29. Unclutch! Radiate awareness, energy and intelligence

When you completely unclutch, tremendous awareness, energy and intelligence happens in your system.

Energy can never be produced. It is not something you can create. It just continuously happens in every being. If you take the stand that you are a body, you are on the plane of matter on the physical plane. You are living only in the gross body. Your desires are very physical, at the gross

Rishis sages.

Amrutasya putraha - A scriptural statement from Shvetashvatara Upanishad that says: 'Shrunvantu Vishve Amrutasya Putraha' that means 'You are the child of immortality', all human beings are divine.

level. Your fears are related to the physical level fears like the basic fear of death, etc.

If you think you are the mind, you live in the mental plane. Your desires, fears and everything are related to the mind, like the desire for name and fame, fear of losing your identity, etc. In the mental layer, both desires and fears are subtle.

In the spiritual or being level, there won't be any desires or fears. You radiate energy continuously. Whichever plane you are in, your presence radiates that energy.

Myth of body-mind

Our mind creates our body

Not only yoga* , but also medical science, confirms that our body constantly rejuvenates and replaces itself. We are constantly repl-acing ourselves. This is the first truth.

The second important truth is proven not only by yoga* and ayurveda* , but also by biology and medical science, that our mind creates our body. Our body is directly guided by our mind.

There is a book called 'The Biology of Belief ' written by scientist, Dr. Bruce Lipton* . After thirty years of research in the field of biology, he came up with some very powerful conclusions. He clearly proves that our positive and negative emotions control our body in a bigger way than even DNA or cells do. Our body is guided by our beliefs, faith, and our positive and negative emotions.

He says that even our body structure can be altered by our mind. Step by step, he proves very clearly that all our genetic, physical and mental problems are created by our faith alone.

Research has also been done with children who were separated from their biological parents from birth. The children grew up thinking that the parents who had adopted them were their real parents. In these cases, the children even expressed all the symptoms of the hereditary diseases of the foster parents!

Unclutch to heal yourself

There is a small story about a woodcutter:

A woodcutter was once cutting a tree near a river. His axe slipped and fell

Yoga - Literally means 'uniting' of body-mind-spirit.

Ayurveda–Traditional Indian medicine, meaning Knowledge of Life.

Dr. Bruce Lipton - Molecular cellular biologist and author of 'The Biology of Belief', renowned for his seminal work in relating genetics to conditioning.

Our body constantly rejuvenates and replaces itself.

into the river. Suddenly, a goddess appeared in front of him with a golden axe and asked, 'Is this yours?' He said,

'No'.

Just a few moments later, she reappeared with a silver axe and asked, 'Is this yours?' The woodcutter again said, 'No'. Then she disappeared and came back with his axe, made of iron and asked, 'Is this yours?' He said, 'Yes, yes, it is mine!'

The goddess was very pleased with his honesty and handed over all the three axes to him!

Now, I will tell you the extension of this story, the second edition!

The same woodcutter was cutting a tree by the same river. His wife was assisting him. Suddenly, by accident, his wife fell into the river!

The same goddess appeared bringing a beautiful woman with her. She asked the woodcutter if she was his wife. The woodcutter replied, 'Yes, yes, yes!'

The goddess got very angry and said, 'How dare you lie, you greedy fellow! Last time, when the axe fell into the river, you told the truth, but now when your wife fell in, you are telling a lie!'

The woodcutter replied, 'No, no, you don't understand my problem. Last time you asked first whether the golden axe was mine, then whether the silver axe was mine, and then you showed me my axe. When I said the last axe was mine, you gave me all three. Now again if you give me three women what will I do! I know what suffering I am going through with just one! That is the reason I took precautionary steps. Anything is okay, but please just leave me with one wife, not more!'

Anyhow, just like the goddess who asks the woodcutter about the axes, in the same way, Existence, the Cosmic Mother always asks you, 'Is this your new body?' Existence creates a new body for you every passing moment. Our cells constantly rejuvenate themselves.

When the Cosmic Mother comes and asks, 'Is this new body yours?' you say, 'No, no, no! Bring my old one to me!' That is the problem. That is why, in spite of the natural rejuvenation process, you find that no big change has happened to your body over years and years.

Our body has enough intelligence to replace itself. You may ask, 'If my body is again and again replacing itself, rejuvenating itself, then why am I carrying the same disease?'

You carry the same disease in your body because you strongly believe in the same mind. Because you are carrying the same mind, you reproduce the same problems in the body. By clutching, by connecting, you stop the self-healing that could happen in your body.

The moment you allow the inner healing to happen, the outer healing will simply start happening. The moment you understand that you are an unclutched being, that moment depression will disappear and I promise that you will create a completely new body. You will not carry your diseases forward to your new body.

You carry the same disease because you believe that you are connected and that you are a continuous flow, which is supported by all of the shafts that you have created. When you create new cells or organs, you carry the same disease over into the new body also.

You can see this in your own life. Let's say that as a child, you are taught by your mother that if you go out in the rain and get wet you will catch a cold. This concept is constantly reinforced during your childhood. Once you grow older you won't even have to go in the rain. All you need to do is to watch the rainfall from a window and you will sneeze! But when you understand you are unclutched you can work on your physical aches and pains. They will heal quickly. Also, you will not make and reinforce shafts that keep you in illness and suppression.

