Live Without Worries

Worry is what happens when you constantly compare yourself against external frames of reference and continuously chatter to yourself about it. Over time, this sets in as your mental makeup. Your very mental make-up becomes worry.

You will think:

Am I doing as well as my neighbours?

How can I impress my boss?

What will my children think?

All the time, we need to get approval from others – whether it is family or work or society. This is a major portion of our worry. Our whole life is nothing but a process of collecting certificates from others. If others don't keep giving us certificates like Good

Husband, Good Employee, Good Neighbour, we worry that our life has become worthless. We form our personality only from others' certificates. We have all stopped trusting ourselves; that is the problem.

As a child, each of us is strongly centered in our own being. Have you ever seen any child worrying about what people will think of him? No! A child is beautiful because he has no worries. He is not worried about what others will say about him.

As we grow up, society teaches us to evaluate ourselves by the ideas and opinions of others. Society makes us dependent on external support, certificates from others, for each of our actions and words. This is why we are all the time worried about what others will say about us.

Also, when you worry about something, you feel you have a definite point of reference against which to run your life. That is why worrying gives a

direction to your life. Without worry, you feel as if you have no axis about which to move. And so you actually nurture your worries.

When you worry about something, you feel you have a definite point of reference against which to run your life.

Let me tell you a small story:

Three men were sitting abandoned on an island.

They did not know for how many years they had been there.

Suddenly, one of them found a bottle and picked it up.

He rubbed his hands over it, and suddenly a genie appeared out of it.

They were shocked.

The genie told them, 'Thank you for freeing me from this bottle. Each of you may ask for a wish and I will grant it for you.'

They were very excited and they thought for a while.

The first man said, 'I want to marry my girlfriend and live happily.'

The genie said, 'Alright, your wish will come true.'

The first man disappeared from the island and the genie looked at the second man.

The second man said, 'I want to become a wealthy businessman.'

The genie said, 'Alright, your wish will be granted.'

The second man disappeared and the genie asked the third man what he wanted.

The third man said, 'I am going to miss my two friends who have been with me all these years. I want to be with them!' The genie said, 'Alright,' and it disappeared, leaving the three men just as they had been on the abandoned island!

The third was actually attached to his worry which is being marooned in the island! This is what I mean when I say we are so fond of our worries! We claim that they give us misery but we are so attached to them.

People come to me and say, 'Swamiji, my business is going from bad to worse. Last month I suffered heavy losses and the next month I know it's going to be even worse.'

I ask them, 'If you already know that, why don't you close down your business right away? Why should you suffer?'

But they are shocked. They ask in disbelief, 'What are you saying, Swamiji? What will I do then?'

The moment I give a solution for your worry, you are shaken because without a reason to worry, your ego loses its reason for existence! That is why you choose to remain in the dimension of worry.

When you are in worry, you feel you are someone. You feel solid.

Whereas, when you are free from worrying, you are in bliss, but in this dimension you are nobody! There is no material to keep you occupied. There is nothing to solve. You feel insecure, like a nonentity. That is why I tell you, to enjoy a worry-less state, you need to first drop your ego about wanting to be a solid entity.

And the thing about worrying is, first of all, worry itself is your decision to give food to the mind and keep it occupied. On top of this, each person thinks that only he has got a lot of worries and that only he is unhappy, and everyone else is very happy! But the strange thing is, every one thinks this way! How is this possible?

A small story:

In a certain kingdom, it came to the king's notice that everybody in his kingdom was depressed, because each person felt that they had the maximum worries, To enjoy a worry-less state, you need to first drop your ego about wanting to be a solid entity.

and no one else had any such worries. So the king announced a 'Worry Exchange Offer', where people could bring in their big worries, and exchange them for someone else's small worries.

A big space was made ready, and in the center of it a huge 'worry pot' was placed. Anybody who wanted, could come and dump his own worries inside it, and pick up any other worries they wanted.

The only thing was, they had to pick up some worries.

The whole kingdom gathered for the event. The people moved around and met each other and started talking to each other about their worries.

After a long time, the event was declared open for the worry exchange.

A lot of time passed and not a single person came forward to drop their worries in the pot.

The kings asked his ministers what was happening.

The ministers replied, 'Your majesty, after all that interaction, everyone thinks that their own familiar small worries are much better than everyone else's worries!'

If we get down to the bottom of our so-called worries, we will understand that we are simply magnifying things that are not so bad at all. We simply talk in the air without getting down to the actual facts. If we get down to the facts, it will be not even 1/10th of what you worry about.

Alright, now let us analyze what actually happens inside the mind when you worry.

Just watch your mind when you are worrying about something.

You will see that a continuous stream of thoughts is being generated in your mind - totally disconnected thoughts and usually negative thoughts. An influx of negative and repetitive words will be like a current in your mind.

You see: we all use two kinds of speech – speaking out and speaking in. Speaking out is speaking to others, what we call speech or conversation. Speaking in is speaking to ourselves. Actually, this speaking in is a continuous process that goes on inside us. This speaking in is called 'inner chatter' and this is what is called worry also.

Worry is nothing but this continuous, uncontrolled inner chatter happening in your mind. This inner chatter becomes your master and takes control of you.

Whatever words you speak out, you speak carefully because if not, society will ask you to be careful. But your 'speaking in' is not controlled in any fashion. When words that you speak out, can be controlled, why can't words that you speak in be controlled?

You don't control what you speak inside because you don't have self-respect. You simply say what you wish inside you. Do we throw garbage on a plate of food? No. We throw it only in the garbage can. You treat others like a plate of food and yourself like a garbage can. Because of this, you become indigested.

The dangerous this is, with outer conversations, there will be breaks when no conversation happens.

But the inner chatter is continuous. It can drive you mad! Actually, many times, you speak outside only to escape from your

Worry is nothing but this continuous, uncontrolled inner chatter happening in your mind.

own inner chatter. That is why so much talking goes on in the world! People are afraid to be silent because there is a madhouse inside them. So they meet up, socialize, talk, and keep themselves occupied.

What exactly do we mean by this inner chatter?

Just try this small exercise when you are by yourself. Just sit for a few minutes with your eyes closed. Keep a pen and paper with you. Don't focus your mind on anything. Just witness your mind. Just see what is going on in your mind. Almost as soon as you close your eyes, you will see that there is a continuous stream of thoughts flowing through your mind. Write down honestly, whatever thoughts are there. Just write whatever is going on, however unconnected the thoughts may be. Do this for five minutes.

