1. Nithyananda Vol 2

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM left his home in Thiruvannamalai when he was seventeen. Tiruvannamalai carries a 2000-year-old tradition of an unbroken lineage of enlightened Masters. In contrast to other spiritual traditions where every Master chooses disciples and develops them, here the sheer intensity of the energy field of Arunachala, its spiritual ambience, creates Masters one after the other! If things like property, name, trademark etc are handed down, there will be dilution and corruption in the whole legacy. Here, spiritual enlightenment is handed over, that's all! Thiruvannamalai is a spiritual incubator par excellence.

We had the great fortune to talk to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's mother about the incident of his leaving home. She is an extraordinarily simple lady, without guile. Though she now lives in the Bidadi ashram after her husband's death, very few outsiders know her as THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's mother. It was only after several months of close contact with THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM that I came to know she was his mother. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that it was his great fortune to be born to such innocent people who merely accepted whatever happened without objection. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's mother simply said, 'What was there to say? We knew that one day he would leave home and be a sanyasi. We had to accept that. But it was not easy to bear for a mother. He told me that Existence will take care of us and I believed him.'

In one of his discourses some one asked THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM what his mother's reaction was when he left home. He said:

I can say this: if mother is too possessive of the child, she will not even give birth. What to do then? Even giving birth is a form of letting go. Mother is allowing the baby to leave her body. Only a mother who is ready to allow the next level explosions to happen, who is ready to let go, who is ready to give inspiration or who is ready to allow, can be the real mother.

Understand, if you are that possessive, if you are that much sad to let go your child, then you should not even give birth. You should continuously be feeding the infant through your umbilical cord. The umbilical cord connection should be continuously kept alive. Then carry him continuously. Why you are giving birth? Why are you allowing him to come out? What for?

Physically, only when you allow him to come out after nine months, he can grow. Psychologically, after sometime, only if you allow him to break from you, he can grow. Physical disconnection is 'birth' and psychological disconnection is 'sanyas'.

Understand, in that way I am very fortunate. When I went and told my mother, it was late night. Still I remember, it was late at night around 11 o' clock. I had been to the temple and spent sometime there. Usually that was the time I will come back. When I come back, since I had my own key, I will open the door and come inside. I use to wear wooden sandals. These sandals will create a big noise and wake up the whole house.

The house was stone, granite floor. Those days, Hindu houses are built with granite and teak wood. My grandmother had said that the house was 300 years old. 300 years, for something like 10, 11 generations they had been living in the same house. It was a huge house. Whenever I enter with the wooden sandals, it will make such a big sound 'tatak takak tatak', then they will wake up. She will wake up and prepare my food if I wanted to eat. If I had finished eating in the temple itself, then I will say goodnight. That's all.

On this day she got up and she was about to prepare the food. I called her and said, 'See, I have decided that I am going to take sanyas and go away from home. So, you can give me food tonight. Even though I have eaten you can give me food and I will eat because from tomorrow, I am not going to be here. I am taking sanyas'.

It was very casual announcement to her. Surely she must have been shocked and she did not say anything to me. All of them in the family knew from the beginning that 'talking or shouting at me will not work with me'. In any case from a prediction made when I was very young they knew that one day I would become a sanyasi, a monk.

They all knew that before telling them anything I would always be very clear about what I was saying. So when I said something it meant that I was going to do it, that's all. But tears were rolling from her eyes. I looked at her and asked, 'What do you mean'? Do you mean to say that I should not go? She just shook her head saying 'No. I did not say that. I am crying because I am not able to control my emotions. I cannot believe that you leaving, that's all. But I can't say you cannot go'. She knew one day it will happen. The beauty is that never said 'No'. Not only did she never say that I should not go, she conveyed this to my father without blaming me, like 'He said he is going to leave home'.

My father thought that she had shouted at me or she had created some problem. And that is why I had told her I was leaving. My father was angry and asked her why she had shouted at me? Why she had created a problem? He said. 'You know how he is? Did you say anything to make him angry?' My mother said 'No, I did not shout or create any problem. He just came in and told me this. My father then understood that the situation was not a result of a fight and anything like that. It was just a straight and simple declaration from me. My father came to me, sat down next to me and asked me, 'What Swami, what you are saying? I heard from your mother says you are taking sanyas and leaving home.' It was a funny thing that even in those days everyone in the family used to call me as swami. Even in those days, the title was 'Swami'.

I said 'yes'. I was not worried and I was not emotional, I was not disturbed or anything. It was a simple and casual conversation since I used to have very good relationship with my parents. We had a very deep relationship. I told him directly, 'Yes, I have decided that I want to take sanyas and want to become enlightened'. It was a shock for him. He saw that I was very clear, balanced, cool, and relaxed. Then he made only one statement, 'If you fall sick, then just tell us. We want to take care of you'.

That was the only thing he wanted, nothing else. He let me do what I wanted. He never stood in between. Understand, in any relationship only when they are ready to allow the next phase and only then it is a healthy relationship. I have seen, I have seen thousands of youngsters who are really inspired, bold enough, courageous to take up this path of spiritual seeking, but did not even had the chance to explore because of the parents. What they have done by marrying is that they lived all their lives in bondage. They produced kids and made their kids also just the same buffaloes as what they were. May be I am being harsh but it is a lesson. Whoever listens to this let it be on record. That is why I am talking like this.

It is for the future. Understand, very rarely do a few souls get the inspiration to explore. You see, I am not asking you to train your kids or force your kids to become swamis. No, but if at all they discover, that click happens, then do not stand in between. You will be blessed if you don't stand in between. Get out from all your attachments. Even if he tries, struggles and becomes a failure nothing wrong. I may have been 'a failure' for at least 10 times in my 10 births. That is why this time, I am successful. So it is good. Any exploration, any research, any adventure in the conscious field should be encouraged, allowed and supported. Try at least not to do this mistake in your life.

That was the great thing that happened with my parents. Still I always remember them with so much of respect and gratitude just because that they did not disturb, nothing else. Neither they disturbed me before enlightenment nor did they disturb me after enlightenment. That is the great thing.

Nithyananda traveled by bus from Thiruvannamalai to Chennai. He was supposed to work in Chennai with an uncle, his mother's brother, as a compromise solution to his threat to leave home. The family hoped he would change his mind. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM had decided to bide for time to leave without a big fuss. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM worked in Chennai for 22 days. He was an unpaid intern at that office so that his uncle could keep an eye on this lad who had expressed his determination to become a monk. Everyday a car would pick him up in the morning and again drop him back in the evening. This continued till the 22nd day. On that day THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM told his uncle that he would be going to the famous Shiva temple in Mylapore, the Kapaliswarar temple. It was a day of the week when that temple was crowded. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM already had obtained the minimum essentials that he planned to carry when he cut loose and left. These were the only possessions that a sanyasi was allowed. A two-piece kavi (saffron) clothing, a stick and a water pot. He had in addition two rudraksha malas and a framed photograph of Ramakrishna. He also had a book to learn Hindi.

At the temple THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM changed into his kavi and slipped away. He had to take a bus to the Central Railway Station from where he planned to take a train to Delhi, which was the jump off point to the Himalayas. He had a problem when the bus conductor refused to let him in as he had no money. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM had decided when he changed into his kavi that he would not touch money again. Somehow he managed to get into the bus when the conductor was not looking and managed to travel to the station. He got into the unreserved compartment in the Delhi bound train and reached Delhi without incident.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is now very proficient in Sanskrit. He had not known how to read or write Sanskrit till he left home. We asked him where and how he learnt this language. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM said that he knew when he started traveling outside Tamilnadu he would find it very difficult to manage not knowing Hindi. Even to find where he could get drinking water or where the restrooms were, he would need to know Hindi, which has the same Devanagari script as Sanskrit. He had bought in Chennai a book that guaranteed to teach Hindi and Sanskrit using Tamil within thirty days. He finished reading that book in a day or two on the train and learnt how to read the Hindi signs in the railway stations. After this introduction, he picked up the Sankara Bhashyam when he was in a monastery and found no difficulty in comprehending it. Adi Sankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutras of Vyasa, the Sankara Bhashyam, is possibly one of the most complex treatises ever written. How one could understand this in Sanskrit after reading a 'How to do it in 30 days' book is difficult to comprehend to our logical mind. Having a rudimentary knowledge of Sanskrit, I have always been amazed at the fluency with which THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM recites verses from various scriptures from memory.

Once when we were working on the first volume of his biography, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM had asked us to get a reference from an Upanishad. He was not sure of the name and said it could either be the Mundaka or the Mandokya Upanishad. We found the reference and when he asked for the name I gave him the incorrect name. He corrected me saying that it should have been the other. Impulsively I asked him, 'Swami, how do you know? I know you have so little time to read and even if you had, how would you remember such a small detail?' He looked at me pensively and said, 'You know, these rishis who wrote these scriptures come to me and talk. That is how I know.'

It was such an innocent and casual statement without any drama. As I looked into his eyes, my skin crawled and hairs stood on edge. What is this being I am in front of, I wondered. It was an awe-inspiring moment for the group of about thirty people who were listening to him that day. Our own insignificance in front of this energy being hit us all powerfully.

A few days later he told us, 'You know, when I told you that those rishis come and talk to me I didn't mean that they come physically with their long beards and all that. Their energies come to me and communicate. It may be difficult to understand for you guys.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that traveling without a ticket in Bharat had never been a problem outside Tamilnadu. Sanyasis are respected everywhere in Bharat and the railway officials seem to be hospitable to these monks. He used to travel back and forth wherever and whenever his fancy took him and traveled across Bharat several times. However, as soon as he reached the border of Tamilnadu he would head north again. He said that only in Tamilnadu there is so much of negativity concerning spirituality.

I had narrated this incident in the first volume. In one trip a ticket examiner accosted him and demanded to see his ticket. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM told him, 'What ticket? I am atman, you are atman and this train is atman. Why then need for ticket?' Rendered to us in the broken Bengali by the Master himself, it was hilarious. The examiner not only did not pursue the matter of a ticket but also brought him food for the rest of the trip. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says this is what differentiates Bharat from many other countries. In most Western countries a person wandering around homeless with no means of support would be rounded up as a vagrant and treated as a menace to society. In most parts of Bharat people were delighted to look after him and other sanyasis. This he says is the carry over of the Vedic culture that so wonderfully establishes the concept of humanity and lays the very foundation of spirituality.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that his first call in Delhi was the Hanuman temple just outside the New Delhi Railway Station. He wandered around Delhi for a few days and traveled with a group of pilgrims to Hardwar, the launch pad into the Himalayan Mountains. Over the next five to six years he came back to the Himalayas time and again. Each year over the last few years, as described elsewhere later, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM takes his followers on the trail that he traversed years earlier during his parivrajaka.

The Himalayan Mountains are not a geographical entity to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. They are a living spiritual entity. When we go with him to the Himalayas he tells us just to experience and not to verbalize the experience of being amidst these majestic and gorgeous mountain ranges. As our buses twist and turn through the hairpin bends like Formula 1 cars with one set of wheels quite often projecting a few inches outside the road over nothingness, we learnt to just witness and be one with the overwhelming presence of the mountains.

Over the next several chapters we shall journey with THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM as he continued his journey. He said once that he never believed that he would ever return to the south of Bharat again. In fact he had decided never to come back to Tamilnadu. He said that the he would get enlightened so young never occurred to him. He assumed that he would be quite old by the time he achieved the mission that he set out for and would therefore spent most of his life in the Himalayas. It is our good fortune that things didn't quite work out that way!

Once in a reminiscent mood THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM spoke of his feelings after enlightenment. Someone asked him how much of this journey across the country he did on foot and how he did it. This is what he spoke about.

Actually, I only traveled barefoot. Still you can see not a single scratch on these feet. Perhaps that is why you cannot see a single scratch. People ask me how my feet are so soft and supple. Nature becomes your friend and the earth becomes your protector when you are in touch with her.

You can't imagine this foot has walked several thousand kilometers. Can you see a single scratch? at least I traveled on these feet. I always walked barefoot. Ask my mother, she is here. My elder brother is also here, ask them both. Throughout my life in Arunachala, in my native place, I never used chappals (sandals). I respected the land so much that I never used to wear chappals. In the college I studied in, it was not even college, it was then polytechnic, now it is a college, they insisted I wear shoes. Those days it was a polytechnic, what polytechnic, nothing was taught, complete nonsense.

After they finish, when the students come out, all they know is they can brush their teeth in a different way, that's all. They now know how to use a plastic toothbrush instead of a neem stick. They have a diploma. Other than brushing teeth and a diploma, they will not know anything. It was a waste of time and money. You see what happened to me. I did polytechnic studies. If you study in a polytechnic, you have to only become a monk, a samiyar. If you are interested in becoming samiyar, study in a polytechnic, otherwise do something else. This is good publicity for polytechnic!

Anyhow, when I went to polytechnic, they forced me to wear shoes. What I did was to put the shoes in a plastic shopping bag and carry them till the outskirts of Thiruvannamalai. Only after the bus crossed the town limits, beyond the boundary stone that marked the city limit, I put on the shoes. When I returned by bus, I removed my shoes the moment I knew I was entering the town. I had this strong feeling that every inch of Arunachala and Thiruvannamalai is a shivalinga, that it is god. It is the traditional belief.

It is not only a traditional belief, but because of my first spiritual experience it was a real experience. I had the first experience at the age of ten or twelve. It was such an intense experience that I felt the whole universe as a live, living energy. That experience completely shook me. After that experience, I decided to completely stop wearing footwear. Of course, before that also I never used to wear. After that, the strong decision to never wear the chappal or shoes or anything was confirmed. Even now when I enter Arunachala, I tell these people, my disciples, no shoes.

So long as I stayed in Thiruvannamalai I never wore any footwear. After I left on parivrajaka also, I never used. Actually Ayya bought the first chappals that I used after along time. (Ayya is THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's first disciple). After the ashram started, he bought the first chappals that I used. Still it is there, a blue chappal. Only around twenty-three I wore my first chappals because I was in a city environment. Earlier I wore only in the college because they forced me to. The moment I come out, I will throw it away. Throughout my wandering, I never used shoes. I tell you, if you have any crack in your feet, it will be healed at once in these Himalayas. Not only is it spiritually vibrant, it is filled with herbs and medicines. It is a healing environment. This very land is so energetic. Walk barefoot as much as you can and all you knee pain, head pain and all other pains will also disappear. Wherever you can't, you feel uncomfortable, wear shoes or chappals. Try your best at least here and in the plains to go barefoot. Wherever you can, try your best to walk without chappals.

You see, yesterday I was wearing shoes. Now, I have started wearing because after the enlightenment, body has become too soft. It has become like a bone covered with butter. Even the joints and all the body parts have become soft like butter. That is the reason I am also using warm clothing and shoes and all those things. Now my health is more important because if I fall sick, days of the trip will be disturbed. You guys will lose out. At least for your sake, I can't take the risk. That is the reason now I am using these few things. Otherwise, throughout my wandering and you see in those days, there was a strong will to achieve enlightenment. I had the strong desire to keep the body for enlightenment. So, body was very solid. See, whenever there is a desire, your body will become strong. Any desire releases tremendous energy in the body. Your body will become strong.

After enlightenment, there is no desire. My body has become completely liquid, flexible like fluid. That is why many people ask me; even here I have a question from a person now. People ask me, 'Swamiji, sometimes when I see, you look like a mother, woman. Sometimes, when I see, you look like a lion, man. Sometimes, when I see you, you look like a small boy. What is happening? I have some trouble in my eyes or what?'

Be very clear: you have no trouble in your eyes. Your eyes are perfectly all right. I think your eyes are working much better than others. It is not your problem. Because there is no strong desire or will in the body, it has become fluid. Whatever attitude this body takes is radiated in the face, the body, and everything else. If the attitude of child or innocence is radiating, just the whole body language takes that attitude. If the attitude of mother takes place, the whole body melts in that attitude. If it takes the attitude of the lion, just the whole body melts in that attitude.

After enlightenment, there is no desire. I have no strong desire. There is no strong will. Body has completely melted. Because there is no strong desire, body has become liquid. There is no strong will to hold on. Because of that, body has just become liquid. Body has become completely like butter covered with butter. That is why I am taking care of it a little. Moreover, it has done whatever has to be done. The purpose this body has been achieved. Now, it can be taken care of a little bit, nothing wrong.

One more thing, you guys are all thinking enlightenment is a big freedom. It is not a big freedom. Whatever little freedom you have is also lost. Be very clear; do not have any fantasy about enlightenment. You think after enlightenment, you will have big freedom. It is not like that. You can't even move your hand as you want. Even your hand can be moved only as the divine wants. Nothing can be done by your will. You will completely lose whatever little freedom that you now have. That is what happened to me, what can be done? Whatever the divine thinks, only that can be done.

Actually, when I crossed the Vindhyachal Mountains (dividing north and south Bharat) I never wanted to go back. To tell you honestly I never wanted to go back, never wanted to return to Tamilnadu. It is a land of ignorant people! If you want to see the totality of spiritually ignorant people on the planet earth, go there. During my parivrajaka travel, the moment I saw the Tamil letters on the signboards, I would just jump out of the train and get into the train going in the opposite direction. I would just run away from there.

When I crossed Vindhyachal or Madhya Pradesh, which was the place from where Sage Agastya came down, I promised Vindhya Mountains that I would never cross her again. I decided I would never come back to South Bharat. I thought either that I would do tapas and die or become enlightened. Two things only can happen. Either I would do tapas till I die or I would become enlightened. I thought if I became enlightened, I didn't have to back south and if I didn't become enlightened I would continue to do tapas till I die. Either way I didn't have to go back south. So, I took the oath that I would not cross the mountains again, meaning I would not come back to south.

But, what to do? Of course, I never came back as the same person. It was not the same person who came back. After becoming enlightened, I had no will and I had no questions. Everything disappeared and there was never a decision from my side. What had to happen was simply happening in me and through me. Actually, after enlightenment, when I went to south, I was not even aware of which wais south, north, east, or west. It took me over one year to have even the first word from the being. When I started having the words, when I could speak again, then I saw I was in the south of Bharat already for more than 6-7 months. So, that person who went up north never came back as he same person. Anyhow, I never wanted to come down from these Himalayas. But, when you become enlightened, your freedom is lost. You don't have any will. So, that is the reason constantly I am doing whatever I am doing. It is a divine decision, not mine.

As a link between the first volume of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's biography and this second volume, we take you through once again a few memorable incidents of his childhood. Apart from providing the connectivity, these incidents provide the backdrop to how THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is what he is today.

When he was about ten years old, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was taken to meet Annamalai Swamigal. Annamalai Swamigal was a close devotee of Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi and used to speak to groups of people, at the end of which used to distribute candies. Annamalai Swamigal's message was based mainly on Ramana Maharishi's teachings on self-enquiry or atma vichara. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that he continued to visit Annamalai Swamigal because of the candies!

Once, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM heard Annamalai Swamigal say in a discourse that we are all beyond the body and mind. He said that there is something within us that is imperishable despite damage to body mind and untouchable by anything that affects body mind. He said that pain affects only the body mind but not the inner self. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM wondered how this was possible. When I hurt myself, he thought, it pains. How can I then not feel pain? H decided to put Annamalai Swamigal's teaching to test. When he reached home, he cut himself with a large kitchen knife. It was painful, he bled a lot, his mother scolded him and took him to a doctor to be sewn up. A few days later THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM went back to Annamalai Swamigal and told him that what Swamigal taught failed him. He had both physical and emotional pain.

Annamalai Swamigal laughed and told THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM that he had asked him to practise it n himself. However, he admired the courage of this young boy to test something to see if it was true. He told THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM that one day he would certainly realize the truth of what he tested out. He then gave him a technique to try out. He taught him how to follow his thoughts back to the source. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that he played with his technique and what resulted he explained in detail on a THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Purnima day in 2007.

I had my first spiritual experience at the age of twelve. Let me describe the incident to you. I was sitting on a rock on the Arunachala hill and meditating. It was the sunset hour of the Buddha Purnima day in the month of Vaikasi (Full moon day May-June as per the Tamil calendar when Buddha was born and enlightened). This rock was locally called Pavazha Kundru, the Coral Rock. I was meditating for a long time that day. I was looking into myself to see where thoughts were coming from. I was actually playing with this technique that was taught to me a few years earlier by Annamalai Swamigal. Then suddenly a strange experience occurred.

In the midst of the meditation, I felt something opening up within me, something was getting crushed, some thing else was getting created. It was like a vessel inside getting broken and a door opening, both together at the same time. It was a feeling of creation and destruction at the same time. It was a very pleasurable feeling.

Even with my eyes closed, I could see all around. I did not need to open my eyes to see. Not only could I see with my eyes closed, but I could also see all around me in a 360-degree vision. With equal clarity, I could see the hill in front, the temple behind, the rock below, the stars above, the trees to the left, part of the hill to the right, all these were in my visionary field, without having to open my eyes! Strange!

I realized that I was one with the whole of Existence and everything was I! It was like this tree in front of me became my bone and this roof above became my nerves!

How did this happen? What made me have such a strong experience of samadhi? There are many others who have also done similar meditations of seeing where the thoughts arise from, but why didn't all of them have such experiences? The reason is that I was so inspired by the masters that I started living like them! Because of that, my consciousness was ripe and ready for such an experience.

My inner space was so pure from young age. Spiritual masters were my only heroes; I had no other heroes to emulate. As I walked around the Arunachala hill, at each step I took I would think, 'How would Annamalai Swamigal behave? Let me behave like that.' I used to go around the hill late in the night, as a parikrama. Whenever I felt some fear, I would think, 'How would Annamalai Swamigal respond? He will certainly have no fear, so let me also not have fear then'.

Let me tell you an incident that really happened. Around the time I had my first experience, I was doing circumambulation of the Arunachala hill late one night. It was raining heavily, with lightning and thunder. I felt a fear in me. Immediately I thought, 'How will Annamalai Swamigal be? He won't bother, he will just walk, so let me also walk.' The path around Arunachala goes through the cremation grounds. I was passing through the town's cremation ground. In Bharat, burial and cremation both are done in the same place. Suddenly I saw a dog biting something and eating. When I went nearer, the dog started barking. First thing I thought when the fear came was, 'How will Annamalai Swamigal react. He won't bother.' So, I continued walking. Then the dog got scared and ran away. When I went closer I saw it was a dead body that was not fully buried and it had come above the ground in the heavy rain!

Just imagine, a twelve-year-old boy, on a stormy midnight in heavy rain, seeing a dead body without head, because the head was in the dog's mouth! The fear started as soon as I saw the body, but it did not reach my being completely. The shock and fear stroke did not even happen completely. The awareness was so intense and as the fear started I thought, 'How will Annamalai Swamigal behave now? He will just walk around and go'. So I just walked around the dead body and continued! That's all! I just took a detour, I walked on and didn't even bother to turn back and see. The fear stroke that started or was about to start did not even open up and reach my body. The heat or shivering or shaking was not there in my body.

The whole conscious inner space was intensely ready. That was the reason a small inspiration was able to put me in that experience. That's what I call living enlightenment. When you live enlightened masters' body language, you live enlightenment. Whenever any thought came into my space, whether it was related to food or clothes or anything else, the first thing I would think was, 'How will that master behave? Naturally this reaction will not be in him, let me then forget about it'. If I felt a little lazy to meditate or to walk, I would think how would Annamalai Swamigal do it? He wouldn't put up with laziness, he would get up and meditate, does that, that's all! So I would just get up and sit and meditate.

Annamalai Swamigal became the scale to measure me against anything. These masters became the scale in my inner space constantly. I asked Annamalai Swamigal once, 'Swamiji, I see Arunachaleshwara in my dream, do you also see him in your dream?'

He said, 'No I don't have dreams.'

Immediately I said, 'You don't have dream? Then how can I have dreams?'

No dreams! That night when a dream started happening, I clearly told myself in my dream. 'No! I cannot dream. Annamalai Swamigal doesn't have dreams, how can I have dreams?'

The dream disappeared! Even if I felt cold, I would remember how he would behave. He won't bother, then I will decide not to bother. Over!

There was no further question or argument inside me. The biggest problem for a seeker is this inner dialogue. You feel, 'I know what the master says is right but I am struggling'. If this happens in you, over! You are dead. Nothing can be done and you will be stuck with this one idea for janmas, for many births. This is what we call karana sarira, the causal layer, energy layer of justification. You will never be able to get out of this layer if you are caught in it. Nobody can save you. Do not ever be stuck in that layer. If you are stuck anywhere else, it's okay. There is nothing wrong, but don't get stuck in that layer. That is what I call evil.

Ravana knows very clearly that Sita is his daughter, but he's not able to control himself. Ravana is nothing but a model of schizophrenia, that's why he is shown with ten heads. One side or one part of him is very devoted to Shiva. Another part of him is filled with lust for Sita. Another part is filled with arrogance and violence. He has multiple schizophrenia, that's all! If you say, 'I know what Swamiji says is right, but I can't do it', then you are Ravana. Even if you worship Shiva, Shiva cannot save you! Ravana was a great Shiva bhakta and he built a huge temple for Shiva in Trikonamalai, in Sri Lanka. All that was useless. Integrated devotion is real devotion. Schizophrenic devotion is not devotion. It is Ravana bhakti.

The reason for my first experience was that I never had such thoughts in my inner space. If Annamalai Swamigal did it, I would do it, that's all. For any thought that came up inside, I asked myself: How would Annamalai Swamigal respond? Would he have this thought? No. Then it is not mine either. Over!

Take this as my message today. In any situation just remember, 'How will Swamiji respond, how will He react, how will He face this situation?' Then act in that manner. This is what I call living enlightenment. You don't need anything else, just this is enough.

This is what I call relationship with the master. Relationship with master is not puja or putting flowers at his feet, or worshipping him once in a while. It is being thoroughly impressed by him. Whenever anything comes up, whether it is fear, or greed, or anger, or anything else, just think how the master will respond, and it will simply disappear! A simple understanding is enough. Many times I tell people, strongly being connected with master is enough, there is no need to do anything else. Otherwise you will be Ravana, schizophrenic, sometimes behaving nicely, sometimes rudely, sometimes with lust, sometimes with anger. Integrate, no more being Ravana. Let the whole body and mind imbibe the energy, spirit and inspiration of master. That is the entire message.

Whenever anything comes up, think about how Swamiji will behave. Understand very clearly, if you behave as I behave, you will have what I have! It's a promise from Existence!

This is the essence of my message this Buddha Purnima - live enlightenment. For anything, think how master will be and live like that. By next year, you will be celebrating your anniversary of first experience. My blessings, let you all live enlightenment, and achieve and radiate the eternal bliss, nithya ananda!

The next year in 2008, on the same THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Purnima Day, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM continued this theme.

Today is anniversary of my first spiritual experience. You can call it satori or samadhi. Last year on the same day, I explained exactly what happened during the experience. Today I want to share few things about what happened after that experience, the aftermath of first experience.

Aftermath of Master's experiences can be a very powerful technique. If you practice what happened in me after my first experience, you will experience the first experience. Understand: the expression that happened in me because of my first experience, if you start living them, you too will experience the first experience.

Let me narrate the aftermath of my first experience. First: I have become very rich in human qualities. I just sat and scanned exactly what all happened in me after my first experience. First

thing I have to tell is that I have become very rich in my human qualities, love, caring, sharing, compassion, courage and all these truly human qualities. I have become extraordinarily rich in these. Please understand: as long as you remember you are just a human being, you cannot become rich in human qualities. You will always have the poverty in quality and poverty in inner space. Only when you experience some other plane, a different plane, altogether, a different being, if you have disconnected from the human level you experience the state of super consciousness.

At birth and from birth you carry a deep down anger towards your parents. You will have a deep anger towards anybody who gives you a new breakthrough in your world. That is because they take you to a different plane by giving either a physical body or spiritual evolution. Understand: Your parents caused, and in a way they are responsible for your sufferings in this birth, but you should also understand they are responsible for the great things that you enjoy in the human body.

First thing: When you become rich in human qualities, when I became rich in human qualities, I was able to forgive deeply, including my present situation. I understood that when my parents gave birth, they brought me a little bit of suffering, this outer world suffering, but they gave me the possibility. They added so many things to me by giving this body. So I had this deep forgiving experience. In the same way it was with the Master also. See, your Master when he gives you a new consciousness, when he adds knowledge to you, spirituality to you, he takes you to the different plane. Sometimes there will be suffering. There will be that feeling: disconnection. So you start blaming the Master.

Understand: he has taken you to the different plane. He has given you a different space. Remember, he has opened a new possibility. When a new possibility is opened, there will be one or two experiences that you think as suffering. But beyond that, he has opened a new door. First thing: I was able to deeply forgive my parents for giving me the birth. We always carry a deep wound when anybody gives a new thing to us. When the Master teaches a new thing to you, for sometime you enjoy. For a while you cherish. For a while you see the positive things. After a while, you start thinking that you are not able to handle that new space. You are not able to handle that new opening. You are not able to live in that new consciousness. Then suddenly you see, you start developing little bit of hatred, feeling disconnection.

Understand: Master is not responsible for your sufferings and all these experiences. Your parents are not responsible for the life that you lead. N a macro sense you may think that they are responsible. They are not. They only gave you the possibility. It is your choice how you lead your life. In the same manner Master only gave you the possibility. It is your choice. He's a possibility. You already knew that if you take your human body again you might have to go through so many things, sufferings. It is only after all these considerations your spirit decided on your rebirth and on your parents. Your parents are like an instrument, a door. They are not responsible. Same way, Master is a door. He is not responsible.

First thing: I was able to forgive my parents. Actually, the tremendous richness in the human qualities made me start loving everything. There was no suffering. There was no sadness, just a deep joy, deep ecstasy. All the human qualities have become very rich. If I have to say, aftermath of these few experiences, I was able to forgive my parents, I was able to forgive my teachers, I was able to forgive everything. I was able to deeply love everything. Understand: when you are in love, the whole Existence looks so beautiful, so great. You feel everyone is playing one's role. Whatever is happening is wonderful, great, spiritual. I was not able to complain about anybody. I was not able to blame anybody. That was the one first thing, great thing happened in me. I was not able to blame anybody. I was not able to complain anybody. Suddenly you become rich.

Understand: I always get complaints from people. And not only complaints, the people who complain, they constantly poke fun at the people who don't complain. There's a group that does not complain, which is just enjoying life and living happily. And there is a group that continuously complains. The complaining group attacks the other group that does not complain, oh! these guys are innocent, they are ignorant. They don't even realize how foolish they are. They are not even complaining.

Understand: the non-complaining group is a rich, intelligent, qualitative group. It's rich in its human qualities. The non-complaining group, as some people in the complaining group see it and think about it, is exploited. No. Nobody is exploited. When you are in love, when you are in the non-complaining group, suddenly you will see that everything is beautiful and you yearn for it. You yearn to be part of life around you and you want to enjoy it. If that love disappears, that richness the human quality, if it disappears, suddenly you see, everything and everyone else has to be blamed. Everything needs to be abused. You abuse everything. You become life negative.

You start creating negativity about the master, not only the master who you believe in and with whom you live, you start creating negativity about all masters. You start creating negativity about everything. You are not able to digest. You are not able to relate with the truth expressed. You are not able to withstand the drama happening as the Master reveals new openings, new things, and new possibilities. If you are ready to stand up, he helps you. He takes care. If you are unable to stand up, he waits and gives you your space. When people come and tell me that someone has left me, I tell them to give them their space. Give them our love, care, compassion, and if possible spiritual energy, healing energy. Give them their space. Let every human being evolve in one's own way. Let every human being live in one's own way.

