75. *Start seeing the real miracles!*

Instead of celebrating, we are all the time searching for more, searching for miracles. We are all the time looking for miracles to occur and feel that they are not happening.

Miracles are never done; they simply happen continuously around you! It is your recognition that makes them miracles! Use gratitude to tune yourself with Existence and you will see the miracles that are happening! Gratitude will tune you to the miracles. Either you enjoy them or you miss them. It is your choice!

When you miss them, you will remain discontented. It is like this: the door is open but you are knocking continuously on it! I am telling you that all that you need is already there and you only have to receive it, but you are not ready to believe this. You don't see the miracles that are already happening around you and instead go in search of them.

Understand that turning water into wine is not a miracle. Turning man into God is the real miracle. PC Sarkar, the famous magician will do the former. It takes deep understanding to do the latter.

A small story, which Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to tell often:

Two brothers lived together.

The older brother decided to pursue business while the younger one went on to become a sannyasi.

After a few years, they met each other again.

They asked each other what they had achieved in the previous few years.

The older brother listed all the material things that he had achieved in the outer world. He explained about his business and how much wealth he had accumulated. He then asked the younger brother what he had achieved.

The younger one simply took him to a river, crossed it seamlessly on foot and proudly declared, 'This is what I have achieved.'

The older brother hired a boat and ferried to the other side of the river and said, 'What? What takes two pence to achieve, you have achieved in so many years!'

People think that if they can do miracles in the outer world, they have become spiritual and powerful. No! Understand: Spirituality is

not a game of miracles in the outer world. It is a game in the inner world, to change your personality to individuality, which is the greatest miracle! Changing personality to individuality is the greatest miracle.

People time and again beg me to do miracles. I tell them that these so-called miracles are not a scale to measure my state. But they don't want to listen. Even if, just to demonstrate simple techniques like materializing etc., I do one or two things, people will start coming to me to watch these miracles, for the magic show; not for transformation! That is my worry.

One day, upon persistent begging from a few devotees, I teleported a Lakshmi idol and gave it to them. I explained to them that it was not a miracle. Just because you don't know the cause and effect relationship of what you see, you think it is a miracle.

What actually happens in teleporting is, just like the sound waves from your voice over the telephone get converted to electrical signals and transmitted over a medium and then get re-converted back to sound waves at the other end, I just convert matter into energy, move it across air and reconvert it back into matter, that's all. There is no miracle in this.

So stop searching for miracles. Live with a feeling of gratitude and love for Existence and automatically, you will see the real miracles happening to you. Your transformation is the greatest miracle that can happen through a Master! And remember, you don't need miracles from a Master; you only need intelligence.

When your intelligence grows, you will handle your day–to–day activities effortlessly and you will be in peace. For example, if you are a manager, you have many duties: you hire people, supervise their performance, fix their salaries etc. Are you able to do all these things without getting stressed? With intelligence, you will be able to handle them without getting stressed. You will be in peace. What you need is intelligence, not power. Remember that.

When you understand and experience that Existence is taking care, you will transform and move on to becoming an individual liberated from all these kinds of delusions. We always place our faith in people, astrologers, fortune-tellers, planets and stars and what not; never on Existence that is the very life source of the universe.

In India, there is a thrilling tradition wherein people ask about their future to a parrot!

On the pavements on the road, there will be a parrot in a cage with its owner beside it.

The people who go by will stop and pay the owner some money and faithfully ask for their future.

The owner will open up the cage and command the parrot to step out and pick a paper from a row of stacked papers.

The parrot will come out of the cage, pick out a paper with its beak, and hold it out to the owner.

The owner will read out what's written on it. That is the prediction of the person's future!

A man with 6 senses asks a parrot with 4 senses to predict his future! How is it possible? Just leave all these foolish things and start falling in tune; catch the central chord that is gratitude, and move in tune with Existence.

Masters are gratitude personified

When you watch masters, they appear to be so graceful, so miraculous and so divine. This is because they move in tune with Existence. But you don't understand their state; you see only their status. When you understand their state, you will understand that they have simply merged with Existence and that is why they appear so blissful all the time. This is the state that you have to try to achieve.