Now, sit down and read what you have written on the paper. You will be shocked! Whatever you have recorded on the paper is your inner chatter. If you read it, you will see how disconnected, how irrelevant your thoughts are! One moment you will be here; the next moment you will be in America; the next moment you will be in your office; the next moment you will be thinking of your children!

This is the mind you have entrusted your life to! This is the mind that generates all your worries. This is the mind that is living your life for you. If you understand this step, the rest is easy.

A small story:

One day, there was an accident on the road. People gathered around and saw that a brand new car had crashed against a wall. They asked the driver, 'Why are you driving the car if you don't know how to drive properly?'

'Of course I know how to drive,' replied the man, 'I only don't know how to stop.'

The man knew how to drive but did not know how to stop! You are also driving a vehicle which you don't know how to stop. It is a very dangerous thing. Your mind is a like vehicle that you don't know to stop. Just try to stop your inner chatter, even for a few seconds. Can you? When you try to control it, the number of thoughts increases. And you will have one more worry that you have to stop your mind!

You are not driving your mind; your mind is driving you.

To understand worry, we need to have a deep insight into the nature of our minds.

The way to worry is through the mind, and the way out can also be only through the mind. But we keep searching for answers in all the wrong places. We search outside all the time. We think, If I had more money, all my worries would be over! If I was more good-looking… If I had a better job… If… If… If…

The solution cannot be found in outer world things. It can be found only inside ourselves.

A small story:

Buddha had ten thousand disciples whom he used to address every morning.

One day he brought a tightly knotted rope and placed it before them and asked, 'Can someone untie this knot?'

The disciples came forward, pulled and

The way to worry is through the mind, and the way out can also be only through the mind.

pushed the knot but could not undo it. One intelligent disciple came up, looked at the knot for a while and undid it easily.

You have to look at the knot and see how it has been created, then you can undo it. Instead, if you simply pull and push, you will never be able to untie the knot; it will only become tighter.

The same thing applies to our problems also. The problems, diseases, emotions you are struggling with, are nothing but knots in your system. Once you clearly understand how the knots have been created, you can take the right steps to untie them.

Just do this small test: Whenever you feel negative thoughts coming up, look into them and see where they are rising from. You will find that they always rise up from the navel.

Whenever you feel worried, whenever a situation arises that you simply can't handle, the first thing to get affected is also your navel region, your stomach. You can physically feel depression as a weight in your stomach. That is why we always say, 'I can't stomach it; I can't digest it.' This expression is there in all the languages. It is universal.

So, what is the way to be worry-free?

If I ask you how to be worry-free, you will say, 'We should never get worried in any situation Swamiji.'

Just try telling yourself that you should not get worried. What will happen? You will create one more worry of not wanting to worry. Never say, 'Stop worrying'; it is utterly impossible. The only thing you can do is, Stop worrying about your worries!

What do I mean by not worrying about the worry? Just see the worries and don't get perturbed by them, that's all. It is only when you start repeating your worries to yourself, does the actual worry take root. This is what I mean by, 'Stop worrying about your worries.' Don't give life to your worries. Don't feed them with flesh and blood.

When you say, Control the mind, Don't think negatively – it is just like tightening the knot in the rope. Your mind becomes more tense and constricted. This will not help in untying the knot.

When you suppress, the memories of the suppressions go directly to your worry center. When this center is poisoned, all your actions will have an unconscious violence. You will pluck leaves

from trees, you will destroy things, you will misbehave with your body, you will fight with yourself and with others.

These are all subtle expressions of suppression. That is why people say that their stomach is burning with anger or they are feeling heavy in the stomach. The suppressed anger gives rise to more negativity.

Supposing you suffer from a business failure due to some reason, how would you react? You would feel sad that you met with failure; that is ok. But you will not stop at that. You will allow all sorts of things to enter into your head.

Oh, this is my bad period!

Everything I touch is sure to be a failure!

I am good for nothing!

Why am I always so unlucky? And and so on!

This is negativity. This is the root of worry. 99% of our worries are never true. It is just negativity, that's all

99% of our worries are never true. It is just negativity, that's all.

Gradually, this negative chatter solidifies in your being and becomes a negative influence in everything that you do. And you are so unconscious of this solidified thing in you; that is the danger. To make you acutely aware of this in your system itself is a big task because it has become your very nature. You don't see it as something different from you. You feel that is the way.

The clinical name for this negative attitude is depression. Some people are less depressed, some people are more depressed. The more you allow this chatter to consume you, the more depressed you become. The people who are less depressed feel it only occasionally and that too at a lower degree whereas the people who are more depressed feel it most of the time in a severe fashion. But the current is flowing for both.

So depression or negativity is nothing but a collection of negative thoughts, which you speak

Worrying is only a highly reinforced habit.

to yourself. And once you allow such thoughts to enter into your mind, the same thoughts will keep playing back every time you suffer a

small failure. It will keep reinforcing this attitude. After all, worrying is only a highly reinforced habit.

But it is a mere habit and so you can kick it like any other habit! But you don't think it is only a habit; you think it is a solid reality. That is the problem. That is why you are not able to kick it.

Remember: the mind is an excellent recording system. It stores your negative thought patterns, your complexes and your worries. Whatever you teach the mind, it learns and repeats faithfully. This is how you create a solid mental make-up of negativity. So be very careful what you tell your mind. We always take so much care in how we speak to others, but we never care about how we speak to ourselves.

Just like poor eating habits cause cholesterol to accumulate in your arteries, constant worrying causes worries to solidify in your being. In the same way as cholesterol creates blockages in your

arteries, worry creates energy blockages in your energy.

Over a period of time, worrying The mind is an excellent recording system. It stores your negative thought patterns, your complexes and your worries.

becomes part of your nature; it becomes an unconscious act. Even if you reason your worries out, the low mood still remains. Why? Because all your worries, all your anger, you have suppressed over the years, and they are still there as an invisible layer in your being. Worry is the wave that rises from time to time, but depression is the water itself.

How do we go beyond depression or negativity?

Just be aware and alert. Whenever you become aware of a negative thought surfacing, just visually scatter the negative words and see them disperse. If you keep doing this, you will not allow the negative patterns to settle, and with time your mental make-up, your mental programming will change; it will not be negative any more.