For example, the knee pain you had ten days ago, the knee pain you experienced nine days ago, the knee pain you had eight days ago are all unconnected, independent experiences. But when you connect all of them and put a label, 'I have knee pain,' you make a shaft out of it.

If you strongly believe that you had knee pain for ten years, naturally you will strongly believe you are going to have the same knee pain for the rest of your life. This faith is more than enough to reproduce and create knee pain in the new body that you create every morning. Because you clutch and connect with the same mind, you reproduce the same disease in the new body that you create every day.

When you stop carrying the same mind and the same old identity, you stop reproducing the same diseases in the new body. You stop reproducing the same pain, the same depression, the same difficulties, and same disease in the new body. You are liberated.

If you are unclutched, you allow your body to heal from the disease that you already have and you create a new body, a new system, that is healthy, energetic and alive. You will live like children. Children are so alive because every moment they create a new body. They are not stuck with a shaft, so they don't have any idea about

If you are unclutched, you allow your body to heal.

themselves. That is the reason that even if yesterday you fought with them, today they will be smiling at

you as if nothing happened! They don't carry records in their minds. They don't carry any identity about themselves. They do not connect yesterday's fight, the day before yesterday's fight, and the fight that happened one month ago. They are free from the shaft.

Let go of the body-mind identity

Please first understand that the thought that you are the body is itself an illusion. That is the first thought shaft that you create and suffer with as a result.

If you start experiencing the truth that by your very nature you are illogical, irresponsible, independent, unconnected and unclutched, you will start creating a new, alive, and fresh body. We abuse and disrespect our bodies in order to satisfy our ego. The moment we start to realize that we are not the body, we allow the body to function naturally.

By its very nature, the body heals itself. The body has its own intelligence. However, you have lost connection with that wonderful intelligence.

You constantly abuse and torture your body. The moment you start thinking, 'I am the body,' you start abusing the body. You do so many things to satisfy the mind that, by their nature, abuse the body.

If you can relax from the idea that you are the body, you will start to respect the body. You will make decisions that allow the body intelligence to function beautifully. You will allow the body to live naturally. You will be alive, bubbling and overflowing with energy. The moment you start understanding that you are not the mind, you will have sharp intelligence and spontaneity.

The first thing to do is understand that you are not this body and mind. When you fully understand that you are not this body and mind, you will start respecting both. You start living with and not against your body and mind. You no longer abuse your body or disrespect its intelligence. You let your body live naturally and blissfully.

Ashtavakra* says, 'You are not the body, you are not the mind. You are not the earth.

Ashtavakra - An enlightened vedic sage who was born with eight crooked limbs. He is the author of the Ashtavakra Gita.

You are not the water. You are not the fire. You are not the air. You are not the ether.'

If you detach from the body and rest in intelligence,

You will at once be happy, peaceful and free from bondage.

First, you are not the body and mind.

Second, if you detach from the body and rest in intelligence, you will at once be happy, peaceful and free from all types of bondage. You become peaceful that very moment. You start understanding and accepting yourself as you are. In that very moment, you start relaxing into yourself. You become silent. That very moment brings bliss to you.

The moment you understand that you are not the body and mind, you relax from this whole samsara sagara* , ocean of material existence. As long as you continue to associate yourself with the body and mind, you experience all the sufferings and pains that the body and mind carry.

Living intensely in the present

By your very nature you renounce every moment

Fortunately, by your very nature, you can have only one thought at a time. The moment a new thought comes inside your system, it means that the old thought has lost its power or influence over you. If the new thought has entered you, it means the old thought has been renounced because you can't have two thoughts at a time. You can have only one thought at a time. If you say that the old thought is also there, it only means that for that moment, the new thought has been renounced!

There is a beautiful story by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa* :

A king who was inside a huge fort, was once attacked by an army that was two million strong. The king only had two or three people around him and got very frightened. He told his advisor, 'Two million people, and I am all alone. They will kill me!'

Samsara sagara - Ocean of birth and death.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa - Enlightened mystic from West Bengal in India. His chief disciple was Swami Vivekananda.

The royal advisor said, 'Don't worry, King. Open only one door. Surely through one door only one person can come in at a time. As they come in, stand on this side of the door and kill them one by one. Over! Do not try to fight with the whole crowd.'

If you think all your enemies are gathered together, you will start having unnecessary fears. You cannot have two thoughts at a time. You can only have one thought at a time. This means that every thought is replaced by the next thought.

I'll repeat: the first thing is that you can have only one thought at a time.

The second thing is that unless the old thought is pushed out, the second thought cannot come.

The third thing is that if somebody can push me out and sit here, he is surely more powerful than me! In the same way, any thought that comes in and pushes the old thought out is more powerful than the old thought. This means that any thought that is coming now is rooted in the present moment. It has more power than the thought that is being renounced, whatever that thought may be about.

By your very nature you are renouncing. You don't need to learn renunciation. Every moment you are renouncing. What do I mean by the word 'renouncing' here? I mean that at every moment you are letting go of one thought after another. Only then is it possible to allow new thoughts to keep entering your system. Every moment your inner space is getting cleared of the old thought.

Thoughts are constantly getting renounced by themselves. The only issue is that when you create the belief your thoughts are connected, you have the problem of linked suffering, the shaft. Your belief that you have some problem is your only problem.

Every moment your inner space is purified by the new incoming thoughts. If you allow this process to continue, it will happen by itself and clean itself also. There is no need for you to clean your mind. All you need to do is just get out of the system so that the system can proceed on its own.

