11. You Are Not Who You Think You Are!

All our comparison with other people begins with what we think of ourselves. Jealousy disappears when we understand our uniqueness. We may then create another problem. We may believe ourselves to be so special that we start taking ourselves far too seriously.

What is seriousness?

Seriousness is nothing but paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else. It arises from the inability to see that all of life is just a drama that is unfolding every minute. Seriousness is the result of over-expectation from life.

A small story:

Two boys were building sand castles on the beach. They suddenly had a quarrel and one of the boys got angry and kicked the sand castle.

The other boy went and complained to the king about his serious problem. The king began to laugh at him for getting so upset over silly sand castles. But the king's advisor, a Zen monk, started laughing at the king.

He asked, 'When you can fight battles and lose sleep over stone castles, why do you laugh at these boys for fighting over sand castles!'

All our seriousness is just about sandcastles! For the child, at that young Seriousness is paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else.

age, sand castles seem precious, whereas at our age, stone castles seem precious, that's all. Whether it is a sand castle or a stone castle, the seriousness behind it is the same. The object may be different, but the seriousness is the same. So don't laugh when children fight over sand castles.

Seriousness closes your mind to the openness and freedom of life. It makes you dull and dead. It curbs your thinking and makes you stick to the familiar patterns that you know and use all the time.

A small story:

In a Zen monastery, there was a competition among disciples over who had maintained the best garden. One disciple was of a very serious nature. He took the competition quite seriously. He always kept his garden neat, clean, and well-swept. All the grass was of the same height. All the bushes were neatly trimmed. He was sure that he would get the first prize.

On the day of the competition, the master went around all the gardens. Then he came back and ranked the gardens. This disciple's garden got the Seriousness kills spontaneity. Seriousness destroys creativity.

lowest ranking. Everyone was shocked. The disciple

could not contain himself and asked, 'Master, what is wrong with my garden? Why did you rank me the lowest?'

The master looked at him and asked, 'Where are all the dead leaves? A garden maintained in such a way is no longer alive! It is dead.'

Seriousness kills spontaneity. Seriousness destroys creativity.

Science has proved that when you perform a task in a relaxed and light manner, your thinking and decision-making capacity is automatically enhanced. The same task when performed in a serious manner dulls your mind. When you do something too seriously, when you are too concerned about the result, you are actually not allowing yourself to perform at the optimum level.

Of course, you need to make plans, and you need to think ahead. But do it with sincerity, not with seriousness. Seriousness is not the same as sincerity. Sincerity is focusing on the task with enthusiasm and youthfulness. Sincerity is giving the task your best without worrying excessively about the result! When you are serious, you don't enjoy, you don't laugh. How can you laugh when you are serious!

Be sensitive. Being sensitive means being strong, being aware of everything. Understand, being sensitive does not mean being open to everything. Being unable to say 'no' does not mean sensitivity. That is actually ego! The person who is not able to say 'no' when he needs to is egoistic. Sensitivity is having the clarity about when to say 'yes' and when to say 'no' and having the sincerity and courage to follow that decision.

Perfectionism always comes from your mind. It becomes a goal for you. You work towards it as a goal. When you work towards it as a goal, it becomes dead and mundane. But when you are total, when you are established in your heart, it becomes a deep experience. The outcome has to be beautiful, and it will give you joy. Then, whatever you do, you will be in tune with Existence. Whatever you do, do it wholly, totally, and it will be total. You won't have to worry about perfectionism at all.

Perfectionism never gives you joy. It only fulfills your ego. Even if you feel fulfilled at the end of it, it is only a fulfillment of your ego, never a fulfillment of your being. Be very clear, perfectionists are the biggest egoists. They miss the dimension of being total. Totality is possible when you enter into something deeply. Perfectionism is never possible because it is in your mind, and your mind keeps changing its definition of perfection!