I always feel a deep love deep compassion and express a deep healing energy for every living being, for every being. I can say that this is one of the great achievements, this is one of the great qualities that happened in me after the first experience. I was able to forgive anybody, able to forgive anything with tremendous love and tremendous compassion. I have tremendous respect for every individual.

The other day somebody came and asked me, 'Swamiji, after spending two three years with you, why do people leave? How can they leave? Why don't you keep them? Why don't you keep them in the ashram or keep them with us?' I tell them, 'This is the greatness of a living master. He gives you. He never hypnotizes you. He never brainwashes you. He gives you all possibilities. You can leave even after ten years. Doors are open. A ordinary teacher will try to build things, teach things, create systems, and setups, from which you can't escape. A true Master gives you

the possibility. All possibilities are open, whether to be in or to be out. Always, all possibilities are open, because the whole relationship is built on love, freedom, openness and compassion.

When you are in love, you see this truth. The whole thing is built in love, freedom, compassion and truth. When the love disappears, suddenly you lose this relationship and everything becomes dark. You wont be able to relate to what is going on around the Master and what is happening around the master.

The first richness that happened in me was the tremendous love, unending love, the love that is expressed towards this whole Existence. I always tell people that when you practice the qualities of enlightened being, enlightened experience will happen in you. I am trying to consciously scan all the other major transformational things that happened in me after the first experience. I developed a deep respect for every individual's freedom. Only when they come inside the ashram, when they want to be guided by me, I interfere. Otherwise, I keep my distance. I tell them, 'no, no, its ok. Wait.'

If they unconsciously do not want to be guided, but consciously try to indicate, 'please guide me', because of the security that results or just to escape from their dilemma, I tell them, 'no. Wait. Let's give it some more time'. See: when people come to me for guidance, they want to escape from their dilemma. They know that a powerful security is available and the high intelligence is guiding them. But sometime, their unconscious doesn't want to be guided. If I make them wait, they feel that they are not guided. If I guide them, again, they feel that their freedom is lost. So when this kind of unconscious resistance happens, I tell them, 'Wait. Slowly, slowly, whatever needs to evolve will evolve.'

When such people leave also I tell them, 'You have full freedom to come or leave. But never abuse what happened or the guidance that you received when you asked for guidance. You should not judge the incidents that happened when you are in deep love with the same mind when that love is not there. Whatever happened, whatever happens when the love is there cannot be judged as the same incidents, same happenings, same truths that were shared and the same experience when the love is no longer there.

I always tell people when people touch my feet that when they are in deep love that becomes a technique. When there is no love they feel, 'Oh, why should we touch his feet?' They feel that they have been exploited. I always tell them, 'You are never exploited. When you touch with deep love, you grow. Something happens in you. It is that joy, that love that makes you touch my feet with love and respect. That experience only makes you do that act.

When you have deep love your actions are different. Your experiences are different. But when you are in depression you judge the same incidents and same actions very differently and you start creating more suffering for yourself. You abuse the Master and others. You blame somebody else as responsible. When the deep quality of love, the richness the human qualities, when they become rich in you, suddenly you see the truth, love, joy, and ecstasy behind the whole thing. I always tell people to live in that excitement, ecstasy, richness, and love. You will not be able to blame anybody. You will not be able to disrespect anybody. You will not be able to abuse the master. Suddenly you will see the whole truth behind whatever happened or happening, or going to happen in your life.

First thing: I have become rich in human qualities. When Annamalai Swamigal taught me, when I was learning from Annamalai Swamigal, when he was teaching to others that life is beyond pain and suffering, I went and tested it on myself… I cut my thigh and I bled and I had suffering. So naturally, I started abusing Annamalai Swamigal. I started blaming Annamalai Swamigal. But when I had my first experience, it was such a joy! I became so rich in human qualities that the need to abuse the Master disappeared in me. I understood that he opened a new possibility for me. It became tremendous love and deep devotion for Annamalai Swamigal.

I always tell people that to find out whether you are going in the right path or in wrong path look for only one quality. If you are in deep love with everything, if you are in a deep joy and ecstasy, if you are in deep gratitude towards the master, towards everything, then suddenly you will experience ecstasy of seeing everything as beautiful, everything as great and feeling connected. You live the joy and ecstasy.

I even felt when I had my first experience, how can I go back and see Annamalai Swamigal? I felt bad because I blamed him. Then with the experience of these human qualities, the rich qualities of compassion and the resulting joy and ecstasy, I was able to connect again and live in ecstasy and share that with everybody.

Please understand my message on this first experience day: To many of you I have given the direction and I have opened a new possibility. Practically, I have given birth to you all. So all of you will have some suffering. Somewhere, consciously or unconsciously, you will be abusing me. You will be disrespecting. You will be suffering. Relax. Be rich in human qualities. Bring richness in human qualities.

The aftermath of my first experience is that whatever may have happened in between love, devotion, the richness brings you back. That love is more than enough to regain trust. Suddenly you will see that you will be able to come to the third stage of again feeling connected. You will come out of this unconscious suffering with ultimate experience of deep devotion and deep ecstasy. You will again feel connected with deep love, with deep respect in the way that I felt connected to Annamalai Swamigal again. In the same way you will feel deeply connected again. You will be able to live and relive the joy and ecstasy, and experience again the feeling of being eternally connected and experiencing that richness in human quality.

All of you at some time or other go through or will go through that second phase of disconnection. Don't bother, don't worry, and don't be disturbed. Create a deep love. Create a deep joy, wherever you are. You may be near my form or away from my form. You may not be around my form. But I'll be around your form. So, experience the third stage. Come to the third stage. Become a rich human being and become rich in human qualities of love, sensitivity, ecstasy, and joy. Become rich in all human qualities. And come back. Experience the third stage.

Experience the ultimate eternal connection with the Master that I experienced with Annamalai Swamigal, which never left me after that. So let you all experience the eternal connection with the master.

So today my message is: become rich in human qualities. My blessing is, again be connected eternally with the Master. Let you all achieve richness in human qualities and feel connected to the Master again. Because in my first experience, this is the same drama that happened. First, I had connection with the master, initiation happened, then there was disconnection, little imbalanced, but I was continuously practicing. I was trying to practice those teachings and words. Then the experience happened. Suddenly it all opened up and strong eternal connection happened. So I bless you all. Let you all practice the teachings. Even if you are not able to catch the Buddha and Sangha, catch the Dhamma. The Dhamma will lead you to such an intense, high experience. Suddenly you will see the greatness of Buddha and the beauty of his Sangha. You will experience all the three. That is what I call the eternal connection.

I had this eternal connection after the first experience with Annamalai Swamigal. So, even if you are away from Buddha, away from Sangha, don't be away from Dhamma. Hold onto the Dhamma and you will see that the teachings suddenly explode in you to create an experience with a deep spiritual truth. That will awaken human qualities in you. That will create a deep richness of human qualities in you. It will awaken the love and will awaken the joy. It will awaken the ecstasy. It will awaken the deep compassion and you will again connect back to the Buddha and Sangha through Dhamma. This is how it happened in me. I felt connected first to Buddha and Dhamma, not to Sangha. Then, connection slowly disappeared from Buddha. But I held on continuously bowing down to the teachings.

Let you all become rich in human qualities. I pray and bless to let you all become rich in human qualities and feel eternally connected to Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. Let you all achieve and radiate the eternal bliss, nithyananda.

These two experiences of the first experience at Coral Rock and the after effects were shared by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM during the 2007 and 2008 celebrations of Buddha Purnima, now called THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Purnima in honor of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's own experience.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has said that he started to exhibit rich human qualities of deep love, compassion and forgiveness after this deep spiritual experience he had at the Coral Rock. He called this the living enlightenment experience and asked us to use the process of 'what would the Master do?' as a conscious technique to create the same qualities in us. It is an extraordinarily powerful technique if use it honestly and with commitment.

I remember once walking back to a man lying unconscious on the pavement. I passed him without a second glance unthinkingly as many others around me did that morning. I was hurrying to work and someone lying on the sidewalk was not my problem. Suddenly and overriding my unconsciousness the thought arose: what would the master have done. Strangely I stopped since my legs wouldn't move forward. I could walk further. I walked back and found the person was

sleeping off what could have been a binge. Yet, I called for the ambulance and waited till the person was taken care of. Many a time since then doubts have been resolved very quickly just by posing this question, 'What would my master do?'

Many disciples of all Masters go through the stages that THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM relates to his own sadhana days. The first phase is one in which a seeker feels a connection with the Master. But since the Master opens a whole new dimension which the seeker cannot handle, a disconnect follows as the relationship grows. If the seeker is aware in this stage that it is not the fault of the master, and maintains the trust in him irrespective of this disconnect he moves on. He then reaches the third stage where he finally experiences a deep permanent bond.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM speaks of the analogy of a baby that initially feels connected with its mother as soon as it is born. But when the baby tries to walk, it repeatedly falls down and cries. It starts to blame the mother for its fall. Gradually when the baby learns how to walk, it re-establishes that connection. Similarly the Master gives a completely new birth to the seeker. During the second phase, when the seeker is not able to handle that space of the new birth, if he falls, he needs to maintain the trust with the master instead of blaming him and gradually the third phase will follow.

In a different context THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has spoken of the power of ego or identity that can overshadow one's connection with the Master. Our ego, our identity, our attachments and our desires are what bring us suffering. The Master works n the surgery of removing this ego, of destroying our identity. Not only is it painful but it is also many a times so unbearable a separation that we run from the surgery. Even the Master cannot help at this stage. What the Master cannot teach, sufferings have to teach us. We then return. The beauty, the wonder, he miracle is that the Master waits for you. He stands there with his arms open. As far as he is concerned, you had never left.

He has said to his disciples, 'Where will you go? Where can you go? Once you have walked into my arms, once you have entered the gates of my ashram, how can there be a separation? I am with you always even if you are not with me.' When he said this to me I stood rooted, tears flowing, unable to see and ever since have felt away from his presence.

Where can you go, when you are in the arms of Existence!

Many people are afraid to fall in tune because once one falls in tune one feels dependent on the master. If the master keeps the person away from him or if he maintains a distance, the suffering starts. Just because of the fear of the suffering of being kept away, people don't fall in love. People do not wish to come close for fear of being distanced. It is strange but this is the truth. People do not understand and appreciate the joy of that present moment when being in tune with the master. They are far more worried about what may happen when that state of attunement stops.

We need to understand that when the master keeps away or seems distant, he is letting the person go through that suffering to allow him to bloom again. A person who is ready to go through that absence and suffering arising from that absence emerges as a new person. He experiences a truth of his own self within.

Ramana Maharishi wrote a very beautiful poem on Arunachala. It's called the Bridal Garland of Letters. It is in the mood of love, madhura bhava. It is difficult to imagine an old man in a loincloth singing in love towards Shiva, the greatest ascetic. Ramana sings as the beloved!

These songs are so beautiful and moving. Someone asks Ramana about their meaning. Ramana says to him that these poems are so personal, they are love poems, and he should not have even read them, let alone ask for meaning.

The disciple then asks, 'Why did you allow them to be printed if no one is to have read them?' Ramana says 'I allowed the publication trusting that only such a person who has become me will read them and understand them. I let you read this book because I trust you have become me and that you are completely in tune with me.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM talks about an incident when he felt he was being kept away. It is a moving incident that can inspire you to great heights.

I believe that you would be able to understand these words by putting yourself in my place, in my shoes, in my space. Please understand that I want you all to know this story, because the story that I am going to tell you can only be understood if you put yourself in my place. This is also a love story. It cannot be told to a person who is an outsider. No, it is too personal.

If somebody comes and asks you about your honeymoon experience what will you tell them? Only if he is a really close friend you will be able to talk, not otherwise. Otherwise you can't talk about your honeymoon experience.

Because it's a solid experience you will see the effect of this truth in you. Even if you have problem with your logic in believing it, don't bother, you will see the trust happens in you. Whenever you listen to the great truths, there will be some effect happening inside you. Usually if you believe only then that effect will happen in you. Now let me tell you, you don't have to bother about believing. Because it is coming from the authentic direct source that has experienced the truth, even if you don't believe, even if you are fighting with your logic to believe, don't bother. That effect will happen in you. That effect will liberate you.

This is a very intimate, I can say, honey sun experience, because unlike honeymoon it never goes away. Many ascetics, sadhus and sanyasis will come and go in my native place Arunachala. Whenever I saw any sadhu my first job was catch hold of him and try to learn something from him while serving him in whatever way I could. Behind the Arunachaleshwara temple there is a

small four- pillared hall and below that was an entrance that seemed to lead into an underground cave like room. One day I saw a sadhu coming out of that entrance. It was not a big entrance, quite small actually. He was a very young sadhu, very graceful with all the great qualities of spiritual illumination.

The moment I saw him I touched his feet and started talking to him. I felt really connected to him and talked to him for a while. I met him again and in a few days became close to him. It became my routine to meet him every day because that was my route to the school.

In Hindu schools, at least in my school, kids were marked present based on seeing the school bag in the classroom. The moment kids enter the school they will leave the school bags in the classroom and go to the prayer hall. The teacher or an attendant will come and check the school bags. If a student's bag was not there the attendant will go to the house and bring that boy to school. There will be two three people employed just for this purpose like attendants and watchmen. If the school bag was not there they knew the child was not there. They will go to that house and bring that child.

To avoid this drama of the watchman going to my house I used to send my bag with one of my classmates. I had an agreement with this fellow. This incident happened around the time of my first spiritual experience, before or after I am not sure. As I left home for school I would first go to his house to hand over the bag to him and his responsibility was to keep that bag in my chair and see that the watchman marks my presence in the school so that he would not go to the house to bring me.

In return I had to do him favors. Those days I had these small, small like miracle powers. From a few of the ascetics with whom I moved around I had picked up some of these small powers, siddhis. I'll materialize and give him some cookies or candies. If he had not done his homework that day I had to make the math teacher fall sick. He would come and tell me, today I have not done my homework, I have not written my records, take care that the math teacher doesn't come to the school. I'll say alright let him have diarrhea and he will have diarrhea and not come to school.

We both had a good understanding and we will do each other favors. One nice thing this guy did was to keep a diary of these happenings with me. We are translating these diaries into English and will publish them. He says in that diary how many times these incidents happened, when I made things happen and when things did not happen. Anyhow this was the deal and everyday morning I will come out and give the schoolbag to him. He will take it and keep it in the seat and attendance will be given in the school, but I will not be in the school. I will be sitting with this sadhu. I will come to this sadhu and talking to him. I felt so deeply felt connected with this sadhu that it became like a closest relationship.

It was such a sweet relationship. It became a very close, sweet relationship, very strong relationship. Everyday I'll throw the schoolbag at this friend's house and come and sit with him. We shall be talking about something, so many different things till it was evening. I shall then tell

him I need to go home, then he will say okay and he will reenter the opening. Again the next day when I came back, he will come out when I called out, oh Swami, and we will sit and talk.

There's a very beautiful Upanishad story.

There was a small bird sitting on a tree and eating bitter fruits and sweet fruits. When it eats the bitter fruits, it spits them out and it feels suffering and pain. When it eats the sweet fruits it feels the joy. This bird sees another bird, a bigger bird of golden hue, sitting just above it on a higher branch in the tree. That bird was neither eating nor spitting, no pain no pleasure, he was just sitting.

Whenever the smaller bird eats the bitter fruits, it will complain, oh life is pain, it is full of suffering. It will then look up and see the bigger golden bird. It thinks, oh God see, that bird is so peaceful, quiet, not having pain like me, let me go to that bird. It will slowly start going towards that golden bird. After a few minutes, the sweet fruits will tempt it again and it will eat the sweet fruits. By the time it starts eating the sweet fruits it will forget about going towards that bird.

The small bird will eat that sweet fruit and say, oh it looks so sweet, so tasty. It will continue to eat one more, another and another till it lands on a bitter fruit. After two or three sweet fruits naturally it will land on bitter fruit. Then immediately he will remember that, 'I have to go back to the golden bird. Life is just pain and I am suffering'. It will then look up and start going near that big golden bird.

The story says like this, like this jumping again and again, going back and forth, the bird wasted something like a few hundred years, few janmas. Finally it tasted a horribly bitter fruit, perhaps cooked by its spouse. It said no, I shall not open my mouth again, enough is enough. In ultimate frustration it spits out the fruit that was in its mouth. It now resolves strongly to go to that big golden bird and to be with that bird itself.

When it went near that bird and touched the bird, suddenly this small bird felt the energy of that big bird engulf him. It felt it was not a separate bird but just a shadow of that big bird. It had always been thinking that it was a separate bird but it was never a separate bird. The moment he realized that it was a shadow it disappeared into the big bird.

I have experienced what the relationship between that small bird and the big bird was and how intense it would have been. I can say that this was the relationship between me and that Swami. It was a very powerful relationship. I wanted to be close to him. Many times I felt sad that the sun was setting and I had to go back home. One day finally I cried to him, 'See, I have to go back every day. I don't want to leave. Why don't you let me stay with you?'

He said, 'Staying with me? Don't you know I am a sanyasi?

I said I would also like to become a sanyasi and he laughed. He said, 'Alright. I will give you sanyas'.

I did not understand sanyas and all those things. All I knew was that he promised that I could stay with him, over. It was such deep relationship and I was ready.

The next day I went all prepared, mentally prepared and ready to stay with him forever. For the first time he asked me to come inside that opening, to his cave like dwelling. He opened the door and called me inside. I went inside and I saw that there was another opening to go out. As we went out I saw a huge banyan tree outside. Under this banyan tree several elderly sanyasis were sitting. I didn't know who they were but the way they greeted this young sanyasi with great respect, I understood that they might be his disciples. He went to a vacant seat that was placed a little higher than the others that obviously was his, and sat down with all the old disciples sitting below.

The body language of the other people clearly indicated that he was their guru. Young guy, young and shining, with a rudraksha mala and kavi and jata, long hair. He straightaway went and sat in his seat, and the moment he sat I fell at his feet and I also sat. Then he said to them that this boy is from our place and he wants sanyas, which is why I brought him here today. Then all the elderly sadhus smiled and welcomed me indicating by their body language how happy they were to receive me and accept me into the family.

A few of them were casually sharing one or two words with me. I saw that one sadhu, an elderly sadhu, was asked to bring a kavi, saffron clothing. The young sanyasi, the guru, gave that kavi to me. It was such a joy, such an ecstasy to receive the kavi. I just took it and fell at his feet. He blessed me and hugged me in an energy darshan. It was a very strong experience in ecstasy.

He then brought me back the same way and we came out of his cave. He said, 'Alright, now I will see you tomorrow'. I said, 'No, I want to be with you. I don't want to go back. That's why I took sanyas.'

He said, 'Okay. Just for a few days you go back home and I will still be there with you. Don't worry about it'.

I did not fully understand but I didn't want to push too much. I thought whatever he says must be right and anyhow I just left it.

I went straight to the house of my acharya Kuppammal who had been my inspiration. If you read the first volume of biography you will see her photograph. I went to the place where she was staying and I told her, 'Amma, a Swami gave me sanyas and gave me this kavi'. It was simple transaction, I told her. She had the shock of her life, what, you got sanyas? She knew the meaning, the depth of it. You got sanyas, who gave you?

She thought that one of these traveling sadhus gave me sanyas. There were many rumors about such sadhus who gave sanyas to young kids and took them away. She thought somebody is trying to do that with me and she asked me to show her that person. I said, 'ok, come let's go and I'll show you', and I took her to the temple.

I took her to that spot in the temple where every day I used to meet that young Swami. I stood there and shouted, 'Swami, Swami' and there was no reply. She asked me, 'Why are you standing here? Who are you calling?' I told her, 'I am calling that Swami because he stays in this cave. Everyday he comes out and talks to me.

Then she said, 'Fool, Who is staying there and where is the cave?' I said 'Everyday the Swami comes out of this entrance. I sit and talk to him. He took me inside his cave and gave me the kavi. Now that I have called him he will come. Wait'. We waited for some more time but nobody came. I shouted again, 'Swami, Swami'. Nothing happened.

Kuppammal started suspecting that I stole the cloth from somewhere. She did not believe that some swami gave me the kavi. She thought I stole that cloth from some shop. She thought I had stolen the cloth and now that I was afraid of being caught, I was fabricating a story. She asked, 'Tell me clearly, from which shop you stole the cloth?'

I said, 'No. I have not stolen anything. Swami gave me this kavi'. Then she asked me, 'Did you give any money to that swami? Or did that Swami want to take you with him?' I said, 'No. I wanted to go with him but he was not willing to take me'. She started questioning me more. I wondered why she did not believe me because usually she was a very loving lady, never disbelieving me or inquiring. But now I saw a totally different face in her.

She was inquiring and was trying to get me to admit that I stole the cloth in a totally agitated manner. I told her no, that swami came from here and gave me the cloth. Then she caught me by my ears, I still I remember, like mothers do when they are upset with their children. She dragged me holding my ears in front of that small opening where I used to see him coming out and asked, 'Why are you lying to me?'

I was shocked to see that there was no opening. For the first time I put my hand on the stone and pushed and saw that it was not an opening or even a door but a stone that was shaped like a door, that was all. It was a big shock to me. There was no cave and no door, which meant no one could have gone in or come out. Please understand, I am saying exactly as it happened. Again I promise this is the truth, nothing but truth. Shock, this shock was too big shock for me. I started crying.

The tears started rolling because now it seemed as if I was telling a lie. Kuppammal did not believe me. She thought that I had stolen this cloth and that I was trying to hide something big. Then I started justifying and crying, 'If I had to hide why would I come and tell you and show you this cloth? Then she said 'Let that Swami come and tell me what you are saying is true.' I once again shouted, 'Swami, Why are you not coming? This old lady is calling me a liar. Please come out and tell her I am not lying.' He did not appear. I understood then that not only he was not coming out then, but he will not appear again.

Kuppammal warned me, 'You have to tell me the truth within twenty-four hours. Don't try to tell me all these stories.' Both of us left that spot. I then came back alone hoping he would come out when I was alone, but nobody came out. Inside me I felt that I should not have told about the Swami to Kuppammal and because I did he was not coming out.

I felt like my intimate relationship with him broke because I brought in a third person. Kuppammal had followed me back and she was standing behind me without my knowledge. She saw that I was honest in my words because I am saying the same thing without even knowing that she was present. She said, 'I now understand you are telling me the truth because you are saying the same thing even though you thought I was not here. Tell me the truth. Who was he? How did he look? What was his name?'

I described the manner in which I met him, how he used to come out every day to talk to me, how he used to open the stone and come out, how graceful and young he was and how majestic in his rudraksha mala and kavi and how he gave me the kavi. She then asked me again, 'What was the name he gave you?'

I said, 'Oh name, when I asked him he said he was Arunagiri Yogiswara, that's all.'

As soon as I mentioned the name, that one word, she fell at my feet. She was my grandmother's age and my inspiration, my acharya, practically guru and she fell at my feet when I told her that it was Arunagiri Yogiswara who I had been meeting.

She started crying, 'Oh God! Arunagiri Yogiswara! He is Shiva himself! This is where he is buried. This is his samadhi under that ground'.

I did not know who Arunagiri Yogiswara was. I did not know that it was his samadhi that was underneath the spot that I thought was the cave from which he used to come out. Kuppammal knew this, she knew who Arunagiri Yogiswara was. It was shock to her and falling down at my feet she cried, 'Oh God! People are waiting to see him, people are waiting to have one glimpse of him and here he comes out to play with you!'

It was at least a six to nine month relationship, based on my calculation. Later on we took out the dates from the school attendance record and from there we picked up how many days I bunked and missed exams. With that we were able to take out the time and dates. It was nine month long relationship.

She started weeping profusely, 'People are just waiting and meditating for him to appear and here he played with you, lived with you'. She touched that kavi cloth and literally rolled on that cloth. We still have that cloth in the ashram. We sent a bit of that cloth for scientific research because that cloth is not made out of any physical material that we know. Usually, cotton or some such material becomes thread and thread becomes cloth. But this cloth has not come out of the physical plane. Understand it has not come out of the physical plane it has come out of a different plane.

One of our close disciples took that piece of cloth and carried out all possible tests, whatever they know. The laboratories said that they didn't know what material this was. We are still trying to do some more research before opening it to public. The cloth is still there at Bidadi.

On one side, Kuppammal was rolling and crying. On the other side it was a very big loss for me. I felt like I lost him just because of my big mouth. I never expected this kind of a turn in such a deep relationship. I was in such a deep suffering. Please understand that I can't narrate the suffering in words. What else can I say except that it was practically like some part of me that was missing, that kind of suffering?

By that time it was very late in the evening and they had started cleaning the temple. I still clearly remember that day because it was 31st December. The temple opens very early morning in the morning. In Bharat also January 1 st is very popular. Huge crowds will come for the darshan very early n the morning. So they will clean the temple in the night itself and keep everything. From the late night the huge crowd will stand in the line queue for darshan.

They started cleaning the place and were driving us all out. When we came out she told me to go and rest and we will talk later on. Anyhow she went to rest but I was not able to rest. A deep suffering, deep pain built up in me. I ran back to the temple. The watchman and the guys who were cleaning were all very close friends because I used to do lot of volunteer service for them. I told them that I too wanted to clean. When they clean the floors someone has to hold the hosepipe. For this they can't get paid workers, as it was not an official job. No skill was needed for that job. So they will get all these kids to volunteer for holding the pipe. Only for cleaning the floor they needed skilled persons, paid labor, not for holding the hosepipe. I went back with this excuse of doing some service by holding the pipe. I got into the temple this way because otherwise late night they will not allow people into the temple. Straightaway I went to the samadhi where I used to have his darshan.

I started weeping profusely, crying, 'I will not tell any one again about you. I did a big mistake by telling her and please come out and don't be angry. I want to see you at least once more. I'll not do this mistake anymore. Please save me. Just come and if I see you once more also, that's enough. I'll know at least that you are not angry with me. You don't have to keep me so close because I know I have done a mistake but at least let me know you are not angry with me'.

It was such an intense pain and suffering. I cried, cried, cried and wept. I can say that my whole being was weeping. At one point tears dry up and there is no emotion even to weep. If there is only suffering or emotion you can weep, even that gets exhausted. Over, everything is over. Nothing more can be done. You see, when you remember that reminiscence of the loving relationship, the joy will come. When you remember that you lost it, the pain will come naturally. Now both were absent.

The pain was over. Only as long as that joy was there the pain too was present. Only if the pain is there the joy will be there, both are interconnected. When the pain is exhausted joy is also exhausted, even the memory is dissolved. Now, the memory suddenly faded. I cried enough and finished.

There was neither the joy of the relationship nor the feeling of that suffering of missing him, just complete blankness. I got up from the place to leave, as it was very late. I thought since I am in the temple let me go to the main shrine and have darshan. The main shrine is a shivalinga, like our Bidadi Anandeshwara. Our Anandeshwara is a replica of that shivalinga in Thiruvannamalai. The samadhi of Arunagiri Yogiswara is directly behind the main shrine. It is believed that the shrine is built on the samadhi.

Kuppammal did not tell me anything in detail. I was also afraid to ask her anything. I was afraid to ask her anything because I was already in the mood of defending myself from her not in the mood of asking her anything. When I told her the name Arunagiri Yogiswara, though she fell at my feet and cried she did not give me any details about him. It is only later on that I came to know that Arunagiri Yogiswara is an incarnation of Shiva and that the temple garba graha (sanctum with the main idol) is built on his jiva samadhi (place where an enlightened master leaves the body) and all those things.

I was in a deep silent mood of contemplation as I slowly walked up to the main shrine, the sanctum sanctorum and stood there. I started praying to Shiva, 'Shiva, I cheated one sadhu, betrayed one sadhu, one swami, please forgive me it was such a wonderful feeling of relationship I miss, please do something'. I was praying intensely. As I opened my eyes I saw Arunagiri Yogiswara sitting in the place of the Shivalinga, inside the garba graha. It was such a clear, understand not feeling, clear experience.

I cried out, 'Swami! Swami! You are here, why didn't you come when I called you at the samadhi? Kuppammal Patti (patti in Tamil means grandmother, an elderly woman) says you do not exist. She wants to see you.' The yogi just sat there and smiled. The priests thought that I had lost my mind. They could not see Arunagiri Yogiswara, who I was talking to. They did not understand who I was talking to or why I was saying what I was saying. They pushed me out of the garba graha. I continued to shout, 'Swami, please come out; please come out!'

I did not understand why the Yogi was not responding now, why he would not come out as he did before. I went home highly disturbed. It was an emotional roller coaster for me that night. At one level, I was at peace that he saw the Yogi in the garba graha smiling at me. I felt one with him and knew that I had not lost him after all. At another level I was confused that he made no response.

Early next morning, I ran to the spot where I used to call him. I sat in front of the jiva samadhi and wept. 'Why are you not coming out? Are you angry with me? If I have made a mistake, please forgive me. I cannot be without you, please come out and meet me, let me see you, please speak to me,' I cried.

Suddenly I saw Arunagiri Yogiswara in front of me but in a very different form. Arunagiri Yogiswara was no longer in flesh and blood, no longer in the physical form that I used to see him earlier. He was in a very different form. His whole form was in shining light, mystical and mysterious. Arunagiri Yogiswara's feet were not touching the ground. He was glowing, almost

transparent. He smiled at me tenderly in compassion and love. He said, 'Dear one, you and I are one. We can never get separated. But the play is over. You will not miss me any longer. You will not be separated. We are one.'

Saying this, he merged into me and disappeared. From that moment, I did not feel the separation and loss from Arunagiri Yogiswara at all. I knew he was me and I was him. This was probably my first moment of realization of who I really was. It was my first spiritual experience, my first moment of enlightenment. From that moment I stopped missing anything. All I missed from then on was only the idea of missing anything at all.

Nithyananda says that this experience with Arunagiri Yogiswara was the most important turning point in his life before enlightenment. Arunagiri Yogiswara was no ordinary sanyasi. He is considered an incarnation of Shiva. It is on his jiva samadhi, the spot where he left his body that The Arunachaleshwara temple is believed to have been built.

Many temples in Bharat are built on the jiva samadhis of enlightened masters. The temple at Palani to Lord Muruga as Dandayuthapani is built on the jiva samadhi of Bogar, a contemporary of Agastya. The temple at Tirupati is also built on the jiva samadhi of an enlightened master. The temple at Mantralaya is on the jiva samadhi of Raghavendra Swami and at Nerur on the jiva samadhi of Sadashiva Brahmananda. Nithyananda says that these jiva samadhis are like nuclear reactors. They are sources of tremendous energy. The reason why these temples are so powerful and boon giving is because of the energy of the great Masters who left their body in these places.

There are two questions that have bothered mankind from time immemorial. The first question is whether God exists.

The answer to this question has always been experiential. Or it has been a matter of belief. There is no logical answer to this question. Whatever name we wish to give this entity, whether it is God, Existence, Nature, Universal Energy or whatever else, it is always about a power or an energy that is beyond our ken that we cannot control and whose activities we cannot understand.

There are those of us who believe that there is no power beyond ourselves. Such people believe that they can control everything. They think they can control all events in their lives and through their decisive actions have others do what they wish them to. That this belief is so patently false does not seem to fall within their logic. The fantasies of their own powers are so great that they live in a borderland of delusion.

We are not even in control of whether we would live to take the next breath, let alone control other people and their lives. The more we believe in the power of our mind and body, the illusory power of our mind and body, the more arrogant we become thinking that we can influence others. It is possible that one person in the prime of his life becomes so sharp and powerful of body and mind that he seemingly outperforms every body in strength or intelligence. The feeling of power is illusory because it does not last very long, it is transient. All qualities of body and mind are transient.

Shankara hauntingly said, 'do not be overcome by lust at the sight of a woman's body, realize that this is just flesh that rots'. Harsh words, no doubt, but coming from one of the greatest masters who walked this earth, it reflects an immortal truth. Intelligence, beauty, strength, or any other quality, which we so highly prize in our struggle for material success are all transient. They are related to functions of our body mind and change as our cells regenerate.

God or any other such concept is beyond mind body and mind body logic. Because it is not bound by the physical rules of mind body it is eternal. Because it is not bound by our logic, our mind cannot grasp it. If such an entity can be bound by our rules of logic, it would then be one more creation seemingly controllable by our mind. It will then be another entity that is within the grasp of our ego.

What we call ego is nothing but the identity that we wish to project. Ego is of two parts, internal and external. External ego, which we refer to as ahankara in Sanskrit, is what we wish others to see us as. This is always greater than who we are. It is an exaggerated projection of our capabilities. It is a ploy to make others think well of us and compare us well against others who they meet.

The other part is the internal ego that we refer to as mamakara in Sanskrit. Internal ego is what we think of ourselves within us. It is always projects a picture within us of us being inferior to what we are. People may say, no, this cannot be true, we have a high self esteem. People confuse an offensive or aggressive 'in your face' attitude as one of self esteem. This is not true at all. Arrogance or treating others shabbily to project a superior attitude has nothing to do with self esteem. On the contrary, such behavior is always a mask behind which a timid and frightened ego resides. A person who is truly self confident will feel no need to project that confidence artificially. The confidence will radiate, it will permeate, all by itself.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM often asks such people, 'do you think you are God'? Sheepishly they mumble, 'no, I don't'. He then says, 'you underestimate yourself, you indeed are God'. Our internal ego reduces us to a level below where we belong.

The gap between the internal and external egos is what causes all our sufferings. It is that which creates the conflict within us as to which identity we need to project. When there is no gap between these two we are as we are. There is no need to project anything. We are God.

God does exist. God exists within us. Unfortunately, we tend to seek this God elsewhere and when we fail to find evidence we punish ourselves denying our own divine existence.

A small story.

Buddhu Maharaj was well known in his neighborhood as a harmless eccentric. One night his neighbors found him desperately in search of something on the street. After watching him for a while moving from one street lamp to another prodding the ground with his walking stick, they asked, 'Buddhu, what is the matter? What have you lost?'

Buddhu said, 'I seem to have lost my ring that my great grandmother gave me on her deathbed. It is of great emotional value to me. I must find it.'

'Are you sure you lost it here on the street? Were you wearing it earlier today?'

'No', said Buddhu, 'I haven't worn it for years. It is kept in a box in the house. I just remembered today that I have not seen it for a while. So I am searching.'

'But why search here while you kept it in a box in the house?' they asked him.

'Oh, that is simple. There is no light inside the house. I cannot search in the dark, can I?'

We know we have lost something precious. We have no idea how to find it though we may realize that we have it somewhere. So, we search where we can, fruitlessly. The script may be different, but the theme of our lives is mostly the same.

A pure atheist is difficult to find. To be able to deny God one needs proof as well. One can pretend to be a true scientist and say that it was not God who created the universe but the Big Bang. What then created the Big Bang?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM likes to tell this story.

A group of scientists challenged God to a competition. They said they can do anything God can and do it better. Whatever God created they duplicated and in many cases better. God then took a pile of sand, blew into it and created a life form. One of the scientists rushed to pick up some sand too.

God said: Stop. Don't use my sand. Go create your own sand first!

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that this universe was not created as science or even mythology claims it was. He says that it always existed and will always exist. Mankind may or may not exist but the universe will continue to exist.

Those who say that do not belief that God exists are unable to disprove his existence. All they can do is to ignore Existence. They see themselves separate from an entity called God and distance themselves so remotely that they can no longer recognize themselves as a part of Existence.

The second question is raised by those who accept the existence of God but are in doubt about how to recognize God. To them it is now a question of whether he can be reduced to a form and not.

To those who have experienced God and have become aware of the divinity within themselves this is a meaningless query. Once you experience the divinity within, everything that surrounds you is divine too. There is no separation and there is no boundary that segregates such an individual from other things that exist, whether animate or inanimate. Everything is permeated with and is created by that same energy that one terms as God.

The Hindu religion is derided by many, including many who are Hindus themselves, for its worship of forms. What is not understood is that what Hindus worship is not the form itself but the energy behind that form, through that form. Hindus do not pray, hey stone, hey wood, hey metal, help me, be good to me. They call out to the energy behind that idol or statue as Krishna or Rama fully identifying that material form with the energy that they see within. Those who are ignorant of this underlying faith fail to see both the form and formless.

Please understand this, if you cannot see God in form, you can never see Him in the formless. One can pretend, one can intellectualize, one can create dogmas and philosophies around the formless, but one cannot experience the formless energy without being able to experience the same energy in the form as well. The forced exclusion of God in form can only arise through conditioning that creates violence within us.

All rituals, in any religion, are associated with form in one manner or another. If we can totally relate with the formless there would be no need for any pilgrimages, looking for God in a particular direction, or following prayer guidelines and so on. If we do accept this ultimate energy as formless we should be able to interact with it at energy level. Almost none of us is capable of this at initial levels. We need crutches to hold on to and we need pillars to lean against till we gain a better understanding of the entity we are relating with.

Calling a religion or a practice pagan merely exposes one's ignorance of the underlying principles of that religion or practice or ritual. Going to a church or any place of worship is as pagan as going to temple with idols, unless the motivation is social and not spiritual. Why a place of worship to congregate upon, why not worship where you are as you are? You don't and you cannot, because you are still not in that state of spiritual evolution and you need the support of a congregation. There is nothing wrong with that at all. What is certainly wrong is in believing that my form of worship is the right one and that of others is wrong.

A Hindu temple extends that support of a social congregation to a much broader framework of other sensory inputs that make it easier for any one to relate with their chosen God. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says that In Thiruvannamalai, his birthplace, each day was a festival day at the temple. Each day was a social and spiritual occasion where one automatically came into contact with Existence, instead of once a week as commanded in some cultures.

In Hindu mythology there are references to thirty three million Gods or even three hundred and thirty million Gods. It is possible that this was based on the population in those times and each person chose his own God, or became aware that he was God himself. If modern society can feel fulfilled only with thousands of models of cars or soaps or computers, what is wrong in choosing your own model of God? Our modern culture is material centric and the ancient Hindu civilization was spirituality centric. So, instead of focusing on multiplication of consumer gods, they put their efforts into multiplying spiritual entities. If that is so laughable, how much more laughable is our foolishness in focusing on transient pleasures that are here today and gone tomorrow.

7 layers diagram with you, I and God

In the Nithyananda Spurana Program that THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has designed and taught, he takes us through the seven energy layers that form our mind body system. At the outermost or the grossest layer of Physical energy, each of us, the 'I', stand separate from all others 'You' and the ultimate energy 'God'. As we go through these layers from the gross to the subtlest we reach the final Nirvanic energy layer where these three entities 'I', 'You' and 'God' merge. There is no longer any differentiation, segregation or separation between you and I at this ultimate layer of divine awareness. At this stage of awareness I see myself as God and I see you as God. There is also no differentiation between form and formless. These words do not matter anymore.

Shankara is considered to be the most powerful proponent of the formless representation. Shankara was the ultimate advaita master who preached the doctrine of non duality where God was not seen as separate from man. Any intellectual who has read or heard the devotional poems that Shankara composed would have serious problems reconciling the philosophy of the advaita master to the heart rending dvaita invocations to Devi, Krishna and other Gods. There is no need to reconcile. At the ultimate level there is no advaita or dvaita, there is no separation between jnana and bhakti. These are merely paths that lead to the same destination.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has said often that until enlightenment one cannot understand the meaning of bhakti or devotion. The form and formless are one and the same.

The incident described in this chapter was recounted by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM in a Shiva Sutra discourse in the USA. It was also uploaded as a youtube clip. Not many watching THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM describe this experience can fail to be moved by the depth as well as simplicity of the entire experience. Let me recount the experience in Master's own words.

Let me recount a beautiful incident from my own life. This happened when I was 19 or 20. This was the time when I was wandering as a monk, a parivrajaka sanyasi. I walked the length and breadth of Bharat, not once but several times. This incident happened before my enlightenment.

All the five elements are hidden in Divine. When you have the intense vision to look deeply, all the five elements disappear into the Divine. If you see the Divine in the deity, you cannot see the statue. If you see God, you can't see statue. If you see statue, you cannot see God. You can see only any one thing. Only when you see the idol as God, you will lose yourself. Worship through the idol will start happening. Worship through the idol will start happening when you lose yourself into the Deity. Then you know for sure that the Deity is alive.

I have so many wonderful stories. The moment I remember the power of these idols, the power of experiencing idols as God, I remember so many stories. Of course, this story I would have narrated many times, but it's okay, I love to tell this story. It is such a wonderful story.

I am trying to find the right words to narrate the whole incident because it is such an amazing inspiring incident. Sometime there is a traffic jam in my throat when too many words want to come out. So I tell them, 'Relax, relax.'

I was traveling in Gujarat. I always remember that elderly lady and respect her like how I remembered yesterday about Swami Laxman Joo. I can say that this lady surely lived in the same consciousness as the gopikas in Brindavan or the Krishna's anga devatas, Krishna's Divine companions.

I had the great fortune to meet this lady. I used to go from village to village. I was able to easily walk. Morning I will start, and after all I was a healthy young man, what is there? By evening, about the sunset time, I'll decide where to stay. I'll decide to stay in the nearest village. Then after a few days, if I feel like starting, again I will start. Gujarat is a land of God. I was always told that God is just a local telephone call away in Kerala. In Gujarat he is only an intercom connection away. It is not even a local call that you need to pay for. You are always on the intercom, you just need to pick up the receiver, that is all. It is the land of Divine. Still the spirit of Bharat is alive in Gujarat. I always feel as long as Gujarat is alive, Bharat will be alive. I always bless, I remember Gujarat and bless, always.

Understand, feeding sadhus is such a wonderful thing. That is the spirit of Bharat, the land of Hindus. Even if you feed useless guys and amongst them only one is an enlightened sadhu, it is worthy because that sadhu's good feeling will save the whole place. It'll nourish the whole place. As long as Gujarat is alive the Bharat dharma will never die, it will be alive. It will be kept alive.

I can say for sure that not even once in my wandering days in Gujarat I had any little struggle for any need. I never needed to ask anybody to be taken care. That is the greatness of that Bharat culture. Today we had Maheswara puja here when we fed sadhus. That tradition is alive with respect in Gujarat. You see, there are many other places where they may give food, but they may make that person stand in queue and give as if to a beggar. In Gujarat I have never seen this treatment. Unless they give food to the sadhus, they will not eat. They will not give after they eat. If they have eaten they will cook fresh food and give or they will give the material to cook for himself to eat. Sadhus are never treated as beggars. It is such a wonderful place.

It is actually that culture that still keeps many enlightened Masters again and again happening in this country. Because somebody who wants to do research in the inner science cannot afford to take up a regular job, some one needs to take care of him. You need to give him some time, some energy to do the research and go through all the confusions of ups and downs. See, the worst depression and the peak joy, both of them have happened in me at least few thousand times. Only then the mind breaks, mind unclutches and enters into enlightenment. Understand that the peaks and valleys should happen few thousand times in the system. Only then, the system gets bored of the mind, the nagging mind and divorces it. Till then, no, no, no, I think it's okay, I can manage for few days, only today, maybe because I was having headache. My mind is not cooperating with me.

Only when the system sees the peaks and valleys, it just decides, enough, enough, let's drop. So, he cannot afford to take up any regular job in which he needs to follow a regular routine, like getting up in the morning, attending an office, doing the same things again and again and constantly doing something, and again lying down in the same bed, in the same house, living the same life. He cannot afford to do these. The person who lives a routine life will be very normal. Nothing extraordinary can happen to him. Because his whole consciousness is continuously chiseled, continuously cut just like a bonsai tree whose roots are continuously cut, the person who lives in a regular safe routine, person who lives in a routine will never be able to grow roots or wings.

Understand this: it's a very solid statement that I am making. I know it may be hurting you, but I'm telling you the Truth. A very beautiful Upanishad, Narada Parivrajaka, describes the way of the Paramahamsa, or achieving that Ultimate Experience. If you know your routine when you get up from the bed, if you know and if you have a rough idea of your routine till the night, till you come back to the bed, be very clear that your life will be normal. You lead your life in the same way as growing a bonsai, by cutting your roots like bonsai banyan tree. How the bonsai banyan tree's roots are cut continuously and it can never take roots, in the same way, that person can never expand beyond certain limit. Worst depression and the Ultimate joy both should happen in your system again and again at least few thousand times only then you decide that you have had enough of this mind. When you have played enough with this mind, you decide, now let me relax in a conscious state. You decide very clearly. That happens only at that moment when you relax like that.

Gujarat is the place where they feel and understand that sadhus need to be given their time to do the inner research and development. Once they achieve material success they spend on spiritual activities. It is just like a funding the medical researches. Once the success is achieved, who is going to be benefited? The whole world is going to be benefited. The other day, in CNN there was a discussion as to why medicines are costly in USA and cheap in Canada. It was because USA was spending for research and development. So much money is spent in research, so naturally here they have to recover the money. Naturally, after you do research and development and open it it's useful to the whole world. Same way, Gujarat is the place they fund research and development in the spiritual area, but they never take the money back and instead benefit the whole world.

I can say that monasteries are constantly giving food to sadhus in Gujarat. I went through the statistics. I had stayed in a small village. I was going from Gandhinagar to the Somnath. They were constructing the Akshardham temple then. They were constructing or almost completed construction of the first Bhagavan Swaminarayan's Akshardham. I went and had darshan, then walked, wanting to go to Somnath, one of the jyotirlingas. In between I stopped at one village. One elderly lady, she invited me, 'Baba come and stay in my house.' It was a small hut. She had a cow and small patch of land in front of her hut. She'll grow something for her to eat, some greens, and whatever little bit things needed for cooking. She will sell the cow's milk in the market and with that money she'll bring some food for herself and the cow..

She had a small Krishna idol with her. She was a great Krishna devotee and she'll offer the food to Krishna first and then eat. This is simple life. I can say her whole total property value would have been less. Her daily income would have been at best. That was all her life's worth. But she was living a very quiet and contented life. I stayed with her for about a week. I forgot the days because all I knew was sunrise and sunset, no question of watch, no question of calendar. I did not have any needs. I will know the Amavasya and Purnima, new moon and full moon from seeing the moon. It was wonderful life. It's a life to be lived without remembering even the years.

I stayed with her for a week. Every night she will bring the food and keep it in front of the Krishna idol. Then she will start talking to Krishna. I could neither contain my laughter nor I

could laugh because I would have hurt her feelings and after all she was giving me food and shelter. I had to be little polite, what to do? But she would sit and she would talk as if she was talking to somebody human. She sat by the side of Krishna quite relaxed and with a small fan she fanned that Krishna deity and she would coax him to eat. She would talk to him about so many things in Gujarati. I don't understand the language so well but I can understand a few words because Gujarati has many Sanskrit words. She would go on talking, maybe for half an hour or one hour. Then she too would eat that food, would give me also food and then lie down on jute bags with a brick as a pillow under the head,

I was planning to go to Somnath, which has a big Shiva temple. It used to be the biggest Shiva temple in Bharat, but was destroyed by invaders who did not believe in Hinduism. This invader king belonged to a different religion that does not believe in idol worship or the worshipping through idols. That guy destroyed the temple. That's the big problem. If you don't believe that's okay, but you have no right to destroy something, which is built by people with so much of love and trust. Anyhow, that king destroyed the temple and now they've rebuilt it. As long as the inspiration and the truth is alive, you can't demolish the truth just by demolishing the temples or architectural things.

These temples are in our hearts. Even if it is demolished physically, next day we will build, my disciples will build. So that destruction can't demolish the truth, it can't destroy the truth. The Somnath temple is still there to see. I was planning to walk to the Somnath temple to have darshan. So I told her that I was leaving.

She started crying. She said, 'No, no baba, please don't go.' Baba means father. Sanyasis or Swamis are addressed as fathers even if they are very young. That respect is a tradition. Actually she was my grandmother's age, but she addressed me as father. Age is not a consideration for respect. The intelligence or the life style you lead is respected and this cloth that the swamis wear is respected. She was telling me, 'Baba don't go, don't think I'll ask you to work. I'll give you food everyday. Why do you want to leave me and go? I feel so happy that Krishna himself has come in your form to my house, so please stay.' I said, 'No, I am a sadhu, I have to continue my journey'. Sadhus are not supposed to stay more than three days or four days in any one place.

Traditionally, till the enlightenment state, sadhus should not stay because the attachment might start growing and their continuous sadhana may stop. They may stop doing their spiritual practices. So till enlightenment happens they cannot settle down in one place. I said, 'No, I'll continue. I have to go and have darshan of Somnath and continue my spiritual journey'. She ran to that Krishna and she started telling the idol, "Oh, please tell him not to go. I'm so happy that he was here. Only you can tell him that not to go. He does not listen to me.'

Then within few seconds, a very funny thing happened. She stopped talking and wiped her tears and said to the idol, 'Oh you are telling me that he has to go. He's a sadhu and he has to go. Okay, okay, if you are telling me that is what he must do, then okay then I will not worry, I will not cry and I will not stop him.' She consoled herself as if Krishna was talking with her.

This was too much. All these days, she was talking to Krishna, okay I could put up with that. She was a devotee and she had deep love for Krishna. Whatever she did was her business. After all she was giving me food, and I had to keep quiet. But now she was dragging me into her story. She first complained to Krishna. Now, she says that is ok if I went away. Krishna talking back to her or her acting as if Krishna was talking back to her was too much.

I was a strong intellectual guy. Usually we sanyasis, especially if we are educated in the philosophies, will have a strong ego. We do not respect the householders, married people. Traditionally the philosophical swamis will never respect the householders. We don't bow down to the married people. So that was the attitude, my attitude, 'She is too emotional, let it be.'

When people come to my energy darshan, if they are just overflowing with the devotional feeling will be shedding tears out of joy and gratitude. The intellectual guys who are standing behind them think, 'Oh, how embarrassing, these guys are too emotional.' These guys, the logical or intellectual guys think that the emotional guys are fools. Only to be open, to have the tendency to trust somebody, only for that you need intelligence. To doubt you don't need intelligence. Any fool can doubt, actually only fools doubt.

To blame anything, anybody and everybody you don't need intelligence. Because from childhood you are taught in your school, college, university, everything teaches you, society teaches you to blame people, to reject. Logic means what? It is just analyzing and rejecting, analyzing and rejecting. For that, you don't need much intelligence. You don't need to be alive.

Only to trust, only to feel connected, to open up, to feel the joy, the devotion, you need to be intelligent. I was in the same attitude as these intellectual fools. 'Ok, good devotee, anyhow she gives food for me, that's all. So, why should I interfere unnecessarily in her life style?'

To tell you honestly, I did not have respect for idol worship or the puja or all this ritualistic worship before enlightenment. There was a period I had that respect when I was very young. That was when I was very innocent till the age of ten. After the age of ten I started studying this Vedanta and all such scriptures.

Having the knowledge of Vedanta without the experience of Vedanta is the worst thing that can happen to human being. What I'm telling you is really true. Dry knowledge of Vedanta without the experience of the Vedanta reality gives you the pseudo feeling that you have everything, that you know everything, and that you are the greatest person in the world. You will not have any respect for anybody. You will disrespect not only traditions, but everything and anybody. You will be such an idiot! You will not know that, that is the problem. If you know you are an idiot, at least you can save your face. You will not know but everybody else will know. That is the worst thing that can happen to human beings.

Anyhow, I was in that mood. I had the knowledge but not the experience. Experience had not happened. But the knowledge was there. So naturally the Vedantic knowledge without the experience adds so much of arrogance and intellect to you. I can say that your whole inner space kind of gets corrupted. I am sorry if you're feeling hurt, but I'm telling you exact truth. I

have seen hundreds of monasteries where people sit and study this Vedanta for twenty years. I really feel sorry for them. If they can spend the time in sadhana it will be so much fruitful. Actually half an hour of study and ten hours digesting that study through contemplation or sadhana will be the perfect balance.

That will be the perfect thing. But in some monasteries, studying is very juicy. Understand, you know more and more words. You can play with more and more words and you can show off to others and it brings respect. That's another big problem. Why people respect you don't know, actually they're afraid of listening to you. They say, whatever you say is right please just sit, close your eyes, don't open your mouth, we will do puja to you. We will do whatever you say, we will respect you, worship you, but just do not open your mouth. But this guy thinks he has respect because of his knowledge. What to do?

Having the knowledge without having the experience is the worst state. You will not respect anybody, you will not respect anything, you will be so dry within you and without, inside and outside. In my experience I have discovered that an easy way to find out if someone is a strong Vedanti is that he would have stomach problems. Really. See, logic is like having teeth in the stomach. It will literally eat you. Constantly you will be chewing yourself with these teeth inside your stomach and you will carry constant irritation. Compassion or love is like a lubricating medium in you. Intellect, just intellect is something that is continuously exciting your nerves and creating more and more stress. You will have stomach problems. Expressing your love, even a hug, or just looking at something with love, is like sending with high force a lubricating medium into your nervous system and it just heals.

Even for few seconds look at any one of those deities. We have so many deities in Hinduism. You may feel connected or you may have love for any one deity. Based on your family bringing up or based on some books you may have read, or because some of your prayers got fulfilled you develop belief. You might have prayed to Shiva and your wishes got fulfilled or you might have prayed to Krishna, they got fulfilled or you might have prayed to Ganapati and got your desires fulfilled or you might have, from a very young age, you might have heard about Vishnu more and you may be feeling connected. Any one deity, just sit there for a few minutes, look at that deity with very deep love and you will see your whole system will be lubricated. It's as if amruta, divine nectar, is spreading through your whole system. Sit and read some dry books, strong intellectual books, it's like as if your nerves are being twisted, turned or churned, and stress getting created inside your nerves.

I had sharp intellect and logic, never had respect for devotion. From the age of ten till enlightenment I did not have respect for all these things where heart needs to be used, because all my energy and time was spent in the intellectual exercises. The knowledge quest did not give so much respect for the need to developing the heart.

Anyhow, I heard her talking to Krishna about me going, then her version of Krishna saying that she should let me go. She was saying, 'Oh, it's okay, oh you're telling me that he should go, I should be consoling myself, alright, alright.' That was little too much. I went near her and talked to her in my broken Hindi and Sanskrit. Then I used to use more words. Now I've forgotten many of the Hindi words as I have not used them for long. I told her, 'Mataji, it is ok if you are praying to Krishna, but you are now talking as if He is talking back to you. It's all illusion. You should come out of it.'

That is the way sadhus behave because traditionally sadhus are respected more even if we are young and addressed as Baba. All grihastas, married people, are considered one step lower. They are not respected as much in the Vedantic tradition. I had that same attitude that I'm a sadhu and that I can guide her.

Not only she was talking to Krishna, she herself was providing the answer, 'Oh Krishna, you are saying he should go because he is a sadhu and he should not stay with me. Alright if you say it is ok.' She is talking for herself and talking for Krishna as well. She is talking as if she is listening to the reply from Krishna.

Now I said 'It is too much, this is too much.' I went near her and said, 'Hey, what are you doing? Do you think that he is talking to you?' I told her, 'Ma, what you experience is all an illusion, you should come out of it. You should eat healthy food and stay healthy to come out of all these.'

She was so innocent, she said, "No, No, Baba, I'm not lying, don't you see He's sitting there and talking to me?" She just put her hand out and held my hand.

I promise I saw Krishna there. I can tell you that He was sitting there just as a simple child. . With what intensity you see me now, I promise at least with deeper intensity than that I saw Krishna there. He was there! Just as a small baby as He was described in Bhagavatam, with a small flute in the hand and putting His hand on his face very innocently, with a peacock feather on his unclean hair, with a dirty mouth, all that food was there on the mouth and unkempt and just that that small little baby, He was there!

The shock was from the very root center. Understand, the shock was from the very muladhara chakra, from the root my Being was shaken. See, even if I had the smallest doubt that she was a saintly lady I wouldn't have gone and told her that she should come out of all this illusion and that she should stop doing all this foolishness, and that she should be very healthy. I would have never told her that. She was such a simple, unassuming person, with no external expressions of any saintly or divine expression in her. She was a simple lady, a village lady, maybe seventy or eighty years old. Just by touching me, she gave me initiation.

Please understand that this was initiation. This was not just that she was able to transmit that experience into my system as her experience. It is not that when she held her hand I was convinced that Krishna was there, No! I saw Him! Clearly He was there. The shock was so much that I just fell at her feet. I can remember very clearly my falling at the feet of Kuppammal, my first inspiration and teacher in Thiruvannamalai. Her spiritual name was Swamini Mata Vibhudhananda Puri Devi. With that same reverence and respect that I did earlier with Kuppammal, I fell at this old lady's feet. I just fell at her feet and said, "Never ever call me as Baba, you are my Mata." Because as long as she was holding my hand, Krishna was there, I saw! The moment she took her hand away, the vision disappeared, and I was again same old intellectual.

It was a very deep strong experience. After that experience, I never ever had any doubt or disrespect for idol worship. When I go to somebody's house I will first go to the puja room and do the namaskar. Sometime my own photo also will be there, even then I will not bother. First thing I will do is to show the camphor arti and do namaskar. You do not know in whose house who is staying, in whose house who is residing, you do not know, never take deities for granted. We take deities for granted because they are available for sale. Never ever take deities for granted.

When I fell at her feet she was not able to understand. She said, 'Baba, what are you doing?' Actually she stopped me falling at her feet and she was so respectful. Afterwards I had a chat with her before leaving. She was so innocent, she was thinking that if she is living with Krishna, such a small person like her interacting and having darshan of Divine and living with Krishna, she was thinking that then all sadhus would have had such vision and living a Divine life.

I said to her that it showed her innocence. I knew how many people were meditating for years to have that glimpse of the Lord. And here was this simple lady living with Him from morning till night. She would lock that small hut and go to sell the milk. There was nothing inside the hut to steal, even if some thief had come in he would have left something inside out of love and compassion and go back. There was nothing except two or three bricks for her head and two or three jute bags as mats for lying down. Still she will lock that room carefully and go out. I asked her, 'Why are you locking the hut?' She said, 'What if some dog comes and hurts Krishna, what will I do? What if Krishna slowly crawls out and gets hurt on the road, what will I do?' She had such a deep connection. I could see in her eyes how she saw Krishna, how she looked at Krishna, and the very beautiful vision that she beheld.

Let me be very clear, I understood the power of opening up, the power of trusting from that one incident. That taught me how the power of opening can transform the being. Nothing else can transform you. No learning, no teaching can help as simple trust can.

When the last moments of life come to you, your grammar, your knowledge and your intellect can't do anything. All these plays of the mind won't help. Open yourself, open yourself to Existence. I understood for the first time that knowledge is useless. I had great pride that just by studying, just by reading and having all this knowledge I can achieve something. No, no. I had my initiation through an old lady, a poor old lady. Her whole wealth was not more than one thousand dollars. Her house, cow, clothes, everything if you put together and sell, it would not have fetched more than one thousand dollars. That was her whole worth and that was her property, life and everything.

But the quality of life she was living is something that I can't explain. She was living with God. Understand, she was living with God every moment. I was shocked. I just fell at her feet and did complete namaskar. She was frightened, she never expected a Sadhu touching her feet. I said, 'You are my guru, you are my master, because not only I have not achieved the spiritual truths

which you have achieved, not only have you achieved the all this but you are also able to transmit it to somebody just by a touch'. Just by one touch she was able to give that experience to me. She became a big inspiration source for me.

Anyhow, after few days I left that village and continued my wandering. After enlightenment, I tried my best to trace her or at least get her photograph. She did not have any photograph till her death. She passed away but the small hut was there still. We tried to get that hut and make a temple in memory of her. Then we came to know she had already had donated that small property to a nearby temple. She did not even leave that for her son or daughter or anybody. She died saying that, 'Let this be given to the nearby temple.' It was a small temple, Krishna or some God's temple. So nothing of her was left except that small Krishna deity that she worshipped. That statue is there in the temple.

I cannot imagine how human beings can live on the planet earth just like Gods, with Gods. When I saw her I understood the meaning of the words 'Living with God'. Her whole property, her outer world wealth was one thousand dollars. Sometime people spend that in one day, they spend in one night on one dinner, or if they throw a party, birthday party over. If you throw birthday party for only a thousand dollars I don't think people will come. You may do the last supper. Nothing more than that, just bread and wine, nothing can be done with thousand dollars.

I never miss a chance to tell this story. Unfortunately though I tried my best, I was never able to get her photograph. After enlightenment, after the organization was created, I personally sent people and tried to trace her. I wanted to get her photograph and put in all our temples as the ideal of idol worship, a person who lived with God through the deity worship. I wanted all our Temples to have her photograph so that people will remember how an innocent village lady lived such a divine life of living with God. But unfortunately, we were not able to get her photo because in Hindu villages photography and all that was unknown. It was not even heard of, at least in 10 years ago. Anyhow, at least we can remember her and offer our respects.

Time and again THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has said that it is not necessary for any one to be initiated by an enlightened master to be enlightened oneself. He has said that even if the master is unenlightened, even if what you treat as your inspiration is an idol, a mere piece of metal or stone or wood to an intellectual, you can be enlightened. It is your trust that leads to awareness and enlightenment not the energy of the master.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, arguably one of the greatest enlightened masters of recent times, was inspired by a statue of Mother Kali. To him the statue was a living being. There are many recorded incidents to illustrate the trust that Ramakrishna had in that statue of Mother Kali at Dakshineshwar and how he always treated her as a living entity.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM talks about an incident related to Ramakrishna's deep devotion to Mother Kali in the form of this marble statue.

It is traditional practice in Bengal to offer conch shell bangles to idols, especially Mother Kali. These bangles were then inserted on to the hands of the idol by the priests or in some temples by the devotees themselves. In many of these statues Mother Kali is depicted with four hands. Usually two of these hands are in the benediction and boon giving postures, one hand raised up in blessing and another down showering boons. The third hand usually holds a sword, but this sword can be removed. The fourth hand holds the severed head of a demon, metaphorically representing ego. The hand is usually an integral part of the hand and cannot be taken off.

So, when the bangles are inserted they can only inserted in three of the four hands. If they were to be placed on the fourth the bangles would have to be broken and rejoined.

During the period when Ramakrishna was officiating as an assistant priest at the temple a devotee brought conch bangles as offering and requested Ramakrishna to place them on the idol. When Ramakrishna came out of the garba graha, the location of the idol, she found that bangles had been inserted in all four hands. Shocked, she asked Ramakrishna if he had broken the bangle to put on the hand carrying the head.

Ramakrishna said, 'No, it is not broken.'

The lady insisted, 'How can it be? How did you place it?'

Ramakrishna said innocently, 'I asked Mother to put that demon head down. She did and I inserted the bangle on to her hand. I then asked her to pick it up and she did.'

