiji**, how should we be relaxed always?**

When your consciousness is alert all the time, you will be relaxed all the time. Meditation is the key to achieving this state. At least at the intellectual level, understand this first. You will then start experiencing it for short intervals of time. These time periods will increase and become your permanent state.

I always tell people that to find out if a master is a true master, watch him when he is asleep. A real master will appear like a flower when he is asleep! He will be totally relaxed and beautiful to look at. He will radiate a child-like innocence when he is asleep. An ordinary man, on the other hand, will appear tensed and tight when he is asleep.

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A master is always in a state of superconsciousness and he sleeps only to relax his body. When you are continuously in a state of heightened consciousness or awareness, you can never be tense. Only when you allow yourself to fall into unconsciousness, into a state of delusion, you will create tension for yourself. The only way to be relaxed always is to be aware all the time of every single thing happening inside and outside yourself.

Learn to relax with awareness. When you are with a master, if you allow yourself to relax, he will enter you; his state will penetrate you. If you are close and tense, he will not be able to enter you.

The word Upanishad itself means, 'Sitting at the feet of the master.' If you are able to sit at the feet of the master with an open and relaxed mind, his presence will enter you and work on you with all the compassion.

When you relax in a master's presence, you are actually settling down in your own body; you are settling down in your own individuality and you feeling relaxed in your own personality. Then there is no wedge inside yourself and you become integrated. So practice relaxing in the presence of the master.

Q: Swamiji**, do you always feel blissful? Don't you ever feel the sway of emotions?**

Yes! I am blissful always – 24x7 in your language! This is because plurality has disappeared from my being. When there is bliss, there cannot be plurality. Only when plurality disappears, bliss can happen.

In my being, there is no lust or fear, attachment or hatred or any of the opposing emotions. The only emotion is bliss! Unless it becomes an experiential understanding for you, it will be difficult for you to understand this. You might understand it at the intellectual level. As of now, understand that I am always blissful; that is enough!

The first step to bliss is to become a watcher. Simply watch life as if it were a drama. When you watch, your mind will become still. When it becomes still, you have caught the thread. When you experience that stillness at least once, you have caught the thread.

That thread will guide you into periods of longer stillness. The stillness is your inner master. The outer master helps to find your inner master. When you have found the stillness, you will understand that all emotions are a mere play of the mind.

Understand, you can never drop any emotion by consciously trying to drop it. The more you try to drop it the more you will fight with it. The emotion will haunt you. The only way is to watch your emotions. As you watch your emotions, the emotions will simply disappear.

Right now, you are so entangled with your emotions that you simply cannot see yourself as different from them. When you start watching, you will start creating a distance between you and your emotions. Slowly, the distance will increase and one day, the watcher will disappear from the scene.

Then, you need not put any effort to drop your emotions. They will simply drop on their own. You will no more be able to relate with them. They will disappear from your being. A shift in consciousness happens in you. You become a new person.

When you become a watcher, there will be no room for worries or pain. There will be only a beautiful energy within you what is called love. You will then understand the love of Existence, the infinite love that envelops you every minute.

A small story:

A man was known to have a very weak heart.

His family was always careful in telling him any drastic news.

One day, they came to know that his wealthy uncle had died leaving one million dollars to him.

They were very excited and at the same time did not know how to break this news to him. They were afraid that he might collapse hearing it.

One of them suggested, 'I think we'd better call the family doctor and tell him to handle this.'

They all agreed.

They called up the family doctor and told him the matter.

The doctor said, 'Don't worry, I will handle it. It is not so hard as you think.'

He soon arrived at their house and went into the room and started talking to the man. He casually asked him, 'If you were suddenly told that you were given one million dollars in cash, what would you do?'

The man replied, 'I would give half of it to you, doctor.' The doctor collapsed and died.

We are ready to see life as a drama when it comes to others but when it comes to us, it becomes hard to digest! We are always ready to give advice to others. I read in a book that advice is something which everyone loves to give but no one is ready to take!

