Ananda Yoga, the path of ecstasy is today's topic. Let me explain the meaning of the title, word by word. Then we will be able to understand what this is. Ananda means bliss. Nanda is that which can die. which can disappear. Ananda is that which can never die. which can never disappear. A thing, which can never disappear from our Being is what Ananda is.

Ananda means bliss. We should be very clear, that it is not joy. Joy is not bliss. Whenever we have joy, we should be sure that we are qoing to have suffering. Ananda is nothing to do with joy or suffering: it is bevond both.

Three words need to be understood here: 'pleasure, joy and bliss'.

Pleasure is whenever we come in contact with outer world things, some music, some sweet, some smell, some beautiful scene or physical touch. It is called pleasure.

Whenever we come in contact with nature; for instance, when we see a big hillock or a snowcapped hillock, or we see a big ocean, or a beautiful forest and then what we feel is joy.

Whenever we feel the ecstasy or a beautiful feeling without any outer object; neither the sensory objects nor the nature, without any outer object, not even the forms of Gods, not even the names of the Gods; totally from our energy, from our Atman, it is called bliss. If we feel ecstatic or joyful from the Atman, without any outer supplement, without the help of any outer objects, it is bliss.

These three words need to be understood. Whenever we get the joy or whenever we get the feeling of well-being, whenever we feel excited through an external object; it is called 'pleasure', Whenever we get the feeling from the nature, it is called 'joy'. Whenever we get it just from inside for no reason, without the help of anything outer, it is called 'bliss'. Ananda means that which comes from within. It just happens internally, without the outer objects.

What is the word Yoga? To understand what yoga is, one word is enough. To understand what is not yoga is the main thing, because we have a wrong concept about yoga. We think yoga is nothing but a set of postures, to bend our body this way; more or less like a physical exercise. No. Physical exercises are only Hatha voga, it is only one part of yoga,

Yoga means 'union'. What is union? The technique or the method which again unites us to the divine, which makes us one with the divine, which makes us feel the experience of Advaita, the experience of oneness with the cosmic intelligence, with the cosmic energy, with the cosmic power. The technique or the method is only called as yoga. Yoga means union.

Yoga means 'yogaha chitta vritti nirodaha'.

This is an ultimate explanation or definition about yoga. Yoga means 'cessation of the mind'. Yoga is the technique or the method to take us beyond the mind, to take us to the enlightenment, to take us to the divine energy, to make us feel one with the existence! Yoga means union.

Ananda Yoga, the path of ecstasy. 'Bliss Union', is the method to unite ourselves with the divine, the method to unite ourselves with God, the method to unite ourselves with the existence. The technique to unite ourselves with the existence is what Ananda voga is. It is a blissful technique, a blissful method. Bliss itself is used as a technique, as a method to unite ourselves with the God.

I will explain how bliss itself is used. It is 'Path of Ecstasy'. We should understand the difference between path 'to' ecstasy and path 'of ecstasy. Ananda yoga is not path to ecstasy; it is path of ecstasy. "Path to' means, there is something like a goal; and that we are going to reach there. But it is not path to ecstasy; it is 'path of' ecstasy. The very traveling is ecstasy. The very traveling is joy, very beginning, very walking is joy. If we keep our mind always on the goals, if we think about the goal continuously, somewhere we will miss.

People ask me. 'Master, what is the goal of life?'

Life has no goal, it has only purpose. Goal is different; purpose is different. Goal means, there is something in the end; and that we will go and reach there and get it. Purpose means, the very living has got a purpose. Logical mind always thinks life has qoal. Mystical mind always thinks life has a purpose. Our very living has a purpose! We should not think life has a goal and that if we achieve only that goal, our life has a meaning; No. Our very living has a purpose.

When one thinks life has a goal, the whole life becomes more or less like a rat-race. I used to regularly tell and will always tell this; 'The greatest problem in the rat-race is even if you win, you are a rat!' We are nothing more than a rat. If we think there is something like a goal, after a long, long distance, we will be running towards it....continuously towards the goal. There is no goal. Only purpose. Purpose means the very living is ecstasy. Very living is joyful. Very living has got purpose.

Let us see what is purpose. Goal-orientation always makes us more tensed. Generally in the outer world, we run towards this, we run towards that; the greed makes us run. With the same mind, we start thinking God or Divine is also one more goal! We start running towards that, that is all. We think we can run towards the Divine, we can run towards the God, No.

In this inner world, logic is totally different. It is never like a goal and running and reaching the goal, No. That is what again and again I insist. Arise, awake, Stop! the qoal is reached. Vivekananda says, Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached. I tell you, Arise, awake, stop; the goal is reached.

One person went to a Buddhist Master, Zen Master and asked, 'Master, when will I get what I seek?' Master said, 'when you stop seeking, you will get'. Because the very seeking creates a tension or stress in us that we miss the goal is missed because of the very seeking. Because of the very search, we are so tensed; we just miss the whole thing.

We have gone to a relaxation course and we are so tensed to learn how to relax; we make the whole thing a mess. If one is too tensed to learn how to relaxation will be one more tension. The very idea that 'I should relax' will become one more tension. I always tell the people 'Accept everything; all your guilt, all your fear, all your anger'. They come and tell me, 'Master, I am not able to accept, what to do?'. I answer back to them, saying, 'Atleast accept that you are not able to accept, that is all, over. What for the technique 'acceptance' is given is to drop out of the mind. Accept that you are not able to accept, then again you are dropped out of the mind'.

Whenever we understand that, 'I am not able to accept', the very understanding makes us accept. If we are too qoal-oriented; our mind or the Being can never relax or rest. The very purpose of the spirituality or the bliss or the divinity is to make us relax or to drop from our mind. Only when we relax from the mind, when we drop from the mind; we can taste the divinity.

Yogaha chitta vritti nirodaha, yoga is cessation of the mind. How can cessation of the mind happen by tension? If we are goal-oriented, we will be continuously in tension, never the mind will drop, never the cessation of the mind can happen. Only when we relax, only when we know the cessation can happen, only when we come down from the mind, only when we drop the goalorientation; the mind can stop. The very mind itself is nothing but goal-orientation. Your goalorientation only keeps the mind alive.

Just suddenly for one moment; decide whatever IS. I accept that; whatever exists. I accept as they are. If one accepts this deeply, simply the mind will lose its roots. Our very mind will lose its roots. Mind is alive because of our goal-orientation. If spirituality or the bliss becomes one more goal, how can mind be killed? How will we reach the bliss?

Mind and bliss are daughter-in-law and mother-in-law!. They can never stay together how much we try. How much we try from morning to night; we can give all your best teachings or we can take them to the best seminars, even to ASP (Ananda Spurana program)/LBP (Life Bliss program) and then the next day morning; again we will see the same two people and the same mood.

They will tell, 'What Master said is alright for others, but atleast not for my daughter-in-law'. She also tells, 'See, she has attended all these courses; Master, you have taught so much but my mother-in-law never understood anything'.

I have seen many people coming and complaining to me: 'You said so many things in the ASP, my mother-in-law is the same Master, she never understood'. That means clearly that the daughter-in-law has not understood.

If we have understood, we will never come and complain. Mind and the meditation are just like the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law. Mind and bliss, they can never stay together. Either the mind or the bliss. If we are goal-oriented, only the mind can be alive.

Only when we drop from the goal, when we are path-oriented; bliss can be alive. So I tell you, path OF ecstasy, not path to ecstasy. The very living is ecstasy. Let us be path-oriented, not goaloriented.

Now, let us analyze the various paths. Then we will understand what is 'bliss path', what is the goal, what is to be achieved, why all the spiritual groups are created on this planet earth, why so many religions, so many cults, so many sects, so many groups, so many methods, so many techniques and so many Masters. Almost if we enter into the of search, we are crowded with Masters. I always tell them, 'it is very easy to get Masters, but very difficult to get a good disciple'. Masters are very easy, one can very easily get, but it is very difficult to be a good disciple. Only a man who is a good disciple can be a real Master.

Anyhow, so many Masters, so many methods, so many techniques, what is our ultimate goal, what for the whole thing is created? It is only one thing, the very movement of life is towards the joy and bliss. In Rishi's lanquaqe, they call it Satchidaananda. Sat means the awareness, which is constant or which is eternal, permanent or which always exists. Chit means consciousness. Thirdly, Ananda means bliss. Sat-Chit-Ananda, all the Rishis, all the Advaitis, all the meditators take the path of Sat. Searching for the truth is what is called Sat.

What is truth. Sat means truth, which is permanent. When we start searching what is permanent, we take the path of Sat, Chit means consciousness. When we put our consciousness in the path of devotion on some form, when our consciousness is surrendered to the Ultimate through a Master or through God, or through some form, it is called path of consciousness. Path of truth is Sat. Path of consciousness is Chit. Path of bliss is Ananda. In this path, the very starting is bliss and our walking is also bliss. Your ending is also bliss. The other paths, when you start; you start with the techniques, most of the times dull, dead and dry.

Religion is almost like a punishment. If it is dull, dead and dry, religion is almost like a punishment.

A small story:

After a long dry sermon, the priest announced; 'After this benediction, there will be a congregation of the board in the next room'. After the benediction he went to the next room. He saw one man who was dressed like a Muslim sitting inside. Priest asked, there will be a congregation of the board, why did you come here?, you do not even look like a Christian, why did you come in this room?' The man said, 'O!, is it the congregation of the board, sorry. I mistook it is the congregation of the bored! I thought it is the congregation of the bored, I wanted to see how many more are bored just like me'.

Religion has almost become a dull, dead ceremony, a punishment. That is why the rituals have to be forced on people, by greed or through fear. Either we are shown the greed of heaven or the fear of hell! Religion, the techniques, the methods have become a totally a dry, long thing. The very idea has become anti-life. Almost every ritual has become anti-life.

There's a small story:

In Bharat, there was a big Ashram where everyday morning a pooja (prayer) used to be done. That Swami had a pet, a small pet cat. Everyday at the time of the prayer, that pet used to come and play with him. It would disturb the prayer. It would sometimes jump on the God also. So, that Swami decided that from tomorrow onwards; before the pet should be caught and should be covered with a basket. So, before the prayer, the pet used to be caught and they would be covered with a basket, then the prayer would start.

Everyday the same thing continued. Suddenly one day, the pet cat died. They did not inform the Master. They thought pooja means, there must be one cat. So, they went to somewhere else, caught one cat, covered it with a basket, then the prayer started. Even after the Master's time, the habit continued. After sometime, it had become very difficult to get a cat. Then raised an anxiety in them as to how to do the prayer without the cat!

Then they all discussed. 'First thing to be done for the cat will be brought and it should be covered with a basket, then the prayer has to be started! This is the first step; if we cannot get a cat, how to do the prayer?'

Because one day they could not get the cat, they stopped the pooja. Then slowly and gradually, the orientation turns. When the orientation has turned, the whole thing becomes a dull, dead and a long path. Many people come and ask me; even yesterday we were discussing that somewhere there is a yoga group which takes months and years to open chakras, and they are long and dry techniques. When they heard about our ASP/LBP, they were surprised to learn that in two days, about every energy centre, one could have a glimpse or one could have an experience and wondered how grand this technique was.

I told them, 'It is true. All the old techniques and old methods are designed at the age of 'bullock-cart'!, so naturally they will have only bullock-cart speed. But now, this modern day path, Ananda yoga is designed at the age of air-craft, jet-age. So, this naturally will have the speed of a jet. Ananda yoga is jet-age technique.'

The yoga through Sat is invented or designed at the age of bullock-cart. The yoga through Chit is designed at the age of tractor. The yoga through Ananda yoga is designed at the age of jet-age. The very starting is itself with the bliss. All the mystics say God is Satchidananda. As far as this Satchidananda concept is concerned, as far as the idea Satchidananda, (truthconsciousness-bliss) is concerned; it is not that only the Hindus or the Muslims say. The truthconsciousness-bliss concept is said by almost all the mystics.

Jesus says, 'Be still and know that I am God, the Truth'. I am God does not mean Jesus, but the Christ; Christ who is inside the Jesus, the Christ-consciousness. Whenever the Masters declare 'I', 'I', they do not mean their body; it means their spirit.

There is a fanatic group of Krishna devotees, Krishna believers. In Bharat, once they called me for their function and I went to their function, they asked me, 'Swamiji, do you believe in Krishna, do you believe in Geetha?' I said, 'Verily, it is a great scripture, the greatest scripture ever that can be written on the planet Earth, you cannot produce one more book like Geetha, It is an ultimate book.' Then they asked me, 'Why do you then worship Shiva instead of Krishna?' In our ashram there is a Shiva temple and there is a big Banyan tree, a 300 years old banyan tree. Under that Banyan tree only, I sit and do the healing or meditation classes to the people. Under that there is a Shiva temple.

There is a beautiful shloka written by Shankara, which says:

The shloka (verse) is sung towards Dakshinamurthy; and it means, O! What a surprise, under the big Banyan tree, a small boy is sitting as a Guru and all His disciples are His grandfathers' age and the Guru is only grandson's age.

Vruddha shishyaa gurur yuva, Gurostu maunam vyaakhyaanam, Shishyaastu chhinna samshayaat: The very presence of the Guru, the very silence of the Master destroys the negativities of the disciples. Samshavaa means not only the doubts, even the negativities and doubts of the disciples are destroyed. This verse is sung towards Dakshinamurthy. Not only Dakshinamurthy, it is suitable for all the great Masters.

This is the same with Shankara also. Shankara was only 16 when He became a Guru! All His disciples: Totaka, Hasthaamalaka; all the Acharyas, Sureshwara is 60, all disciples are grandfathers' age, Master is grandson's age. Same thing is true with Ramana Mahrishi. When He became a Master, He was just 21 when He came out to the world. And His first disciple Kavyanataganapathy was an elderly pundit. There are so many examples. Turanyaasammandar was also very young; Vivekanandar too.

The Guru is grandson's age, the disciples are grandfather's age.

They asked me, 'why do you worship Shiva?' Under the big Banyan tree, a Shiva's statue is there. 'Why do not you worship Krishna?' I told him, 'why, Krishna and Shiva are one and the same, same energy! Just because I believe Geetha, why do you say I should worship only Krishna, both are one and the same.' They said, 'No, no, in the Geetha, Krishna says, 'I am everything, I am the God. So you should understand that He says Krishna is the God. He is everything, why should you worship something else, you should worship only Krishna'. I told them, 'No, when Krishna says, 'I', He does not mean the Vasudeva Krishna. He means the Parabrahma Krishna.

He does not mean the person who took birth to Vasudeva. He means the enlightened Soul who is Krishna, He means His Being and not the body or the form, He means the energy. They said, 'no, no, no, where is the proof?, when He says He means only the form, how do say He means the energy?; give us the proof, give us a clear explanation.' I told them, 'if you read 2 chapters after Geetha, you will come upon one smaller book called Anu Geetha. I do not know if any of you have read'.

If we read Mahabharata, after Geetha, after chapter 2, we will come upon a small chapter called Anu Geetha. If we know how that book was created, then the whole doubt will disappear.

After the war, after everything was over; Krishna and Arjuna were going for a picnic, for a vacation. At that time Arjuna asks, 'O! Krishna, You said so many good things at the time of war, in Geetha, I forgot everything. Whatever you have said, I have forgotten. Why do not you repeat so that I will remember or put the whole thing in writing? Why do not you repeat once more?'

Krishna replied, 'you have forgotten? O!, it is not that only you have forgotten. I tell you honestly, I have also forgotten!' Arjuna could not understand what He was talking and told. 'You are the man who told everything, how can you say you have forgotten? Krishna says, 'the person who spoke at that time was not Vasudeva Krishna, it was Parabrahma Krishna. It is in that enlightenment ecstasy, the ecstasy of enlightenment, the bliss of enlightenment, in that high mood, in that enlightened mood; as an Energy I spoke to you, it is not the body with which I spoke to you'.

He continued, 'When I spoke to you, when I gave the Geetha to you, I am the Brahma, Parabrahma. In that state, I gave you the Geetha, but now I am in a normal state, I am in the Vasudeva Krishna, I am in the form. When I gave you the Geetha, I was in the formless. So, Geetha is delivered in the Energy, in the Formlessness. It was delivered by my energy, now I am in my form'.

Yesterday, one of my devotee was asking me, 'Master, sometimes when we look at You, you look so Divine!, your actions, your speech, your deeds, everything; and the very next moment, You look so innocent like a small boy, like an ordinary man. You confuse us'.

It is Truth, it is Truth! There is always a possibility in enlightened Masters, there are two dimensions. The major dimension, the ultimate dimension is enlightenment. There is a small ray, one small inch or the human dimension, which they hold to keep the body alive! But the beauty in enlightened persons is: they can always go and come back. The path is open. That is why: one can see the very innocent small child, and the next moment, the mood of the God.

In the life of Krishna, we can see; the moment He opens His mouth, He shows the whole universe in His mouth to Yashoda. The moment He closes His mouth, He starts eating the mud. One moment He eats the mud, and when Yashoda beats Him, He cries and He opens His mouth and shows the whole world, the whole universe.

Krishna says, 'At that time, I was in that ecstasy, I delivered it. Now, I am Vasudeva Krishna, so, do not ask me. I am not able to remember'. Then Krishna says, 'I can do one thing, I can go back to that ecstasy and bring back the memories. I will do that'. He went back and brought whatever little bit of that memory He could and He could put it in a small way, in a nut-shell. That small book, which He put it in the nutshell form, or the capsule form, is called Anu Geetha.

Only when this was explained, the Krishna fanatics or the Krishna believers accepted that everything is one and the same. Everything is only one thing; that is the formless energy, never the form!

When the path is towards Sat, when it is towards the truth; we must understand, things are more than form. It is beyond form. In the Bible also, the Sat-Chit-Ananda, the Truth-Consciousness-Bliss is accepted. In Quran also, they say 'Un-ul-haq' I am the Truth. In Upanishads, they say 'Aham Brahmaasmi'; I am the Truth. In Zen, the very body is Buddha. The very Being is Buddha. So everywhere, the concept of Sat-Chit-Ananda; Truth-Consciousness-Bliss, is accepted

When we go searching for the Truth, we have to leave all the things which are not the Truth, which are untruth. We need a tremendous renunciation. Because of renunciation, only, the path of truth has become outdated. Today, nobody follows that path. The path is almost outdated. It is very difficult.

If we go through Consciousness, again we need to spend a lot of our time doing bhajana (singing in praise of God), rituals, worship, yaaga (fire sacrifice), yajna (fire ritual), pooja.

The path of Ananda neither asks us to renounce the world nor asks us to concentrate on any one object. The path of Ananda is: whatever we do, we should do it totally. In whatever way one may live, one has to live it beautifully. The very living should become the moment of Ananda. From Ananda to Ananda. Every moment, we should let it become Ananda, we should let it become Bliss!