Learning from mistakes

Have the courage to make mistakes. Serious people are always afraid to make mistakes. They take themselves too seriously. They think too much about themselves. It is too much to make mistakes and have someone point it out to them. Actually I tell you, these people who are afraid of making small mistakes, end up making big blunders!

Actually, when you make a mistake, people point it out, and you are not able to bear it. Your ego gets hurt and you are very sensitive to this. So to avoid getting your ego hurt, you try your best not to make mistakes.

You plan so unconsciously and continuously to keep guarding your ego. But the reasons you give are all different. It is not that you are lying. It is just that you are not aware of the subtle way in which your ego works.

There is nothing wrong with making mistakes. In fact, by making a few mistakes, you come to know clearly how to avoid making mistakes because you have experientially understood it. The more you learn from mistakes, the more you know about how not to make mistakes. Do things to the When you are free from ego, you will act with freedom and courage. You will be willing to explore.

best of your intelligence and enthusiasm but without worrying about whether you might make a mistake. The moment you are worried that it might be a mistake, you are worried about your ego getting hurt.

Synchronicity of Existence

When you are not so concerned about your ego getting hurt, you will have the courage to take any jump. All your so-called worry is actually about your ego getting hurt. When you are free from ego, you will act with more freedom and courage. You will be more willing to explore.

When you are full of wonder for Existence, you can create. On the other hand, when you are full of ego, you cannot create. Even if you do create, your creation will be a dead creation. It will be like a plastic rose that looks perfect but lacks fragrance and life. When an artist creates out of love, he gives a certain special quality to the creation. If he creates out of ego, the creation is lifeless.

Your logic gives you the feeling that your life is under the control of your logic.

When you are able to resonate with the whole of Existence, you can see every

single thing in life as a manifestation of Existence. When you are in this state, you get whatever you seek, because you are moving in tune with Existence. Life then becomes a miracle. This is what we call the synchronicity of Existence.

When you are resonating with Existence, you will not seek things in a greedy manner. Existence will simply keep giving you what you need for that moment, even before you seek it. This is what I mean when I say, 'Whatever you seek, you will find.'

The more you lose yourself to Existence, the more egoless you become. The more egoless you become, the more you lose yourself to Existence.

Most of us unconsciously believe that life is filled with incidents that are under the control of our logic. But life again and again reminds you of the truth that life is beyond your logic. You are reminded of this fact, especially when some near and dear friend or family member dies or when something unexpected happens. If you lose your job, suddenly you see that life is not under your control. You suddenly wake up to the reality that life is beyond your logic. Then you start seeking the Truth.

Especially if you live in the city, your routine is almost fixed. From morning until night, you know exactly how your day will unfold. You know where you will go, what you will do or not do, and what and when you will eat.

Practically, your ego gives an idea, your logic gives you the feeling that your life is under the control of your logic. That is why whenever some incident happens that is beyond your logic, that is not under your control, you are totally shaken. You are not able to handle it. You don't know what to do. Either you fall into depression or you just suffer.

There is an important truth, an ultimate secret that you must understand. Never think things are going smoothly because of you. In spite of you, things are going smoothly! This is one of the important secrets. As long as you think it is because of you that things are going smoothly, you will be constantly suffering with ego.

According to the Upanishads* , as long as you think that life has a purpose and you run behind that purpose, you are an egoistic person. When you realize the beauty of the purposelessness of life, you have dropped your ego. The master is the one who makes you understand the purposelessness of life. Whatever you think of as being worthy now is not actually the true and worthy thing. A man with ego searches with purpose and misses reality.

Death clearly shows that whatever mind you lived with has no real existence. When you realize the purposelessness of life, a new consciousness starts blossoming in you. The moment you experience that there is nothing to be achieved, that the diamonds you are protecting are not diamonds but stones, and that all your great things in life are mere toys, you will understand the purposelessness of life.

The real purpose of life cannot be understood by the ego. When the ego is dropped, you will understand the Divine purpose of life, the leelas or the Divine play, you will enjoy the drama. If you keep thinking that life has a purpose and wait to achieve something, you will miss life itself.