If you go beyond inner chatter even for a few moments, you will become more aware, more alive. You will understand that worry is unreal, unnecessary.

If you go beyond inner chatter even for a few moments, you will become more aware, more alive.

Your mind and your thoughts are one and the same. There is no difference between mind and thoughts. Mind is thought and thought is mind. The mind is nothing more than the collection of your thoughts, the continuous flow of ideas. And thoughts are no more than the words that you speak to yourself continuously.

When you worry, allow yourself to enter deeply into it, with acceptance and clarity. Don't be afraid to enter into it. Remember: acceptance is not impotence. Acceptance is a great meditation technique. Acceptance releases a great energy that gives you great clarity and liberation.

When you accept your worries, when you enter deeply into them, you will come to a tremendous understanding that all your worries are just your own creations. You will be able to see how your mind plays and causes tension in you.

When I tell you worry is unnecessary, you can

understand it only intellectually. When it becomes your own experience, you will go beyond worries. Then depression

Acceptance releases a great energy that gives you great clarity and liberation.

cannot touch you. You will go beyond misery*.*

A small story:

When I was staying in Calcutta, taking classes on the Isha Vasya Upanishad, a man came to see me.

He said, 'Swamiji, I have a problem. I don't sleep well at night because I live in an area where there are many street dogs. Every night they start barking, and keep barking till sunrise. I am already a very light sleeper, and I am unable to get any rest because of this noise.'

I told him, 'Go home and try this tonight. When you hear the barking, just drop the anger, the negative feelings that rise up in you. Just listen to the barking sound without resisting. Tell yourself that the dogs are barking, that's all. Don't allow yourself to react to it. The problem is not the barking, but your resistance to it.'

The man went back and tried what I said. After a few days he came back to me and reported, 'Swamiji, I tried dropping my resistance as you said. Instead of thinking, how dare those stupid dogs spoil my sleep, I just relaxed thinking,

The dogs are barking. They are spoiling my sleep…

The dogs are barking…

Some animals are creating some sounds… By the time I came to that sentence, I think I fell asleep. Anyway, I've been having excellent sleep all these days. Thank you Swamiji!'

This can happen with you also. Any situation can be dealt with, if you know how to drop your negativity, if you know how to drop your negative reaction to it.

But the mind is so eager to repeat familiar patterns of inner chatter. It always looks to typecast things. It all the time compares past, present and future and gives birth to worry.

Worries are nothing but familiar dwelling patterns

for our mind. These familiar patterns are called engrams in the field of human psychology . Engrams are the engraved memories

Any situation can be dealt with, if you know how to drop your negativity, if you know how to drop your negative reaction to it.

of the past, which serve as an undesirable resource inside us for all our present and future actions. Because of these stored engrams, we react illogically in the present.

Why can't we take every moment as it is? Why do we need to link the present moment to the past and future? Why should we look for consistency in everything? And when there is no consistency, why is it difficult to digest? This is because we are always looking to frame things with the help of our mental make-up, with the help of our stored engrams; and when we can't, we get worried.

Have you seen me worrying any time? How many of you have asked me how I am able to be blissful at all times? The reason is, I simply live in the moment, that's all. I don't carry the past as a reference in my mind. I don't burden my mind with the future either. Things happen from spontaneity, not from patterns.

Many of you would have seen the river Ganges flow in the Himalayas. It is so beautiful. It appears serene at certain places, turbulent at other places, crystal clear at times and murky at other times. Where a person encounters it, that will be the experience he gets from it. That is spontaneity.

Can two people who encounter the river ever compare notes and complain? How foolish it would be! The river simply flows, that's all! It has no plan. Enlightened masters are like a river. They flow without a plan, just spontaneously, without a worry.

But people come and tell me, 'Swamiji, what you say and do are so contradictory!' People pass judgment on me; they say I am inconsistent. How many of you here have complained at my inconsistent words and behaviour? Come on, raise your hands!

(after a long gap, a few venture...) I am sure most of you would have had this thought at some point in time, just that only these people have had the courage to raise their hands.

Can you say that the Ganges is inconsistent? Can you say that the Ganges should flow in a more orderly fashion? No! That is the way it flows, that's all; you can't pass judgment on it. In the same way, a master also flows. You can't call me inconsistent. I live moment to moment. You live with interconnected and complicated moments. What is the result? You feel burdened and worried.

27 When you have so many moments weighing on you, you will definitely feel heavy. In the same way,

when only the moment is on you, you will feel so light. All your worries are because you connect the present and the future with past patterns. In the whole process, you miss the present, which is actually a gift for you. You continuously miss the present for the sake of the past and the future. Finally, only the future and the past remain, never the present.

These patterns that cause the current of worry have become a life-sustaining element for you.

Two friends went to a cinema theatre to watch a newly released film. One of them noticed that the other was frequently looking at his watch. Finally he whispered to him, 'Are you not enjoying the film?' The friend replied, 'I am. I am just wondering how much more time is left to enjoy.'

Most of us are like this! We are so tuned to worrying, that even if there is nothing to worry about, we worry about how long this state of noworry is going to last! When we are enjoying ourselves, we worry about how much time is left to enjoy. How will we ever enjoy then? When you

are continuously thinking this way, you are keeping yourself in the future all the time. When you do this, you have missed the pleasure of the moment!

Everyone feels important and productive when they harbor worries. Actually, the more a person worries, the more he feels good about himself because he feels he is managing so much worry! That is why most often you will see that when you talk about your worries to someone, they will say, 'Ah! This is nothing; listen to my problems; then you will know what worry is.' People feel superior in shouldering big worries!

By thinking of worries all the time, what is going to happen? Nothing. With your ten worries, an eleventh worry called depression will happen, that's all.

We worry while we work. When there is worry, you cannot work and when you are really working, you cannot worry. Where there is worry, there

cannot be any creativity and where there is creativity there cannot be any worry.*

to God. Creativity comes from the heart. Worry comes from the mind.

By going behind the past or thinking about the future, you miss the present. Spirituality is all about dropping the past and living in the present. Right now, you are accumulating the past. You feel bogged down because of this.

You don't know how to unload your past. You feel that you have to carry it with you. Society has taught you that you have to carry it with you. You are taught to feel guilty if you try dropping it.