What is it we are continuously listening to for the past 15 days, 'be blissful, be blissful'. In all possible languages, I am shouting 'Be blissful' in English, 'Anandamaaqa iranga' in Tamil, 'Anandavaagir' in Kannada, 'Anandaga undandi' in Telugu. In all the possible languages, I am blessing or talking; 'be blissful, be blissful'.

But only at the time of a joke or some small story, we show our mouth or teeth, then again the face is back to the same condition, same mood.

Today, I met the kids. A few kids were sitting with me. I was talking to the kids. I was sitting and talking to them for an hour. I was really shocked; none of the fellows knew how to laugh. I thought I should take these guys to Bharat just to show the Hindu kids laugh. Foolish fellows! At least three I told a few small stories, not even once they opened their mouth and laughed. I was shocked, I was really shocked. Then I thought, 'if I sit for some more time, I will become old; because the guys behaved in such a matured way, rather they think they are mature'.

Not only that, the symbol of maturity means showing a calm face. I think that is the ideal taught to them; that is the ideal they have learnt from the society. And not even one fellow was looking like a kid. Everybody is asking me questions like; 'Swamiii, why did God create the world at all?' And all sorts of questions, 'Swamiji, are there other human-beings on the other planets also?' I told them 'fools, first know how to live happily on this planet'. They have started bothering about the other planets now itself.

And one of the kids is asking, 'how to stop the reincarnation cycle, Swamiji?' as if she is going to put her hand in that chakra (wheel of life) and going to stop that. Now itself they are tired of living. I said, 'what a question you are asking, you are supposed to ask, how to live more joyfully, now itself the questions of tiredness'. And I am really shocked that none of them laugh. Actually I was bored. Oh!, I thought kids means they should laugh. 'In Bharat one should see, really I am happy for the Hindu kids; at least they know how to laugh. And if they do not like it also, they know how to express it."

In Bharat, I went to attend a small gathering with kids. They told me to speak something. I told, 'no, the kids are already happy, why should I speak, leave it. If they have something, I will answer', One kid asked me one question. I was answering and somehow he could not understand. The very next thing he did was he came near me and started pulling my dhoti (an Hindu garment). Then, there was no other way, it was a break, I had to stop my answer and listen to him, only then was I able to proceed.

Atleast, in that I could see life. Even in their mischievousness, I could see the life. Here the kids are so cultured. I tell you, 'Never do that. I am telling all the parents and if you make them this way, if you make them so cultured and so serious; you can be sure they will also end up in the same way as they end up in the depression'. Depression is nothing but the disease from the logic, from the intellect.

Because, for everything, we measure; even to laugh, we measure! Everything we measure. If we look at ourselves when we laugh, it is only when the person sitting next to us is of the same status or we see if his status and our status equals, or if our status is little high, only then, we open our mouth. Even after laughing, we just verify what the others think about us, what the others are doing. For everything, we measure. It is really very pathetic, very sad to see.

I felt really bad when I saw those kids. And somebody sitting and shaking their legs. I said, 'Eh, it shows your inner restlessness.' I can be sure if I would have told this to a Hindu kid, immediately he would have stopped at least. Even after telling, he did not stop. Not only after telling, even till the end, he did not stop and he did not even want to show that he is ready to listen to me. I was shocked how logical or how....there is no other suitable word to express. How foolish, how dull the wav in which their system responds.

See, once somebody tells something to the Hindu kids, at least they will show they do not want to listen. But here, they are just there as if I am talking to somebody else. I always tell them, 'at least show some expression on your face, whether you agree or not. At least if you are showing that you are not agreeing, I can try to explain little more'. I did not find any expression. Just as is everybody is a Buddha! Buddhus (meaning: fools in Hindi) indeed!

l was bored. If I would not have sat with them. I think I would have spoken much better today. I was bored sitting. Generally. whenever I sit with kids. I do not stop. I extend. Today, when my PRO came and told me that it was time. Then I told, 'alright, let me finish'. This was the first time I did not even give a huq to the kids. Whenever I sit with the kids: after I finish. I always give them a hug. But I saw everybody was so intellectual, all philosophical questions, nothing was practical. Full one hour, only philosophical discussion.

Nothing was practical. I had to bring them down to earth constantly. Again they would become philosophers. Of course they learn only from our body language. When I say one story, one joke, one minute the mouth is opened, again the gum on our lips is pulling the lips back. Why?, why are we continuously sad; continuously we listen, but after some time, we come back to the normal position.

There are three small keys from Tantra to make your life as Ananda yoga. These three small keys are very small. But if we can use it, we do not need anything else. One may have attended ASP, NSP and even taken the healers' initiation, and may have attended all my discourses. We can forget everything else, and just carry these three keys. I tell you, 'just forget everything, there is no problem, if one can carry these three keys'.

First thing, is the acceptance of the life? Grumbling or Grudging is not going to help. Atleast we will have intelligence to look into the life. The first one is called Tathaata. Whatever IS, accept the easiness. Tathaata, or acceptance is the first key. Next thing is to make a conscious decision to live happily, to live joyfully.

With small stories, I will explain one by one.

Tathaata means acceptance of the rules of existence. There is a beautiful story. A middle aged lady went to see Buddha early in the morning, with her son's dead body. Early morning her son has died. With the dead body, she rushed to Buddha, saying, 'O, lord, please do something to revive the life of him, please do something to give life to him.

Whatever Buddha would say to convince her was never going to help. So Buddha said, 'alright I will revive him, but please go and get a handful of mustard seeds from a house where no death has happened.' She went house and everybody was ready to give her mustard seeds, but all said, 'no, no, in my house some death has happened'. She went around door to door, house to house. By the time she came back to Buddha in the evening, she understood that it is not that only she is suffering the misery of death, or misery of separation, it is the world.

'See, our main worry is not our worry, but thinking others have no worry'. The main cause for our worry is we think that everybody else has no worry; that is our main worry. Once we understand the whole world is having worries, then we won't feel much sad. If we understand that everybody is suffering, then we come to an understanding, we come to a clarity. The very basic problem is we think that only we are the persons who suffered too much on this planet earth.

We always think, 'See, how he is happy, see how she is doing well, and see how he is doing well'. Whenever we think everybody else is happy and only we are suffering. looks big. When we understand everybody else is suffering in their own way. we come to a state of relaxation.

Then she understood, it is not that only she undergoes the pain of separation, pain of death, the whole world undergoes this. When she understood that this is a rule, then she was almost transformed. She came to Buddha, not only did she not ask for the healing, she did not ask for her son. After doing the rituals for her son, she became big, she became a nun. She said, 'O Buddha, even if you would have given life to my son, what would have happened is I would have taken him back, and like regular mothers, after one month, again I would have fought with him, I would have tortured him and he would have tortured me; the same usual procedure'.

A person came and joined the ashram, where I was staying and became a Swami. That person's elder brother came to take him back. Whenever somebody becomes a Swami, always the fight takes place. And whenever we enter into a spiritual life, there will be problems in the house. If we don't have any problems, then we can be clear that we will not enjoy the spiritual life, we may not know what we really want. Many people come and tell me. "Master, my husband is not letting me to go to NSP. He is telling it gets too late, the sessions are very late. Don't go. My husband is not allowing me to go for the ASP or NSP'.

Some others tell me. 'My wife is afraid that I may become a Swami'. So many people come and tell me these things. I tell them, 'if one does not have problems in the really they will not enjoy the program'. Only when we have a problem, we will know what our choice is, It becomes a solid thing. If everybody says, 'go', then it is not the juicy portion. It is not fun. Only when we have some problem, only when they say 'don't go' and we come without telling them or come telling them that we have this work or that work, it becomes fun.

I have seen many people, especially in Bharat. The husband will come without telling his wife, and the wife will also come without telling the husband and they both will meet each other in the ashram. And I have seen some other situations regarding very rich people. They have to go to a Swami, or do the spiritual things only if they have got some problems. In Bharat, there is a mental thinking prevailing, that one should go to a Swami only if one has a problem, otherwise one will not go. So just for that, many people try to avoid coming to me in public. They come without anyone's notice.

'Some people plan their visit in such a way that those people whom they are afraid of should not know that I am here', So. before that itself, they will call up my PRO and ask. 'I am coming today. can you be sure who are all there, can you tell me who are all there?' Then this person will confirm that these people are not coming and then decide to go, saying, 'alright, today I will come'. And when they come to the ashram, they will meet the persons whom they were trying to avoid.

Not only that, the other person whom he is afraid of, he will call separately and ask and come separately. Each one has got their own view and after coming here, they both will meet. Of course, if we do not have any difficulty, if we won't have any problem, if we do not have any obstruction; things will not look juicy! Things will not look very enchanting.

The understanding or the clarity that the whole world is suffering and it is not that only us; when that understanding comes, then we will see that Thaathaata, the acceptance automatically happens.

She is telling Buddha, 'even if I would have taken him, what I would have done?, just like the regular fathers and mothers, fighting and then my life would have ended'.

'I was telling a story, let me complete it'. One fellow became a monk and his brother came to take him back. The brother was weeping and wailing, 'please come back, I can not be without you, come back, come away.' Then the person who had become a monk replied, 'Oh, be honest, even if I come back, what will I do? After 4 years, we both are going to fight for our father's property. Why don't you take all the property now itself, and forget about me.' As soon as this was told, that quy simply went away. He simply went away and he understood the truth.

It is actually the truth. Whenever we understand that it is not that only we are suffering, but everybody else is suffering; the whole world goes only in this same way, then Thathaata, the easiness takes place.

She says, 'even if you would have given life to my son, what I would have done? I would have taken him and after a few months, the regular life would have continued. In a regular way, everything would have been going. But now, you have given me a great intelligence, a great understanding of accepting the life, accepting the pain. My whole life has changed; this is the greatest miracle, which you have done'.

Giving life to the person is not the greatest miracle, but transforming one's life is the greatest miracle. This understanding is the greatest miracle. Thathaata is accepting the life as it is. If we do not accept, do we think it is going to change? If anybody who thinks that, 'if I do not accept, things might change', can continue to think so, till we come to the understanding, whether we accept or not, whether we want or not, what is going to happen is happening.

There are two things to be understood here. Wherever we can change, we should change. Anyhow, we will be changing; it is not that we will be keeping quiet. Is there anybody who keeps quiet? No. Wherever one can change, we are changing. Wherever its not possible, we will not. That's all. Wherever we can, we are already doing it. Wherever we cannot, we should understand that we cannot and accept the easiness. When we accept the first step in the path of ecstasy is taken. The path of ecstasy is started.

First thing is Thathaata, next thing is 'Conscious Decision', the Pratyagaatma chaitanya, the individual decision, awakening.

There is a small story from Sufism:

There was a great Master called Abdullah. He used to be always happy. From morning till night, laughing and enjoying and whosoever would go near him would just catch the infection of joy or the bliss, Nithya Aananda or the eternal bliss.

Somebody asked Him. 'Master, what do you do to be so joyful, so ecstatic, why do not you teach us the technique?' Then He says, 'everyday morning as soon as I get up from my bed. I ask myself; Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah!, what do you want, whether suffering or bliss, today what do you want?'.

Here, we need to understand that calling ourselves by our name is itself a great technique. Others only use our name, we never use it. If we use our name, then we will understand that we go beyond our name. We go just up from the mind will always tell. 'I want bliss.' Then the Master would tell, 'alright then, have bliss, that's all. The matter is over'

What we ask, 'no, no. no Master, you ask us to have bliss, but there is so much of suffering and problem, how can I have bliss?' I say, 'Alright, even if you worry and have continuous depression, is it going to solve the problems? No. it is only creating one more problem'.

Let us try. All these years we have tried the key of depression, why do not we try the key of joy or bliss, let us just try. Then we will understand that Aananda does miracles in our life.

There is a beautiful book called, 'Miracle of Mindfullness'. I am writing a book called 'Miracles of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM', not THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, Nithya aananda (the eternal bliss). When we live in the bliss, we are unaware of how many miracles happen in our life.

This Master says, 'I ask myself what I want, then the mind says, I want bliss, then I allow the mind to have bliss. I tell the mind, 'alright, have the bliss, that's all', And one should not allow anybody to interfere with that bliss.

One important key point to be noted. 'Never decide for two days'. One must never decide for two days, we should decide everyday. If we decide for two days, then we will think, 'why for two days, let me decide for one month. No, why for one month, let me decide once for all'. We will decide, but the very next day, we will forget what we have decided. Never for two days, only for 24 hours. Only for the next 24 hours, what we want is to be decided, whether we want to live with happiness, joy or we want to live with sorrow, misery.

And in the next 24 hours, what is going to happen in our life, we know. It is not that in the next 24 hours, we are going to become a millionaire or we are going to lose a million, millions of dollars. No.

In the next 24 hours, almost clearly we know. And people who work in a normal life, not just the next 24 hours, even the next 24 years, they know what is going to happen! Same wife, same house, same office; may be they will have a white beard, that is all.

We know what is going to happen in the next 24 hours. Why not try a small thing. Instead of facing the life with the same long face, why not face with a little bit of excitement, joy and ecstasy, some zest!

Why not do that. When we decide to do it, we will see. If the radio is tuned to Chennai station, it receives the Chennai waves. If it is tuned to Pondicherry station, it receives the Pondiherry waves. When we are tuned to the bliss, we receive the bliss waves. When we are tuned to suffering, it receives the suffering waves.

We attract only what we want. Only a radio can sing, can our shoes sing? No. if we tune ourselves, only then we can get it. If we tune to Pondicherry station, we can get Pondicherry waves, If we tune to Chennai station, we can get Chennai waves. In our lives, either we live like the shoes, never tune ourselves to anything; or we tune to suffering, that is all.

Instead of that, we can tune ourselves to bliss or joy and accept the life. It is worth trying just for a few days. I am not telling you to live the whole life, just for a few days, you try. Then one will understand how many miracles happen in the mind, how many miraculous changes start happening in the mind. Let us just decide for the next two three hours. 'I will accept whatever happens. I will not shout or I will not become mad. I will not become a dog'.

When somebody says we are a dog, we immediately bark and prove. When somebody says we are mad, we simply yell at them and prove. Instead of that, just for a few hours, it is worth trying. Whatever happens in our life, let us accept.

The first two keys are: Thathaata (acceptance) and the Pratyagaatma chaitanya, Jaagrata (means a conscious decision). I am telling you the exact Sutras, I am translating them for you. We should make the conscious decision to live joyfully, face joyfully, face ecstatically.

The third thing is a very deep but the ultimate thing. The Master is questioned, Abdullah is questioned. One disciple is asking, 'Master, you say your mind always chooses the bliss, if our mind chooses the suffering, what should we do?' Because there are a few cunning minds which will tell, 'If you will ask, Abdullah, what do you want?' your mind will tell, 'I want suffering'. For this the Master says, 'if your mind wants suffering, understand you are enjoying the suffering' this is the third key. Understand you are enjoying the suffering.

Unless we enjoy something, we will never ask for it, whatever we are having in the life, we are enjoying it, we are experiencing it. We have such a clear power and a conscious decision, we enjoy only what we want. We ask only what we enjoy. If we enjoy the suffering, what is wrong, one can enjoy that. The very problem is the conflict between our asking and when it is presented to us, we are not ready to enjoy it.

It is like this. We go to a hotel and order for all the varieties. We eat and finish everything. Finally, when the server brings us the bill, we say, 'I have not ordered for the bill, why did you bring?'. If we order for food, naturally the bill also will come to us. But we know the bill is going to come when we order for food and eat. But we are contradicting ourselves with the bill, when we know that the bill is going to come, that by ordering the food, the bill is also going to come. But when the bill comes, we resist with it.

Same thing is happening in our life. We order for our choices and when those things come, we resist with it. When we order for joy, when we order for the pleasure, we know the pain is going to come. Even if pain is not going to come, the end of the pleasure is going to be pain. So, when we prepare ourselves for the pleasure, why not for the pain also.

First thing is to accept. Next thing is to decide consciously to be blissful. Third thing is that even if the suffering comes, it is purely our choice. Enjoy it. One may think, 'what is this. This Swami simply says, enjoy suffering'. I tell you, 'choicelessness is bliss'. Many people come and ask me, "Master, when we did the meditation camp, it is so ecstatic, so joyful, especially the Energy Darshan. I never felt like that before'. And the next day, many people, almost 80% of the people came and reported to me, 'Master, as I got up today from the bed, I never got up like that before. The experience of today is the best day in my life. Today I am so fresh, so alive'

Chapter 3

I bow to all of you and welcome you all with my love and respects. Today's topic is Gnana Yoga.

We can change our life-style itself to spirituality. Gnana Yoga is one such aspect, which can change our life style to a spiritual one. In Tamilnadu, there is a song of Nandanar (a Tamil saint and poet) in Tamil, 'Aiyeh, methak kadinam...Aiyeh, methak kadinam', meaning 'Oh! It is very difficult, It is very difficult!' These are simply beautiful lines.

Ramana Maharishi (an enlightened Master from South Bharat) says the same thing as, 'Aiyeh, athi sulabham, Aathma viddhai athi sulabham', meaning, 'Oh! It is so very simple, to realize the Self is so very easy'. People there ask Ramana Maharishi, 'Nandanar says Aiyeh methak kadinam, and you say Aiyeh athi sulabham. Which one of these is true?' Ramana says, 'It is only the thought that it is difficult, makes it difficult'. As far as Gnana yoga is concerned, this is the right answer.

One of the slokas of the Upanishad (sacred texts of the East) says, 'on account of Aahaara Shuddhi (purified food), Manas shuddhi, a clean and pure mind is obtained. On account of a clean mind, a clean intellect; and due to a clean intellect, wisdom and enlightenment is obtained.

For this word Aahara Shuddhi, Ramanuja (an enlightened Master from South Bharat) gives an explanation considering it as cleanliness with regard to food. For this, Adi Shankara (another enlightened Master from South Bharat) gives a wonderful explanation. He says, 'It does not refer only to the food we eat, but whatever goes inside us is to be regarded as food. The words that you hear aqain and aqain are also food. Whatever type of words that are fed into you. it is only those words that create your mind.

Again and again, if you hear spiritually uplifting thoughts; even without your knowledge, attachment or rather a strong inclination towards spirituality will begin to sprout in you. If you listen to worldly matters again and again; even without your knowledge, attachment and indulgence in worldly matters will begin to sprout in you. Whichever thoughts and words enter within you, your

mind will be formed based only on those thoughts and words. This is because your mind is nothing else but the words you use.

One small example: let's suppose you know five languages. Due to some shock, you forget all the five languages. Thereafter can any thing be done? No, not possible at all. The thoughts that run within us form the very basis for our mind. This is a kind of internal software, which needs to be cleansed. As a first step I can tell, again and again. listen to the words which show us the way for living life. Listening to uplifting words again or listening to the words of an enlightened Being, simply floods our system, or cleanses our internal software. We begin to get transformed.

