Meditation Book - Leading You To Bliss

Strictly speaking, the chakras are not present in the physical body at all. They exist on the metaphysical plane, and link together our three shareeras or bodies.

The individual is made up of three shareeras - the physical or gross body (sthula sharira), the mental or subtle body (sukshma sharira) and the causal body (karana sharira).

While the five layers (body, breath, mind, intelligence and bliss layers) are categorized according to their functions, the three bodies are categorized according to the states of consciousness where they come into play.

Each of the shareeras or bodies is associated with a particular state of consciousness.

The physical body is the body we know in the waking state, which eats, speaks, moves about and so on. This is the only body we are really familiar with.

The mental body is that we use when we dream.

While our body is lying fast asleep in our bed at home, in our dream we may be traveling in another country.

At this time, we are using the mental body to travel around! In the dream state, the mental body is as real and functional as the physical body in the waking state. We also use our mental body in the waking state to think, verbalize, visualize and so on.

The causal body is the one we use when we are in deep restful dream less sleep. It is made up of pure tamas (inertness). During our sleep cycle there are phases when the mind becomes dormant and there are no thoughts. This is the time when we experience the causal body.

These three bodies are not separate as we may think. They are tightly coupled. Consider two curved lines drawn on a piece of paper in such a way that they intersect at seven different points.

If one of the lines represent the physical body, the other line represents the subtle body and the paper represents the causal body, the seven points at which the physical and the subtle body meet the causal body are the locations of the seven chakras or energy centers.

So the seven chakras are present at the intersection of the physical, sub tle and the causal body.

Some recent research in aura photography has been able to even photo graph these energy centers.

The seven chakras are associated with particular emotions in our Being. What is the relationship between chakras and emotions?

All emotions, both good and bad, are nothing but the effect of the engraved memories or samskaras which we have accumulated in the past. When you are carrying too many negative samskaras, naturally the energy flow in the body will not be smooth. In particular, samskaras block the energy hubs or chakras, causing physical and mental disturbances.

Most of our diseases are psychosomatic. They have their roots in the mind. What we see is just the effect and so we never really understand this mindbody connection.

When a particular chakra gets blocked, the part of the body near that chakra gets affected. Kirlian photography has recorded the effect of emotions on the chakras.

If an emotion is handled properly, the corresponding chakra functions well, expanding to the size of even a cartwheel! If the emotion is not handled properly, the corresponding chakra shrinks to the size of even a coat button, which causes low energy in the system. This low energy ultimately manifests as disease in the mind-body system

Several factors like childhood problems, societal conditioning, improper hab its, physical and emotional injuries, or even just lack of attention, affect the energy flow through the chakras.

Ultimately, all these energy blocks are caused by the absence of awareness. When we flood awareness on the chakra, it is washed clean of negative emo tions, and we start radiating positive emotions like love and compassion.

Keeping the chakras clean and energized is essential not only for our physical health, but for our mental and emotional well-being, and spiritual growth as well.

Each of our major chakras is related to some primary emotion in us.

If you see, all our emotions are just different facets of our seven primary emotions.

The same basic emotion plays as anger and fear, the same emotion plays as desire and guilt.

If we can understand these seven emotions, we can handle the whole spectrum of emotions that happens in us.

For example, when you are angry, just look into the anger. At the root of it, you will find a deep fear.

Try this for yourself: if you are feeling fear, express anger at that time. Throw your hands, stamp your feet and express the energy. You will see that the fear disappears. You will see for yourself how fear can simply transform to anger.

Similarly, fear can also transform to hatred.

You just need to be aware of yourself and witness how the emotions subtly change from one form to another. When you understand this play, you can easily get out of the game.

Fear is a form of energy inside us. That is why it cannot be destroyed, only transformed. Understand, your fear is directly connected to your life energy! Whenever you are facing a survival threat, you will see your fear rising and the adrenalin release happening in your body, flooding your system with energy. That adrenalin release gives you enough energy for fight or flight. If you feel you can handle the fear, the energy is used to fight and come out of it. If the danger is perceived as being too strong, the energy can be used for flight or escape.

Fear does not exist when things are definite and known. Fear exists only when the possibilities are unknown.

For example, death is a possibility. As an incident it is definite, but when and how it might happen is not clear. So there is always fear associated with it.

If you are sure there is no possibility of achieving something, that you don't have the potentiality, you will not have fear. If you are sure that you can achieve something, then also, you don't have fear.

Sometimes, just by switching your attention to something else, you can come out of fear. But that is not fearlessness.

For example, when you are afraid to cross a dark area in the night, you start thinking of and repeating God's name. Because of fear, God's name will be topmost in your mind!

You feel that you don't have fear because your inner chatter is en gaged in something else!

When you engage your inner chatter in something else, you feel that you are out of fear.

But you have only diverted your attention, you haven't solved the problem completely.

Fearlessness means taking a quantum jump into the consciousness where you will never experience fear of losing anything!

The swadhishthana chakra is the seat of the being. That is why, when your perceive any threat to life, this chakra gets completely shaken! Suppose you are walking in the garden in the dark, and you see a coil of rope. You start shivering, imagining it to be a snake. That sudden shock you get before realizing it is just a rope and not a snake, is what is called a fear stroke. A fear stroke is like shaking a rose plant from its roots. If you keep shaking it long enough, it will die. It is said that we undergo six to twelve fear strokes every day and night, both in dreams and also in wakefulness. Imagine what happens to our being! Fear strokes originate from unconsciousness. When they are viewed with awareness and consciousness, they can be substantially reduced. At the time of the fear stroke, you may not have any time to go into aware ness, because it is just like a spike. But after the fear stroke passes, you can analyze the stroke and get a deeper understanding of your fears. This will help you dissolve the whole idea of fear. The intensity and frequency of fear strokes can be greatly reduced by re ducing the intensity and depth of the basic level of fear in us. Only from this baseline fear, do the fear strokes arise. With deeper understanding and clari ty, we can reduce the baseline fear, and the fear strokes will also reduce.

People come and say to me, 'I have too many fears. What can I do?' I tell them, 'If you have too many fears, the possibility for enlightenment is more.

So many doors are available to you!'

For a person who doesn't have too many fears, the possibility, the number of doors is also fewer because he leads a dull life. He has nothing much to lose, because he is not taking many risks.

But a living being who is doing many things and making many decisions will experience fear. If you are experiencing too much fear, then so many doors are available for your enlightenment!

One more thing: only if you can open it can it be called a door. If you don't know how to open it, then it is more like a wall!

If you know the right technique, all those fears can become doors and you can be liberated.

All our fears, be it fear of losing physical health, mental stability, wealth, name and fame or loved ones, are actually the fear of death under various disguises.

The fear of failure, or the fear of not being accepted by society are just others form of the fear of death. It is the fear of the death of the ego. The biggest fear human beings have is the fear of losing their identity. The death of the ego is felt to be worse than the death of the body! Every act of ours is unconsciously related to death and the fear of dying. That is why, understanding death can change your entire perception of life. It can simply transform the way you handle all your fears.

There are two ways to overcome fear

One way is to block all possibility.

When you feel that nothing can be achieved by your efforts, then there won't be any more fear!

The second way to escape fear is to break the boundary of possibilities. If

there is infinite possibility, if there is no boundary, if there is nothing that lim its you, then you become fearless.

Either nothing is possible, so you won't have fear because there is nothing to be taken away from you. Or everything is possible, so you won't have fear because you feel all-powerful.

Just by having this understanding, something will click in you and so many fears will disappear from your being!

These two possibilities are actually used as techniques by masters.

When masters say, 'Nothing can be done by you,' it is to create that deep surrender, a psychological death. When all possibilities are closed, you naturally relax. This is what Ramana Maharishi* calls atma sharanagati or self-surrender. The second way to go beyond fear is by opening all possibil ities. When everything is possible, again there is no cause for fear. You can explore and experience.

This is called atma gnana or self-realization.

Worry is nothing but the gap between your expectations and reality. It arises from the inability to accept the reality of the present moment. Worry takes root from your own thoughts or words. Understand, there are two kinds of 'talking' that continuously happen in you. The first is dialogue – talking to another person. The second is monologue, or what I call 'inner chatter'. You either talk to people outside or you continuously chatter within you. In either case, words and thoughts are the 'building blocks' that make up worry.

The manipuraka chakra or navel energy center is the point from which your thoughts arise. When you create more thoughts inside due to worry, the load on this chakra increases.

This energy center responds directly to worry, and affects the stomach.

That is why, when you worry about something, your stomach starts churning.

Or when you hear some shocking news you say, 'I can't digest it…' The stomach is very sensitive to thoughts.

If you notice, people who are very ambitious, or who are perfectionists, often end up with stomach trouble and ulcers.

There is an extreme form of habitual worry that can slow down the entire functioning of the individual. It is known as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

According to research done by the National Institute of Mental Health in the USA, GAD affects about 6.8 million adult Americans, and about twice as many women as men.

When worry becomes a habit, it causes many psychosomatic diseases and even cancer. Psychosomatic diseases don't have any carrier.

They happen purely due to the way the mind and body of a person interact. That is why worry needs to be addressed and removed from the system.

Worry is a deeply embedded pattern in us.

It is like a virus software programmed into your brain!

It works randomly, without any solid reason or justification.

For example, let us say you usually experience anxiety at ten o'clock every morning when you enter your office.

Without your knowledge, ten o'clock gets recorded as a low-mood time for you.

Gradually, you will start experiencing the same anxiety every morning at exactly ten o'clock - even if it is a Sunday!

Most of our worries revolve around a few issues – money, or health, or social status or relationships.

The nature of worry is such that it always goes after something that is not available at the moment.

If you have wealth, it will go after relationships. If you have relationships, it will go after education. If you have education, it will go after good looks!

Once this programming happens, we feel we are missing something if we don't have anything to worry about!

I often tell people that if you sit in your house and worry, you call it housework.

If you sit in the office and worry, you call it office work.

If you sit on the beach and worry, you call it vacation, that's all!

Worry can never have an external cause.

Externally, events happen. They continue to happen.

But your inner space is what decides your response to them.

If you really want to come out of your worries, you will come out right now, without trying to justify any of your worries.

If you seriously analyze every worry that arises in you, you will see that nine ty nine

percent of your worries are baseless. But the problem is, our very worries have become our comfort zone. We don't want to get out.

Also, the ego has invested too much in worry!

When we have worries, the ego feels solid.

Just try telling someone that his or her worries are not worth anything. They will be highly offended!

Worry becomes an axis around which the ego revolves.

That is why, if the worry is taken away, the ego suffers!

The mind has a clear identity only with pain, never with joy!

Even when you are at the peak of joy, you are always worrying about when the joy will end!

Joy never gets recorded as thoughts, but pain does. Joy is like a blank re cording! That's why our internal recordings are always negative thoughts.

There are two things to understand: chronological planning and psychologi cal worry.

People think that planning always has to involve worry.

The worry of work and the worry of responsibility are classic examples of this misconception.

Understand, the idea of hard work itself is a myth.

Hard work is really just worry plus a little work, that's all!

Real hard work never causes worry. It simply rises and falls like a wave, with great

dynamism and intensity. It will never dilute itself with worry.

When you work in a relaxed way, you spontaneously make the right deci sions.

You only have the present under your control, so why waste time living in the past?

In the same way, the future is completely open.

You can make the best happen.

But just by worrying, you end up making the same mistakes in the future also.

When you live without expectation, you are already fulfilled.

There is no space for worry or discontent to thrive.

Worry thrives on past experiences and future expectations.

In the present moment, there is no space for worry to take root.

When you take care of this moment , you create a blissful future, because

every moment takes birth only from the previous moment.

There are two ways to overcome worry.

The first way is through intense awareness.

Worry is an unconscious mental pattern.

The moment you shine the light of awareness on it, it dissolves. Once you see clearly how you are creating worry for yourself, you can simply break the pattern and get out.

Meditation increases awareness tremendously. When awareness increases, outwardly you might be completely involved in the outer world, but inwardly you will be untouched by anything that happens. That is the real worry-free life.

The other way is to surrender to Existence.

When you clearly understand that you are part of the grand plan of Existence, no worry can take root in you.

Existence is a live being with tremendous intelligence and energy.

The same intelligence that takes care of everything is available to us too. Surrendering to the laws of Existence is the greatest relaxation from worry. Once you surrender, you start seeing that everything that happens is auspicious!

Whenever we look at something, the first thing we do is to calculate what we can get from it. Whether it is a person or an object, our thoughts start functioning either through fear or through greed. Our attention is centered on that object or person.

It is possible to turn our attention towards our own inner space and ask, 'What can I

contribute?', 'What can I add?', 'How can I enrich others?' If you are asking, 'What can I get out of it?', you are driven by lust. If you are asking, 'How can I enrich it?' it is driven by love! Lust always demands. Love always gives.

Whenever you express love, you express energy also.

When you are deeply in love, deeply flowing, you feel as if you heart has flowered.

This is true!

What you are experiencing is the expansion of your anahata chakra, the heart center. The anahata chakra overflows with the energy of love. What is attention-need?

If love is energy, attention need is nothing but low energy!

When we don't feel fulfilled inside ourselves, we seek attention from others. Understand, attention is energy!

That is why, in whatever we do or even think, we are subconsciously seeking concurrence and approval from the people around us in some subtle way. All your life, you are on a signature campaign, getting endorsements from your family, your friends and society: Good Father, Good Husband, Good

Employee, Good Friend and so on!

We judge ourselves only based on others' opinions of us, through their certificates.

We are so dependent on others' opinion of us because they have become the source of our energy. When you are dependent on external sources for energy, you become psychologically handicapped.

With a physical handicap, at least you know that you are handicapped, but with psychological handicap, you don't even know that you are handicapped.

When we are so dependent on others for attention, we can fall into depression any moment.

People who suffer from depression are actually suffering from attention-need. If we don't get enough attention and we find it difficult to handle it.

Just one word is enough to put us into depression.

But we don't know the real reason for our depression.

So what do we do? We start taking medicine to cure it.

How will it heal? The cause for the depression is inside you and you look at medicines for help!

Today, love is more of a transaction. If someone says something nice to you, you love him; tomorrow if the same person falls short of your expectations, you immediately in

him that much or you probably hate him.

The moment there is expectation, possessives, doubt – it is not love, it is a business contract!

If your love can change into hate or anger, be very clear, it is not real love. It is simply your changing reaction to a person or a situation, that's all You might claim that your love has no expectations, but the moment the other person doesn't respond as you imagine, you will be able to observe the

tension and disappointment in you!

As you grow more aware in your relationships, you will see this.

It is time to move from the mind to the heart.

You have listened enough to your mind.

Decide now to listen to your heart!

When you live with your heart, you will never regret anything in life because

there will be completeness in anything that you do.

You can never experience true love with your mind.

Love needs to be experienced at the very center of your being

When you can love without a reason, you will release tremendous energy and beauty. You will appear beautiful irrespective of whether you are physi cally beautiful or not.

Don't think that unconditional love will not get you back anything.

It will get you back things in more than one way. But you evolve to an extent where you see these things coming to you and continue loving, for the sake of loving.

Some people tell me, 'Swamiji, I love the whole world. I don't do harm even to a small ant…'

Why do you want to delude yourself by saying all these things?

Can you even love your neighbor whole-heartedly?

I tell you: it is easy to 'love the whole world', because you need not do anything to prove it!

But when you say that you love your neighbor, the problem starts! You have to see his face everyday. You have to do something tangible to prove your love for him!

Then it becomes a problem!

When you really love, the opposite emotions cannot enter into you. They will simply be excluded. When there is bright light in a room, can darkness be brought in? When you are brimming with love, there is no way another emotion can enter.

When you go deeply into any emotion, only that emotion remains and you cease to exist. This is what we mean by 'totality'.

When you are brimming with love, you don't feel yourself, you feel only love; you become love. Only when you become love have you found real love. When you become love, you automatically exude compassion towards everyone and

everything around you.

To be able to love unconditionally, you need to be free.

I am not saying that you should forget your family, religion etc.

Just don't see love in the context of all this, that's all. Free your inner space from these bondages. When you feel that you belong to the whole of Existence, you can love without any boundaries.

Love is the ultimate experience of a human being.

When the experience happens, we will not be able to possess the experience, only the experience will possess us!

If you see, when you have loved totally, you will never feel guilty or sad when a person dies. You may feel sad at the physical separation, but you will never feel that you have missed anything when they were living.

When I say total love, I don't mean that you should have fulfilled all others'

expectations.

I mean, you should have been centered in yourself well and exuded that kind of energizing love towards them, seeing and respecting them as part of Existence.

Only a person who loves like this knows how to love.

When you grow in love, you learn to include everything and everyone. When you see a master, you will understand how encompassing he is. He never excludes anything or anyone. He sees no imperfections in anyone. He is just pure love, that's all. Existence is pure love. And pure love sees no imperfections. Society never approves of letting go and loving every plant and animal with love. It would tell you that you are mad. It will approve only of love that is governed by give and take; love that comes with a reason. But I tell you: don't give up.

Keep on loving with all your heart.

See every person, stone or tree as a part of God.

That is real worship. Your mind does not need love, but your being needs it. Love is an adventure where you go into dissolution. When you are not, love

is.

We don't have the courage to 'not be' and so we hold on; we pull back from unconditional love.

Those who are ready to take the adventure into dissolution, into experienc ing the whole, are the brave ones. The ordinary love that you know is like fighting within four walls.