Life itself is the path and the goal. Life itself is the path and the goal.

When you have a goal, you will run. Your feet will not touch the ground and you will miss the beauty of Existence or nature. When you drop the goal, the emphasis will be on the path.

When you understand the purposelessness of life, you understand the meaning of living. Until then, you are just a 'living dead' person. A person in a coma lying in the hospital bed and a normal person who has not realized the Truth, both live without proper consciousness. The master is the one who makes you realize this truth. The meaning of living is the meaning of life or Existence.

Drop the goal and enjoy life. Meditate on this teaching again and again. The Truth will dawn on you and the nithya ananda* state will flower in you, the state that is the very meaning of life.

The solid feeling of 'no'

Many times you may have seen, whenever someone says something to you, the first reaction inside you is a certain resistance, a 'no'. When you say 'no', it is ego-

Upanishad - Scriptures that form the essence of the ancient texts of the Vedas. Literally means 'sitting with the master'. There are eleven main Upanishads that have been commented on by enlightened Master Adi Shankara. Nithya ananda - Eternal bliss.

If your enemy is big, you feel big.

fulfilling. You feel solid and firm inside yourself. When you

say 'yes', you feel liquid and vulnerable. Your ego feels submissive, which is uncomfortable, so you say 'no'.

This is also why you feel good when you break rules at home, school, in the workplace, or while driving. You feel boosted in ego when you say 'no' to rules. You can see this with small children. The moment you say they are not meant to have certain things, they will ask only for those things!

Ordinary Vs Extraordinary

Whenever you try to live for your ego, you make your life and others' lives miserable. Most of the time the miseries you face in your life are not created by others. They are unknowingly created by you. You may not even derive any benefits from them. But just to prove your ego, you create them.

A small story:

An enlightened master, Suzuki, lived in Japan. When his master passed away, he started weeping profusely. One person asked him, 'You are an enlightened person. Why are you crying on your master's passing away?' Suzuki replied, 'My master was the most extraordinary man on planet earth.' The person was puzzled and asked him, 'What was so extraordinary about him?'

Suzuki replied, 'I have never seen such an extraordinary person who thought he was the most ordinary man!'

In ordinary life, every average person thinks he is extraordinary. When you feel that you have undergone the maximum suffering, your ego feels good that you have been able to handle a tough life. Only when your enemy is big, you feel big. When your enemy is small, you feel small.

For the same reason, if your suffering is big, you feel good. Your ego feels satisfied. You measure life with the amount of your suffering. Unknowingly, you torture others as well as yourself. Suzuki's master was extraordinary because he thought he was the most ordinary, whereas in this world, every other person thinks he is extraordinary.

A small story:

There was a king in Bharat who was very egoistic. His ego had grown to such a great extent that he started declaring, 'I can do everything god does. I am greater than god.' If someone objected to his view, immediately he would give the order, 'Kill him'.

There was an enlightened master in that kingdom. When he came to the capital, he heard about the egoistic attitude of the king and wanted to show the king the truth. He went to the court and started praising the king, 'O king, you are equal to god. You are god'.

The king was very happy and said, 'Yes, you seem to be an intelligent person. Tell us what more you have realized.' The master said, 'O king, I have to tell you an important thing. There are some things you can do that even god can't do!' Now the king was floating with pride. He said, 'Please tell us what it is that I can do that even god cannot!'

The master replied calmly, 'O king, if you are angry with somebody you can send him out of your kingdom, but god cannot!'

God cannot send us out of His kingdom. The kingdom of god, enlightenment, the vibrant silence, is our birthright!

If you want to check whether you are average or not, do this experiment. If you feel extraordinary, be very clear: you are average. If you feel ordinary, you are extraordinary!