Now, let's understand the two terms, Pravrutti and Nivrutti. By twisting it this way, many may give many meanings for these words. But, the actual meaning is this. Pravrutti refers to the flowing of thoughts and or a life-style, which creates sorrow; Nivrutti refers to the flowing of thoughts which enhances spirituality and peace within us.

If we examine deeply, it will be clearly understood. It can be seen within us that, there will be two types of things happening. One thing is, talking with others or the external chatter. The other thing is, talking with ourselves or the inner chatter. If you observe keenly, it can be known. Half the time, we will be talking with some one; the remaining time, we will be talking to ourselves. Talking with others is a dialogue. Talking with ourselves is a monologue. Don't think that when you are not talking to others, you are just keeping quiet. You continue to be talking with yourself.

There will a continuous inner chatter goinq on, something lif it is five o' clock, I have to go to the temple; I must spend some time there. If I go to the temple priest may not be there in the temple'. Some thing like this, you will be constantly talking to yourself. Dialogue is talking with others. Monologue is talking with your own self. The continuous flow of thoughts is the inner chatter.

As an analogy. Iet us take a tape of thoughts measuring 100 meters in length. In this, there can be only two kinds of flow of thoughts. One is that kind of flow of thoughts, which push you into sorrow and suffering, which is called as pravrutti; the other one is that kind of flow of thoughts, which lifts you up and brings you joy and bliss making you fine. This is what is referred to as nivrutti. Certain amount will be pravrutti and to some extent it will be nivrutti.

In this, either one will be longer. Say, thirty meters is nivrutti and twenty meters is pravrutti. Ordinarily, our frame of mind is such that when you sit alone, this sort of flow of thoughts will be there, 'whatever I do will become useless, if today something good has happened means, something bad is bound to happen tomorrow!' Only such kind of words will be more and may even go beyond limits, which will be there and which will thrust you in sorrow. Only such words which push you downwards and create in you an inferiority complex will be running more within you.

That is why, in our life, the seed of sorrow is being continuously sown within us. Seed of sorrow is nothing else other than the words we utter to ourselves. That alone is the seed. Only those words grow into a tree and are going to give sorrow in our lives.

On the other hand, if we stop the flow of words which gives us sorrow and sow such words which give enthusiasm, which will actually lift us up, which will make our life blissful. For instance, 'it is possible by me, life means this way only, it is possible for me to rise and stand up; those persons who were inferior to me have stood up, why is it not possible for me?' This way, such words will act as the seeds of bliss.

This is what we call as nivrutti is the sowing of those words which will depress you further and further; Nivrutti is sowing those words which uplift you.

Just turn back a little and look at your life. In your life, among most of your flow of thoughts, in the 100 meter length of flow of thoughts, in the 100 meter length of tape; what's the tape spent used for pravrutti and similarly what's the length spent for nivrutti. If you find just this out. you can know the reason for your life being sorrowful and filled with defeats.

A small research was conducted to understand the power and energy words carry. Please do not think that we are still in some olden day's belief or a blind belief. I am only telling the truths which have now been found out by scientists after due research and experience.

In Chicago University, they have done a beautiful research about the power and energy of words. In three different pots, taking the same type of soil and feeding with the same type of fertilizer, they planted three plants of the same type of rose, one in each pot, that is. They kept each plant in three separate rooms. Same temperature was maintained in each of the three rooms.

One person gets up in the morning and goes to the first room, and says repeatedly five times 'Aha. Oh Rose! There is no plant as beautiful as you. You are very beautiful. You should grow joyfully!'

He goes to the second room and does not say any thing and simply comes out.

In the third room, he says, 'You will not grow; you are not going to flourish; you are not nice to look at".

In this manner they did an actual research, just to find out about the effect and energy of words. In the third room he will speak in the worst manner possible. You may think as to what a mad exercise this could be! But if you look at the conclusion arrived at by the research, you will understand what its strength is! In this way they did continuously for twenty one days.

He would go to the first plant and he would talk praising the plant, infusing good thoughts. He would go to the second plant and come out not saying any thing. He would go to the third plant and would give out such thoughts which give sorrow. For 21 days, this was done daily for the sake of their research.

You may believe this or not. But the results of the research done by the University is simply revealing. They say that the first room had grown three-fold, the plant in the second room had grown normally and the plant in the third room had withered and died away.

In spite of having been fed with the same kind of water, having been given the same type of manure, having been exposed to the same type of climatic conditions and having been given all things in the same manner; just because of the words alone being changed to either good words, no words or bad words, they prove scientifically that the plant has died away. Not just once or twice, but eleven times such research was done on different lives, and they have wondered at the results being astonishingly similar!

That is why our ancestors have said the word, mantra. Mantra means, that word which makes the mind strong and unwavering. Another meaning is, that word which shows the way for a man is referred to as mantra. They call only such words as mantras, which give joy, strength and permanence (unwaveringness) to our minds.

Do not think the result of our words as an ordinary matter. Your words provide wonderful results, because the words you think form the basis of your life! Only your words are the basis of your mind. Your mind only is the basis of your life! Your mind only creates and forms your life itself. Nothing else.

Another similar research was done. There was a garden with ten trees. For all those ten trees, ECG (electro cardiogram) machines were connected. In the same way as the functioning of man's heart is measured, these are similar machines to measure the life existence of the trees. These are sensitive machines. After connections were given to the trees, a wood-cutter went into the garden with the thought and an intention of cutting a particular tree. As he just entered, the graph of that particular tree alone fluttered showing abnormality.

This, for us to hear may appear like a story, some puranic (ancient scriptures) story. But this is an actual research experiment that was done. The conclusion as stated by the research scientists were that, only the graph of that particular tree which the wood-cutter intended to cut, begins to flutter fast. After half an hour, when the wood-cutter comes with the thought of cutting another tree, the graph of that particular tree also begins to flutter speedily. The graphs of all other trees were silent. Whatever tree he intended to cut, only that tree's graph, or its speech begins to flutter and oscillate fast. An important matter that we all need to understand is revealed by this research. Our thoughts and words have a wonderful energy and power!

In the same way, when a child is given a knife, it will cause harm not only to itself but also to others. Similarly, we are also using the energy given to our minds for causing harm to ourselves as well as to others. If you give a knife in the hands of a child, what will it do? It does not know how to handle it. Naturally what will it do? It will harm itself and harm others also. Same with our mind too.

Our mind-energy is like a knife. The same knife if in the hands of a surgeon, it will be useful to save the life of a person. If a doctor gets it, what will perform a surgery or an operation and save a life. If a child gets it, it may destroy a life. All of us are using our minds like a child which has not grown up.

That is why, the granary called mind, instead of making the life a flourishing one, a blissful one, has become a matter of thrusting us into sorrow.

'Śravaṇam' means, not sowing such thoughts which make us sorrowful constantly. Do not sow such thoughts within yourself which make you sorrowful again. That is, do not create such thoughts for Pravrutti. Right from morning to even due to forgetfulness, do not permit such wrong thoughts to function within you or words to come out of your mouth. Either in your thoughts or conversations, whenever wrong thoughts come, just break and throw them away, then and there.

Is not your thought flow your own? Think for just one minute. When a thought flow runs within you, you yourself are thinking. Is anyone else thinking for you? No. You only are thinking. Then certainly, we can change our flow of thoughts. Is it not? The flow of thoughts within is what we have made or created. We cannot at all say that we are unable to change it. You yourself have carried your legs so long, walked so far and have come and sat here. Now can any one say, 'No Master, my legs have gone by themselves? I have not done any thing'. It is you who have lifted your legs, walked and come here. They function under your control only. It is in this same manner that your flow of thoughts is.

You are the one who is thinking. The thoughts and words which run inside you, you yourself create them. After this discourse, I must go home with this leg. You only create these words within you. Is any body else creating them for you? When it is your own flow of thoughts, what difficulty can there be in controlling it? No man is lame enough to the extent of being not able to control his own flow of thoughts that run within him. If it is said that one's hand is not able to be controlled because they are paining, his legs are not able to be controlled as they are paining etc, it can be believed. But, if one says that he is unable to control the run of his thoughts, it cannot be believed at all, because for moving one's hands or legs, energy is necessary. But for moving the flow of thoughts, nothing is necessary. The flow of thoughts that you can do is certainly possible to be changed by you.

First thing is, believing that our flow of thoughts can be changed by us. Just by this mere understanding itself. half your job is done. From the whirl of pravrutti, you begin to turn towards the step of nivruthi. By this research, you can understand about the energy of thoughts. Your thought affects the persons around you every time.

One small story:

One day, emperor Akbar and Birbal were going around the city. Akbar looks at a sandal-wood merchant and says to Birbal, I don't know why; as I just saw him, a thought comes to my mind that I should give him death sentence'.

One week passed. Again Akbar and Birbal go around the city. Then Akbar says, 'Birbal, I don't know why, now, when I see that merchant, I think of blessing him. I don't understand any thing'.

Birbal says, 'Oh king, one week back, he did not have any sales in his shop. So he was thinking in his mind that if the king dies, they will place sandal-wood logs around his body. So, then I will get a good business deal. That's what he was thinking in his mind. The same thinking was echoing within you. But in this week, after seeing you, after you told me to buy sandalwood, I purchased the same and kept in our palace for making a chariot, wood-work and other articles to be made from sandal-wood. Because I have purchased from him, that same merchant is now thinking that, 'if this king lives for long, I will get good business from him'. Now his good thoughts are reflecting on you. Earlier his bad thoughts drove in you to give him punishment. Now, his good thoughts drive you to do good things for him. Birbal and Akbar went in disguise. In spite of it, the flow of thoughts of the sandalwood merchant had reflected on the mind of Akbar, even though the merchant could not have known that he was Akbar.

A very nice teaching, Mohammed Nabi says, in Koran, World is like a mirror. If you see a donkey in the mirror, only a donkey will be seen'.

The world is like a mirror. In whatever way our flow of thoughts, the world appears in the same way for us. In Vedanta, they say Drushti-Shrushti. These are two words. Don't think that you are seeing the world which is already there. You see it only as you want it to be. You do not it see as it is. You see as you want it.

To give a small example, you can see it in your house itself. The husband would have imagined and kept for himself an imagination about the wife. The wife also would have imagined and kept for herself an imagination about the husband. Only for the first six months, till they know about each other, they will live together. After that, if you see, the wife would have come to a conclusion about her husband in those six months. The husband also would have made a conclusion about her. After that, if you see, whatever she may say, he will see every thing along with the conclusion he had already made. He will not see whether what she says is good or not. He will see keeping his already made conclusion about her. Similarly, whatever the husband says, what will the wife do? She would say. 'He tries to suppress me?' What he would do? Whatever she says, he would say, "Women's mentality is like that". She would say, for whatever he says, "He tries to control and suppress me....'

Both will be prejudiced against each other. That is if both of them had already taken a decision, what will they do? They will forget to see the truth! There are two things. One is after hearing the arguments, and then delivering the judgment; second is collecting the arguments for the sake of the judgment. If we see in our day to day life, all the house- hold problems, they will only be on account of collecting the arguments for the sake of a judgment.

Already we would have made a conclusion about the lady that, 'whatever she does, it can be only wrong'. What would this man do? He would have come to a conclusion about her and kept it with himself. That lady also would have come to a conclusion about him and kept it with herself. This is a punishment given by God. After having come to some conclusion and kept it, whatever is done, we would see with a prejudice only.

One small incident:

A gentleman about 40 years of age came and asked, 'Master, I want to divorce my wife. Please offer me your blessings'. I told him, 'I cannot bless for divorce. For marriage, I shall bless; it is possible, but never for a divorce. Tell me what the problem is. We can try to solve it'. He said. 'No Master, it cannot be solved by you. It has exploded and is beyond redemption. I told him, 'even without you telling me what the matter is, how can you say that it cannot be solved by me? How did it all begin?'

'No Master, today morning while taking coffee, she dropped the tumbler on me with a force. All the coffee fell on my dhoti (a Hindu garment worn by men)'.

I asked, 'Dear friend, just for the matter of a coffee tumbler, can you say it as a reason for divorce? Is it not a trivial matter? Why don't you try to solve it?'

But his mind was prejudiced to a great extent. He could not understand at all. He says further, 'what do you say, Master? Today she will pour coffee and tomorrow she will pour acid on me'.

His mind, you see, goes on stacking up words. We all can understand that he is prejudiced. But his anger and agitation makes him say, 'today she will pour coffee, tomorrow she may pour acid. If you were there you would know'.

I told him. 'Just think, my friend. How much the two, coffee and acid are far apart? Is it such a matter to happen just like that? How can you compare coffee and acid? Why you are making yourself suffer?'

'No Master, you do not know how she tortures me, you don't know.' I asked him to give me one solid example. In Tamilnadu, during marriages, the couple is made to play a small game. They put a ring inside a small pot of water, and ask the bride and bridegroom to take it out, putting their hands in at the same time. They will make the couple to take it out. Whoever takes it out first, is the owner of the ring.. He says, 'Then itself, she had put her hand on mine, Master'.

Just look at his mind. You see, he has kept that incident as a record, like a file. Like a police report he has made it and kept. I told him, rather I thought to myself, 'In this manner, like a police report, if he is going to pick up some ten years stories, how she can live with him? She cannot at all live with him'. That is from the day they got married, right up to now, he is keeping it as a police record. Then what will happen? Even if a small quantity of coffee spills over, immediately, what will we do? We will read through that police report entirely. We will refer back through that once again thoroughly. We will look at the coffee, only with a police point of view and not as a trivial incident of just some coffee spilling over.

What has he done when the coffee spilt over on him? If you actually see, what is there if coffee has spilled? After all she is the one who is going to wash his dress. He could have simply left it at that. He could have changed his dress.

But he did not leave it. Anger and tension has crept in. He would say, 'Have you got sense? Did you bring it from your father's house? Then immediately what the wife would say, for what you are, this coffee itself is too much for you. Why don't you keep quiet?' Like this, words grow and continue and prolong.

If we look at our own lives: now on hearing this incident we are all laughing. Let's look back at our own lives. We can know in how many places and instances we commit wrong things.

Drushti-shrushti. Whatever we want to see, we create that only. Is it pravrutti or nivruthi? Should we have such flow of thoughts which make our lives pleasant and blissful. or such kind of thoughts which will push us into sorrow? This you only have to decide. Our flow of thoughts is certainly under our control only. Nobody else is acting as a security for us. We only are the security for us. Is it not? We only create our flow of thoughts.

The objective intention that thoughts, which are flowing as pravrutti should be changed into nivrutti and also knowing which flow of thoughts will guide us to nivrutti is what the Vedanta says in the name of 'Śravaṇam'.

Next one is 'Mananam'. It is not enough if the flow of thoughts is just heard once and left.

One small story from Buddha's life:

Disciple asks, 'O Master, What is the way for enlightenment?' Buddha says, 'Meditation'. Next day also again the disciple comes and asks, 'O master, what is the way for enlightenment?' Buddha again says, "Meditation'. The disciple was desirous that his master should teach him some new things. Therefore, on the third day also the disciple asks, 'O Master, what is the way for meditation?' Buddha again says, 'Meditation'.

The disciple got too much bored. He asks, 'O master, will you not teach me some new things. The same thing you are telling me every time'. Buddha says, 'You have not listened and done what I have told you. That's why I have to tell you the same thing again and again. If you have done what I told you, will you ask me the same thing again for the second time? Because you have not done what I told you to do, you are asking the same question again and I also have to tell you the same reply again and again'.

Ramakrishna says beautifully, 'If one drinks one measure of distilled liquor and becomes intoxicated, he can come back to normal senses, only if he drinks quarter measure of kanji (water decanted from cooked rice). In Bengal, they distill liquor from kanji only. Some leaves are added while boiling it. If kanji is taken without those leaves, the intoxication will slowly go away and one can become normal. That is why Ramakrishna says, if one drinks a measure of liquor he can become normal if he takes at least quarter measure of rice kanji.

The same is applicable for our lives too. If we have one measure of such thoughts which give sorrow to us; and in it if we place at least a quarter measure of such thoughts which give joy and bliss to us, the life will change for the better.

Śravaṇam is hearing, Mananam is putting it into practice and implementing it by constantly creating good flow of thoughts in the mind. After trying for two or three times, what the mind will say? 'These things are not for persons like me and all. Leave it man. Just like that we went and listened. Master is speaking nicely. Leave it',

I have seen this happening many times. After I finish the discourse and leave the place, while going out, some four or five persons will be there specifically for this. "Master, you talked so beautifully!' they say. I will stop them and ask, 'Tell me what I spoke?' They would stutter and say,'....that is...Master, don't ask us all those things'. Very easily they will say that I spoke nicely. But when I ask what I spoke, they don't know to give the reply. They don't know what I spoke but they will say that I spoke beautifully!

When they say that I spoke nice that means when I actually spoke they did not listen fully. If they had listened fully and carefully, they would not have had the thought to tell me that I have talked beautifully. They would have had the thought how to put them into practice only.

Mananam is only the practicing and the act of taking inside within us again and again what is heard by us; again and again, soaking within us the flow of such thoughts. That is, always, mind does not go towards bliss. What is it that we are all thinking? We think that the mind will always go towards bliss. No, not at all so. Please do know it well. When the conscious feeling of bliss comes, you just melt away without the feeling of "I" or self, and only ananda or bliss is there. It is only when you are sorrowful, your ego will stay strong within you. All of us exaggerate our sufferings ourselves. If you examine deeply you will see that we exaggerate our sufferings, ourselves. The reason is that, as our sufferings increase, our ego will appear bigger.

As an experiment, you ask somebody, "how his life is?' and see how he starts telling. "Master, there is no one in the world who is suffering as much as me. Such sufferings should not come to even my enemy'.

All of us think that nobody else is suffer like ourselves. The very nature of our mind is to exaggerate our sufferings. Because, if we exaggerate our sufferings, our ego will appear big. See I have managed so many things I have achieved. See, bliss is such that, the ego loses its base and falls away.

In America, there is a University called Oklahoma University in Oklahoma State. In that University, I went to deliver a discourse about enlightenment. The topic itself was 'Getting enlightenment'. The scientists asked me as to what is enlightenment. I explained through a chart that, while creating the state of forgetting oneself. while the enlightenment is happening: there is a bliss where there is no mind. The scientists said, 'It is impossible for a man to be without mind and live in this world. What you say is a lie'.

I said, 'Based on science, I do not know that. But through my experience, it happens only in a nomind state', 'Ok, then, if we examine you, will you acree with that' they asked. I agreed and said, "Well, you can do it, very well". Continuously for five days, through PET (positron emission topography) scan and through QEG ( ), they examined the functioning of my brain.