Real love is like fighting in the cold on the open streets.

Love and responsibility always go hand in hand. When you truly love, you will take up total responsibility as well.

The more responsibility you take up, the more you expand and the divine energy will automatically flow in you!

This responsibility is not out of ego of serving people, but out of the overflowing love energy in you.

When you feel that you are responsible for the pain around you, you will automatically stand up to help reduce it in some way or other.

People often think that it is enough if they do things for their own family.

This is the way of contraction, not expansion.

You need to expand for growth to happen.

Existence will automatically flow through you when you take up responsibility.

Take on responsibility with joy!

You will feel selfless love growing in you.

The whole world will become your family.

Even if the responsibility seems too much, simply take it up! Merely deciding to take it up is enough.

The rest will be taken care of by Existence.

Responsibility is nothing but the ability to respond spontaneously.

When you love without discrimination, you can take up responsibility without discrimination.

Simple: Stop asking and start giving!

Instead of asking for energy, radiate energy.

We are so used to seeing ourselves as the center of attention.

We need to start seeing the world outside as the center of attention.

How to do this?

Just understand this one thing: when you are able to love without a reason, you will expand like anything. Your world will suddenly seem larger than life. It will be so ecstatic. You will become an energy source to yourself and to others.

You will be overflowing with such energy that it has to touch others. There is no other way.

Our life revolves around the three functions of doing, having and being. All our life, we are focused on doing more and more, trying to achieve more and more. We try to work harder, learn more, perform better. All our life we are running after something or other. Why are we running like this? Because our goal is having more and more – more wealth, more possessions, more name and fame, more relationships. We have to run so that we can

have more than the neighbors, more than our friends and our enemies. All our attention and energy is sucked by doing and having. We never have any time to just be. We have lost touch with our own being.

There is nothing wrong with doing or having – but it cannot be a substitute for being.

Unless you know how to relax into yourself, you will never be free of comparison and jealousy.

You need no improvement!

The very word vishuddhi means 'beyond purity and impurity'.

Understand, you are beyond the concepts of pure and impure!

You don't need to improve yourself in any way.

Why do you compare yourself with others and feel miserable?

When we compare, we always feel that what others have or have achieved is

more than what we have, and we start feeling jealous. When we are not able

to bear others' excellence, we get jealous.

Jealousy is the fruit of comparison!

Why exactly do we compare ourselves with others?

First, we compare ourselves because we have never understood ourselves. We are

not aware of who we are and what we have.

Second, society has conditioned us from our birth to evaluate ourselves based upon

others. This process of living by comparison starts right from childhood.

The child learns to judge himself by comparing himself with others.

He knows himself only based on others.

There is no scale to compare

Suppose you were the only person on a new planet, how could you compare yourself with anyone? Could you call yourself tall or short, ugly or beautiful, rich or poor, intelligent or dumb?

No!

Do we ever compare ourselves with flowers or birds or mountains?

Then why do we compare ourselves with other human beings?

Understand, there is no scale to compare you with anybody.

Each individual is unique.

Understand, God is an artist, not an engineer!

If He was an engineer, He would have made one perfect man and one per -

fect woman and then made millions of copies from that mould!

No. God has made each one of us unique in every way.

So where is the scale to compare?

Whenever you compare, you create constant conflict either inside or outside.

If somebody laughs, you think he is laughing at you. If somebody is friendly towards another person, you feel lonely and jealous of that person. Actually, you are just waiting for someone to hurt you. The jealousy you allow inside you is like a raw wound. Any action done with no intention to hurt you also touches the wound and hurts.

So when you feel hurt, understand that already you have a wound! Don't throw the responsibility of the suffering on the other person. The wound needs to be healed, the jealousy has to be dissolved. Then nobody can hurt you. Nobody can hurt you without your silent permission.

The other is not responsible

Just by condemning the object of jealousy, you will not be liberated from jealousy itself!

By condemning the object of jealousy, you might be liberated from that particular object of jealousy but you will simply get fixed on another object of jealousy, that's all!

You need to work on the subject, that is you.

You compare yourself to each other because you feel that you are somehow

lacking. Understand, you have no idea of your true, unique potential!

You have the potential to live like gods on earth.

Just look in! Experiment, explore and discover the truth for yourself.

The moment you stop comparing, all jealousy disappears.

Instead, you will start feeling contented in yourself and grateful to Existence

for having given you so much and for making you unique.

How to get out of jealousy?

The way out of jealousy is not by suppressing it, condemning it or denying its existence.

Unconsciously expressing and encouraging jealousy is obviously not the way either.

Actually, how will you remove jealousy from your life, when it is non-existent?

Jealousy is just like darkness – it has only a negative existence.

Just as darkness is only the absence of light, jealousy is nothing but the ab sence of awareness!

A simple pure awareness in doing, having and being can revolutionize the way you handle jealousy.

You always work out of the idea that something is lacking in you.

That is why you aim at being better than all others!

When you welcome yourself completely, you work with totality rather than perfection.

When you compare, you only grow to the extent that the other person has grown.

When you work out of your own spontaneous energy and inspiration, you never know to what extent you can grow!

When you are total and authentic in your doing, you express your won high est potential and blossom in the unique way that you are meant to blossom!

The very nature of the mind is to not be satisfied, not be happy, and not be in the present moment. The mind can only exist either in the past or the future. It cannot exist in the present because you cannot have thoughts in the present moment. So, by its very nature, the mind will chase desires. We have to be aware and see which desires are actually ours and which we have borrowed from others.

When a desire is truly your own, you will always have sufficient energy to ful fil it. When you start picking up desires from others and trying to fulfil them, you feel drained of energy. Not only that, even if you manage to fulfil that desire, it will never bring you real satisfaction – because it was not your desire in the first place!

Comparison is the greatest disrespect you can show to yourself!

You always measure yourself by your weakest point, and the ones you envy by their strongest point.

Then you create a conflict inside yourself!

Understand, no matter how much your admire your favorite sports star or film star, can you enjoy even a cup of coffee through their body? When you start longing for other peoples' bodies, you create a gap between yourself and your body.

When you welcome yourself totally, when you are totally at ease with your body, a certain grace will start flowering in you.

The vishuddhi chakra is the source of infinite energy!

Comparison locks your vishuddhi chakra and straightaway drains your energy.

Just by freeing yourself of jealousy, you free up enormous amounts of energy to run and expand your life.

We are all familiar with the phrase, 'Seeing is believing.' We have complete faith in all the information that we receive through our senses.

We don't know that what our senses perceive is not what gets finally recorded in our mind!

Do you know, only about ten percent of what we perceive through our senses gets recorded in our conscious mind? Everything else goes directly into our unconscious mind. Just see in your own life. Do you remember all the buildings, all the trees, all the signboards you pass on your way to work every morning?

But do you know, if you were put under hypnosis and asked the same question, you would recall each and every detail of your morning drive! The only thing is, all this information is not stored in our conscious mind. So long as this sensory perception does not interest us in some way, it does not get recorded in the conscious mind.

Just think of the traffic jam in our minds if we were consciously recording each and every sensory perception!

These impressions are sorted out by parts of our mind and identified.

Not only does the mind filter perception, it also distorts whatever we perceive.

How exactly do we receive data, process it and make decisions? Let us try to understand the process.

For example, let us say you are seeing something through your eyes. When you receive any information through your eyes, immediately the file goes to a space called the chakshu, which is something like a Digital Signal Processor (DSP).

Whatever you are seeing through the eyes is converted into a bio-signal, just like a digital signal.

Next, this file moves to a space called chitta which is just like the memory in a computer. Here the process of identification starts. For example, you are now seeing this book. This information goes to the DSP or chakshu and is converted into a bio-signal, and then it moves to chitta, memory.

The memory starts analyzing - 'This is not a stone, this is not a tree, this is not an animal…' The process of elimination happens in the memory.

Next, the identification happens: 'This is a book,'. This process happens in the manas. In the mind, you start identifying, 'This is a book', 'It is a book on spirituality', 'It is written by an enlightened being.'

After the identification process, the file moves to a space which I call ahamkara or 'ego', the decision-making center.

The ego you start thinking, 'In what way am I connected to this situation?'

If your past experiences with similar books were good, you decide to read the book. If your past experiences were not good, if you felt, 'Oh, this is not worth it, I felt very bored last time,' or 'I read similar books but did not feel any benefit,' if you feel negatively about it, you will decide not to read that book. The ego decides based on your past experiences.

This is the way your mind functions.

If the process happens in a straightforward way, things will go very smoothly in your life. Everything will be clear and straight! But this process does not always happen in a conscious, straightforward way.

In the whole process of thinking, your conscious mind has a very small role!

Suppose a person is standing before you. Your conscious mind identifies this person – it records whether he is known to you or not. That's all!

After this, the 'file' moves to your unconscious zone. In case you know the person, your attitude towards him and your actions are based on the samskaras (root patterns) that you have already stored in your mind about him. Even if he is unknown to you, his appearance of that person may trigger some unconscious response in you.

Be very clear: it is your unconscious mind which makes the final decision about how you respond to a situation.

And the unfortunate thing is, we are not even conscious that we are unconscious!

We think that we are making a very clear decision based upon our conscious understanding of the person. Actually, less than one percent of our decisions have a rational basis.

For instance, if you were hurt or disturbed in a particular place, or by a particular situation, or by a certain kind of person, the next time you go to that place or encounter a similar situation or person, that memory will be awakened without your awareness.

You will go through the same low mood, even if you know logically that that place or person has nothing to do with your past experiences!

In this process, let us say the time taken for the conscious, logical decision-making process is Tp. The time taken for the unconscious samskaras to form their judgment is Tq.

If your samskaras don't have much power over you, your Tp will be shorter that your Tq. That is, your conscious process will happen faster than your unconscious process, and your decision will be based on awareness.

If your unconscious process happens faster than your conscious process (i.e. if your Tq is shorter than your Tp), naturally you are going to make a decision based on your own biases.

If you area carrying powerful samskaras, they can simply take over your personality without your knowledge. Impulsive behavior, irrational behavior, addictions – all these are nothing but your samskaras at work.

For instance, there is no smoker who does not logically understand that smoking is injurious to health.

But even though you are perfectly aware that smoking is injurious to health, when the data moves to the ego, the file takes a quantum leap! Before your logic can make the decision, some past samskara where you experienced pleasure through smoking simply jumps up and decides for you, and you just go ahead and smoke.

Understand, the more you cherish a certain kind of thought, the greater the chance that you will become aware only when such thoughts arise in your mind. The projector light which is inside you comes on, the awareness that you exist comes to life, only when those thoughts cross your field of awareness.

For example, if you enjoy lustful thoughts, it is only when lustful thoughts move across your mind that you become aware, 'I exist'. If you are unconsciously cherishing violence, it is only when violent thoughts arise that you come to life!

If you empower a particular thought again and again, that thought becomes the stimulus for you to become aware of yourself.

Naturally, your inner space responds to and strengthens only those kinds of thoughts.

This becomes a vicious circle, leading to the formation of a root thought pattern.

The greater the load of samskaras in your system, the greater the possibility that your actions and responses will be arising from your unconscious mind.

We are all familiar with the famous one-liner: 'I am the boss of this house, I have my wife's permission to say so!'

This is the state of your life also!

You may think you are the boss, but your unconscious engrams are leading you.

Meditation cleanses your inner space of the deep-rooted samskaras which decide your conditioned responses. In the superconscious meditative state, it is possible to relive and relieve your embedded memories, and effect the removal and dissolution of these samskaras that bind us.

A recent scientific study conducted by a leading spiritual organization in the USA has revealed that if a boxing tournament happens in a city, the crime rate in that city goes up. On the other hand, if a largescale group meditation session happens in the city, the crime rate comes down.

With powerful cleansing processes, you can throw out all your accumulated samskaras. But if you are not alert, you will keep accumulating new samskaras to replace the old ones! The only way is to avoid this is to live and function in the present moment, in moment-to-moment awareness. Be very clear: every moment of your life that happens without your awareness is suffering.

Your thoughts about the past are usually regrets or guilt about what happened, what you did or didn't do. Your thoughts about the future are all based on your desires, your plans, your worries about what is going to happen.

This is the most useless activity that the mind can pursue – because you have no control over either the past or the future.

Can you alter the past by thinking about it?

Can you alter the future by worrying about it?

We feel, the past is gone, but at least the future is in our control!

Even if you want to control your future, are you going to do it by worrying?

You will be shocked to know that 99% of your worries don't come true. 99% of your fears never materialize. And the 1% that does materialize is usually a good learning experience for you!

But we are not so intelligent to learn from life!

All we try to do is, we use our memories of the past to handle the future. We respond to life out of our inadequate cognition of the past, not out of our spontaneous awareness in the present moment. It is like driving a car looking only at the rear view mirror! You know for sure where you will end up!

Please understand, neither the past nor the future is real. The past is dead and gone. The future has not even happened. The only moment available to you is the present moment.

But just observe yourself.

Are you ever present in the present?

Only your body is in the present moment; your mind is continuously oscillating between past and future.

You are always jumping, even when you think you are resting.

Your mind never wants to rest.

If your mind rests for a moment, you will know you can do without it!

When your mind rests for a moment, you will see that you are in a state of bliss. That state is the present moment!

Your mind is always trying to escape the present moment. You don't understand, the only thing you can actually experience is the present moment.

You cannot experience the future until it becomes your present!

All your future has to happen in this present moment. It is what you decide now in this present moment that makes your future. If you take care of the present moment, if you live this present moment consciously, you have taken care of your future. Not only that, you will no longer have cause to regret your past.

When you live in the present, you take care of both past and future.

Every moment, the future is slipping into the past.

At the junction of past and future is the present moment.

When your mind is filled with thoughts of past and future, you don't catch this moment!

Again and again, you miss the present moment.

In the diagram, the shaft in the center represents 'time'. Your thought frequency is measured in terms of the number of Thoughts Per Second (TPS).

The greater the frequency of thoughts, the further you are from the awareness of the present moment. For example, if you have 100 TPS, it means that your mind is doing nothing but jumping between past and future. (Of course, the numbers are just to give you an idea; who knows, you may be having even 1000 TPS or 5000 TPS!) As your TPS comes down, you come closer and closer to the present moment. You start relaxing into the experience of the present moment.

When this happens, you have a clearer vision of the past and the future.

Don't think that being in the present moment means forgetting about past and future.

The present moment is all-inclusive.

Being in the present means, bringing both past and the future into the present, and handling them while remaining rooted in present-moment awareness.

Understand: only when you can relax totally into the present moment will you have clarity about your past and future.

You may wonder, what is there to gain clarity in the past? One can understand that the future may not be clear, but why the past? I have lived it, so why should it be unclear?

Be very clear, what you now remember of the past is only your judgment of the past, not the way it actually happened!

We saw how our inadequate cognitions filter reality and create their own idea of every event. This distorted idea is stored in our mind, and recalled later as the 'past'.

How many times we talk about the golden past!

We don't realize, there is nothing particularly golden about the past. Just like the present moment, it was also a mix of joy and sorrow. We just choose to remember the good parts, so it looks golden!

BOX: Have you ever experienced this? Suddenly, for no rea-

son, you think of a person you haven't met in years – maybe an old friend. A few moments later, the telephone rings – and it is that person on the line!

Or you are at a party, and suddenly you get a strong feeling that something is about to happen – maybe a particular person is going to walk in, or a certain person is about to drop something – something like that.

And immediately, exactly what you expected happens! Usually, we brush off such incidents as coincidence. No!

If it happens to one or two people, it can be called a coincidence.

But more than 80% of people have experienced this at least a few times in their lives.

Why does this happen?

When you are in a relaxed mood, your TPS naturally drops. You come close to the bottom of the time shaft.

Then for a few seconds, you actually fall into zero-TPS – the zone of enlightened consciousness.

It is at such moments that you suddenly catch the signals from your past and future. You are able to see at least a few seconds ahead!

As your TPS goes down, you relax into the space of intuition. Intuition is not the understanding of the future. Intuition is clarity in the present moment. When you have clarity about present moment, naturally you will act to shape your future also in a clear way.

Understand: time is nothing but your mind!

All your thinking is nothing but the movement of your mind between past and future.

Actually, mind cannot exist in the present moment.

When mind falls into the present moment, it can no longer be called mind.

It is the state of pure awareness.

When your TPS touches zero, you step out of mind.

When you step out of mind, you step out of time.

Understand, you cannot control or suppress the mind. It is not a permanent solution. At the first chance, your mind will spring back again!

You can only transcend the mind.

When you transcend the mind, it can't play games on you anymore! Not only that, you can play with the mind and make it behave as you wish.

Meditation liberates you from your mind.

In meditation, we work consciously to free ourselves from the continuous movement of the mind. But all of us, whether we are meditators or not, are trying unconsciously to jump out of our minds!

At least for a few minutes, we want to break free of our minds.

Our obsession with sex, extreme sports, horror films – all these are for the same reason! In moments of extreme desire or fear, the mind stops for a moment. When the continuous flow of thoughts is broken, the bliss that is naturally in us bubbles up to the surface of our consciousness. In those moments, we become aware of ourselves, we taste ourselves. The 'high' that we get out of these activities is nothing but the bliss of our own Self!

We can also reach this state in the presence of an enlightened being. This is the easy way!

It is the shortcut to living enlightenment! The enlightened master is always in is the zero-TPS state. That is why, in his presence, your own TPS also drops. Just by being in his space, you can imbibe his state.