Society tells you that you are ungrateful if you drop the past. There is absolutely no need for you to carry your past with you. The people who tell you these things don't know that gratitude is something that you have to feel continuously in you towards Existence and everyone as a whole, and not

Spirituality is all about dropping the past and living in the present.

something that you feel towards isolated incidents in life.

When you drop your past, the present will take you by surprise. Society always

teaches you to enjoy the present as past, never as present. It teaches you to make everything a past and then enjoy it.

I have seen people who go out on holidays – they are all the time with their still camera and video camera. In the most scenic of places, instead of enjoying the nature surrounding them, they will be scrambling with their cameras to capture all the scenes.

They will then go home, wash their film rolls, sit on their sofa inside four walls and enjoy the same scenery through the camera. And they will show all the photographs to family and friends just to tell them that they have visited the places seen in the pictures. But they never enjoyed the places when they were there!

You enjoy the present after making it a past. That is why people say, 'Those were the golden days.' When the days were actually there, you would have surely not thought they were golden. At that time you would have been saying that the earlier days were golden days!

When you are in the present, every moment will become a celebration and you will not be searching for past incidents to celebrate.

Also, it is such a waste of time dissecting the past for worries because you are a new person every moment. Every moment you are evolving; every moment you are getting updated. You are a part of Existence and Existence changes every moment. Then how can you dissect past incidents with your updated intelligence? It is totally irrelevant and meaningless.

Never analyze the past with updated intelligence. It is a totally foolish thing to do. It will only lead to more worry and guilt. Every moment you are dying and becoming a new person. This is the truth.

Have you seen any buffalo or cow worried? Have you heard of any plant that is worried? Are they not conducting their lives without a hassle? Why do you worry then? I tell you: worrying is the most unproductive habit of man.

Never analyze the past with updated intelligence.

All our worries are nothing but a collection of words in the languages that we know. And they cause so much confusion and

misinterpretation in us. But what to do? Words are the only form of communication man is familiar with.

I always tell people: when I say something, you understand it as something else. And that is where the problem starts. Each one carries his own dictionary and interprets the words in his own way.

One man told his wife, 'You know, it is said that over camels are used in a year to make paintbrushes.'

The wife replied, 'Oh God! Is it not amazing to see what they can make animals do!'

The husband says something and the wife understands it as something else. This is how most of us relate. That is why I say, words cause confusion. Sadly, the only form of communication that man knows is words. He gets caught in words and more words.

You see, words will always give rise to more words. But there is a silence or a gap between one word and the other – a tiny gap not perceivable by us; this is the gap we need to be aware of! This is the gap that holds what we are seeking.

This gap is so microcosmic that although we go through it all day, we are blissfully oblivious to it. When I talk, you become intensely engrossed in my speech. Sometimes, I give long gaps between words. I give those gaps for you to absorb and witness the silence, which holds what you are seeking. But invariably what happens? The moment I give gaps, you start getting restless. You start fidgeting with your things or you start looking around and talking, collecting words again!

Real silence is that which is flooded with only awareness and nothing else. It is not just keeping your mouth shut.

Now your mind will start asking, 'How can I stop this inner chatter and thoughts? How can I experience real silence?' This thought will start haunting you and it will become one more worry!

Try to understand: you can never stop the thinking. The thought that you have to stop your thinking

Real silence is that which is flooded with only awareness and nothing else.

itself is another thought! If you forcibly try to be silent for a second, that silence is not the silence we want to achieve; it is just a

forced and dead silence. The silence that we want to achieve is a vibrating and blissful silence, the silence of Existence.

So what is it that needs to be done? Simply watch the mind, that's all. Be an observer. Don't pass any judgments; don't resist any thoughts. Watch it with the deep gratitude that it is God's gift to you. Automatically, silence will happen.

Your awareness will slowly grow and make you centered in yourself and increase the silence in you. When I say increase the silence, I mean your inner chatter will reduce and you will be more of a watcher. With that increased silence, there will be more awareness in you and it will become a cyclic process.

With greater awareness, you will be able to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. It is not that the beauty came in suddenly; it was always there! But you were not aware of it. You were too busy within yourself. Now with your awareness, you will be able to celebrate it! Suddenly, nature will start revealing itself to you as very beautiful. Your inner self will transform, and along with it, the outer world will transform too!

When you learn to be in awareness, you can use your mind at your discretion. It becomes a vital

tool at your disposal. You can use it just when you want to. From being a dangerous enemy, it becomes a reliable friend.

When your inner chatter comes down, when your TPS or Thoughts Per Second comes down for even a split second, for that split second you are totally in the present and for that split second, you have the ability to access your past and future like an open book! When your inner chatter is high, your TPS is high and you are all the time either in the past or in the future; never in the present.

Let me explain to you what I mean by being able to access your past and future. Sometimes you might have experienced that when you are at a lecture or at a party, or in any other place, suddenly out of nowhere, you feel that the whole scene has happened before. The voices, the conversation, the place, even a few curios in the place, all will look like a replay of a scene that you have witnessed earlier. You are shocked.

Or, suddenly you think about a particular person, a friend whom you haven't contacted in a long time, and that person calls up on your phone. You are

able to predict what is going to happen in the next few moments. You feel jolted when these things happen to you. Be very clear: in these few moments, you are accidentally completely in the present. Accidentally, somehow, you fall into the present.

You are never consciously in the present. You are always in the past or future. You move from past to future without touching the present. This is the truth. But accidentally your thoughts per second come down for a moment and you are jolted into the present.

When you are completely in the present for even a second, your past and future become transparent to you. That is why you see these kinds of intuitive things happening in you.

Our thinking is never clear. It is always just association; it is never real thinking.

Let me explain what

I mean by association. You wake up in the morning and see a rose that has bloomed in your

Our thinking is never clear. It is always just association; it is never real thinking.

garden. Immediately your mind goes to someone who gave you a rose sometime in the past. Your thought then goes through your reaction at that time to the flower, or you start thinking about that person. You then start thinking about incidents that have happened with that person. In the end what happens? You miss the rose that is in front of you!

This is how you run behind the past and miss the present. This is what I mean by the word association. This is the nature of your current mental set-up. As long as your mental set-up is mere association, you will continue to go behind the past or the future, creating words and more words within yourself.