After doing the examinations and research continuously for five days, they have proved scientifically, that there was absolutely no kind of flow of thoughts and vibrations in the mind and was equal to the brain of a dead person. They also told something more from that research. Normally, there is a chemical (a hormone) called 'Dopamine' which is secreted in our brain. Whenever we experience some sort of comfort, this chemical is secreted and only after this chemical is secreted, we get the knowledge of that comfort. If you ask a doctor about it, you can understand.

If you put some sweet in your mouth, immediately one unit of dopamine is secreted and is released in your brain. Immediately you think, 'Oh it is very sweet and nice'.

If you suddenly get money from a lottery ticket, say five units of dopamine gets released. If you get pleasure from sex, some ten units of dopamine get released. The amount of iov and comfort you feel can be found out based only on the amount of release of the chemical dopamine in your brain. The amount of comfort is assessed based on the amount of release of this chemical.

Scientists say, when I entered into deep meditation, they observed the chemical dopamine, and they call it as 'D spot'. When they observed the D spot, by affixing the electrodes around the brain on the head; at the moment of entering into meditation, the D spot shook like an earth-quake, they have studied that the chemical was getting released all over the brain, it was literally flooding the whole area.

What happened really was that when I fall into and get dissolved into meditation without the conscious feeling of the ego called 'I', a feeling of wonderful blissful state catches hold of us. That only is called the no-mind state or bliss.

As per the scientists. they were very happy that for the first time ever, they were able to discover matters concerning enlightenment through scientific research. Because they have been doing research on this branch of study for the past thirty years, they say that 'for the first time, we were able to find out the expressions of enlightenment through the medium of medicine'.

Mind, when it is in ego, remains only in sorrow. It will be continuously creating some problem or the other. If there is no problem at all, what will the mind do? 'Oh! There is no problem at all today. But it is not known what will happen tomorrow'. If there is some reason, we will worry; even if there is no reason also, we will worry saying, 'Today every thing is going all right, but we do not know what will happen tomorrow'.

It is a habit of the mind to fall into sorrow again and aqain. The efforts to be taken aqain and aqain by us to bring us out of this habit of mind are only Mananam. First of all, knowing by listening about which one is taking us towards sorrow and which one leads us to bliss is Shrayanam. Following and implementing is Mananam. After implementing and practicing it, expressing it is only Dhyanam (meditation). These three are the steps for GnanaYoga.

Again and again, expressing in our life the flow of good thoughts, good energy flows and the good qualities which run within us only is Nithya Dhyanam.

If Shravanam and Mananam happen, then Nithya dhyanam will automatically occur.

Shravanam is knowing, which flow of thoughts gives us sorrow and which give comfort and bliss and stepping towards such flow of thoughts which give bliss. Mananam is spending our efforts for us to create within us again and again, such good thoughts which give us comfort and bliss.

Expressing it in our life is nithya dhyanam. If we adopt these three steps in our life to the extent possible, it would do wonders. See, for all of us to become enlightened instantly is not possible. And it is not necessary to try to that extent, but step-by-step if you try; each and every thought vou mend is a step in rectifying your life and transforming. For a big building to be built and completed, it is only by stacking so many small bricks will the whole building be complete. This building is only composed of all the bricks. Similarly, your life is also composed of all sorts of thoughts and thought-flow. The building will be formed nicely if each one of the bricks has been stacked properly. Rectify each one of your flow of thoughts. The building cannot be built all at once. They would have built only brick. Same way cleanse your mind thought by thought. Certainly, your mind also will form like this building.

I bless you all that, let the shravanam, mananam and nithya dhyanam happen in your life properly and for your life to become blissful. Let you all radiate and become one with Nithya ananda. eternal bliss.

Chapter 4

A man was wandering everywhere for many days from one town to another in search of a good spiritual master. But he could find none. At last, while he was walking through a forest, he decided that; whomsoever comes in his path at time, he will accept that man as his Master. It was his i bad time that a thief was just then coming along that way.

This man immediately fell at the feet of the thief. Holding his feet, he requested him saying, 'you are my teacher, you are my master; you have come to save me. I will not leave you'. But the thief replied, 'Oh! No, no. Leave me. I am a thief actually. I have just now committed a theft and am coming from there. You can see for yourself. Policemen are chasing me. I must run away now'. The thief shouted this way. But this man said, 'No. No. You are only my savior, my teacher, master. You alone have to show me the way for my salvation. I will not leave you at all'.

The thief was continued refusing, but this man would not leave him at all. He said, 'unless you show me the way I will never leave you', Finding that there was no other go for him, the thief agreed and said, 'All right, you now close your eyes and sit here. You should not open your eyes until I ask you to open'. This man immediately sat down there and closed his eves, taking in the command given by his new-found master. Saying this, the thief took to his heels, and ran away.

As the man sat there with all his sincerity, time was just passing. One day passed. Then, two, three days rolled on. He was just sitting, sitting... with eyes closed tight, with great sincerity, with a clear and sincere determination not to open his eyes. There was the fire in his sincerity, the penance. The heat was so much that it reached up to Mount Kailash that Lord Shiva Himself appeared before him and gave him darshan (divine vision); this is what the puranas (ancient texts of the East) say.

It does not matter as to who the teacher or who the master is. That is not important. But the very sincerity itself has got that much of energy and strength. This one is at least a puranic story. But there is a story which actually happened in Kashi, also called as Varanasi in North Bharat. Ramadasa was a sincere and a devout devotee. He belonged to a low caste by birth. He did not belong to a high caste. He was eager to get initiation (or deeksha, as we call in Sanskrit), wisdom etc. from somebody.

In the town where he lived, there was a pundit, a learned man who had given initiation to a lot of people. Ramadasa goes to him and requests him, 'please give me deeksha (initiation)'. But he drives him away saying, 'I will not give you any initiation; you are from a suppressed caste, low caste, just you go away'.

Now, what does Ramadasa do? An idea flashes to him, to do something when the pundit comes to take his bath in the early morning. He thinks, 'He will come at 3 in the morning to take bath in the river Ganges. Before he comes, let me lie down on the bank of the river. Surely, when the pundit comes and walks, his feet will touch my head or my body'.

Usually, in Bharat, what will we do if some thing suddenly obstructs in our path? Will we not say some thing like Rama. Rama or Siva. Siva due to the shock?

Ramadasa continues to think, 'whatever it is, he is a big pundit. What he will say due to the shock? He will say 'Rama, Rama', is it not? I will take that itself as deeksha (initiation)'.

He intends to take the touch of his body by the pundit as 'Sparsha Deeksha' (initiation by touch), and whatever the words that come out of his mouth as 'Mantra Deeksha' (initiation by taking a mantra, sacred syllable from the teacher). Thinking thus, he lies down on the steps. Now, it was early morning time. The pundit comes for taking bath, goes down the steps and he actually steps on the head of Ramadasa.

What will we say if there is any sudden obstruction? Will we not say Rama, Rama etc.? But somehow due to the bad (or good!) time for Ramadasa, the pundit, instead of saving 'Rama. Rama', he says 'Buffalo!' Ramadasa had been thinking that the pundit being well read and wise, will only say 'Rama, Rama', but he uttered, 'buffalo'. He actually shouts so getting annoyed. But, due to his sincerity, Ramadasa takes that word 'buffalo' itself as mantra; just sits there and starts chanting, 'Buffalo, buffalo...' He says that word 'buffalo' as a meditation itself and goes on repeating it as a japa (repeating some God's name).

This is a true story which actually happened. Ramadasa continues doing the meditation. Deepavali (a festival of lights, celebrated in Bharat) festival came. During the deepavali day, it is customary to bring out the gold idol of Goddess Annapooraneshwari (a synonym for Goddess Parvati) from the temple in a chariot.

The chariot will be made of Laddus (a kind of sweetmeat), and the gold deity of the Goddess will be brought in that chariot. The festival day came to bring the deity out for a procession around the village. They started to bring the idol of the deity out from the temple. They could not bring it out from the entrance. Some thing was obstructing and the idol could not be brought out. The idol was about one to one and half feet in height. The entrance was ten feet high. But still some thing was obstructing on the top of the idol could not be brought out. The pundits tilted the idol this way and that way but still, could not be brought out of the temple at all.

Ramadasa happened to come that way. On seeing the struggle of these people had in bringing out the idol, Ramadasa says, 'The horn of the deity is knocking aqainst the roof at the entrance. That is why the idol is not coming out. Just lower the idol'.

But those attending to the idol do not quite understand what he says. They tell him, 'You are a suppressed caste man. Why do you even step in to the temple premises at all? Why are you blabbering some thing like a mad fellow? Mind your work and go away. Why do you madly think some thing like that? You just go away from here'. Ramadasa says, 'Goddess is giving her darshan as a buffalo and her horn is knocking against the top of the entrance and so lower it, so you can take it easily'. But those people were not able to understand or comprehend to what Ramadasa was trying to convey. They kept trying to bring out the deity, but it did not come out at all.

Ramadasa himself goes and lowers the idol and as the horn did not hinder now, he brings it out. The idol comes out easily! This is a story which actually happened.

That is, the Goddess separately gives him a darshan in the form of a buffalo. Even today, if you go to Kashi and see, on the Deepavali day; in front of the deity Goddess Annapoorani, they keep the idol of the god Ishwara and also a silk cloth woven with the picture of a buffalo on it made out of gold. The town people there know about this incident that had happened. If you have not seen it yet, you can go and see it. It is only in memory of Ramadasa that this is being done there.

Because the goddess has given darshan to him in this manner, it is clear that even though a devotee, with all sincerity and earnestness, chants the word 'buffalo' repeatedly as a mantra, bound by his sincerity and devotion, the goddess gives him darshan in the form of a buffalo itself. Parasakthi (the Divine Mother or the Universal Energy) has appeared in the form of a buffalo. To explain this descriptively, a letter written in his own hand is available. Otherwise, we would not have known that. See the power of sincerity: the power of faith. If there is sincerity and faith, a new dimension of life will be shown to us.

A man blind by birth, goes to a doctor. He asks, 'Sir, why don't you do some thing and give me eye sight?' The doctor tells him, 'Don't worry. I will do an operation. You will get eye sight and then you can walk without the stick.' The blind people usually have a stick to lead them, is it not? The doctor says that he could then walk without the help of the walking stick. The blind man puzzled, asks, 'Sir, I understand that you will do an operation. I can also understand that I may get the vision. But without the stick, how will I be able to walk? After I get my eye sight, how can I walk without the stick at all?'

Only after he gets his eye sight will, he can understand that it is possible to walk without the stick. Until he gets his eye sight; can any one make him understand that once he gets sight, that he can walk without using the stick? No, it will not be possible.

In the same manner, in our life, only when faith and sincerity comes, it will be understood how our life gets a new dimension. Sincerity and faith will show us a new dimension itself in our life. When we live without faith and true sincerity, we may not even know what we are missing. Can a blind man know what he is missing? For, a man who is born blind will not know as to what he is missing while he is living. You can only tell him. Same way, those who live without faith and sincerity will not know what a mighty dimension of life they are missing. Those who possess the faith and sincerity only, can make them understand.

Kabirdas used to be always dancing in ecstasy. Chaitanya used to be always singing keerthans (songs). Meera was always singing. Ramakrishna used to be dancing with joy. Saint Gnanasambandhar and Manikkavachagar would sing in ecstasy

If you see the Gnanis (enlightened Beings), Yogis (those possessing some super human powers) and Siddhars (again can be referred to as enlightened ones); they say our life itself is blissful always. All gnanis, all rishis (sages), all siddhars say that the is a 'blissful festival'. Krishna says that there is no life at all. Every one says that life is a blissful granary but for us, but somehow it does not appear to be so. Why? The reason being, they look at life with an eye of belief.

When the belief comes to us that everything, be it animate are being looked after by Parasakthi (Universal Energy), and that very same energy would look after us also, only then do all our mental troubles and tribulations come to an end and we come to a state of mind of peace and tranquility.

I shall bring out a concept to tell you. I will tell you how your mental energy and power will be useful if faith comes. How sincerity and faith make things favourable to us. We can understand this from a small matter. Right from morning till evening, there will be a continuous flow of thoughts in our mind. If we start recording them, it will come up to at least ten tapes. That means our mental energy is ten tapes long.

When our mind is in a confused state, we will not be able to take clear and crisp decisions. Thoughts like, 'I cannot do this at all, I do not know any thing, my life is full of bad luck, no one has bigger worries than mine'. In this way, all thoughts will be flowing and hence out of ten tapes, eight tapes will be depressing you only. That is, out of your ten energies would have pushed you into sorrow. 80% of your mental energy would have led you to depression.

On the other hand, if your mind had faith and belief in god, or in a Master, or intense sincerity is there, what will it do? You will say God Almighty is there, Lord Muruga (son of Shiva, worshipped as a God) is there, He will look after. We need not worry as to what has happened so far. Further also, He will show us the way. Somehow good things will happen. There is no need to bother. All that happens is for good only.

If only such words which give you courage will be running within you, then what will happen is that; out of ten tapes, eight tapes will be running full with good and uplifting words which give courage. Then 80% of the mental energy will be used to make you blissful and uplift you. If you don't have belief, 80% will be of such words which give you just depression. 'Nothing is going to be all right, whatever I do will not be all right', only such thoughts will be there. When there is faith and belief, the thoughts such as ' It is definitely possible for me, there is a Divine energy, some higher power which will save me', will be running.

It is only you who have to uplift yourself, or help yourself ascend. If you do such jobs to uplift you or if you can help yourself ascend, then you are your best friend, and if you do things to pull you down, then you are your worst enemy.

If you have the faith, sincerity and devotion; let it be on any God, or on any Master, it will surely make your life blissful. Lack of faith and insincerity will take your life downwards.

Therefore, let faith and sincerity flower in your life, let bhakthi yoga happen in your life, for you to be in bliss, reach the eternal bliss,

Nithya ananda.

Thank you.

Chapter 5

I welcome you all with my love and respects. Today's topic is Raja Yoga,

The father of Yoga is Patanjali. Firstly, let me say a few words about Patanjali. Then, we will enter into Raja Yoga.

We can call Pataniali as a scientist of spirituality. This is because, before Pataniali was born, until Patanjali wrote Yogasurra (the aphorisms of Yoga), about enlightenment, it can be said that there was no clear book on enlightenment or about getting enlightenment. Many may get shocked on hearing this. Because, even before Patanjali's yoga, Upanishads (sacred texts of the East) and the Bhagavad Gita (litt. Song of God) had already been written.

Before Patanjali, getting enlightened had only been an accident. It would be rather only a probable event. Due to some reason, some one would get enlightened, some where at some time and then he would reveal his state of enlightenment to others. It was only so much: but the very first person who gave the 'getting of enlightenment as a science', was Patanjali.

Before Patanjali, the incident of enlightenment was considered only as the cumulative effect of various factors. Before Pataniali, enlightenment, was more or less like an accident. It was only considered as a state which occurred suddenly, when one was going in a certain path. It used to be considered that enlightenment was a rightful thing only to a particular race, a particular religion, or to those following certain traditions and customs.

It was only after Pataniali, for the first time, that the doors of enlightenment were thrown open to whole world at large! It was Patanjali who offered to the very great Truth that any one could attain enlightenment if a certain specifically prescribed path was followed.

Let's have an idea about 'what is science?' We call only that thing as a science, which can be understood logically and very clearly from the point of view of knowledge. Two and two makes four. If we add up 'a' and 'b', a result called 'c' will be obtained.

In this manner, in a very clear fashion, if we add two numbers, what is the result we get, if we join two ends, what will happen; if we have to create something, what specific action needs to be taken are conclusively stated with facts and figures. This will happen due to this; this is the cause and this is the effect. In this way, the method which conclusively states the cause and effect is only called science.

We call that as science, which is the wisdom and knowledge of knowing that a particular effect is due to a cause, and this cause has made this effect possible. If you say science, it should contain very clear-cut formulae, very clear and unambiguous replies and the results therefore should and must be obtained.

The knowledge which clearly explains as to what will happen by joining two materials, and then what will be the consequences if two objects are joined together, is called as science. The knowledge which explains the relationship between the cause and the effect is science.

All things concerning the outer world were clearly explained and clarified. All those things you see in the outer world, whether it is the electric fan, or the air-conditioner, the car, all the things that you use are with the knowledge which has been clearly explained. If operated at a specific place, this light will burn. If you operate it in Bharat, it will burn; if you operate it in another country there also it will burn. If the required causes are created, the effect will happen certainly. What are all the reasons for this fan to run, for this light to burn, if you create them, the effect will surely be there everywhere.

Whether you are a Christian, a Hindu or a Muslim, if the cause is created, the effect will happen certainly. The person who discovered the bulb is Thomas Alva Edison, a Christian. For that reason the light does not say. 'I will burn for Christians only!' If its causes are created, the effect that is the work is bound to happen. The knowledge in which the causes and effects are clearly given is only science.

We had created a clear science as far as the outer world was concerned. There was a clear science. But as far as the inner world was concerned, it was only Patanjali who, for the first time ever, created a wonderful science. Prior to Patanjali, the inner world had remained without a proper and scientific explanation. Prior to Patanjali; the spiritual world or the inner world had only remained a blind path and was not a knowledge which was clearly explained in a step by step manner.

It was only Pataniali who, for the first time, changed the attaining of enlightenment into a science. He explained it in a clear-cut manner. For the first time, he created the steps for attaining enlightenment. It was Patanjali who created in a lucid manner that whosoever one may be, belonging to any caste, creed or religion; if a man follows these paths, he can surely attain enlightenment.

Prior to Patanjali, super-human powers such as bringing to the hand any material by a mere thought of that object (in other words, teleporting), giving darshan (vision) at any place thought of, changing the body to a bigger or smaller size, anima, mahima, karima, etc, which are known as 'Ashtama siddhis' (the eight super-human powers), doing a thing as per one's own thought or will; all such things were considered only as energies or powers. Prior to Patanjali we used to think of these as wonders or siddhis. But for the first time, Patanjali changed it into an ordinary science.

A small example. Suppose, suddenly, due to some war or on account of some natural calamity, all the radios in the world were to be destroyed. Only one radio alone manages to remain on the planet. If such a situation comes, the person who possesses that radio will become a god himself, because nobody else would be knowing about the radio. What would that man, having the radio do? He would say, 'Look here. This is a small box. It will sinq nicely. Voices will come out from this. Do any of you have such a box?' Nobody else has it, except him. Then naturally, what would he become? He will become a great man in the world! People will begin worshiping him. People will say, 'there is a wonderful power with him; the small box which he is having sings by itself; it speaks sentences by itself; by itself it broadcasts many things ... '

If the radio is a common and a well-known thing to every body in the world, he would not be a great man. If there is only one radio and is with one person, naturally, we will begin to worship him as a great man.

In the same manner, in the olden days, hardly only one or two would possess these siddhis. Such super-human powers were there for only one or two people. Doing things as per one's thoughts whatever be the thought, appearing in various places simultaneously at the same time, enlarging or shrinking one's own form, bringing articles to hand just by thought; such siddhis were there with only a few persons. That is why they were thought of as super-human powers. It would be thought thus.