This incident is recorded as it happened with in the last 150 years. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says when he visited Dakshineshwar and was told this he too did not believe this at first. He was allowed by the priests to go into the garba graha to inspect the idol. He said that he found no evidence that either the bangle or the hand holding the head had been broken, though the bangle far smaller in size than the demon head was very securely on Mother Kali's fourth hand!

Many other religions have reported such incidents. Blood or tears flowing out of idols of Jesus or Mary have been reported several times by hundreds of people. These cannot be stories or figments of people's imagination. Nithyananda says that these are genuine incidents that happen triggered by the devotion of individuals or groups of individuals when these seemingly inanimate objects come to life.

The river Ganga is to the Hindu what the river Nile was to ancient Egyptians. Ganga Mai is still the mother to millions of Indians, life- giving, sustaining them through life and bearing them in death.

The mystique of Ganga to a Hindu is difficult for people of other cultures to understand. Wherever one is from in India, North or South, East or West, Ganga jal, water from river Ganges, is the ultimate symbol of purity and sanctity. It is this water, at least water termed as Ganga jal, which is offered to the dying to see them safely through their uncertain and unknown path to the beyond.

Ganga is not merely a river to the Hindu. She is life, she is energy, and she is the ultimate purifier. Hindus believe that anyone who dies near Ganga and is cremated on her banks, and has one's ashes dissolved in her waters, is guaranteed liberation from the cycle of life and death, which is called samsara.

Mother Ganga begins her descent at Gangotri, at about 11,000 feet height. Her origin as can be seen in the outer world is from a cave in Gomukh, another 2000 feet higher. Ganga gets her name at Uttarkashi which is further blow towards the plains. She turns around here as well as at Varanasi later and flows northwards for a while. Hardwar is where Ganga lands in the plains. This entire region from the point where Ganga rises to the point where she lands in the plains and even beyond till she meets the Ocean is a fertile birth place for hundreds of puranic tales associated with Ganga and Shiva.

Geologically, the Himalayan mountain range that covers 2400 kilometers is considered to be one of the youngest mountain ranges on Earth, resulting by the collision of the tectonic plates of the Indian sub continent with the larger land mass of Eurasia further north. Mythologically, the Himalayas are considered to be the abode of Gods by the Vedic religions. Its name means the Temple of Snow. It is here that Hindus believe that Shiva lives in Mount Kailash. Thousands still trek to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in pilgrimage every year despite its ownership by China and the inhospitable climate and terrain.

Spiritually the Himalayan Mountains have been home to millions of seekers over thousands of years. From personal experience one can say that one is transformed in the presence of these glorious mountains. Nithyananda takes a group of devotees every year to the places that he visited during his parivrajaka, the wandering days. He never wanted to return to the plains he says, never thought he would. Existence decided otherwise,

In one of his trips to the Himalayas, in a beautiful setting in Uttarkashi on a crisp and clear morning as we sat facing the mountains looking at the perennially snow clad Himalayas where the Gods reign, Master spoke to us about how Ganga descended from Shiva and came to Earth.

'Ganga is a river from the higher world. She resides as the primal water energy in the kamandalu, water pot, of Brahma. She is gnana, wisdom. She is the energy of Existence. She is a form of Shakti, Siva's consort. She has got many jatas, many streams of hair flowing down, Mandaakini, Bhaagirathi, Alaknanda. All of them unite with one another in junctions called prayags.

There are five junctions, pancha prayags, Karna prayag, Nanda prayag, Vishnu prayag, Durga prayag, and Deva prayag. In five places, five streams join and all of them land in Hardwar,

which is called Brahmakunda. That's the spot where all these masters sat and energized the waters of Ganga.

Brahma holds 4 objects: kamandalu, water energy in which the child of creation floats; palm leaves representing the Vedas and its male energy or Vidya, knowledge; japamala, garland of prayer beads representing vibration of creation and space and hamsa or swan representing continuous awareness.

King Sagara, of the noble Ikshvaku lineage (an ancestor of Rama, hero of the great Indian epic Ramayana and Vishnu's seventh incarnation), conducted the aswamedha yaga, the great horse ritual, to reinforce his position as the Emperor of the World. Legend says that a royal horse was allowed to roam free and all the land that it traversed would automatically come under the control of the person performing the ritual. If anyone dared to stop the horse in its travels, a war would result to decide who the stronger ruler was. At the end of its travels the horse was worshipped in a fire ritual, called aswamedha yaga.

Before going further into the legend, you must understand who the Devas are. They are minor deities, the good guys, literally bright beings, who occupy the upper celestial world, the deva loka, as different from Asuras, evil doers who occupy the nether world. Sometimes these guys seem to get mixed up in what they should do; devas do naughty things and get cursed by Sages, and some asura kings have been great sages themselves.

The saga continues. In the case of King Sagara's horse, Indra, Lord of the Deva stole the horse to impede the King's sacrifice. However not having the guts to fight Sagara he left the horse in the nether world, near the ashram of the great Sage Kapila.

Sagara's sixty thousand sons went looking for the horse, spoiling for a fight. Finding it near Kapila, they assumed him to be the thief and rushed at him with drawn weapons. Kapila with one cold look reduced all sixty thousand to ashes. Sagara's grandson Amshuman was dispatched to locate the lost horse and his missing uncles. Amshuman found the horse with the rishi, the sage, along with a pile of ashes nearby. Amshuman prayed to Kapila recognizing him as an enlightened Master. Kapila was pleased and released the horse to him, and explained how his uncles turned into a pile of ashes.

Amshuman pleaded with Kapila to restore life to his uncles. Kapila advised Amshuman to bring the holy waters of the divine river Ganga from the heavens, to purify and redeem the souls of his uncles, now reduced to ashes due to their ego and ignorance. Despite their best efforts neither Amshuman nor his son Dilipa could persuade Ganga into descending to Earth. Amshuman's grandson Bhagiratha took it as his life's mission to redeem the souls of his ancestors and prayed hard and long to Ganga to descend.

Bhagiratha went deep into meditation, and after a long time, Brahma appeared before him. Brahma agreed to release Ganga to the earth to cleanse Bhagiratha's forefathers. However, Brahma wanted Bhagiratha to ensure that Mother Earth would be able to sustain the force of Ganga's landing upon Earth. Bhagiratha went into meditation again and this time Shiva

Part 2: Nithyananda Vol 2_English_part_2.md

appeared in front of him. Bhagiratha pleaded with him to protect Mother Earth from the force of Ganga's landing. Shiva agreed. Bhagiratha's went back to meditating upon Brahma.

This time around Brahma told Bhagiratha that the Devas, who had thus long benefited from the divine waters of Ganga as their life source, were not pleased that she is going away, and they needed to be pacified. Bhagiratha promised to provide facilities for the devas to bathe daily in the Ganga. He now prayed to Himavan, King of the mountains, requesting him to be the host to Ganga as she flows into Earth and to provide space for the devas. Himavan was not pleased: 'Ganga, as a consort of Shiva, is my daughter Parvati's competitor. Parvati is Siva's wife and Ganga is Siva's lover. How can I support Ganga?' Bhagiratha prayed to Parvati herself, mother of all beings, to resolve this dilemma.

Parvati said: 'How can Ganga be my competitor? I am She and She is I. Every woman has two aspects; the mother and the beloved. Once a woman realizes both these aspects she is fulfilled. I am the Mother, and Ganga is the Beloved. We are two energies of the same Being. When a man is enlightened he becomes man and woman both in one form, an ardhanariswara. When a woman becomes enlightened, she becomes Mother and Beloved, both in one form. That's why all Gods appear with two wives, not because they are polygamous, but the two forms merge into the energy of one. We complement each other, not compete with each other.'

When you are very deeply in love with your beloved, you would see her as your Mother. Vatsayana, the great sage who wrote Kamasutra, the manual of love, narrated it first to his mother, when he returned home as a young enlightened brahmachari. She refused to believe that he was indeed enlightened, so he asked her to ask him any question on any topic. She then said 'tell me about love of which you know nothing being a celibate.' What he narrated to her as his Mother and Beloved was the treatise for the householder is the timeless classic called Kamasutra.

During Hindu marriages the couple takes seven vows called saptapati. One of the saptapati mantras says: in the eleventh year may I become your child, may you be my mother. The beloved becomes the mother over a period of time. There is no difference between them as they are two aspects of the same female energy.

Himavan was satisfied with his daughter's response and agreed to hold Ganga as she landed upon him on Earth. He allowed Bhagiratha to build seven cities upon the Himalayan mountains to host the devas, so that they could always bathe in Ganga. Bhagiratha now prayed to Kalabhairava, controller of Time, who wanted Ganga to take a pradakshina, a turn about at Varanasi. Having made all arrangements, Bhagiratha now prayed to Brahma to release Ganga. Brahma told him that he had not appeased Vishnu, the third member of the Holy Trinity yet. So Bhagiratha prayed to Vishnu.

Vishnu was pleased and promised to release Ganga from his feet. Whoever has reached Vishnumaya, the Universal Consciousness or Enlightenment, whatever water flows out from under their feet, is Ganga, the divine water energy. This is the truth behind pada puja (worship of feet) that is performed for enlightened Masters.

Bhagiratha now prayed to Ganga, requesting her to descend. She came down with great force upon Shiva's hair. Shiva held her in his matted locks and held her captive. Desperate, Bhagiratha surrendered to Shiva, praying to him for help. Shiva relented and released Ganga by moving one hair of his locks. Ganga stormed into Mother Earth, upon the Himalayan mountains and flowed into the ocean filling Varuna, God of the Seas, who was her son. On her way, she cleansed the ashes of Bhagiratha's forefathers releasing them from their karmas.

Ganga had one more condition before she descended. She had said that the sins of all humans washed onto her should be cleansed so that she always remained pure. Bhagiratha obtained the help of the Tirtharupas, enlightened sages, to keep Ganga pure from the sins washed into her. These enlightened Masters energized Ganga simultaneously at three locations: Gangotri, Hardwar, and Ganga Sagar, so that she forever remained pure and energized. These rishis decided that Ganga was the mechanism to hold this energy, so three big groups of rishis sat and meditated in these three places. They left the body at the same moment and they entered into the river like lightning with the tremendous force of the cosmic energy that they brought down to Planet Earth to energize Ganga. That is the reason why even today scientists are astonished by how Ganga's water is never contaminated.

Ganga purifies all. When enlightened masters enter Ganga they purify Ganga.

In honor of Bhagiratha's efforts, Ganga is called Bhagirathi, daughter of Bhagiratha, and she continues to cleanse all who come in contact with her. Bhagiratha's Herculean effort to bring Ganga to Earth is a metaphorical story of one man's effort towards enlightenment. Bhagiratha's effort is like the struggle that each one of us will need to face in working towards our enlightenment.

Bhagiratha was tortured by his samskaras. In the story of Ganga, these samskara are the sins of Bhagiratha's elders. Bhagiratha meditated upon Brahma. When Brahma finally appeared in front of Bhagiratha with his 4 heads, this experience signified the first spiritual awakening of Bhagiratha. He experienced a satori and was able to see all around him; he had 360-degree vision (this is how the enlightenment experience is often described).

As we move towards the path of enlightenment through meditation we too experience the first glimpse, the satori, in a similar fashion.

Brahma wanted to know how Planet Earth would withstand the force of Ganga's landing. This is the question of how Bhagiratha's body would withstand the energy flow of enlightenment when it happened. Brahma wanted Bhagiratha to be prepared with all his energy centres awakened to absorb the energy input at the time of enlightenment. Bhagiratha prayed to his Guru, Shiva, to help him awaken his chakras and give him the ability to experience enlightenment.

Likewise we all need the help and grace of the Guru to be enlightened and to withstand the experience of enlightenment. This requires complete surrender to the Guru.

Energy, in the form of Ganga, landed on Bhagiratha's Ananda Gandha, (the gateway to cosmic energy) which represents the Himalayan Mountains. Meanwhile, the devas complained to Brahma that they could not survive if they could not bathe in Ganga everyday in their heavenly abode. Bhagiratha built seven heavenly abodes, seven cities, to accommodate the devas so that they could live and bathe in comfort in the Ganga on Planet Earth. These seven deva loka, the heavenly abodes, are our seven chakras, where the devas, the cosmic energy providers reside.

Finally with all this done and taken care of, Ganga landed and dissolved the sins of Bhagiratha's forefathers, his samskaras. Likewise with enlightenment through the Grace of the Guru, upon our unconditional surrender to him, our samskaras dissolve. We are liberated and we get enlightened.

The process of enlightenment frightens us. We cannot dip one toe into this experience and hope to get used to it. We have to jump in without thinking.

Ramakrishna once asked Vivekananda: 'you ask for amrita, nectar. It is like the ocean. How will you drink it?'

Vivekananda: 'like a fly sipping it.'

Ramakrishna: 'you fool, why don't you fall into it?'

Vivekananda: 'I'm afraid I shall drown and die.'

Ramakrishna: 'you fool; you will never die when you fall into amrita!'

Like the perceived conflict between the mother and the beloved, we have other conflicts in life; between life and death; between material and spiritual life. They are like a mountain range separated externally, with no separation below. You need to get a depth of understanding to see that there is no contradiction.

When you are superficial, you see branches in a tree and leaves in a branch. When viewed totally all leaves are the same, all branches are the same, and all trees are the same. There is neither Dvaita (duality) nor advaita (singularity). It's IS-ness. Dvaita advaita vivarjita advaita. IS only IS; all other things can be 'was' or 'will'.

One side of the bridge is Nithyananda, Eternal Bliss. The other side is open to suit your development. The Ananda Spurana program that I conduct is one side, the Nithyananda Spurana Program is another side and Healers Initiation is yet another side. Each opens up into a larger pathway. This Himalayan trip is a highway. These other programs are dirt tracks compared to it.

The peak of gnana, knowledge, is still at the foot of bhakti or devotion. The greatest of rishis, the great sages, came down to see the child Krishna playing at Brindavan, a temple town in Uttar

Pradesh. The gopis did not even acknowledge these great Masters. The rishis asked the Gopis, 'don't you know who we are?' The Gopis replied 'no'. The Rishi said 'we meditate upon Krishna's feet and keep him in our hearts.' The Gopis then said, 'Come with us, we play with him, we don't need to focus on his feet, he is always in our hearts. We shall show you his full form.'

Another small story:

Vishnu had a migraine. The entire Vaikunta, Vishnu's abode, and deva loka were in turmoil. They asked him what they could do to help. Vishnu said: 'get the dust from the feet of my devotee and put it on my head, it'll cure me.' All devas looked at Narada, his greatest known devotee. Narada shied away: 'how can I put the dust of my feet on my Master's head, I shall incur great sins. So say the great rishi, all deities and devas.'

Someone then suggests: 'let's ask the gopis, the girls who play with Krishna.'

Narada went down and told them about Vishnu's headache. They said: 'you have taken all your problems to our Master and given him a headache, now you ask us what to do.'

Narada said: 'he wants the dust of a devotee's feet, but it will cause great sin.'

Said the gopis: 'You fool! How does it matter what sins we incur if we can cure our lord's illness.' One gopi spread out her upper cloth and all the gopis danced upon it to collect all their feet dust and gave it to Narada: 'here, take this, we do not know who is the most sincere devotee amongst us; all our feet dust is here; go, give it to our Master.'

It is said that Vishnu still carries the dust of the gopis on his head. Vishnu's mukuta (crown) is the feet dust of Radha. This mukuta is made of the clay of Brindavan where the gopis danced, not out of gold and jewels.

All invocation mantras start with the feet, feet of devotees. The first entrance step in any temple has the image of two prostrate devotees. Here the feet dust of all devotees is gathered.

In Brindavan no one utters the name of Krishna, they all say radhe, radhe, in honor of his beloved gopi. She is the bridge, she is the energy.

Ramakrishna says the key to enlightenment is on the hip of Devi! Unless she takes out the key, nothing can be done.' That is why all importance is given to Radha, Krishna's beloved and the gopis.

The greatest of all intellectuals, the master of advaita, Shankara says 'Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam mudamathe'. Just by uttering the name 'Govinda' all your sorrows can be destroyed.

There is nobody who is more intellectual, or sharper in wisdom than Shankara. Any philosophy on Planet Earth will either accept him or reject him; they can never go beyond him. He is the ultimate intellectual jewel. He is incomparable. He is the man who created the unabridged dictionary of world philosophies that have ever been created, being created or yet to be created. If you read the Brahmasutra Shankara Bhashya, Shankara's commentary on Vyasa's Brahmasutra, you will understand that no more philosophies can be created. You will feel like an underachiever in comparison. To read the whole Bhashyam, you need 10 lives. He took 10 years to write it.

The above line from Bhaja Govindam means, 'Fool! Chant the name of Govinda 3 times and at the end of your life when Lord Yama comes, you will get enlightened. That is the only way to reach Enlightenment and not by learning tukrunch, the grammar to learn Sanskrit and scriptures.

By intellectually analyzing, you will make any problem only worse. Out of love and bliss, things will be flooded away. When the flood of bliss happens, there will be no peak or valley. Everything will be level. You will not know which a problem is, or which happiness is. Everything will dissolve into Eternal Bliss or Nithyananda.

Ganga is Energy. This Energy can help to guide you to the higher world. Ganga is like a cell phone. You can contact the main relay center or hub through it, like '911' in USA! The hub will take immediate action. Whether the reason is medical need or any burglary or fire alarm, the same number will help.

In the same way, Ganga is the '911' created by the great rishis! The Message comes to Vaikunta, a VIP pass is given, and you reach the higher world. Ganga's energy will send anyone pulling and pushing, struggling for life, upwards, it will pack him and send him up. It is mercy killing in a spiritual way, that's all!'

Someone asked: If all of Gnana, wisdom, is going to take you to bhakti, devotion, why not go straight to bhakti?'

You see, you need to eat 7 idlis (South Indian snack) to know that the eighth idli is enough for you. You cannot eat the eighth idlis first and feel satisfied and happy! In the same way, you need to be intellectually beaten, for you to realize that bhakti is enough. The 7 idlis are gnana and the 8 th idli is bhakti. Of course, there are some 7 idlis cases amongst you here and there and some one idli cases also.'

(This is the eighth idli principle of Nithyananda!)

The moment I feel somebody is close, I will laugh at his or her questions. The public's questions, I will answer politely, though I know they are fools. All questions are a greed for more words. You are freed from the greed for money etc., but, caught with greed for words. 'Brain candy' is the right word. I will be offering brain candy on a big tray in the initial stages. At a certain level, I will laugh at your questions and then the questioner itself! Ask my crewmembers. The more intimate I become with them, the less I will talk about spirituality.

Master Vivekananda, an Enlightened Master was once sitting and smoking a hookah pipe and a disciple was sitting at his feet. A half- baked youngster came by and spoke to Vivekananda. He spoke about modern day views, logic and scientific theories and said that the idea of a bath in the Ganges to cleanse one's sins is all sheer nonsense. He also said that he liked Vivekananda because he was a revolutionary Master. Vivekananda told him: 'Fool! Everyday I meditate upon the gayatri mantra and take a bath in the Ganges. Like a donkey munching paper, you eat a few pages of Western philosophies, you have not even digested it and you think that you know everything. How dare you talk like this?' The boy ran away.

Next, a Pundit (priest) came by and spoke to Vivekananda. He spoke about the Sastras, the sacred texts. Vivekananda asked him how he called himself a pundit. He said that he took a bath in the Ganges everyday and chanted the Gayatri mantra everyday. Vivekananda said, 'If taking bath in the Ganges everyday is enough, then surely the fish in the Ganges are the greatest enlightened souls. We must catch them and start worshipping them!' The pundit got very angry and asked what kind of a Master Vivekananda was and went away.

The disciple who was sitting at Vivekananda's feet was very confused by this time. She asked him to explain and Vivekananda said, 'The teaching will vary according to the person. As for you, just press my feet and keep quiet, that's all!' She said 'OK' and continued pressing His feet.

When the distance between you and me is more, I will give you a lot of brain candy. The people in the inner circle tell me, 'Master, we don't get to do any meditation etc.' I tell them, 'The rest are all reading menu cards, you are eating!'

Every year since 2004 Nithyananda has taken with him a group of people on a Himalayan trip. From less than a hundred in the first year, the group size grew to over four hundred in 2007. During this yatra, the pilgrimage, Nithyananda traveled to many major pilgrimage spots in the Himalayan region, including the char dham, the four recommended holy locations of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. Yamunotri and Gangotri are the sources of the holy rivers Yamuna and Ganga, and Kedarnath and Badrinath are temples to Shiva and Vishnu consecrated by Adi Shankara himself.

In addition to these four major pilgrim locations, the pilgrimage covers Rishikesh where the trip starts and Hardwar where it ends. Both Rishikesh and Hardwar, about 20 miles apart, are at the foothills of the Himalayas and are landing pint for Ganga on to the plains. The incident covered in this chapter occurred in Hardwar where Nithyananda had spent time during his wandering days in the Himalayan region.

Let us present to you in Master's words:

It is a very sweet incident, very wonderful incident. I was sick at that time, not simple fever or cold or something like that. Very serious! All doors opened at a time: diarrhea, vomiting, fever. I never used to have fear that I will die or anything. That time too there was no fear but I had clearly decided that I am going to die.

The will to live is lost. Understand: the will to live is lost. Body is drained to that extent. Body has lost its ability even to move, completely to that extent. I decided I think I am going to die. The will to live or to heal your self is lost.

I was thinking about what Krishna says in the Gita,

ananyaschintayante maamyejana pariupasate

veshaam nithyabhiyuktaanaam yogakshemyam vahaamyaham.

I take care of all the needs and all the comforts of all those who remember Me and reside in Me.

Krishna promises this in Gita. Then I thought that it is not the time to verify Krishna's promise but to check whether I really resided in that way.

See, even at that time of desperation, I did not think, 'Let me check Krishna out. Will He come to take care of me and give me food and medicine.' Instead I thought, 'If I am really residing in Him as He says in Gita, If I am really one with Him, remembering Him, nothing but Him, things will happen as He wants. He will do what he promised. Otherwise, there is some problem in me. Why then should this body be maintained? Let it die. I may take one more body and mind, and at least in that I shall try to do what He said.'

So, it was very strong decision not only not to move the body but also not to ask for any help. And I was lying down under bridge near the Ganges river all alone. Nobody even knew I was lying there.

Two days passed like this. Second day noon, suddenly one young sadhu came to me. It was quite a remote place. Only now it has become part of the town. In those days, more than ten years ago, it was far away from any habitation. There was no possibility for anybody to come there by accident.

This sadhu suddenly appeared, young sadhu, and he had brought food in a plate and water in a small tumbler. I ate. He had also brought some medicines. Again that evening he came. Over the next few days he brought me two meals each day along with some medicines. I do not remember the name of the medicine. He would say, 'Hey! Eat this food and take this medicine.' And I did what he asked me to. That's all. The medicine looked like a tablet, whether it was ayurvedic or allopathic, I don't know.

Anyhow, he will bring food, water and medicine. By the second day, I became a little curious. Young sadhu, he is speaking in English and I don't know Hindi much. He speaks in English. For no reason at all he was so compassionate and loving and bringing me food and medicine.

One thing about him attracted my attention. He had a pen with studded with very valuable diamonds. This pen was in his shirt pocket. Though I say diamond, they may have been some other costly stones. They were sparkling and looked very expensive. Usually most sadhus will not carry a pen because most of them do not read or write. Even if they did they will not carry a pen so costly. They won't spend so much money on the pen.

Though I saw the pen and I was curious I didn't ask him anything. Everyday, may be for some four five days, till I became alright he came regularly, twice a day, morning and evening bringing food and medicine. He would spend some time with me talking few words to give me courage to live, the will to live or whatever you may call it.

It was very sweet relationship, very nice feeling. I started thinking, may be I lived like Krishna said. That is why I have been taken care. Suddenly out of nowhere, food and medicine came. I was taken care.

I became alright after a few days. The sadhu stopped coming. After one week, I got little energy to go around as usual. I am the type of the guy will never sit in one place. In Tamil there is a proverb that if you pour hot water on your leg, you can't put your leg in one place. You will be jumping continuously. I am that type of guy. I am restless.

Then I started moving around. I was curious to go and see this young sadhu who came and gave me food everyday. I had asked him about who he was, his name, his address and where he lived when he used to come and give me food. He named a particular ashram nearby and told me that he was from that ashram. As for his name, he said he was called Shankar Maharaj.

The plate in which he brought food for me had that ashram's name engraved on it. In India, this is a custom. In the plates and tumblers they will write the ashram name. All the plates will be engraved. Even in our Bidadi ashram, you will see Dhyanapeetam name engraved in all the vessels and plates because people don't steal and take it away. The engraving will be done as security.

So because the plate also had the name engraved, I believed what he said. I thought let me go and thank him. So slowly I walked to the ashram. When I found that place, there was only an old sadhu sitting there. There was a small temple and this old sadhu sitting on the bank of Ganges.

I asked that sadhu whether I could meet Shankar Maharaj. He was sitting and rolling his prayer beads. He looked up and said, 'No, There is no one here with the name of Shankar Maharaj.'

I said, 'No, no, a young sadhu came to me few days ago from this ashram. He gave me food. I want to see that Swami.'

'No, there is nobody here. Go to some other ashram and look.'

I insisted, 'No, no, he gave this ashram address only. He gave me food also. That plate, this ashram address and name only was engraved on the plate.'

Then he lifted the head. 'What was his age?' He was completely irritated because I was disturbing his prayers. He was not doing his japa with closed eyes. He was sitting and looking this side and that side. Old guy! He does not know English also. That is another one problem.

I said 'Around 30 or 35.' He got very irritated.

He shouted, 'In this whole ashram I am the only sadhu. Don't you see my age?'

I did not let go, 'No, no, no, he said his name is Shankar Maharaj. He was from here.'

Angrily he shouted, 'We have only one Shankar Maharaj here. That is he there. If you want go see him and leave.'

I looked at what he pointed. It was the small temple. Inside was this white marble idol of Shiva. I went near the idol and I saw that the idol had the same pen that Shankar Maharaj was wearing. There was a shawl that had been wrapped around the idol and this pen was clipped to that shawl.

I was shocked, completely shocked. No Shiva idol will have pen, especially a diamond pen. I went closer and I saw the same plate in which he gave me food placed in front of him. I could not have made a mistake. These were the same pen and the same plate that Shankar Maharaj carried. The food on the plate, the offering, the prasad, was also the same food that he sued to bring me.

Whatever you may understand, that I don't know! It is up to you. But I know for sure, it's the same plate and same pen and same dishes.

I promise I am speaking the truth. I promise that I am saying the fact. It happened. That's all I can say. I can't say anything else. Whatever you think as I respect in my life, I can promise upon that. I am stating the fact as it happened.

Then I went to that sadhu, touched his feet and I asked him, 'Where is that pen from? Who gave it? Did somebody give two pens? Or has some other sadhu got one more pen like that?'

He said, 'No, some devotee brought it and placed it at the feet of the idol. I put it on the Shiva statue because I didn't know how else to use it. The pen was looking very attractive and I thought it looked good if Shankar Maharaj wore it.'

You see, any glittering stone, they will use it for decorating the deity. I asked, 'Why did you put the pen on Shiva?'

'No, no. Not for the pen, that stone was shining. So I put it on Shiva to look good.'

I asked, 'Who gave that pen? Did they bring two?'

He got irritated by then. 'Don't bother me any more. I don't know all that. If you want, take it and go. That devotee gave only one pen. I put it on Shankar Maharaj because it was shining. Why are you sitting here and disturbing me? Go.'

I asked, 'do you have another plate like that?'

'No, this is a small ashram. We are part of a bigger ashram. They gave only one plate for us. How many do you think we will we have?'

You see, it was an old plate. It used to have that dents. The same dents. Same plate!

And I enquired him. I asked him, 'did anybody take this plate from here?' 'Will I allow? I lock the door properly and I sit here and take care.'

Then I asked that sadhu, 'Are you sure that nobody has taken this plate and this tumbler away from this place?'

He said, 'nobody can touch this plate and tumbler except Shankar Maharaj. It is only for him. It is only for Shankar Maharaj. Every morning and evening we give him food and then we lock the door leaving the food there.'

I said, 'that is what I want to confirm, thank you' and I left.

After that casually I asked that sadhu, 'Even now do you do offer the food and go away locking the door.'

He said, 'No, this last one week rats have been coming and eating the food. The food had disappeared. So I stopped closing the door and going away. I sit here and do japa till the naivedya is over. I stay for about half an hour for the food offering ceremony, naivedya, and when it is over I take the plate and go'.

I know which rat ate the food. Poor man, it was his food. After the ritual offering he ate this food and for those few days he must have suffered.

I know it is very difficult for ordinary people to believe this. Very difficult! See because you guys experienced me a little bit and at least you guys have got that trust that this guy won't tell a lie. I have no reason to sell anything. See I have nothing to gain by selling that Shankar Maharaj to you. You understand! It is not even our temple, some ashram temple. I have nothing to gain by promoting him, by promoting that Shankar Maharaj.

All I know is this happened. Fact! That's all. So now we know

Ananyaschintayante maamyejana pariupasate

Veshaam nithyabhiyuktaanaam yogakshemyam vahaamyaham.

I take care when people reside in me, remembering me, nothing but me. I take care of their needs and comforts.

He is still fulfilling his promises. Understand, there are some contracts, some promises that are outdated after three years legally in some countries, some will be outdated after ten years in some other countries. This is the contract that can never be outdated, which will never be outdated. It is an eternal promise.

Last year we traced that temple. I think in Nithyananda volume 1, if you see that photograph will be there. The photograph of that Shankar Maharaj will be there, means Shiva, will be there. I am making exact replica of this idol for Los Angeles.

Some one asks: Is the pen still there?

No, now the pen is not there. The pen was there only at that time. Now, last year when we went, that pen was not there. You see! Pen and all the offerings, they will throw them away after a few days because it is not a big thing for them, you see. It was a great thing in my life but for that sadhu, it was not a big thing. I never told him about that incident. He thought rats ate his food. He may have been upset if he knew that I was the rat who ate the food.

He still walks on planet earth. Still he walks on the planet. Still he walks on the road without footwear if some devotee is sick. He was not even wearing a chappal (footwear). Still he walks on the road if the devotee is sick.

When I saw the same pen, the shock was so much that tears were rolling down my cheeks and he was just sitting and smiling, saying as if, 'you understand who gave you food'. Small shrine, we will go and see tomorrow.

We will go and see tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning we will go for a walk and see where I was lying down. Because I was having continuous diarrhea, I slept near the Ganges itself. How many times to go to wash? It becomes a big difficulty. I was not even able to move. So I slept on a concrete bench and kept a small Shiva Linga near me. I thought if I die, I will leave my body near Shiva Linga. That Shiva Linga is still there. Somebody has now installed it. I had it like a small stone kept standing. I did not install with cement and all those things. Now somebody has installed it properly. You can see it when we visit.

We read in stories and puranas that God comes and gives food, and He comes to takes care and all those things. This time not only he came and gave food, he left strong evidences because it has to be told to the world. It has to be told the world for inspiration. So he created enough material for marketing also. He created clear evidence, strong proof to tell the whole world.

It was such a strong experience, not just the food. It gave so much of inspiration and courage again. Just imagine, when something like this happens in your life, how much more of courage and confidence on this Vedic tradition happens. That is why I tell I have no right to claim any ownership or credit for my enlightenment. All these incidents happened again and again to provide the courage and inspiration for others to continue the path. These were pure gifts of grace. I have no right to claim any credit.