You can watch your own life also like a witness. You can be like a lotus – untouched by the water although deep inside it. Then you have learned to play the game of life. Understand one thing: Existence is trying to express itself continuously in many ways. Our role is to understand and flow with it with deep awareness.

Understand that the whole of creation is flowing in accordance with Existence. Then you will automatically drop your worries and anxieties. You have to reach a stage where your core is untouched by what is happening around you. This will happen if you understand that Existence is continuously changing.

Outwardly, you may express different emotions, but in your innermost core, you must be able to continuously see that all the incidents outside are like beads that are strung on the common thread of Existence. The thread is what holds them together.

Q: But we don't intentionally worry. How do you then say that we bring worries upon ourselves?

Worry has become the unconscious state of your mind. You don't have to put any intention into it. It simply happens, that's all! You don't have to make a conscious effort; it is there in you all the time.

A small story:

A woman called up the reception desk of a hotel and screamed for help.

The receptionist came to her room.

The lady screamed at her, 'I can see a naked man, across the way in the window of the other room.'

The receptionist looked through the window and saw a man standing with his upper body bare.

She said, 'Ma'am, only his upper body is bare. How can you conclude that he is naked?'

The lady screamed, 'Get on top of the wardrobe and see!'

Even if everything is alright, we search with a torchlight for worries! We don't do this intentionally at all. We do it in the most natural fashion ever - that is the problem! Our state of mind has to undergo a 180 degree change.

Another small story:

A policeman was going on his night rounds when he saw a cow dead in the middle of a lane.

He started dragging the animal towards the adjacent street. A passerby asked him why he was dragging the dead animal all that way.

The policeman replied, 'When I report this tomorrow, it will be easier because I know the name of that street.'

Because we don't know how to be spontaneous, we are worried all the time! We complicate things in our lives in order to fit them into our framework. We don't live in a fluid way. When you live in a fluid way, you don't have to work unnecessarily. You can simply enjoy and move on.

For example, if I now tell you that you should be blissful always, you will start worrying about how to be blissful! You know to start anything only with worry; that is the problem. That is why most of the time when you ask me something, I never tell you anything directly or in many words. I simply tell you a few abstract statements so that your mind cannot be put into any track of worrying but at the same time I give you the energy to understand and implement it.

Q: Then how do we start following what you are saying if we don't start worrying about it?

Just absorb the energy and inspiration behind my words and start living in the present, that's all. When you allow logic to come in, the trouble starts.

Just feel the energy behind my words, what I call the silence, the silence with which I am trying to enter you all the time. This silence will ultimately take you where it has to take you. Never try to get into the real meaning of my words. I have my own dictionary, while you have yours! It will not match. Just absorb the energy. Energy is intelligence. It will guide you.

Never collect words. Only intellectual nuts collect words and more words. They collect words and get more and more confused. They collect words thinking that they will get clarity at some point in time, but it never happens.

Whatever I say, even if it seems contradictory, it is the complete truth for the moment that it is spoken. Whatever I say is the complete truth for that moment that I am speaking it. But you cannot infer from my words alone. So for that moment, simply take them in with a mood to experiment. That will give you the energy and intelligence to follow through.

So don't listen with your intellect. Listen with deep meditation. Whatever may be your emotion or path at that point in time, just go deeply into it and listen to me. That is enough. You will automatically be filled with energy and clarity. These are all the basic secrets that I am giving you.

When you cling to my words, you will be worried that you might forget them. You will start jotting them down. I tell you, the moment you start jotting things down, you miss the whole thing. You will neither have absorbed the energy behind the words nor would you have completely taken down the words. You will go home with scribbled notes and a few days later, even that will be lying in some corner of the house. Sometime later, even if you find them, you will not be able to make anything out of them.

It is something like this: Let us say you read a book and retained only the last two pages of it in your hand. With just those two pages, would you be able to re-compile the whole book? No! In the same way, don't try to jot down a few of my words and try to recollect the whole thing. Just be present completely when I am talking. That is enough.