Using the right mask

You all play different roles, use different masks in your day-to-day lives. You use one mask with your mother, a different mask with your father, a different one with your boss and so on. As long as you use the right masks with the right people, it is If you feel ordinary, you are extraordinary!

use the wrong mask with a person, be aware that your ego has stepped in.

alright. The moment you

All you have to do is switch masks efficiently and enjoy the show. Then you are a watcher. You can do this only when you know that you are something beyond the mask. Otherwise, you will get carried away by the mask and lose the whole charm of life. When you know that you are only using masks, your desires drop.

Just like when you grow up, you automatically drop your toys, in the same way, when you look at these masks intelligently, you don't have any desire for them and simply use them as needed.

Ego is born from discontentment

If you are a strong egoistic person, you don't need a separate hell because the mind can exist only in conflict and discontentment. With contentment, with satisfaction, you will lose your boundary. That is why you don't want joy or bliss. Please never think you want bliss. No! Actually you are afraid of joy and bliss. Whenever you go through a peaceful, noworry feeling, just watch yourself. You feel you are missing something when there is nothing to think about! Unless you have something strong to brood over, you don't have a clear-cut boundary in your inner space.

Your mind exists when it hits the corners of your suffering. You don't feel your boundary or your identity unless you have enough suffering. If you look a little deeper, you will understand that many times you feel lonely if you don't have anything to worry or suffer about. That is the way you believe yourselves to be, because by its nature, the mind can record only negative things. The mind can flourish, it can create more thoughts, it can more clearly identify with suffering, dissatisfaction and discontentment. The quality of joy is boundarylessness. When you are in joy, you won't feel your boundary. Whenever you don't feel your boundary, you are in a state of joy, in a satisfied and contented mood.

Suffering leads to Ego

Your ego cannot exist without your suffering. Suffering is the root of your ego. This is an important thing you need to understand. We always think that the ego is disturbed by suffering. No! Ego is enriched by suffering. One more important thing is that if your suffering is less, your ego is less. You feel you are too small, so you increase your suffering so that you can feel you are somebody.

The less the suffering, the lesser is the ego. The more you suffer, the stronger your ego becomes. So you always exaggerate your suffering. The problem is that after some time you forget that you exaggerated. Then you are also caught in the same net. You might disagree and say, 'No, you don't know my life. You don't know my suffering.' But be very clear, after some time you are caught in the same net that you yourself created!

You can only enjoy yourself without Ego

Only when you don't have ego can you really enjoy yourself. If you have ego, you can't enjoy. Standing in front of the mirror, you may apply makeup so that others will enjoy you, but you can't enjoy yourself. Only a person who does not have ego, who does not identify with the body and mind, can enjoy himself. If you think something is yours, you can't enjoy. For anything that you think of as yours, you have lost the freedom to enjoy that thing or relationship!

Ego and the connection with Nature

This is an incident from the days right after my enlightenment when I was in Tamil Nadu in South Bharat.

One evening, I was sitting in a very relaxed mood in a forest. My eyes were open, but I was not seeing anything, as there was no information going inside and getting processed. There was a huge snake lying about three feet in front of me. Because the eyes were not processing any information, there was no fear inside. I was sitting and the snake was also so relaxed and comfortable.

Then slowly, my mind came down to the normal plane and I had a thought, 'Oh, there is a snake.' Then the next thought came, 'I should move away.' The moment the thought 'snake' came in my inner space, I saw very clearly that the snake also felt disturbed that there was a man in its presence.

Until I felt 'There is a snake,' the snake never felt that I am a man. Until I felt the fear, the snake never felt threatened by me. Neither did I have fear nor did the snake have fear. But the moment I had fear, the snake also got fear. It was

When your ego becomes strong, your ability to connect with Nature is disturbed.

thought 'snake' came in me and I was clearly able to feel there was a disturbance, a restlessness, in the snake's inner space. The moment I had the thought 'I should move', the moment I had the fear, immediately the snake also felt the same insecurity, the same threat. Immediately, the snake started moving, even before I started moving.

When your ego becomes strong, your ability to connect with Nature is disturbed.

