2. Enlightenment Is…

Living with the limitless continuum is enlightenment. The limitless continuum will happen when you relax from the identities you hold of yourself in the outer and inner worlds.

If you are settled in that limitless continuum and are able to be active, you are living enlightenment. If you are not able to settle down in it, but you had at least one experience of it, then you have experienced satori.

The basic thing needed for enlightenment is a 'psychological revolution', a new clarity about the self (jeeva ), world (jagat ), and god (Ishwara ).

How you think, why you think, how you are driven, what is your inspiration, what motivates you in life - this understanding is the clarity about the self or jeeva.

How to achieve your desires in the world, how you avoid fears and other things forced upon you by the world - this understanding is the clarity about the world or jagat.

Clarity about Ishwara or god means understanding the source of both the individual self and the world. Achieving the source, knowing all these three, is enlightenment.

When you have a clear understanding about why you think and how you think, this very understanding gives you the clear experience of the self. When you understand how to connect with the world through your fear or greed, achieving what you want, and avoiding what is not needed, you gain a clear experience of the world. The third is experiencing god, Ishwara, the source of the self and the world.

Gaining a true understanding of the self, world, and god is enlightenment.

People ask me, 'After enlightenment, can enlightened beings enjoy?' I tell you, only after enlightenment can you enjoy! Before that, you can only think or imagine you are enjoying.

After enlightenment, you don't even need sense objects to enjoy. You will simply be enjoying all the time. There will be such an intense excitement for no reason.

If I have to define enlightenment in two words, I will say it is 'intense excitement' for no reason, intense passion directed towards no object. There is no object, but there is intense passion. There is no reason, but there is intense excitement. That is what I call enlightenment.

People ask me, 'How can we be happy without a reason?' I tell them, most of you know only one secret, how to be sad without a reason. You have mastered that habit. You have a doctorate in that line! Just change it a little, that's all. When we know that, why can't we learn this?

Many times, you will be in a low mood, but you will be searching for a reason why you are in a low mood! You will not be able to identify the reason, but you will be sad. Your chemistry itself is trained to fall into low moods without any reason, because so many times you have trained yourself to fall into low moods with a reason. After some time, your chemistry learns this habit. Then you don't need a reason. Just by the chemistry, just through the in-built system, you fall into low moods.

Enlightenment does not mean escaping somewhere. Tasting life here and now is what I call enlightenment.

What I call enlightenment is experiencing the same intensity of life that you feel inside yourself, outside your skin also*.* You are not alive just inside your body. You are also alive inside every other individual, tree, and rock. Your hold over your physical body is transformed into a hold over the cosmic body! You are alive in every cell in the cosmos. Every cell is a complete, fulfilled part of the cosmos.

There is a beautiful verse at the start of the devotional hymn, Purusha Suktam , in the Vedas,

Om sahasra sheersha purushaha sahasraaksha sahasrapaat sa bhoomim vishwato vrutva atyatishtha dashaangulam

This verse beautifully describes the whole of the cosmos as a beautiful human form called Purusha - having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet. The form encompasses the whole earth and exceeds that by ten times! This is the experience of enlightenment.

Understand, I am alive as much outside as I am inside my skin. So I am alive in all the millions of heads, eyes, and feet and all the millions of beings in the cosmos.

To achieve this, start seeing everything as if you are seeing it for the first time, without bringing in your engrams, your past engraved memories. Then, you will start experiencing the same life and intensity that you experience inside your skin, outside also. Try this for ten days. Once you get a glimpse, you will never miss it! You will see you are in ecstasy for no reason. You are in excitement for no reason. You will never take things for granted again. You will always be in joy.

As of now you connect all the past experiences of your life and create a shaft. All your future experiences depend on how you have created this shaft. They depend on which words from the past you have picked, and how you have formed the shaft. Your future emotions, reactions, thoughts, and words depend entirely on this shaft. But after enlightenment, life is very different from this. Thoughts arise, and if they want to work, the body pursues the thoughts. Once the work is done, the thoughts disappear. Then the next time something needs to be done, thoughts arise again, and the process continues. The whole thing happens beautifully by itself. There is no shaft at all.

