7. Gradual Vs Sudden Techniques For Enlightenment

I can say all major spiritual traditions can be classified into two major categories. One is the category that gives gradual progress. There will be a clear-cut, defined path, like the five disciplines prescribed by the father of yoga, Patanjali – yama (discipline), niyama (personal conduct), asana (sequence of postures), prayanama (breathing), and pratyahara (withdrawal). It will appeal to the common mind. You can start and slowly continue to progress. It is easy to start but difficult to end, difficult to achieve. The other tradition will give you the experience directly, especially the Shiva Sutras delivered by Shiva. It is all about techniques that straightaway give you enlightenment. But starting will be a little difficult because logically you cannot feel connected. Shiva says very clearly that simple things can lead you to enlightenment. For example, there is a technique where you are to be intensely aware when sneezing happens to you and you can become enlightened! Practically He says that just a sneeze can lead you to enlightenment! How can you believe this? Logically you can't be convinced, logically you can't understand. There are some methods, some techniques that give you sudden enlightenment, like those prescribed in the Shiva Sutras. One important thing you need with these sudden enlightenment techniques is the courage and the feeling of connectedness with Existence or your master. Enlightenment can happen at any moment. Even in Tibetan Buddhism, they have the concept of 'bardos' – the intermediate states between death and rebirth, the states where the possibility of enlightenment is very high. The traditions that teach us gradual enlightenment have really contributed a lot. For new seekers, they can be a really inspiring way to start. But these gradual paths have a danger. They may not give you the ultimate breakthrough, the ultimate opening, because the modern mind may get tired very soon. The modern mind is very impatient. It wants everything instantly, like instant coffee! Sudden enlightenment methods are good because they give you a glimpse of the experience and a conviction about the possibility of the experience. Then you will not have many doubts and problems. All your problems are nothing but doubts like, 'Is it really available? Will I be able to have it? Will I be successful? I don't know what will happen to me. What will happen to my husband or wife?' All these doubts are the problems. When you have at least one glimpse of sudden enlightenment, all these problems and doubts will disappear. It will be a lot easier for you to travel on your spiritual journey. One more thing: Relax from judging the master's words. Stop choosing what you want to follow from the master's words and only following those ones. Then you will see, the final enlightenment happens to you. Understand that only a person who has exhausted all the three states of waking, dream, and sleep states, can become enlightened. One who is able to unclutch from all these three states can achieve enlightenment.

Anything that comes out of enlightenment will take you to enlightenment. If you imbibe the expression, it will lead you to the same experience. If a piece of music comes from an enlightened Consciousness, if you just imbibe it with deep receptivity, it will put you in the same enlightenment experience!

The other day I was reading an article about art therapy. They say that if mentally unsound people are asked to paint, they paint wildly. They pour the paint on the canvas and do all kinds of things with it. More than just painting on the canvas, they paint on their body. If they are allowed to do this for a week to a month, slowly the madness comes down and they get healed.

You will be surprised, like a catharsis they throw everything away. The second discovery was a more important one: all those who became mad because of money paint in a similar way. All those who became mad because of women or name and fame paint in a similar way.

If they are allowed to paint, they do the catharsis and whatever is inside comes out. The reason for their madness is expressed clearly in their painting.

The third most important thing that happened was that the doctor who studied all those paintings extensively and gave conclusions became mad!

Be very clear, when someone expresses something intensely, and if somebody studies that expression deeply, then he gets into that same experience as the person who expressed it. That is why the doctor became mad.

Now understand, if you deeply imbibe the expressions of an enlightened master, you can get the experience of enlightenment itself! Blessed are the ones who live around an enlightened master.

When the great musical saints like Tyagaraja, Annamacharya and Manickavasagar from South Bharat sang spontaneous verses, they expressed their own experience of enlightenment.

Traditional Hindu music is designed for meditation, for enlightenment. Classical Hindu dance is designed for enlightenment. That is why the person who performs and the person who sits and experiences, both experience the same meditative state.

You can enter the very space from which any music is created. If it comes out of the space of the heart, you too will fall into the heart. If it comes out of lust, you too will experience lust. The state of mind of the musician plays an important role in impacting your mind.

When you listen to any music, be receptive. Don't bother about the words or the notes. Go to the core of it, just relax with that music and try to see the thread, the backbone, the composite central sound. Suddenly you will see you are experiencing the same thing from where the expression came out.

Understand, if the expression comes from enlightenment, it will lead to enlightenment.