We all have two identities, the identity that we project to the outer world, and the identity that we believe to be us in the inner world.

The identity that you believe to be you inside your mind is called mamakar in Sanskrit. It will always be much smaller than what you really are. You will carry or remember all your failures, past mistakes and guilt, constantly trying to work on them.

Mamakar - Inner ego that constantly says you are smaller than what you think you are.

The identity that you project to the outer world is called ahankar. Ahankar is your visiting card. You print on it everything that you want others to know about yourself. This is based on the identity you show to the outer world. It will always be more than what you have, more than what you are. It will always be much more than what you are because you think you have to sell yourself. It becomes a basic need to do this, especially in the societies where you have to market yourself.

Ahankar will be based on a superiority complex. Mamakar will be based on an inferiority complex. Ahankar will be based on fear. Mamakar will be based on greed.

A small story:

A man arrived home after giving a series of leadership talks to groups of employees at a company. His wife asked, 'How did the talks go?'

The man replied, 'Okay, I guess. But I am not sure how many people understood what I said.' The wife asked, 'Why do you feel that way?'

The man said, 'Because I don't understand it myself!'

The identity that you show to the outer world will always be based on fear. This is why it will always be more than what is true about you. You will constantly try to keep it alive. The identity that you carry in the inner world is based on greed. This is why you always try to develop the identity that you carry inside you. You constantly work on the identity that you believe is you and continuously try to chisel it.

Your life is nothing but the fight between these two worlds. The conflict between ahankar and mamakar, the conflict between the personality that you show to the outer world and the personality that you reveal in your inner world is called 'tension'. The uneasy feeling between these two identities creates dis-easeness.

Both the identities, ahankar and mamakar, are pure myths, both are lies! You are something beyond these two identities.

If you spend your whole energy expanding ahankar, the identity that you project to the outer world, your life becomes materialistic. People who work on mamakar are constantly working on their personality, trying to create some identity to feel satisfied about. If you spend your whole life chiseling and developing mamakar, the identity that you think is you, your whole life becomes moralistic and suppressing.

Ahankar - The false identification of the pure inner self with the outer world. A form of ego that makes you project a false identity of you to the outer world.

Mamakar - Inner ego that constantly says that you are smaller than what you think you are.

The basic truth is that you are much more than these two identities. When you unclutch from these two identities, you will suddenly realize that you are beyond the two identities. When that happens, these two identities can never bind you again.

Inferior Ego

Low self-esteem means showing yourself or imagining yourself to be less than what you are. High self-esteem is imagining yourself to be much more than what you are. Again, this is also based on the opinions of others. You judge yourself based on your lifestyle rather than your life. You weigh yourself by the cars and real estate you have purchased, not by the quality of consciousness you have achieved.

The big problem is that you don't know how to remove your personality and go to the next personality. You don't know how to use personalities like coats. You are caught in one personality.

Using the wrong personality in the wrong place is what I call ego. Understand, if you are arrogant and violent where you need to be polite and humble, it is being egoistic. If you are polite and humble where you need to be courageous, you are Using the wrong personality in the wrong place is what I call ego.

egoistic. Und-erstand, we always think, 'If I am very humble how can I be egoistic?' Be very clear, ego standing on its head is also ego. It is called 'inferior ego'.

An incident from the life of Ramana Maharishi* :

One of Ramana Maharishi's disciples translated one of his books into another language. In the translation, inside the book, his name was also published as the translator.

When the disciple saw the book, he was shocked to see this. He went to the concerned authorities and scolded them for this mistake. He then went and told Ramana Maharishi, 'Bhagavan, they should not have put my name. I don't feel my name should be publicized. I am not that kind of person.'

Bhagavan said, 'The ego that asks for the name to be there and the ego that asks that the name not be there are one and the same. Relax.'

Be very clear, the inferior ego that is trying to show humbleness is also ego.