One important truth you should know is that even if you want, even if you try consciously, you cannot possess or hold onto your suffering for long.

Even if you try to hold it, you cannot hold your suffering because continuously, your thought that creates suffering is also replaced by newer thoughts! In fact, to hold onto suffering will require a lot of effort on your part because thoughts are continuously flowing.

Allow your thoughts to be replaced

Be very clear, your power to bring on a new thought itself proves you have the power to drop the old thought. The problem is, instead of just watching the new thoughts flowing through you, you try to bring back old thoughts into your system. It is like picking up your trashed emails and bringing them back to the inbox. Is there any need to bring back trashed emails? No! If you constantly look to bring back the old thoughts, you will create only suffering.

Understand that if you nurture the fact that any suffering can be replaced by a stream of fresh thoughts then that becomes reality for you. Then there is no suffering. If you are nurturing the thought, 'No, however much I allow replacing, the suffering comes back,' you will make that into reality. If you mother the thought that the suffering is going to come back, it will come back. If you mother the thought that it is going to go away, it will go away.

All you need to understand is that if even once you can replace a thought in your inner space without returning to the previous thought, you will get the confidence, 'I have replaced it once. I can do it again.' Then you can tell yourself, 'If the old thought comes back ten times, let me replace it ten times!' that's all. Soon you will see the old thought will stop coming back.

There is a very beautiful incident in Buddha's life:

Buddha says, 'Whenever I said in meditation, 'I am going to get up after a few hours', I never became enlightened. Once I decided, 'If I am not going to become enlightened, I am not going to get up from this seat. Let this body dry up in this very place. Until I become enlightened, I am not going to move.' Buddha says that the moment he created that strong clarity, the authentic sankalpa , the next second, he became enlightened!*

When you sit down to replace your suffering and think, 'Today I will replace it ten times. If it comes back the eleventh time, I can try again tomorrow,' then nothing will happen. No transformation will take place for you. Decide very clearly, 'Until it stops coming, I am going to replace the negative thoughts.' That is what I call courage.

Sankalpa - Vow or decision.

When we unclutch, that inner healing will radiate as physical wellbeing.

Solutions for physical, mental and emotional problems

When we unclutch, the first thing that will happen to us will be an inner healing effect, a deep silence and peace in us.

Second, that inner healing will start radiating as physical wellbeing, which is our health.

Third, naturally it will start radiating in our relationships also.

Fourth, because these three are going beautifully, we will be creative and productive!

Solution for chronic ailments

People come and tell me, 'Swamiji, for the last twenty years I have had knee pain.' No, it cannot be! Please understand that in reality it cannot be. I am not disrespecting you or adding more suffering to you by saying all your problems are only in your head. I am just telling the truth: all your problems are in your head! I am just stating the truth.

The knee pain you experienced two years ago, the knee pain you experienced one year ago, the knee pain you experienced two months ago, and the knee pain you experienced two hours ago are independent experiences. Only because you connect all of them, you conclude that you have been having knee pain for twenty years. Is it really true that you have knee pain continuously for twenty years? What happens to the moments of 'no knee pain' in between? The important thing you need to understand is that because you connect and see all these as one continuous incident, you block the possibility of selfhealing.

Solution for depression

The depression that happened one month ago, the depression that happened one year ago, and the depression that happened three years ago are independent, individual, unconnected, and unclutched. The problem is the same as with physical pain. You start connecting them and concluding that you are having the same depression continuously. You create an idea that your life is depression. Then you start fighting with it. That only gives more life to the depressive thoughts.

When you strongly beli-eve that your last ten years have been filled with suffering and depression, you create a strong mental setup surrounding it. Naturally you start thinking that your future is also going to be painful and filled with depression.

Suppose there is a person sitting in front of you who you think is an enemy. Suddenly if you notice that his head is separate, his legs are separate and his hands are separate, would you even feel like fighting with him? No! He is not even worth fighting! He doesn't even have a solid existence, as you imagined him to have. So what is there to fight?

In the same way, only when you imagine you have a huge problem in front of you, that a big person is in front of you, you start fighting and getting into more trouble. Your depression is not the huge enemy that you think it is. It is just like the person with disjointed body parts. It is you who joined the parts and gave it life. Your fighting with depression is the root cause of your depression.

In Ramayana* there is a beautiful story. Whoever stands in front of the monkey king Vali* and fights with him, loses half of his power to him. In the same way, whoever stands in front of the thought shaft and starts fighting with that shaft, half of their power will go away to that shaft.

The moment you unclutch from the shaft, you experience the neutral space, and inner healing starts. The moment inner healing starts, phys-

You create an idea that your life is depression. Then you fight with it.

ically also you are healed.

Do not try to renounce your depression, because by your very nature it is getting renounced, flowing away from you. By your very nature just as joy disappears from your mind, depression also disappears from your mind. The moment you try to eliminate the depression, you will extend it and give it more life.

If you have a deep depression, will you stop going to the office? No! You may carry the depression in your mind but your body moves. You work. You may not be that productive or efficient. But your body still moves.

Instead of 'living depression', I am saying, 'live unclutched'.

When we live in depression, we don't have all these questions, 'If I am depressed, how can my body move?' We don't have such questions. The depression becomes part of our life. In the beginning you may have questions, 'How can I live unclutched? How will I even move my body?' Understand that the constant remembrance

Ramayana - Hindu ithihasa or epic about prince Rama. The original version was written by poet Valmiki. Vali - Monkey king in the Hindu epic Ramayana who was killed by prince Rama.

of unclutching does not interfere with your mind or body movements. It only removes the depression because it lets the depression thoughts rise and fall without clutching to them.