Enlightened masters live always in the present. That is why they have access to the vast ocean of the past and the future. For you, it is an accident. It is a split second when this happens to you. You even feel scared when this happens! You are so used to living unconsciously, that when you are jolted into consciousness, it is too much. Reality becomes too much!

Your TPS plays a major role in determining how far you are from the present. When your TPS is high, you live unconsciously; you are so far flung from reality. When your TPS is low, you come close

to the present. Meditation and awareness is the way to bring down the TPS.

People tell me, 'Swamiji, we went for a vacation and it turned out to be hell*.*' I tell you: hell is inside you; you carry it with you everywhere. Obviously you will find it anywhere you go! When you live, you give hell to others. When you die, you get hell! Wherever you go, you want to carry your hell with you. You are so familiar with hell that even if you are shown heaven, you will feel a misfit there!

A small story:

Three fisherwomen went to sell fish one day and it became late that night when they were returning home.

They decided to spend the night in some house on the way.

They entered the house of a lady who sold jasmine flowers for a livelihood and they requested to spend the night there.

The lady agreed and they went to sleep in the room given to them.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the jasmine flowers.

But however hard they tried, the fisherwomen could not sleep.

They were tossing and turning, and they did not know what to do.

Then suddenly, one of them got up, brought in the empty fish basket and kept it by their heads. They went to sleep in no time!

We carry our worries with us everywhere we go and feel comfortable nurturing them! But we also complain that we are so worried all the time! We want to be free from something but we are not willing to transform and be free from it. This is what I mean by being self-contradictory. If we don't want to worry, then we should not worry. On one side we don't want to worry but on the other side, we want to worry all the time!

How can we be free from this? What should be our attitude?

Both questions have only one answer: whatever you do, do with a feeling of bliss, that's all. Your inner space decides the quality of your life. This space should be pure and blissful always.

It has been proven that the consciousness of a scientist plays a major role in the experiment that he conducts. It has been observed that the same experiment when done in the same controlled

environmental conditions produce different results when done by different scientists. They have clearly proven that a person's thoughts control his actions and the results of his actions.

Bliss attracts fortune. This is a great truth. When you are blissful, automatically, Existence showers on you. Material wealth comes to you. Be with a sense of gratitude always. The rest will happen automatically.

Simply decide not to feel miserable about anything. If any worry or guilt or sad incident comes to your mind, just look at it, smile and say, 'No, I am not going to be affected by you. What will you do?' Automatically the incident or guilt will not have any effect on you. By allowing it to attack you, are you going to gain anything? No. By looking at it and saying that you will not let it attack you, you are only avoiding misery. I am not saying to run away from the problem. I am asking you to look at the problem and decide consciously not to react to it.

If you try to suppress the thought, it will keep lurking at the back of your mind and threaten to come back at any time. So allow the thought to surface. But just look at it and say that it is powerless; you will see that it automatically dissolves.

Anything that gives you strength through the body, mind or spirit is spirituality and will automatically take you towards bliss. Anything that weakens you is not spirituality and therefore, just don't pursue it. This is the thumb rule to be followed. Never forget that bliss is your true nature.

One more thing: anything beautiful that you see, experience it instead of just naming it with your knowledge. Have you seen the sunrise and sunset in the ashram or anywhere else? Have you ever stood and watched the beautiful transformation of colours across the sky? Most of us either don't know that the sun is setting or simply say, 'Yes, the sun is setting; so what; it sets everyday anyway!'

Knowledge can mar the innocence and make life dull. When you see the sunset or sunrise, it can be such a beautiful meditation. If you become a part

Anything that gives you strength through the body, mind or spirit is spirituality and will automatically take you towards bliss.

of it, you will see that you are a speck of this tremendous Existence that is celebrating every

moment. You will then participate spontaneously in the celebration!

But we are dulled by our so-called knowledge, which is nothing but again a collection of words. We have collected so many words and we think that these words are the ultimate, and therefore nothing surprises us. Even if God comes to us and says that he is God, we will ask, 'So what?' Everything is taken for granted because of knowledge.

The whole of Existence is taken for granted because of the so-called knowledge. We run behind worldly things that give only more and more greed, worry and fear. These things only disconnect us further from our inner core; they make us look outside instead of inside. They make us sway between depression and joy alternately, instead of being centered upon permanent bliss.

We feel that everything is happening outside and that we have to run to catch it before it is too late. That is why we are always in a hurry, always chattering inside ourselves.

Knowledge is simply data, facts, statistics; it is just dead. Collect knowledge, but don't let it control you in any way. Learn to keep it aside and look at

life with awe. The mind always tries to conclude, summarize, judge, and collect information with whatever it sees. It wants to collect words and more words, that's all. Of what use is it?

I took a couple of devotees to Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna. It was so beautiful. We went in the boat on the river Yamuna, reliving the days of Krishna. I was sharing my joy with the devotees - a pack of highly intellectual people. Here I was recalling the days of Krishna, showing them where Ras Leela happened, and I was filled with such ecstasy, and these devotees were telling me that the tiles in the place look as if they had been renovated! I was shocked. I told them that I should have brought a few people who had lesser knowledge and more awe left in them so I could share my joy with them!

Knowledge is dead at the end of the day. Somehow, people use knowledge to measure a person's worth. The more knowledge you have, the more you are respected.

With knowledge, you are constantly living with your mind. You can never know Existence with your mind.

Spirituality is all about understanding the perfect harmony, the deep connection between man and Existence. When you understand this and drop your struggle, you will just flow like a river. The river will take its course and join the mighty ocean. You just need to let go, that's all.

I don't mean that you can sit in a corner and you will be swept along by some river. I am saying, just do your work with undaunted faith that there is a life force that is conducting this universe that is taking care of you also, that is making the breath in you to go in and out. That is enough.

Simply shift the responsibility to a higher authority and relax. You will then live like a king! You will then start listening to the synchronous music of the flowing river, of Existence taking you, of the harmony between you and Existence. This harmony is what you need to tune into. And then, all your worries will disappear!

Of course, there is no proof that Existence is taking care of us. Certain things cannot be proven. Can you prove that this direction is East? No! Can you prove the phenomena of sunrise and sunset? No! You can only experience it. Because you cannot prove it, can you disprove it? Can you prevent the sun through science from setting and rising everyday?