These words will penetrate you and do the work if you give your whole presence here. So listen with your being, not with your mind. Don't bother about forgetting these words. When you understand something and transform, you will never forget it. If you have forgotten, it means that you have not understood!

Not just my words; don't cling on to anything. Every moment is going past; then what is there to cling to? Clinging will bring misery upon misery. There is no point in thinking about the future also. It is yet to come. What are you thinking about? The future will also come in the form of the present only. So focus on the present.

When you are in the present, you don't choose at all. Worry basically arises because you are in the past or future and choosing all the time. When you decide not to choose at all and just totally accept and drink in the whole experience, there will be no worry.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, I am afraid when I think that the world might suddenly come to an end.'

So what if the world comes to an end? If the world comes to an end, everyone is going to be ending along with it. There will be no one and nothing remaining for anyone to be worried about! You were earlier worried only because there was something in the world to worry about. If the world itself is coming to an end, then there should be nothing to be worried about. But you worry about that also!

See how self-contradictory the mind is? It worries if there is something to worry about and it worries if there is nothing to worry about also. But it wants to be free of worry all the time!

Actually, all of your emotions are nothing but the play of the unconscious in you. When you live with total awareness, you can never be under the sway of emotions. That is why again and again I tell you to flood yourself with awareness.

You see, your worries, your words, really make or break your life. They have got that much power - to influence you and others. For example, when I utter the word 'cow', immediately what happens? A figure with 4 legs, 2 horns and 1 tail appears in your mind. A simple 3-letter word can bring to your mind a whole image! Words are that powerful. When we don't respect words and use them wrongly, we are asking for trouble.

A small story:

Birbal, an enlightened master, and Akbar, his king, were walking together on the streets.

They saw a sandalwood dealer and Akbar said to Birbal, 'I don't know why but I feel like hanging this man.'

A month later, they walked past the same sandalwood dealer and Akbar this time said, 'It's strange but I feel like giving this man some endowment now!'

Birbal replied after a long pause, 'A month back, the sandalwood dealer's business was suffering and when he saw you walking past, he thought to himself that if you die, the courtiers would come to buy a lot of sandalwood from him for your funeral pyre. He sent out these negative vibrations, which prompted you to feel hatred towards him. I immediately purchased a lot of sandalwood from him to make tables and chairs for our kingdom. Today, he feels very grateful towards you and you have been struck by these positive vibrations from him and therefore you feel like giving him some endowment!'

Understand that your thoughts have a lot of power in themselves. It is therefore very important that you have positive thoughts and a worry-free mental set-up.

Q: There are books that say 'don't sweat for small stuff'. But small things do matter, do they not?

When you function with intelligence, you will not fall into the category of sweating for small stuff.

A small story:

A young man went to visit his friend. He found him scraping the wallpaper off the wall. He asked him, 'Are you repainting?' The friend replied, 'I am moving house*.*'

You see, you cannot ignore the small things. But you should be intelligent enough to pay only the amount of attention it warrants, or else you will start to sweat. Never listen to people when they say not to pay attention to small things. Remember that small holes can sink a great ship. Just operate with your intelligence and awareness and you will know which the real small stuff is.

If you are convinced without self-contradiction that you need to do those small things, automatically you will find the energy to do them. When you are not fully convinced, you will not have enough conviction and energy to go behind them. Your intelligence will not be fully backing you, because intelligence is energy and energy is intelligence.

If you are sweating about the small stuff, then there is something wrong somewhere. Be very clear that all miseries arise because of self-contradictions. You yourself are not fully clear about what you want to do and so you are unable to do it. For that clarity to happen, you need to nurture your own intelligence.

When intelligence happens, self-contradictions disappear and you start becoming integrated. When you start becoming integrated, your intelligence grows more. This is the cycle you need to get into. This is the cycle that can clear your worries also.