That is why I say I just place it at the feet of these great masters. It is they who did it. You can say, once more they did it. That's all!

Otherwise, as an individual I can't claim right over whatever happened to me. As an individual, I can't even claim right over this whole organization. How can a 29 year old person do all this? You know my Indian background. I was born and brought up in a village only, a mountain village, practically a small tribal village, which was not even a town. Only now it has become a town. Hardly three buses will come into town everyday, that kind of a small village. Suddenly I am sitting on the throne. Whoever sees me, they just obey and they follow me like a pied piper. Like in that story where the piper goes and all the people follow. Like that, this guy goes, the whole crowd follows. Things are happening. This fellow is not even aware what all is going on. I can't claim any right over any of this.

I am sitting and telling you this publicly. I cannot claim any right over this whole mission. May be you are sitting there and playing your daily game and I am sitting here and playing the this great cosmic game. Alright!

I think I don't feel like telling you anything else. Now whatever can be said has been said. Not only all your inner spaces but my inner space is also filled with Shankar Maharaj. So everything else seems to be too pale, too shallow. These foolish questions, later on, we can see. Alright!

Actually these questions will all disappear if you have at least one glimpse like this in such a solid way that shakes your whole being. Then no questions will be left.

You see, you being hollow, is the plan for miracles. Whenever a low pressure or a depression happens, the cyclone comes there. Am I right? The heavy cyclone or a tornado happens there. Same way, a hollow empty space you create in your heart or the pure space, suddenly a big cyclone of cosmic consciousness lands on you.

Have you seen a tornado? See, when a tornado brings small things, small pieces of broken things from here and there, they come with great force. A straw caught in a tornado can act like an arrow because of the speed.

Same way, when the cosmic tornado happens, small events caught in the tornado become miracles. They are the miracles you see in the day to day life. So creating a hollow space, empty space is the plan for miracles, in the life.

So tomorrow morning we will see the place where I was lying down and we will the Shankar Maharaj. We will have Maheswara Puja. I always thought of doing Maheswara Puja here, giving food for sadhus. Because He gave food for me, I always thought I should give food to sadhus here. Tomorrow we will have Maheswara Puja at that spot.

We have all our swamis here. Hardwar is the place to give Maheswara Puja. That is the way we will give food for Shankar Maharaj, Mahadeva, Shiva. They say if you perform Maheswara Puja, Mahadeva himself will come in the form of a sadhu, will sit, eat and go. Now we know he came not only to eat, he came even to give food in the form of sadhu. He came and gave food. So we will do Maheswara Puja.

In the Bidadi ashram also we will do Maheswara Puja. I sent them a message already. Tomorrow we will have offerings for Shankar Maharaj there too and do arti. He gave me food in an old plate! Copper plate, still I remember and a tumbler. That's what I was wondering. This fellow is having diamond pen and having an old plate. He did not even have a good plate. Now we know he brought what he had.

See when these things can happen in my life, it can happen in your life also. Let me tell you very clearly. I know many of you guys are thinking, 'no, no, Swamiji is qualified. That is why it happened. In our life, it won't happen.' Nothing like that!

See, the only qualification I had I can say is I did not have this inferiority. That's all. I neither felt inferior nor superior and I know is he made a statement 5000 years ago and he did not say this contract expires after 200 years. So naturally the contract is still alive. So we know for sure he will fulfill his contract. That's all.

So understand, never ever think that it won't happen in your life or you are some way inferior. And one more thing! Let me tell you very boldly. I had all the problems that you have. When I say all, I mean ALL, all problems that you have. So never ever think that I am some way special. That is why it was given to me.

The gifts are not given seeing the qualification. If it is given based on qualification, it is a bargain, business. It is not gift. Gifts happen only just out of compassion. Just be ready, be prepared for miracles. Don't plan your life too much. Just be simple. You will see so many miracles happening in your life. Living in a simple way is the plan for miracles.

There is a beautiful stanza, verse by Ramana Maharishi. He blesses Shiva. Ramana Maharishi blesses Shiva. May you save people, fools like me and live for ever, I bless you.

So if He can bless me, why not you guys? Surely, he can. He will. It does not happen by seeing qualification. He is asudosha. Asudosha means one who is easily pleased. It does not take much to please him. Asudosha! Pleased for no reason. He does not look for anything but receptivity. Even receptivity word I don't want to use. Even receptivity, you will start giving your own meaning. It does not take anything. Simply, it starts happening. He blesses.

He has to show to you all guys because he has to prove my words are true. Unless he shows in your life, how can he justify my words? Now, I am claiming that all this has happened. Now it is His responsibility. Now you have right to demand proof. Just by qualification, you sat and heard what I spoke. You have the right to ask for the proof. Now he is responsible to prove. He has to prove. Otherwise my words become useless. Otherwise my words have no base.

If I have spoken the truth, if it has happened what I said, then he has to show that in you guys also. He has to prove it to you all also. He has to prove. He has to give at least at glimpse. He has to give at least the water that washed that plate or at least little bit from that plate. You will see he gives, someway. Someway, he has to play in all your lives also. The divine consciousness has to land, has to descend. Some experience or some glimpse of enlightenment, or glimpse of darshan, someway he has to give.

Alright, I bless you all that He will give. If what I said is true, if what I have spoken is the truth, if it has happened to this body I promise He will do it to all of you. He has to do it to all of you. He has to give at least one glimpse. Only then the words that are uttered by this mouth are justified. It is now His responsibility.

See His energy gave me this experience, and it gave me the inspiration to express it. First He gave the experience to this body, then He has given the inspiration to express it to the people. Now it is His responsibility to prove and give this same experience to all the people who are waiting and asking for it.

Ramana Maharishi asks Shiva, it's a very strong word but it's ok I need to tell you. He says aarakkaganai aandanai agarttidi akhilam baritidum arunachala. Literal translation is, now in that joy and ecstasy I am going around telling everybody and if you don't go and show that same thing to them, will the world not blame you.

So now, same thing I have to ask him. You gave this experience and you gave the same thing. I am going all over the world telling people that all these things happened. Now if you don't show the glimpse to them, will they not blame you?

I have the right also to ask Him because He already got involved with me. And now I know the insider secret. Understand with this authority, I am the living proof of what I am speaking or I am the living descendent of this great Himalayan Masters' tradition or these enlightened beings. So with this authority I promise that whatever I have spoken is the true experience given by them. If it is truth, if it is fact, they who did the whole thing, if it not a foolish or a nonsensical thing, if it is authentic truth, if it has all come out from the very source of that truth, very satya, I promise you all will have a glimpse.

For many it is either disbelief that such an experience can occur at all or for those of us who believe in what the master says the feeling that it can happen to him but how can it happen to us. Despite all that he says about needing any qualification except faith, our conditioning in such matters is so strong that the conscious mind cannot overcome the logical barrier of doubt.

During the Himalayan trip of 2005 Nithyananda spoke to us about this incident. We were walking along the Ganges away from the ashram w were staying the night. In the morning he had taken us to a bridge across the Ganges from where he told us to cast away the sacred yagnopaveda thread that he had placed on us at Rishikesh when we started the journey. Its job in protecting us was accomplished now that we were back in the plains at Hardwar. We then started walking with what we thought was with no clear purpose. After a kilometer Nithyananda told us that we had come the wrong way. He said he was looking for the bridge under which he spent the few days when he met Shankar Maharaj. We then turned back. On the way back he told us about the incident in detail.

A year later in June 2006 we again came back to Hardwar. This time early in the morning Nithyananda gathered all the Nithya pilgrims and told us that he would take us to some of the locations that had a special memory for him. Those of us who had been with him the year before knew of the background but we still had no idea where the locations were. After a distance of about a kilometer and a half, Nithyananda told a few of us to go down the steps that we saw at a distance to see if there was a Shiva Linga and a bench below. When we went down the steps we found small tunnel way under the roof of which was a cement bench. The tunnel led to the Ganga river and on our left was a tiny Shiva temple with a linga. We rushed back and excited told him this. The entire group went down with Nithyananda to the river bank where he told us about how he had spent a few days on this very bench many years earlier terribly ill and how Shankar Maharaj nursed him back to health.

The next stop was the ashram where the Shankar Maharaj temple was. Nithyananda did not remember where it was except that it was on the banks of the Ganga and that it was a small temple with a white marble statue of Shiva in a sitting posture. He had a recollection that it was near Gita Bhavan, a well known landmark in Hardwar. All of us walked to Gita Bhavan another kilometer and half away. By then it was time for lunch and the kitchen crew had followed us in their van and had brought us lunch. While the group had their lunch a few of us enquired at the Gita Bhavan whether there was an ashram and a Shiva temple around. One of the senior monks laughed and said that every alternate building there was an ashram and each had a Shiva temple! We then asked him where the river bank was. He said it was behind their building and we could reach the river through their rear gate.

Nithyananda was excited at hearing this and started off with a half a dozen of us. We walked out through the rear gate while the rest of the group was told to stay in Gita Bhavan. A little distance further he saw a large building, a large ashram and walked in. When we asked one of the residents told us that there was a Shiva temple at the back. Very excited two of us ran to the temple. It wasn't quite what Nithyananda had described. By this time Nithyananda arrived there and said this was not the place. We scoured the entire area and finally located the priest of that temple and asked him whether there was another Shiva temple in that area. He led us inside the ashram through a narrow path to the river bank. Almost on the banks of the river facing the river was a small shrine with a white marble Shiva statue. On either side of the shrine were a few rooms.

After all the disappointment so far we didn't quite believe that what we found was what we were looking for. When we went back to Nithyananda who was still a distance away and told him, he came down with us excitedly and when he saw the shrine rushed to it saying, 'This is the place. This is Shankar Maharaj.' We brought the rest of the group to this temple and as we sat with the master he recounted many more details of what happened. The Shiva statue was exactly like what Swami had described even to the details of a shawl around him. But there was no pen! There was no diamond studded pen on the shawl!

We talked to the priest who brought us to the shrine and with him to some of the older ashramite monks. They had no recollection of the pen. When we told them Swami's experience they were excited. One of them said that something similar had happened once earlier when Shankar Maharaj had given darshan to another person. In all subsequent Himalayan Yatras visit to Shankar Maharaj has been part of the itinerary.

For those of us who had been with the Master a few years, this incident was a flash back in time, a déjà vu. This was not the only time Shiva came to visit Nithyananda.

A few days later on the 28th of January 2005, Siva walked in to Bidadi ashram. Nithyananda said:

It was early morning, about half past five. I had come out and was standing on the threshold of my room with one hand on the door lintel. I saw some one walking past close to the verandah in front of me. Since normally no one comes into this area. I was surprised and shouted out in Tamil, Who is it? The person turned, and I recognized him as Shiva. For a moment I was confused. As an enlightened person I cannot see visions as normal people do. If I saw Shiva, He must be real. The only way to check this out was to see if His feet touched the ground. In a vision the feet do not touch the ground.

I rushed out, fell at His feet and grasped the left one with my right hand; with the tips of my fingers resting on His sandal and the base of my hand touching the soil. It was real. His feet were touching ground. I looked at His other foot. I could see the grass being crushed under His feet by his footwear.

I looked up. Shiva was smiling at me, obviously amused at what I was doing to check out if He was real. I sprang back to look at Him. I had nothing to say. He continued to smile at me for a few seconds, then turned and walked way. Suddenly He disappeared from my sight.

Five other people glimpsed or felt Shiva that morning. Two Salem disciples had stepped out of their rooms inside the ashram and saw a form moving past them. One of them drew a picture based on what he saw which matched Swami's description. Three Bangalore lady disciples were on their way to the Banyan Tree when they felt someone brushing past them.

Swami's description of Shiva was vivid. In a video in which he talked to ashramites on his experience on the same day Nithyananda said: 'Shiva was very much like what we see in His pictures, except that He did not have a cobra around his neck. He was golden in color, dazzling, with long hair. He had a short garment wrapped around His waist and hip that came above His knees and had a tiger skin wrapped over it. He was wearing wooden sandals. He had many rudraksha necklaces on His neck. He had a hunter's horn tucked in His waistband, carried a small drum on one hand and a trident on the other. His trident was a lot smarter than mine; I noted the design and will get one made similar to that!'

A day after this incident Nithyananda went into samadhi for a whole day. He says that this was the first time that he recovered consciousness without external help from out of a samadhi. When he came out of samadhi that evening he asked the ashramites and others who had come to hear him on Shiva Sutra, just to sit in front of him at the Ananda Nilayam and meditate. Most of them went into deep meditation that lasted for several hours.

The place where Nithyananda saw Shiva in front of his room is now marked with a few stones so that people do not walk over this spot. That is the only spot in an otherwise rocky area where since that day grass has grown. Other than that there is nothing to indicate that Siva walked at the Bidadi ashram. Nithyananda says that the Banyan tree is the abode of Shiva in the form of Banashankara, the consort of Banshankari, who is the guardian mother of the city of Bangalore.

In the early days of Bidadi ashram, even till 2005, Swami had forbidden us to enter the Banyan tree area after dusk. There was no Anadeshwara temple in that area then. There was just the Dakshinamurthy shrine in the open. There were a few occasions when Swami had started with a group in the night saying, 'Let's walk to the banyan tree', had stopped at the guest room block and turned back. Once when I asked him why we were turning back he said, 'He will be walking around there now. I do not want to disturb Him.'

During a Teachers' Training Program when I was responsible for coordination, I stopped by a session where a young lady was conducting an Ananda Spurana Program under the banyan tree in the late evening. The Dukha Harana meditation session was going on with its powerful Shiva Tandava music. After telling the lady to wind up quickly as it was getting dark, I remarked while leaving, 'I can feel Shiva's presence here.' I was at the nearby old Ananda Sabha watching the arti when one of the ashramites came up to me after ten minutes saying that I was needed by Swami. I rushed to the other end of the ashram where Swami's cottage was.

He was sitting outside on the swing and asked, 'Now, what have you done?' as I looked up at him not quite understanding what the question was about, he said, 'that girl said you told her Shiva was present and then she saw Shiva just after you left. She was terrified. Have I not told you that no body should stay in that area after dark?'

I stammered, 'Yes, swami. I had told her to wind up. I wish I had stayed a few minutes more. I too would have seen Shiva.'

For the next ten minutes I was lectured on my ignorance about such matters!

There have been incidents when during arti to Dakshinamurthy in the old days several people had seen Dakshinamurthy smiling and even winking at them! Once when we asked swami about this, he said, 'Yes, these things are real. It depends on your devotion and innocence.'

Innocence is the key. Uncorrupted by the logic of our minds, if we can accept as a child would that the deity is a living being, the deity does become alive for us. Even to hard core intellectual garbage handlers like myself. Some years later I enrolled for a puja acharya course in LA during a Mission Training program. I had never been a great one for rituals but I wanted to master the Guru Puja that was de rigueur for all acharyas. During this training period a Kumbh Mela festival came up and all trainee puja acharyas were given the responsibility to dress up the idols I the LA ashram. My model was Ganesa!

I had seen the way Swami used to decorate and dress the idols. The sheer joy and love that he exuded used to overwhelm us, just watching him making us feel joyful. The attention to detail that eh paid was extraordinary. So, we wanted to make no mistakes. There were two of us working with Ganesa. For the first time in my life I understood the meaning of devotion. Ganesa was no idol as I dressed him. Even securing a pin to hold the folds of the dress was an exercise tremendous affection with the feeling that if the pin slipped it would hurt him. We took a few hours time and again adjusting the clothes and ornaments that we put on him with deep affection and care. After that incident a puja was no longer a ritual. It was a relationship.

Nithyananda has said that unless one experiences death one can never experience life fully. The shadow of death is so overwhelming and our fear of death is so primal that we do not die once, we die many time fearing that we may die.

In the Mahabharata there are many stories woven around the concept of death. During their stay in the forests, the Pandava Princes reach a lake at the end of a hard day and camp there. One by one the brothers go to the lake to drink water. They are stopped by a voice that claims to be the guardian of the lake. Answer me before you drink, the voice says, or you die. Disregarding the disembodied voice, one by one the princes drink the water and fall down dead. Finally the eldest, Yudhishtra, approaches the lake, having waited for his brothers to return. He finds them all sprawled around the banks of the lake dead. As he picks up his sword to face the enemy, the voice calls out warning him. Answer me first or you will die like your brothers. Yudhishtra agrees to answer the questions.

Of the questions, the most profound is this.

'What is the strangest thing that you experience around you' asks the voice.

Responds Yudhishtra, 'I see people around me dying every day and they see others dying around them every day. Yet, no one believes that he or she is going to ever die. This is the strangest thing I experience.'

All great masters have used death as a teaching aid. A woman unable to bear the death of her young child came to Buddha seeking his intervention in restoring life to the child. Knowing that whatever he said would offer no consolation to her, Buddha agreed to revive the child provided she could get for him a handful of rice from any household that had never experienced death. The distraught woman suddenly gained hope and went from house to house.

The story says that when she couldn't find a single household that had not experienced death, wisdom dawned on her and she became a disciple of Buddha.

This is great story from Mahabharata that Nithyananda often recounts. In his words:

There was a king called Yayati who lived for a hundred years. Then Yama, lord of death, came to claim him. Yayati says, 'No, no, no what is this? I am a king. I have so much to do. I have such a big kingdom and hundred years is too little. Please leave me. I cannot come now. I have not lived this whole life'.

Yama says, 'What? Leave you where? I have never heard this statement, I never even allow people to talk this much. Pack up. This is totally new for me and there is no petition in my case. Straightaway I come and take people, that is all. If you don't come, I'll take you, that's all. Nothing else. In my language I don't understand all these words'.

Yayati says, 'No, no, no please consider, do one favor, do one small favor.' Yayati tries to convince. I think that day Yama was in a good mood. He said, 'All right, you are begging so much but at least someone of your sons should give their life for your sake'.

Yayati calls one of his sons. Son says, 'Yes, yes, I'll give my life I have no problem, let my father live'. Son gives his life to Yayati. Yama extends Yayati's life by another hundred years. Next time when Yama came, again this guy started, 'No, no, no please do something. You said you'll come after hundred years but you came so quickly. I don't think hundred years are over. Something is wrong with your calendar. Why don't you check once more?'

Yama said, 'Nothing is wrong with my calendar. Something is seriously wrong with your mind. Nothing can be done'. Somehow Yayati rolls on the ground, weeps and prays to Yama. It's very rare case. I've never heard Yama giving discount or Yama obliging anybody. Again second time he accepted, 'All right, I'll take another son if he is willing o give up his life and let you live hundred more years. Last extension, but be very clear. You can't ask for extension anymore. Done, nothing more'.

When Yama comes a third time, again this king Yayati wants extension. Yama says, no, this is too much, now nothing can be done. Then Yama gives some teachings to him, beautiful teachings. He says you cannot put the fire out by pouring oil into it. You cannot feel fulfilled by offering sense pleasures to the senses.

You cannot feel that you are ready if you never lived intensely. Living intensely is not about fulfilling your senses, pouring pleasures into your senses, or living as you wanted. This is not living intensely. When you live intensely, automatically you will be liberated. I always tell our ashramites do mistakes with creativity. Do some new, new mistakes. Don't do the same old mistakes. Even to do new mistakes you don't have intelligence.

Therefore, it is not today that people have become afraid of death. From time immemorial this has been the case. Even our mythology is full of tales and metaphors on the fear of death. Simultaneously there have been techniques developed by our inner scientists on overcoming death. The best of these techniques focus on removing the fear by facing the fear squarely. They taught how to experience death to overcome the fear of death

Many masters have used the technique of experiencing death consciously as a tool for enlightenment. The understanding that all that death takes away is the perishable mind body and that the spirit lives on is the deepest spiritual experience one can have. Krishna says in the Gita to Arjuna that the immortal spirit moves from one body to another in the same way as we change one dress for another. The realization that death is a mere passage and not an end by itself allows one to relax in life and enjoy the journey.

All mystical traditions on the planet earth used this technique, including Christianity and Sufism. In many catholic monasteries and nunneries they use this technique. Every day they would lie down inside an open coffin before sleeping, for two hours. They would lie down and meditate that they are dead. In Sufism they dig a pit and lie down in that and meditate. In Buddhism too they use this technique to purify one's karmas. In Vedanta the death meditation is the most used technique in preparation for enlightenment.

Kato Upanishad describes this technique wonderfully*.* Everybody before taking sanyas has to go through this technique. In Buddhism, before being initiated into sanyas, one has to do is sit in the graveyard for three months and watch dead bodies being burnt and visualize that one is also being burnt. If one has that much courage one can go and sit in a graveyard and see dead bodies being burnt. Unfortunately in the west one can't see it, it's all electrical. In India one can see, it is open burning, natural process. They will arrange the wood, place the body on it and burn.

Nithyananda describes the death experience of Ramana Maharishi in his own words:

The great master Ramana Maharishi became enlightened through this technique. With just this single technique of death experience he became enlightened. When he was sixteen, spontaneously this happened to him. Actually he must have been practicing this in the past lives. Otherwise such a big experience cannot happen spontaneously. Spontaneously, you cannot have enlightenment. Even if you have, you must have tried earlier itself. I don't think such an ultimate experience can suddenly happen without any reason. There is no coincidence in the existence. It is purely your intensity.

When he was sixteen Ramana was in Madurai, near his native place in Tamilnadu. His birthplace is called Thiruchuzhi. Suddenly one day he felt that he was going to die. A strong fear of death arose in him. You also feel this fear sometimes when you hear about some near or dear one's death or when you hear some friend has died or when you see an accident or when you come across some news about death. You also have that fear. But we are so well versed or trained to suppress our emotions and control ourselves that we never allow this fear to come out. We are such hypocrites that we don't even know that we are cheating ourselves. Many times we can see the fear rise in us but we are on automatic mechanism to stop it. By now you know how to balance yourself or suppress yourself. You suppress yourself and just forget about it or try to do something. You just turn the attention elsewhere.

Be very clear, all TV, newspaper, doing this, doing that and everything is directly related to your hypocrisy. You just do not want to sit with your self. I've seen many people doing something in the name of social service, just because they can't sit with themselves. They can't sit with themselves so they do something. Be very clear, even if you do social service, going to some temple, going to some social service organization, doing some social service because you are not able to sit with yourself, you will never be able to experience the truth.

Going to a temple or church or doing some social service should be based on the overflowing of your love for others. You feel so much love, you feel there is nothing more to be done for yourself and think, 'I have so much of time, let me do some service to society', then it is beautiful. Then it will lead you to enlightenment. The service itself can lead you to spiritual experience. You feel love overflowing and think, 'God has given me so much, this whole life is so beautiful and let me go to a temple or church and offer my gratitude' then it'll just liberate you. You will become enlightened.

But if you are going to temple or for social service just because you don't feel relaxed within yourself, because you can't sit quietly and because of so much of restlessness, it is of no value. You need to deal with your catharsis in some way and this is the way.

This type of attitude, these kinds of persons, even if they go to temples, they will be sitting there and ranting against everybody. Hey don't do this, don't do that, what are you doing? Don't you know? God wants this and God wants that. They will start representing God. They will start, not even representing, they will start acting like God. These type of persons, even if they go to social service organizations, even if they do some service, they will be only putting their ego in front, they will only be torturing, they will not be serving, they will be torturing others. I've seen people doing so much of nonsense in the name of service.

There was a schoolteacher, who is a scoutmaster also. He has made a rule that all his students, all scout students, should come and give him a report. At least one good activity or one service they should have done that day. Every day as soon as they come to school, they should report to the scoutmaster about one good activity or one service done by them.

One day three friends, all three of them got up and said, 'Sir, today we helped an old lady cross the road'. Scoutmaster said, 'Old lady crossing the road is O.K., but you don't need three persons. Why do you need three persons to help her cross the road?' They said, 'Yes sir it really took three persons, because she didn't want to!'

Be very clear, many times you start doing things just for the sake of service, not feeling. You don't feel what you are doing. You don't feel the need of the other person. You have to fill your diary, you need to fill your timesheet. You need to fill your time and you need to show your project report to somebody. Maybe to the higher authorities or to the society that, see what I've done, just for that when you do it just for that, you create more mess and difficulty for others. You sow only more difficulty and more mess for others.

I always feel service should be overflowing out of your being; never it should be done for some other purpose. Whenever it is done for some other purpose, be very clear you will not be intense, you will not be growing in your being. Your love or service will be pure hypocrisy. I can say impure hypocrisy, not pure hypocrisy. With anything pure you will be liberated. This is impure hypocrisy.

When Ramana Maharishi felt he was dying, he did not run here and there. He did not ask for water. He didn't say, 'Oh, call the doctor, call 911'. First of all in India there is no 911. There is some number that never works and nobody knows that number also. Really I'm not able to remember because we never call, it never works. At the most in India we know only one number, which is oh God. Only then something can happen, it can happen that's all, nothing else can be done. Anyhow no 911, no water, no doctor, no emergency service, he was not even trying to save himself inside the house, trying to do something. See no possibility of 911 that we know. At least he could have tried to get little water or he could have shouted because his relatives were there in the house.

He did not do anything. He used that door of opportunity to take the jump. We are also again and again going near this door. Whenever you hear about somebody's death or whenever fear attacks, you also go near the door. But we are afraid to take the jump. And we have trained ourselves so much to be hypocrites or not to be intense. We somehow balance and we escape. We switch on the TV, we just move our attention towards something else.

Ramana Maharishi used that door to take a quantum jump into deathlessness. He just laid himself on the floor and did not move his body, allowed death to happen. He says beautifully, about his experience.

'Suddenly for no reason I felt the deep fear that I am going to die. I was not sick. I was not having any mental problem. Physically, mentally I was healthy. But suddenly the thought came that I am going to die. I just co-operated with that fear. I did not try to jump. I did not try to run away, I did not bother about anything else. I did not feel like doing anything else. I just sat and allowed. I just sat and allowed the death to happen to my being'.

He says, 'I lay down and I decided, let me see what happens, what can be done. I just accepted, consciously started moving into that fear. That fear overtook me. The fear started working on me. I could see that I am dead. My body is not moving, nothing is happening in me. I could see very clearly that I am out of the body. Suddenly like a flash the intelligence or the truth descended on me, my body is dead, but I am alive. I am not dead. My body is dead, but I could see, I could feel that I still exist. It means I am something beyond body'.

That single experience in that moment, experience of the truth, shook me completely and I realized I am not just body. I am something beyond body. After that never I had death fear or any fear. Once for all the fear has disappeared from my being. The moment I understood that even after my body dying there is something in me that is not dying. Why should I then bother about my body's death? Why should I bother about the death of my body? Even if my body dies, I shall continue to exist. I am going to exist, I am alive. What is happening? Then I am something more than what I think. I am something more than this body. I saw very clearly I was dying, step by step slowly the body died. Suddenly I remembered, yes, only the body is dead I am alive, I exist still, I am there'.

He says in the experience he saw very clearly, as if his body being carried, burnt, reduced to ashes, every thing happened in few seconds, but suddenly something opened, clicked. Yes, body has disappeared, I died, it is burnt and everything is over but, I exist. This was such a strong experience.

Ramana Maharishi says, 'once for all the death fear left me and the experience that I exist stayed for ever'. Understand: in half an hour you can become enlightened. That is what Ramana Maharishi is saying by expressing this. It is very difficult for a logical, ordinary mind to understand as to how just one simple experience can give so much of clarity and courage, and how such an experience can transform one's whole life. After the experience happened, within few days he left the house all alone, traveled and came and settled in Arunachala. After that he never left Arunachala. May be Ramana Maharishi would have practiced this technique in many births before that birth. Whatever he practiced, that experience just automatically opened up and pulled him inside and gave him the truth.

He says that this realization never left him. He says that he never moved away from this realization after that one experience. Just that one death experience had liberated one of the greatest masters India has ever produced into enlightenment. His influence, especially in the recent days, is so much on every political and social leader of India. I can say the great spiritual way that we are all expressing now wouldn't have happened but for him. It is the wave happening through the great ocean called Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi. Almost all the modern day mystics, enlightened masters, social leaders, politicians have drawn their inspirations from him, as waves in an ocean called Ramana Maharishi.

This single technique has created an enlightened being or gifted a great enlightened being to planet earth. Of course, it happened spontaneously to him because he was practicing for a long time, over many births. You don't expect it will happen spontaneously to you. Even if it happens, you will not allow that fear to take you over. Now only you need to practice, you must practice. Just lie down in the house as dead, do not move the body and be very clear that you are dead. Immediately all kinds of fears will arise. No, no, no, just half hour, let me finish some urgent work and come back or can I just sign my will and come back, Swamiji? Our mind will not be ready. Your mind will never be ready. Even if you have lived three hundred years your mind will not be ready.

In many of our Life Bliss Programs before we guide people through meditations that help remove fears of death, we have a discussion on whether people are afraid to die and why. While many do accept that they are not ready to die even if they do not confess to being afraid, there are some who vehemently reject being afraid of death in any way. We question such people further. They would admit that though they may not feel any fear in dying, they are afraid of dying painfully or in suffering. They are not afraid if death occurs suddenly, in sleep as it were, and snatches them away. Unfortunately no one can guarantee how we shall die. In whichever form death takes you over, whether as a massive heart attack that occurs in the night or as a creping cancer or as a bullet in the head, all these cause pain and suffering. Whether one is consciously experiencing these at that stage is a moot point.

Nithyananda says in his Nithyananda Spurana Program that death is painful, very painful. It is like a sword cutting the body across its length. It is so painful that the body mind lapses into an unconscious comatose state as a result. There is no such thing as a painless death unless one has consciously rejected the fear of death beforehand. It is only when one internalizes the truth that we still live after death that the fear and pain of death can disappear. This is possible.

When Nithyananda was in Varanasi during his parivrajaka he had a powerful experience of his own death.

Let me describe exactly what happened with me, when I had experience with this technique. I always used to think that I should have experience of death and face death directly, face to face. But some how that thought never became a priority. Any thought has to become a priority, it should not be in the corner of your mind, only then experience can happen. Usually in our list we have washing, cleaning, paying the rent and phone bill, if time permits enlightenment also, if time permits meditation also. Things will not work this way. Only when things become top priority, only when urge becomes urgent things starts transforming. Otherwise it is ok, let us get on with our lives, but nothing much can be done.

One small story, one guy goes to the doctor and says, 'Doctor I tried to commit suicide by taking 1000 aspirins'. Doctor asked, 'what happened?' The guy said, 'After taking two I felt better and I stopped'.

Only when it is in top priority experience can be achieved. The death experience was not in my top priority. Somehow it was getting postponed till I went to Varanasi. Varanasi is the holy city for Hindus. It has a huge floating population of pilgrims. Nearly 300,000 people per day enter and go out and every day 300 dead bodies are burnt in one place. This burning place is called Manikarnika Ghat. It is traditionally believed that if somebody dies or somebody's body is burnt in that area their spirit will be liberated and they will have direct enlightenment.

Not only it is traditional belief, Ramakrishna confirms it from his own experience. He says, 'I saw very clearly Mahadeva himself going to every fire and blessing the spirit, unclutching it from the body mind and liberating it'. So you can't say it's a mythological belief, it's a solid experience of an enlightened master.