Currently we all carry constant irritation from the moment we get out of the bed until the minute we go back to bed. Constantly we carry some irritation or other. We are waiting to jump on

people. We only need some excuse. After enlightenment, the constant fear or guilt or desire or something that constantly irritates, is not there. When you unclutch from the shaft for even one moment, you get a glimpse of enlightenment.

The shift from the shaft happens in a fraction of a second. If you are deeply aware, you can catch that precious moment when the unclutching happens. All our tapas, spiritual training, is only preparing us to catch that shift. The shift happens many times. You just need to be really aware and you can catch it. When you permanently unclutch from the shaft, you are enlightened.

I can say that a few changes happened permanently in me when I became enlightened.

The first thing was that all inner chatter disappeared. By inner chatter, I mean the constant chatter of words that goes on inside us normally. In the gap between my words as I talk now, even in those few seconds, there is no chatter inside. It is simply pure space, silence.

The second thing is that the idea that my boundary ends here at this body, and there starts the rest of the world disappeared. Border consciousness dissolved. I don't feel I am just this six foot form. I see and feel myself in everything. If you watch me, I will be the first one to enjoy all my photographs after a photo shoot or on the book covers! I will just play with them for four or five days.

People ask me, 'What is this, Swamiji? You are sitting and enjoying your own photographs!' I tell them, 'How does it matter? I don't feel I am this six-foot form. Just like you see this form, I too see this form and enjoy it! I enjoy it as a part of Existence, just like you do!' In fact, you feel embarrassed when you see your own photographs only because you feel the boundary of your own body strongly! For me that separate feeling is not there about my form, so I just enjoy it like everything else.

The third thing is that even though the body is a male body, the inner identity of male or female disappeared. The psychological idea that 'I am male' or 'I am female' doesn't exist in me anymore.

The fourth thing is that there is a constant excitement within, everything excites. Even small things give big excitement. Even a simple thing creates intense excitement and joy.

Any small thing, some statue – a small Shiva, a small Buddha or just a soft toy, will trigger great excitement! Every small thing gives great excitement. The most important thing is that I don't feel bored with anything. Over the past five years, I have conducted hundreds of sessions of meditation programs. I have never felt bored because for me, there is no solidifying of the past. You feel bored only when you solidify the past. You feel you have seen everything already. Any face that I see, I feel excited, that's all. The constant excitement is there.

I can say that these four changes are permanent things that happened in me after enlightenment.

Be very clear, enlightenment is not the end. It is the ultimate experience, but not the final experience.

You need to understand these two words 'final' and 'ultimate', they are very different. For example, after the first day of discourse in this series, one person came to me and said, 'You have said everything. Why do we need one more class?' Yesterday another person said, 'Swamiji, on the first day, I thought you could not take us any deeper, it is over. Today, suddenly I felt that you have taken us deeper than yesterday, and you cannot take us any deeper than this. Every day I feel that you cannot take us much deeper than this, but we do keep going deeper.' Every day the person felt that the experience was the ultimate.

Ultimate means living every moment totally, completely. Ultimate is not final. It can be updated.

There is a big difference between these two words, ultimate and final. If it is ultimate, it is happening every moment, it is not final.

People think that after enlightenment masters don't grow. I tell you, after enlightenment, not only are they constantly updated, every moment growth is happening, expansion is happening. God grows. Only god grows! Nothing else grows.

In your space you may think you are growing. But the actual growth or expansion happens only in the cosmic energy.

When a being becomes enlightened, not only does he experience his potentiality, but he also starts creating more enlightened beings. He starts creating the possibility of more enlightened beings.

When you are enlightened, there will not be any movement of letter or word or thought between your navel and throat. Words will come only from the throat. I can say this is one of the precise descriptions of enlightenment. There will not be any word, thought, syllable, or sound movement between the navel and the throat.