Patanjali tabulated all those things fully and totally; explained the cause and effect of those things and changed it into a science. In the same manner as, when the radio was invented, the bulb was invented; those things came and reached the people of the entire world for them to be used. The man who invented was Thomas Alva Edison. But as soon as it was invented, it reached the entire world. Today all the people in the world are able to use it. There is no necessity for us to do what all experiments Thomas Alva Edison did. He did a thousand experiments and when he was doing it for the 1001st time only, he invented the bulb. There is no necessity for us to do the same 1000 experiments.

If we just put on the switch only once, the light will burn because he had done experiments repeatedly and has already formulated the cause and effect of various things. Thomas Alva Edison has already formulated as to what would happen if a particular thing is done, what would be the reaction for a particular action, and so on.

Thomas Alva Edison made the outer light (electric bulb) as a science and gave it to the world. Patanjali made the inner light as a science and gave it to the world. That's it.

The light aiven by Patanjali is Raja Yoga. The knowledge and wisdom aiven by Pataniali is this Raja Yoga.

For the first time, the matter of getting enlightenment, the incident of attaining enlightenment was made as an open book.

Enlightenment is only the method of expressing wholly the energies within our body, the energies of the mind and the energies of the soul. Patanjali formulated the methods of bringing it out fully and delivering it to the world as enlightenment, and also the step by step procedures for the same.

A small storv:

After the second World War, in a small village in Germany, where tribal people lived, the army men left a small airplane and went away. Those tribal people did not know any thing else other than a bullock cart. So when they saw this, they could not understand what this could be actually. So, they attached two big bamboos and a bull and began to use it as a bullock cart. For three months, those tribal people used the airplane as a bullock cart itself. Three months passed by, after which a youth, quite well-read, came to that place. He saw the air-plane and said, 'this doesn't appear to me like a bullock cart. It looks like a tractor', He too did not have an idea about an airplane, he knew only about tractors. So saving, he tried to drive it as a tractor. He drove it and showed to them and said that this was a tractor.

Rejoicing, immediately the tribals said, 'Aha, we have now got a bullock cart which runs without a bull itself!'; so saying they began to use it as a tractor.

After a few days, a retired air pilot happened to come by that village, saw that and said, 'This is neither a bullock cart nor a tractor; this is an airplane. This can be operated. With this it is possible to fly'. He not only explained but also flew in it and showed them.

See, the same vehicle serves as a bullock-cart for the tribals; a tractor for the youth who had a little knowledge about the same, and as an airplane for the reason being the lack of knowledge of operating it. For those who do not know how to drive it, it remained as a bullock cart. For the person who knew to drive it to some extent, it remained as a tractor. For the pilot who knew how to operate it fully, it served him as an airplane.

Our body too is just like this. Our body is the airplane given to us by God. More than 90 per cent of us use it merely as a bullock cart. Most of us use our body only like a bullock cart. Only a specified few who are in the disciplines of art, science, drawing or philosophy use the body as a tractor. It is only the enlightened persons who use the plane as a plane itself.

Patanjali's Yogasutra gives the science of using the plane, in the name of Raja Yoga, in other words, to use our full potential. Only if the plane is used as a plane, its full potential energy will be exposed and utilized. If an airplane is used as a bullock cart, its full potential energy will not be released and utilized.

Raja Yoga is teaching us the method of releasing our full energy, our latent energy. Patanjali gives it to us in the name of Raja Yoga. Patanjali gives us the yoga and meditation for fully expressing the potential energy dormant within us.

Patanjali explains it as eight steps. Through eight words, very clearly he says, step by step, through which step, what results one could get; through which steps we can get enlightenment.

Yama, Niyama, Asana, Prathyaahara, Dhaarana, Dhyaanam and Samadhi. With just these eight words, he explains. Just as you listen don't be afraid as to what these words could mean, not being able to understand them. I will try to explain these words. Through these eight words, as eight steps, Patanjali explains to us.

It is a big problem! Even though yoga and enlightenment have been explained to us to this extent, why many in this world do not adopt this path? The reason is nothing else, but that there is no sufficient patience to the extent of entering into it and practising it.

A small story about patience:

There were three monkeys in a forest. They find a mango fruit. We know what will happen if one monkey gets a mango. If three monkeys get a mango, one can very well quess what would happen. All the three of them begin to quarrel for the sake of that mango fruit. One of the monkeys said, 'There is a Master nearby; we can qo and tell him our problem, and ask him to divide it for us'.

All the three monkeys agreed and went to the master says, "Look, one mango cannot be divided into three. the only way out is to dig the soil and sow it. The seed will grow into a tree. Then, there will be a lot of fruits in the tree. All of you can eat them then'.

All the three monkeys agreed and decided accordingly. They dig the earth and sow it. One monkey waters it daily. The other monkey applies some manure to it. the third monkey stands quarding it. Six months passed, but there was no sign of a plant coming up. Each monkey got suspicious about the other. They once aqain went to the same master. "Master, we don't know what happened. The tree has not come up vet', cried the three of them.

The master called on all the three monkeys and enquired. First monkey said, 'Sir, I don't know what happened. But daily I am watering it without fail. I have even stopped going for a walk in the morning for the sake of watering the seed'.

The second monkey said, 'Sir, daily in the evening, I am putting the manure. I have even stopped going to the gym'.

The third monkey said, 'Sir, daily I am digging up and checking whether the mango is there or not'.

There is nothing else in this. If a seed has to sprout and grow into a tree, water and manure alone are not enough. A little bit of patience also is necessary.

To the many places I go. I see that a vast number of people assemble for the programs. After attending the program, for five days continuously and sincerely, you do the meditation. Until 5 days there is no problem. But from the sixth day, the problem starts. The inspiration given by me will run up to five days. After that if you see, there will not be patience at all. What do we do immediately?: we begin to dig and see, whether the fruit (seed) has sprouted or not.

One lady came and asked me, 'Master, you said if we do meditation we can see God. Yesterday I meditated but God did not come?' I asked her, 'How long did you do?' She replied, 'I did for twenty minutes, Master'.

You see, the mental set-up which has been created for so many years, will not break. But, what will our impatient mind do? It will think that some thing should happen in the twenty minute meditation itself. Can we get instant meditation just like instant coffee? Our mind is such, we think that some thing should happen instantly. The very speed and haste that some thing should happen instantly will spoil the whole process and the joy in it. If the monkey had not dug up and seen, perhaps the mango plant would have come up. For the amount of manure and water fed; if the incident of not digging up the soil had been there, the tree would have come up.

In the same way of curbing the sprouting and growing of the tree just by digging up the soil; due to our lack of patience and not looking inside again and again, we do stop our progress. For four days we will do meditation with all the inspiration. After that will we do? We would think, 'These things are not suitable for me. Just like that we went there. That is all right. Leave it'. We will leave it so casually and carelessly.

If we take in our hands the one and only matter of 'sincerity', the enlightenment which Patanjali changed into a science will become a matter of Truth in our life also. If you listen with the sincerity and conviction to change it into a matter of truth, all the eight steps which I am qoing to say now; you will think, 'O, this can happen in my life, I can do it in my life also'. On the other hand, even before beginning it, you may think, 'O these words are so complicated, somehow we have come in and have sat here; we cannot even go out; it's best to sit silently until it is over', If we sit with such thoughts, even while listening, it won't be entering itself, you will think, 'He is speaking so well; let some punya (blessings) come to me'. You will go back only with such thoughts.

Two things to be understood here. Buddha beautifully says. 'The mind which creates the problems has also the capacity to resolve it'. For the mind which thinks "this is hard" has also got the energy to think 'this is easy'.

Nandanar (a Tamil poet and saint) sings, 'Aiyeh, methak kadinam; umakkadimai, aiyeh methak kadinam'.

On the other hand, Ramana Maharishi (an enlightened Master from South Bharat) sings, 'Aiyeh, athi sulabham, aathma viddhai, aiyeh athi sulabham'.

Somebody asks Ramana Maharishi, 'Master, you say it is easy, Nandanar says it is hard, what is it?"

Ramana Maharishi says, 'the mental set-up that this is hard is only hard'. If we think about a thing as difficult or hard, we will change it as hard itself. If we have an idea about a thing as being easy, we will change it to it being easy itself'. The flow of thoughts in the mind that this is hard is only hard.

Before explaining these eight steps, a small request I shall place before you. I do not say this for you to think that, when you will follow all the eight steps, you will get enlightenment tomorrow itself, no. But to the extent possible we will adopt and follow them. In the same way as we add salt in our food; in our life, do it with sincerity saying that we will at least add the essence or juice of these eight steps. Then they will change to as a means to lead you to success. Do not think that these eight steps are only for mystics, ascetics and sanyasis (celibates). These are also for those who live life wholesomely.

Yesterday during a radio interview, a gentleman asked me, "Master, we are under the constraints and compulsions of lack of availability of time and you are asking us to do meditation and stuff; we don't have time even to earn our livelihood'.

As a matter of fact, meditation is not a matter which is against our life. With a small example you can understand. A person who puts in hard physical labour for ten hours per day may earn a maximum of three thousand rupees. A teacher who works hard through words for the same ten hours may earn twenty thousand rupees. A manager or an administrator who works hard through his brain for the same ten hours may earn thirty thousand rupees.

Working hard is not important; to what extent the expression of the capacity to create, that is, creativity only is important. Try being a smart worker rather than just a hard-worker.

Meditation will create the creativity within you. Meditation will create a clear sharpness of intelligence within you; it will create the fineness of intellect in you. Meditation will create an indepth clarity within you.

Meditation and spirituality are not opposing studies for life. We all have the notion that meditation and spirituality are opposed to the normal run of life. It is not at all so. Spirituality is only that method of life which expresses fully, your energy, body-wise, and soul-wise. Raja Yoga is only the science which expresses and brings out vour total energy.

Here's an incident which actually took place. I was staying in a place called Potala in Tibet. It is the place where Dalai Lamas live. It is on the border between Nepal and Tibet. The place actually begins there. Even now Lamas live there. When I had been there, to an ashram (place of stay) where the Buddhist monks live; a Lama told me, 'Master, there are many aged Lamas in this Ashram. In this ashram, lamas live very long; if you want to see any of them, you can see that person who is working in the field out there. He is an aged monk', I could not believe because he was working in the field. As a very healthy and strong man, he was working in the field. But due to curiosity, I went up to him and asked him, 'Sir, they say that you are very aged; can you share any of vour experiences with us?'

He laughed out saying, 'Did they tell you that I am an aged person? I am only a middle-aged quv. I am merely 136 years old. There are many here who are 180 and 200. You can go and see and speak with them'.

It was really surprising to me. But factually, from the medical aspect, there is certificate to prove that his age is 136. The date of birth certificate as per their own method, have documented and kept it. There is the certificate from the medical aspect. But it was surprising to see!

I asked him, 'Sir, how is this possible?' He says, 'Right from childhood, we believe that man's life is for 300 years. This was given to us as a lesson from our childhood itself. From the childhood itself, we all know this yoga and all that. As per Yoga Shastra, man's longevity is a minimum of 300 years. We are habituated to Yoga Shastra from our childhood itself. In the same way as we cook, drink coffee as soon as we get up and go to office, practising Yoga shastra, practising pranayama, meditation etc. have become a part of our daily routine activity'. Since it has become a daily activity, in the same way as you consume food for the give prana (life force) energy to the body and the soul.

Among the various parts available to us, we give food only to one part, that is to the body. Many things enter into our body. Do not think only the food is going inside. Food is just one portion. Air enters inside. Water goes inside. Many things go inside. The thing that we have to give in is food only. The air goes inside by itself. We don't do any thing specially for that.

Like this. we qive only those things that are required for the body: we don't give what is necessary for the consciousness, prana sareera (energy layers) and the soul (Atman). The Lama says, 'Because we keep all the three; body, mind and soul properly, a life of three hundred years is our natural state of mind'. He says it is their natural state of mind.

I will try to qive as a small acquaintance, the eight steps of Yogasutra as stated by Patanjali.

There are seven chakras in our body, seven energy centers. Those who have studied Yoga would have heard of these. Mooladhara, Swadhishtana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Vishuddhi, Agna, and Sahasrara.

So far, these chakras have remained only as a belief. But, recently in Russia, a medical technique called Kirlian photography has got popular. In the same way as we detect a fracture in the bones through X-rays; if we take a Kirlian photograph, we can find out the diseases which are going to affect our body.

They say that the skin of our body is continuously emitting a fine light. By means of taking a Kirlian photograph of our body. we can find out the disease which is going to set in. in our body. This is a great achievement in the field of medicine. By this method, the likely onset of diseases like TB, cancer etc. can be assessed six months in advance.

In the Russian medical field, this Kirlian photography method has done a great revolution. Even now, in countries like Russia and Germany, Kirlian photography is very popular. Psoriasis that is goinq to come can be found out six months before its actual onset.

This Kirlian photography has got the power to find out the likely onset of diseases six months earlier. It is similar to the X-ray. It is an invention still deeper and more effective than X-ray.

Through this Kirlian photography, the scientists have proved the existence of these seven chakras.

Scientists have proved that when a person is in a blissful state of mind. the chakra enlarging to the size of a cart-wheel and when a person is in a sorrowful state of mind the chakra shrinking to the size of a small button.

Our scientists are proving that when we are immersed in meditation and hence are in a blissful state, the chakra expanding to the size of a cart-wheel, and the same chakra shrinking to the size of a small button when we are in a sorrowful state of mind. The science of making these seven chakras function is only Raja Yoga.

First step is Yama, Yama means a disciplined living. There are five things in Yama. They are Ahimsa, Brahmacharya, Sathya, Aparigraha and Astheya. That is living a life of purity. Generally, all of us have an idea that living a pure life, discipline and such things are all olden-day things. One may ask, 'nowadays, who is ready to listen to all these things, Master?' If you see, all of us think that discipline; dharma (righteousness) and purity are all outdated matters. But today, scientists of psychology say, 'by means of prayers and by living a pure life, we do not know whether God will save you or not, but your prayers and purity do save you and this can be proved by us'.

There is a beautiful book, 'How to stop worrying and start living' written by Dale Carnegie, a great psychologist. He says, 'I do not know whether Jesus will save you or not by prayers, but by way of prayers you can save yourself. The pure living brings out the energy latent within us. It enables the prana energy within us to function fully. It helps to keep our body and mind pleasant and stable. That is why our ancestors have formulated and prescribed to us the basic purity and basic good conducts.

The second one is Niyama. Niyama also is in a similar way, purity. What we have to follow in our daily life; taking bath daily, wearing neat and tidy dresses etc. We may think, 'How can things like taking bath daily and wearing neat dresses etc. can become steps for spirituality? If our body is not kept clean, it is not possible for us to keep our mind clean. Body and the mind are not two separate things as we think.

One small example. Can you be angry while lying relaxed? It is not possible. If you have to be angry, you have to bite your teeth, get up and sit; you must make your body stiff; then only it would be possible. If you are very relaxed, you cannot become angry. There is a very close relationship between the state in which the body is and the state of mind. This is because the body and mind are not two separate independent matters. If you remain for two days without taking a bath, you yourself will have a conscious feeling of restlessness. During some travel, if you have not taken bath for two days, your mind also will be uneasy. You yourself can feel that. Again, this is because the body and mind have a close relationship. Showcha means keeping ourselves and the things around us neat and tidy. All these will come under the second step. Niyama.

Third step is Asana. Asana means keeping the body at ease, sturdy and strong and well protected. Do not think that Asana refers to only those things done by bending and twisting the body from morning to evening. As far as I am concerned, if some thing is to be said about Asana, I would say that if you remain without watching television unduly, then that itself is an asana. You may ask how. Observe keenly; after watching television up to 2 in the night, even after that you watch cricket. Your eyes would be begging, 'O Sir, It is not possible for me. Please give me some rest'. The eyes just close by themselves. They ask for sleep. But what do you do? You continue to sit and see and are determined to see and watch accordingly.

Not only that. With the tongue burning, eating food stuff which is pungent and spicy. The thing opposed to Asana is only doing things which result in being harmful for the body. Asana cannot be reduced to bending the body this way and that way alone. Keeping the proper fitness can also be referred to asana; remaining without unduly harming the body, without torturing the body. All of us keep saying again and again outwardly, 'I love my body' and will be thinking so; but really we do not love our body; we actually deceive our body.

We use our body beyond its limits. In other words, we exploit our body. Just because we have got the body, we exploit it as per our thoughts and suiting our comfort and happiness. It is wrong to exploit the body beyond limits for the sake of our pleasures and comforts. Remaining without exploiting is referred to asana. That is, remaining always pleasant and comfortable is asana; keeping the body pleasant and comfortable always. For the sake of our own desires, our own comforts, beyond limits we should not destroy our body. We should not torture our body. This only is Asana.

Next one is Pranayama, controlling the prana. When we say controlling the prana, one important thing needs to be understood. All of us do not breathe fully and completely. Look at your flow of breathing. It will happen only to half the extent. Breathing will not happen fully. The reason is that your mind does not remain within your body. If you will see, the mind will always be roaming about somewhere, making its own trip. If you are in the morning, you will be thinking about the office. If you are in the office, you will be thinking about going to the evening. In the evening when you go to the temple, you will be thinking about when to get back home. If you are here, then it means that your mind is not here. We can say that one at least, clearly.

When your body is there in a particular place, your mind does not remain at that place. The reason is that we have become habituated this way. Going on imagining things one after the other continuously. If your mind is not in your body, breathing will not be a long one. This is because the mind and the breath are very closely interconnected. If you are very angry, you can see that your breathing will be quick and fast. You can see in your life itself that if the feelings become intense and fast, the breathing also will be quick and fast, whatever the type of feelings be. There is very close relationship between breath and the mind.

Part 2: Stepping Stones to Spirituality

If you look at the teeth of the elephant, it will be the same material; if it is outside it will be the tusk and that which is inside is its tooth. 'The tooth that is protruding outside is the tusk that is inside is its tooth', In our body also it is similar in that the breath which is flowing inside is the mind; the mind which runs outside is the breath. Mind and the breath are very closely connected.

If your mind remains in your body, under your control, an elongated breathing will happen. A long breath will pave way for a long life. But, generally if you see, the mind is not within the body, it will be somewhere else, thinking about some thing or the other. When there is shallow thinking, shallow breathing will begin to happen. If the breathing is shallow, the thinking will be shallow. If the thinking is shallow, the breathing will be shallow. When the flow of thoughts is just superficial, the breathing will also be superficial. If we keep our control, the breathing will be deep and clear.

Next one is Prathyahara (contemplation). It is a wonderful step. Keeping our mind concentrated and focused at one place without continuous running and scattering it in many places. Prathyahara is focusing the mind on only one reason. When that focusing the mind on only one reason happens, a boundless mental energy will get released. If God has given you 100 per cent of energy, all those 100 per cent energy is spent on unnecessary flow of thoughts only. It is not spent on any particular thought being put in the form of action.