Solution for addiction

What is addiction? It is a behavior or action that if you don't do it, you will feel terrible that you are missing something. But, if you do it you won't feel any joy, it will only be mechanical. Addiction means believing that joy or ecstasy happens due to some object, person, or situation.

Understand that this is the definition of addiction: trying to elongate the joy shaft by recreating it. You bring the same persons, situations, incidents, or happenings into your life again and again, knowing that the same joy is not going to happen. Some people are addicted to partying, some to smoking, and some to drinking and there are so many addictions.

Remember that anything you bring to your life again and again will not give you the same excitement as it gave you the first time. It can only lead to addiction, not happiness. The first time you enjoy a sweet, it is a wonderful experience. The excitement is totally different. But if you keep eating more of the same sweet, the same experience is not there anymore. Eventually if you eat enough sweets, you will not even like the sight of them. You will look at them and say, 'Oh no, not more sweets. They make me feel terrible.' In the same way, when meeting a person for the first time, the excitement is totally different. Later on, the excitement falls off.

People come and ask me, 'How can I break my habits?' See, habit is a beautiful word. If you remove 'h', 'a bit' will remain. If you remove 'b', 'it' will remain. Only when you remove the 'I', the shaft 'it' will die. Only when you remove 'I', only when you throw 'I' away, will it completely die.

Your smoking two days ago, ten years ago, and twenty years ago, all these three incidents are completely independent. They are not connected. Mentally, when you start connecting, when you start believing that you have the habit of smoking and that you are addicted to it, the belief creates a shaft. Then you start fighting with it. That is what I mean when I say the 'I' has to be dropped. It is your belief that makes it a habit. If you drop the belief, the habit drops.

If you believe it is a joyful experience, you continue to smoke more and more. If you believe it is a painful experience you start fighting with the shaft. Either way you don't win. Even if you believe that smoking is joyful, try to smoke without restraint and see for yourself how you feel. When you smoke and inhale, it can never be a pleasurable experience. It is never really joyful.

When you smoke, in that moment, just see what is happening in your inner space. You are not enjoying anything. You are just trying to escape from something. You merely believe that smoking is joyful. Even if you don't feel joyful when you are smoking, you try to squeeze joy out of it.

If you deeply scan your life and see, you will understand that whether it is smoking, or sex, or money, or any other pleasure, even if you don't feel the same joy as you felt the first time, you try to squeeze joy out of it. You try to console yourself, 'No, this is joy. What else is joy?' You try to cover the frustration by believing it is joy. You want to believe it is joy.

Try your best to drop some addiction. You can never be successful. Even if you drop it you may be dropping it out of some fear or greed, which is a much bigger addiction. If you drop smoking out of some fear or greed, you are not doing anything good to your consciousness, to your inner space. You are only damaging yourself more.

You might have dropped smoking, but the fear or greed that made you drop it will be added to your inner space. At least with smoking, you will destroy only this body. With fear or greed you will destroy your whole being, life after life! In the next body, you will carry over the fear and greed. The smoking habit may not carry over to the next body but the emotions of fear and greed will be carried with you to the next body. So the best way is to drop the idea that you have an addiction, and it will drop.

Solution for fear of death just have a cup of coffee!

A person once came and asked me, 'I am haunted by the fear of death. I have so much fear about losing my wealth, and about my death. Give me some solution. Please remove my fear.'

I told him, 'Please have a cup of coffee.' He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Just think of having a cup of coffee, then have a cup of coffee.' He was not able to believe me and asked, 'How can that help me?'

I asked him, 'The moment you are able to think of having a cup of coffee and decide to have a cup of coffee, the death fear that is haunting your inner space has left your inner space. Am I right? Even if it is only for a split second, the fact that the thought about coffee has entered your system means that the death fear has been pushed aside!'

Unless the death fear leaves his inner space, he cannot think of having a cup of coffee, right? We have already seen that only one thought can exist in your inner space at a time. If the older thought comes back, it Drop the idea that you have an addiction, and it will drop.

means that you have consciously brought it back, like bringing back a trashed email to your inbox. So

naturally, a simple thought to have a cup of coffee can remove the so-called powerful death fear.

The man said, 'No, it looks too simple! The death fear definitely comes back, what should I do?' If it comes back, have one more cup of coffee, that's all!

It is just a simple understanding. Fortunately, you can have only one thought at a time. The moment a new thought comes, it means the old thought has lost its power over you. Otherwise, the new thought cannot arise.

If the old thought is so strong, it should just be able to multiply and sit on you. It shouldn't be able to leave your inner space. So the moment a new thought comes, it means the old thought was not very powerful after all. It easily lost its power over you and left you. Because of that, the new thought has come inside. So, the moment you have a thought to have a cup of coffee or a cup of water, the so-called death fear has left you.

The man asked, 'Suppose it comes back? I can drink a cup of coffee once, but the next time what should I do?'

I said, 'Then drink a cup of water, that's all!'

Understand one more thing, your very fear about the fear coming back will invite that fear back. Why do you want to empower the fear thought? It is actually just like any other thought. Why don't you give yourself the luxury of entertaining some other thought? Because you give too much importance to the fear thought, it comes back. It is just another thought, why give undue importance to it?

You neither have to worry about your fears, nor about your greed. Your worry about your worries, your worry about your fears, and your worry about your greed is the only problem. Your fear is not the problem, your fear about the fears is the real problem.

Fear exists because of the possibility of not achieving your goal. Fear is not connected to your failure. Fear is connected to your fear of failure.

Solution for stomach problems

The ayurvedic science says that we get stomach problems like constipation, etc., only if we constantly hold on to our body. If we can just relax and witness, if we start understanding that we are not the body, we will never have stomach problems.

I tell you from my experience with millions of people that I have met and worked with, if you have stomach problems, try this technique for just two or three days. Constantly think that you are not the body. I assure you, you will be liberated from any stomach problem. Your stomach will simply be healed.

If you have stomach problems like ulcer, constipation, irritation, or any problem related to the stomach, this technique will help you. For two or three days, just continuously think, 'I am not the body,' 'I am not the body.' Just relax and allow the body to function. I tell you, within two or three days you will be healed.

Solution for allergies

All your allergies and your phobias are nothing but the connection of independent thoughts. The only thing needed is the courage to be unclutched. Please be very clear, I have healed at least one thousand people with allergies in the last three years.

When I was giving discourses in Hyderabad, India, a man complained about twenty five years of allergies to lentils. Even if he ate a spoonful of cooked lentils, his whole body would start swelling. I said, 'Bring the lentils and eat them in front of me.'

I sat next to him as he ate. I just told him, 'I'll take care. I'll heal. Don't worry.' He ate and there was no swelling. The allergy simply disappeared. All that is needed is giving these people the courage to be unclutched. When I said that I would take care, he was able to break that shaft of fear which was causing his allergy!

Solution for aging

Let me tell you an incident from the days of my spiritual journey:

I went to a village where there were many elderly Lamas . I asked one villager, 'Can I see an elderly Lama* ?' He said, 'Go to that field. There is a Lama* working there. You can speak to him.' I went up to the Lama and spoke to him while he was working in the field.*

I asked, 'I heard that you are a very elderly person, can I ask about some of your experiences, something about your life?'

He started laughing. He said, 'What? Elderly!? I am only a middle-aged man. I am only 136! There are so many people who are 190 and above, go and talk to them.' I was shocked! I asked, 'How do you live so long?'

Lama – Buddhist monk.

He simply replied, 'What is there to say? From childhood onwards we know that the human lifespan is 300 years.'

From the beginning they are taught that they can live up to 300 years. Your body is just like a child. Whatever you tell it, it will follow. All you need to do is create a correct, strong belief. If you are unclutched, things will take their own course. You will constantly rejuvenate yourself.

You are made to believe that human beings age and die by seventy to ninty years. By the time you become seventy, you are prepared for death. You constantly say, 'Oh, I have become old, I am ready to die.' Then you prepare your body for death.

Solution for fatigue

Your body creates or maintains a particular disease according to the identity that you create with respect to that disease. Tiredness, chronic fatigue and all these related disorders are directly related to this identity. We can call it the 'identity shaft'. What do we mean by identity shaft? Take tiredness for example. You connect yesterday's tiredness, the day before yesterday's tiredness, the tiredness that you experienced one month ago, etc., and create an identity shaft for yourself that says, 'By eight o'clock tonight I will become tired'. Then every day, by six o'clock, you start preparing your mind, 'By eight o'clock I will start feeling tired….' You feel compelled to fulfill your identity!

So you start creating dullness or lethargy by six o'clock. You have to prove your identity because you created it. Sometimes you may even forget to prove your identity to the outer world, but you will never miss proving your identity to yourself! If the outer world doesn't believe your identity that is okay, but if you start suspecting your own identity, that is too dangerous for your ego. You will never let that happen!

Even if you felt the fatigue one year ago, there is every possibility that you can update yourself today. You may not actually have that problem anymore, but you are not interested in trusting that you are free from fatigue. You want to retain the old identity. Your ego can sacrifice anything except your identity. That's why you play a very polite, but cunning game, you hold onto the belief of the fatigue and become fatigued.

Solution for guilt

One person came to me and said, 'I constantly suffer because of my smoking habit. The moment I get up in the morning, I have to smoke. But after one hour I have deep guilt. After two hours, when I am getting ready for work, again I have to smoke - again an hour of guilt. What should I do? I am constantly suffering with guilt and I am always suffering from this habit. What should I do?'

I told him, 'You should either drop smoking, or drop the guilt. Drop either thing. You will be liberated from this habit.'

He was shocked to hear this. He said, 'You know that I am not able to stop smoking. If I drop the guilt also, I will smoke even more! How do you say that I will drop smoking?'

See, it is a vicious cycle. When you have guilt, what will you do? You will constantly keep repeating, 'I should stop smoking,' 'I should stop smoking.' Naturally what will happen? In your mind you give power to the word 'smoking'. So the memory of smoking keeps getting engraved deeper and deeper into your system. How do you expect that you will be able to stop smoking?

When you cannot forgive yourself, it is called guilt. When you cannot forgive others it is called vengeance. When you unclutch, both guilt and vengeance disappear. Not only will you forgive, you will also forget because there is no longer a connection between your behavior and these thoughts.

You may ask, 'If we unclutch, then how can we learn from past experiences?' Real learning from the past happens only when you unclutch from your past experiences. When you unclutch from your past experiences, the essence of your past experiences, the teachings that you need to learn from them will become part of your being.