I had the fortune of going to the Manikarnika Ghat. Traditionally it is not only believed, but it is true that, for last 2000 years the fire in that Ghat has never been put off. Whether it rains or shines or floods or what ever it is, the fire to light the funeral pyres burns constantly. People will not bring fire when they come to the Manikarnika Ghat with the dead body. From the fire that is continuously burning in one point in that Ghat, the fire will be taken to light the funeral pyre. It's an unbroken fire, means day and night bodies will be getting supplied. I saw sometimes two, three bodies burnt at a time, because so many dead bodies are coming. I don't know from where people are dying so much, because if you sit for half an hour, you can see over a hundred bodies coming, especially in the evenings. From all around the place from wherever whoever dies, they will start walking, carrying the dead body from their place. They will be chanting the mantra, 'Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai', which means that the only truth is God's name. By evening they will reach the Manikarnika Ghat. Every day an average of 300 dead bodies is burnt, only in the evenings 200 bodies will be brought there.

Whatever is rendered, I cannot describe the experience verbally, you have to see what happens there to have the experience. To tell you honestly the fear of death just disappeared. You see so many bodies and you feel, 'I am also going to go one day like this only, it is ok'. You feel that so many people are giving company. It's like one more trip, you don't feel lonely about death. If you see one body being burnt rarely once in a while you will have that fear, but there what you see is unimaginable. No ritual or anything, they will bring the body, straightaway they will dip the body in Ganga three times chanting, 'Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai', this means Rama's name is the ultimate and eternal truth. They will bring the body out from the water, by which time fire will be ready and the wood will be arranged for the pyre.

Actually they will be continuously arranging the wood even if the bodies are not coming; I asked them, 'why you are arranging continuously?' They told me, 'You don't know Swamiji, in half an hour 200 bodies will come'. Their accounts are correct, they know for sure. The bodies come, they arrange, and they give tokens based on the entry. One funny thing, no relatives stay there and do any ritual. They dip the body in Ganga and then throw the body on the wooden pyre and go away, that's all. The people who maintain the Ghat take care of the rest. They don't know how long it will take for the body that was brought to be put in the fire. It's like a queue system, continuously going on.

All I did was to decide, 'Let me sit here and see what goes on', and I sat. In just an hour, death was no more a strange incident that happens once in a while for some relative or friend. It became like, 'Ok, next, that's all. Next, that's all'. All sizes, all genders, all ages, all kinds, all colors, all communities, and all religions also come here. One nice thing in India, the power of our Indian spirituality is that even though few fanatic leaders are trying to create a split with the Muslims and Christians, the common people don't care. I have seen many Muslims and Christians who are initiated disciples in our own ashram, not only initiated but swamis, monks. Here they don't bother about Muslim or Christian bodies, because Indian blood itself seeks truth. That is really surprising.

When continuously you see the dead bodies being burnt, you actually lose respect for death. Now you have too much of respect, too many fearful ideas about death. It is nothing but that the breath that went inside did not come out, that's all. Nothing much can be done about it. You cannot rewind it or fast-forward it. When I was seeing this process continuously, initially whatever little fear that was there disappeared and slowly it became interesting. I went near the guys managing the process and started helping them. Then I started thinking, 'After all, this body is also going to become like this'. When you remember that death is going to happen to you, the respect that you carry for your ego will come down. Ego is what makes you think that you should not leave body mind. When you know for sure that everything is going to leave you, then the respect for ego just drastically drops. I am a kind of a too sharply intellectual, honest guy, so straight away the respect for ego dropped.

Then I decided, 'After all I am going to die. Let me have the death experience now itself and live without the death fear. Either that or let me die. That's all. But I have to experience death'.

There is a small Shiva temple around the corner and a small tower above the temple, I went and sat in that tower so that nobody will disturb me. If you see the first volume of the biography, you will see the photograph of the place where I had my first death experience. I sat there. From there I started seeing the dead bodies being burnt. Still I remember the strong click that happened in me when one elderly lady's body was being burnt. She had a big belly, the cloth was burning and the fat that was in the belly started burning and melting and flowing. I apologize for describing too vividly. I could see clearly, because of the fat flowing the fire was burning intensely. That gave a very strong click into me and said, 'God. Yes, it is the same way it's going to burn when I die and the same thing is going to happen to this body also. Let it happen'.

That click, that realization opened up a deep fear of death in me. When that fear spread all over my body, I faced it consciously. I could experience very clearly the fear spreading all over the body and when the fear met my awareness, when it hit my awareness that became death experience.

Whenever your fear is suppressed it stays inside you as a suppressed fear. Whenever it comes out and you are not consciously facing it, it becomes a fear stroke. The fear stroke shakes your whole nervous system and breaks it down. If it is faced consciously it becomes death experience. If you just try to escape and run away from the death fear when it occurs, it becomes death. When you face it consciously it becomes death experience. Death fear plus subconscious is suppression, death fear plus unconscious is nervous breakdown, and death fear plus conscious is death experience.

Let me give you this clear equation. Death fear plus subconscious is suppression, perversion. Fear of death plus unconscious means that you neither suppress the fear nor face it. You are shaken, frightened and what results is fear stroke, nervous breakdown. Death fear plus conscious awareness is death experience.

I was able to see very clearly that when I faced the fear that rose in me consciously with awareness, it became death experience. The body is dead, it's not moving. For two and a half days I stayed up in that temple upstairs without food, or water, or thoughts or questions. No doubt my body was still there. Only after the experience I realized that two and a half days had passed. I could see with closed eyes that my body was dead and there was no movement.

Suddenly after two and a half days the click happened, 'God! Body is dead but I still exist. I am still here'. That clarity, when it clicked became such an intense ecstasy. The fear of death left me once for all. It becomes such a deep ecstasy, such a joy, such bliss, and I slowly opened my eyes and I was able to move the body. The first thing I felt was such a deep ecstasy and gratitude. I went down to the Ganga, sprinkled little Ganga water on me, and filled some Ganga water in the water pot and, and collected a little ash from the pyre. I went to the Viswanath temple, put that ash on the Shiva Linga and did the puja with deep gratitude.

I saw that Lord Viswanath was alive. Understand, because I died Viswanath became alive. Till the day before, because I was alive Viswanath was still a dead stone. I always felt, to touch this stone 300,000 people are coming everyday from all the way, what foolishness? It is a strange thing, but when you touch the deity by yourself you start losing respect. In South India you can't touch but in North India you can touch the idols yourself. I always felt it was a stone, because I was alive. But when I died, I saw clearly that he is alive.

Only one can be alive, either Him or you. When you see the truth He will become alive, you will not be alive anymore as you think. The fear of death left me once for all. I can say this is one of the strongest experiences that transformed me leading me towards my enlightenment.

Nithyananda has incorporated the technique of death experience in all his Life Bliss Programs in one form or another. In the first level program called Ananda Spurana Program earlier, it is used to eliminate fear. Fear of death is the fear of loss of identity and when one loses that fear through an experience of visualizing the loss of identity, all fears dissolve.

At the second level Life Bliss Program called Nithyananda Spurana Program. The entire program is a journey through death. This program was created based on Nithyananda's own experience with death. The experience that Nithyananda had in watching two people dying in front of him and the huge difference that he experienced while watching these two people die enabled the Master to design a process that now helps millions. It is a process that not only takes away the fear of death once and for all, but also allows one to glimpse the ultimate truth of the imperishable energy within. This glimpse, this one glimpse, Nithyananda promises will rise high above all the clutter of one's past memories during the ultimate death process reinforcing the truth of the undying energy within. Many who have attended the Nithyananda Spurana Program with the Master have experienced their hairs stand on edge as he says: I promise you this. I promise you that what I take you through in this program is the ultimate truth. You will have a glimpse of the ultimate truth of your being during one of the meditations. That glimpse will ensure that you never need to be reborn. If for whatever reason you wish to be reborn, you will be reborn in the manner you wish. This is my promise to you.'

No one, but no one, who has listened to him say this and completed the program with him can ever be the same person again. The transformation is so intense that one is truly reborn. It is a journey through death that teaches one how to live one's life.

The two death experiences that helped Nithyananda design the process in his own words:

It was around 1999, I was in Varanasi, Kasi. I had the great opportunity to take care of an elderly sanyasi, a very old sanyasi, who was suffering from cancer. He was in the hospital in the ICU. He was a great sanyasi, but not an enlightened person, a great tapasvi, practitioner of meditations, yoga and rituals as penances. Everyday I used to bring food for him and take care of his needs and stay in the hospital.

One day, the person in a nearby bed was slowly dying. Doctors were standing around him, they were trying their best, but they were not able to do anything. Even though I was not enlightened at that time, I had had own death experience, a deeply spiritual and liberating experience.

Because of that, I was able to see what was happening to this dying person.

Slowly, the patient started suffering and struggling. First, he started suffering tremendous pain in the body. His face started showing the pain. Next, he became breathless. He started inhaling and exhaling with difficulty. I was able to see very clearly the pain and the agony, the suffering he underwent. It was like one thousand scorpions biting him. It was as if one thousand scorpions biting him at a time tearing up his whole consciousness. If we cut our finger half an inch with a blade, how much of pain do we experience? How much of pain do we suffer? This was like the six-foot body being cut into pieces. I was able to experience the pain, the agony, the feeling that he was undergoing. Of course, slowly, slowly, slowly, he started moving away from the physical body.

Even though it is a little difficult to receive logically, even though it is little difficult to understand intellectually, this is what happened. It is like a formula: X x 2 = 4. To understand the formula, to understand how to solve it, first we assume different values for X. We assume that X = 2. Let us replace 2 in the place of X. Then we understand: 2 x 2 is 4. Once the answer is right, now we know X is 2. Till the calculation is done, we have to have a little patience. But when I say, let us assume X = 2, immediately if we start raising the question, 'No, why not 3? Why not 1? Why not 4?' we will not be able to proceed. Just see the result. When the formula is working out, naturally we will know that X = 2.

Even if we understand it as a hypothesis, that is enough. At the end of the calculation we will be able to understand how this whole thing happens.

I was able to see and experience the tremendous pain and agony of that being. It was an excruciating and deep suffering. The being started moving away from the physical body to the pranic layer, which is the second layer energy body. Pranic layer is our breathing energy.

We have seven energy bodies and all these seven bodies are seven energies, energy layers of our being. When the being started moving towards the pranic layer, again there was deep suffering! Our pranic body is filled with all our desires. Our breathing and our desires are very closely related. If we change our breathing, our desires can be changed. If we change our desires our breathing pattern can change. Our desires and breathing are very closely related. When the energy was moving into the pranic layer all the desires of the being started coming up. The being started suffering with all the unfulfilled desires.

Then when the being started moving towards the next level body, all the guilt started rising- 'Oh! I should have lived in that way, I should have lived in this way.' Anyhow, slowly, the being moved layer by layer and died. I saw the whole death process. How the death is happening, the whole process I was able to see. But I was not able to help, of course. I was not an enlightened man at that time. I was not able to help. Just I saw the suffering. But, the pain created in me, just seeing the suffering itself was too much.

I started feeling the pain; if we see an accident on the road, what will happen? Will we be able to eat for the next two days? No! We will not be able to eat for the next two days. It was the same. It

was almost the same. In an accident we see only one body, the physical body. Somehow I was able to see all the 7 layers, all the 7 bodies. What will happen to the suffering? It was so deeply engraved. It was recorded in my being so deeply. I was not able to eat or sleep for the next 3-4 days. It was a deep suffering. Anyhow, after a few days, I left Varanasi and went away. After about a year I continued with tapas and became enlightened. Then I came to the South. After that, maybe 2 years ago, again, I had the opportunity to see another death.

I saw the second death in another ICU, an Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Chennai. This second person did not suffer when he passed away. I started analyzing, 'Why did the first person suffer and why did the second person not suffer?' After analyzing or meditating on that issue, something came up. It occurred to me as a formula. That whole formula itself is this whole program of NSP.

I saw the first death in Varanasi and that was so painful. There is no other word to explain it. It was so painful even to see, I was not able to digest the scene for the next 3-4 days. When I saw the second death I was enlightened. I saw the life slowly moving out from that person.

I went to the hospital to heal one of our devotees. At the ICU I was healing our devotee. Again the next bed person was dying. I was able to see what was happening.

This time I saw that the person neither had pain nor he had suffering. Beautifully he was moving from the first body to the second layer, second layer to third layer, third layer to fourth layer. Like how a ball rolls in the snow, just like that his being was moving. I was surprised. Suddenly his being slowly moved out and just disappeared. He became enlightened. He was liberated.

I started thinking, 'Why did the first person suffer so much while the second person did not have anything?' I enquired with his relatives, 'Was he a spiritual person?' First I thought that he must be a great spiritual person. He must have meditated a lot. But the relatives said, 'Meditation? What meditation? He would not even go to the temple. He was not even religious.' Then I started contemplating, 'Why did the first person suffer so much while the second person had such a beautiful and peaceful death?'

There is an educative website on near-death experiences. An American doctor did research on this subject. He started meeting people who had near death experiences. Near death means those who are clinically declared dead and who come back to life after a few hours. There are so many such cases. In our Indian villages there will always be 4-5 cases. If we go to our native village, always we will hear 3-4 cases like this.

The other day a doctor was telling me, 'There are so many cases who are medically declared dead, who come back to life after 4-5 hours.' In some person's life, it happens 3-4 times; they come back to life. This doctor somehow got interested in this subject and he started going all over the world meeting these types of persons, who are medically declared dead and who came back to life. He met 10,000 people. He went all over the world and for 30 years he did research.

He met 10,000 people and collected all their memories, all their experiences of how they had their death experience.

After analyzing all their experiences, he makes a conclusion. He makes a statement, a beautiful statement. People on the planet earth, only when they live they are Christians, they are Muslims, they are Hindus, they are Jews, they are Buddhists. But when they die, all of them die in the way that is described by Hinduism. We maybe a Hindu, Muslim, Jew or Christian, but when we die we are a Vedanti.

In the Katopanishad, there is a clear description of death. What he found in all these 10,000 people's experiences that he collected matches exactly with what Katopanishad describes.

Let us see exactly how death happens. First we move from the physical body. You may be thinking, 'I came to learn how to live but Master is teaching all about death!' But unless we understand the mysteries of death, we will not have a clear idea about life. Our concept about death totally changes our concept about life. Our philosophy about life changes when our philosophy about death changes.

See, in the East, nobody cares about time. Things will happen in their own way, things take their own sweet time. Why? That is because all eastern religions believe in many births. We have eternity in our hands! If not today, let it be tomorrow. If it is not coming today, tomorrow, otherwise, next janma, the next life!

All western religions say there is only one birth, one lifetime. They say, after death, we don't have any birth. That is why western people are so time conscious. Whatever has to be enjoyed has to be enjoyed in these 70-80 years. Nothing else can be done. We have to finish whatever it is. That is why their life style, everything is catered around this time consciousness.

The idea of death changes the whole idea of life. So, never think learning about death is a waste. That is the basic lesson everyone has to learn. First a person moves from the physical layer, this body that we are having, to the pranic layer, which involves inhaling and exhaling, the energy or the air movement, the prana movement inside our system.

When we move from first layer to second layer, all our desires, the desires, the unfulfilled desires, the way we wanted to live but did not live, all those things usually come up. It is almost like in a room 10 persons are standing and all the 10 people are kicking a football. What will happen? How the football is kicked from this corner to that corner, that corner to that corner and back from that corner to here. Same way, our consciousness is kicked from all the corners. It moves from all the corners because in each corner some desire is standing and kicking. All our desires are forcing us to enter into the body so that we can enjoy them.

Our desires will be forcing us one side to enter into the body so that we can live and enjoy. The other side, the body will say 'No! I am tired. I can't host you anymore; leave!' One side, the body will tell, 'I am tired; I can't host you.' The other side, the pranic layer, the desires, will force us to live inside the body. That is what is the pulling and pushing. Pulling and pushing is nothing but the fight between the desires and the body.

And somehow if we move from the pranic layer slowly, next we enter into the mental body. In the mental body, another one problem is that all the guilt rises. All the guilt is about the way in that we wanted to live, but we never lived.

See, desire is about the future, guilt is about the past. But both are one and the same. Same thing, when it is about the past it is guilt, when it is about the future it is desire. The way in which we want to live is desire, the way in which we wanted to live but didn't is guilt. I always tell, guilt is nothing but reviewing our past decisions with updated intelligence.

Our intelligence is continuously updated. With this updated intelligence, we review our past decisions. For example, at the age of 7, your mother comes and calls you to eat. She says, 'Enough! Stop playing. Come and eat.' What do you say, 'No, I don't want to eat; I want to play.' If your mother comes and tries to snatch the toys away, what do you do? You not only cry, but also curse your mother. Now you know that the toys are not as important as your mother. Your mother is more important. Now your intelligence is totally different. At that time, toys were so much more important to you than your mother. You started cursing your mother.

Now you know, mother is much more important. With this updated intelligence, we create guilt, 'Oh! At that time I cursed my mother'. What is the use? At that time we had only that much of intelligence. All our decisions are made with the available intelligence.

If we start reviewing our past decisions with updated intelligence, we will always create guilt. All the guilt is nothing but trying to review past decisions with updated intelligence. All the guilt rises in the mental body. Then if we move a little away, a little deeper, we reach the etheric layer that is related to all our sufferings. Like this, each and every layer has got its own samskara.

Actually, traveling through these layers only is called as hell. Really, there is no other place called separately as hell. Hell or heaven are not geographical, they are psychological. Please be very clear, hell and heaven are not geographical. They are psychological.

One more thing, when we enter into the dream layer, if we start dreaming, this whole world will become black and white. We forget this whole world and the dream becomes multi-color. If we come out of the dream, this whole world is seen in 4 dimensions, like 4D.

Now, when we are in this physical layer, this whole world is seen as 4D. We experience this world as 4D, in multi-color. When we are in the dream world, we experience that as 4D. When we are here, dream becomes black and white, and this becomes 4D. When we are there, dream becomes 4D and this world becomes black and white.

In the same manner when we move away from this physical layer to the pranic layer, this whole world will become black and white. What did we work for? What all did we think as the base for our life? You see, we invest in our personality. We build our personality based on a few pillars.

There are a few pillars, foundations, on which we build our personality such as money, name and fame, relationships and pride that I have a big community support. These are the few pillars on which we create our personality.

If someone asks you, 'Who you are?' What will you say? 'I am an engineer', 'I am a doctor', 'I am a lawyer'. Or you will say, 'I am the owner of 4 houses'. Or 'I am such and such a person's husband or wife', or I am her husband, or somebody's son, somebody's daughter, somebody's wife. All these things, all these ideas that are the foundations we build our personality upon.

When we move from the physical body, all these foundations will be completely shaken. We can't sign in our check any more. Our signature is not accepted. Our bank balance is no more related to us. We can't handle our bank balance. And our car will not be useful to us. At the most only the ambulance will be useful. Our house will not be useful to us. We can't even relate with our relatives, we can't talk to them. If we try, they will run away. Whatever had been the foundation for our being, that whole foundation would be shaken. When the foundation is shaken, naturally we don't have anything to hold on to.

Understand this one thing, if we suddenly hear some loss in our business, we will feel that our whole body is suffering. The suffering will not be in one portion, the whole body will be suffering. It is almost like our being is crushed. We can see in our life, if we just sit in our office and worry about something, we don't have to do any work, just sit and worry and we will have shoulder pain. If we just sit and worry for 10 minutes, what will happen? We will only have shoulder pain.

When something moves away from us, our whole body suffers. When we move from the physical body, the same suffering starts happening. Whatever we thought as a foundation for our life is shaken.

As of now, this whole world will appear in 4D. All this spirituality, meditation, growing the inner being, consciousness and all these issues will appear black and white. That is why, when I call people for meditation, they tell me, 'I don't have time to meditate.' Never say 'I don't have time to meditate.' Be very clear to yourself and say, 'I don't feel that it is that much important.' If we say, 'I don't think meditation is so important' then we are honest. But never say 'I don't have time.' Everybody has got the same 24 hours. It is not that the few who are meditating are jobless. It is just a question of priority, what we want in our life.

As of now, this world will appear in 4 dimensions, in multi-color. That is the reason all this spirituality or the consciousness, spiritual experience, all these will appear in two colors. But, when we move away from the physical body, whatever we thought as 4D everything will totally disappear, because their foundations would have been shaken. That time, we will not have any base. Or we will not have any space, where we can rest. That is the reason why death is always about suffering. At that moment of death or before, if we can have a conscious glimpse truth, or awareness of consciousness, we can consciously enter into death.

If we understand this completely, whatever we think as 4D will not seem as important. Our

personality will not be built on this 4D. While we are still living we need to create at least one foundation or pillar in the other dimension of spirituality. See, now we are in two dimensions, this material world and the other is that of spirituality.

As on now, if our being has got 10 pillars, all the 10 pillars are based on this world and this 4D. Not a single pillar is based on consciousness or the inner space. Our whole personality is built only based on the outer space - our name, our fame, what society speaks about us.

Our complete personality is structured based only on what society speaks about us. If everybody around us says that we are great, what do we think? We think, 'I am a great person.' If everybody says, 'You are useless', what do we start doing? We start getting depressed.

Not even a single pillar of our building is based on spirituality. Our entire identity is based on outer space. Everything important to us is based on our wealth, our name and fame, our social setup, our relationships, our family, our friends. That is the reason why we start suffering terribly when those pillars are shaken. If we have even only one pillar in the consciousness, we will not have suffering.

That is what the Gita says: what comes and stands in our mind at the time of leaving the body decides what we shall be in our next birth. If we have even only one pillar on the consciousness, naturally, we will not have the suffering when we leave the body. All the other nine pillars will become black and white. Even if the other nine pillars become black and white, this one pillar of consciousness will be there to guide us. That one pillar will be there in the multi color and 4D.

As of now, that pillar does not exist. As of now, our whole personality is based on outer space. All our pillars are in this 4D. There is no inner space. That is why people can kick us around like a ball. If any body just throws one word at us, that's all, we are depressed. If somebody says we are mad, we shout at them and prove that we are mad! A single word is enough to make us mad. Nothing much is necessary. We see the street dogs, if we throw one stone at the dog, it is enough to disturb that dog.

We are in no way better than street dogs. Any body throwing one word on us is enough. We are already out because our whole personality is built on the outer space. In the inner space we don't have strength. One more thing, as of now the inner space looks black and white. That is why we never give importance. But when we move from the body, the inner space will become 4D, the outer space will become black and white. Even if there is a single pillar in our inner space, we will not have any suffering at the time of leaving the body. We will leave the body beautifully.

Now let us see how the second death happened so peacefully. Now the statement that I am making is a little difficult to understand but again I have no other way, because truth has to be explained. Truth has to be expressed. Only then you will be able to enter into the formula. This is the way the formula has happened to the person. When the second death was happening, the moment the person left the first layer body, because an enlightened being was standing there,

because of his presence, somehow he was able to catch a glimpse of that consciousness. He was able to catch my presence.

At this time, I had become enlightened. But at the time of the first death I was witness to I was not enlightened. I was still doing my tapas. I was wandering all over India. At that time of the second death I had already been enlightened. Somehow because of that he was able to catch a glimpse of consciousness. The moment he left the first layer body, he was able to feel me or experience me. The moment he started experiencing me his whole consciousness was simply centered on me.

See, what are the things that usually stop you from surrendering to the Master? These are issues like your bank balance, your house, your car, your relationship, your wife and your own insecurity about your life. You are concerned that if you surrender what would happen. You may start becoming a servant for him. There are so many other such concerns.

All these things are stopping you from surrendering or entering into the consciousness. Surrendering and entering into the consciousness, all these are one and the same. But for that person who was dying all these things have already become valueless. When he has left the first level body, naturally all these things have become already valueless. So, whatever is catching or pulling, whatever strings are pulling him down are already cut, disconnected.

As long as you think the outer world is worthy and that it has got value, you will have the fear that somebody may take it away or somebody may snatch it from you. As long as you think that whatever you collected in your life is valuable you will have tremendous fear. That is why I tell people that as long as you think these things are valuable you will never be able to experience fearlessness. There will be continuous fear. The more you have the more the fear in you and the more your being will be shaken. Every moment you will be waiting afraid of what may happen. But at that moment, whatever can be taken away from that person has been taken away. Now there is nothing to lose. Trusting the Master is very easy at that moment.

Somehow, fortunately he had my presence there. Simply he could understand that all the other things are valueless. When the physical body and material things were taken away from him, his whole consciousness without any doubt, without any difficulty, was centered on me. Naturally, when he was centered on the enlightened being or conscious being, he simply dissolved into that enlightenment without any suffering.

What ever is stopping you now will not stop you at that time. At that time you don't have to practice renunciation, everything will be taken away from you by force. See, only as long you have choices you have to practice this renunciation of wealth, fame and all these things. At the time of death you don't have to practice renunciation because everything will be taken away from you. What is there to practice? You see, you don't have anything to even renounce.

So, there is nothing that can stop you from entering into the enlightenment experience. There is nothing that can stop you from entering into the conscious experience. But only one thing you need, when you leave the body, you need a conscious being around you. Without that, it is not possible. Now what to do? I can't go and stand in all the ICUs and ask people 'Hey, when will you die? When will you die?'

From my experience I can tell you that leaving the body peacefully is the greatest gift anybody can have. If you have got that gift, you achieved whatever has to be achieved. You have lived your life; nothing else needs to be achieved. If you have not achieved that, nothing is worth achieving.

After seeing this second death, I started seriously contemplating about how this can be reproduced? Or, how can I help people to leave consciously? As I was telling you, I cannot go and stand in all the ICUs. That's impossible.

And one more thing, energy is not bound by space or time. Energy is beyond time and space. All we need is a set-top-box, that's all. See, if you have a set-top-box in your house, you can just tune your TV to some channel. If you tune to BBC, you will see BBC. If you tune to CNN, you will see CNN. Whatever channel you tune you can see that program.

Same way, at the time of leaving the body if you can tune yourself to consciousness, if you can tune yourself to thoughtless awareness, conscious experience, simply you will see your life is a conscious experience. You will be able to cross this ocean of samsara, birth and death or this ocean of samskara, ocean of all these 7 layers, beautifully and peacefully.

We are going to work with that formula in this program. Please understand, if you work with the theory of gravity, you can understand completely what Newton experienced. Same way, work with this formula, you can simply experience what that dying man experienced. What has happened in my consciousness and his can happen in your consciousness also. All you need to do is, work with this formula intensely. Just go with this formula as intensely as possible. Nothing else needs to be done.

Nithyananda teaches many meditation techniques for personal transformation. For some techniques the Master's presence is needed. The presence of the enlightened being, the Buddha, is needed. For some techniques the knowledge and understanding of the enlightened master's teachings, the dhamma is needed. The introduction and the know-how are also needed. For some techniques the community of the enlightened master, the sangha is also needed. There are a few techniques that require all three, Buddha, dhamma and sangha. This is called Pancha Tapas. Nithyananda calls it Ananda Tapas.

The meditator sits within a circle of fire for several hours for several days, usually ten hours a day at least for ten days. Under the Master's supervision this arduous meditation has been undertaken by a number of disciples over the last few years at the Bidadi ashram. A few have been unable to last the course but very few. Nithyananda says that this Ananda Tapas dissolves the samskaras completely as no other process can. The engraved memories are burned and boiled away.

Nithyananda talks about his own experiences with this Pancha Tapas when he practised it in Omkareshwar.

When one does the Ananda Tapas from morning till night, within ten or twelve days, I have seen that either the person will fall in tune or he'll run away. Either that person, if he's a sincere seeker, he'll fall in tune, or second day or third day he will disappear. I've seen that whatever it may be, he will not be there because this technique is like literally drilling your unconscious. You are not asking your unconscious's permission. You are not telling your unconscious, 'I am going to meditate. Please cooperate with me.' No! You just say 'either do or die. No! Even if you die who will do? Just do. That's all!'

There is no option of doing or dying; you just do. If you die who will do? No, you just have to do, that's all. There's no option. It is like straight away drilling your unconscious. From morning till night I had the fortune of doing this meditation for three months at a stretch. Totally I spent nine months with this technique, at different times. Each time I did this for three months.

I remember a very funny incident when I was practicing Pancha Tapas in the forests near Omkareshwar. For the first few days I used to gather little bits of wooden twigs lying around the forest to create the fire circle and start meditating. In a few hours the fire got extinguished. There was no one around and I can't keep opening my eyes every time to add a little more wood, fuel to it. So I called a local villager, one guy who was a shepherd who takes care of the cows and goats and requested him, 'Can you take care of me every day and add the wood to this fire.' He said he would. After a few days I saw there was no more any wood. He had used up whatever wood there was. He had to go and bring wood or he had to go and bring cow dung cake to keep the fire burning. He was a poor guy and had no money.

When I wondered what to do I saw that in my bag there was a lamp. I had been to a feast in Mysore before I came to Omkareshwar and the organizers gave a gift to each person who came in. This was a small oil lamp that one uses in puja rituals. I gave this lamp to him and asked him to sell it in the market to buy cow dung cake or wood to keep the fire burning.

You'll be surprised! When he came back from the market that man said 'It was a silver lamp and I got good money.' I remember very clearly that when I got the lamp it was not made of silver. Then I remembered a sadhu who was in Uttarkashi in the Himalayas who had handled this lamp. This sadhu was a naga baba, a sadhu who wore no clothes. He used to smoke ganja, a local version of hashish or opium, by putting it into a chillum. When he had almost run through his stock of opium he would place a few copper coins in the chillum. When he had finished smoking he would tap the ashes out of the chillum and gold coins used to fall out. The copper coins had turned into gold coins in his chillum. He would then ask me to sell the gold coins in the market and buy more opium.

I remember that once he saw this lamp was playing with it for a few two minutes. That's all I remember. He was just playing with that lamp in his hand and he was making fun of me. 'Oh, I think you have become a great samsara, a materialistic householder. You are carrying a lamp also.' A sanyasi is not supposed to carry any valuable item. The lamp was not actually a valuable item but it was something I did not throw away.

I asked him how he did this. He said to me in Tamil though he had no way of knowing I was from Tamilnadu and he too was not from Tamilnadu, 'angam pazuthal thangam pazhukkum'. This meant that when the person is ripe or the body is ripe then gold can appear. He offered to teach me the technique but I was not interested. Actually I questioned him why he was converting copper coins into gold coins. I said 'You are a swami. You do not need money' He was a great Paramahamsa, never had anything, no clothes, no food, no water, no sleep. Six months I stayed around him. Nothing! But he'll always smoke that ganja. It's a very funny thing. I asked him also once, 'You are a great mahatma. Why do you smoke that opium?' He said 'you don't know how difficult it is to bind my body and my conscious, my inner space. I have to dull myself to stay in the body. It is like holding an elephant with a thin rope. It has to be drugged'

But you don't start trying all these things! I have seen that people will take all these teachings perfectly, 'When he can smoke why not me?' No, they don't start thinking 'When he became enlightened why not me?' That's very difficult. I remember one more story. Maybe I'll tell after this story.

I made fun of him saying that 'Baba, you are a great Paramahamsa.' I said, 'Father, you are a great Paramahamsa. Why do you make copper coin into gold coin?' He laughed and just to make fun of me he picked up that lamp from my bag and said, 'See, You are also a samsari. You are carrying material things with you!' I had nothing else, just that one lamp and he gave me the title 'You are also samsari. You are carrying this lamp.'

He played with it and gave it back to me. At that time I did not look at it. Actually he was making fun of me by saying that he doesn't have to carry wealth and that he doesn't accumulate. He was saying all this for the fun of it. And that was the message he was trying to give by just playing with the lamp and making it silver. Since I had not noticed that it had become silver I did not respond. I just laughed and left.