Understand that Existence is the only thing beyond logic. If you can prove Existence with logic, it means logic is greater than Existence, and this can never be!

One man asked me, 'Swamiji, should I become a Hindu to become spiritual?' I was shocked at the question! I told him that he did not have to become a Hindu. Be very clear: anything that curbs your field of perception is clearly not related to spirituality. Spirituality is always all encompassing.

Drop all your notions of 'I am this' and 'I am that'. Keep your life open. This is the basis for spirituality. It is like this: a person who stays continuously in a locked room will not know about the open air and breeze. He will be having such clannish thoughts. The moment you impose this kind of restriction upon yourself, you will not know about the infinite

Understand that Existence is the only thing beyond logic.

love and compassion that lies within you. You will only worry and complain. You will not blossom.

Buddha was once asked what kind of hell was given to people who were not compassionate. He replied, 'You cannot put them in hell because they are already in hell!' Only when you are in hell, you will create hell for others, because you can give only what you have.

A mother and a son were having a heated argument and she asked him, 'Do you have any brains?'

The son laughed.

The mother asked him why he was laughing. The boy replied, 'Only when you don't have something, you ask others for it!'

We should work with our mind again and again to see what it is that gives us joy or bliss. Be very clear, happiness is different from bliss. Bliss is a

beautiful and intense feeling inside you that makes you feel that you are on a different plane of existence. Happiness or

Bliss is a beautiful and intense feeling inside you that makes you feel that you are on a different plane of existence.

pleasure are most often related to outer world objects and create pain continuously for us as well.

Happiness is relative while bliss is absolute. Bliss is something that has no opposite. When you are in happiness, sadness is just around the corner. When there is a lot of pleasure, you are on the anvil of pain. But when you are in bliss, you simply are and there is no opposite to it. Happiness and pleasure are like pendulums that are bound to sway and reach the other end before coming back. But bliss is not a pendulum; it is beyond duality; it never sways. It just IS.

Again and again, scan your mind and see what it is that gives you joy. Then, start following it. Once something inside you tells you that you are moving towards permanent joy, once you find conviction in yourself, re-position and adjust the matters concerning your life, orienting them towards this bliss. Every action or thought of yours should be towards feeling this bliss. Energy spent will then be energy gained. You will be always energetic.

Some people say that they want to be left peaceful without worries. The peace they are talking about is not a living peace; it is a dead peace. It is a lifeless and dormant peace as a result of not knowing how to handle the richness of life. It is a

peace that they crave because life is too much for them to handle. It is like saying 'sour grapes' and moving away.

Real peace is something that is in you all the time irrespective of what is going on outside; you are simply happy unto yourself; you look at anyone and anything like a passing breeze that kisses you and moves. Whatever may be the person or thing is in front of you, your peace remains with you. People or circumstances do not alter it in any fashion.

Peace is nothing but the bliss that is felt inside yourself. When peace is born out of bliss, it keeps you and others in a peaceful state. Once you have found this peace within yourself, you will never say things like, 'Leave me in peace, I want to be in peace,' etc. The moment you say these things, it means that you are trying to be peaceful at others' mercy, which is not peace at all.

Peace is a solid center that develops within you that keeps you happy unto yourself always. Anything that happens outside will

Peace is a solid center that develops within you that keeps you happy unto yourself always.

be just another incident. You will not even relate it with your peace. The moment you relate an incident with your peace, be very clear; real peace has not happened in you.

In our yearly trip to the Himalayas, some of the participants complain about the hardships and unhygienic conditions. I have told people time and again that just being in the Himalayas is a blessing that not many people get and that they just have to enjoy that and leave the rest as trivia. Somehow, people get perturbed and talk about these things.

On one such occasion, two of the younger disciples were telling me, 'Swamiji, these people are talking about the hardships here and they try not to bother about it, but we can't even see the hardships! We are just enjoying ourselves all the time!' This is what I mean when I say that when you are happy unto yourself, there is no such thing such as 'my peace' or 'your peace'. Whatever is, Is, that's all. You are there, it is there and nothing is related. You simply move on in the same state of peace and bliss.

Complaining is worry-related because you are uneasy and caught up with words. If you see the

wandering mendicants in the Himalayas, with just a small water jug and two sets of clothing, you will know that you don't really need anything more than what you have and therefore there is nothing to complain about.

Why do you complain? Actually, the people who complain are the ones who have been blessed with too many things; they don't know what else to talk about and so they complain! When you have enough and don't have to fight for survival, you will have the time to complain. When your survival is at stake, you will concentrate on your work and not complain, because if you start complaining, who will do your work?

In the Himalayas, it is the survival of the fittest. You have to be alert and aware all the time. There will be landslides that may descend upon you at any time. Suddenly snow will fall and cover up the familiar trails; food and other rations will be suddenly restricted due to non-availability.

Under such circumstances, you should watch the people there. They are such innocent, welcoming and warm people with not a care or complaint. There is a lot to learn from them. They don't see anything amiss; they just live happily that's all. They just re-arrange their activities in accordance with

what's happening around them. They don't worry and they don't complain.

Why don't you just carry on with whatever is available and keep moving? People who have been born and brought up in Bharat, when they go to America and come back, complain about the conditions in Bharat. Starting from the bathrooms to the roads, they complain about everything. It only shows that all your exposure has made you more finicky and complaining, instead of giving you vastness and making you blossom the way you should.

When you understand that you are showered not because you are worthy of it but because Existence simply showers on anyone and anything, you will stop complaining. You complain because you feel you are worthy of something and have not been given that.

Be very clear: no one is worthy or unworthy; no

No one is worthy or unworthy; no one is a saint or sinner.

one is a saint or sinner. It is all in the understanding and moving in tune with nature that makes you a receiver of Existence and its

gifts. It is always a deep understanding that gives you a shift in consciousness.

If you are open, Existence showers. Existence is continuously showering, only we don't know how to receive it. We are so busy collecting words!

When you learn to be with yourself, you can commune with Existence. But we are never with ourselves. We are all the time with people, with noise. We identify ourselves with others, not with ourselves. We feel alone and scared if we are with ourselves.

You were alone in your mother's womb and that is your true nature. But what happened after that? You started thinking that you needed people to make you happy. You laughed with people, cried with them, talked to them, suffered because of them and what not. You don't know how to celebrate with just yourself.