Awareness in the master's space is natural meditation.

Try a very simple experiment for just ten minutes. Take a sheet of paper and a pen. Sit down alone and close your eyes for a few seconds. You will see that many thoughts are rushing through your mind.

Now, open your eyes. Whatever thoughts are coming, just start writing them down.

Don't change anything, don't edit anything. As the thoughts rise, just keep writing them down. If you think no thoughts are coming, write that also. Honestly write whatever goes on inside. After ten minutes, just read all that you have written down.

Just from these ten minutes, you can get a clear picture of how your mind works.

You can clearly see that there is no logic in the way your mind works!

For example, your first thought may be of a dog you saw on the street that morning. Then somehow, you remember the dog you were afraid of when you were young, or the one dog used to play with when you were young. The next thought could be about your childhood. Then your mind goes to the teacher who taught you when you were a child. Then you

recall the house where your teacher used to live… Where is the logical connection between the dog that you saw on the street and the house of the teacher who taught you in school? But in just a few seconds, your mind has from the dog to the teacher to the house! You can see clearly that your thoughts are simply jumping from one thing to another, continuously moving from one thing to another. We can't even call this process 'thinking'! It is just 'association', that's all – and that too, not a logical association. Actually, if all your thoughts could be heard, it would sound like a conversation among the inmates of a madhouse! Understand: your mind is nothing but a constant flow of utterly disconnected, illogical thoughts. And this is the mind to which you have entrusted your life!

The biggest obstacle to understanding the nature of the mind is this: we all believe that the mind is a solid thing, a biomechanical machine, an object.

Then we search for ways to conquer the mind. Even the greatest scholars and doctors miss this truth: Mind is not a thing, as we imagine.

The Sanskrit word for mind is manas, which means, a constant happening. Mind is not an organ, it is not a machine – it is a continuous process that is dynamic and alive.

Western psychology bases all its studies of the mind on this one idea – that mind is a biomechanical machine. We all believe this – that mind is a solid thing.

Actually, mind is nothing but the continuous flow of thoughts happening in us. Thoughts do not flow through the mind, thoughts are the mind. As your thoughts are constantly changing, your mind is also in a constant state of flux. There is no such thing as a constant mind.

Because we believe that mind is a consistent phenomenon, we constantly connect all the happenings in our mind and strengthen this idea.

If you observe, thoughts arise one after another in your mind just like bubbles in a fish tank!

Just like that, something arises, then something else arises; next, something else is arising… thoughts are flowing, words are flowing. Because your mind is usually functioning at high TPS, these 'thought bubbles' follow one another in a rapid stream, creating the illusion that it is one unbroken flow.

Because you are not aware of the gaps between the thoughts, you feel that your mind is a solid phenomenon.

When you allow each thought to rise and die, you can take on any amount of stress at the physical and mental level without getting stressed out.

Your consciousness will remain light and blissful.

When we focus only on the thoughts and not the gaps of silence in between, we feel as if we are taking on too much. We start feeling burdened and stressed.

Actually, as you saw in the five-minute experiment, there is no connection at all between our thoughts! You do not know even know why one particular thought is following another. There is no logical reason.

But your intellect cannot accept that you are nothing but a bunch of independent, random, unconnected thoughts!

It is too frightening.

You are afraid to live with such an undefined mind!

We base our whole identity on our idea about our past and our future. So we cannot accept that there is no connection between our past life, our present moment and the future.

Be very clear: your idea about your life as a series of logical events exists only in your mind. There is no logic in Existence!

But we try to 'make sense' of our mind by creating a false connection between these disconnected thoughts

We create an imaginary shaft of pain or joy to connect our thoughts, and think we are giving meaning to our life.

In the picture, these different thoughts are represented by different shapes of varying lengths, breadths, and colors. Each thought is about a separate incident in your life. Some thoughts are memories of joyful events, some are painful, some are a mix of both. Your life is a mixture of some joy, some suffering, some guilt, some pain… But when you recall your past, you selectively recall only the inci dents related to suffering and create a 'shaft', a connection between them. By connecting all these memories with a 'pain shaft', you come to the conclusion that your life is nothing but suffering!

For example, the depression that you experienced ten years ago, the depression that you experienced five years ago, the depression that you experienced three months ago and the depression that you experienced yesterday, are completely unconnected and independent incidents!

All these happened for different purposes, different reasons, at differ ent times and situations.

But what do you do?

You connect all these unconnected incidents and say, 'My life itself is nothing but depression.'

Understand, in each case of depression, the reasons would have been different, the situations would have been different. But when you connect all these low moods and decide, 'My life is full of depression,' you have created hell for yourself!

The moment you start believing that your life is depression, your life indeed becomes depression. Once you create this pain shaft, you set the scene for more and more painful incidents to be added to your life! Whenever you believe in something, you start unconsciously collecting more and more experiences and arguments to strengthen that belief.

Whatever we believe to be our past, we reproduce exactly that in the future.

We all know from our past experience that we can't fly. How can we believe that we can start flying from tomorrow onwards? We can't!

Whatever we believe to be our past, only that we will believe can be our future.

So once we start believing that our past was filled with depression, we have the unconscious faith that our future will also be depression. When we believe that the mind is consistent, a solid thing, we have already created hell for ourselves.

Very rarely, some people connect all the happy memories of their past and create an imaginary 'joy shaft'. These people believe that their life has always been a joy. They are also making the same mistake. Understand, they are as far away from the truth as the opposite group!

If you have a clear picture about your past, it will become a solid experience. It will not be a load; it will become strength. Undigested past is a load, digested past is strength. We don't digest our past. It just stays on us like a load, like a headache. When you connect all the painful incidents and create a pain shaft, you create an enemy who does not exist and spend your life start fighting with him.

As I was coming down the stairs I met a man who wasn't there He wasn't there again today I wish that man would go away!

Understand, you are doing the same thing! You are fighting with an imaginary enemy.

If you believe that your life is suffering, you will be struggling to break free of this suffering. First you create the belief, then you try to break free of it!

Unconsciously, you will be continuously adding to the pain shaft, but consciously you will be trying to break it.

In the same way, those who believe that life is a joy will be continuously trying to elongate the joy shaft.

This is equally foolish.

Can you hold on to your joyful experiences always? No! They won't stay forever.

Even if you try to reproduce the same ambience, the same people, the same place, even the same temperature again and again, you cannot continuously experience the same joy.

The main reason for people falling into addiction is this: believing that the joy or ecstasy they experienced at some time in the past came from a particular object or person or situation, they continuously try to reproduce the same thing again and again, even though the same joy or experience does not come back again.

Some people are addicted to partying, some people are addicted to smoking, some people are addicted to drinking, and some people are addicted even to the daily newspaper!

The simple truth is, you can neither break the pain shaft, nor can you add to the joy shaft, because both the shafts do not exist! Both are created just by your selective memory.

Understand, it is not just your state of mind that is affected by this attitude. Your very body, even your chronic physical diseases are consequences of this imaginary pain shaft!

People come and tell me,

'Swamiji, I have been suffering from pain in the knees for the last twenty years.'

No, it cannot be!

Please, understand, it cannot be. I am not disregarding your suffering by saying that all your problems are in your head.

I am just telling the truth: all your problems are in your head!

Whether you believe it or not, medical science has proved that your body continuously rejuvenates itself. Do you know, once in 47 days, your intestine gets replaced completely!

Your brain cells, your skin, your internal organs are all replaced, cell by cell, within a particular number of days.

So if you are carrying the same disease for years, it means only one thing: you are carrying it in your mind.

Your unconscious belief that your disease is a continuous experience forces your mind to bring back the same pain and disease again and again.

When we worked on the body, we saw the power of intention. If a simple intention can change the very cellular structure of your body, why can't it heal your chronic diseases? All you have to do is allow the self-healing to happen naturally.

The moment you hear this new word, 'unclutching', your mind will leap to the conclusion: Oh, this looks like a new technique. Swamiji is asking us to do something new!

Understand, I am not asking you to do anything.

I am only asking you to do stop doing whatever you are doing right now! I am only asking you to stop connecting your thoughts and creating suffering for yourself.

Actually, you don't have to do anything to be unclutched.

By your very nature, you are a free, unclutched, blissful being. Just the simple understanding of how your mind is playing tricks on you is enough!

Just the awareness of how you are continuously connecting your thoughts is enough to liberate you from both the pain shaft and joy shaft. It is not a technique for you to sit down and do for a particular period of time. It is a continuous, 24-hour process.

If you are unable to keep this awareness continuously alive, you have to keep returning to it again and again. That is when you call it a practice!

Part 2: Meditation Book - Leading You To Bliss

Just sit silently and watch your mind.

You will see so many thoughts coming up.

Your first instinct will be to connect all these thoughts together. Unconsciously, you struggle to make some logical connection between your thoughts.

Understand: your thoughts are not holding on to you, as you imagine. It is you who are clutching onto them and connecting them! When the thoughts come up, do not try to connect them, to give meaning to them.

The moment you give meaning to the words that your mind is throwing up, either you will try to suppress them or you will try to execute them. Or else, you will try to go beyond them – which is just one more thought!

Instead, just remember, 'Let me disconnect from this thought. I am not going to empower this thought by following it, or by fighting it. Let me unclutch from it.'

Again, in two seconds, another thought will come up. Again say, 'Let me unclutch.'

After few minutes, you will see you are continuously repeating the thought 'unclutching': 'I am unclutching,' 'I am unclutching'… Now, unclutch from that thought too!

When a thought arises in you, instead of giving meaning to it, just unclutch from it, just relax into its source. Relax into the silent space inside from which the thought arises.

Whenever you remember, unclutch from yourself. Unclutch from the very idea you are carrying about yourself.

For ten days, try this continuously, whether you are eating, driving, whatever you are doing. Whenever the thoughts arise, unclutch again and again, come back and rest.

If it does not change your life in ten days, you can forget about it. But I tell you, it will work! I have seen how it can just transform your life.

When you continuously turn your awareness to your inner space, you will realize a great truth: no thought, however strong, can have total power over your inner space! We always think that our mind is too powerful to control. We live in terror of our desires and our fears! We feel we can never escape from our suffering.

Be very clear: even if you want to, even if you try consciously, you cannot possess or hold onto your suffering!

Understand, this is a subtle truth. Even if you try to hold onto your suffering, you cannot - because continuously, your suffering is also replaced by other thoughts. Even the worst suffering, the worst depression, the worst fear, is continuously being replaced with new thoughts.

Fortunately, you can have only one thought at a time.

So if you feel your mind is too powerful to conquer, just face it one thought at a time!

The moment a new thought is enters inner space, it means that the earlier thought has already lost its influence over you.

They say you can't step into the same river twice.

I tell you, you can't step into the same river even once! By the time you put your foot into the water and it touches the bed, the water has already flowed on!

This understanding is what I call a click, an initiation.

This single understanding can totally transform the way you handle your mind.

It is the key to go beyond all your fears, all your worries, all your phobias!

You have already seen that each and every thought is being constantly replaced by others in your inner space.

Now, all you need to do is repeat this process consciously! Can you say that this is difficult?

Actually, you cannot even say that it is easy – because even 'easy' means it need a little effort. But this process is already happening in you, constantly, naturally.

Now just be aware that it is happening, that's all.

Once you realize that a thought can only occupy your inner space for

a few seconds, will you be afraid of it anymore?

Will you respect a phobia that can be wiped out in a moment by another thought?

For instance, if the thought of death comes up, why should you be afraid?

Simply replace it, that's all!

'Swamiji, I am haunted by the fear of death. Please tell me a way to come out of it!

I told him, 'Every time the fear of death comes up, just decide to have a cup of coffee.'

He was shocked!

He said, 'What do you mean, Swamiji? How can that help me?'

I said, 'The moment you are able to think of having a cup of coffee, it means the thought about death fear has already left your inner space. Am I right?'

Then he said, 'No, no, Swamiji, it looks too simple! And even if I do that, the death fear will come back! Then what should I do?'

I said, 'If it comes back, have one more cup of coffee, that's all!'

He protested, 'No, no, you don't understand how serious this is for me. You are playing with me.'

I said, 'I am not playing with you. Now you know the method how to replace the death fear once; do the same thing again and again, that's all.'

Why are you afraid that you will bring your old thought back? It is like trashing your e-mails and then bringing them back from the trash bin.

Why would you do that?

You have the intelligence and the independence to replace any suf fering, any fear, any negativity that enters your inner space.

If a thought can be replaced once, it means that it can be replaced as many times as it comes. If you can replace it ten times, the eleventh time the thought will not arise; the frequency will come down. This is the truth.

Fortunately, you have a pure inner space which can never be cor rupted by the thoughts that flow through it.

Your inner space is simply like a screen on which your thoughts are projected for a few moments and then fade out. If you project a scene of fire on a cinema screen, will the screen itself get burnt? No!

In the same way, your inner space can never be polluted or possessed by any particular idea or thought.

Understanding this deeply can completely liberate you from all the sufferings you create for yourself. It can bring tremendous self-healing to you, tremendous freedom, tremendous courage and confidence. If this one truth clicks, it can destroy the root of ignorance, the root of the mind. Nothing else is needed.

Unclutching is a natural process that is going on in your inner space every moment. But the moment you hear the word, a powerful fear comes up! Because deep inside, you realize that living in an unclutched manner means living without the mind. And you are afraid to live in such an undefined way! Without your mind, you are terrified that you will lose your identity. So you ask, If I constantly live in an unclutched manner, how will I run my life? How will I handle my job? Who will maintain my family?

Who will pay my bills?

But your actual question is,

if I live without mind, what will happen to my identity?

You are not even so worried about losing your life, as you are about losing your identity. You don't realize that your identity is nothing more than a bunch of ideas you have about yourself!

Don't think that the mind only filters and distorts the external reality that we perceive. Your very identity is nothing but a few ideas about yourself that you have chosen to pick up and nurture.

And all your life, you have struggled to protect your identity - both your outer-world identity and your inner-world identity.

Understand, you are not carrying a single integrated sense of identity, as you imagine!

Each of us carries a number of distinct identities.

Of these identities, there are two which are always in conflict with each other.

One is called ahaṅkāra - the identity that you project to the outer world. The other is mamakāra - the identity which you believe in your heart to be the real you.

Ahaṅkāra, how you project yourself, will always be much more than what you actually are. Mamakāra, what you believe as yourself, will always be much less than what you actually are.

In the world, we carry a superiority complex, but in our hearts, we all carry a deep inferiority complex.

Both these identities are constantly in conflict with each other.

That is why we have to be so careful when we talk to anyone – because we never really talk what we think.

The enlightened master Sri Ramakrishna says, if the way from your heart to your mouth is a straight line, you are living a spiritual life. He means that when we can directly express what we feel in our heart, that is true spirituality.

Understand, this is not simple morality.

You will have the courage to speak exactly what you feel only when there is no conflict between your ahaṅkāra and your mamakāra, only when you go beyond these two identities.

As of now, your thoughts are governed by your inner identity, while your words are governed by your outer identity. Your whole life is nothing but the fight between these two identities.

What you don't understand is, neither of these identities is the real you!

The reality, the real you, is much more than these two identities. You are beyond these two identities.

As long as you are swinging between these two identities, you are caught in saṃsāra. When you go beyond these identities, you enter the space of enlightenment.

But you are afraid to live without identity!

I tell you, don't bother about these hypothetical fears.

Mind exists only on these hypothetical fears!

Have the courage to live in an unclutched way.

Just opening up to the truth, though it feels like suffering in the initial level, will always lead you to greater awareness and joy, because sat, by its very nature, leads to chit and ānanda. By its very nature, the truth (sat) leads to awareness (chit), and awareness (chit) leads to bliss (ānanda).

Understand, your being does not need your mind to run your body. When you trust your being instead of your mind, you will see an unchanging, authentic Self arise in you.

Your life will unfold in a more spontaneous, joyful, intelligent way. This is what I call 'living enlightenment'.

Please be very clear, your life does not happen because of you. Your life happens in spite of you!

Only if you have suffered enough in your life with your mind, you will understand what I am saying.

Only if you come to the verge of suspecting your own identity, can you understand.

What you think of as your identity is not needed to run your life!

Your innate intelligence, your prārabdha (bio-memory), is powerful enough to handle your life using your body and your mind.

Your bio-memory is intelligent enough to maintain your body, expand your wealth and take care of your life.

Trusting this truth in every moment is what I call bhakti, devotion. An incident from my wandering days:

When I was wandering in the villagers of northern Bharat, I had often noticed the villagers using a novel trap to catch birds.

They suspend a stick horizontally from the branch of a tree. The stick will be hanging from the tree by a rope tied around its middle, that's all. This stick is the trap! You must be wondering how a stick can trap a bird!

Understand, when this stick is hanging freely, it is in a horizontal position.

When a bird comes and sits on one side of the stick, the stick goes down on that side because of the weight if the bird. Like a see-saw, one side of the stick goes up, the other goes down, and the stick becomes almost vertical.

The bird will end up hanging topsy-turvy, upside down!

The poor bird is terrified of hanging upside down. But it thinks that if it lets go of the stick, it will fall head-first onto the ground and die! I have seen birds clutching at the stick for hours together, afraid to let go. It will be fluttering its wings, shaking its whole body, trying its best to get back to the earlier position. But it won't dare let go of the stick!

Have you ever heard of a bird falling and breaking his head and dying?

No!

But the foolish bird does not know that if he just lets go, he can fly…! He can be liberated.

After a few hours, the hunter comes along leisurely, simply catches hold of the bird and puts it in his cage.

Understand: this is the exact story of you and your mind! Just like the bird, you are hanging onto the very thing that is putting you into suffering!

Because the bird feels that the stick is its security, it hangs onto the stick. But when the hunter comes, not only does the bird lose the stick, but it is captured and caged too.

In the same way, you hold onto your mind, onto your life. You think these things are your security. But when Yama, Death, comes, not only does all your so-called security become worthless, you are also put to death.

Rarely, a bird which was once stuck in the trap but had the courage to let go and open up, comes back to save the other birds. It nudges the bird which is hanging upside down, saying, 'Let go! Do not be afraid. Once, I was in the same state as you. But when I relaxed my hold, I just started flying! I became liberated. All it will take you to regain your balance is a few seconds. Have courage and do it.'

Since the bird is hanging topsy-turvy, when it lets go of the stick, maybe for a couple of seconds it will start falling. Then it will just simply turn upwards and start flying. Courageously facing those few seconds, that chaos, is what I call tapas.

When you unclutch, there will be a revolution in your life, your thinking, your decision-making, your lifestyle. Courageously going through that transformation is tapas.

Understand, if the bird lets go, if it relaxes, it will be soon enjoying its freedom.

If you have the courage to let go, you can become a Paramahamsa this very moment.

I tell you this boldly with the courage, the authenticity, the Truth of my own experience.

When the words come from the inner space of genuine experience, even if your logic is fighting them, don't bother. You will have the experience anyway.

Whatever arises from the space of Truth will touch the same space within you - your true Self, your being.

All you need to do is just let go, and you will live like a Paramahamsa.

Life lived in an unclutched way is what I call 'living enlightenment'. May you all live enlightenment!

Q. Whenever I try to unclutch, my whole system feels a slight tension. How to relax from it?

A. Understand, trying to be unclutched is not causing the tension, it is only making you aware of the tension that is already there inside. Whenever you start witnessing your thoughts, whatever is there in side starts getting highlighted!

Normally, you are always carrying a subtle tension in your body and mind. Your entire system and way of functioning has become com bative. You feel you need to protect yourself from the whole world. All your outer worries are nothing but excuses to bring out the ten sion which is already inside. You feel stupid accepting that you are tense without any reason, so you find some reason, that's all! So if you are now becoming aware of your tension, that is good. Now just unclutch from the tension also!

Q. If I can see a ten-year dream during eight hours of sleep, does it mean that the movement of time itself is different in different states of consciousness?

How you experience time depends entirely on your state of con sciousness.

In fact, time differs even from person to person living in the same dimension. Or even the same person experiences time differently when he is in different states of consciousness. That is why, in the Vedic system, time is considered a psychological phenomenon, not a chronological phenomenon.

Just like a ten-year dream happens in ten hours, there may be a different calendar where your 70 years of life may be just seven hours for somebody who is in a different space!

If the number of thoughts per second (TPS) is more, you will feel as if you have lived through a longer time. If the TPS is low, you will feel that the time is flying!

For example, if you are sitting with someone with whom you are completely in tune, you will feel that time is moving very fast, because your TPS at that time will be very low. But if you are sitting with somebody with whom you don't feel connected, what will you do? Every five minutes, you will keep looking at your watch! You will be restless. Your TPS will be high. So you will feel as though a lot of time has passed.

That is why, in the vedic tradition, the unit of time is called kshana. It is not measured as a chronological second. According to Western understanding, chronological time is calculated in seconds. One unit of time is equal to one second. In the vedic tradition, the unit of time is kshana. Kshana is the gap between one thought and the next. According to the Western calendar, your one second and my one second are the same. But according to the vedic calendar, your one kshana and my one kshana will be different! This is because the gap between one thought and the next will be different for me and you. Here, time is not chronological, it is psychological. In the dream state, you have too many thoughts or a high TPS. That is why you feel as if you have lived for a long time. In the waking state, there is a medium number of TPS. That is why it seems like time is moving at a normal speed. For someone in the superconscious state, e.g. for the celestial beings, the TPS is very less, and that is why their one day will be one year for us! You can see this difference in the vedic calendars.

A. Understand, your ego is not as big as you think!

Your ego itself is an illusion.

Just like we want to be at the top in everything, we want to be at the top even in our suffering!

All seekers love to think that nobody can have an ego more powerful than theirs.

Then they struggle to conquer the ego.

When you create a powerful enemy for yourself, you feel very pow erful.

You feel solid.

Be very clear, this whole thing is the clever game of the ego itself! You are creating an imaginary enemy and fighting with it, that's all. The ego itself is a pure illusion.

Ego is nothing separate from your thoughts! It is just a name we give to the process of creating the shaft.

Ego is the shaft you use to connect all your thoughts. When we create a shaft and connect our thoughts, it gives us a false sense of personal continuity. This gives us the illusion of the ego.

Are you able to understand?

Your thoughts themselves are random and disconnected.

The shaft that connects them is imaginary.

The joy and suffering arising from it are also imaginary

So how can the ego that is built on this base be real?

If you really look deeply, you will suddenly see that what you think of as your ego does not exist.

By your very nature, you are free, unclutched and already enlight ened.

Your ego is too small to take away your enlightenment!

Stop giving so much importance to it, that is enough.

Q. Unclutching is okay in spiritual life, but how can it work in the material world? Even if I try to live in an unclutched manner, the people with whom I need to relate will be living life in the same way…

A. First of all, there are no two separate worlds called material world and spiritual world. Wherever you are living, if you are carrying an identity, you are in the material world. If you are not carrying an identity, you are spiritual, that's all.

If you are carrying an identity, you are in hell, if you are not carrying an identity, you are in heaven!

The moment you drop your identity, you enter into bliss.

There is no need to renounce anything externally. If you can renounce your identity, it is enough. The identity you are holding on to is the only reason for all your fear, all your suffering.

When you live in an unclutched manner, every incident is new. Every experience is fresh. You stop taking people and things for granted. When you are unclutched, nothing can make you suffer.

Understand, I am not saying that if you live in an unclutched manner, you will never have any problems in your life. No!

Every single person experiences both pain and pleasure in life. We don't have a choice in that.

But we have the choice of not connecting these experiences and creating imaginary shafts.

Understand, nothing or nobody can disturb without your silent permission. You are attached to a person or thing only because you have already created a shaft about them in your mind. Because of the shaft, you have expectations about what you can get from that situation, from that person or from that relationship. And if the reality turns out to be different from what you imagined, you suffer, and blame the other person for your suffering!

Especially in your close relationships, you will see this happening all the time.

I always say, when you meet a new person, you experience them as they are only for the first few weeks or months. During that time, you form your own idea of what the person is like.

After that, you will be relating only with your idea of the person, not with that person himself!

For the next twenty years, you will be relating to an idea, not to a person. In the same way, the other person would have formed an idea about you, and will be relating to his idea of you, not to the real you.

Can you imagine the confusion?!

You don't realize, the relationship which you shared with someone three years ago, the relationship which you shared one year ago and the relationship which you are experiencing now are independent events. At each instant, you are experiencing a new relationship! Be cause we are unclutched by our very nature, at each instant, two new people are relating with each other, experiencing each other.

The real problem is not caused by pleasure or pain. It is caused by our creating shafts and trying to break or extend them.

In the life of an enlightened person also, there is both pleasure and pain. But the big difference is, he does not carry them inside. If there is pleasure, he will enjoy the pleasure and forget it. If there is pain, he will suffer the pain and forget it, that's all. So he is always open to the future as it unfolds.

When you create a shaft, it means you already have an unconscious expectation of what the future will be, with a particular person or re lationship or thing. You are not open to the experience as it unfolds. You only experience it through the filter of your own ideas.

Opening yourself continuously to the present moment is what I call living enlightenment!

A. Not just you ma, this is the problem that every single seeker faces! No matter how many times we hear it, how many times we read about it, we can never believe that we are enlightened.

Not only that, we never even feel that we are qualified for enlightenment!

I tell you, the most difficult task for the master is to convince the disciple that he is qualified for enlightenment!

The idea of being a limited individual is so deep-rooted in us, it takes lifetimes to be free of it.

Actually, the only thing you need to liberate yourself from, is the idea that you are in bondage! You need to liberate yourself only from the idea of bondage you are carrying.

Both bondage and liberation are just ideas created by your mind. But as long as you think you are bound, the masters will have to create techniques for your liberation!

Whether you know it or not, whether you believe it or not, whether you accept it or not, you are always enlightened.

You have never been in bondage.

When the individual wave rises from the cosmic ocean, when it reaches its peak, when it starts to subside, and when it falls and merges with the ocean – at all times, it is nothing but the ocean! It is nothing but water.

When you rise as an individual consciousness, when you live as a separate being, when you seek and struggle to return to your source, and when you finally merge in it – at all times, you are nothing but enlightened consciousness.

A disciple once went to his master and asked him,

'Master, when will I become a Buddha? How long will it take me to

become enlightened?'

In reply, the master gave him a hard slap on his face! In that moment, the disciple awakened to his true nature.

How long can it take you to become something which you already are?

What practice can you do to become what you already are? Whether you try to move inward or outward, as long as you are go ing somewhere, you are missing the truth.

The very process of traveling takes us away from the truth.

Truth is here and now! There is no need to go anywhere, to travel anywhere.

The very idea of traveling shows that you have created a shaft. You are seeing some progress. How can there be progress, when there is no individual who is progressing? The individual is dying at every instant. Then who will progress?

When you are unclutched, naturally the question of bondage and liberation will not arise.

Actually, your true self can never be improved by any practice. It is perfect and untouchable. Your true self needs no improvement, and your imaginary self can never be improved!

Some people work on self-development. What self will you devel op, when all you think of as 'you' is a sequence of unconnected thoughts?

If you try to develop this false self, you will be creating one more shaft, that's all! You will have the idea that your self is developed. It will be one more thought, one more shaft. Maybe it will give you a good feeling, but it will be just one more joy shaft!

Really speaking, the self cannot be developed. The imaginary self can only be eliminated. When you unclutch, your false identity has no where to stand. It just disappears for that moment. In those moments, your true self is revealed. You get a glimpse of your own enlighten ment.

Be very clear, you are not missing anything.

Nothing needs to be added to you.

So relax from your frame, your idea of what enlightenment should be like.

You are already enlightened – just express it, that's all!

The best way to experience love is to become love!

The more we give of an emotion, the more we allow it to circulate though us.

When you give love, you create the space to receive love as well. But when you become love, there is no longer the idea of giving and receiving.

You just flow in love, you radiate love. You love because you cannot help it!

Sit down comfortably by yourself and close your eyes.

Exclude everything else. Focus only on the heart.

Visualize your heart as an endless reservoir from where blessings can flow.

Feel every heartbeat deeply. Let every beat resound throughout you. Between the heartbeats, feel the energy of love happening. In the deepest parts of your body, mind and soul, the love energy is waiting to be acknowledged. Invite the love energy of the heart to flow and fill these deepest parts of your body, mind and soul.

When you are feeling completely fulfilled within, allow this love to overflow from you.

Don't try to decide to whom it will flow. It will go wherever it is needed!

Don't be afraid to love!

You have enough love inside to embrace all of Existence.

Allow yourself to become a river of love. Let the love flow from you and embrace everyone, everywhere.

When you are completely soaked in the sweetness of this love, slowly open your eyes.

Carry this expanded mood inside you wherever you go. HEAD TO HEART

This meditation is one of the ways to open your heart center. The heart is the portal through which you can enter reality. This meditation is especially useful if you are a head-oriented person, if you are more based in the intellect than in the emotions.

Actually, almost all of us are head-oriented.

Heart-oriented people can't survive very long in today's world! So we have all made our minds strong. Our heart center is weak, because we don't give it enough exercise! We don't operate from the heart, we don't act from the heart.

Try looking at the world from your heart, and you will discover a unity in the world.

The mind sets up barriers, the heart dissolves barriers.

Activating the heart center naturally creates a gush of love in your

life. DURATION: Not applicable

Simple, though strange!

The only thing you have to do is: imagine yourself as headless! It is not funny; this is a tough technique.

Just visualize that our head has been pushed down into your heart region!

Walk, sit down, feel as if you are headless. Feel that your head has disappeared. All your focus is now on your heart.

In the beginning it will be just a pretence; you will feel weird and disoriented.

What happens to all my sense-organs? How will I see, hear, speak?, you will ask. Your sense-organs have not disappeared – they have simply slipped into your heart region! Just like how blind men use their hands to 'see', you will be using your heart. You will be seeing with

your heart, from your heart.

Try it. You can do it.

Stand before a mirror and look deeply into your eyes. Feel as if you are looking from your heart.

Feel that you are smelling through your heart.

Feel very clearly that you are breathing through the heart.

Listen through the heart, see through the heart and feel through the heart.

When you move, remember that you are moving from the heart.

Your center is the heart, not the head.

Again and again, forget the head.

Allow every act to be controlled by the heart.

By and by, you will feel the heart center flowering, actually flowering. You will feel a blossoming inside. And then you will feel the onrush of love.

You will find your every act becoming more loving.

When you are flowing with love, when your heart center is overflowing, you actually lose your head. Your actions are no longer controlled by the head.

There is no specific duration for this meditation. Just do it whenever you feel compelled to. And you will keep feeling compelled.

As you keep practising this meditation, you will find yourself growing more and more loving.

Your relationships will improve dramatically.

You start perceiving the harmony in the world.

You move a step closer to God.

Nobody needs to be taught how to love!

Love is the most intimate experience of your being.

We always feel that we are not loving enough, that we don't have enough love inside us.

No! You have enough love inside to shower upon the whole world. Your very being is Love.

But we have channeled our love into very narrow channels. We choose the people we should love. We never allow our love to flow towards the whole world. When you choose, it means that you are loving for a reason. As long as you are running on greed or fear, you cannot experience the joy of causeless love.

If you can enter into even one relationship of causeless love, you can expand your love to the world. That one relationship can become your doorway to experiencing universal love.

This technique helps in overcoming sexual disorders. It is also an aid in healing hysteria.

Sit comfortably with your eyes closed. Bring to your mind the deepest love you have experienced. Remember any relationship of causeless love. Everyone must have had this experience at least once, at least with your mother, your child, a friend or beloved, or your master. Remember that person or that experience intensely. Bring the same memory, that same feeling into your inner space. Just feel yourself flowing in love towards that person.

Now, put aside the person, the particular memory. Just enter into the experience of love itself. Enter into the same space you experienced when you were in love, when you were deeply connected. Enter deeply into the emotion of love. Let your inner space be completely filled with love. Let you become a pool of love!

Now, release this love from your heart.

Turn your love upon the whole world.

Let the pool of love become an ocean.

Just experience the love flowing endlessly from you – to your friends, to your enemies, to strangers. Let it flow out to nature, to the earth, to the stars.

Let the world be enveloped in your love.

You will see, your love can expand infinitely – because it flows from you, and you are infinite.

When your love is based on the object, the person, it is narrow. It cannot be shared.

When you shift your attention from the person to the experience of love itself, your love becomes vast and deep. When your love is turned towards every being, naturally, it will turn you towards your own self.

Whenever anyone asks for upadesha (spiritual instruction) in a nutshell, I always tell them: be blissful!

Immediately they ask, 'Swamiji, is it really possible to be blissful always? Doesn't our bliss depend on external circumstances also?' We never realize that being blissful is not an accident, it is a clear choice!

Your happiness is always in your hands. Your happiness is 100% your own choice. Every day, life gives you a chance to be happy or miserable. What you choose is up to you.

Just decide to be blissful, and be blissful, that's all! There can't be a simpler meditation technique than this.

But don't be deceived by its simplicity; it is the most simple, basic techniques that really work.

Every morning, as soon as you get up, even before you open your eyes, sit up in bed. Call yourself by name. Ask yourself, What are you going to choose today? Do you want to be blissful, or do you want to be miserable? Naturally, first thing in the morning, you are not going to choose misery! So your mind will say, I choose to be blissful.

Then reply, Then be blissful, that's all! It's as simple as that!

When you are faced every day with the truth that your happiness and your misery are entirely in your hands, you will stop blaming the external circumstances.

You will develop an attitude of being blissful - not because of external circumstances, not despite them – but irrespective of them. You are blissful because you are blissful, that's all.

When we are stressed, we experience a sense of tightness inside. We feel as if we are physically shrinking, as if our body has become somehow tight and drawn.

Actually, this is true.

When you are stressed, it means your energy level is low. Your pranic layer shrinks and withdraws. This is what you experience as a physical contraction. When you are in bliss, you experience a sense of expansion and lightness. This is your energy expanding and spreading out from you.

This technique uses energy to influence emotion.

When your energy level is increased, naturally you are relieved from stress.

If possible, do this meditation in a large airy room, where you can be alone.

If this is not possible, just make yourself as comfortable as you can. Stand in a relaxed way and close your eyes.

Make sure that no person or object is touching your body.

Now, visualize yourself continuously inhaling and exhaling bliss and light.

As you inhale, feel the soft, blissful light entering your body. Feel it entering and washing every part of your body. It is filling your body, making you feel light and spongy. Breathe slowly and deeply.

Every time you inhale, feel each pore of your skin blissfully breathing in this light.

As you exhale, the light is radiating from you.

With your eyes closed, hold out your arms and spread your fingers.

Feel the bliss pouring out of you in rays of soft light.

Feel your feet resting softly on a cloud of light.

Experience the blissful light energy entering you, filling you, radiating from you.

Feel that your whole body is nothing but a bag of bliss!

Within a few minutes, you will see that the stress and tightness inside you begin to dissolve.

Fear is a powerful energy in you! It is a survival intelligence built into you. If you have fear, it means that you are alive!

You cannot wipe out fear from your life. You can only learn how to handle it, how to transform the emotion.

Whenever we experience fear, we usually try to suppress the fear, or escape from it. When you suppress it, the fear only more gets deeply lodged in you. When you try to escape from it, it leaves for a while and then returns in some other form.

When you go through the fear unconsciously, without suppressing or escaping from it, it results in a fear stroke. Fear strokes directly attack and damage your nervous system.

The only way to overcome fear is to face it consciously.

A very effective way of overcoming fear is to visualize going through that fear as clearly as you can.

The beauty of this technique is that it can be used when you are not in the situation which causes fear, when you are calm and able to handle yourself. At the time when you are caught in fear, it is impossible to sit down calmly and start meditating!

Just be completely aware throughout the process. Face the fear with deep awareness.

When you experience something completely, you stop the process. As long as you are alive, there will always be fear - but your fear of your fear will be gone!

Sit upright with your eyes closed.

Visualize the situation which brings up the maximum fear in you.

As you relive the situation, feel clearly the waves of fear coming up in you.

Don't try to suppress the fear. Don't allow your mind to escape from it.

Just let the fear happen in you.

Feel clearly the fear coming up in you, face the fear with deep awareness.

If you suffer, if your body feels uncomfortable, it is fine.

Don't suppress the fear, just allow it to happen.

Even if you are suffering, don't resist the process.

Go into it fully once, so that you never have to go through it again.

If your body begins to express the fear, let it.

Let the fear rise to it peak in you. Let it fill you, overwhelm you. Just let it happen.

Live through the fear completely.

After a while, slowly, you will find that the fear begins to subside.

Darkness can be a direct way to merge with the all pervading Existence. Darkness is the natural way of life; only light is a distinction. But we associate darkness with fear, we associate it with death and therefore miss the easy way to merge. If we can embrace darkness as that which we experienced in our mother's womb, the darkness that gave birth to us, we will simply drop the fear and start experiencing darkness as the all pervading Existence. Then, wherever we are, we will simply dissolve into it and become one with it.

We are born out of darkness, the darkness that exists in the mother's womb. Darkness is not negative as we usually think. It is intense healing energy. It is a motherly, positive energy.

you.

In its place, you will find a deep calm and centeredness happening in

The darkness that exists in your mother's womb is an intense energy. It is not the empty darkness of the graveyard. It is the Whole, the energy from which you came. The darkness existing in your mother's womb is the energy from which your body was created. It is called the causal body, the karana sharira.

Before entering into this meditation, you need to understand about darkness with more clarity and more positive understanding. If you are afraid of darkness, you can't enter into this meditation. Darkness is the root cause for your body. Even space is not intense light, but intense darkness. The vedic scriptures say that at the beginning of creation, darkness was covered by darkness. Darkness is the source, the infinite base. Darkness is the only thing that is. Anything else that is added only comes and goes.

We are taught that darkness is death, the emptiness that happens after your death. You never realize that the emptiness that existed before your birth is also darkness! Now change the understanding. Darkness is the state of fulfillment, the creative energy from which

you took birth. This clarity can make you feel connected to darkness. This technique can heal chronic fatigue, insomnia, oversleeping and depression.

intense darkness.

Be with the darkness.

Listen! We all know how to close our eyelids, but not our eyes! Closing the eyes means to completely stop seeing inside, behind the eyelids also.

Usually when you close your eyes, you start seeing many things inside you. The inner television will never be switched off, it constantly goes on! Now close your eyes and completely stop seeing inside. Turn off the inner television!

Then you will see the intense darkness from which you were born, the darkness in your mother's womb, the same darkness that you still carry in your inner space.

Out of the same space energy in your mother's womb, the whole world has emerged.

You came out of one bit of space energy from your mother's womb. When you came out from your mother's womb, you had already imbibed that darkness, that space energy, into your own inner space.

If your mind wanders, just come back and get centered.

Just be with the intense darkness.

If you close your eyes and stop seeing things inside, you will see

Step 2 (5 minutes):

Open your eyes and bring the same darkness outside. With your eyes open, see the same scenes that you saw in the darkness. See the same thing with intensity.

This may take up to a month of practice. But if you can see the same darkness inside and outside, you will see you are able to switch off your mind whenever you wish!

Understand, the ability to switch off your mind whenever you wish, liberates you from all problems, all disorders related to the mind, whether it is insomnia, oversleeping, chronic fatigue or depression. All these things are related to the causal body or the fifth energy body in us. All diseases related to the causal body will be completely healed once you enter into the deep darkness inside and outside. Physiologically and psychologically, this meditation will transform your life. This technique is not only for healing, but it can also directly open you to deeper and deeper levels of consciousness, to enlightenment.

Chant as loudly and as long as possible. This will create a vibration effect around your mouth. Allow any fear that comes up to come up. If you are trembling or shaking or feeling disturbed, it is ok. Intensely chant the hookara mantra.

Step 2: Relax in the swadhishthana chakra. Experience the undisturbed peace of the being.

Pure greed is intense bliss or excitement. Pure fear is intense peace. Through bliss, you can achieve. Through peace also, you can achieve.

Relax into the peace, and you will see that you are completely free of fear.

Take your attention to the swadhishthana chakra, the being center. Be intensely aware of the being center, two inches below the navel. Now chant the hookara by producing the sound hoo through the mouth as you exhale.

We are always afraid of our emotions, especially our negative emotions. We never give full play to our emotions. Suppressing an emotion cannot free you of it. Understand, whatever you suppress will be waiting just below the surface of your consciousness, ready to jump on you at the right moment!

When you give an emotion a chance to explode and exhaust itself completely inside you, you will see it will lose its power over you. If you can maintain total awareness at such a moment, witnessing the emotion without getting caught in its play, you will be liberated from your fear of it.

This is a powerful cathartic technique that can be used to handle any negative emotion.

Sit upright with your eyes closed.

Bring to mind the image of someone who fills you with some negative emotion.

The moment you recall the person, naturally you will experience a deep hatred or resentment for him. So many words will bubble up in your mind - words which you wanted to say to him but didn't have a chance to, or which you were never courageous enough to say aloud! Sometimes, even when you have the chance, you have so many words you want to say, but you forget half of them in the heat of the moment.

So now, recall the person, and when these words and feelings swell up inside you, just breathe deeply, settle down and relax.

Continue to hold the image in your inner space.

Let your mind shout whatever it wants to shout. Let all the anger come up silently, let all the violence and vengeance inside come out.

As this happens, witness your inner space in silence.

Watch the emotion rise to its peak.

Let the volcano explode!

After a few minutes you will see, slowly the emotion is dying down. It is getting exhausted.

Suddenly, you will see there is no longer any violence left inside you! When you recall the person again, or even if you see him directly, that anger or fear stroke will not happen again.

Not only that, you will have more clarity to handle a similar emotion in another situation.

Whenever anger comes up in you, just witness and relax. Again and again come back to your center. Relax into your center.

You will see so many new dimensions open in you, and you will be able to carry a deep silence throughout the day.

Step 1:

Sit upright with your eyes closed. Bring to mind the image of someone who fills you with some negative emotion. Intensely remember the person and all the wrong he has done to you. Relive all your pain and anger against that person. Let the emotion become intense in you.

Now, visualize the same person standing before you. He has lost everything in life – his money, his home, his social status, his relations, everything. He is standing before you, totally defeated by life. He is the same person who had once hurt you.

Who is your enemy?

In the last technique, we saw that catharsis can liberate us from accumulated negative emotions or samskaras.

Here, we use the power of visualization to handle our negative emotions.

All the negativity you experience in your relationships is nothing but the conflict of two individual egos, two imaginary identities! If even one of these identities can be seen as false, the conflict no longer has a base to exist.

Duration: 21 minutes

Now, you are free to say whatever you want to him. He has no more power over you.

You are free to throw all your anger on him.

Let your mind say whatever it wants.

Only thing, you must carefully witness each word that your mind brings up. Be aware of what you are saying, to whom you are saying it.

As you witness your mind, you will find that you no longer have anything to say..!

Your will see that your anger was against the identity of the person, not against the person himself.

Now that the identity is gone, on whom will you throw your anger? Slowly, as you witness it, your anger dissolves on its own.

The next time you see the person, even if the same anger comes up, it will have no force. Just recall that the anger you experienced was against the personality, and the person is not the personality. Just this one understanding will awaken deep compassion in you, not only towards others, but towards yourself also. You will become more authentic in your relationships.

This technique is an instant way to become aware when you are suddenly caught in some powerful emotion like anger or desire. Usually, we feel that all our emotions are caused by some object. We think that it comes from outside. But, the truth is that these emotions come from you. You are the source of all your emotions. The object is just a means for the emotion to express itself. The origin is you. If the emotion is bad for your consciousness, you will be freed of it by bringing awareness. If it is good for you, it will deepen through awareness.

aware. When you become aware, you arrest the emotion. You don't allow it to flow out of you in the form or words or actions. Now, look within for the real source of the emotion. Forget the person or the situation which caused it. Just go to the source of the energy. Just see from where the emotion is rising. If you are experiencing anger, go to the source of the anger. Just feel the irritation in the body. Feel the disturbance in the mind. You will see, you are already carrying the seed of anger inside you. You are carrying enough anger-energy inside! The other person just brought it out, that's all.

At the moment when the emotion rises inside you, become intensely

When you understand this deeply, suddenly your focus shifts from the other to yourself, from the seen to the seer.

When you realize yourself as the source of all your emotions, not only will you stop blaming others, but you will experience a deep relaxation. You will become more flowing in your joy, and more centered in your pain.

Anger is energy!

All your emotions are pure energy!

When you are caught in a powerful emotion, you cannot see that it is nothing but the play of energy inside you.

All your desires, your anger, your fear – all these are nothing but the same energy to which you are giving different names!

We feel trapped in our emotions only because we don't realize this. Once you experience an emotion as pure energy, it cannot have any control over your inner space again. Now you are in control! You can play with this energy in any way you want.

If you wish, you can convert a negative emotion into a positive emotion, just with a simple decision.

This technique can instantly liberate you from the clutches of your mind.

Sit straight without relaxing!

For this technique to work, you have to keep your body in a state of tension.

Now you are going to try and get angry, and if you sit in a relaxed way you cannot get angry! Better sit in a tense way.

Close your eyes. Sit with all your tension and pain. That's good because, only if you are feeling uncomfortable inside can you create anger.

Remember the face of your intimate enemy! Just remember the person who really creates anger in you. It need not be a person, it could be a situation or a memory that makes you really.

If you can't remember anything, just remember yourself! Sometimes, just self-remembrance is enough. You are enough to create anger in you!

Create intense anger. Actually, when you try to create it, you will understand that you are unable to create it, because none of our emotions is honest. Even our anger is never honest. Depending on the person in front of us, we decide whether or not we can afford to get angry!

Remember the person with all the force of your anger. Relive the situations which create anger in you. Let your whole body tremble with anger! Create that pressure of anger inside yourself. Throw yourself into the anger. Focus all your anger on that person, that situation, that memory.

Now, drop the person, just forget him. Forget the situation which creates anger in you.

Only be aware of the anger vibrating inside you.

When you remove the external cause, the whole energy of the emotion turns inward and starts vibrating inside you.

A moment ago, what you experienced was anger.

Now, what you are experiencing is just a trembling in the body, a tingling heat in the body. The emotion is now circulating inside you as a powerful energy.

When you go to the source of the emotion, you will see that it is nothing but pure energy.

You are always ashamed of your desires!

You don't realize, every desire you have is only a reflection of your deep desire for inner fulfillment.

You desire something only because it reflects your own inner bliss back to you!

You desire power and expansion because you know, deep inside, that you are infinite.

You desire wealth because you know that you are abundance itself. You desire relationships because you know that you are Love.

Not realizing this, you return again and again to the object of your desire.

Again and again, through that person or object or act, you are trying to touch the space of fulfillment that is already there within you.

The problem is not with having desires - it is with your attitude towards them.

Changing the object is never a solution. Changing the attitude is the solution.

When you understand this, the very object of your desire becomes for you a doorway to the Divine.

Make a list of all the things that you feel attached to, or which awaken desire in you.

It might be a habit, a particular pleasure, an object, a person or an action.

Include anything or anyone on the list that makes you feel possessive, greedy or lustful.

Now, sit down and meditate on the object of your desire.

Meditate with a deep and devoted feeling.

Never mind what the desire is!

Don't think, how can I even think of such a desire when I am meditating?

No!

Anything can become sacred when you are respectful and feeling connected to it.

Bring in an attitude of respect towards the object or the person. With a lustful attitude, you will reduce even a living person to an object, because you will try to possess that person. With an attitude of love and respect, you can raise even an object into a living consciousness.

The moment you bring sanctity to it, lust will become love. Elevate the object or person to the level of a sacred being.

Suddenly, you will see that the lust has been transformed into love. The passion has become compassion.

Then every relationship is an ecstasy, and you experience real love.

Desires are always rising in you.

You are always struggling unconsciously with your desires – either trying to fulfil them, or trying to suppress them.

Whether you try to fulfil or suppress, you are giving reality to the desire, you are giving strength to it.

The key is not to suppress them or indulge them, but simply to disconnect from them. Once you disconnect, it no longer matters whether the desire was weak or strong, right or wrong.

When you unclutch from your desires, you transcend them without effort.

Then there will be no struggle, and no need to renounce anything - because there will be nothing to renounce!

Close your eyes and sit in a relaxed posture. In a few moments, some desire will arise in you. It may be even a desire to open your eyes or a desire to move your body, any desire! Just see that desire. Just observe that desire. Do not judge. There may be so many desires; do not suppress them, just see them. Don't think your desire is right or wrong. Just see it. Let them come, let the desires arise, let them happen. Let all the desires arise in you; don't suppress them, don't judge them, just consider them and let them happen. Suddenly, before even your mind recognizes what is happening, unclutch from all the desires and relax. Do it in one stroke! Not desire by desire; disconnect from all desires together. Before your mind can raise any logical argument, just unclutch from them. Do not argue, do not logically decide, do not decide based on right or wrong. Simply unclutch from all the thoughts. Anything that comes up, just unclutch from it. Just disconnect. Just unclutch. When you suddenly unclutch from the noise of all the desires, your mind becomes blank for a few moments. You fall into a space of silence. Catch that moment!

Relax into that silence.

Relax.

Guilt is a very deep-rooted emotion in us. Unlike other emotions, guilt never gets a chance to be expressed. It is always suppressed. Guilt is nothing but measuring the actions of the past with the intelligence of the present! Guilt is violence that is directed against oneself. When the violence is turned outwards, it becomes anger. When it is turned inwards, it becomes guilt.

Most of the guilt we carry is unconscious. That is why it is so difficult to free ourselves of guilt.

If the guilt can be brought to the surface of our awareness even once, we can be relieved of it.

Re-living an emotion with total awareness is a powerful way to relieve ourselves of it.

When you go though an emotion consciously, you give it a chance to leave your inner space.

Step 1:

Duration: 10 minutes Sit in a meditative mood with your eyes closed. Bring to mind the memory that is causing guilt in you. However painful it is, however safely you have locked it away in your unconscious mind, please bring it up.

In the beginning, your mind will protest. Naturally, it does not want to remember. Just understand, if you can experience it again this one time, the memory will leave you forever. It is worth it. Bring up the memory. Relive the guilt that you experienced at the time. Open the wound completely. If anger comes, let it boil to the surface. If pain comes, allow it to hurt you. Don't escape from the memory. Don't resist anything. Relive the entire event, as it happened. Let your body tremble and shake with that memory. Let the tears flow. Do not console yourself. Relive it completely.

Slowly, open your eyes. Now, write down the event as it happened. Don't miss anything. Write in as detailed a way as you can. As you write, feel the guilt leaving you.

When you finish writing, spend a few moments with yourself. Don't read what you have written. You don't need it. You have expressed the guilt, that is enough. You have released it from your memory. It is no longer yours! Your guilt has left you now. Relax. You are free.

Your mind is always moving in a hundred directions.

It is impossible to withdraw your mind into the inner emptiness, the inner silence.

When you focus intensely on someone or something, your whole mind is filled with that single thought. You gather all your scattered energies into one point. You integrate yourself. Now you are ready to take the leap into nothingness.

Understand, from many thoughts to no-thought is impossible. From one thought to no-thought, it is only a single step!

Duration: Not applicable

This technique has three steps. Step 1:

Sit in a relaxed way with your eyes closed.

Bring to mind a person or object with whom you feel deeply connected in love.

Feel intensely the presence of this person or object. Do not just see them, feel them. If you are in love with someone, let your whole mind be filled with the memory of that person, your experiences with that person, let them fill your inner space. Become completely lost in them.

Now, feel the absence of all other persons and objects but this one. Exclude everything else. Just be completely absorbed with that one person or one object. Your inner space should be empty of everything else.

Now, drop that one person or object also! Just do it consciously. Just be blank, totally empty. Suddenly, you will see you are centered on you. You will drop into your deeper Self, your consciousness, your very being.

Disappear into your Self.

If you are in love with an object or a person, try this technique. First feel the presence of that object or person and the absence of all other objects or persons. Then feel the absence of that object or person also, and you will become centered on your Self.

We understand the world exactly according to our own mood. If we are feeling happy, the whole world seems to be a wonderful place and everybody is loving and caring. When we are low, we feel that people are unnecessarily being rude to us! It is almost impossible for us to perceive anything objectively, because our whole evaluation of the world is through the filter of our own emotional condition.

This meditation is based on a technique used in Zen monasteries to train new initiates.

It is a wonderful technique to keep this factor in mind, so we can be more objective in our interactions.

Duration: Not applicable

Whenever you are feeling exceptionally low and you feel you are on the verge of an outburst, do this.

Visualize that you are carrying a big board hung from your neck, saying, 'Beware! I am in a very bad mood and I may bite you! I have nothing against you personally, but right now I am angry and just want to throw out my negativity somehow!'

Just carry this imaginary board in front of you. Of course, no one else will know about it, but you will know – and that is enough.

Every time you start to blame someone else or some situation for a problem you are facing, you can just picture this big board declaring that it is just your own mood you are expressing!

You just wake up to this truth again and again. After that, how can you take your own anger seriously?

In the same way, when you are in a high mood, you can carry a board saying that, so that you don't get carried away and make any irrational decisions.

Again and again, when you are confronted with the inner reasons rather than their outer expression, you learn how to remain a witness even in your most emotional moments. Naturally, you become more balanced and your mood swings die down.

Whatever the situation, if you feel an emotion riding high, just wait 24 hours before responding to it.

Just bring in your awareness immediately, before your mind takes off on the same track.

Most of the time, we react to any situation straight out of our conditioning. For instance, if someone insults us, we feel it is essential to respond with anger. Our conditioning goes so deep that we don't even realize that this is a conditioned response, and we have a choice to respond in another way. This is a classic technique to handle such situations with awareness. Duration: Not applicable However illogical it may sound at the time, don't break this rule. Promise yourself that you will have plenty of time to react after 24 hours. You will be surprised, after 24 hours you can hardly keep the anger or violence alive! You won't feel like reacting to that person or situation at all. The gap of 24 hours gives you the awareness to see the whole thing in proper perspective. As you work with this technique, you won't need 24 hours to make this shift!

The time will keep on reducing, till gradually you will be able to bring up the same awareness even as you are facing the situation.

We all have times when we are feeling closed, isolated, alienated from everyone else.

At other times, we feel open and flowing. We welcome differences and change. We are conflict-free. We fall into meditation easily. When we are feeling closed, we cannot relate to anyone. We don't even feel like meditating. Nothing wrong! The important thing is just to be aware that you are going through this.

In any situation where you experience some inner conflict, just ask yourself, Am I open or closed right now?

Chances are, you will find that you are closed!

Most of the time, it is not the external situation that is causing the conflict. It is your level of receptivity and openness to the situation.

This technique is not for judging yourself, it is only for becoming more aware of your own state.

As you work with it, you will become more and more conscious of the subtle fluctuations of mood you go through all the time. You become conscious of your mental patterns.

Just being aware can help you make the transition from being closed to being open, at least most of the time!

Once you understand this constant flux inside yourself, you will be able to see and understand that it happens in others also. Then you will know when exactly another person can be approached for a discussion; when he will be open to you and when he won't!

The problem is, we always see others from the outside, never from the inside. Once you see the same pattern playing in others as well, you begin to notice the mood, not the person. You get out of the blame-game.

With this simple awareness, you will find yourself becoming less judgmental and more compassionate in your relationships.

Do you know, your mind always moves in circles?

We always think that the movement of the mind is linear, but in truth it is circular.

The mind always moves in a fixed pattern, following a circular track of memories, and associations and expectations.

That is why you experience the same mood swings again and again and again. The same thoughts come up, the same desires, fears and anxieties, the same highs and lows – and again and again you get caught in them.

Just one time, if you can clearly witness your mental patterns, you can directly see how your mind is playing with you. Just this simple awareness can liberate you from your mind!

Duration: not applicable

Keep a diary and note down your feelings, your emotions, at different times of the day – morning, afternoon, evening, night. Do this for about a month.

Then take a look at your diary. Watch the patterns that your mood follows. Understand your mood cycle.

The next time you feel a low mood, remind yourself of the pattern in your emotional cycle. Remind yourself that this present mood is just one part of that cycle and enjoy it. It is, that's all. But it is not forever, it will pass.

In the same way, if you are feeling really happy, watch. Watch the emotion, witness yourself through it.

Just as you witness the lows, witness the highs also. Don't get involved in either, as both are passing.

When you practice this technique for a few weeks, you will see that no matter what emotion comes up at each moment, you are able to handle it without getting disturbed,.

You always complain that the mind wanders during meditation. This is a technique that makes a meditation of your wandering! When your mind wanders, don't try to drag it back, don't suppress the thoughts, don't get angry or feel frustrated.

Simply remember that the mind is wandering, and you are not the mind.

You struggle with the mind because you think it is you.

Simply relax from this idea and witness the wandering.

You will see that without your support and energy, the mind cannot wander very far!

When you relax from the mind, it slowly falls into the center.

When you relax from what you are not, what you are will naturally be revealed.

Duration: 21 minutes

Close your eyes. Sit in a very relaxed way.

There is no need to control the mind.

If your mind is going somewhere outside, dwelling on things other than you, it is called external wandering.

The moment you remember you, you will remember your name, or some idea about yourself. This is internal wandering.

Watch the external and internal wandering of the mind.

Any idea that comes about you, inside you, is also a wandering, an internal wandering. Witness these wanderings, relax even from them. When you relax from the wandering, you slowly fall into the space where there is no wandering.

Remain in this space for as long as you can.

It is the nature of your senses to always flow outwards. You can never use your senses to experience your inner space. But we always pour all our energy into our senses. Wherever our senses lead us, we follow. That is why we never really experience ourselves from the inside. Thought always follows the senses. When you stop the senses, automatically thoughts also slow down and stop. When the mind is still, naturally you fall into your center.

Actually, your inner space is not so difficult to contact. It is, after all, your inner space! It is just that we neither had the technique, nor the patience, nor the inspiration to try, that's all. That is why, the moment you have the knowledge about the truth, half of the work is done. The remaining half is just relaxing and experiencing it.

This is an anytime meditation. Initially you may not be able to do this meditation for five minutes at a time. You can reduce the time to one or two minutes, but try to do it five times a day, always on an empty stomach.

When practicing this technique, wear loose clothing; let nothing touch your body.

Duration: 5 minutes a day or 1-2 minutes, five times a day

Sit upright with your spine relaxed.

Keep your body steady and unmoving.

Close your eyes and mouth tight. Lock your tongue firmly.

Now close your ears with your hands.

Stop all sensations coming in through the eyes, ears, mouth and

sense of touch.

When your mind can no longer receive fresh information through your sense, naturally it will start replaying whatever is already inside. The thoughts that you already have inside will start bubbling up to the surface coming up, such as what happened yesterday, what happened the day before, what needs to be done tomorrow. All these thoughts will start running through your mind. Do not bother about them. They will not have life for more than three kshanas, the time gap between one thought and the next. I repeat, they will have life only for a maximum of three kshanas.

Unless new information goes through your senses and the processing happens, the processing system cannot continue for more than three kshanas.

You may be thinking, 'No, no, I can sit and think and visualize forever.'

No! In that case, you must be allowing input through the senses. You must block the sense organs, it is especially important to lock the tongue. Within three kshanas, three or four thoughts may come. The

fifth thought cannot happen.

It is important to allow the breathing to be natural during this process. Just sit for a few minutes and allow the process to happen.

Suddenly, you will see there is a space where there are no thoughts. Even if you experience that thoughtless rest for two or three seconds, it will give you so much energy that you will feel you had eight to ten hours of sleep!

It is a very strong and powerful method. Try this practice five times per day. Within five to six days, if not sooner, you will catch the glimpse.

Your inner space is always crowded with the known!

Whatever we see, hear, read, listen to, understand – we continuously throw all the information of the outer world into our inner space. Now, make a conscious decision to put all knowing aside. Free your inner space of everything that you know. Make space for that which is beyond all knowing!

Duration: 10 minutes daily

Sit comfortably with your eyes closed.

Watch your inner space in a relaxed way, as you would look at a flower. Have a clear, relaxed intention that you will keep your inner space free of all concepts and words, all the teachings put inside your head, all the information you are receiving from outside. You are going to keep everything out.

If any thought appears, just watch it with the understanding it does not belong in your inner space. Either the thought came from someone else, or it arose from another thought which entered your inner space earlier.

If an emotion arises, understand that it is not you. Allow no word, no teaching, no concepts, no lies, no truths, no purity or impurity to touch you.

Let your inner space be empty!

When you see that everything which you thought is 'you' or 'yours' has actually come to you from outside, you stop struggling with your imagined identity. You experience a tremendous freedom from yourself. Freedom from yourself is the ultimate freedom, the ultimate peace. Just remain in that freedom, in that peace. Enjoy the silence, the emptiness that is your true nature.

This meditation is drawn from Zen.

The Zen word Zazen, meaning just sitting, is a tough meditation. The most difficult thing is to just sit, doing nothing!

In most of the meditation techniques, we try to control the mind in some way.

Here, we are going to allow your mind to play freely. Your mind is going to come up with all kinds of arguments, reasons, excuses against this technique. It will try to convince you that this is a sheer waste of time. If you keep on sitting, the mind will become sleepy, it will daydream, it may even start seeing things.

The whole purpose of this meditation is to let the mind play all the tricks it wants. Because one day the mind is simply going to get tired of playing with you. One day the mind is going to realize that it can no longer control you with its games. Then the mind drops of its own accord.

Duration: 21 minutes

You can sit anywhere, but make sure that there is no disturbance. If there is too much movement, it might disturb or distract you. Watching nature is a good thing. Even indoors, you can watch the sky through the window. You could sit facing a plain white wall. Or you could simply face a corner of the room and watch that corner. Don't focus your attention on anything. Let your eyes be half-open and unfocussed, your attention diffused. Let your gaze rest softly in the distance. This will relax you.

Let your breathing be relaxed and natural. Find a comfortable posture in which you feel sure you can stay without moving for at least half an hour. When the body is unmoving, the mind also falls still. Keep your spine straight. Use support if required, but try to do without it. Rest one palm in the other, with the thumbs touching to form a circle. Remain alert and aware, be receptive without allowing your attention to focus on any particular thing. Be present in the moment, moment to moment.

In the beginning it will be difficult to just sit, doing nothing. But in a few days you will start enjoying this tremendously. Layer by layer, you can actually begin to feel the mind drop. And finally, one day the moment will come when the mind drops altogether.

You will glimpse the state of no-mind.

Unclutching is a self-purifying technique. 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.

Let us see how unclutching is related to what happens every moment in your body – breathing! As you saw, between the incoming breath and the outgoing breath is a neutral zone. Your identity exists in the incoming and outgoing breath spaces. But in the gap of the neutral zone your identity does not exist.

You think that the breathing time is more than the neutral zone, because you have more thoughts when breathing. Because you give more emphasis to your identity, you think that the time of the incoming breath and outgoing breath is more than the time of neutral space. In reality it is not. It is just a psychological game.

The neutral zone is the natural space of unclutching. When there is no identity, naturally there can be no thoughts. If you can keep your awareness in the neutral zone, unclutching becomes effortless.

Duration: 20 minutes

Close your eyes.

Sit straight.

For the first few moments, inhale and exhale, as deeply as possible. Slowly start witnessing only the incoming breath. Do not bother about the outgoing breath or the neutral space. Just witness the incoming breath first.

Be the witness. Be aware of the incoming breath.

Now slowly start witnessing only the outgoing breath. Forget about the incoming breath or the neutral space. Just witness and be aware of only the outgoing breath.

Now slowly, very slowly, be aware of both the neutral spaces - when your incoming breath turns into the outgoing breath, and when your outgoing breath turns into the incoming breath. Be aware. Witness both the neutral spaces alone. Intensely be aware of both the neutral spaces.

Now, be aware of the incoming breath, neutral space, outgoing breath, and neutral space.

Whatever thought comes in your mind, do not connect it to anything. Don't even think that you are thinking. Even that idea comes because you connect your thoughts. Everything is just completely independent. So do not connect them and create one more thought that you are thinking.

Let the independent thought bubbles rise and fall. Let the independent thoughts come and go. Do not connect them and think you are thinking. Be unclutched. If thoughts come, let them come. If they go, let them go. Your idea that you are thinking is a lie. Relax from your mind. Let go. Be liberated.

This meditation is done be done just before you go to sleep every night.

Sit in bed with your eyes closed, and the lights switched off.

Now go through the events of the whole day, starting from this mo-

ment backwards till the moment you woke up in the morning.

Just recall each incident, each situation, step by step.

Witness all the incidents of the day.

Don't try to relive any incident, don't get emotionally involved with anything.

Just watch.

Just see yourself going through all the actions as if you are watching another person.

When you see yourself objectively like this, many memories will lose their 'charge'.

For instance, if you had had an argument with someone, you can see both sides clearly now. If someone had spoken badly to you, it no longer feels like it happened to you; it just happened, that's all. Only the incident is remembered, minus the pain.

As you go through the events, drop them from your mind one by one.

Really drop them, with the deep understanding and conviction that none of this is worth carrying forward to the next day.

Just unclutch from your whole day.

Even if they are positive memories, unclutch from them.

You don't to carry this load of memories to live your next day; whatever is required will arise whenever needed from within.

Trust your natural intelligence, not your stored memories!

Trusting life and living spontaneously in the moment is what I call living enlightenment.

Your body and mind mirror each other.

Whenever a thought arises in your mind, you will see that your body is undergoing subtle changes to accommodate or express that thought.

In the same way, when a chemical change takes place in the body, naturally the quality of your thoughts also change.

Because we are not aware of this connection, we don't notice these changes.

In this technique, we experientially understand how deeply the body and mind influence each other.

With this simple understanding, tremendous physical and mental healing happen in you. This technique can directly bring you out of many chronic psychosomatic diseases.

DURATION: Not applicable

Sit in a relaxed way with your eyes closed.

Take a few deep breaths to calm your mind and slow down the thoughts.

Usually, you always have a traffic jam in your mind! When your thoughts slow down, you will be able to focus on individual thoughts more easily.

When you witness the mind, you will find a steady stream of thought bubbling up in your mind.

For no reason, some thought will arise in you.

Try to see from where the thought is rising, which part of the body is experiencing movement or feeling through that thought.

At the point from which the thought arises, you will experience some

physical sensation or feeling. Try to locate where this is happening. You will see, one by one, each thought creates some sensation in some internal organ in your body.

Try to see which thought is connected to which sensation happening inside your body. Try to locate the internal organ feeling the sensation, the organ that produced the thought coming into your mind. Do this with each thought.

Continue this process whenever you can during the day. Within a few days, you will get a powerful clarity about how closely your body and mind are linked. Just by changing the quality of your thoughts, you can create many positive changes in your body.

Meditations on Aura & Chakra

The aura is a subtle shield of bio-energy that surrounds your body and interpenetrates it to some extent. Auras not only reflect our dis tinctive personalities but are also a barometer of energy fields within our body, warning us of impending trouble well in advance If your aura is strong and healthy, you cannot catch an illness even if you are in a high-risk environment. But stress and illness may adversely affect your aura. Certain diseases can even cause gaps in it.Do you know, all your diseases express in your energy body at least six months before they are physically expressed! Just by checking the health of your aura, you can get advance warning of many physical diseases.

On some days, we feel exhausted for no reason, even when we are in good health, and even when we haven't been doing any strenuous work. If this happens to you, it is possible that you are living or working in an environment where a lot of subtle negative vibrations are being transmitted by people, mostly unconsciously. People are constantly broadcasting their tension, their anxiety, their anger, in subtle waves. If you don't know how to protect yourself, you may pick up these vibrations automatically.

When your aura is strong, it can work as a protective shield around you. Your aura is a field of conscious energy. It is your point of interchange with the cosmic life-force. When you sensitize yourself to your aura, you are accessing an inexhaustible source of positive energy.

DURATION: Not applicable

Before you go to sleep, sit up on your bed.

Become aware of your aura. It is about six inches wide, surrounding your body like a halo.

If you sensitize yourself to your aura, automatically you draw in positive and shielding energies.

If you cannot feel your aura, it is enough if you can visualize it.

Visualize your aura with deep love.

This aura is caring and protective.

Nothing can enter it.

No outside vibration can affect you.

Feel the loving energy of this aura.

After a few minutes, fall asleep inside this aura.

Feel as if you are falling asleep in the lap of the Divine.

From the moment you wake up, keep this awareness of your aura with you throughout the day.

This visualization will go deep into your unconscious and give you tremendous energy.

You will experience a protective energy that surrounds you and protects you from negative influences at all times.

This method is a way of becoming aware of your own etheric presence.

The etheric body interpenetrates your physical body and extends beyond it like a shell. The etheric body is an open door into the Divine. We experience this body many times in our life, but we are unaware of it.

Sometimes, we notice it in an unconscious way. When you are in a hostile environment, when you are afraid, feeling separate and isolated, you get a shrinking feeling. When you are joyful, loving, flowing, you feel as if you are filling the whole room. When you are inclusive, you can feel yourself expanding. This is your etheric body expanding and contracting!

Without being aware of it, we use the signals of our etheric body to evaluate a situation or to communicate with each other.

Sit in a comfortable way.

Close your eyes and become aware of your body.

Become aware of your form.

With closed eyes, feel the form of every part of your body, moving from part to part. Feel the form of your fingers, of your hand, of your arm. Feel your legs, your body, your head. Become aware of the form of your whole body.

When you try to feel your form, it will appear before you.

Visualize your aura surrounding your body. Clearly, intensely visualize it.

The aura is always present around your body. You just need to train your eyes to see it.

Initially, practice this with your eyes closed. When you are able to see your aura well, you can try it with your eyes open.

Choose a totally dark room. Preferably, practice at night. When you start seeing the aura with your eyes closed, slowly open your eyes.

For the first time, you will be able to see your etheric body. When you see your aura, don't do anything. Just sit and watch.

Even as you watch, the aura will begin to spread. It will become bigger and bigger. When you are not doing anything, your energy does not move outward. It accumulates in your etheric body.

As your aura grows stronger, you will begin to feel a deep sense of peace. You will experience a silence. When you practise this meditation frequently, this sense of peace becomes a permanent experience.

We always experience ourselves as separate from others. We cling so strongly to our body boundary that we always feel like a solid being. Maybe at the body level this is the truth, but the moment you take a step inwards, to your energy body, you will see that every being in this universe is deeply connected to the rest. You are not a solid entity as you imagine! You are a flowing energy.

At the energy level, there is a constant interchange going on between you and everyone and everything around you. You are just a beautiful, blissful flux of energies! Because you don't realize how you are part of this collective consciousness, you hold yourself so tight even in your most intimate relationships.

Once you experience yourself as energy, naturally you are no longer afraid to expand and flow. This is a beautiful meditation to become more loving and flowing in your relationships.

Duration: Maximum 30 minutes

Sit in a relaxed way.

Close your body and take a few deep breaths. Keep your limbs as loose and relaxed as possible. Next, visualize your own aura.

Your aura is your etheric or energy body, which interpenetrates and extends beyond your physical body by about one foot. Visualize your aura as a luminous shell of soft light, like a halo around your whole body.Now experience this aura growing in size in all directions like a glowing ball. Understand, this is not just visualization. You can expand and contract your energy body at will. Because we usually do it unconsciously, you are not aware of your own capacity.As your aura grows outwards, you will find that it starts growing inwards also! You will start feeling it penetrating your physical body, till you cannot experience your physical body anymore. This is the truth! The moment you allow yourself to experience yourself as energy, you will realize that your body is not as solid as you

Now, visualize all your emotional relationships as part of your light body.

Include all your relationships in your light, whether they are loving or not-so-loving.

If you have somebody who is emotionally connected to you, say in another country, visualize that you have a huge body that extends out to that country, and that person (or persons) is also inside your light body! Let all the emotional connections, hateful or loving, be inside your etheric body.

Now, visualize whoever you can, friends, strangers, people you have never met – everyone being enveloped by this body of light. Enjoy your own loving, all-inclusive presence!

Expand and include as much as you can. As you expand, you will

see that your individual identity simply melts and dissolves in the light. You are no more than a point of awareness in a vast ocean of love and light.

Step 3:

Now, visualize your aura shrinking slowly till you become aware of your body boundary again. Spend a few minutes inside your boundary with your eyes closed.

Don't get up or move your body suddenly, or you will experience a sense of physical disorientation. When you feel totally comfortable inside your body boundary, relax and open your eyes.

Seven-chakra workout for emotions

The Ananda Spurana Program (ASP)

The Ananda Spurana Program (ASP) is a two-day intensive camp for chakra healing through meditation. At the camp, you learn about the nature and role of each chakra, and are given seven powerful and practical meditation techniques for cleansing and recharging the seven chakras.

The chakras deeply impact our physical and mental health. They are, in turn, affected by our thoughts and emotions.

The chakras are direct channels to the boundless energy of the Cosmos. But immoderate lifestyles, stress and negative emotions can 'lock' the chakras, or cause them to malfunction.

Without even being aware of it, we are continuously blocking off these important sources of energy. Energy is health. That's why almost all physcial and mental ailments can be partly or wholly cured, simply by cleansing and energising the corresponding chakra.

All these meditations (except Nirbhaya Dhyana for Swadishthana Chakra) can be practised freely once a week. Or you could choose one technique which best appeals to you and continue it for 21 days (Mahamantra, Dukkha Harana and Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya are the most helpful for beginners). Then you could switch to a new

technique.

When practised sincerely, these techniques can work miracles on the physcial, mental and spiritual level. Instruction tapes are available for all seven techniques.

Dukkha Harana Dhyana (Destroyer of Misery)

Desire becomes a disease only when the energy flow is blocked by suppression. This is a dynamic mediation technique which will throw out all the suppressed emotions in you and cleanse and energize your mooladhara chakra.

Practice this technique in the morning, preferably on an empty stomach.

This technique is like taking a psychological bath! If you want to test the efficiency of this technique, go and have your picture taken today. After 21 days of practising this technique, have another picture taken and compare the two.

I assure you, your face will look completely different! You will have blossomed. Your eyes will have become more pleasing. You will also see a deep silence expressing in your eyes.

Step 1 (10 minutes):

For the first 10 minutes, you will work with your breath.

Your mental system is made fully alive by deep breathing and the increased intake of oxygen. Your cells will get more energy and you will create more bio-electricity or bio-energy. This energy will melt all the repressed emotions like melting ice. The subconscious will be thrown open. It is like fanning the flame of the mooladhara chakra.

Stand with your eyes closed and legs slightly apart. Bend your knees

and get into a semi-squatting position.

Now start breathing deeply and chaotically from the depths of your body, always through your nose, with your mouth closed. In chaotic breathing, there is no definite rhythm. There is no need to control your breath. Just breathe as deeply as you can. During chaotic breathing, when the body intelligence is allowed to take over, the body will take in however much oxygen is needed.

As you breathe, repeatedly bend your knees and straighten them, moving your whole body up and down. This will create a powerful pumping action which directly hits the mooladhara chakra and throws out the suppressed energies.

Simultaneously, move your hands up and down like a bird in flight. Do the movements gently and synchronize your inhalation with upward movement and exhalation with downward movement.

With every breath, tell your muscles very clearly to melt and be rid of all the recorded fantasies!

Understand, physically.

Don't just try to tell them – tell them!

When you are doing this, be very clear, your muscles are melting and clearing the fantasies which are recorded inside you.

If you have a cardiac problem, or are pregnant, or have had a recent ailment or surgery, do this technique only as much as you can without discomfort.

Otherwise, put your whole energy into it!

Keep your eyes closed and tense each part of your body, part by part, limb by limb, and then let it relax. Tense and relax one limb, and then move on to the next.

Relax each part fully before you move on to the next.

Start with your feet, then move on to your legs, then your thighs and hips. Next, move to your stomach, then your lower back, then to the chest and upper back.

Move to your arms, working from the fingertips to the shoulders.

Next, work on the neck and shoulders, the facial muscles, and finally the top of the head.

At the end of this exercise, you will find that you have become vacant inside; you will feel cool, calm and composed.

Step 3 (10 minutes):

Sit upright with your eyes closed.

Gently chant the sound hooooo. This is known as the hoomkara. There is no need to chant it loudly and deeply. Just chant in a relaxed manner.

As you chant, just witness whatever happens inside and outside your being.

The first two parts of this technique are a actually a preparation for the third part, which is the actual meditation.

When you come to the third part, you will see that the mind becomes silent effortlessly, by itself. Silence cannot be forced upon you; it can only happen by itself.

Remain in this relaxed state with a smiling face and a blissful mood. During this time, there may be many experiences. Just watch them as you would watch the television; with a detached interest. Watch your mind thought by thought.

Breathe normally. Don't concentrate on anything.

Meditation is not concentration. Meditation is awareness.

So just be aware of your thoughts, witness what happens inside your body and outside your body.

Nirbhaya Dhyana (Path of Fearlessness)

Heals the chakra : Swadishthana ('where the being is established') Location of chakra : 2 inches below the navel Chakra locked by : Fear, especially the fear of Death Chakra unlocked by : Acceptance of Death Meditation technique from : Vedanta

We are afraid of darkness because darkness represents the unknown. All our fears are about the unknown! We are afraid of the unknown, both in the outer world and in the inner world (in our unconscious). The unconscious itself is nothing but that area of your being which has not been lit by your awareness. All your unconscious fears are nothing but pure unawareness. In this meditation, we contact darkness with thoughtless awareness. We welcome it with deep love. This is a very powerful technique for cleansing our mind of fear, especially unconscious fears. If you have noticed, you cannot think in total darkness! Deep and total darkness stops the mind from thinking of anything known. When the mind stops thinking of the known things, thoughts automatically dissolve.

When you are able to be thoughtless and relaxed in darkness, fear loses it hold over you.

Duration: Not mentioned

Now let us enter into the layer of darkness. Please sit with your eyes closed and tie your blindfolds. Throw out all the colors that are there in your mind. Keep only darkness in your mind.

Start chanting the ookara – the sound ooooo.

Understand, it is not Om or Hoooom. It is just ooooo….

You will continually push the air out as much as possible. Don't bother about breathing in. Just keep pushing the air out continuously by chanting as deeply as possible. By pushing the air out, the body will breathe by itself.

Take a small breath in, and then start chanting oooooooooo. In the small gap that is there between the exhalation and the next short inhalation, the body will take in air by itself.

So, put all the effort to just throw out the air with the oooo sound. Throw everything out totally.

I will guide you through the meditation.

Start chanting the ookara.

Put your whole effort on only exhaling; just exhale. Throw out all your prana, your life-energy, everything… just throw them out.

(After 20 minutes) Stop. With all your effort, keep exhaling through the nose. Do not intone any sound. Just exhale.

(After 5 minutes) Stop.

Now visualize a deep and big forest, inside which there is a deep and dark cave.

You are sitting inside the cave.

Visualize all the walls of the cave. It is a cave within a single rock. The ceiling of the cave is also rock.

There is just a deep darkness - soothing, relaxing and joyful darkness; comfortable darkness.

Totally comfortable and secure with the darkness, you are alone,

sitting and meditating. Feel the darkness. It is covered by layers of darkness over darkness. Darkness is totally drowned in darkness.

You are just as if in your mother's womb, the same comfortable darkness of your mother's womb.

Feel the utter relaxation, the utter rest, with no responsibilities, only total, comfortable,

peaceful darkness.

You are sitting inside the dark cave and meditating on the darkness. Feel the cave.

Visualize yourself inside the cave.

Visualize that you are comfortably sitting and meditating on the deep darkness.

You only know one word: darkness… darkness… darkness.

Inside the cave you are connected to the darkness of the universe, the darkness from which the universe was born - the darkness of your mother's womb from which you were born. You are just filled with that live darkness.

There is no other thought except darkness.

Become the darkness.

Feel that the whole thing is just darkness.

Your body has disappeared in the darkness.

Penetrate into the deeper and deeper layers of darkness.

Just become pitch black darkness, nothing else.

The whole space is filled with thick darkness.

The darkness is much more intense and dense than the earth itself. Just taste the experience of the deep and peaceful darkness.

(After a few minutes) Om Nithyanandam. Relax. You can open your eyes. Please carry this darkness with you for the next half hour. Carry the darkness of your mother's womb, the darkness that is the deep comfort. Rest and relax in the darkness of no responsibility, only freedom. Carry this darkness of rest and relaxation with you.

Avoid speaking to anyone.

Keep your eyes on the ground.

Carry this peaceful darkness within you.

Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya

Heals the chakra : Manipuraka ('the city of jewels') Location of chakra : In the navel region Chakra locked by : Worry Chakra unlocked by : Positivity Meditation technique from : Christianity and Sufism Duration : 30 minutes

Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya is a meditation technique drawn from ancient Christianity. Known as glossolalia, the technique was further adapted by the Sufis as 'gibberish'.

It is a cathartic technique that bypasses mental processes and roots out worries in their most elemental form - which is just negative energy.

It is a powerful technique to cleanse and the manipuraka chakra or navel energy center, which is locked by stress, worry and other deeply engraved negative mental patterns.

They are nothing but the sum total of all the languages you know. All your life, you have put your worries into words, spoken about them in some language which you know.

Now, you are going to speak in a language which you don't know! You are holding all your worries, negativity and suppressions like a weight in your navel area. Can you see how heavy that area feels? Now you are going to act out all those suppressions - in noises and actions.

Remember, no words! When you start using words, your inner chatter begins to come up. During this meditation, don't allow your inner chatter. Simply get to the core of your deepest suppressions and pluck them out of your system! Just vomit them out in sounds. This technique is a powerful meditation. It unblocks your unconscious and allows all the negativities stored inside to dissolve.

Typical psychoanalytical sessions, when patients talk to their analysts

or even throw things around for catharsis, are still conscious process -

es. Only ten percent of your stored memories will be released.

Processes such as hypnosis are through the unconscious and you have no control. This

technique is a superconscious process in which you retain awareness while cleansing yourself.

This technique should always be practiced on an empty stomach, and at least four hours before sleep.

Step 1 (20 minutes):

Stand apart with your eyes closed.

For a minute, concentrate on the manipuraka area.

All your worries and suppressed negativity will start rising up into your conscious mind. Just experience all the tension and stress up inside.

Now, imagine yourself in some situation of conflict.

Imagine that you are fighting hard with someone. Talk to him - in a language that you don't know!

Just use nonsense sounds. If anyone is listening, it should not make any sense to them.

Try to convey your problem, your pain, to the other person. But the other person simply doesn't agree with you!

How do you feel? Angry? Throw out your anger on him!

Anything that happens in you, any word that happens in you, express it as a sound.

Do not use words. If you use words, only familiar and recent emo tions will surface.

Also, words will give rise to only more words without actually work ing on the emotions beneath them. Shout absolute gibberish; only this will open up your unconscious; only this will bring up the deeply hidden emotions.

Recall all the painful incidents of your life.

Visualize the persons involved and feel the emotions involved in those incidents.

Bring out all the emotions. Become completely immersed in them. Be aware of nothing else.

If tears come, let them! Don't stop yourself.

Scream, wail, cry, throw your limbs about, roll on the ground if you feel like. Create as much violence as possible! Once you start, you will find that you really won't be able to stop – so much will be coming out.

You may feel like vomiting, so keep your sick bag ready! Nothing to worry, it is a sign that your system is geeing cleansed and balanced, that's all.

Do the technique sincerely - this is your chance to get rid of a lifetime's suppressions.

Enter completely into the meditation.

Step 2 (10 minutes):

Now, simply sit in silence and bring your awareness to your manipuraka chakra. You will feel a tremendous lightness in that area. During this silence, just be a witness to your thoughts. Do not suppress them or chase them. Just let them flow before the deep silence of your being.

Repeat this meditation every day for 21 days minimum, or until you feel as if you have nothing left inside to throw out during the meditation.

Right from the very first day onwards, you will find a change, a great peace blossoming in your Being.

Enjoy the peace!

Mahamantra Dhyana (Chanting the Primordial Sound)

Heals the chakra : Anahata ('that which cannot be created') Location of chakra : In the heart region Chakra locked by : Asking for attention Chakra unlocked by : Selfless love Meditation technique from : Tibetan Buddhism Duration : 30 minutes

Mahamantra (The Great Mantra) meditation is a technique to make your mind centered and integrated, and fill you with energy. The Mahamantra is the essential vibration which is resonating not only in your Being, but in all of Existence. This technique is designed to make your whole body mantramayaa (vibrate with the mantra) through humming.

Humming is a powerful means of bringing your awareness to the present moment. If you hum intensely, you cannot have any thought at that time. So your Thoughts Per Second (TPS) automatically comes down.

The energy generated by the humming cleanses the energy blocks in the mind-body system.

When you are intensely humming, all the ideas which you have about you will be completely shaken. Like an earthquake, this is a technique for a 'mind-quake'!

This technique will also fill you to the brim with energy, so that you stop seeking attention from others.

Attention-need is nothing but low energy.

Attention is energy.

When you are in a high-energy state, you don't need attention-energy from others.

Instead, you will be overflowing with energy, which you will start showering upon others!

Chanting the mahamantra is known as the mahamantra uchchaadana – uttering the mantra which is beyond utterance, beyond speech or writing, beyond expression.

It is the anahata dhwani (the unheard sound).

When you experience the energy of this meditation, you will understand that you are based in this anahata dhwani.

When you practice this meditation, your entire energy becomes centered on yourself.

This meditation should be done on an empty stomach or two hours after a meal. It is best to practise it early in the morning, as it generates a tremendous amount of energy in your body. If you practise it at night, it may interfere with your sleep.

It can be done either alone or with a group. When done with a group, it effectively energizes the place where it is done.

While doing this meditation, you may wear your mala (rosary) around your neck. It will serve to store the energy that you create during the meditation.

Step1 (20 minutes):

Sit in a relaxed way, cross-legged, with your hands on your knees, palms facing upwards.

Keep your spine erect. Your head, neck and spine should be in a straight line.

Close your eyes. Really close your eyes. Usually, when you close your eyes, it is just like putting off the TV outside and switching on the inner TV. So don't just close your eyelids – close your eyes!

There is a good way to do this: just imagine that your eyeballs have turned to stone! The movement of our eyes is very closely related to the movement of thoughts in our mind. That is why you are asked to arrest the movement of your eyeballs.