Instead, what do you say? 'Oh! He is a master; he is always in bliss. How will he know about my problems? I am struggling here for my bread and butter and he is asking me to be in gratitude all the time.'

You only see the rose petals at the master's feet; you only see his status and think that he knows nothing about your day-to-day matters. Remember that the respect he commands is to his state, not his status. You have no idea of the struggle that has gone behind achieving that state.

You talk of struggling for bread and butter. I tell you from my own experience that so many days of my wandering, I went without food. Of course, I never thought of it at that time as a shortcoming on the part of Existence. I was so fervently in search of the truth that everything became meditation, including going without food.

You know, barring a few charity houses, and in Northern India where sannyasis are given great respect, people always shun sannyasis. Sannyasis are always eyed with suspicion. People think that they have come to steal their property. I tell you, never shun them. Why don't you just give them a bowl of rice? That is enough for them. Never be miserly when it comes to giving to people. Remember: If you are not willing to be a daani, that is a man who gives a small portion of his wealth, you will be a mahadaani, one who leaves all his wealth and dies!

Anyhow, please understand that I am talking from my own experience. Even in the deepest of troubles and struggle, if you function with unwavering faith and gratitude, and use your inner intelligence in moving through them, you will see that you will emerge out of it successfully with only greater gratitude and intelligence!

Even if you lose something very precious, just feel grateful for having enjoyed it for awhile, that's all. When you become pure gratitude, you will not cry over anything lost. You will just enjoy it as long as it is there and then continue to feel grateful after it is gone also.

A small story:

A king used to go on rounds at night in disguise in his own kingdom.

Every night, he would see a master sitting under a tree in a blissful state when the rest of the city was asleep.

He felt deep respect for the master and requested him one night to stay with him in the palace.

The master said, 'Alright, I will come today because tomorrow is never sure.'

The king was taken aback at this rather abrupt acceptance of the invitation, but took him to the palace.

In the palace, he gave the master the best of rooms and the best of food.

The master enjoyed everything to the utmost.

The king was observing him as he enjoyed all the material comforts. He did not believe that a real master would enjoy things like this, so his respect for the master decreased day by day. He felt cheated.

Finally one day, the master said to him, 'Something seems to be troubling you. Why don't you come out with it?'

The king said, 'Yes, I can't understand the difference between you and me when I see you enjoying all these things like I do.'

The master smiled and said, 'Alright, let us go for a walk.' The king agreed and they went for a walk. They walked in silence for a long time.

They came to a river that marked the end of the king's boundary.

The master said, 'Alright, my stay is over. I am going, leaving your kingdom. Are you coming?'

The king said, 'How can I? I have my kingdom and my people and so many things to solve!'

The master smiled and asked, 'Now have you got an answer to your question?'

The king was simply jolted at the master's words.

Masters know that everything belongs to Existence. That is why they live totally in the moment, enjoying it to the utmost. Every moment is lived with totality. They are not fearful of losing anything because what is yours to lose?

Always remember that everything belongs to Existence. You are a temporary possessor of it, that's all. Feel gratitude always whether or not you are in possession of many things. That is the way to a liberating life. You can enjoy tremendous freedom and contentment when you understand this one thing.

The beauty of contentment

To be discontented is like giving some food for the mind to chew. The mind will feed on it and keep itself busy. What happens when we feel too contented? The mind becomes starved. It doesn't know what to do. It starts searching for its food!

A lady went to a shoe store.

She asked for shoes to fit her feet and the salesman patiently showed her many pairs of shoes.

She tried on one after another and felt that none of them fit her perfectly.

Finally, the salesman showed her a pair and asked her to try them on.

She tried them on and said, 'They fit too well. I wonder if this is the right size*.*'

When you are determined not to feel contented, then no one can help you. It is a state of mind which only you can help. Most of us feel a certain comfort zone in talking and feeling discontented, because there is always something to talk about; the mind is occupied all the time.

To feel contented always is like losing the mind. This is also why, although we claim that we want to feel contented always, we are not ready when it happens. Our mind plays cunningly because it needs something to chew on.

We feel secure when we run behind the horizon. The horizon is only an imaginary line, but we feel secure running behind it because there is something to run behind! The mind has been trained to run always!