If you are really interested in dropping your inner chatter and worries, you could try a small exercise. Think of all the things that give you joy. Make up your mind that you will allow your mind to linger on only these things and nothing else. Anything else, you will give just enough energy to get it done and then forget about it. Try this exercise and you will see that you conserve a lot of energy.

Understand that you have given a lot of power to your worries by simply talking about them more and more. For example, when a housewife picks up the telephone, she will start by telling her friend that the house maid did not turn up for the day. That is her depression for the day. If you are really depressed about the maid not coming and you are really interested in coming out of it, then you should simply finish doing the work yourself! Doesn't this sound more logical?

But what do you do? You keep on talking about it and expecting your friend to feed your depression as well. If she doesn't sympathize with you or if she tells you that is how life is and you have to move on, you will make a call to another friend and tell that friend about how inconsiderate this friend was! Just think, if you really wanted to move on with your life, you would appreciate the words of the friend, would you not?

But why are you reacting differently? The reason is, you are so comfortable just talking about your worries and not finding a way out of them.

If you start doing this small exercise, you will see that all your worries simply disappear and you acquire a new mental set-up altogether. You will find a surge of energy within you because all the energy that you previously spent on harboring your worries is suddenly available to you!

Do an honest check for yourself and find out if you are secretly nurturing your worries or whether you are ready to take on the transformation.

When you stop going behind your worries, you will be able to see how others are helplessly caught up in that cycle. You will be able to see how they magnify their worries by endlessly talking about them to people. This talking about worry is what I call 'worrying about the worry'! Only when you are able to watch this, will it stop. Until such time as you become the watcher, you are caught up in the emotions, giving so much of power and control to them.

I am not asking you to run away from your worries. I am saying, don't magnify them by talking about them. Don't expend your energy on them. Instead, address them for what needs to be done so that they stop worrying you. Address them without loss of time, that's all.

Check yourself to find out if you are starting to feel comfortable with your worries. This is the scale to see if worries are controlling you or you are controlling your worries. If you are feeling comfortable talking about them repeatedly without taking any action, then worries are controlling you. If you don't linger on them and address them correctly, then you are controlling them!

Q: Swamiji**, earlier you mentioned about drinking. My husband drinks ever so often claiming that he drinks to forget his worries. What do I do?**

As I told you, this is a common problem and if your husband were here, it would have been helpful. If you analyze the habit of drinking, you will understand how self-contradictory you are in this habit. Let me try to explain:

You drink to feel joyful, but you end up becoming miserably miserable.

You drink so that you can be called sociable, so that society will accept you, but you land up becoming argumentative!

You drink so that you will look sophisticated but you end up looking insufferable.

You drink so that you can sleep forgetting all your worries but you wake up feeling more exhausted than ever!

You drink to experience ecstasy and end up feeling depressed!

You drink to feel confident but end up becoming afraid of yourself.

You drink to maintain the conversation but end up becoming incoherent.

You drink to see your problems dissolve but end up seeing them multiply!

This is the truth and you know it better than I do! Now tell me honestly, is it really worth drinking? This is how self-contradictory you are in not only this matter but in all matters in life. If you clearly knew what you wanted to do and spent every ounce of your energy in that direction, you would grow steadily and experience joy. You would then never be self-contradictory.

Every time you drink, drink with complete awareness. Every time you drink, drink consciously, slowly, watching every movement of yours, tasting every drop of the drink, and watching the reaction of your body to it. Make it a process filled with acute awareness. I assure you, if you do this every time you decide to drink, you do not have to drop the habit, the habit will drop you forever.

Addiction to anything is an unconscious or mechanical process. It is not just addiction to drinks or tobacco. It is addiction to even religion. People who pray unconsciously and mechanically, following a routine, will find it very hard if they miss even one day's prayer. For them, it is an addiction and so it causes anxiety when missed. In the same way as an alcoholic who misses his evening drink starts trembling in insecurity, the mechanically religious person will feel a big void if he misses his routine prayer.