Just harden your eyeballs with mental pressure; the images in your

mind will die. Your thoughts will also stop, or become slow. Don't be too worried about keeping them arrested. Just proceed with the meditation.

Now, with your mouth closed, start humming.

Just create the vibration Mmmm.

Don't chant any other mantra, don't chant Om or Hoom.

Imagine your body as an empty vessel. If you put your mouth to it and hum, what sound do you hear? Create that same vibration inside yourself.

Hum as loudly as possible, as deeply as possible, as lengthily as possible. Put your whole effort into your humming. The sound has to come from your naabhi kamala – from your loins.

Don't attempt any kind of breath control. Your breathing will automatically take care of itself. Just continue humming in an intense yet relaxed manner.

Let your whole body be filled with the vibration of the humming. Become the humming!

Whatever thoughts arise, throw them also into the humming. Gradually, they will disappear.

After some time, you will feel that the humming continues without your effort and that you have become simply a listener to it! You enter the state of ajapa – where you don't even have to do the japa (chanting), the japa happens on its own. You don't have to repeat the mantra, the mantra will repeat you.

(At the end of twenty minutes, you hear the command 'Stop!', and the music stops.)

Step 2 (10 minutes):

Instantly stop your humming.

A great silence floods your Being.

For a moment, time stands still.

Witness this silence. Experience the tremendous calm in and around you.

During this time, the energy created by the humming enters all the corners of your being and cleanse it deeply. It establishes you in the awareness of the present moment. This awareness is all that is needed to dissolve the negativities, bring clarity and enable you to experience your true potential.

After a short while, thoughts will slowly start entering into this si lence. Don't stop them; don't enter into them. Simply witness these thoughts. Remain silent and blissful.

Become a centre of awareness.

Remain centered in the anahata chakra. You will feel completely centered, calm.

Shakti Sagar Dhyana (Ocean of Energy)

• Heals the chakra : Vishuddhi ('beyond purity and impurity')
• Location of chakra : In the throat region
• Chakra locked by : Comparison & jealousy
• Chakra unlocked by : Realizing your uniqueness
• Meditation technique from : Zen Buddhism
• Duration : 30 minutes

All your life, you have been running a race against others. Now, you will run against yourself!

You have always put a mental limit on your own potential.

You already have an idea that you can do this much, and no more. Not only physically, but in everything in your life.

You don't know that you are actually a source of tremendous energy! In this meditation, you will realize that you are much more than what you imagined.

You will see new resources opening up inside you.

There is an immense reservoir of energy inside us that most of us are not even aware of. If you know how to tap into this vast energy source, you can simply go beyond what you now think are your limitations.

Intelligence is nothing but functioning at the highest level of energy available to us. During this meditation, you unlock the resources of Intelligence. When you awaken to the understanding that you are a unique expression of the cosmic energy, the need to compare yourself with others falls away effortlessly.

People with heart disease, high blood pressure or other serious ailments are recommended to avoid practicing this technique.

Stand in silence with your eyes closed. Concentrate your entire awareness upon the vishuddhi chakra, located in your throat region. When you do this, the cosmic energy enters through the vishuddhi chakra and becomes a tremendous source of energy for you.

Now, standing in place, slowly begin to jog.

If you find this difficult, you can stand behind a chair or use some support.

Start jogging slowly, very slowly, in the same spot where you are standing.

Start slowly, then increase your pace. Keep jogging faster and faster in the same spot.

Push your limits only to the extent that you can, with no discomfort.

At all times focus on the vishuddhi. You will be able to feel the energy coming from it.

As you jog, be aware: 'I am awakening the cosmic energy in me. I am awakening the unique energy in me.'

Your very muscles have to decide, 'I am renouncing all the past samskaras. I am opening up the unique energy which is available to me.' Let your whole body feel that you are expressing much more than what you think you can.

The important thing is never to slow down at any point in time, and to always keep your eyes closed, and your awareness on the throat region. When you do this, you automatically absorb the energy that is generated during the movement.

Your body has tremendous potential that you have never used! When you enter totally into this meditation, you will find that the higher levels of energy open up. So keep jogging. Let the energy rise!

Step 2 (10 minutes): Relax. Stop jogging and just sit down quietly wherever you are. Keep your eyes closed.

Focus all your attention on the vishuddhi chakra.

This will help assimilate and distribute the energy you have released during the jogging.

While doing this meditation, you may wear your mala (rosary) around your neck. It will absorb and retain the released energy for a longer time.

Divya Netra Dhyana (The Divine Eye)

• Heals the chakra : Ajna ('will' or 'order')
• Location of chakra : Between the eyebrows
• Chakra locked by : Seriousness
• Chakra unlocked by : Innocence and simplicity
• Meditation technique from : Zoroastrianism
• Duration : 25 minutes

The Ajna chakra is also known as the 'third' eye' and the Chakra Raj – the Master chakra. It is such a significant chakra that there is no religion that hasn't worked on activating it. When the Ajna is awakened, the whole Being enters into a different realm. A whole layer of faculties opens up.

There is an old saying that if you die in Varanasi (a holy town in Bharat), you are assured of liberation. Varanasi is not just the town as we know it. It is also the region where the vaarana (eyebrows), meet the naasi (nose), which is the exact location of the ajna chakra. It symbolically represents the death of ego in the liberated or enlightened state.

Divya Netra Dhyana is an extremely powerful technique where you come in direct contact with the master's energy. This meditation is most effective when practised in the master's presence. Alternatively, you could practise with the picture of Swamiji's eyes that is available for use in this meditation. (Don't use just any picture of Swamiji as it won't have the desired effect. The recommended picture was taken when an actual Ajna meditation session was in progress.)

If you don't have access to this picture, you may use a lamp lit with ghee (clarified butter) or sesame oil. You could use a candle too, but ensure that it has been made out of vegetable fat.

This meditation involves two separate techniques: one for cleansing the ajna, and the other for energizing it.

Our lower chakras mainly need cleansing and channeling. The higher chakras need energizing also – pumping the energy up to the chakra. In the two phases, you will need to alternately close and open your eyes.

Close your eyes and focus on your 'third eye' - on the area of your ajna chakra.

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

Now open your eyes - but do not see!

Look through your eyes, not with your eyes.

Don't look with your two eyes as you normally do. Instead, try seeing with your third eye, as if your brow chakra were actually an eye that you could see with.

With your third eye, gaze intensely at the master's third eye, or at the flame of the lamp.

Try not to blink.

Initially, you may feel some discomfort. You may experience a burning sensation in the eyes, or tears may come. Let it happen. This is all part of the cleansing process.

Repeat both steps twice, then repeat only Step 1 and end the meditation.

Be prepared to have unusual experiences during this meditation. Your ajna has never been activated before. Opening the ajna will open you to a whole new realm of experience.

You may see visions of your favorite deities, or find that Swamiji's form disappears and is replaced by a point or beam of light. Sometimes you may see total emptiness where his form or picture was. Don't be alarmed or lose your clarity at these moments. You are not being hypnotized! In fact, only now are you finally being dehypnotized. Only now is your superconscious awakened.

If you see only light or emptiness, it is a sign that you have done the meditation with deep sincerity. Because that is the truth of our nature. We are all nothing but energy. The physical body that we perceive as our own, and the physical existence of everything around us, is nothing but an illusion.

That's why the ajna chakra is known as Maya Harana – destroyer of illusion.

Sahasrara Dhyana (Gratitude as Prayer)

• Heals the chakra (energy center) : Sahasrara ('thousand petalled')
• Location of chakra : On the crown of the head
• Chakra locked by : Discontentment
• Chakra unlocked by : Gratitude & Bliss
• Duration : 30 minutes

Sahasrara Dhyana is the simplest possible meditation technique! It involves the effortless process of paying our gratitude to Existence for everything we have in life, and which we have taken for granted till now. Although the meditation is deceptively simple, it has profound effects on our conscious and subconscious minds.

When we recognize that we are part of the total scheme of Existence, and that we are lovingly taken care of by Existence every minute, we are overcome with gratitude.

We become truly thankful for what we receive every moment, even if it is as basic as the use of our very limbs and senses.

Gratitude is your response to recognizing the abundance of Existence. It is a wonderful flowering energy within you.

If you are using the ASP tape, listen to the Sahasrara music. Else, play any soothing music which appeals to you.

Allow the music to flow through you, to enrich you. Let the music become part of you.

Experience it as if it arises from your own Being.

Now, think of whomsoever you want - God, your favorite saint or your chosen deity. The form is not important. But pay your gratitude to Existence for this gift of Life.

Life itself is a great gift from Existence.

Have we worked very hard to deserve this life?

So living itself is enough reason to be grateful.

When you give your thanks to Existence, remember all the people who have made your life what it is today.

Start with your parents - the people who gave you life. Pay your deepest gratitude to them. Ask their forgiveness for any wrong that you may have done them. In the same way, forgive them for any way in which they may have hurt you.

Forgive completely, feel only gratitude!

Now remember each person who has helped you in life - the doctors in the hospital where you were born, your teachers in school and college, your friends and relatives. Pay your gratitude to them all. Think of the strangers who have helped you - the farmers who grow your food, the weavers who weave your clothes. Thank them all. Even your enemies have played a role in your life, they have taught you something. Drop the anger. Drop the hatred. Forgive them and ask forgiveness. Do it with all your heart, with total sincerity! Have you thanked Existence for the beauties of nature? Have you thanked the sun for warming you every morning? Have you paid thanks for the water you drink? How many things we have forgotten to pay our gratitude for! Now you can do it. Give each and every one your thanks.

When you pay your thanks to all of Existence, also remember the enlightened masters who have made us aware of the joy of gratitude. The purpose of all enlightened masters, through the ages, has always been the same: they want to lift you into bliss, into Ananda. So the best way to thank them is – simply to be blissful!

Finally, pay your gratitude to the Sadguru, the master, for happening in your life.

The relationship with the master is the ultimate relationship. Existence itself has appeared in your life in the form of the master, so that you may break all your boundaries and merge joyfully into the Divine. Where can you find the words to thank the master enough? Just remain silent. Let your heart overflow with deep love and gratitude.

When the music stops, remain in silence for a while.

Remain in the attitude of gratitude and bliss.

For as long as possible, stay in silence. Turn your awareness inward and enjoy the peace and contentment within.

Cultivating a permanent attitude of gratitude and positivity can work wonders for your physical and emotional health.

With gratitude, you will see that Existence simply responds to you. Gratitude is your channel

The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism ("SPH"), Jagatguru Mahasannidhanam ("JGM"), His Divine Holiness ("HDH") Bhagavan Sri THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, is recognized as the 1008th living incarnation of Paramashiva as per Sanatana Hindu Dharma ("Hinduism") and by His predecessors of enlightened masters and adepts.

The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is reviving Hinduism as the 1008th Acharya Mahamandaleshwar (the head for all spiritual leaders) of Atal Akhada (ancient apex body of Hinduism), coronated as Mahamandaleshwar (Supreme Spiritual Head) of Maha Nirvani Akhada (largest apex monastic order) and the youngest Mahamandaleshwar, ordained as the 233rd Guru Mahasannidhanam (Pontiff) of Thondai Mandala Aadheenam, ordained as the 293rd Guru Mahasannidhanam (Pontiff) of Shyamalapeeta Sarvajnapeetam, ordained as the 23rd Guru Mahasannidhanam of Dharmamukthi Swargapuram Aadheenam, and coronated as the 203rd Emperor of Suryavamsa Surangi Samrajyam.

The Srimad Karana Agama, Purva bhaga, Patala 71, Sakalotpatti vidhi, Sloka 8 & 9 (Sacred Ancient Hindu scripture) declares:

इत्येवं नि ष्कळं प्रो क्तं परं भा वमि ति स्मृतम्। सृष्टि स्थं लो करक्षा र्थं लो कस्यो त्पत्ति का रणम्।। सा धका नां हि ता र्थं तु स्वेच्छया गृह्णते तनुः ।

In this way (Shiva) who is Nishkala - without any body and parts, who is the Ultimate Supreme Being, who is established in the Creation, who is the Cause of the creation of the Universe, assumes a body out of His Free Will for the protection of the Universe, and for the welfare of the Spiritual seekers and Devotees.

The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is the reigning spiritual emperor of 17 ancient traditional Hindu kingdoms and the reviver of the most ancient, most peaceful, still-living and long-lasting demonstrable system that shows the possibility of peaceful co-existence amongst people. Following the coronation to establish KAILASA worldwide at the age of 16, for the past 27 years, The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, as the face of the unified Hindus, has been single-handedly, tirelessly inspiring the dispossessed Hindu Diaspora to reclaim their Hindu centric freedom and stand unified for the centuries-old Hindu genocide.

The 1008th living incarnation of Paramaśiva, The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM stands as the unifying force for the 2 billion born and practicing Hindu diaspora worldwide and established the Hindu State, KAILASA for the persecuted Hindus in over 100 countries.

The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has made resolute efforts towards recognizing and legitimizing the Hindu genocide which has

About THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

Sanatana Hindu Dharma has faced both historical and ongoing religious persecution and systematic violence, in various forms including assassination attempts on living incarnations, targeted elimination of Hindu pontiffs through bio war and lawfare, cyberbullying, Hindu phobia, forced conversions, documented massacres, demolitions, desecration and grabbing of worship temples and monasteries, looting of Hindu temples properties, destruction of Hindu educational institutions, elimination of well known Hindu libraries, the gross violation to the freedom to practice the Hindu school of liberated thinking (Sankhya), Hindu schools of living enlightenment (Jeevan Mukthi), gross violations of the right to freedom of religion that includes violations of the right to life, personal Hindu integrity or personal Hindu liberty, mass execution, looting and enslavement.

Hinduism was once practiced freely in over 56 nations across the continent from Afghanistan, Bharat, Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka, all the way to Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia and Indonesia, and in 200 states, 1700 samasthanas (provinces) and 10,000 sampradayas (traditions). Over several centuries the combined forces of foreign invasion, political upheaval, colonialism and religious persecution systematically ended millennia of Hindu Swarajya, or self-rule. Today Hindu temples remain in a few countries but the Hindus who worshiped in them have been ethnically cleansed.

The revival of Hinduism through the civilizational nation of KAILASA globally irked vested interests of atheistic terrorist militant elements, caste supremacist terrorists and other anti-Hindu forces who executed a massive persecution and genocide on SPH and His followers on 2 March 2010 that continued for the next whole decade and comprised of over 70 assassination attempts, over 250 sexual assaults on SPH and his monks and disciples, lawfare of 120 false cases over 10 years, massive hate propaganda in electronic media of over 14,000 hours and print media of over 25,000 articles in 5 years, destruction of heritage properties worth over 27 million USD, and the continuing ethnocide and genocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries. Specifically, the lawfare involved:

Delegitimizing SPH by hate propaganda, disenfranchising Him of His civil and human rights, prejudicing Him from fair representation and fair trial

Repeated illegal imprisonment, with brazen torture, custodial assassination attempts, supported by system justification in various forms, including the common processes of bureaucracy, indifference, self-deception, diffused responsibility and has resulted in continued systemic complicity with torture, murder and genocide

Well-planned multi-layer false hate propaganda by the 'fourth estate' media sustained by moral disengagement, leaving the broader public in a state of willful ignorance, motivated denial, out-group victim-blaming, dehumanization and bystander apathy to even genocide.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM stands in solidarity with the untold, multilevel - social, political, intellectual, religious, cultural, linguistic, economic, legal, digital - persecution done to Hinduism and faced by Hindus and Hindu minorities worldwide for the past several thousands of years continues through the modern day. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has been recently acknowledged by the United Nations for the persecution of The SPH and the KAILASA global community, especially the affected women and children.

The KAILASA with de facto spiritual embassies operating across over 100 countries and having presence across the globe as the largest spiritual knowledge source on Hinduism is spiritually governed with the life positive, all-inclusive, universal policies sourced from Hinduism revived by the THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. Having enriched and enreached more than one billion individuals over the past 27 years the KAILASA raises the voice to protect Hindus, defend Hindus and preserve the Hindu narrative for the world.

been receiving scant consideration by global leaders and international bodies, The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM founded KAILASA Uniting Nations. For the past 27 years, this international body has been responsible in building relations, bridging dialogs, inspiring leaders, uniting nations towards acknowledging the Hindu policies which are universal, life positive as referenced from the ancient text of Hinduism. This is the 'ahimsa' (non-violent) way of bringing acknowledgment to the horrors of the Hindu genocide, the untold facts of the darkest act of mankind on Earth to the most contributing civilization - KAILASA.

KAILASA is an apolitical nation whose vision is enlightened living for all. Towards this goal, KAILASA is the only Hindu nation on planet Earth today bringing legitimacy to the principles of Hinduism. Social principles, economic principles, judicial principles, Hindu medical principles, and Hindu economic principles. KAILASA is The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's response to humanity's global

problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence and global warming and the continuing ethnocide and genocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries.

Over the last 50 years, the effects of meditation and its significant impact on stress, crime rates, violence, political decision making and even war in local and global consciousness is well established. Unfortunately, in the last two hundred years, forcibly we are made to believe Hinduism is a functional principle only for enlightenment and spirituality. It is absolutely dysfunctional for the political, social, economical system. Making Hindu family structure, Hindu social structure dysfunctional is the greatest crime done against humanity.