When you are like this, you are actually fooling yourself, that's all. You are creating self-contradictory results for yourself. For example, you want to feel contented at the bottom of your heart, but you keep denying yourself contentment by constantly complaining and refusing to see what has been given to you! You want something but bring something else upon yourself. And you feel comfortable in continuing to try to achieve contentment as a lifelong process!

Understand that the moment you create self-contradictory results for yourself, your misery starts. Try to be clear on how you would like your life to be and direct every ounce of energy towards making it that way. When you function with this clarity, you will never delude yourself and you will see that you soon become what you want to be!

When you enter into a space where gratitude becomes your meditation, contentment automatically happens. The normal contentment that we all know always comes with a reason. It is related to something that has happened in the outer world that has temporarily put your busy mind to rest, that's all. When your mind is restful, you say you are contented. Real contentment is not this.

Real contentment is when you feel permanent gratitude towards the benevolence of Existence. Real contentment asks for nothing more. It simply enjoys everything without a reason; it needs no reason. When you reach this state, you will not know what discontentment is all about.

A small story:

A man once went to a doctor and complained of insomnia. The doctor asked him, 'So, you are unable to sleep at all at night?' The man replied, 'I sleep well at night, doctor.' The doctor asked, 'Then what is the problem?' The man said, 'I am unable to sleep in the afternoons and evenings.'

We are all asking for more and more without any scale of measure. Even if we have a scale, it is infinite; that is the problem. We are completely blinded by our attitude of asking for more. We don't even know where we stand, because of this. We haven't looked inwards in a long time.

Try to remember this joke whenever something is bothering you. Immediately try to connect with the joke and see with awareness what is bothering you. Go deep down and see whether you are really having a problem or you are simply allowing your mind to play. You may just laugh at the end of it.

A lady was traveling on a long-distance flight.

The airhostess came serving food for everyone. She found one lady fast asleep and so she moved on to the next person.

The lady woke up after a while and asked for her food. The airhostess brought her food for her.

The lady touched the food and flared up, 'What sort of an airline are you running? The food is not warm. I have paid through my nose to take this flight and I can't even get warm food!'

The airhostess apologized saying, 'Ma'am, please excuse us. The warmer is not working. The rest of the people also had their food this way.'

The lady said, 'Is that so? Then it is alright.'

See, the food remained cold even then, but the lady was no more unhappy because she knew that everyone else also had their food that way! This is what I mean when I say that everything is a play of the mind; everything is an adjustment of the mind. The mind keeps switching its stance and playing on you, because you have allowed it to take over. You have not centered yourself on contentment and so you sway according to your mind.

So as I was saying, if you are not able to laugh at the end of the day, it means that you are still serious about the whole thing; you still feel that you are shouldering the whole world and that it is because of you the whole show is running.

The beauty of Existence

You see, deep down, the truth is, we belong to Existence, which is the ultimate and all pervading energy which is controlling the whole show. Our inherent nature is also to find that connection back with Existence so that we flow without a problem. But somewhere, we miss this understanding and disconnect ourselves from Existence and start running behind material things thinking that that is what we are searching for.

If you have visited the zoo at least once in your lifetime, you might have noticed that the longest queues are in front of the cages of the lions and the tigers. Always, you will find people standing for a long time in front of the lions and tigers and admiring them with awe and respect.

We do this because, without even realizing it, we are strangely reassured by seeing things that are bigger or stronger than us. It gives us the comforting feeling that we are not the ultimate power. We know that we are not the ultimate power. Our being is actually searching for an encounter with any such grandeur that reminds us of our real role in this macrocosmic universe.

People go to the temples only for this assurance that they get when they see the idols. Those who don't find this kind of assurance in the temples find it elsewhere. But somehow, deep within we know that we are not the ultimate power. This feeling should become an experiential reality for us. Then we will know for sure.

If you go to the Himalayas, you will get a permanent and strong reminder of the profundity of Existence. From peak to peak, the

mountains rise, the mountain becoming the valley and the valley rising into the mountain, with no perceivable beginning or end; and the river Ganges flowing continuously in the valley in different moods, in different colours and trails, chattering and laughing in the language of Existence. If there is a world not made by man, it is the Himalayas. The Himalayas prove that humans are not the ultimate kings.