The key is to understand the difference between doing things with awareness and doing things mechanically, out of fear. Doing things in the former fashion will never bring you under any sort of binding. It will not bind you in space and time. You will be a master. Doing things in the latter way will bind you and cause misery to you. You will be a slave.

To drop an addiction, flood it with awareness. It will transform in the right way. Never think that you need to drop an addiction. Anything that you resist will persist. You simply need to transform it through deep awareness. When you understand the language of transformation, you are on the right track; you are on the path of openness.

What I say is most practical!

People tell me, 'Swamiji, it is very inspiring to listen to you talking. Now we have to apply it in our day-to-day life and see if it will work.'

I always say only practical things. Never think that I say things that can't be done in day-to-day life.

If I am a person who is sitting in the forest and telling you these things, then you are free to think that I am saying impractical things. But here I am running a worldwide movement for transformation! Actually, all I am doing is repeating the same vedanta – ancient scriptural texts - but in different words, in the modern context, so that you feel comfortable listening to it; so that you feel that it is relevant to you and you follow it. If you read these ideas in a book, they will simply be moving from the head of the writer to your own head. There is no scope for any experience. But when you listen to these words from an enlightened being, from someone who comes from the experience of the soul, they will enter deeply into you and give you the desired result.

I am not sharing my knowledge with you. I am sharing my experience, my life, with you. When I speak from my being, it has to touch your being. It will transform your life. There is no other way.

Vivekananda spoke in Chicago in the World Parliament of Religions for the first time, 'My dear American brothers and sisters…' It is recorded that the auditorium thundered with applause! A lady wrote, 'It was not just the applause. He had won an entire nation. We felt as if a current of love was passing through us, through our being…!' She later asked Vivekananda how it happened and he simply replied, 'Because it came from within me.'

Vivekananda spoke from his being. When words emanate from the brain, it will touch the brain of the other person and this is called 'communication'. When words emanate from the heart, they touch the heart of the other person and this is called 'communion'. Communication is not enough. We need to know how to commune. I talk from the bottom of my heart, so that you will listen whole-heartedly.

When the speaker speaks with totality, the listener is bound to listen with totality. His life is bound to be transformed. If your life has not been touched by my words, I have no authority to speak. You are free to doubt the truth of my experience. If you feel that my words have not been able to transform your life, there is no need to hide your feelings. Come out with it. But there is no possibility that you will not be touched!

If you listen with your heart, you will see these words working out in your life automatically, when the time comes. Only a teacher who is unsure of himself needs to urge his disciples to go back and practice his words. When a master speaks, simply listening will do. Listen totally and the transformation will happen.

The Chandogya Upanishad describes this beautifully. The master tells the disciple: tat tvam asi - you are That. Just by listening, the disciple actually attains the spiritual experience! When both the master and disciple act with totality, this is possible.

When you are around a master, words are totally irrelevant. Just being around a master in silence and absorbing him is what brings about actual transformation in you. But what to do? You are so caught up with your inner chatter. So I use words to silence you. Because if I don't talk, you will talk continuously inside yourself, dissecting and analyzing the past, worrying about the future, concluding, judging and what not. If I talk, you will be intently absorbed in my words for fear of losing track of me and I can use that time to enter you!

When a master talks, he is actually silent within himself. But in others, even if they are silent, they will be talking inside themselves! The inner chatter will be there. That is the difference. Just observe what is going on inside you when you are silent. Your silence invariably is just inaudible scrambling. Inside you, you jump like a monkey from one subject to another without any correlation.

Now let us enter into a meditation technique called the Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya that will cleanse the manipuraka chakra.

Emotion: Worry

Chakra: Manipuraka chakra

Location: Navel region

In Sanskrit, manipuraka means 'The City of Jewels'.

This chakra is locked when you constantly worry and it flowers when you stop worrying about your worries!

Meditation Technique to expel worries: Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya – a technique from Christianity.

The Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya