Change With Shakti Or Accept With Buddhi?

Now, the big question arises, 'When a situation arises in my life, how will I know whether to change it using my energy or accept it using my intelligence? What is the scale?'

I will give you a practical scale to measure whether you are struggling, wasting your energy in trying to change things which cannot be changed, or whether you are living smoothly, accepting the things that can't be changed. This one scale is very important.

Early morning, when you get up from your sleeping state and start moving, when you get up from your deep sleep

state and start moving to the waking state, if your transition between the deep sleep

state and waking state is very smooth, please understand, your life is going very smoothly.

You are accepting whatever needs to be accepted, you are changing only whatever needs to be changed. You are not struggling. If the transition is very disturbing, please understand, now you need to learn more acceptance. You don't need to express energy. Now all you need is acceptance.

Let me define this very clearly. It is a very deep, subtle and mystical point. I can say it is a very practical point. Early morning, when you move from deep sleep state to the waking state, after coming to the waking state, you will have either of two kinds of feelings. Sometimes when you come to the waking state, you think, 'Oh God! I could have been sleeping. That was a wonderful state.' Or you may feel, 'Oh God! Such a terrible dream! It was such a torture. I am so glad I have woken up.' Especially after a nightmare, when you come out, you feel, 'Oh God! It was such a horrible state. I am so happy now!'

If you feel that in both the deep sleep and the waking state, you are completely relaxed and settled, nothing else needs to be done. Just relax, you are in the right zone. You are expressing the right amount of energy, and the right amount of intelligence. You are changing what you can, and you are accepting what you can't. You are in the right mode.

If you feel more happy and connected in the waking state, and if you feel low in the deep sleep state, you need energy, meaning you need to change a few things.

Sometimes people come and complain to me, 'Swamiji, last night a ghost was sitting on my chest and trying to suffocate me.'

Understand, no ghost can trouble you. You are actually more powerful than any ghost. Some people have a psychological feeling of being suffocated in deep sleep state. That is what they describe as a ghost sitting on their chest and suffocating them. If you experience suffocation in the deep sleep state and are relieved to be in the waking state, if you are more happy and connected to the waking state and feel disturbed in the deep sleep state, be very clear, you need to change many things in your life. You need to use your energy and not intelligence. You need to change things now.

If you are relaxed in the deep sleep state and the moment you come to the waking state, you feel disturbed or stressed, then understand that you need to use your intelligence. You don't need to change things. You just need to relax and accept whatever cannot be changed.

Especially in the West, they say ninety percent of the heart attacks occur in the morning hours. They call it Monday morning blues. It happens due to stress and manifests as suffocation when one wakes up. Now one needs to use buddhi, intelligence. We don't need to change things. We need to start relaxing.

This is the scale to measure whether you need to work to change things or relax and accept things. Just observe how you feel the moment you wake up every morning. You can find out if you are more relaxed and settled in the deep sleep state, or in the waking state. This is a very practical sutra (technique) to recognize whether you need to use more shakti - energy or buddhi - intelligence. Any seeker in spirituality has a conflict between these two ideas.

Many people after sharing their problems with me ask, 'Swamiji, this is my situation. Should I accept

this as God's will, or should I fight it out? Tell me Swamiji.'

Please understand, I can only give you the technique. You need to find the solution yourself.

Analyze yourself every morning. If you are more stressed in the waking state, it means that you are fighting too much. You need to use your intelligence. Just relax and start accepting things as they are.

If you feel more stressed or suffocated in the state of deep sleep, in the unconscious zone, then you don't need acceptance. You need the fighting spirit. Begin to change things. With this one technique, you can take a decision within twenty four hours whether to fight or accept life as it happens.

And one more thing: I am responsible for what I am talking. I have used this technique not only on myself, but also on thousands of disciples. It works. This is the method to understand whether to fight with things or accept things as they happen in our life.

Just sleep on a problem at night. Observe how you feel when you wake up the next morning. If you feel suffocated, then it is time to use your energy to fight and change things. If after waking up, you feel stressful, then it is time to relax, to use intelligence.

Understand, your intelligence is more intelligent than you think.