When you see the Himalayas, you will see how, over hundreds of kilometers, ice mountains appear as just ice mountains and then become mountains and water and later just water. Such are the wonders of nature at its peak.

What books cannot teach you with words, the Himalayas can teach you through just the experience of seeing. Only you need to be ready to receive it. The Himalayas are a live energy body with penetrating silence. You just have to allow it to penetrate you. If you understand that you are but a speck of the splendor of Existence, you will accept it with grace and humility, with no questions asked.

When you open yourself to Existence, it fills you up. How much you open yourself out, that much it fills you up. You all think that you have to work hard to cling on to God. Not at all. Have you seen the way a young monkey clings to its mother? There is every possibility that it might let go and fall. Whereas with a cat, the mother clings on to its kitten; the kitten then is perfectly safe.

You don't have to cling to God. If you just allow yourself to do your duty leaving the rest to God, God will cling on to you. Falling for God is not a big deal. Making God fall for you is a big deal! This will happen when you have undaunted faith and live a life of love and service.

A beautiful small story:

A man was very god-conscious and loving did a lot of good deeds in his life.

He came to know that there was a particular book with a person that had the names of people who loved God.

He was excited to find out if his name was there in the book and went to that person and asked if he could see the book.

He searched through all the pages several times but could not find his name in it.

He was very disappointed and went away.

A year later, he came back to see if his name had been added to the book.

Again, he could not find it anywhere.

As he was turning to leave, the man said, 'Sir, please wait. This book has the list of names of people who love God. I have another very small book that has a few names in it. It is the list of names of people whom God loves.'

He showed the man the book.

The man found his name in it.

It is very easy to fall for God. After all, he is so loving, so giving, so powerful and what not. You can continue to say that you love him and remain where you are. But when you start feeling God at the being level and the transformation happens in you, God will fall for you! You will find yourself being loved in many ways that you have never known before. Such is the compassionate love of God.

We have all along been taught to be wary of nature, of God, of Existence. We have been taught to wear slippers while walking so that the earth does not hurt us. We have been taught to stay away from rain. We have been taught to stay indoors when it is windy. We have been taught to stay away from animals and what not.

I tell you, Existence is your only friend on planet Earth. Do you know how wonderful it is to walk with a feel of the earth? I never used to wear slippers in my younger days except while in college because their rule demanded that I wore them. I just used to walk barefoot, whether it was at home or in school or during my days of wandering.

Even now in the ashram, I walk barefoot most of the time. Of course, the people around me insist that wear slippers saying that my feet will get hurt. I ask them how these feet that wandered the length and breadth of India bare can get hurt now!

You just completely disconnect yourself from nature by doing these things. So many people ask me, 'Swamiji, how is it that your feet are so smooth and flawless even after so many years of wandering in rugged terrain?' I tell you now: I have never felt alienated from Existence; that is why. That is the real reason. I always felt that I was a part of Existence.

I always felt that I belonged to nature. That is why I used to wander without a care, without being afraid of anything.

Just imagine if you had to be alone in the darkness of the jungle with wild animals, with no food and no idea of where your next meal would be and no place to sleep except under the cover of the sky? How would you feel? Totally terrified, would you not?

This is because you have never been taught that Existence is your unfailing friend. You have always looked to people for help because you believed that only people help. You fail to understand that Existence helps through people. Your faith has always been on people, never on Existence.

When you place your faith on Existence, you can live like a lord on planet Earth. I enjoyed my days of wandering. I used to simply walk where my feet led me, with no idea of my next destination. I used to get onto any train and get off at any station where the scenery attracted me. I did not know the Hindi language at that time and most of my wandering was in North India, in the Himalayas. I simply picked up Hindi words to find my way about.

Actually, to learn any language, the first difficulty is your thought that you don't know the language. You first alienate yourself from the language and then it seems difficult. Here again, you alienate yourself with your all-knowing nature.