The moment you find yourself alone, you start scrambling inside. Your inner chatter takes over, your worries take over and you start thinking of how to create noise or whom to call up and talk to or whom to chat with on your computer.

You are afraid of looking inwards and so you look outwards. When you become a meditator, you will slowly understand that you don't need to depend on relationships to make you happy. You are enough unto yourself. When you cannot be in peace with yourself, you will remain at the periphery of your being, caught in the so-called relationships.

You need to have a relationship with yourself first. When this is strong and steady, relating to others will become just incidental. Right now, what needs to be at the periphery is seen as the core and what should be the core is treated like the periphery. You have to reverse the situation, for which you have to turn your gaze inwards.

To have a relationship with yourself, you need to have the courage to go behind your mind. You are ready to give appointments to everyone but not to

You need to have a relationship with yourself first. When this is strong and steady, relating to others will become just incidental.

yourself. You give appointments to others because it is ego-fulfilling. You don't give an appointment to yourself because you

are afraid that the truth might surface and you might not be able to take it. You are comfortable searching for bliss in the wrong places and complaining that it is eluding you. If you really want to find bliss, you will find it. But you need courage.

Actually, we are all searching for the same thing… that is bliss. But we are continuously searching for it in the wrong places. If I ask a youngster what it is that gives him happiness, he might readily say 'drugs'. He is also searching for bliss, for everlasting peace, but in the wrong direction!

We have moved so drastically away from our path, that our original thinking system has been completely replaced by negative thought patterns. Our life is drastically different from what it is supposed to be. By consuming drugs, can you find bliss? By consuming drugs, you are escaping from yourself and also, your health will be in trouble.

Taking drugs might sound obviously foolish to you because it is something drastic. It hits the morality scale and so it hits you. But your other subtle activities aimed at finding happiness, are also similar attempts but on a different scale, on a notso immoral scale, so you don't think they are foolish. Whenever you get time, if you do

housekeeping of your mind, you will know what I am trying to say.

Worry can cause you to make a lot of false assumptions. For example, when your son comes home late on just one day, you assume that he has probably been with some bad company and that is why he is late. This becomes a recording inside you. The next time, even if he comes home late after attending classes, this recording in you will surface and you will accuse him.

Your son will not only get frustrated but he might also resort to truly wayward ways simply to defy you. You need to understand that everyone is evolving and fluid and that it is not going to help if you are in your own frame of imagination.

It is easy to live with imagination. But I tell you: 98% of what you believe is wrong. You will realize that there is a big screen between yourself and the other person. If you wear spectacles tinted green,

Everyone is evolving and fluid and that it is not going to help if you are in your own frame of imagination.

you will see the whole world as green.

Mohammed Nabi says, 'When you see the world as

something, that something is You.' You complain to me about someone claiming that you are worried and so you are telling me these things, but actually you are clearly showing your own mind because you see things only as you want to see them, never as they are. When you see only what you want to see, you miss so much.

Let me tell you something that actually happened:

A few years back, I used to travel everyday with the same driver from the ashram to the city center in Bangalore.

One day, I wanted to go to a particular street and recalled the street to the driver by referring to a mosque that was near the street.

He claimed that there was no mosque in that place.

I tried recalling to him a famous hotel near the mosque, but that also he failed to acknowledge.

I finally told him that there was a Hanuman temple in that place.

His face immediately lit up with recognition. He then went to that street and I showed him the mosque that was right there next to the temple and five times as big!

He was shocked.

He was such a staunch Hindu that he had not even seen the mosque in all those months.

Just think of a river: when you put your leg in the river the first time and take it out and put it in the second time, is it the same river? No! The river has changed faces; the same water is not there anymore; fresh water has flowed, has it not?

So don't strive to identify yourself with anything; life is ever changing. Because of your narrow scope of beliefs, your spiritual growth gets curbed. You become like a horse that has only a limited angle view of the road ahead of it. A broad perspective is needed in life.

Our forefathers gave us a lot of food, but not the tongue to taste it. It is up to us to experience this world with joy. The joy is in the way you experience it, not in the outer world objects themselves. This has to be very clearly understood. Your mental setup is what makes your life joyful or miserable.

When you have a clean mental set-up, you will never worry. Only when you are confused with complex thought patterns and words, you will be worried. I always tell people: when you are not sure of yourself, you will be worried about where the planets are! You will start analyzing which planet is centered where and how it is influencing you. The actual problem is you are not centered.

Work on your mind when you have time. Look in and house-keep it. After all, you are with your mind 24 hours of the day, are you not?

I have seen people who maintain their houses so beautifully. They use the vacuum cleaner and clean the carpet till it gets a hole in it! What about cleaning the house in which you are living 24 hours - your mind? You are with it 24 hours; every single thought or action of yours involves it.

You bring in Vaastu Shastra, Feng Shui etc. which are all sciences to keep the space inside your house in a pure and energized condition. But you fail to understand one thing: you need to continuously energize your home only because you are contaminating it with your negativity.

When you contaminate the space in your house with collective negative thoughts, with your worries, the space starts radiating the negative thoughts back to you. You get caught in a vicious circle of negativity the moment you enter your house.

How many times have you felt that you are perfectly alright until you entered your house? The moment you enter, you feel gripped by a force of familiar negative thought patterns. This is nothing but your own thoughts that you have managed to fill your house with. What do you then do? You call an expert in Vaastu shastra to change the layout of the house, or call a temple priest to perform some fire ritual and cleanse the house or you apply Feng shui ideas to your house.

When these things are done with sincerity, they will no doubt be useful. But you have to understand one thing: these are only supplementary methods. The actual thing is, to clean your own self and radiate a blissful mental set-up so that automatically, the space in which you live radiates that.

A man was asked what the difference was between his past and present.

He replied, 'Earlier I used to sit on the floor on a mat and eat. Now I sit at a table.'

You see, in the past and the present, his mouth is the same. If there is no radical change in you, your life will seem only this much different. Just as beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, taste lies in the tongue that experiences it. Your mental set-up defines the taste of your life.

Most often, we know that we need to change but somehow we fall back comfortably in the present set-up of ours. We get caught in the same wheel again. One side of us tells us that we need to change and the other side unconsciously slips into the familiar patterns again. Even if you are presented with many opportunities to change, you feel cozy in your present state and choose to remain there.