This was the same lamp was that the shepherd sold to buy firewood. That money was also used up after some days, then what to do? I still needed wood for a few more days to continue the meditation. I remembered that naga baba, that sanyasi who had changed the lamp to silver. I was no longer in Uttarkashi. I was doing pancha tapas meditation far away in Madhya Pradesh some years later. I was not around him. I remembered him and told him very casually, very jovially, remembering him and telling him mentally, 'You should have made it into gold. For your ganja smoking you made gold but for me you made only silver. I am doing tapas yet you gave me only silver!'

You'll be surprised: this is the greatness of the Masters. Masters can receive these requests for help wherever they may be and can respond. The next day I was called by a nearby ashram for food. A rich man was giving food to all the sadhus and I was also called to take biksha (gifted meal). If I go once to the ashram and take biksha, I could stay there for one week.. So I decided to go. When I went there a rich man was serving all the sadhus and giving them gifts. He gave me the same lamp back! I was surprised. The lamp came back to me. When he handed me the gift I got a shock. I asked him where he got the lamp from. He said that a few days earlier a local shepherd sold this in the market to him.

He said, 'From the day I bought this lamp, a naga sadhu appeared in my dream every night telling me give it to a sadhu. Give this lamp back to a young swami, he kept telling me. I tried for two, three days to avoid the dream but everyday the dream returned. In this group I saw you are the youngest swami. That's why I was giving it to you.'

Actually I made fun of naga baba in a way, 'You are smoking ganja. For that you needed money and you made gold coin. Here I am meditating and doing tapas and for me you made only silver coin, silver thing!' But the powerful blessing was that it came back. He went into the dream of that rich guy who bought the lamp. Usually only gold jewelers buy all these things, naturally they'll be rich, and he appeared in that guy's dream and told him to go to a sanyasi group and give that to the youngest sadhu. Anyhow, very funny!

I needed money and I gave it to him asking him to keep it and to give me money. He asked me 'Why you are selling this back to me, Swamiji?'

I told him, 'Because I need some wood and cow dung cakes for doing pancha tapas.'

'Oh, for that you don't have to give this lamp.' Not only he gave the lamp back, but took care of all my needs for two more months. He supplied the wood regularly and took care of the whole tapas.

Anyhow, with this technique of pancha tapas your food, the quality of sleep, your water intake and all such needs will go through a drastic change. This is a very powerful technique for weight loss because your body will take only very little quantity of food but you will continuously feel

light. Not only light but feel very light, and you will feel as if you are flying. You will be radiating. It's a very intense technique. This is one of the techniques practiced for ages in the Vedic tradition for enlightenment. Another important information I want to give you about this technique is that even Devi practiced this technique in Arunachala, in my native place. That's the place where Devi practiced this technique. She meditated by putting fire all around her and practised this technique from morning till night, in all states of waking, sleeping, dreaming visualizing herself to be light. It is such a powerful technique.

Only thing is that I don't prescribe this technique to common people because it needs a sangha, a spiritual community that is really inspired to support this. Because the whole day you need to sit, somebody needs to be around caring for you in a very loving way, constantly feeding the fire. They should not put too much fire. If they put too much fire you won't be able to sit and if your body gets dehydrated constantly they should be supplying water. They should be supplying water and taking care of you, taking care that you don't have to open your eyes many times. You don't have to open your eye again and again. Last year we practiced in Bidadi ashram with a group of seekers. Maybe once a year we practice. Whoever wants, they can try. It's a very intense method.

One of my inspirational masters in childhood was Ma Vibhudhananda Devi about whom I spoke earlier. She practised this technique and after that never had a regular menstrual cycle. She said the energy going down had reversed. It is such a powerful technique. It'll just change the whole chemistry of your system. I have seen how she lived. She literally lived like a goddess on the earth.

She was a very polite, humble, pious person with amazing power! Anything that she decided to do, she did not even have to think a second time. Once she said that she will teach me some Upanishads and told me to get the Upanishad book from the market. I went and searched everywhere. I was not able to get the book. I came back feeling sad and told her, 'Ma, Upanishad book is not available. I don't know what to do.'

She said, 'Don't bother. What's the meaning of Upanishad?'

I said that, 'Upanishad means sitting with the master.'

She said, 'Then just sit.'

I sat. Funny thing is that after I sat she just put her hand on my hand and I saw the Upanishad book there. She casually materialized the book. Understand, if you have this power piousness will usually disappear. In her I have seen the piousness, simplicity and the power expressing more powerfully. That is the beauty. See, if she constantly carries the ego that she has this power she wouldn't even send me to buy the book. She will say 'Sit. I'll materialize the book and start the class.' No! She did not do that. It means she doesn't carry that in her ego. She doesn't use that for ego fulfillment. Only when it is really needed then she expresses that kind of power. A great pious person! In her life, again, she experienced this technique.

Nithyananda had other incidents to relate from his association with this naga baba, the naked monk, who he met at Uttarkashi.

If people went to this naga baba to have initiation, to learn something, he would tell them to focus on his trident, trishul. He would place his trishul, Shiva's trident, on the ground driving its bottom tip into the earth and tell them to stare at this trishul. They have to stare at all three tips at a time without shifting their eyeballs. You must be able to see all three tips of the trishul at time. I thought, 'What is the big deal? After it is a small trishul. It is not a big thing. I can stare at all three tips at a time, it is not a big thing'. He had this unique method of testing people. He would tell people, 'If you are able to stare at all three tips at a time then I will initiate you. Then you are ready. Otherwise I will not initiate you.' I was surprised at first since it seemed such a simple thing that everybody can do.

He would just put his finger on one tip, and he will ask me, 'Are you able to see this?' I would say 'Yes.' Then he would move his finger to the next tip, then he would ask 'Are you able to see?' If I moved my eyes, if I shifted my eyeballs even a little bit, he would detect the movement and say 'No, you are not able to stare at all three tips at a time. Your eyeballs are moving. You are not able to see all three at a time.' I was shocked. He was right. He was right because one's eyeballs are constantly moving at such a high speed. We are not able to understand that we can't see anything in one vision. Constantly our eyeballs are moving so that we are getting a complete picture. Because of that we don't understand the truth that we don't use both eyes at a time.

You may have two eyes as your sensory equipment and this is what in Sanskrit they call indriya. Indriya is not 'sense' as you understand. Please understand, senses are not called indriyas. Eyes are just an instrument, tool. There is energy behind the senses and we see through that energy, though we think we see through the tools. Eyes are just windows. There is energy behind the eyes that sees through the eyes. The energy that sees through the eyes is called indriya. In the case of eyes that indriya is called chakshu. Let me be very clear that you see through the eyes and your eyes are not seeing. Through the eyes you are seeing, and there is an energy that is seeing through the eyes, which we call indriya. I was shocked when I realized for the first time that I could not even see the three tips of that small trishul. He would make people sit there and he would not give food or let them sleep. He would tell them to look at all the tips of the trishul simultaneously and till one succeeded in this nothing was allowed, no food, no sleep, no initiation. If any sincere person sits there for three or four days he would be able to see.

Actually when I went, I also asked 'Babaji please teach me something'. Because he's such a highly evolved soul I should say a few words about him. He passed away recently. I think he lived up to a hundred and sixty years or around that. Even medical doctors had certified that he was a hundred and fifty to hundred and sixty years old. He had attended twelve kumbha melas. Kumbha mela is a function that happens in India once in twelve years. He has attended twelve kumbha melas, and was a very elderly, respected sadhu. He used to smoke a chillum, an opium pipe. Before smoking he will put a copper coin in that and he would smoke. And after that he will

empty the pipe and the coin would have turned to gold by an alchemy process. He will sell that coin and buy more opium. I had never seen him eating in the six months I stayed around him.

I asked him, 'Baba, please teach me something, some meditation or spirituality.' Again he will do the same thing. He had some twenty trishuls. Who ever came to him, first he'll give the trident, and ask them to stare at the trident. You have to stare at all the three points at a time. He did that for me also. I was sitting there, staring, staring, and staring. By evening he will come slowly and place his finger on the tips to test me. 'Are you able to see this?' 'Yes baba,' Then he will move the finger and he will be looking into my eyeballs. Even if my eyeballs moved a little bit it meant I was moving my eyeballs to see the next point. First day I failed the test, I was sitting there staring and the second day also nothing happened. After three or four days I was able to see all the three points without moving the eyes. Suddenly I realized that only when I was able to see all three points without moving my eyeballs, I was aware that there was a center within me, which was using these senses. I was aware that I myself was not directly connected to these senses. I was aware that there was a center within me that was using these senses. Suddenly I felt I was disconnected from the senses and I tell you my senses became so sharp, so alive. For the first time I felt I could handle these eyes, I could see through these eyes any number of hours without tiredness.

The next day he told me stare at the sun when the sun rises and continue to stare at the sun from sunrise to sunset. Naturally I got frightened about what will happen to my eyes. I wondered what he was teaching. In India you can't sue the master. You can't sue him and there is no 911 to complain, and nothing can be done. If you lose your eyes it means there is no other recourse, that's all, you can't do anything. What was he teaching, he was telling me to stare at the sun. I told him 'Baba, can I do this, will I not have any pain?' He told me, 'If you feel pain come back, you don't have to do'. But I tell you this and I swear that this is the truth. For three days I was able to do that, just staring at the sun. I neither had pain nor had tears. It was a simple, very simple technique. I was shocked. The technique is nothing but it took one to such a height. One became unconnected, and one is just unclutched from one's senses.

As long as you are connected to your senses or you believe you are your senses, you abuse your senses, be very clear. Your body and your senses have got tremendous intelligence to update, heal, rejuvenate and replace them selves. When you connect yourself with the senses you stop that natural rejuvenation process.

Your ego is such that whenever you feel some enjoyment you go the extreme till that sense is tired. Till that sense gets tired you do not stop. Till we feel we are overflowing we don't stop eating. Till our eyes are begging us to please relax, please relax, we do not switch off the TV. But just because you have a belief that seeing that nonsense cricket is joyful, you go on abusing your senses. Just because your mind believes that cricket is joyful you have some nonsensical ideas also connected with it. The moment you start believing, even if your eyes are begging, you can feel your eyes will just be closing down during the advertisement breaks, but you do not let the senses rest, you abuse them. When you go to the extreme point when you can't use it anymore, only then you relax. Like kids, till they break the toys they will not stop playing with them. Same way, till you break your senses you will not leave them.

Same way with food, if you decide something is tasty you will not leave that food till your senses are abused. If you have the intelligence that you are not your senses, that you are merely using the senses, then you will never abuse them. Creating a gap between you and the senses will give you a little sense. You will not abuse your senses anymore. You will not misuse your senses. In the same way, the moment you decide that touching is pleasurable you go to the extreme. You use all your energy to feel that pleasure through touch. You do not let the body rejuvenate itself. You do not give enough gap for your senses to rejuvenate themselves.

There is an automatic intelligence that is constantly rejuvenating your senses. Not only it is rejuvenating, it is also replacing. If some part is damaged you have enough intelligence to replace that also. But, if your ego or the mind interferes, you do not allow that natural process to happen.

An important thing that I realized with the naga baba was that if once I brought tremendous awareness to myself, I could realize that I was not the senses but I was beyond the senses. I was using my senses. Through the senses I was relating with the world. I was shocked that I could stare at the sun for three days. I had never believed, I never trusted I could do that. But, when you are away from senses, whatever thing you do, your senses have the power to rejuvenate and they don't get tired. They bring in tremendous energy. The senses refill themselves.

Last December (2005) in our ashram on the 31st December we did fire walking. There were so many people, at least 500 people, who walked on that fire. At least 500 people, 100 to 200 people from different countries. They had never heard of this fire walking. We had a fifteen days meditation program and at the end of the program, on the last day, I said, let's see how much you are unconnected from senses. If really you are unconnected, your bodies should be able to expand, it should be able to adjust and rejuvenate with the atmosphere, with the other situations. Let us test, I said.

After the fire walking, one devotee came and told me, 'Swamiji, before walking I trusted you, and after walking I am able to trust myself. I never thought I could have done this. I just did it because of you, but after walking on that fire I suddenly realized that I am able to do it by myself. When I prove myself to myself, the confidence or the idea which I am having about myself is developed, it becomes different, total.' Several hundreds of people walked on the fire and have done again since then. Not one foot or two feet fire, but twenty-one feet long. Not only nobody was hurt, many were walking a second time and a third time. Some were dancing on the fire.

If you can center yourself, in your center, beyond these five senses, not only you'll experience the bliss within, even the senses become very alive, energetic and active. You experience a different level of existence. Altogether your very existence will be in a different level.

Nithyananda says that there are no miracles in Existence. Everything that happens and seemingly is made to happen is based on laws of nature. When science and intellect do not understand these incidents, they are labeled as either miracles or magic. It is neither. Till a decade ago if an incident cannot be repeated in an identical manner under controlled conditions it was termed unscientific. Repeatability under controlled conditions was the ultimate test of scientific truth. Today this is a test applicable only to high school science, perhaps not even that high, may be elementary school science or to what is called science by unscientific minds.

In Quantum Physics and Molecular Cellular Biology, which are in the forefront of all sciences, time and again eminent scientists have established that many natural phenomena cannot pass this repeat test. Nature does not follow the unscientific science. In a cloud chamber, scientists studying the behavior of sub atomic particles have demonstrated that these particles seem to have a mind of their own. Even under identical conditions they behave differently to different observers. They know who watches them and when. Shankara, one of the greatest Vedic sages propounded this theory that what is observed depends on the observer, over a thousand years ago. Today this phenomenon is documented by authors such as Lynn McTaggart in "The Intention Experiment', Bruce Lipton in 'Biology of Beliefs', as well as movies like 'What the bleep do you know.'

Science has not advanced yet to know all. When human arrogance elevates its own capability that it terms as science to areas that it does not yet understand, what results can be disastrous. During his parivrajaka days Nithyananda came across many such incidents, some of which have been already described, that broke his faith in his own intellect. He learnt techniques and witnessed demonstration of techniques that seemed to make improbable and impossible things to happen.

Badrinath is one of the pilgrimage locations that Nithyananda takes his followers to during the Himalayan Yatra of the char dham locations. The temple is on the banks of the river Alaknanda and dedicated to Vishnu. It was consecrated by Adi Shankara and is considered as one of the holiest Vishnu shrines in India. Nithyananda describes an incident that happened to him during his stay in Badrinath.

I was traveling near Badrinath. I stayed at a village called Mana that is quite close to the indo Chinese border. There's a place called Vyasa Guha nearby, a cave where Vyasa lived and wrote the Mahabharata, which is the longest epic, still the longest poem in the planet earth. Whenever people come and tell me 'Mahabharata is a myth,' I tell them 'Relax.'

Badrinath is the place where Vyasa was staying. I had the fortune of staying in a monastery where a few monks were staying and practicing very powerful techniques with a master. I can say all of them were almost on the verge of enlightenment. One person was enlightened. The guru was fully enlightened but all others were on the verge of enlightenment. They were just literally playing with the power of these techniques.

I want you to understand now one important thing: whatever I am expressing now is the truth, honest truth that I experienced with my own eyes and senses in my own life.

One morning when I was staying in the monastery, the guru called all the disciples together. All of them were sitting and he was talking about some of these techniques of feeling connected. He was talking from the viewpoint of feeling connected to the whole Himalaya Mountains. It was very amazing. This enlightened Master was very loving and caring enough to allow me also into their morning session.

He was asking one by one, 'Did you practice this technique?' It seemed that only a few days before he initiated them into the technique of feeling connected to the whole Himalayas. They were supposed to constantly internalize that the Himalayas were part of their body. One swami came and said, 'Yes, Master, now I feel completely connected.'

Now you need to understand. The Master very casually said, 'Alright then, move that rock on the mountain.' Understand, I promise I saw with my eyes that this monk moved his hand and that rock moved. Very difficult, it's logically very difficult to believe. Only when you have a chance to live intimately can you believe. I had a shock and really, literally, I was ready to run away from that place. I just got up and got shaken, was shaken completely and started to run out of that place. That monk started laughing. The master started laughing. He called me back and said 'Why did you get frightened?' Of course, at that time not only I was not enlightened but for the first time I was seeing that kind of power over matter.

See: I have seen small miracles like materializing vibhuti, the sacred ash and other objects. I have seen those things with a master who initiated me into yoga. I have seen him materializing a conch and other small things, anything that can be held by the hand. Those things do not need any great achievement. For those things all you need to do is to see that the gap between your hands should become a living energy field. Then you can start materializing or teleporting. Usually it will be teleporting. Materializing does not happen usually. Very rarely I have seen someone creating something. Usually it will be only teleporting. I was able to do these also. This was too much, a huge solid rock just moving in the mountain.

He called me back and he said, 'What happened? Were you frightened?'

I said, 'Naturally!'

Then he said, 'You want to see the power of mind? Just sit here.' He told that monk, the disciple who moved the rock, to hold my hand.

He told me, 'Now you move your hand.'

Just then a very funny thing happened. I moved my hand and the rock came back to the original place. Of course this was too big a shock for me. Then he told me very beautifully, 'It is not that only that swami can do and you can't do. No! Anybody who can be part of that connection will be able to move.'

I am not saying that you need to move the rock. If you just move your head, that's enough. I'm not saying we need to move the rocks. I'm expressing about this technique only to tell you the power of this technique.

Ramakrishna says very beautifully that when you have these powers you are not supposed to express them unless there is a living master in front of you and he is actively involved in the process. Ramakrishna talks about one of his experiences. A sadhu who had these kinds of powers came to him but he was not enlightened. He wanted to impress Ramakrishna. This sadhu sat in front of Ramakrishna on the banks of he river Hooghly, which is an extension of Ganga. There was a small cyclone in the ocean that carried through into the river and all the small boats started tossing and turning. The sadhu demonstrated his power and stopped the cyclone. Because he stopped the cyclone suddenly, many boats were not able to balance and got drowned and a few people died. Because of this incident the sadhu lost his powers.

Understand: It's a very different, strange experience. So whenever you have these kinds of experiences it is better not to experiment unless the living Master is directly staying with you and assists you. If at all you have some extraordinary experiences, the best way is to witness. If it is necessary, if you have the intelligence to handle, it will stay with you. Otherwise it will leave you. It'll leave you.

Nithyananda has talked about one more incident connected to Mana, this village near Badrinath. On the path leading to Vyasa's cave, there is another location called Ganesha's cave. There is a small Ganesha temple on this spot. Vyasa Guha is a structure that looks as if it is formed of palm leaves on which the Mahabharata was written. It is believed that Lord Ganesha wrote the Mahabharata as Vyasa dictated the verses to him. When Vyasa requested Ganesha to help him write out this log epic, Ganesha laid down the condition that he would never have to wait for Vyasa's dictation to write. In return Vyasa made Ganesha agree that he would understand the meaning behind each verse before he wrote down.

Nithyananda told us when we visited this location with him that he actually saw Ganesha, that he had Ganesha's darshan, at this Ganesha Guha, Ganesha's Cave, when he came here the first time. He also had the vision of Ganesha sitting in front of Vyasa writing down the Mahabharata. That is why in the beginning of this incident that he narrated about the moving rock, he said that he tells people who question the authenticity of Mahabharata to relax. Mahabharata is no myth.

Nithyananda says that if any one could fictionalize and connect the thousands of characters portrayed in Mahabharata, such a person, the great Vyasa, must be the greatest writer who ever lived. There is not one disconnect, not one missing link in this the epic. It is no epic story, says Nithyananda, it all happened as it has been written.

Tibetan Lamas are amongst the yogis who have been studied in detail by medical and scientific professions. Dr. Herbert Benson, the renowned Harvard Medical School Professor, who probably single handedly made meditation a respectable word in America through his books Relaxation Response and others, in later days studied Buddhist lamas in Tibet. In his documentaries he describes how in the bitter cold of Tibetan winters these monks are initiated. They sit in an open space with just a cloth covering their lower half and a cold wet cloth is placed around their upper half. These monks are in deep meditation and one can see in the film the evaporation from the wet cloth. In a few minutes the cloth is dry, as dry as it would have been had it been in a drier machine. The wet cloth is replaced again and again throughout the night each time as the previous one dries. These monks elevate their body temperature by several degrees that would spell death to any one else.

Many such incidents that defy conventional logic have been recorded after studying these monks. Nithyananda spent many months in Tibet in Buddhist monasteries and learnt Buddhist teachings and meditation techniques from the monks.

Nithyananda talks about one experience of initiation in a monastery. He was seated and a large metallic bell like object was placed over him. This bell had a number of holes so that he could breathe. Monks sitting around the bell started beating this bell from its bottom upwards. The sound and the vibration of the bell being struck were physically painful to start with. Gradually Nithyananda felt his chakras responding to the vibrations being created and as he accepted this and settled down he felt his chakras opening. It was a tremendously powerful experience.

At the end of this initiation, one of the monks came to him with a wooden stick with a sharp end and with a wooden hammer drove the stick into his third eye point. Nithyananda felt the wooden nail go in to his body at least a few inches. This was a powerful initiation technique to open the third eye.

In one of the monasteries Nithyananda was told about another monastery a distance away that had many old lamas, some at least 300 years old. Nithyananda walked to this distant monastery and was directed to a field nearby where the old lamas worked. There he met a monk, physically quite fit, working in the field.

In ancient India, there was a practice called Kayakalpa, which is a technique to reverse the aging process. According to this philosophy, as you age, you become healthier because your body and mind are better trained to live in the world. If you are trained in driving and become a good driver, you can drive without any effort. In the same way, as the years pass, you should master the art of living in this world. They say that as you grow older you are not supposed to fall sick, or have stress, because you should know the logic of the world and become more intelligent, healthy and spontaneous. However, that is not our experience! What has happened? Where did we miss it? The missing link is our idea of time and being continuously reminded of chronological time because of the increased number of thoughts.

If we change two things, we can make kayakalpa a reality. First, change our perception about our body. We always think that as we age our body gets old and diseased. It is not necessary, but that's our perception. We may question it by saying that when we get old, we really do feel tired and it's not our imagination. We don't know the power of your mind.

I once went to a place in Tibet, where the Lamas live. I was told people there live long. I saw an elderly man working in the fields. I asked him: Do people here live long? Please tell me about it. He laughed and said, 'You think I am old? I am just middle aged, I'm only 136. Ask others who are 200 or more'. There were medical records to show he really was 136. And he was working in the farm! I couldn't believe it just like you all. Then they showed me a report by researchers from Wisconsin University, who worked with them to study their body to understand how they live longer.

According to the scientists, their body works just like ours; it's no different, even genetically. They conclude that there is something beyond the body that makes them live longer. None of the Lamas could give any reason for their long life. But they all had a strong belief that human beings are supposed to live up to 300 years. If someone died at 200, it was considered an unnatural death! I later read a report by scientists that says that our body continuously rejuvenates and replaces itself, and can do so for 300 years. So our perception about our body must change.

Your mind has such a tremendous power that whatever you believe you has the capacity to make it a reality. That's why people who see horror movies continuously start seeing ghosts. If you watch one horror movie every night for ten days in a row, on the eleventh day you will see a ghost, or think you are seeing ghosts when a curtain moves. Your mind has the capacity to make anything as a reality. The first basic idea or your perception of time at the physical level, the very idea that the more you age the more you fall sick, is wrong.

Part 3: Nithyananda Vol 2_English_part_3.md

Tapovan is a location at about 15,000 feet altitude in the Himalayas, above Gangotri and Gomukh, where Ganga appears. Even today both Gomukh and especially Tapovan are difficult to reach. They have only trekking paths and hardly any accommodation to speak of. Ten years ago when Nithyananda visited and stayed in these places there were far fewer visitors.

Nithyananda told us that to go up to Tapovan and stay there as he did for many months, it requires acclimatization at the Gangotri altitude for many months. Air is very thin at such high altitudes and this can be fatal for some. We asked him how he survived in Tapovan. He said he lived in caves, covered himself with some jute material and newspapers left behind by other sadhus and survived on fruits, berries and roots that he picked from the plants and trees. He stayed for about six months at Tapovan.

Nithyananda talks with deep passion about Tapovan. The Himalayas are a living entity to him, but Tapovan is very special. He calls this the fabled Shambhala, where the energy of the Universe resides. The Sapta Rishis, the seven sages, who are talked about in the Hindu scriptures reside here. Nithyananda says that the Sapta Rishis are not physical entities but the combined energy of enlightened beings that decide on the operation of the Universe. He told us that a being could only be enlightened as a human from planet earth. Other planets have living beings but not at the same level of consciousness of humans that can elevate into super consciousness. One needs to be born as a human to be enlightened. The launch pad of the enlightened being is located in Tapovan in the etheric plane. He also said that the banyan tree at Bidadi and the banyan tree that he visited with Arunagiri Yogiswara in Thiruvannamalai too are in the same etheric plane.

On his way down from Tapovan to the plains Nithyananda was offered a lift in an Indian Army truck. This truck had crude metal benches to sit on at the rear and these benches had metal bolts to locate weapons. At some point when the truck traversed a ditch, Nithyananda was thrown up with force and landed on a steel bolt. This bolt pierced through and fractured his spine. He was taken to the nearest Army Hospital where he was bandaged and told to rest for a few weeks to allow the fracture to heal. On the way to the Hospital Nithyananda kept his hand where the fracture had occurred and where the pain was intense. He found that even before he reached the Hospital that the pain had reduced a lot. After the doctors gave him some first aid Nithyananda walked out of the Hospital against the advice of the doctors and continued to heal himself with his hand on the bottom of he spine. Within a few days he was completely free of any discomfort.

This was the first time that Nithyananda discovered that he could heal himself. After this event he continued to heal himself whenever he had an ailment. From this self-healing to healing others was a small step for him. In the initial stages and to an extent even now it is Nithyananda's extraordinary powers of healing that drew people to him like a magnet. He has called his healing power his visiting card. It is no longer merely Nithyananda's calling card but his mission's since there are many thousand Nithya Healers ordained by him in various parts of the world.

We had narrated earlier an incident where the devotion in worshipping an idol made the idol come alive. Nithyananda talked to us of another similar incident at another time and place.

I was traveling, I don't know where exactly, maybe around the area of Madhya Pradesh or Maharashtra. There was a small tree and under that tree, there were three bricks, bricks that are used for construction work. These bricks had turmeric powder applied on them as if some puja had been done using them. Usually in the evening time when I rest I will search for some bricks to rest my head and lie down. There was nobody around. I did not know that the villagers were worshiping these bricks as a Deity. I picked up one brick as a pillow for my head and lay down. Within ten minutes, one elderly villager came running towards me. There were no houses nearby and his house was probably a mile away. When he came near me he understood I am a sadhu.

Because I was a sadhu, he did not beat me. He said, 'Do you know this is Shiva? I worship this Shiva. He appeared in my dream and told me that you were lying on Him.' This incident happened the way I describe. 'That's why I came here.' He had brought a small pillow with him, that was so nice of him. 'Lie down on this pillow and leave Him there. Put that idol back.' We don't know who all are having connection to what all!

Just his deep love for that ordinary brick that is used for construction created a telepathic power in him. I read an article that the American army is trying to develop telepathy to use during the wars. They are doing some research and development to use telepathy to send messages without using mechanical or electronic equipment to avoid interception. Understand, just an ordinary villager and his devotion for a brick made him telepathic. Of course, I'm afraid to use the word brick again now, since he may get upset. I don't think he is dead, only that elderly lady in Gujarat with the Krishna idol is dead, I think this guy may be alive. I never tried to trace him.

Anyhow, just simple love to the ordinary looking brick can create such a deep telepathic connection between him and Mahadeva. This ordinary brick was acting like a cell phone between him and Shiva. You can't imagine the way in which the guy ran towards me and the way in which he was shouting at me. Just because I am a sadhu he left me, otherwise I would've had puja!

I want all of you to understand the power of love, the power of simple love. It was just simple love. Actually during British rule, all the milestones in the Indian highways used to be painted yellow. There was a big problem because from next day all the local villagers started worshipping all the milestones. Really! Then they changed the color and painted them green. Because for Indian villagers nothing is needed, just a simple shape is enough to inspire devotion. Everything is God for us. God is always around us. God occupies out inner space. Everything is God.

From the early days this incident had been part of Nithyananda's Ananda Spurana Programs. Today, thanks to the Nithya Acharyas, thousands across the world are familiar with this incident as a part of the Vishuddhi chakra background.

Nithyananda stayed with a group of sanyasis in a remote location in the Almora section of the Himalayas. They all lived in simple huts made of thatch material. The sanyasis stayed in the various huts and had a common kitchen in a central hut. Wild animals were quite common in this area. If a tiger or leopard was spotted a bell would be rung to alert all those who were working in the fields so that they could run back into their huts to safeguard themselves. When it was considered safe an all-clear bell would be rung for them to venture out.

On one occasion after a tiger warning and the all clear had been sounded one elderly sanyasi was found missing. After searching for him high and low, some of them heard a feeble cry from one of the huts near the kitchen and went to investigate. When they tried to open the door of the hut it would not budge. One person went around the hut and entered the hut by removing one of the thatch panels at the rear. Inside he found the elderly monk safe and sound and the door blocked by a huge grinding stone. It took four young able bodied monks to lift and return that stone to the kitchen, from where the old monk had grabbed it and brought it single handedly to block his door.

Nithyananda explains in the Ananda Spurana Program that on certain occasions when our lives or lives of our loved ones are threatened we develop an extraordinary second level of energy that allows us to carry out tasks that we are normally incapable of executing. What the old monk displayed was this level second level energy.

Nithyananda teaches us how to access a far more powerful third level energy through the Vishuddhi meditation. This energy connects us to the cosmic energy when we transcend our minds and drop our identity.

Nithyananda says that out of the few thousand enlightened beings who occupy Planet Earth at any point in time, there are several hundred enlightened masters who live in the Himalayan Mountains. Nithyananda had traveled through this entire region right up to Tibet. Of all the locations in the Himalayas, the one place that Nithyananda is most connected to is Kedarnath.

Legend has it that at the end of the Mahabharata War Krishna advised the Pandava Princes to seek Shiva's blessings so that they can shed their sins of having killed their kith and kin. When the Pandavas came in search of Shiva to the Himalayan region, Shiva disguised himself as a bull. Pandavas chased the bull and at one point Bheema caught hold of the bull by its tail. Shiva, in the form of the bull, dived into earth. All that could be seen of him was the rump of the bull. The location where Shiva's rump is today worshipped is the Kedarnath temple. Pleased by the efforts of the Pandavas Shiva blessed them. It is believed that Yudhishtra and other Pandava Princes ascended to heaven from here. Adi Sankara is also believed to have left his body at Kedarnath.

Each year, a group of devotees trek or ride the fourteen kilometer distance from Gaurikund to the Kedarnath temple with the Master. It is a beautiful landscape with deep gorges where the river Mandakini flows down below before she merges into Alaknanada at Rudraprayag. Further south Alaknanada merges with the river Bhagirathi at Devprayag to form the river Ganga. Kedarnath is one of the four holiest pilgrimage spots for Hindus, the other three being Gangotri, Yamunotri and Badrinath. Nithyananda's Himalayan Yatra covers all these four locations.