When you are continuously clutched to the past, only the pain, suffering, and guilt reflect in your being. You will never pick up the essence or the 'juice' from the past and update your intelligence. Also, if you have a deep respect for or dependence on your past, you will never be able to live in the present moment. You will be always carrying the past into the present, corrupting it and your future. How can you live blissfully if you do that? You can't! Unclutch from the past, let the lessons be easily integrated and celebrate life in the present moment.

Because you believe some thoughts are connected and that they are joyous, you start giving life only to those thoughts. If you believe some thoughts are painful, you try to take energy away from those thoughts. Because of this, you don't live your whole life, you keep choosing which part to live with.

Because you have gone to such an extreme of relying on your mind, you cannot understand that you can live without the mind. You are afraid that you might go to the other extreme of being a mindless person with no morality in your life. Let me tell you, a person who understands that by their very nature thoughts are unconnected will naturally lead a moral life without society's rules to tell him how to live. It is only in this type of person that you see a strong, deep sense of conscious morality. It is only in his or her life you see an extraordinary discipline. This discipline can never be shaken and this morality can never be taken away from him or her. It will be a morality that does not come out of fear or greed. True morality is the flowering of deep understanding of the self, world and god.

Witnessing

You are the witnessing consciousness

Adi Shankara* sings beautifully in the verses Bhaja Govindam* :

Within the potter's wheel's rotation, The pivot stands still, amidst constant motion, So too a man of perfection

Is poised, although engaged in action.

When you understand that you are unclutched, suddenly you realize you are like the pivot of the potter's wheel, unmoving and untouched by the kind of pot being made, the kind of experiences being felt. Understand that you are not the movie being played. You are just the screen on which the movie is projected. The screen is never touched by the play of emotions that appears on it!

The boy sage Ashtavakra* tells King Janaka* ,

Verily you are ever free

You are the one seer of all and really ever free.

Verily this alone is your bondage, that you see the seer as other than such.

When the scene affects the seer, the problem of bondage starts. Your very being is pure. But the moment you start thinking of yourself as someone other than the seer,

Adi Shankara - Enlightened master from India. Greatest exponent of the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta or nondualism, whose movement restored glory to the declining vedic tradition and Hinduism during his period.

Bhaja Govindam - Collection of 32 (sometimes 34) devotional verses composed by enlightened master Adi Shankara. This is considered to be the essence of Vedanta and Advaita, non duality.

Ashtavakra – An enlightened vedic sage who was born with eight crooked limbs. He is the author of the Ashtavakra Gita.

Janaka – Indian King of the kingdom of Videha with the capital of Mithila, well-known for his righteousness.

the problem starts. This is the only bondage that you have. There is no other bondage.

Even when you create a shaft and suffer, remember, even this idea 'I am creating a shaft', is one more shaft. The shaft you created ten years ago, the shaft you created nine years ago, and the shaft you created yesterday are not connected. Connecting all these shafts is one more shaft! That's all. When this understanding goes to a deeper level within you, it will take care of itself. Your thinking and actions will be transformed.

People ask me, 'Tell us some way that we can always remember to not create any shafts.' When you are trying to create that assurance, be very clear you are creating one more shaft. The moment you decide this is joy and you want this to permanently be with you, what have you done? You have started creating one more shaft. Then you are in trouble. Whether it is joy or pain, the moment you create the shaft, you are in trouble.

Bliss is choiceless

Do not try to retain the feeling of bliss that comes with unclutching. You felt the bliss itself because you understood that nothing could be retained. You felt deep joy because you were free from choices, because you felt completely disconnected, because you realized you are unclutched. Now don't try to clutch again.

If someone tells you, 'I am in ecstasy because I played tennis and I enjoyed You are just the screen on which the movie is projected. The screen is never touched by the play of emotions.

it,' you think, 'Playing tennis brings ecstasy.' You create an equation. You then begin continuously playing tennis, hitting the ball over and over. But nothing happens to you, no ecstasy. Then you think that the person who shared his tennis experience cheated you. Be very clear, while playing he was not at all concerned about joy; he was completely relaxed while he was playing. Because of this, joy simply happened. But somehow he associated it with tennis, that's all. It was not the tennis that caused the joy. While he was playing tennis he dropped into the state of being unclutched and experienced joy. If he could remain in the unclutched state he would remain in a state of joy whether he was playing tennis or not.

Choicelessness is bliss. If you choose it, bliss will not happen because you have made a choice and thus eliminated it as a possibility. When you are choiceless, when you are completely relaxed, bliss simply happens in you. When you are concerned about bliss, your very concern ensures that you will not experience it.

With unclutching you are able to transform all your thoughts into reality. Be very clear, this is a very simple, powerful method to make your dreams into reality. Whatever dreams you have about the future, if you can relax, if you can unclutch, suddenly you see a new kind of energy flowing through your thoughts. This energy will take care of your dreams. This is the state of restful awareness, the essence of the research and development that went on in the world of inner science. Unclutching is the ultimate technique that can give you everything.

False identities

Ego is not necessary

Just understand this one simple truth. In order for an animal to breathe, it does not need ego, it does not need an identity or any character. But as a human being, you are afraid that if you drop your identity you will not be able to use your body. You fear that something bad will happen to it.