There are two things. One is Icchaa Shakthi (power to desire), the other is Kriya Shakthi (power to create). Our entire energy is spent on creating the desires only and not at all being spent on satisfying or fulfilling the desires. Because, in the time that is available to you, during your entire day, the mind is continuously wandering, either this or that or something else. Since it is running behind various things one after the other, there is no patience to the extent of thinking about any one particular thought and expressing it as energy to create and give a stable form to that thought.

Our mind simply goes on jumping from place to place. When we are sitting here, we will be thinking as to what would have happened in the house, and when we have gone home, we would think, 'Oh! We could have remained sitting there itself and listened'. After arriving at the house what thought would come is, 'I could have remained and listened to the discourse; what am I doing here'. There is a continuous fight or dilemma going on, that is all.

The mind will be wandering here and there continuously. Because it is always wandering, nothing is used or done stably and firmly. There are two things, power to desire and power to create; Icchaa Shakthi and Kriya Shakthi. In our 100 parts of energy, more than 80 parts are being spent on mere creation of desires and nothing is spent at all on Kriya Shakthi, the power to create. This alone is our main and big problem.

When we practice the Prathyahara, when we decrease the required energy comes to us to fulfill and satisfy the desires. When the flow of thoughts gets reduced, the energy to make the desires into reality will come to us. What happens to our energy is that it will be utilized to satisfy and complete the desires that come. Suppose that ten thoughts come to you, viz. I have to build a house, buy a car, buy a bungalow, deposit money in the bank, have an air-conditioner; like this if ten thoughts come, to which thought you will utilize the mere hundred rupees available with you? You cannot use it for any thing at all. But on the other hand, if the thought is just one or two, we will utilize all the available energy to fulfill that thought or desire.

When Icchaa Shakthi reduces, then Kriya Shakthi increases. Prathyahara will help us to live our life blissfully. Because, as the desires reduce, the actions will increase. When the flow of thoughts reduces, the energy to do work will increases. Prathyahara is a method to make the mind become steady and focused.

The next step is Dharana (concentration). Dharana and Prathyahara are quite deep matters. Prathyahara. Dharana. Dhyana and Samadhi can be explained in English by four words. They are respectively, contemplation, concentration, meditation and enlightenment. Generally, in our flow of thoughts, there will be no relationship or connections between one thought and the other.

Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst, says very beautifully that our flows of thoughts do not have any logical relationships. For example, you will see a dog on the street. As soon as you see the dog, you will remember the dog you saw when you were young. You will recollect the various dogs about which you had felt afraid. The next thought may arise that you remember the teacher under whom you had studied. Then you will remember the house where that teacher lived, in which part of the town he lived; there will absolutely not be any correlation. Is there any direct relationship between the dog you saw and the teacher under whom you were young? It is a different matter that both have shouted at you!

There is no direct connection at all. But our mind will be continuously doing some linking. There will not be any logical connection at all. If you write the flow of thoughts as it is on a paper, you will know that there is a lunatic asylum going on inside. There will not be any relationship at all. This is the way in which our mind functions normally. As you see a dog, remembering the dog you saw in your younger days; then remembering the childhood teacher, then remembering the house in which the teacher lived; it will be going on like this. There will not be any logical connection. This is the first thing.

The next one is, that if we focus our mind and think in a particular specific path, our mind will begin to come to some order in the same way as changing a wild forest river into a small rivulet with well-defined banks on either side. We call that as contemplation, thinking about a single project. If a wild forest river is converted into a small river with well-defined terms, it will give multifarious benefits. First thing the bad effects resulting from the forest wild river will disappear. Destruction being caused to the towns due to the floods will not be there.

Second thing is that we can generate electricity. We can use it for irrigation purposes. It will give many benefits. Our mind also is like the wild forest river without bounds. If it is brought to an order, if it comes within contemplation, some specific project can be executed successfully. Any job taken on hand can be completed fully and successfully.

The next is meditation, Dhyanam. Concentration is just thinking about only one object. If we think of contemplation as controlled traffic, concentration is all about just only one vehicle. Thinking about only one thing or object, focusing our mind on one thing is called meditation.

The next one is Samadhi. This is not thinking about one object. This is becoming that object itself. Sama + Adhi = Samadhi. Whichever object we are concentrating on, becoming that object itself is called Samadhi. Tasting sugar is Dhyanam; becoming sugar itself is Samadhi.

Let us see about these eight steps briefly:

The first two steps are: Yama and Niyama, maintaining the body in a clean manner.

The second two steps are: Asana and Pranayama, keeping our body in a pleasant and sweet manner and doing our breathing in a deep and clear manner for all the twenty four hours.

Next, Prathyahara and Dharana, living in the present moment. Keeping the mind at one place as it is without allowing it to wander here and there.

The last two, Dhyana and Samadhi, focusing our mental energy on a given specific object.

Let me repeat, keeping the body neat and clean; keeping the mind sweet and pleasant; enabling the breathing process to go on in the proper manner; focusing our mind on a single specific object.

It is enough if these four rules are fully understood. The essence of Raja Yoga will be useful for us in our life. By means of Raja Yoga what all we can get, their essences we can get in our life.

If the essence of the entire thing has to be given, the only one thing is; wherever you are, at all times and at all places, live in the present moment. Normally what all of us do? Worrying about the past or craving about the future. Most of our time is spent only on these two things. Our mental energy is being spent only in the past and in the future. A very nice quotation, 'past is over. You cannot do any thing about it. But you can spoil your beautiful present by worrying about the future'.

If you see our life itself, it is just being spent by worrying about the past and craving about the future only.

The basic key of Raja Yoga is, 'Forget the past. Do not worry about the future. Begin to live in the present'.

Immediately we all will ask, "Master, if we don't plan about the future how do we carry on our lives?"

Two phrases we have to understand. Chronological planning and Psychological worrying. Chronological planning is calculating and keeping what is to be done tomorrow. There is nothing wrong in it. For example, calculating now after this discourse is over, to get into the car and go home. It is not wrong. But, worrying whether I will meet with an accident, whether I will reach home safely, what will happen to me: all these are unnecessary,

There is nothing wrong at all in chronological planning. Psychological worrying is wrong. If you see, compared to our chronological planning, psychological worrying actually is more.

For that matter, for chronologically planning, a lot of energy is not be required. But when we worry psychologically, the whole mind becomes very tired. If we plan chronologically and proceed as per that plan, there will not be any problem at all. We don't stop with chronological planning alone; we also worry psychologically and create a problem and only then we get satisfied! The beauty in worrying is that of creating such problems which are not actually there and beginning to fight with that problem imagining it to be there.

One man said. 'Sir. I am going to buy a buffalo'. Another man said 'I am going to buy land'. The first man said. 'Is it so? Then I am going to tie mv buffalo in vour land only'. The second fellow retorted, 'How can you tie your buffalo in my land? How dare you do that'. The other man said, 'Do what you want. Let us see'. Both of them begin fighting.

Neither buffalo nor land has been bought; no buffalo has come nor has land come. But the quarrel has promptly come. Creating a matter which is non-existing to find out solutions for that. If we see in our lives, most of the time, we create a thing which is not actually there and we spend time in finding the solution for that.

An incident which actually happened:

A lady, about 30 to 35 years old, had come to our Ashram to see me. The moment she came she started crying out loud. I told her, 'Don't worry, tell us what the problem is, after that you may cry. First tell'.

She said, 'Master, whatever I say, my son does not listen. He does not obey me at all. If it goes on like this, it appears that he will marry of his own accord. I don't know what will happen to me'.

In Bharat, a son is similar to a good amount-fetching cow, which can be sold at a good price in the market. There will not be any dowry at all if he himself marries, is it not?, what will happen There will not be any dowry. That lady had only that anxiety. She was crying and crying.

I said, 'All right madam, let us examine what the problem is; bring your son; after that let me tell you the solution'.

That lady said, 'No master, he need not be brought; I have carried him with me', so saying she put down the boy she was carrying and he was a boy of four!

This really happened. The boy's age is four only; and sees what that lady's anxiety is. 'If he himself marries of his own accord, what will I do, master?', that lady was crying really serious. But what is the age of her son? A mere four year old bo..

We are all laughing on hearing this. We too have done in a similar fashion at various times. Know it well; we too act like-wise at different times, at different places! We may not do so in the matter of a son, but we are doing it only for different matters. When the anxiety comes beyond limits, thoughts about the life become unclear. When we think about the future beyond limits, we forget the present.

In case that boy gets married too, this lady may get worries only after that. But, because she has started thinking right now, there is worry even before her son's marriage which is still far away! She has lost her peace of mind even well before her son's marriage.

Later I asked that lady, "What madam, can't you think a little bit? The boy's age is just four only. How can you say now it self that he will marry of his own accord and all things that. Why is it like this madam?'

'No master, you do not know. Vilaiyum pavir mulaiyileye theriyum' (in Tamil, the crop will be known when it sprouts itself), is it not Master? From what he is now, we can find out his mind, is it not master?' She has kept with her, her own logic to justify herself.

If we look into our lives, we support and nurture our worries and sufferings by some reason or the other. We do not at all worry as to whether it is true or not. That is why, it is enough if you understand these two things viz. chronological planning and psychological worrying. There is nothing wrong in planning about the future in our life. But worrying about it will ruin your life.

When you are worrying, it is not possible for you to do the planning. When you are planning, you cannot worry. We only have to decide whether we have to plan or we have to worry.

The essence of this entire Yogam can be given in these three lines: "keep the body clean, always perform the breathing lengthily, keep your mind in the present'.

Cleanliness of the body, purity of the breath and keeping the mind in the present time all these put together is the royal path to change your life to a blissful one!

As compared to other Yogas, this Yoga has a special significance. It is named Raja Yoga. The reason is that this is capable of giving the benefit instantly. This is a thing which has been proved similar to science. In the same way as in science, it is true that if you open out the shop there will be benefit. for this science also, it has as its base the truth that if you open up the shop there will be benefit. Other Yogas have belief as their basis. But Raja Yoga has science as its basis. It has proof as its basis.

Therefore, by following and adopting Raja Yoga in your life, the basic rules of Raja Yoga, I have not as yet told any thing difficult. Raja Yoga, as a matter of fact, is a deep one, a difficult one. I have given only some of the principles, which are its essence. By adopting at least the essence of this Raja Yoga in our life, we can take our life to an elevated state, a blissful state.

Let the essence of Raia Yoga create iov and bliss in your life and take you to eternal bliss, to attain the state of eternal bliss and to become eternal bliss itself.

Nithya ananda.

Thank you.

Chapter 6

I welcome you all with my love and respect. Today's subject is: Dance your way to God.

By this I mean three things, first thing, the path towards the Divine, the path towards God, the path towards self-realization is not as difficult as you always think. This is the first declaration. The next, this path is so beautiful, so ecstatic, that you don't have to run in this path, you can simply dance and reach, because, not only the goal, but the path also is so wonderful.

If you are goal oriented you have to run, or drive, but in this path you don't need to be goal oriented. It is not that God is there at the end, that God is there in the form of a goal, no! The very path is divine, the very path is God, the very path itself is such a wonderful thing. We always think, only when the Divine is reached it is joyful. No, the very prayer itself is beautiful. The very attitude of praying itself is wonderful.

There is a beautiful statement in Bhagavata (literally, that which comes from Bhagvan or God, here reference to the 'Song of God' or the Bhagavadgita, as propounded by the Hindu God Krishna), 'O lord, when you will give me darshan or when you will bless me, I don't bother about that, but you have given me the idea of praying, you have given me the idea of chanting your name, that itself is more than enough for me, that itself is so enchanting, so beautiful. So are your leelas (term from Hinduism, meaning divine play of the remembrance of your form, the memory of your leelas.'

When the Divine descends on earth and whatever is done or whatever happens we call it leela. This word leela needs to be understood in a deeper way.

In our life is called history, we are born, we are brought up, we grow and we die. If somebody writes our life it is a history, but in the case of the Divine it is a drama. He writes the script, comes down, enacts it and qoes back. For Him it's a drama, leela; for us its history. For him it's a drama script: He makes the script, comes down, plays the whole drama, and goes back. There is a story which says, Valmiki (author of the Hindu epic Ramayana written in Sanskrit) wrote the Ramayana (Hindu epic telling of the banishment of Rama from his kingdom and the abduction of his wife by a demon and Rama's restoration to the throne) much earlier than Rama's (Hindu incarnation of God, said to be one of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, a form of the ultimate human power) birth, then Rama came down, and enacted exactly as per what Valmiki wrote and then went back.

Your leela, the very memory of your dramas, the Divine leelas, that is more than enough, that itself gives so much of fulfillment, so, there is no need to be goal-oriented, as the very path itself is so joyful and ecstatic.

The third thing is very important; the literal meaning of the term dance. The very dance itself is one of the techniques. By this statement, I mean three things, first thing, your path to the Divine, your path to self- realization, your path to God is not difficult as you think. And you don't have to be too goal oriented, the very path itself is joyful. There is no need to reduce the traveling time, the

very path itself is ecstatic. The third thing, the very important thing, the very dance, that itself is one of the techniques.

Let us go statement by statement; you'll be able to understand how you can dance your way to God.

First we will take up the statement, the very dance itself is a technique. Vaishnavism (One of the principal divisions of Hinduism, its adherents worship Vishnu as the supreme God) is one of the well known religions which has recognized dance as an important meditation technique. By recognizing it, it has made a huge contribution to the growth of human beings.

If you look a little deeply into religions, you will find they all have three parts: one is the philosophy, next the rituals, and third the techniques to give the experience. Philosophy sets the ideal, rituals makes you slowly move towards it, and the techniques are the pure essence, which give you the experience. Almost all the religions will have, at least the major religions, will have these three classifications: philosophy, rituals, and techniques are the essence of religion which can give you the experience of Divinity. God or the self within your self. All the religions will have these three parts, and in all the religions the technique part is always associated with dance.

There is a religion in Bengal called Bagules means mad people. The very name of the religion is mad people. Only the name is like that but if you hear their songs, if you see their lifestyle, you can't find a better spiritual expression. Their songs and their way of life are so wonderful, according to me it is one of the best spiritual expressions. In the south, Vaishnavism is another religion, where they sing and dance, where they continue the kirtans (practice of singing and repeating the name of God) and the nama sankitana (singing with perfection in a group the names of God )for hours together. It is one of the popular and powerful techniques.

In Sufism (a system of esoteric philosophy associated with Islam), the basic technique is dancing and whirling. They say that the whole of Existence is expressing, according to them the whole life is dancing. This is true! Even the physicists are proving today that every atom is dancing, is vibrant and alive. The first group of physicists declared that there are two thinqs in an atom, proton and electron, that is the static part and the moving part; the next batch declared that the same particle at one time is static, at the other time is moving; the third group, are now declaring that even the time gap is not there, at the same time it is static and is moving. Not only that, the close view of the movement of the atoms is being photographed too. I myself read a research report from NASA. The picture taken exactly, exactly means exactly, resembles the form of Nataraja (literally means the king of dance; reference here is to the dancing posture of the Hindu God, Siva). I was surprised to see such a beautiful picture of Nataraja created by the scientists.

When I read their whole report, I learnt that it was not created by them, it was a photograph created at the time of their research. When they were working on this idea of quantum physics, when they were discovering, they came up with the minutest possible photographs. Even that declared that the whole cosmos is dancing, the whole cosmos is enjoying, the whole cosmos is moving. The whole cosmos is alive, vibrant! The whole Existence is celebrating, except man. Except man, it seems everybody is in tune with Existence, except man everybody is in tune with the Divine. Only somehow man has missed the connection with reality.

In Saivism (a branch of Hinduism that worships Siva as the supreme God), Nataraja the God, the Lord himself is a great dancer. Always when the highest form of spirituality expresses, it expresses only in the form of joy and ecstasy. Look into the course of all the great Mystics and Masters. We can make a big list of the Masters who expressed their energy through dance. Krishna (an incarnation of the Hindu God, Vishnu) , Meera (a female mystical poet-saint who was a devotee of Lord Krishna), Chaitanya (an ascetic Hindu monk, social reformer and a great proponent of loving devotion for God). In South Bharat, it was Ramakrishna (an awakened saint of the last century from southern Bharat), Gnana Sambandar (a renowned Tamil poet) and so many others. So many saints- like Tukaram (a great saint from western Bharat), Tulasidas (one of the great saints, poets of medieval Bharat who composed a number of devotional songs). Ramadas, A big group of saints who always used to sing and dance and who always lived in that great ecstasy of spreading bliss and jov.

Chaitanya says, 'its one of the ultimate techniques to reach the Divine, its one of the ultimate meditation techniques to reach the Divine.' Ramakrishna says 'it is one of the ultimate techniques to drop all your eqo.' He says 'if you cannot sing and dance in the name of the divine, never think you can progress even an inch in your spirituality. As long as your ego, your conditioning, ego and conditioning, you can never even put one step.' He goes on to say, 'as long as you think I am something great, I am somebody great, you can never come down, you can never relate with others, you can never open yourself, you will always be sitting on the top of the roof like a monkey.'

Dance is one of the wonderful ways to let go all your conditionings, to feel connected again to the innocence and simplicity which is our true nature. Nataraja, is called not just a dancer, he is called kootan, a Tamil word which means, a man who dances without rules. Dance means something formal, you learn so many steps. According to me if you learn any dance you will lose the joy of the dance. If you are a professional bharatanatyam (a south Hindu classical dance form) dancer, you will lose the whole joy of bharatanatyam, the moment you learn the steps. The moment you become professional you lose the whole joy. I have never seen any professional enjoving their dance. The moment you become professional, you can only make money, not happiness. That is why Nataraja is called kootan, a man who dances with no rules, who just expresses joy; Nataraja is never called a dancer, he is called a kootan, he expresses himself, in that ecstasy. Meera was called a mad woman. When she was always called a mad woman, because she had neither rules nor requlations, the ecstacy would go to such a peak, she would start expressing it as dance.

Once a great devotee of the Lord was asked as to why he danced so much, like a mad person. He answered, 'If an elephant enters into a small hut, what will happen to that hut, how it shakes, how it will be totally uprooted. The same thing happens to me when I remember the Lords name, so much of energy enters me, so much of joy enters into me, so much ecstasy enters me, naturally the body starts moving and expressing itself.'

Most of Ramakrishna's photographs were taken when he was dancing, you can see the joy and the ecstasy in his face. The record says, the reminiscences say, that when he dances one could see the whole area vibrating, when he danced one could touch and feel God in the air! There was so much of energy, so much of life, so much of joy that he used to create just by the dance.