With a superiority complex, with a violent aggressive ego, at least society will teach you. This ego is very visible. With the humble ego, you will escape from society. That is more dangerous. It is a cunning ego that can nicely save itself.

Active Ego Vs Passive Ego

The active ego is easy to recognize. People with an active ego will behave in a highhanded fashion; they will claim selfimportance openly. They will be arrogant. This ego is actually easy for a master to deal with. He just needs to bang on it a few times and it will break!

A small story:

A psychiatrist asks his patient if he is suffering from fantasies of selfimportance. The man replies, 'Absolutely not. In fact, I think much less of myself than I really am!'

A person with an active ego will not be willing to let go of it at any cost.

Passive ego is very subtle and cunning. People who have a passive ego will pose as being very humble, lacking courage to face people, and shying away from taking credit. The worst part of this is that they think they are like this because they are not egoistic. Actually, they are so carefully guarding their ego from getting hurt by unconsciously thinking they are humble!

People with active ego are like dried, hard twigs. They can be broken easily. People with passive ego are like fresh, green twigs. Each time their ego is hit, they bend but don't break! Their ego is so well safeguarded that it becomes difficult to deal with. Actually, they work very hard to safeguard it but in a sweet and passive way.

You care so much about others' reactions and opinions towards you. You cannot bear to suffer hurt to the ego that you have nurtured so carefully all these years. This ego is your very anchor point. If it is jolted, you will feel anchorless. So, with the excuse of being humble and obedient, you keep quiet. You miss one more opportunity of exposing your ego in the master's presence. You miss one more opportunity to take a big step towards flowering.

Social Ego

There is one more play of ego that we all nurture so well. It is called 'social ego'. You feel that your life is highly private to yourself and that no one should be let into it. You are afraid that your whole image might come crashing down and there will be nothing to prop you up in society. This is social ego. It is more of an identity for you to experience than for others! If you can show yourself to the world just as you are, you will be more relaxed because then there will be no pressure to cover up anything.

A small story:

Once a candidate running for a political office finished a speech and sat down. A man sitting next to him asked, 'Sir, would you like to have a drink? We have hard drinks as well.'

The man replied, 'First I need to know if this is an inquiry or an invitation!'

Because of our social ego, we are always self-conscious. We think people are looking at and talking about us all the time. When you are self-conscious, you are egoistic. You think that you are a big entity and that everyone's eyes are on you all the time. That is why you get self-conscious.

When you become self-conscious, you are living and yet not living. Self-consciousness is a barrier to your beauty and grace. Your beauty does not come forth freely. Look at animals and nature. They flow so beautifully and freely, because they are not self-conscious. They are simply happy being one with Existence. The moment you start thinking that people are watching you, ego has stepped in, and you lose your natural self.

Children are not as self-conscious as adults. If you watch them play, you will see they have so much beauty and innocence. Even when pictures are taken, you will notice that pictures taken without you being aware that you are being photographed look much better than pictures taken when you pose for the camera!

The moment you are asked to pose, you become self-conscious. Your ego is afraid of what people might say and think about you. The self-conscious ego is all the time calculating and weighing others' opinions.

A small story:

One Sufi* mystic went to a king and begged for a square meal. The king shouted at him, saying that nobody there knew him.

The mystic laughed and said, 'Yes. I agree. Nobody here knows me. But I know myself. In your case, everybody knows you. But you don't know yourself.'

When you stop calculating and start being innocent and open, you will be filled with wonder and freshness all the time. Life will never become dull and restrained for you.

Sufi - Followers of Sufism, a mystical dimension of Islam.

'I' is the ego, the root of fear. 'Mine' – 'this is my house', 'that is my car', 'these are my friends' - is the root of greed.

'I' means continuously doing. 'Mine' means continuously having. Continuously you try to expand your boundary. Continuously you try to change the things outside. You want to expand your boundary of 'mine'. For example, you have a basic car now but you want to have a more luxurious car. You may want more than one car. You have a house to live in, but you want a bigger house. This kind of personality is based on having. Such people feel happy, secure and relaxed only when they continuously possess more and more things.