Anyhow, most often, I wandered on my own and not with any group of wandering mendicants. Never did I feel that I was alone. I enjoyed being part of Existence. When you learn to relate with

nature, you will feel the joy of Existence. I never had to beg for food. When I was hungry or even otherwise, food came through someone in some form. This is what I mean when I say, just believe and let go, and Existence will take care.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, you struggled so much in your life and then reached your goal. Should we also not suffer to reach our goal?' I tell them, 'I struggled because I was using 10,000 keys to try to open one lock. I experimented for years and finally found the right key. Now I have the right key with me. I am ready to give it to whomsoever wants it. It will take you only one moment to open with it! Of course, if you feel that you have to suffer, then that is your freedom; I will not interfere!'

Q: How does meditation help in feeling contented?

When you continuously meditate, you become soft and vulnerable. You become porous, sensitive and aware. You will find that your consciousness is expanding every moment. Your consciousness determines your feelings and actions. That is why again and again, I ask you to meditate. It will purify your consciousness. Things will become clearer to you.

You will be able to feel your center shifting from your mind to your heart. When the distance between your mind and you increases, your whole being will start vibrating with a different feeling and this feeling is what is contentment, a deep fulfillment, a deep love without a reason towards the whole, a continued sense of joy and bliss.

Then, all the energy that you earlier spent on negative thinking and dissatisfaction is released, and you feel blissful and integrated and filled with energy. Gratitude then becomes your prayer and 'Thank You' becomes your mantra!

When you go to sleep, go to sleep with a feeling of gratitude for having spent one more day with Existence. When you wake up, wake up with the feeling of gratitude for having one more day with Existence! This is the simplest and most effective meditation you can do to make gratitude your very being.

I tell you, just by feeling and radiating gratitude from your being, you can change the face of planet Earth. All terrorism, wars, religious fanaticism, ill health, poverty etc. can be eradicated by just spreading awareness about the gratitude that needs to be brought out of each person.

When each one feels and radiates gratitude, there will be no love, no hate, no jealousy. All the possible roots for global negativity can be destroyed with just this one feeling, because the reasons for all negativity will simply dissolve with it. That is the beauty of gratitude!

Alright, now let us spend some time doing a beautiful meditation technique called the Sahasrara Dhyana – a meditation of gratitude.

Emotion: Gratitude

Chakra: Sahasrara chakra

Location: Top of the head.

In Sanskrit, sahasrara means 'thousand petalled' - from the mystical experience of a thousand-petalled lotus blooming on the crown, when this chakra is activated.

This chakra is closed by discontentment and the attitude of taking life for granted and it can be made to flower by overflowing gratitude and contentment!

Meditation Technique to flower in deep gratitude: Sahasrara Dhyana - a Sufi meditation technique.

The Sahasrara Dhyana

(Total duration: 60 minutes)

Part of this meditation is the Nithya Dhyaan meditation

Why Nithya Dhyaan?

Emotions and thoughts give birth to our mental set up and attitude. Understanding the play of emotions and thoughts is the first and final step towards moving beyond it. Nithya Dhyaan is a 35-minute meditation designed by Nithyananda to unclutch from the mind and move beyond it.

Man by his very nature is an unclutched and blissful Being. What do we mean by the term unclutched?

Every thought that arises in us is like a bubble that forms, rises and dies. Every thought independently rises and dies before the next thought comes up. For example, if you are sitting in a chair and suddenly get up, the moment you have decided to get up, that moment the thought of sitting has left you. If you are working on your computer and decide to shut down the machine, that moment, the thought that you want to work has died. So every thought is unconnected and happens in series, one after the other. One thought has to die before the next one comes up. This is our true nature.

Our true nature is to renounce thoughts every passing moment; to allow each thought to rise like a bubble and burst and allowing the next thought to rise. Our thoughts have only a vertical existence, like rising bubbles.

This process of allowing thoughts to rise and die without trying to connect them is what we mean by being unclutched. As long as this natural process is allowed to happen, things are alright.

But what we do is, we start connecting these thoughts randomly and forming a shaft. By doing this, we convert the vertical and unclutched process into a horizontal one with linear connectivity. Here starts the whole problem. As long as each thought is allowed to rise and die, we can take on any amount of load at the physical and mental planes and our consciousness will remain light and blissful. Once we start connecting the thoughts, our consciousness suffers and we start feeling burdened. It becomes damaging to our Being.