Words will be there only when you are talking. When you are not talking, there will not be any words inside. Only the energy movement will be there. There will be no thought, no verbalization, no continuous inner chattering.

Your inner chattering is the only thing that disturbs your whole life. This is very difficult for most people to understand. They always think, 'Unless I have inner chatter, how will I ever plan my everyday life? How will I be able to run my business? How will I be able to live?'

Understand, when you don't have inner chatter, it is not dead silence. It is intense energy! From that energy, whatever needs to be done will come out as a complete visualization. If you have inner chattering, it will come line by line – 'Morning, I have to wake up. Then, I have to go to

my office. There I will work on the new project. In the evening I will come back. Then I may go out for dinner…' In a linear manner, one by one, thoughts and words come out.

When you don't have inner chatter, when you are just with yourself, the whole visualization comes out as one package, one piece of information. That is what we call intuition. When you go through the logical process, it is called inner chatter, it is intellect. But when you don't have that inner chatter, things start expressing in you intuitively, straightaway you know.

Enlightenment does not lead to the absence of troubles. It leads to the presence of courage to handle troubles.

When the intellect ripens and reaches its peak, it becomes intelligence. When emotion ripens and reaches its peak, it becomes trust. When the being ripens and reaches its peak, it becomes enlightenment.

The person who has removed hypocrisy from his inner space will experience enlightenment.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the enlightened master from Bharat, says beautifully, 'Integrating your inner chatter and your spoken words is enlightenment.' He says, just integrate your inner chatter and the words that you utter. Let both of them be integrated and you are enlightened.

I tell you, to live in a body in which inner chatter and outer words are connected is heaven. Nothing else can give you more joy than living in a body where the inner chatter and the spoken words are integrated. It is just pure ecstasy! This constant ecstasy is what I call nithyananda or eternal bliss*.* If you can live inside a body in which the inner chatter and the spoken words are integrated, in tune, suddenly you will see that you are living inside a hollow bamboo. You are living with such a vast inner space!

Enlightenment is nothing but feeling yourself as the mahakaasha, the cosmic space*.* It means that you feel that you are the cosmic space instead of the chittakasha, the individual space.

When you relax from the identity that you project to the outer world, to show who you are to others, it is called the 'first experience' or satori. Relaxing from the second identity that you carry in your inner world, to prove who you are to yourself, is what I call enlightenment!

After someone achieves enlightenment he or she has a very sharp superconscious awareness. With that superconscious awareness, it is easy to do research, experiments and analysis. Even

after enlightenment, I have been doing so many experiments, so many practices along with scientists and researchers of the outer world and inner world, and by myself.

Understand, when an enlightened being does spiritual practices it is not just for him. It is to create the right formulas for the disciples, so that he can reproduce the same experience in them.

Someone asked me, 'Is enlightenment the natural human state or is it a transcendence of the human state?'

Surely, enlightenment is the transcendence of the human state. Whatever you think of as the human state is not complete. You are only a seed, a potential, a possibility. You are not a tree. You are not actuality. Your actuality is enlightenment.

You are called a human being in your potential state. In your actual state, realized state, you are called an enlightened being. Be very clear, you are not a human being with a spiritual experience, you are a spiritual being with a human experience!

When you meditate, you can get various yogic powers or siddhis. But enlightenment happens when you go beyond these powers also. Enlightenment is having the capacity to handle the powers, as well as the intelligence to drop them when necessary.

The other day I read an interesting article about a book Occult Chemistry based on research done by the theosophists Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater on the molecular structure of various elements. It said that even long before physics discovered that an atom has a nucleus, the theosophists had determined the atomic structure of many elements, and that too down to the 'quark', the most fundamental particle known today in quantum physics!

How did they find this out with no modern scientific equipment, before even quantum physics was born? The report says it was through the siddhi, or mystical power, known as anima that has been described in the Yoga Sutras by the sage Patanjali, an enlightened master from Bharat and father of the science of Yoga. Patanjali described anima as 'the ability to acquire knowledge of the small, the hidden, or the distant, by directing the light of superphysical faculty.'