You are afraid that if you drop your identity, your body will not function smoothly. You have an idea about yourself as 'I am somebody's father, I am somebody's brother, I am somebody's son.' This idea that you have, this identity that you carry, this ego that you carry, is not necessary for the smooth functioning of your body and mind. Of course it is very difficult to believe this.

Do you need to think about breathing, making your heart beat, digesting food, or eliminating wastes from your body? No! This very fact should help you to realize that your ego is not needed for you to survive. There is something beyond the ego that is keeping you alive and functioning. If your existence depended on your ego what a catastrophe that would be! We would not be able to manage it! We are so much more than our ego, but that too is hard to believe.

A small story:

A person who was born blind went to a doctor and asked the doctor, 'Please do something and give me eyesight.'

The doctor said, 'I will perform surgery and you will be able to see. Then you will be able to walk without the help of a cane.'

The blind man said, 'Doctor, I understand you will perform surgery. I understand that I will regain my eyesight. I am not able to understand how I can walk without my cane!'

We cannot convince the blind man that after the surgery he will be able to walk without a cane! We cannot convince him intellectually because over time he has started associating his walking itself with the cane. Only after he gets his eyesight can a blind man understand that he can walk without a cane.

Similarly, you do not need your ego to live in the body and mind. You can live inside your body, inside your mind without the ego. Just as the blind man who had gained his vision does not need a cane to walk, you do not need the ego to live.

Ahankar and mamakar - outer world identity and inner world identity

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

The identity you carry inside your mind is called mamakar in Sanskrit. It will always be much smaller than what you really are. You carry or remember all your failures, past mistakes and guilt and constantly try to work on them. This identity that you carry in the inner world is based on greed. You constantly try to chisel your identity to become better.

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

Ahankar is based on a superiority complex. Mamakar is based on an inferiority complex. Ahankar is based on fear, mamakar is based on greed. If you spend all your energy trying to expand the ahankar, the identity that you project to the outer world, then your life becomes materialistic. If you spend your whole life chiseling and developing mamakar, the identity that you think is you, your whole life becomes moralistic and suppressed. When you project to the outer world, you project yourself based on the strongest link of the chain. When you measure yourself inside your mind, you measure yourself based upon the weakest link of the chain. 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'.

You constantly spend your life trying to protect these two identities. When they start growing, they start fighting with each other and giving you trouble. It is like marrying two women at the same time and living with both of them at once! These two identities are purely illusions. You are something far more than these two identities that you carry around constantly.

Freedom from these two identities is what I call liberation, enlightenment, moksha* , nirvana* . Whatever words you may use, it is nothing but liberation from these two identities. These two identities are bondage. When you understand that you are something beyond these two identities, you are a jeevan mukta* , liberated while living.

I tell you, if you drop what you think of as you, only then you become alive. Until then, you are living and breathing, but are never really alive. Breathing is not a measure of whether you are living. Never think you are alive just because you breathe.

You are something much more than what you project to the outer world and what you project to yourself. When you relax from these two identities, you achieve what is called jeevan mukti, living enlightenment.

I tell you, any identity you believe about yourself that is less than you being god, is low self-esteem, because you are god.

There are two reasons why your mind will never allow you to believe that you are unclutched. Whatever you feel as your identity in the outer world, that is your wealth, relationships and such, is based on your thought shafts. If you relax from the shaft, you may lose all your identities. So, fear of losing this identity is the first reason.

The next reason is your morality, your idea about what you should be doing. If you lose your identity, if you no longer trust that you are connected thoughts, your identity about yourself will be lost. The identity that you show to others will be lost and the identity that you have about yourself will also be lost. How will you then realize what is right and what is wrong for you? There is no basis to judge. So the mind will never allow you to believe that you are unclutched.

Let you clearly understand, I tell you from my experience, I have never seen a person who feels complete with the identity he is projecting to the outer world or towards himself. You can't feel you are complete because even if you try to be pure and perfect, even if you try all the practices that you can do, not just for twenty five years, but even for fifty years, you will still have the same mind. It is simply because of the mind that you are trying to chisel what doesn't exist. If it did exist then you

Moksha - Liberation through Self Realization.

Nirvana - Liberation through Self Realization.

Jeevan mukta - A person who achieves liberation from the cycle of birth and death during his or her lifetime.

could chisel and make it as you want it to be and keep it as you want it to be. That base itself doesn't exist, that shaft itself doesn't exist so there is nothing that you can chisel.

As Ashtavakra says,

Unattached, formless and witness of all are you.

You are not your identity. You are the formless, unattached, witness of what is going on around you.

As long as you are afraid, you can be exploited by your own ego.

Whoever wants to exploit you, the first thing they have to do is to create fear in you. If someone wants to exploit you, he will create the fear in you that if he is not there, you will not be able to manage things. You will start believing that if he is not there, your activities will be disturbed, whether it is your company or house or any other place. He first creates the fear in you. Then, depending on the level and the intensity of fear, he starts exploiting you.

In the same way, the first thing your own ego does is to clearly prove to your being that you cannot live in your body and mind without it. Once this frightens you, once you start believing that you cannot live in your body and mind without the ego, it is very easy for your ego to exploit you, to cheat you. Be very clear, it is just simple fear, nothing more.

Unclutch work smart, not hard

When you measure yourself inside your mind, you measure yourself based upon the weakest link of the chain.