If you live with a solid mental set-up, there is a great danger in it: There is every possibility that your children will imbibe it from you.

I am reminded of a joke:

A husband and wife were both pick-pockets by profession.

They would often discuss that if they had a child, it would be very prosperous!

Soon, they had a baby.

The newborn baby however had its right hand closed very tightly. They could not get it to open it.

The doctor attending to it tried all sorts of things and finally took out his gold chain and dangled it in front of the baby's eyes.

The baby slowly opened its hand and inside it was the mid-wife's gold ring!

This is only a joke, but understand that as parents, you have every possibility of passing on your mental set-up to your children. So be aware every moment and work on your consciousness; work on cleaning the inner chatter and framework inside you.

We always try to control children and make them into puppets. Children are wild energy. We try to box that energy so that it becomes convenient for us to handle.

A small story:

Two dogs were walking down the road. The first one said, 'My name is Sandy. What is yours?'

The second one paused awhile and said, 'I think mine is No, No Roger.'

The dog's owner must have kept telling the dog, 'No, no Roger,' for everything that the dog did! The dog had started thinking that its name was No, no Roger! Just like this dog, children also start absorbing and learning from our words and body language. When children are very young, they refer to our words and actions subconsciously and take them to be the truth. So when you are with children,

be even more aware, try to keep their intelligence alive instead of trying to blindly control them.

Mothers are continuously trying to do this. For example, if it rains, the mother will tell the children to get into the house because they might catch a cold. If she does this a few times, automatically the child will think of a cold when it sees rain. Even if it drizzles, the child will start sniffing.

Actually, man's body is the most intelligent, selfcorrecting, auto-immune system. But somehow, we trust our mind rather than the inherent intelligence of our body. There starts the problem and all our worries.

A small story:

A father camel was explaining to the son camel the body structure of their species. He said, 'You know, we have humps in our body to store water for a few days when we are in the desert.'

The son asked, 'Why are our eye lashes so long?'

The father replied, 'To protect our eyes from sand storms.'

The son then asked, 'Why do we have such bulbous feet?'

The father replied, 'So that we can travel fast in the desert.'

'Dad*,*' asked the son, 'what are we then doing in this zoo?'

You see, our body has been designed so beautifully! If we just allow it to run on its natural intelligence, it will function well. The moment you impose conditionings on the body, you start experiencing difficulties.

In the Himalayas, the sadhus, wandering mendicants, live inside caves. They are the healthiest people ever. Come sun or rain or snow, they continue to live; their body adjusts itself to the prevailing conditions. We just have to trust nature and our own immune system. But somehow, we keep imposing our worries and our mental makeup on our body. This is the root cause for all our diseases.

A master is one who can give you a new mental set-up, a rebirth. He gives it just by his presence. If you are in the master's presence, it is enough. It will happen. When the master's energy floods you, your mental set-up changes, you are reborn. You enter into a space that you never even knew existed.

When you are reborn in this fashion, you will be free from the grips of all types of emotions. You will be able to handle them with such ease that you never knew before. You will become just an observer of everything that is happening around you.

I was watching the television the other day in a hotel where there was a meditation workshop. A particular Hindu channel was showing a duet song from an old movie. Another Hindu channel showed another duet song from a new movie. I was telling my secretary that these two channels only showed that there has been no real growth in human consciousness over the years.

The same patterns are repeated again and again like five people kicking a ball around in a closed room. Familiar patterns make our intelligence dead. Even our worries are nothing but familiar patterns stored in our minds, ready to impose themselves upon us again and again.

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, cross-legged 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

When you are in the present, you will move in tune with Existence. When you are in the present, Existence itself will teach you.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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!

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

When you are spontaneous, you will never be challenged for even a moment.

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

When you plan chronologically and work towards realizing your chronological plan without loss of time, you are on the path of reality.

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 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

All you need to do is look at the problem with deep awareness, and the solution will stand out.

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.'

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.

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.

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

The only way to be relaxed always is to be aware all the time of every single thing happening inside and outside yourself.

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 are 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.

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

The first step to bliss is to become a watcher. Simply watch life as if it were a drama.

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

Existence is trying to express itself continuously in many ways. Our role is to understand and flow with it with deep awareness.

together.

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.

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.

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.

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

It is therefore very important that you have positive thoughts and a worry-free mental set-up. 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, selfcontradictions disappear and you start becoming integrated. When you start becoming

When you start becoming integrated, your intelligence grows more.

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!

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 you 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.

Addiction to anything is an unconscious or mechanical process.

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.

People tell me, 'Swamiji, it is very inspiring to listen to you talking. Now we have to apply it in our dayto-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 wholeheartedly.

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.

When words emanate from the heart, they touch the heart of the other person and this is called 'communion'.

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

Just being around a master in silence and absorbing him is what brings about actual transformation in you. 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.

The Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya is a meditation technique taken from ancient Christianity. Known as glossolalia, the technique was further adapted by the Sufis as 'gibberish'. This technique will empty you of your deeply engraved negative mental patterns and worries. It will clear all your suppressed emotions of anger and worry. Once you do this technique, you will feel very light in the manipuraka chakra, the energy center located in the navel area, the area of your worries and complex mental patterns.

This technique should be done on an empty stomach, or at least 2 hours after a major meal.

Stand with your eyes closed. Go deeply into your navel region and feel how heavy the area feels. It holds all your worries. Focus on your this region for a minute. Just try to feel all the pent up anger and worry inside you due to various reasons.

Now, just start making nonsensical sounds from the navel area, as loudly as you can. Do not use words to shout. If you use words, only familiar and recent emotions will surface and also words will give rise to only more words without actually working on the emotions behind them. Shout absolute gibberish; only this will open out the unconscious in you; only this will open out the deeply hidden emotions. Wave your hands, shout, scream; if tears flow, let them flow.

Do it with all your might, to vomit out all your negative feelings. Recall the painful incidents. Visualise the persons involved and feel the emotions involved in those incidents. Bring out all the emotions. Become completely immersed in them. Be aware of nothing else.

At the end of twenty minutes, stop. With your eyes closed, sit down in silence for the next 10 minutes. Just be a witness to your thoughts. Feel the lightness in your navel region. You will find that it

is light and blissful. Your whole being will be very light and free.

Slowly, very slowly, open your eyes.