All emotions like worry, lust, discontentment, jealousy, fear, ego and attention-need are purely because we find a connection between independent incidents, between independent thoughts and create a concept for ourselves and start relating with that concept. We create an imaginary shaft with our thoughts and we suffer because of this.

It is these emotions that create all forms of violence be it religious wars, social conflicts or political unrest. The basis or the root of all forms of violence is our emotions and the basis of our emotions is our habit of creating imaginary shafts of our thoughts and empowering them to work on us.

The key thing we do while creating these shafts is, we choose the thoughts depending on whether we want pain or pleasure. We pick pleasant thoughts at random and connect them to form a shaft of pleasure or pick negative thoughts and connect them to form a shaft of pain. We create shafts of pain and pleasure alternately for ourselves and keep oscillating between these two emotions. To unclutch from this shaft is the master key to a blissful life.

If you deeply analyse how we connect our thoughts instead of renouncing them, you will understand how we create suffering for ourselves. It is the mind that finds the connection. As such, there is no connection between our thoughts.

We have been trained to all the time feed on words and thoughts. That is why we create these shafts. We feed on words because we operate out of fear or greed all the time. Out of fear or greed, we create connectivity in our thoughts. We are afraid to let go of this process because if we let go, there is nothing else to hold on to. We have never experienced an unclutched state of mind where there is no shaft, there are only bubble-like thoughts.

In the unclutched state, there is no scope for fear or greed. You will simply BE, that's all. It is a dimension that we rarely experience because we are so used to clutching into the familiar shaft of thoughts.

A small story:

An eye specialist was treating a blind man.

He assured him, "Once I operate on your eye, you will have your vision back and you can throw your stick away."

The blind man became afraid when he heard this. He asked the doctor, "I understand that I will get my vision, but how can I walk without my stick?"

The man was so used to walking with the stick that he could not understand that by getting his vision he can throw away the stick! In the same way, when the truth is that we can live in an unclutched fashion blissfully, we wonder how we can be without clutching into the shaft of thoughts. We see it as something inevitable!

We fail to see how mythical the whole thing is. Our mind is a myth. We have empowered it and become a slave to it. It is nothing but mental slavery.

Just watch the thoughts rising in you. Clearly see how each thought rises and dies and the next thought comes up. Observe how you effortlessly connect these thoughts and create ideas and concepts. Watch the play of these concepts upon yourself; you will understand how you create the whole myth. Connecting thoughts is the original sin.

Living in an unclutched fashion is the only way to a blissful living. Just decide that you will not connect any two thoughts, that you will not pass any judgment on any thought or any incident. The moment you find yourself connecting, simply unclutch from it. Keep on unclutching every time you remember this technique; your mental setup will automatically be transformed.

When you work in an unclutched fashion, you will find your capacity expanding; you will take on a lot more responsibility without getting stressed; you will not experience mood swings between pain and pleasure; you will be blissful all the time. We are so used to happiness that comes in with a reason. This reason is again a shaft that we create with our thoughts. Once you stop creating these shafts, you will be blissful all the time.

The term unclutched, does not mean that you should be aloof and cold to people and situations around you. Just don't connect your thoughts and start the process of creating shafts, that's all.

Remember that you are a beautiful and unclutched being by nature; that is enough. You will stop creating misery for yourself and for others.

Nithya Dhyaan cleanses and energises the vital energy centers in your body which are responsible for the swaying emotions and stored negative memories. It brings intense awareness into your system to awaken the inner intelligence; causes to experience a growing explosion in consciousness that can steer you towards a life of totality. It expels deeply engraved and unwanted negative memories and suppressions.

Meditation as such purifies and lays the foundation to experience the true nature of your body, thoughts and emotions. It is the direct way to connect to the land of the beyond, of eternal bliss, free from the clutches of one's own mind.

Nithya Dhyaan is a technique that gives you what you need to balance your self and be in complete harmony with your body, mind and spirit; to harness the inner intelligence as a propelling force to excel in the inner and outer worlds.

It is a guided meditation technique comprising 5 steps. Please listen to the instructions carefully.