The moment you hear you are unclutched, the first fear that

arises in you is, 'If I start living without connecting my thoughts, who will pay my bills? I could lose all my wealth. I could forget where I keep all my money. I may not be able to live successfully in society. How will I do my job? How will I take care of my things? Won't I not just lie down in my bed without doing anything? Why would I want to go to my office?'

I ask, 'Why wouldn't you go to your office?' The moment you ask that, it means that you inherently have a little hatred or a little vengeance against your office work! This is why the moment you find some excuse, you want to escape from your work. By asking this question, you are only expressing your anger, your violence against your routine, nothing else! The question has nothing to do with unclutching.

If you have such questions, just unclutch and sleep for ten days. There's nothing wrong with that. Have a vacation for ten days. Decide, 'I am going to unclutch from both the identities.' How many days do you think you can sleep? How many days do you think the cessation of activity can continue in you? Only until the tamas* in you is exhausted. After that you will automatically start doing something.

So, even if you feel it is a lack of responsibility or defeatist behavior, be unclutched for a few days. You will then understand and experiece that when you are unclutched you will not have a lazy or passive attitude. Mentally you will be silent, but physically you will be active and alive.

When you are in that space of irresponsibility or defeatist attitude, mentally you are very active but physically you are tired. When you are unclutched, physically you are active and alive, but mentally you are silent.

You see, 33% of the body is sattva* , pure silence. 33% of the body is rajas* , restlessness and 33% of the body is tamas* , deep sleep, laziness. Right now the first fear that happens in you is if you unclutch, you may become tamasic* , a lazy person.

Unclutch. That 33% of your laziness will quickly be exhausted. It will disappear from your system within a few days. Then you will automatically start working from your innate intelligence. You don't have to be driven by fear and greed to live your day-to-day life.

I am not saying you should stop thinking completely. I am only saying, when you are unclutched, whatever thoughts have to happen will happen auto-matically. Initially when you are unclutched you will feel as if no thoughts are happening. Later you will understand, even after unclutching, whenever thinking is necessary, the mind is clutched. Whenever thinking is not necessary, the mind is unclutched. Your mind is being used as an instrument, not as a master.

We can live purely from inspiration. But the problem is, we are never given that confidence. We are never given the courage that we can live simply by inspiration. Sometimes you can see that for no reason you radiate excitement, for no reason you radiate intelligence. That is what I call inspiration. It may last only for a few moments, but you need to realize that those few moments can become a way of life for you. If we remain unclutched, then

Tamas - One of the three gunas or attributes of nature. Attribute of inaction.

Sattva - One of the three gunas or attributes of nature. Attribute of passive action.

Rajas - One of the three gunas or attributes of nature. Attribute of aggression.

Tamasic - Having attribute of tamas or inaction.

continuous inspiration will happen in our lives. Unclutching directly kindles the energy of the being. This energy is the energy of inspiration, the energy of unclutching.

Are 'you' needed to run your life?

Understand one important thing, we have an automatic intelligence that can run our lives, that can take care of our day-to-day responsibilities. Not only can it run our lives, it can maintain, extend, and expand our lives as well.

But society conditions you from a young age. You are taught that you cannot run without planning, without fear or greed. Your self-respect is taken away from you. You are made to lose trust that you can lead your life spontaneously, without fear or greed. That is why constantly you try to infuse greed or fear into yourself. You try to use fear and greed as fuel to make your life run, to make your life alive.

Be very clear, you cannot run your life based on fear and greed. If you are driven by fear and greed, you will carry a constant irritation in you. From morning until night, from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep, you will carry a constant irritation in you. You just wait for a reason to explode. Just one small touch is enough, and you are ready to jump on the other person. He does not even need to make any mistake, just coming in front of you is enough to trigger you! This happens because of the strain of running your life through fear and greed.

If you just relax, the automatic intelligence of Existence will run your life beautifully for you. Your actions will be automatically propelled by the energy of Existence.

Technique – 'I am not the doer'

Ashtavakra says,

You who have been bitten by the great black serpent of egoism 'I am the doer'

Drink the nectar of the faith, 'I am not the doer' and be happy.

Ashtavakra gives this technique to the king and seeker, Janaka* . Please understand that simply thinking that 'I am not the doer' or having faith that 'I am not the doer' will not liberate you directly. This technique by itself will not liberate you. It will just make you tired! You are not able to remember that you are not the doer continuously without a break. The

Janaka – Indian king of the kingdom of Videha with the capital of Mithila, well-known for his righteousness.

When you are unclutched, physically you are active and alive, but mentally you are silent.

moment you understand that you are not able to remember 'I am not the doer' all the time, you will be completely frustrated and you

will just drop the mind. The moment you drop the mind, the truth that you are not the doer will simply become reality! That is the technique suggested here.

Unclutching – a self-purifying and evolutionary technique

This is a very simple understanding of unclutching. All you need to do is remember to unclutch whenever you start giving meaning to old thoughts or whenever you connect with old thoughts and allow them to bother you.

Do not create, maintain or destroy any thought. If you don't do any of these three things, you are the Supreme Self, Parabrahma* !

Unclutching is like a self-purifying method. For any technique to be self-purifying and liberating, the moment you become subtle, the technique should also become subtle, by itself. Unclutching is one such technique.

The technique that does not become subtle by itself stays in the gross level. If it is not able to kill itself, if the technique is not able to commit suicide, it will kill you! The beauty with the technique of unclutching is that it will become subtler and subtler by itself as you become subtler. Finally, it will dissolve.