The deep feeling of insecurity and fear drives us to more greed, to continuously try to possess more things. Continuously possessing things is nothing but a feeling of deep insecurity. You can see the idea of continuously possessing more and more things is just because of fear and insecurity.

We usually feel more secure if we have more friends, more relatives, and more things around us. With more security, we feel we will not be taken away from this world.

People ask me, 'Why do we have to follow masters?' I tell them, 'You don't have to follow masters. But if you don't follow masters, you will be following your ego, that's all. There are only two options: either you listen to the master or you listen to the ego.'

Master is the being who has already achieved eternal bliss, nithya ananda. If you follow him you will also reach that state. As for your ego, you know what it has achieved so far and what it is heading towards! If you are happy, comfortable, contented and blissful in the path in which your ego is already leading you, then you can follow your ego. Nothing is wrong with that. If you are a little uncomfortable, if you want to change, then follow the master's path.

There are only two things, master and the mind. If you follow the master, you cannot follow the mind. If you follow the mind, you cannot follow the master.

There is a beautiful word, 'na maha'. It means, 'not mine', 'I am not' - I surrender the 'I' and 'mine' at the feet of the master or god.

Nithya ananda - Eternal bliss.

Story of Dakshinamurthy Swamigal

A small story:

There was once an enlightened master by the name of Dakshinamurthy Swamigal. He used to sit under a banyan tree. His presence was so intense that a person could touch it, feel it, and almost see it. His silent presence was so powerful that neither he needed to talk nor the other person felt the need to speak.

One of the court poets of the kingdom sang a thousand verses on Dakshinamurthy Swamigal, whom he referred to as a saint. This poet said Dakshinamurthy Swamigal was 'the greatest warrior'. By tradition, you would be given the title of greatest warrior only if you killed one thousand elephants in a war.

This poet sang all one thousand versus praising the power and heroic qualities of Dakshinamurthy. When the king heard this, his ego was hurt because it was known throughout the region that only he had killed a thousand elephants in war. Until that time, only the king had the title of the greatest warrior.

The king called the poet and angrily said, 'Justify your action of singing the thousand verses in praise of the naked beggar sitting under the banyan tree. Otherwise, your head will be cut off!' The poet said, 'I don't have any reason or justification. You can kill me. But there is something about his presence. I want to make one small request: if you have some time, go and sit in his presence just once. That's all I am asking, nothing else.'

The king was curious to know more about Dakshinamurthy Swamigal. Along with his entire army, he set off to meet him! Kings always travel with their paraphernalia because they lose their identity without it! In contrast, Dakshinamurthy Swamigal was a Paramahamsa* , an enlightened master. The king found him sitting under a big banyan tree, without paraphernalia, not even clothes. He was just blissful in himself.

Imagine the scene: this simple beggar sat in a corner without any clothes. He was merged in bliss and peace, completely lost in Existence. He sat in intense silence and peace. The silence penetrated anyone in his presence.

The king jumped down from his chariot and went towards Dakshinamurthy Swamigal. On seeing the king and his army and hearing all their commotion,

Paramahamsa - Supreme Swan, title bestowed on enlightened beings.

Dakshinamurthy did not even move. He opened his eyes and looked straight into the king's eyes. It was the first time someone had dared to look straight into the king's eyes. The king had always looked at others and they had always put their heads down. For the first time somebody looked straight into the eyes of the king. He was completely shaken.

After a few seconds, the king put his head down. He clearly felt something happening inside his being. Dakshinamurthy Swamigal, the master, signaled the king to sit down. All the ministers and the army dropped their weapons and also sat in silence. In ten minutes the entire army was sitting down.

One hour passed. Then two hours passed, three hours, and the evening came and went. One full day passed by. The master, the king and the whole army sat in silence. Not a single word was exchanged. Three days passed by.