The great saint Gnanasambandar says if we sing and dance the name of the Divine, all our karmas (meaning action, effect, destiny, a term that comprises the entire cycle of cause and effect, and is central to Hinduism) disappear. Ramakrishna says in a parable, 'when you sing and dance in the name of the Lord, just as, if you stand under a tree and clap, all the birds on the tree will fly away, in the same way, if you sing and dance in the name of the karmas which are sitting in your heart will fly away, you will be liberated from the karmas.'

Dance is one of the wonderful meditation techniques which can directly put you, into that ecstasy. which can directly make you relate with the higher energy. You may ask, how it can be, because we don't believe anything simple, we believe only complicated things. If you are asked to go around a temple 108 times, vou believe something good will happen: if you are asked to sit in a room and chant 10000 times a mantra you will believe something will happen. Anything complicated, your heart feels contented, satisfied. If you are asked to climb up, walk up and down the Balaji (Venkateshwara or Balaji is a much worshipped form of Lord Vishnu and is the presiding deity at the Tirupati temple located on a hill-top in southern Bharat) hill you feel you have done something, why? Whenever vou do something hard, when your eao is fulfilled, you feel satisfied, but many things when they are simply told, you tend to resist. If I tell you to close your eyes for a few minutes and meditate you feel that is very difficult. We are ready to walk to any extent, climb any hill, but we are not ready to sit and close our eyes for a few minutes.

Complicated things support your ego, anything supporting your ego, you can do easily but simple things never support the eqo. Instead it helps you to come down from the eqo. Giving up eqo is a very difficult thing. I have always seen in our meditation camps. when the kirtan goes on. some people who are too conditioned, by their prestige and social status, they think, oh, small boys are dancing. I am such a prestigious quy, how can I come down, but, they do not know what the word prestige denotes. It's nothing but the conditioning, all the labels put on ourselves, or given to us by society is our so called status, its nothing but the labels given to you by society. Society says you are this, you are that. Understand clearly, all the labels which you get from society, is what we call status. As long as you are identifying vourself with the labels, you can never realize the stuff which is inside you. The stuff which is inside you is the simple spiritual energy; it's an innocent spiritual energy!

If you watch kids you can see how they naturally whirl and dance. It is one of the great techniques to center your energy. In Sufism they call it dervish whirling, just spinning around like the kids. It is one of the highest forms of meditation techniques. Actually it is one of the last meditation techniques they teach. Just spin and dance like kids and the effect will be wonderful, your energy will be centered totally in your being.

That is what kids do, but when kids do that, what do we do? We say keep quiet, sit, shut up, we make them sit silently, till they are made as dull as we are. We never feel satisfied otherwise. It is difficult for us to handle them unless they are made dull, it is difficult to handle their vibrant alive energy. If any of you know yoga, you can understand, kids who are below seven can do all the seven asanas (any of various bodily positions assumed in youic exercise) effortlessly.

All the twleve asanas, the main asanas, kids do by themselves, you don't need to teach them, their own body intelligence teaches them. They do the techniques properly. Just as the twelve major asanas comes to them naturally, in the same way the technique of balancing their energy. Whirling is one of the techniques of balancing their energy, they know it. You can see kids jumping and dancing, it's an expression of their energy, and it's an expression of their overflowing energy. For them there is no identification, there is no ego, there is no status, and there is no prestige. They don't have to prove themselves as somebody, but for you, you have a big prestige, you have a big status. Continuously you are needed to prove yourself as somebody, which is the reason why you can't come down. That is why you can't take up this simple technique of dancing.

There was a lady who came to me and asked, 'Master, please, teach me some method to bring peace in my house. I want peace and joy in my house. Please show me a way.' I said, let the whole family sit together, eat, laugh and dance, automatically you will see understanding will come. She said, 'No, no, no, Master, please teach me some Laskshmi pooja (prayer for invoking the Hindu Goddess Lakshmi) or something, I am already doing Sowbhagya Lakshmi pooja (prayer for invoking the blessings of the Hindy Goddess Lakshmi responsible for prosperity), should I do some other pooja (prayer). '

See what these guys generally do, in the pooja room, it is pooja to Lakshmi, when they come out it is archana (offering of various items to God, like flowers, incense, fruits etc amidst chanting, here the term is used in jest) to husband. (Loud laughter from audience) How do you think peace will prevail? You see lakshmi is the expression of joy. When you start expressing that joy, naturally you will see lakshmi will be there. There is nothing wrong with worshipping Lakshmi, yes that is one of the techniques, to bring joy into your home, into your house, but we stop just by worshipping. We have forgotten the technique to bring soumya (gentle, soft, mild), or the bliss or the soundarya (beauty), in our lives. You just do Lakshmi pooja and when you come out you start doing archana to your husband! How do you expect peace to prevail in your house? Only when vou express the joy and the ecstasy, it is qoing to create and radiate peace and bliss, and then naturally the peace will prevail in your space.

Ramakrishna says 'wherever you sing and dance, the name of the Divine, you will see the Divine presence happens in that place.' He goes one step ahead and says, 'that place will be filled with the Divine, that place will be filled with the Divine energy, that whole place will be energized.'

So many Masters time and again, speak about meditation. The ultimate form of meditation, is dance! It is one of the wonderful techniques to relate with the Divine energy. The whirling or the spinning directly puts your energy into your centre and not only that, you come out of all your so called status and inhibitions. Dropping your conditioning is not spirituality, reclaiming the same innocence, what you had when you were a child is what true spirituality is. There is a beautiful Zen saying, 'Enlightenment is nothing but getting the innocence, which you have lost after the age of seven.' After the age of seven, you are taught, you are conditioned, by society. Enlightenment is nothing but coming out of the conditionings, experiencing the same innocence, again in your life. Experiencing the innocence, and experiencing the joy is the ultimate goal of meditation and dance is one of the wonderful ways to it.

When you dance you let go the whole being, you let go all your thinking. If you think you can't dance, if you dance you can't think. If you are thinking and dancing you are doing traditional dance, it means you are not enjoying. When you dance, you come to present moment, you forget the past, you forget the future, your whole energy becomes centered.

I've read the stories of many great dancers who experienced the Divine or the ecstasy in them, like Chaitanya. There was one disciple of Chaitanya, called THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, who was also a great dancer. Chaitanya says 'the moment I hear the word of the moment I hear the Lords name, immediately something happens to my Being, and it starts expressing itself.'

A Zen story: one disciple goes to a Master and asks 'Master, if somebody becomes enlightened. will he keep quiet?' Master says: 'no, no, if he keeps quiet be very clear he doesn't know and he hasn't become enlightened.' 'Then will he go round and spread the truth?' Master says: 'no, no, speakers never know what enlightenment is, and he will never go round and do that.' 'Then what does he do? Tell me! You say he neither goes round nor speaks nor keeps quiet. Then does he do?' Master says: 'the moment somebody becomes enlightened he starts dancing! His whole life becomes a great dance. His every movement is a dance!'

You cannot possess enlightenment will start possessing you. The energy will start possessing you; the energy will start expressing through you. And he says, 'when the energy possesses you every word that comes from vour mouth will be a mantra (a sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation, or incantation, such as an invocation of a god, a maqic spell, or a syllable or portion of scripture containing mystical potentialities); every action of your body will be a Divine dance; a special grace will enter into your being; a special energy will be radiated by your presence. You become a leaf which is slowly swinging in the air; you become just an instrument which radiates the Divine; you become a hollow bamboo in the hands of the Divine.'

When you drop all your conditionings, when you drop your ego, you really become a hollow bamboo. If the bamboo is thick and hard, egoistic, it can be used only to carry the dead bodies, not for anything else. When it becomes hollow, empty, it becomes a venu (flute), in the hands of Krishna (Lord Krishna is often depicted with a flute in His hands of the Divine. In the same way if you are solid, egoistic, arrogant and full of conditionings, you will be carrying this dead body, nothing else. The moment you drop all your conditionings, the moment you drop your ego, the moment you become a relaxed being, an innocent being, the moment you are out of your ego, or your ego is out of you, you become a flute in the hands of the Divine. You start expressing your joy through dance; your very being on this planet earth will be a great blessing to the planet earth. Your very existence will be radiating joy; your very existence will be spreading bliss; your very existence will be creating a different energy around the people and in their hearts.

Now let us go back to where we started and understand the first statement: the path to God is not so hard or difficult as you all think. We always think the path to God is always difficult because the path in life is difficult. You know if you have to achieve something outside you have to work so much. You need to do so many things, you need to earn, you need to do this, you need to do that, so many things have to be done. If you want to achieve anything in the outer world so many things have to be done, but when you really want to achieve something in the inner world, nothing complicated needs to be done. Ramana Maharshi (an Enlightened Master of this century from southern Bharat) says beautifully, 'if you want to achieve something in the outer world so much needs to be done, if you want to achieve something in the inner world, just keep quiet and you will achieve.'

Relax, you will fall into the Divine, you will slip beautifully into the relaxation has become such a complicated thing, being simple has become such a complicated thing. We always feel going towards the Divine, the path to Divine is a very complicated thing. It is not as complicated as we think. The path to the Divine, the path to God is as simple as your own being. One of the disciples of Ramakrishna says, 'it is the enlightenment, or the saakshaatkaara (direct realization or experience of Absoluteness) which is much simpler, than your graduation.' He is actually a graduate and enlightened. He says 'according to me you don't need to work even that much for enlightenment.' According to me it is simpler than the simple act of removing your coat and putting it in the coat stand. How much time it takes to remove the coat and put it in the coat stand that much time only it will take, to take out the conditioning and put it on the outside. Only thing, you should know where your conditioning is and how deep your conditioning is. The moment you realize your conditioning and keep it aside, you are enlightened. Nothing more is necessary; nothing more needs to be done.

Let us take the next statement: you don't need to hurry in your path. So many people come and tell me 'Master, I am not able to silence my mind. I continuously meditate, but my mind never becomes silent. I try many times but I am not able to feel the peace.' Once somebody asked Ramana Maharishi, 'Bhagwan (another word for God), I want peace.' Ramana Maharishi said, 'just drop the I and the want, what remains is peace.' (Laughter from audience). Nothing else! The very greed, the very push, that you should silence your mind, creates turbulence in you. The very push creates turbulence in you. See, it's like this, you see a motion in the lake, small waves rising. You want to silence the lake, and you take a big boat and go to the center of the waves and try to silence the waves. The very boat will create a thousand times bigger waves than the original waves. Your very idea that: I should make my mind silent, I should realize, will postpone the process. Your very greed will make you dull. You don't need to bother about the goal, if you are in the right path, just dance your way, you will see you will reach the goal.

In Zen they say, not the goal, but the path. Don't sacrifice the path for the sake of goal. Not the goal, but the path. The very path is itself such an ecstatic path. If you are walking on the path, if you are walking on the path to God be very clear there is some serious mistake. It means you have not recognized the beauty of the path. If you are driving on the path means you are too greedy, understand again you are missing the path. If you are dancing on the path, understand, vou are traveling in the right path, in the right wav. You can be sure you are traveling on the right path and in the right way. It means your very path towards the Divine is ecstasy. The very meditation is joy, the very prayer is joy. The very life itself is joy.

There is a beautiful prayer, a hymn, by one of the Alwars (one of the twelve great poet saints of south Bharat), 'O Krishna, you are the food which I eat, you are the betel leaf which I eat, you are the water which I drink. I feel every moment of my life is filled with you, penetrated by you, 'When you are dancing on the path the very movement, your every inhaling and exhaling becomes a dance in your being, becomes a joy in your being and becomes an ecstasy in your being. This happens when you understand the right spiritual path. People come and ask me, 'Master should I take up some nithya pooja (daily prayer) everyday. I tell them if you take up nithya pooja, you will be the last person to enter into the pooja room. I have observed many people who do nithya pooja. Few days it will go on really wonderfully and on the fifth day, they will be waiting to go out of the pooja room. And after a few days, after the pooja, they will never go near that room. Why? It becomes a duty. Never take up anything as a duty. When you are in bliss, joy, express your gratitude to the Lord. Express your joy to him; express your bliss to him. But never do anything as a duty. Our religion is always based on greed and fear and that is why if it is based on fear you walk on the path, if it is based on greed you drive on the path, if it is based on love you will dance on the path.

If you are based on greed you will drive your way to God. if you are based on fear you will walk your way to God, if you are based on bliss only then you will dance your way to God.

Almost all our religions, all our spirituality is fear based or greed based.

Here is a small story: three quys were starting a new business. They feared whether it will be successful or not. So they decided to have Balaji as their partner. They decided that whatever profit comes, out of that one share they will give to Balaji. And the way it works. I tell you, atleast I have seen with Balaii it works. He's the (laughs) living energy, somehow He works. Getting back to the story, it worked and they made a four crore profit. Now they are supposed to give one crore to Balaji, and here starts the problem. If they made just 5000, or 10,000 and put it into the hundi (box kept in temples to collect money and other offerings from devotees), they wouldn't mind, but

when it is too much they start thinking. One quy says, 'after all God has no children (laughter from audience) why does He need so much money, we have so many children, we have to give them education, we have to take care.' Second guy says, 'yes, after all we are also children of God.' The third guy gave an idea. 'we'll make a hundi, convert all the money into gold, and throw everything up. Whatever falls inside the hundi, we'll put it in the hundi and give it to the temple; whatever falls outside we will take it as a prasad (a material substance that is first offered to a deity and then consumed with that the deity's blessing resides within it) from Balaii. The second quy said, 'no, whatever falls inside we will take it, whatever falls outside, we'll qive it to Balaji.' The third guy, a very intelligent guy, said, 'no, we'll throw everything up, whatever God wants let him take, (loud laughter from audience) whatever falls down , it is our prasad. After all God is above, (laughing) so let him pick up what he wants'.

Fear based religions, greed based religions are not religions. Only when it is bliss based, your love, your devotion, is really spirituality. Only then you are traveling towards the Divine, only then you are going towards God.

All our faith you can see will rise when we have some trouble, never during other times.

One quy was traveling with his assistants in a ship; suddenly the ship was caught in a cyclone. The ship started rocking dangerously. One guy shouted, 'O God, please save us! If you save us we will all stop smoking.' Nothing happened; the ship violently. The second guy prayed, 'Please save us, if you save us we will all stop drinking,' Again nothing happened, the ship continued to rock up and down. The third guy said, 'O God save us, somehow save us, we'll stop womanizing!' Then one quy from the crowd shouted, 'Aye don't go to that extent, don't go that far, there is a small island seen. We are able to see a small island.'

Whenever your religion is greed based or fear based, you are never religious, you only try to exploit or cheat, which you can never do to the Divine. Only when it is bliss based you dance your way to God.

Let it be love based, not fear based. I read in some book, fear is the first step towards the wisdom or something like that. I felt, no, it can never be. Bliss is the first step towards wisdom, towards the Divine. Love is the first step towards the Lord. It is bhakti (devotion) and love which makes your whole life a dance. When you fall in love with the Divine, with some form of God, your whole life turns into joy and ecstacy. So may you feel and experience and dance your way to God, feel the eternal bliss, nithyananda (eternal bliss), thank you.

We can have a few minutes for your questions; you are welcome to ask any questions.

• 1. 'You have taught us, now we would like to have some practice. We would like to see what actually you mean by dancing your way to God.' Master: (laughing) Do it in your house, go back to your house, play some kirtans. First understand the technique. Allow the kirtan to penetrate you, allow the kirtan to work on you, allow the music to enter into you. Neither bother that somebody is seeing, nor worry that somebody is not seeing. Feel the kirtan is going in, feel the energy, the experience of that ecstacy, and express it as it comes. Neither bother about your steps, nor bother about your movements, express it, that's all. Of course, in our camps we do have dance, but this place is too small, we will not be able to organize it, the place is too small for the crowd.

Master: If you understand everything, or don't understand everything, you will not have any questions. People think if I ask some question I may look like a fool. If you ask you may look like a fool, if you don't you will be a fool. (laughter from audience) At least when you ask, you will have an answer. When we ask, only we may look like, if you don't ask you will be. That way you will live in the same foolishness!

There is no need for any ritual, if you just gaze at that drawing that is enough. Let me explain the reason or the purpose of the yantram (instrument or machine).

Now there is a new therapy developing called: art therapy. Have you heard of that? Art therapy, in this the mentally unstable are asked to paint continuously for 21 days. They are given the canvas and the paint, and they are asked to paint freely, as long as they want. You can understand fully what they will be doing. They will pour the paint on the cloth and roll on the cloth and do all sorts of things, but, continuously they are supplied with material. Everyday they have to paint. You will be surprised, shocked to see the results.

Doctors are claiming that in 21 days more than 80% of the mentally ill get cured. They come out of the illness. And one more strange thing, is that all those who have become mentally ill because of money, or greed, they all paint in the same way. All the people who have become mentally ill because of women they all paint in the same way. All people who have become mentally ill because of the name and fame problem, or the pressure to maintain their status, they all paint in the same way. And the third most important thing, the doctor who was analyzing and doing research on all these drawings, he became mentally unstable! (Laughter from audience)

So, three important things you need to understand by this experiment. The first thing: you express what you have experienced; second thing: it carries the quality of your consciousness; if you meditate on it, if you keep your awareness on it, you reach the same quality of consciousness. These yantras are the expression or the drawings, done by the Mystics to express their enlightenment. Yantras are the mystical drawings, expressed or done by Enlightened Masters, to express their enlightenment. Sri Chakra is the expression of enlightenment, the ultimate Cosmic Energy. You can see, it is so complicated but yet so simple. It is totally complicated, but utterly simple. If you look closely it is nine triangles that is all, nine triangles placed on the other, that's all. If you don't see it like that, it is such a complicated mechanism you can never translate it. Nothing needs to be done, just gaze at that yantra, automatically you will see your mind will become calm. When your mind becomes calm, nothing else needs to be done, there is no other ritual, nothing more is necessary.

There are many rituals, which you can do if you wish to, that is different, but just the penetrating or the gazing will take you to the same state. The Masters have expressed their enlightenment in the form, if you meditate on it you will experience the same thing. Whatever they have expressed, if you sincerely meditate on it, you will experience the same thing.

Even the songs composed by Masters are mantras, they are expressions of their enlightenment. If you contemplate on them, meditate on them, you will reach the same ecstasy, the same experience. When the veda mantras (holy chants from ancient Indo-Aryan religious literature that are associated with the Vedic civilization) are chanted there is no need to understand the meaning, just, chant, that's enough, why? It is because the very mantra, the very sound itself is an expression of enlightenment. When you create the same sound, you reach the same state, you experience the same state.

So when a person becomes enlightened when he expresses in the verbal language it becomes a mantra, if he expresses in the visual language it becomes a vantra, if he expresses in the body language it becomes a dance, it becomes a tantra (one of several esoteric traditions rooted in the religions of Bharat: here tantra refers to technique. So there so many methods of expression, just catch one of the expressions, you will have the same experience. That is the reason the vantras are worshipped or meditated upon.