With yogic training, they could experience visual images of minute objects too small to be seen by the normal eye. They found five new elements through these yogic powers. They even went beyond the quark as well as its detailed structure, into the sub-quark, which science is yet to find. These very same findings have also been made by at least three other people from different places in the world at different times, through such occult capacities.

They concluded that all matter is like bubbles in space, just like pearls on an invisible string. The report says that the researchers not only 'saw' the subatomic particles, but they could also see

inside the atom down to the sub-quark, for which science needs a very powerful particle accelerator that costs billions of dollars!

There are many yogis who have these kinds of siddhis or powers that come about as a result of meditation. They are good as long as you don't get caught in them. Otherwise, you will lose sight of the ultimate goal of enlightenment.

Enlightenment is having such a strong and clear sense of peace inside you that even your thoughts cannot disturb you.

Do not think enlightened masters don't have thoughts. It is just that their inner space is so big that the mind is a negligible part. For you, if you have a ten-acre mind, all ten acres are like a zoo. With an enlightened being there are a million acres, but still only a ten acre zoo. In a million acres, if there is some movement in ten acres, can you consider it as something disturbing? No! It is negligible. It is practically not there. That is why an average person feels 'I am the body' but an enlightened being feels, 'I am the body also.'

It is not that the idea 'I am body' disappears. It just expands to 'I am also the body.'

Enlightenment means simply allowing that natural flow of energy through your body without creating conflicts. The moment you start choosing and prioritizing, you have already created conflict. Enlightenment never happens to a person who chooses enlightenment. It happens to a person who chooses choicelessness. This is an important understanding.

For thousands of years, millions of seekers have been struggling. Very few have achieved the ultimate experience of enlightenment. The reason is that you have some idea about enlightenment and you choose what you think is the right action based upon that idea.

When you see living masters, you always see only the side-effect of enlightenment or the byproduct of enlightenment. Your idea and greed about enlightenment is built upon seeing the quality and energy of the enlightened master's lifestyle.

This is not attachment to enlightenment. This is attachment to the idea about enlightenment. For example, you may think that the moment you become enlightened, suddenly somebody will give you a golden throne. You only get attached to that golden throne. You cannot get attached to enlightenment itself.

How will you get attached to enlightenment? Whatever idea you have now about enlightenment is not enlightenment, it is about enlightenment. The more your idea about enlightenment gets purified, the more you will go towards enlightenment, you can never get attached to it.

If you are attached to it, be very clear, your idea about enlightenment is neither pure nor clear. You need to purify and have a clearer understanding about enlightenment. Read spiritual literature, listen to the master's words and get a clear idea about enlightenment.

The clear idea about enlightenment IS enlightenment! Because after some time once you stop fighting with the master, all the clarity that he gave you until then will become a solid experience. When the inner space is very loving, connected to the master, every word he expresses will straightaway become an experience in you. So try to create a clearer understanding. It will automatically take you to enlightenment, and the attachment will disappear.

Being aware, doing the right things, and surrendering to the Divine - enlightenment means all these three. As long as you think all these three are different things, you are not enlightened. When you realize all these three are one, all three happen simultaneously and spontaneously. You are enlightened. When you are aware, you are already surrendered to the Divine, and you will always be doing the right thing!

'Always being intense' is the main mark of an enlightened master. When you see that, you understand it as 'bliss' or 'happiness'. To tell you honestly, I myself do not feel that I am a separate blissful being. All I know is that something extraordinary is constantly happening in me, very intensely. Only an outsider feels it is 'bliss'. Actually it is not even 'bliss'. It is the quality that cannot be described, that cannot be conceived by the mind.

As of now, you see three separate things: the experiencer, the experience, and the experienced. For example, you are reading this book now. You are the experiencer that is the reader, the experience is of reading, and the thing being experienced is the book. When you get enlightened, all these three – experiencer, experience, and the experienced, become one. You are only the experiencer having the experience of you, who is also the experienced!