Instructions:

Step 1

Sit in vajrasana with hands on your hips. Sit on your mat on the floor with both your legs stretched out. Next fold both the legs, one after the other at the knees and rest your posterior on your heels with your toes turned outward. Let your hands rest on your lap. You can use a cushion or a rolled turkish towel under your ankles. Sit comfortably with your head,

neck and spine in a straight line. Now close your eyes and breathe chaotically for 7 minutes. Don't follow any rhythm in breathing. Just move your entire body and breathe aggressively and chaotically from the bottom of your stomach.

Step 2

Continue to sit in vajrasana. Form 'chin mudra' with your fingers. This is how we form the chin mudra: Place your hands on your knees. Your hands with open palms should be facing upward. Let the tip of the index finger touch the tip of the thumb, as if forming a circle. The three other fingers, arms and the hands remain relaxed. You will now hum intensely for 7

minutes. The humming should be done with lips together with the sound coming from the navel center – as deeply as possible, as lengthily as possible and as loudly as possible. (This is actually the mahamantra humming).

Step 3

You may now sit cross-legged on the floor if you wish to or continue to sit in vajrasana and for 7 minutes you will take your awareness from the muladhara chakra to the sahasrara chakra.

Muladhara chakra – base of the spine Swadhishthana chakra – 2 inches above the muladhara

Manipuraka chakra – at the navel center Anahata chakra – at the heart center Vishuddhi chakra – at the throat center Ajna chakra – between the eyebrows Sahasrara chakra – top of the head

Dwell on each chakra for a minute with the awareness that – the chakra is pure; the chakra is filled with energy and the chakra is radiating eternal bliss - nithyananda.

Step 4

For 7 minutes just be unclutched in silence.

Guided meditation for offering gratitude

This guided meditation is taken from Sufism.

Sit straight, hold a few flowers as offering in your hands and close your eyes. Concentrate on your sahasrara chakra. Forget

all other parts of your body. Concentrate only on your crown center and relax there. Wear a smile and relax.

With your whole Being, offer your gratitude to your mother for giving you this body. Remember and give your gratitude to her with all your Being.

Offer your gratitude to your father for giving you this life and providing for all your needs.

Offer your gratitude to all the doctors and nurses who received you when you came to planet earth.

Offer your gratitude to all the people who built the hospital or home where you were born.

Offer your gratitude to all the people who took care of you when you were an infant.

Offer your gratitude to all those who worked for your food, clothes and living when you were young.

Offer your gratitude to all the teachers who gave you primary education.

Offer your gratitude to all your young age friends who made your life happy and blissful, who shared their innocence and joy with you.

Offer your gratitude to your brothers and sisters and other relatives for nurturing you and caring for you. Seek their forgiveness for any hurt that you may have caused them intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously.

Offer your gratitude to all the people who gave you professional education, who helped you stand in your profession, who gave you the courage to stand on your own feet.

Offer your gratitude to all the people who helped you financially, whenever you needed it.

Offer your gratitude to all the doctors and nurses who took care of your health, who gave you medical assistance whenever you needed it.

Offer your gratitude to your wife or husband for giving you love and security in your life. Forgive them for anything that they might have done to you that hurt you. Seek their forgiveness for anything that you might have done that hurt them with or without your knowledge.

Offer your gratitude to all the people who encouraged you and gave you inspiration in your spiritual life.

Offer your gratitude to all those who have served you in one way or another all through your life: the milk man who delivers milk, the grocer, the laundry man, the garbage collector, your servants, your driver, all these people who you take for granted. Seek each one's forgiveness for any hurt that you may have caused intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously.

Offer your gratitude to your enemies and those who have hurt you, for making you strong and forgiving. Seek their forgiveness for any hurt that you may have caused them.

Offer your gratitude to all those who helped you physically, mentally, socially, economically and spiritually.

Remember each one of them and offer gratitude taking your own time.

Offer your gratitude to your body and all its parts one by one.

Offer your gratitude to your mind for its miraculous functioning.

Offer your gratitude to the Divine, to the Whole, to God, for making all these things possible in your life.

Step 5

For the last 7 minutes you may sit and chant the Guru Puja Mantra or just sway with the flow of the chant on the cassette and offer your gratitude to Existence and to the great lineage of enlightened masters. Offer your gratitude with your whole being.

You may now offer your flowers.

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Appendix