When he visits Kedarnath, Nithyananda conducts a traditional fire ritual, a homa, near the temple as a thanksgiving practice. He has said that Kedarnath is the temple of his lineage as part of the Puri parampara and Mahavatar Baba to be his guru in this lineage. This makes Mahavatar Baba the Paramaguru to all disciples of Nithyananda. Nithyananda had not met Mahavatar Baba in the normal physical form. Yet his encounter with Mahavatar Baba near Kedarnath is an inspiring one.

Mahavatar Baba was spoken of in detail by Paramahamsa Yogananda in his Autobiography of a Yogi. Mahavatar Baba was Yogananda's paramaguru in his lineage through Yukteshwar and Lahiri Mahasay. Mahavatar Baba is reputed to be a chiranjeevi, an immortal being and an incarnation of Shiva. His presence has been seen and felt by many over the years, especially in the region of Kedarnath.

Nithyananda talked to us many time about his meeting with Mahavatar Baba which happened around 1997, about three years before his enlightenment.

This is the place where I had the darshan of Mahavatar Babaji. Once, for 45 minutes he walked in the market place at Gaurikund and people saw him when he had reduced the intensity of his frequency, so that people could see him without being affected by his energy field. This news was published in the newspapers.

Above Gaurikund, I had his darshan. Among sanyasis, for every parampara, there is one temple which the whole community should visit, at least once in a lifetime, like Mecca is for the Muslims. For the Puri parampara, Kedarnath is the temple. We belong to the Nirvana Akhada and Puri parampara, and so Kedarnath is the temple for us.

Whoever is initiated by me, who ever has taken the healing initiation from me, should visit Kedarnath at least once. This is our kshetra devata, deity of the chosen location. It is a beautiful place and the route is safe, so there is no difficulty. All of you can come tomorrow to the Kedarnath temple, no problem. The route is completely controlled by the army. They assist well. There is light and water available just like on town roads. You can stop in between wherever you want and travel easily. It is a total of 9 miles by pony or dholi (chair).

We will start at 5 am and have darshan of Kedarnath. We will return tomorrow night itself to Gaurikund. This is the highest altitude we are going to cover in our entire trip. It is the place where Sankara left his body. His Energy is there. All the five Pandavas also left their bodies here. This is the only stone temple amongst the four chardham kshetras (sacred locations) that we cover in this trip: Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. This temple is built of stone like South Indian temples. Amongst the jyotirlingas, where Siva is worshipped as Light, this is the northernmost one and Rameshwaram is the southernmost.

Kedarnath is a powerful energy center. If you are courageous and healthy, you can walk the distance. It will help. Many masters have lived and left their body here. Many siddhas (mystics), masters and rishis (sages) still live here. There is every chance that you may have the darshan of Mahavatar Babaji. He is very casual and gives darshan to a lot of people. Amongst the departed masters, he has appeared more often to people than anyone else. Eleven people vs. one million people would be the ratio of having seen other masters and Babaji. A simple prayer and he will come down and bless you. That is why he appeared for all in the marketplace. Good people, bad people, and sinners, all of them saw him. Pray intensely, he may give you darshan.

He will appear to be around twenty five years of age. His feet will not touch the ground. He will wear only one orange towel like cloth around his waist. There are records that he wears a white towel also. Paramahamsa Yogananda also writes that he wears an orange towel. If he feels that somebody is a seeker, he immediately appears voluntarily.

Babaji gave me my name when I met him a few kilometers above Gaurikund, near a cave away from the road. I was staying there and had his darshan. This was near the Kala Bhairava temple, about 3 miles from Gaurikund on the way up. Of course, I was a real intellectual hard nut and I didn't believe it was him when I saw him. I had read that he has been living for 2500 years. I caught hold of his hand to see if I was hallucinating or really seeing him. I poked his other hand. He laughed. I could see him very clearly. I understood that he is laughing because I was testing him.

He laughed and said to me 'Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda.' I didn't understand what he meant at that time. I thought he was asking me to go and see someone by that name, because at that time, that was not my name. I had not become enlightened. I was only an ascetic, a sanyasi, not

even a formally ordained one. A Paramahamsa, the great swan, is the title given to a highly evolved and enlightened Master. It is also a title that one can assume by one's own declaration as an enlightened Master.

I wanted to ask him the next question like where that person was, what to do with him etc, but he smiled and walked into my body. I was scared. I moved and gave way for him but he entered into me and didn't come out the other side. I turned and saw but he wasn't there. It was as though he had merged into me.

I was in search of an enlightened Master during that period of my life. I was intensely praying for one. I had never prayed to Babaji. I didn't even know that he was in Gaurikund. I knew he was in the Himalayas. When I read Paramahamsa Yogananda's autobiography, I learnt that he lives here. Any person clad in kavi whom I saw, I would have a desire that he might be my master. When he said, 'Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda,' I thought he was guiding me to see a person by that name. When I tried to enquire with the people around if they saw him, they said no. His age was around 25-30. In the Pictorial biography, 'Formless in Form', the photo of Babaji is there – a little chubby, clean-shaven face and hair untied.

Mahavatar Baba and Bogar (the saint who built the Palani temple in South India) have a common Guru, Dandapani. Dandapani is not Siva's son Muruga. He is a sage who was enshrined in Palani. People later added a spear and all that to the deity. They both also had Agastya, who is considered a direct disciple of Siva himself, and the father of the Tamil race, as their Guru.

Bogar created a statue of Dandapani out of navabashanam, a mixture of nine elements including the metal mercury and poisons, and installed it in Palani. It is a very high energy installation; like an atomic power station. Though the navabashanam is wearing off due to abishekam (ritual bathing of the deity), the energy is not reduced.

Someone asked: Why does Mahavatar Babaji stay here Master?

'I don't know. Maybe he likes the weather! But most records say that he gives darshan in this area only. I don't know if he stays physically in one place and gives darshan, or he simply reduces his frequency and gives darshan.

Usually, disciples themselves ask a master for sanyas, the initiation into asceticism. But in my case, a Sadhu forced me to take sanyas. He was 96 years old and lived in Calcutta. I was staying at his place for 6 months. Every morning I used to bathe in the Ganges at 4 am and meditate till 7pm. I never used to move from that place of meditation. When he saw me doing this day in and day out, he was impressed and said that I must take sanyas. I told him that I did not want sanyas and that I only wanted enlightenment. He said that he was going to die soon anyway, and that this would be the last thing that he would want to happily do. I then thought that the divine was arranging something for me and I agreed. He was not enlightened but he was a great tapasvi, someone who had practiced spiritual penance. He gave the name Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda to me suddenly.

Usually, according to the Sanyasi rule, the person initiating a person as a monk, a sanyasi, has to go through a few prescribed steps. He would first have to give what is termed the brahmacharya deeksha, the first step in four evolutionary stages of first as a student, then a householder, after that renunciate and finally an ascetic. Only three days later initiation into being a brahmachari at the very least, sanyas deeksha is given. Normally it is much longer. Three days after that the special initiation of Paramahamsa lineage would be given. There would have been three stages. So, it should have first been Brahmachari Nithyananda, then initiated as Swami Nithyananda provided with the stick, danda, water pot and such accessories, then finally Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda after dropping the danda. He somehow directly gave me the Paramahamsa title straight away!

When I asked him about it he said that it simply came out of him. I then I realized with shock that he gave me the very name that Babaji had called me by. So I feel that Babaji is the one who actually gave me Sanyas. He is our Guru Parampara. It traces to him in a way!'

(This incident of sanyas was in 1999, a year before Master's enlightenment and two years after he met Baba)

Another person asked: Master, is there a blessing that has been given to Baba to remain young always?

No, not just to Baba alone. Enlightened masters can stay young forever. He just reduces his frequency when he wants to give darshan and then increases the frequency and disappears. Unless you are sincere, even if you see him, what will you do? I give thousands of instructions, but you don't follow them. If he gives you darshan, it will be one more thing for you, that is all. Unless you follow his instructions, what is the use?

I used to feel deeply connected to Kedarnath before sanyas. At that time, I didn't know which lineage or parampara I would get my initiation, sanyas, from. I thought I was an attribute from Shiva, or Shiva's Energy. But later on, I understood when I had sanyas from the Puri parampara that Kedarnath is the sacred location of my lineage or kshetra, and that Lord Dakshinamurthy is our Guru, Ganga is our river; God Chandramouleeshwara our deity; Goddess Kamakshi at Kanchipuram is our Devi, Tatvamasi (Thou art That) and Aham Brahmasmi ( I am divine) our maha vakyas (scriptural principles), Paramahamsa is our Upanishad, and Rig Veda is our scripture.

The summary of our lineage is Dakshinamurthy Kamakshi Ganga Nadi Rig Veda Paramahamsa Upanishad- tat tvam asi- aham Brahmasmi.

Actually, a Paramahamsa is supposed to be naked. Only if you enter the city to preach after enlightenment, you can wear clothes. Else you cannot wear clothes. We don't follow these things since we all the time live in the city. Akasita vastra, digambara, sky is the cloth, no clothes. If you wear clothes, you should wear rainbow colors. Like Jain monks. Jainism is actually a very highly evolved philosophy. People will run away if I talk about Jain philosophy. Akasa, the sky, is the cloth they wear. Rainbow is the color for the cloth if you enter the city. These were all designed in those days. If you wear a single color, people will respect you. If you radiate spirituality without wearing any single color, you are a Paramahamsa. You should radiate the color. So, they will remove all identification. Paramahamsa is not supposed to wear kavi. But maintenance for kavi is easy and cheap. Who will wash my clothes? I am lazy! Whether you believe it or not, throughout a large part of my life, I have used the same 3 pieces of clothing. 2 kavi pieces and one kavi shawl. Even if it gets dirty, it will not be seen!'

On this Himalayan yatra in 2005, one of the disciples, a lady from USA had been asking Nithyananda to help her have a darshan of Mahavatar Baba. Nithyananda told her that if her desire was sincere Baba would certainly appear to her. It so happened that we were both in the same bus and sitting next to each other in that leg of the Himalayan trip. During the climb to Kedarnath from Gaurikund both of us were on ponies next to each other. Often one man would handle a pair of ponies, so we traveled practically together, one behind the other.

That night when we reached Gaurikund this lady asked me, 'Did you see him?' I asked her, 'Who?' and she replied 'Mahavatar Baba'. I said 'No way. I was not even looking for his darshan.' She said, 'He passed between you and I this morning, between our ponies. You must have seen him. It was near the Kalabhairava temple. He was exactly like what he is describes as, as Swami told us.' Sad to say, all I had seen was the rump of the pony she was riding ahead of me. It was not my time to see Baba yet!

The next morning Master was in our bus and I mentioned to him that this lady had seen Baba. He called her to him, felt her wrist and said, 'Yes, Ma. You did see Baba'. He then said to her that she would feel the effects of Baba's energy and her body would not be able to take it so well. As a matter of fact, this lady was quite ill for the rest of the trip and also for a few months after. It was only when Nithyananda visited USA after about four months and healed her that she became normal.

An average intellectual, as I was till a few years ago, and as Nithyananda says that he himself was when he left home, would find all these incidents unbelievable. How can anyone live indefinitely or for 2500 years? How he can anyone walk without feet touching the ground?

Nithyananda has talked many times about matter and energy. In Newtonian Physics there was no concept of energy being related to matter. It took a few hundred years for Einstein to establish the connection between matter and energy. Still, many scientists believed that matter and energy were separated in time and space. They believed that some thing can exist as matter or as energy. Nithyananda says that the Vedic scriptures clearly state that matter and energy can exist in the same time frame and space frame. In recent years scientists have been able to understand this. They have been able to show that a particle can be in form and be formless simultaneously, or in multiple forms, or be matter and release energy.

The greatness of Nithyananda has been that he has been able to transmit that ability to feel the energy in matter to many of his disciples. His meditation techniques create within us the ability to experience the energy around us. They allow us to open up and receive the energy that is present all around us. As this ability develops it leads to the realization that we too are an integral part of that energy. It is not necessary that one be in the same state as Nithyananda to experience this. Any one can with deep trust in his teachings, in him and through a practice of what he teaches.

In the past great masters have had only a handful of disciples to whom they have been able to transmit such experiences. Enlightened masters such as Ramana, Ramakrishna, Yogananda and others initiated a dedicated group of disciples into such experiences. In the case of Nithyananda we can see that happening with far larger numbers.

Nithyananda once said: Buddha is said to have enlightened ten thousand disciples. This was two thousand years ago. Today I have at my disposal far more powerful tools of modern science to communicate and spread my teachings that Buddha never had. I should be able to help at least a million people to have the ultimate experience. Otherwise I have wasted my time here on this planet!

On many occasions when we asked Nithyananda to speak about his enlightenment experience he would say:

Surely I will speak about my personal experience. But unless you have a glimpse, you will not be able to relate to what I say. If I say anything about it now, it will be just one more story. It will not be an inspiration. I keep that as a last weapon to inspire you. My enlightenment story should inspire you and make you work towards that experience. After little bit of maturity, it'll be an inspiration for you to work towards that same state. It can inspire you to express or grow towards same state. Now if I speak, it'll be one more story, it will not be an inspiration.'

Yet, he did speak about this experience on a few occasions. Nithyananda's enlightenment experience happened in the forests of Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh in Central India. It is an island formed by the river Narmada, considered to be one of the holy rivers of India. It is one of the jyotirlinga sites of Shiva and a major pilgrimage spot. Adi Shankara's guru Govinda Bhagavad pada is said to have lived here and Nithyananda says that Adi Shankara had his enlightenment experience here.

Narmada is revered as the daughter of Shiva and its Parikrama or walk around from its source in the Amarkantek Hill to the end point in the Arabian Sea at Bharuch, Gujarat, a distance of about 2600 kilometers is considered a sacred pilgrimage.

Nithyananda stayed at Omkareshwar as well as around Omkareshwar in the jungles that were then populated by local tribes.

Let me tell you an incident from my life:

Actually if you see, the moments of happiness or joy happen when the mind stops. This may happen for just a few moments, but the impressions and the relaxation from dropping from the mind will be tremendous. When I say the mind stops, I mean, the mind gives a gap sometimes. For example, when you see nature, you will be capturing thousands of scenes continuously. But at one point in time, the mind will give a gap. It is this gap that becomes an unforgettable memory!

This was during my wandering days before enlightenment. I was walking from one city to another in India. On the way to a place called Omkareshwar, there is a thick jungle and a river flowing between the two hillocks that are completely made of marble stone. Between the two hillocks, the sacred river Narmada flows.

On a full moon night, I was just walking with a stick in my hand, swinging the stick and singing to myself. I was walking alongside the river. I was going down a small valley, and when I reached its end, I looked up and saw a big cliff in front of me. I saw on both sides, the two big hillocks shining in the full moon. Because it is white marble, it was simply shining in the moonlight!

The river was so beautifully flowing with a mild murmur. Suddenly I saw that both the hillocks were bridged! There was a physical connection between them in mid air. I went a bit near and saw that the whole thing was a honeycomb! The honeycomb was at least 400 feet long!

When I saw that, in just one moment, my mind gave a gap. Even now, I can see that moment; it was so ecstatic! I can remember that moment as such indescribable joy. Both the hillocks were simply connected! And the moment I perceived that, the mind gave a gap. Whenever you disappear into the nature, this happens very often.

Nithyananda lived in the forests near Omkareshwar for many months. During his period he lived with the local tribes who took care of him, as they did with many other sadhus who lived in that area. Earlier in this book we narrated the incidents about Nithyananda's pancha tapas experience and about the silver lamp in this area.

Nithyananda says that on one occasion he found the villagers building a hut on the outskirts of the village. Soon after this hut was built a pregnant woman walked in to the hut. After about an hour she walked out with a baby in her arms. There was no one with her, no midwife or a helper. There was not a sound from the hut when she was in labor. They build a hut, a woman walks in and delivers a baby. Later that night there was celebration to welcome the new addition. This happened a second and a third time. From time to time, the villagers would build these delivery huts for the pregnant women to walk in and deliver their babies.

After this happened a few times, Nithyananda could not contain his curiosity and asked a village elder with whom he could communicate in his limited Hindi as to what was going on. He elder simply said that this was how women delivered babies in their tribe. Nithyananda asked him how it was that they needed no medical help, how it was that there was pain and no screams that normally accompanied labor.

The old man was mystified. Pain, why, he kept asking, why pain while delivering babies, he asked. We welcome babies and it is natural for mothers to let the babies come out and no one had ever talked about pain. The word pain was not associated in their lives with delivery of babies.

Nithyananda says this brought home to him the truth how deeply we are conditioned by our beliefs. When one mother hears about or sees another having severe labor pains while delivering babies, this learned knowledge becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In this tribe women had never experienced any pain while delivering babies and had not been conditioned. It was that simple.

Nithyananda taught us how to de-condition ourselves from experiencing pain. He told us to focus strongly on the location of pain without the thought that it was pain and therefore it was discomfort and suffering. Pain, he said, arises from lack of attention to a body part. Pay attention and it will disappear. Most of us are taught to divert our attention from pain or to suppress pain.

Neither works. Suppression increases pain. Diversion temporarily takes the pain away. If you focus on the location of pain, just the spot where the experience comes from, without labeling it as pain, it increases dramatically momentarily and then reduces and finally disappears. We were amazed at how well this technique works and so would any of you when you try it.

The physical pain may still linger but you will have no emotional response to it and there will be no suffering.

Nithyananda lived in a cave in the forest. He used to sit outside the cave and meditate. On one occasion he says that when he opened his eyes he found something that looked like a giant standing in front of him looking at him curiously at him. Nithyananda looked back at this creature curiously and without fear. After a few minutes this creature walked off. It was a bear!

On another occasion, a large snake, a cobra, was sitting in front of him when he opened his eyes. At first he felt no fear looking at the snake and the snake too stayed calmly in front of him. As soon as the thought that it was a poisonous snake entered Nithyananda's mind and fear crept in, the snake slithered away.

Nithyananda has a very powerful sense of smell and on many occasions has told us when we were in the Bidadi ashram that snakes were nearby. Someone asked him once, 'Why should we worry since we have an enlightened master is with us. The snakes would do us no harm.' He looked at that person seriously and said, 'I do not know about you, but if I saw a large cobra, I would run for my life!'

On another occasion Nithyananda spoke to us about his enlightenment.

I was on the banks of the River Narmada in Omkareshwar again. This is the place where Shankara became enlightened.

I had done many different types of tapas (penance) and tried different types of meditation techniques. Actually, I literally killed myself with these meditation techniques. Finally, a very sudden and deep depression landed on me. I had a deep feeling of being cheated and thought to myself, 'For the sake of enlightenment, I have left my family. Whatever has to be done according to the Vedic scriptures, almost everything has been done by me. Yet, it is not happening. No enlightenment, only days are passing.

One day suddenly, maybe in the evening at around four, I felt excruciating pain along with the deep depression. I felt that nothing more could be done, that there is no need to live anymore, because whatever has to be done has been done. I thought, either I had to become enlightened or I had to die. I never spent any time living my life like other people, earning money or learning how to live. I don't even know how to live! Even now, I can't count. I can't count numbers too far. I never learned anything towards material life, so I thought, either I had to become enlightened or I had to die.

I was convinced that the whole concept of enlightenment was just a story. I thought it was never going to happen in my life. I felt that at least there is no possibility for it in my life. So I decided, 'Let me commit suicide.' It was such an excruciating pain that made me decide to commit suicide.

I entered the Narmada rive, a very powerful and aggressive river. Between the two hillocks, it runs very deep and fast. It has big falls as well. I thought, 'Let me commit suicide. It is not going to be any more than two or three minutes. I will drown and be carried away.'

I started walking. When the water started coming up to my hip, in the terrible fear, I just shut my eyes tightly and continued walking. I continued walking and walking. I could feel the water continuously rising in level. At one point, I felt my breath to be very painful. I was breathing the pain inside, the suffering inside.

I was breathing the pain inside. So much of pain had gone inside and at one moment, something hit me. Suddenly something broke. When the breath came out, it came out just as bliss!

But I found that I was continuing to go inside the river. I was just moving. Since I had my eyes tightly closed, I don't know how much distance I would have walked. When the breath came out with bliss, I felt completely rejuvenated. It was as if the whole of life had entered me. I fell down and saw that I was in the other shore! I do not know what had happened. What I am telling you is the simple truth.

I do not know what had happened in between. Whether I walked through the water, or I walked on the pebbles and rocks, I don't know. I thought that maybe the river is shallow in the part that I walked, but I heard from not less than fifty persons that it is not less than 200 feet deep. I don't even know how to swim. When I fell on the ground, I saw that I was on the other shore, that's all.

Suddenly, I could very clearly feel that Narmada was laughing at me. The river Narmada is considered a virgin girl, Shiva's daughter. She was always considered to be a virgin girl. I very clearly felt she was laughing at me!

I wanted to share this experience just to tell you that when you touch the deep core of pain, you will see that bliss opens in you!

Nithyananda said that his problem then was to get back to where he started from. He no longer had the courage to walk back through the river. Unlike many others in his home town he never learnt to swim. There is a belief that monks should not swim and perhaps this prevented him from even trying. So, he walked along the bank on the opposite side for many miles till he came to a bridge that he could cross and retrace his way back to where he started.

He had been staying in a cave in the forest, similar to one that over a thousand years earlier Govinda Bhagavad Pada had stayed in. Before he set out walking across Narmada, in his deep frustration Nithyananda threw away the few precious belongings he had carried till then. He threw away his mala, the rosary of rudraksha that he used as a meditation aid. He threw away a picture of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa that he always carried with him. This was a framed photograph with a glass front and the glass shattered as it fell on a rock. He threw away his water pot, kamandalu and his stick. He says he also discarded mentally the mantra that he had been meditating with since childhood.

'What us is all this, I felt' he said, 'I believed in these people and wasted my precious youth. I no longer have any trust in all these great masters like Ramakrishna and Ramana. They have misled me.'

He then sat down in the cave and relaxed. This incident happened on the 25th December, 1999, Christmas day. A week later on the 1 st January 2000 Nithyananda arose with the overwhelming experience that he was one with the Universe.

The very first time I met Nithyananda I asked him about enlightenment and that was the only time. 'What is it?' I asked, 'What is this experience? How does one get it?'

He said simply, 'When your curious questions become a deep quest for truth and when your urge truly becomes urgent, you will experience it. You need to be desperate. You must feel you cannot breathe any more, as if you are drowning. Then you give up and relax. It happens.'

On many occasions since then Nithyananda has spoken on the process of Self Realization or enlightenment. The word Self Realization says it all. When one realizes who one is, one is enlightened.

Several years ago, a group of us were sitting with Nithyananda in a small hall then called Ananda Nilayam, near his cottage in Bidadi ashram. He was talking to us on the Shiva Sutras. He was explaining why the Shiva Sutras were so cryptic, so brief. Devi was the ideal disciple to Shiva, she was part of Him. She was so ready that Shiva had no need to explain. She had already surrendered herself to Him. Nithyananda said that this surrender was the most important quality of any disciple and that was the only path to enlightenment. Then he told the group, 'Don't waste your time and my time. Don't sit on the threshold blocking others from coming in. Come in now or leave'.

Unanimously we all said that we were ready to come in, we were ready to surrender. He said, 'That is a lie. None of you is ready to surrender. You do not even know what that word means.' He then went on to explain surrender.

There are three stages of surrender. The first is intellectual surrender. It is the acceptance of what the master says. Swami says that for many acceptance of what he says depends on whether the teaching is in line with one's comfort level. Time and again, he has said that for most spirituality is a week end exercise. It is something you do when you have nothing else to do. One decides to go and listen to the master if one has no other important appointments.

Many of us do not even reach this level. Questions arise when what he says is in conflict with our earlier belief systems, what we think are scientific truths or religious commandments. When what the master says is in conflict with what we have experienced so far in life, what we have believed so far in life, there is serious questioning. How many times one has seen parents deciding to cut off from the Master when a child, heaven forbid a daughter, decides to walk away from marriage and into a monastic order. One's entire edifice of what one's life should be collapses in front of one's eyes and along with that, one's faith in the Master.

One must be ready to move beyond one's zone of comfort in the path to surrender one's intellect. As long as we wish to live within the furrowed grooves of our conditioned memory pathways, within the shades of what we have learnt and learnt to live by, we are guided by our mind. It is the unconscious mind driving us as it wishes. The entire framework of our ego is the unconscious. It is the collected identikit of all our past beliefs and value systems. To let go of these is to give ourselves up. To let go this identity is to die. This is why we are so afraid to die, even though we all know we must. We do not know what will happen to us after we die. We cannot believe the priests who tell us that if we place a few coins in the box we shall go straight to heaven. There is no guarantee. So, we cling to out beliefs, we grasp our identity like the proverbial straw as we get buffeted in the wind and we hope and we pray that we do not die; no, not just yet.

Surrendering even the intellect, the very first stage of surrender, is therefore not as easy as it sounds. The conviction has to arise within, that whatever the Master says is true. That conviction can only happen when one's ego, one's identity, dissolves. Nithyananda says that as long as traces of ego remain, we remain in questions and doubts. All our questions arise from the inner violence to prove ourselves, to prove our knowledge, to prove that we know what is good for us and we know how to control our lives. As the ego dissolves, questions too dissolve into doubts, when the desire is to know, knowing that we do not know. This is how I lived my entire life and now it seems to be so useless, what do I do now? The tone of the question changes and it morphs into a plea.

Many of us have experienced this process. To some it has been easy, they are the blessed ones. For many it has been a tortuous journey, but a blessed journey. As the ego drops, as one's identity dissolves, one experiences for the first time liberation from all the baggage one has carried. Judgmental opinions about people and preconceived notions about how we should act or not act slide away, allowing one for the first time in one's life to see people as they are and incidents as they are. What the master has said time and again, that there is nothing inherent right and nothing inherently wrong, suddenly bursts like lightning dispelling the dark ignorance that one has carried thus far.

'Why don't you believe me', Nithyananda said to me once, 'I am telling you that you are enlightened. If you trust me, if you have surrendered to me as you say you have, you should believe me'.

But as he explained while talking about the Mahabharata once, one's ego is stronger than the master. Duryodhana is the ego and killing Duryodhana was more difficult than killing Bhishma, Drona and Karna. Even the master has to wait till the disciple is ready to surrender the intellect, the ego.

The next level of surrender, Nithyananda said, is the surrender of the heart. The next level is the emotional surrender to the master. For those who are ruled by the heart this is probably a short cut that by passes the surrender of the intellect. Surrender of the heart can only happen when the brain does not interfere. Women come to mind automatically as the first choice in this group and indeed they are. By and large women are less ruled by their ego than men are. Men who have been successful in dropping their intellect behave as an archetypal woman would, responding and relating from the heart.

When the emotional connection with the Master is strong, when the heart surrenders to the Master, when the intellect is completely abandoned, the very memory of the Master can reduce one to tears. It is a primal and uncontrollable response triggered by a spoken word, a written word or a picture, or even a memory. Blessed are those who reach this state. Ramakrishna says that when the memory of the master of a chosen deity brings tears to one's eyes out of sheer devotion, then be clear, that person is no more tied to the cycle of samsara, birth and death; such a person will not be reborn.

What an easy way to fool Yama!

When the emotional surrender is complete, it is not only the master but all those who are associated with the Master also take on the hue of the Master. This is when the Buddha gets reflected on the Sangha and two merge. In fact when there is intellectual and emotional surrender, all three, Buddha, the master, Dhamma, his teachings and Sangha, his community, all three merge into one seamless entity.

Nithyananda has emphasized this point many times. 'It is easy to love me' he says, 'It is easy to fall in love with a good looking master. But that love has to extend to my family of followers. Only then you have true devotion to me,'

What Nithyananda teaches is not the dry withered principles of gnana or vedanta. What he teaches is the flowing sweetness of the nectar of bhakti. Gnana, wisdom, when note experienced in its entirety can make one arrogant and isolate one from others. True realization of the Self is not exclusion. It is all about inclusion. He teaches what Krishna taught in the Gita, 'vasudeva kutumbaha.' The world is the family. As we saw earlier, as we move through the energy layers of our mind body system, the distance and the separation between 'you', 'I' and God reduces till all three merge. That point of merger is Self Realization or enlightenment.

'It is not enough if you surrender to me intellectually and emotionally. It is a good beginning but not enough. You must learn to surrender your senses' said Nithyananda.

'What?' we chorused as one, 'What do you mean by surrender of the senses?'

He then told us of this incident from Mahabharata.

After the war was over and Pandavas became rulers of Hastinapura, Krishna was walking with Arjuna. Suddenly Krishna pointed to a bird on a tree and exclaimed, 'Hey, Arjuna, look at that crow. See how pretty that green crow is!'

Arjuna looked where Krishna pointed. 'Yes, Krishna, It is a beautiful green crow.'

They walked further. Again Krishna pointed to another bird on another tree saying, 'Arjuna, look, there is a black crow on that branch.'Arjuna nodded, 'Yes, Krishna. I see that black crow.'

Krishna turned to Arjuna, 'What a fool you are. How can a crow be green? Yet you said that the crow was green. Have you gone blind?'

Said Arjuna, 'Krishna, when you pointed to the first crow and said it was green, what I saw, what my eyes saw was a green crow. What can I do?'

What could he do? Arjuna's senses had surrendered to his beloved master. What his eyes saw was what the master said. There was no dissonance. The faith in the mater transcended the power of his senses.

Nithyananda then said, 'If I tell you that these white walls are black and eyes see them as black, then and only then your surrender is complete.'

We said we did not know how to and pleaded, please teach us.

It was as we moved along with him that we learnt that his presence taught us. We also learnt that it was not the physical presence that was needed. As he says often, 'When you sit in front of me, I am not present here as you may think I am. When you do not see me, I am not absent as you think I am.' When the trust in the master is complete, he resides in you. There is no place that he can go to or you can go to, away from each other.

As was mentioned in the introduction, this volume had its own creative process. Nothing worked the way it was planned. After a few false starts, Nithyananda said, 'You have enough material on record and personal conversations. Go ahead and write this volume. If there is anything to add we shall add later.'

By now we are used to taking Nithyananda's words as gospel. What he says works. We have no doubts. As I started on putting together the material that we had to compile this book, there was only one thought that was uppermost. That was about how to present what he said about his own life without distortion. Inspiration arises from learning about how the Master lived and experienced. The energy of that inspiration is much stronger when the master's own words narrate the story.

We celebrate the day of Nithyananda's enlightenment, which is also the date of his birth on the 1 st of January, as the Jayanthi each year. It was the same with Buddha. He too was born and enlightened on the same date. Jayanthi refers to victory, signifying the victorious entry of an enlightened being into our midst. It is a ten day festival now at Bidadi, with crowds growing exponentially each year.

Nithyananda had decided when he traveled northwards to the Himalayas never to return to the south again. But Existence had other plans for him. After his enlightenment Nithyananda had a vision urging him to return to South India and help transform people through meditation. Dhyanapeetam was born as a result of this vision. It took more than a year after his enlightenment for Nithyananda to regain full function of his body. The story of his return to the South will be covered in the next volume.

What you have finished reading through is neither a fanciful story nor a factual history. It is the truth of experiences that can transform your lives. We hope they will.

May the Master's blessings be upon you!

The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism ("SPH"), Jagatguru Mahasannidhanam ("JGM"), His Divine Holiness ("HDH") Bhagavan 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 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:

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 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 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 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 Nithyanada Paramashivam has made resolute efforts towards recognizing and legitimizing the Hindu genocide which has been receiving scant consideration by global leaders and international bodies, The SPH 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 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.

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, India, 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 SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam stands in solidarity with the untold, multi-level - 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 SPH 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 SPH 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

Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-848-5