Then the master opened his eyes and said, 'Now you can go.' The king fell flat at the master's feet, paid his respects to the great master, and left in silence. He reached his palace, summoned the poet who had written the verses in praise of Dakshinamurthy Swamigal and said, 'Why did you write only a thousand verses in praise of the master? You should sing ten thousand verses!'

The poet then made a beautiful statement, 'Killing ten thousand elephants is easy. You just need the weapons to kill them. But killing one's mind is a real achievement!'

This master had killed his mind. Not only had Dakshinamurthy Swamigal killed his own mind, he could kill the mind of anybody who sat in his presence. Killing ten thousand elephants doesn't take courage. Killing your mind requires courage.

1. Remember the seer

There are two steps.

Remember who the seer is. When you open the eyes, understand that you are seeing through the eyes. You are not seeing. Then suddenly you will see that your whole energy is centered in the ājñā chakra or brow center between the two eyes. You will see things more clearly, in more detail like

Ājñā chakra - The sixth energy center located between the eyebrows. Means 'command' or 'will' in Sanskrit. This chakra is blocked by one's own ego.

how you see things as fresh after it rains. Then you will have neither attachment nor detachment, you will not have any suffering.

For example, sometimes in your sleep, you know you are dreaming but you don't come out of the dream. In that state, you can see that your dreams are clearer and you can even alter the dream. In the same way when you realize that what you think as reality now is only a dream, you will have the energy and intelligence to alter it! When the frequency of your consciousness rises, you will get the intelligence to realize that it is only a dream and so there is no need to change it.

2. Visualization

This technique can be practiced any time. Feel the cosmos as a translucent, ever-living presence. Try to feel the life in everything that is around you. Try to see it. Try to feel it. First, try to feel the life inside your body. Then try to feel the life inside the chair on which you are sitting. See how you are feeling alive inside your skin. In the same way, visualize and feel you are alive inside the chair, inside the cushion. Then visualize you are alive inside the people who are sitting next to you.

Let me give you an example. Let's say that you put a bamboo stick in a river. Now you can see a part of the river on the left of the bamboo and another part to the right of the bamboo. But does it mean the river has now been divided into two parts? No! If the bamboo is taken away, there is no right side or left side anymore. There is no boundary. It is just one river, that's all.

Life is just like the river. The bamboo is your ego. Because of your ego, you say 'I' and 'you'. You have two sides - you and the world. You see duality because of that bamboo. If you just take the bamboo of your ego away, there is neither 'I' nor 'you'. It is pure ever-living presence.

3. Third eye meditation

Total Duration: 25 minutes

This is an extremely powerful technique, most effective when practiced in the master's presence or in front of a picture of the master's eyes.

**Step 1:**Duration: 5 minutes

With your eyes closed, just see through your eyes, whatever images you are seeing behind the closed eyes.

Step 2: Duration: 5 minutes

Now open your eyes and through your third eye, look intensely at the master's third eye in the picture. Look through your eyes.

Part 5: Living Enlightenment (Gospel of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM)_English_part_5.md

Step 3: Duration: 5 minutes

With your eyes closed, just see through your eyes, whatever images you are seeing behind the closed eyes.

Step 4: Duration: 5 minutes

Now open your eyes and through your third eye, look intensely at the master's third eye in the picture. Look through your eyes.

Step 5: Duration: 5 minutes

With your eyes closed, just see through your eyes, whatever images you are seeing behind the closed eyes.

During this meditation, you may see visions of your favorite deities, or you may find that the master's form is replaced by a beam of light. Sometimes you may see total emptiness where his picture was. Don't be alarmed or lose your awareness at these moments. It is not hypnosis! In fact, it is a dehypnotizing process. Your superconscious is being awakened. If you see only light or emptiness, it is a sign that you have done the meditation with deep sincerity. That is the truth of our nature that we are all nothing but energy.

Seeing through the eye, you can achieve the 'I'. Currently, you are making up your own reality. If you see through the eyes, you will wake up from it and see reality as it is!