Master: No, no, when I say yantra I am referring to the srichakras.

Question from audience: When we meditate we experience the bliss, how do we maintain that throughout our daily life?

Master: That's a wonderful question. The greed to possess the bliss! Look deep into how the bliss happens, then you will understand. The moment you become choice less, the bliss happens to you. Choicelessness is bliss. When you start choosing the bliss as a choice you kill it. Love is lost by marriage. (laughter from audience) When you possess, when you try to make something solid, when you try to catch it, you destroy and mess up the whole thing. If you place your palms inside the river, if they are open, the river will be there in your palm; the moment you try to hold the river you will have only empty palms.

There is a small story which says. God sent cvclones and hurricanes to the planet earth, man made the safe chambers; God sent fire to the planet earth, man made fire enqines; God sent love to the planet earth and man made marriages. (Loud laughter from the audience).

When you try to posses something, when you try to catch something, you destroy the whole joy of it. The bliss also is like a breeze, choicelessness is a breeze, choicelessness is bliss. When you try choosing the bliss, you try to possess, naturally you destroy it. Never try to be in greed, you see, whenever you are in bliss immediately the next thought will come, oh, it may disappear, it may leave me and so on.

Questioner interrupts: I don't. What I want to know is. how do we maintain that?

Master: That is what ma, that is what I am telling ma. Listen, the moment you feel the bliss, the ecstasy, within a few minutes of that you will start thinking, it may come down, it may reduce, it may be lost. I may lose touch with the bliss. All these thoughts will come. Just relax don't have the fear that it may be lost and just say to your mind, if it is lost, I don't bother. If it has to be with me, let it be with me, if it will be lost. I don't bother. Don't try to possess it! You will see continuously it will start coming up in your being.

You see if you empty the well, continuously water will come, so when the bliss happens to you start sharing with everyone, start giving to everyone, don't possess the bliss, don't even think it should be there continuously with you, don't even bother that the bliss should not leave you. Don't bother about that, don't think, if it leaves alright let it is there. It it be there. Don't make the bliss a choice for your life; don't even have the greed to be blissful, to maintain the bliss for 24 hours. Stop the idea of maintaining the bliss for 24 hours; you will see that bliss maintains you.

When you stop the idea of maintaining it, it starts maintaining you. As long as you want to maintain, you will destroy it, when you relax from the idea of maintaining, you will see that it gets maintained. It simply starts happening, there is no need to be greedy, there is no need to possess, then it is bound to reduce. Remember one important thing, whenever your bliss it is bound to increase. Whomsoever you see, whosoever is around you, share your bliss with them, share your joy with them, in the form of love, in the form of kind words, in the form of ecstasy, share it. Continuously share! You can even share your experience of bliss with them: it will then become a solid experience. By sharing it you make it eternal bliss, a solid experience. Bliss when it is shared, it becomes eternal bliss- nithyananda,

That's a wonderful question. Not two, two hundred. (Loud laughter from audience). Bhagavata says, there was a avadoota (one who has renounced everything) who had so many gurus, actually countless number of gurus. Ramakrishna says, 'wherever you see a beautiful thing learn from it.' I always tell in my books, wherever you find a beautiful flower, pluck it and make a beautiful bouquet for yourself. Not only can you have two or three gurus, according to me you must have so many expressions of spirituality. Go round, and where ever you get the best flowers. bluck them all, and make a beautiful bouquet. See, our ego is such, even if thousands of Masters teach us, we will not learn (laughs) and even with thousands of roses it is difficult to transform ourselves. You think just by one mans hard work you can be transformed? You can never be; so wherever you get a chance, never miss the chance of plucking some beautiful flower, from some beautiful garden. Go round, pluck flowers from all the beautiful gardens and make a bouquet for yourself. It is the ultimate thing which you can do to yourself.

It is time to end now. May you all experience the eternal bliss,.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM,

Thank vou.

The subject of today's discourse is Religion and Spirituality.

First, we shall see what we currently understand by the words religion and spirituality and then we shall see what we are supposed to understand by the words religion and spirituality.

Santana Dharma is the spiritual tradition from which the religion Hinduism manifested. Santana Dharma is the spiritual ocean and the backbone of Hinduism. I will use Hinduism and Santana Dharma as the basis to explain the words religion and spirituality.

Before I start, I want to clarify a few things. When I use the word Hinduism or compare it with other traditions, I request people of other religions not to feel offended. Sometimes, when we need to explain or emphasize the greatness of something, we need to compare it with other analogous things.

Just to express the greatness or uniqueness of this culture and tradition, sometimes if I compare and make a few statements, please do not feel offended.

One more thing, whatever I am expressing is the Truth, which is logical and can be arqued and settled. Even then, I do not want anyone's feelings to be hurt; so, I wanted to say these words to set some context before I delve into the topic.

Hinduism is the only religion, which allows people to update it. All other religious scriptures end with a very clear statement that they cannot be updated or sometimes, cannot be commented upon by anyone.

Even software can be updated but some scriptures cannot be updated! They have closed their minds to the possibility of updating the tenets of the scriptures to suit the needs and culture of the times.

The moment we blockade the possibility of new commentaries, we make things redundant. The moment we prohibit updates, in that very moment we would have killed the whole religion, since what was good once upon a time may not be good for today. What was acceptable, as the right

thing to do, once upon a time may not be the right thing to do today! Not only may, it wont be. The same tenets just cannot be good for today, because our body, mind, and social structures; in short, evervthing has changed.

In Hinduism, we have two kinds of scriptures. One is known as Sruthi, and the other as Smrithi.

The scripture, called Sruthi has a lot of commentaries translating the Sanskrit word Sruthi to mean 'heard'. Please understand; the word Sruthi cannot be translated as 'heard'. It has to be translated as experience.

Many times, when the Sanskrit to English translation is done improperly, the entire gist of the correct meaning is lost. Let me give you an example, brahmacharya, which has been wrongly translated into English as celibacy. This has led to so many complications and problems. The word brahmacharya means living like Brahman. Acharya means living like and Brahman means God. Therefore, living like God or living with God is what brahmacharya means. Living with Existence is the right translation of the word.

Usually, the moment people hear the word brahmacharya, they understand it wrongly as celibacy and ask me, 'Master, should we renounce everything to achieve wisdom? Should we become a brahmachari (one who practices brahmacharya), should we give up everything?"

I tell them, there is no need to give up anything, Just give up what you do not have, that is enough, Live with what you have and give up what you do not have. Many times, we live with many fantasies about things, which we do not have. When we give up what we do not have, we will start living intensely with what we have.

We continuously live with the things that we do not have our spouse and family; live with them intenselv. However, we have many fantasies, of how our wife should be, how our husband should be. Drop those fantasies!

Just drop what you do not have, that is enough.

That is what we must understand by the word Brahmacharya. Living with what we have; living with reality. If we understand this word correctly, we will know that it does not ask us to leave our husband or wife or our homes.

The very culture of the rishis (sage), from which the Technology of Enlightenment originated, was a Grihastha Dharma (householder way of life). Grihastha refers to someone who runs a house, in effect a married person. All rishis were married, yet they were called Brahmacharis. They lived with rishi pathnis (rishi's wives), they had children, yet they were called Brahmacharis.

How can we explain this? The word Brahmacharya means living with existence, not living as celibates have a different title, a different name: Naishtika Brahmachari and they lead a different lifestyle.

When we translate Sanskrit words, even if we make a small mistake, the whole truth will be lost.

The word Sruthi should be translated as experience, not as heard. It is this experience, of the rishis, that forms the basic scriptures of our Hindu philosophy. The Upanishads, the scriptures that describe the ultimate experience of our rishis, are the Sruthi. These scriptures cannot be changed, since this is the ultimate experience of our rishis.

The Sruthis do not speak about the day-to-day experiences or the approach to achieve that state. They iust state the goal and talk about it. We call these scriptures as Shastras or Sruthi. They iust give statements on what the rishis experienced, when they reached the higher consciousness. This is the first level of scriptures.

The second level of scriptures is the Smrithi. These scriptures give instructions on how to practice the great truths in our day-to-day lives.

It is like applied science. The Smrithi is a scripture that explains how to follow the Truth in our everyday life. Without its applications, science has no use; but without the main theories, the applications cannot be created.

We cannot have applied science without the main theories and there is no use for the main theories, unless we can apply them in practice. Both are necessary. The main theories capture the way that the world works, and these are applied in wavs to suit the times. Especially when it comes to the day-to-day applied science, there should be an option for updating. Today, we cannot restrict ourselves to the way that science was applied in the 19th century.

Of course, no other traditions, no other Masters have delved so deep into human consciousness. No one else has done so much work in human consciousness that they could differentiate so clearly between Sruthi and Smrithi, between Experience and Practice. All other spiritual literatures have either mixed these two or confused the two resulting in a statement that nothing can be updated; nothing can be changed. Some scriptures go to the extent of saying that nobody can even comment on them. It is such a sensitive issue.

Let me give you a small example. We get a train schedule. We look it up, and go to the station to catch a specific train. After waiting an hour, we realize that the train is not coming. Then we enquire with the authorities, and they point out to us that we are using last year's schedule. It does not work this year! This is not the mistake of the railway department, but ours.

If we wait for a train based on the timetable of last year, and don't see the train, we either blame the Railways, or we start saying that there is no such thing as a train that exists on the Planet Earth!

We are doing this same thing, many times, with the scriptures. We try to follow what the old scriptures say and when we do not see the results, we start blaming the system. Only the Hindu Rishis had the intelligence, to allow their future generations to amend their train schedule. All other systems have banned the very idea of amendments, the very idea of updating. Just by banning the idea of updating, they have destroyed their whole system.

Many religions have now become just like a corpse. If we have a corpse in our house, not only is it occupying unnecessary space in the house, but also it is dangerous to our health. Therefore, we need to immediately remove the corpse and bury it. If we do not do that, it will be dangerous for our health.

When we follow old books, which cannot be updated, it becomes very difficult to live a regular life, leave alone a spiritual life!

Only the Hindu Masters had the trust, courage and foresight to allow their scriptures to be updated.

l want to reiterate this: vou need trust in the disciples, trust in the next generations to allow them to comment on your words. It is only the Hindu Masters, who had so much of courage as to allow the disciples to comment on their words.

Actually if you see, every book of a Master is commented upon, by the disciples. The Brahma sutra, was written by Vyasa, Sankara commented on it, Sankara's disciple Sureshwara then wrote a Vaartika (glossary commentary on the work), then Sureshwara's disciple Athamananda wrote the Tika (note) and it went on and on, down the generations..

Of course, the Masters had the courage and trust to allow their disciples to update their words. You need to have tremendous courage and trust on your disciples: that they will understand the thread and the main message, that they will understand the core.

Only in Hinduism, the idea of commenting is allowed. In no other system is this idea allowed.

In fact, in Hinduism, if a person does not comment on the three basic scriptures - Upanishads, Brahma sutra and Bhagwad Gita, he cannot even be called an Acharya (teacher). We cannot be called a teacher unless we have our own unique commentary. This qives us so much of freedom to think, so much of freedom to understand, so much freedom to preach what we experienced as the Truth.

Hinduism is the only reliaion, which gives so much of freedom.

There is a beautiful statement by Vivekananda, an enlightened Master, who lived in the last century. He says, 'freedom is the basic condition for any growth. In any field, if we want growth, we must be given freedom.'

The countries, which gave freedom in the line of science, have made tremendous procress in the field of science. The countries, which gave freedom in the field of medicine, have grown a lot in that field. Those countries which had great political freedom researched and experimented with all the political systems and created the best political structures.

In the West, people have so much social freedom that, every individual has complete freedom to choose the way he wishes to lead his life. Almost every individual is respected. Even though one might not have the intelligence to choose, one still has the freedom to choose.

Of course, the big danger is having freedom without intelligence. This is a very big danger! Many people come and ask me this, especially disciples who live around me all the time. Whenever I make a rule, whenever I say something, someone will come back and question me. The first thing I do is to relax the rule and give them complete freedom. Actually giving them freedom is the best

punishment! Within a few days, they just come and fall at my feet: 'Master, please quide me, I do not want this freedom'!

When people do not have enough intelligence, and we just give them freedom, naturally they will be in a dilemma. That is the worst punishment. The West is facing that problem today. However, even though it faces problems of dilemma, freedom is worth having! The West has achieved this state because thev have social freedom.

In the same way the East has achieved spiritual freedom: they have achieved such highconscious experiences because they have had spiritual freedom.

In the East, nobody needs to follow any particular religious system. We can have our own God if we are not satisfied with the existing 33 crores (330 millions) of Gods, as the ancient scriptures say. I think that in the past, the population must have been 33 crores of people and each one must have had his own God; that is why there were 33 crores of Gods.

Now we may have to say that there are around 6 billion Gods, based on the current population. There must be 6 billion Gods, so that each one has his chosen deity.

The concept of chosen deity exists only in Hinduism. If we are not satisfied with all the existing Gods, we can create our own. We have the formula to create our own God or Ishta Devatha in Sanskrit. It is completely our choice. We are given all the possibilities; we can cook our own food; we can make our own rules; we can create our own path.

It is like this: A disciple goes to a Master and asks, 'Master, I have to cross this forest, please help me'. The Master replies, 'go 1100 ft, there will be a big snake, take a right turn, then go 200 ft where there will be a lion, take a left turn, go 3 ft and there will be a tiger, in another 4 ft there will be a forest fire, take a right turn and you will reach the other side'!

If the Master gives instructions like this to the disciple will he be able to cross the forest.

If the Master gives instructions based on the path that he himself had taken to cross the forest and based on what he saw years ago, will the disciple be able to cross the forest. No, because the tiger may not be there today, the forest fire may not be there today. We do not know.

Any clear-cut rule, any clear-cut guidance is always misguidance. All guidance is only misguidance. When we try to guide using standard rules according to our experience, please be very clear, we are misquiding people.

Instead of that, any intelligent Master will give us a torch, a burning torch, 'carry this torch and go, use your intelligence!' Just provide a person a way, using what he can see the route; give him techniques to protect himself from animals and then naturally the person will cross the forest.

All our scriptures are trying to do the second thing: they are trying to qive us a torch and the way to go beyond the obstacles. They never give details. This is actually a problem we are facing. When we do not have details or the understanding of what we are trying to cross and yet have so much freedom, we tend to abuse the freedom.

Crimes are nothing but abusing the freedom given to us. In developed countries, crime rate is high, because there is so much freedom. In under-developed countries, the crime rate is low, because of the lack of social freedom and people living like slaves. Just like how the crime rate is high in the countries with greater social freedom, in much the same way, people with greater spiritual freedom also abuse it.

Now, I am opening the truth completely in front of you. If you look deeply, you mav be a little confused about what exactly I want to convey through this discourse. Please understand: I do not want to convey any conclusion. I am just opening and presenting all the possible arguments and all the truths, so that you can come to your own conclusions.

I do not want to come to any conclusion in this discourse. I want to create a little confusion inside your Being. I want you to think and understand on your own, about the whole system.

Unless we are a little confused, we will never grow! As long as we have clear-cut, spoon feeding concepts; as long as we are given the concepts directly to swallow, we never internalize or we never start working on ourselves.

People come and tell me: 'Master, sometimes I really feel confused after reading all the books.' I tell them that means you have really read the books and understood. The purpose of the book is done!"

In the Bhagvad Gita, Krishna the enlightened Master, explains to his friend Arjuna, the gist of spiritual wisdom, the nature of the Atman (soul) and the different techniques to attain it. This dialoque happens through seventeen chapters. Yet, in the eighteenth chapter of the Gita, Ariuna says, 'O Krishna, now I feel more confused than I was before I started speaking to you. What have you done to me?' Krishna then says 'right, you have heard exactly what I wanted to say'.

A little bit of confusion, a little bit of doubt, a questioning attitude is the necessity for growth. That is why I am trying to present both the sides: the positive side of Smrithi and the negative side effects on our mind, when we approach it without enough maturity.

The Smrithi gives us recommendations and techniques that we can practice in our daily lives to reach the state described in the Smrithi gives us guidelines, yet enough spiritual freedom to explore and blaze our own path. That is the positive. Yet, when we do not have the mental maturity, when we do not underlying details, our mind can easily lead us astray, and we end up abusing the spiritual freedom that is given to us. That is the negative side of the mind, which I want to clarify.

Sruthi is Spirituality; Smrithi is Religion

Let me summarize:

The first thing is we have a set of literatures called Sruthi, which cannot be updated or changed, as they are the experience of the Masters.

The next thing: Smrithi is the literature, which can be updated according to the times. We can change a few statements; we can chanqe a few systems. Yet when it comes to the freedom, sometimes we tend to abuse that freedom without having enough intelligence to catch the thread.

The third is the idea, which we need to understand about religion and spirituality is Sruthi (the Upanishads) and religion is Smrithi (the day-to-day literatures). A concept exists and we write some books to explain the concept in daily life. These books are the Smrithi. These books are like the visualization of higher concepts.

In the main scriptures, the Sruthi, we speak about the Atman, the all-pervading, and the all-knowing, God or Divine or Energy. In the Puranas (the mythologies, the second-level literature, the Smrithi), we speak about how to implement those great truths in our day-to-day lives. The model personalities who followed these truths, the role models, are spoken about. Hero worship started in the Smrithis where our Masters created ideal personalities, like Krishna, Rama and Balarama (characters in Hindu mythologies).

Let me qive you a small example to show how the meta-physical was translated to the material. When a Master experiences God-consciousness, the higher experience of awareness, he feels boundary-less, all pervading, ecstatic and blissful. When he feels this experience, he naturally tries to express it through words to his disciples, when they ask him.

He says, 'Oh! It's just like a thousand-petal lotus flowering or blossoming inside my being.'

Immediately the disciple misunderstands and begins to visualize, 'Oh, there is a thousand-petal lotus in the Master's head that iust blossoms or opens up. That is why he is having this experience!' Then he paints the picture of a thousand-petal lotus at the top of the head. This is how the concept of Sahasrara Chakra (one of the seven major chakras or subtle energy centers in the human body) happened. It is said that there is a thousand-petal lotus in the Sahasrara Chakra, at the crown of our head, and when our energy reaches there from the bottom of our spine, the lotus blooms and starts spreading the Anandha Gandha, the fragrance of bliss or joy.

Actually, if we open our heads and look in, we might not find a lotus; we might find only clay! The expression is not physical; it is meta-physical experience experience expressed in a different way, and when the disciple hears this, he visualizes it in a different way. A meta-physical experience conceived and understood or expressed in a physical way, becomes a mythological story, a Purana; it becomes Smrithi. It is not completely factual but it is the truth.

Understand; the Master experiencing the thousand-petal lotus flowering in his Being is not a fact but the truth. There is a very big difference between fact and truth. Fact is what we see with our two eves. In most cases, the truth filtered through our senses is observed as a fact. Truth is what we can perceive only with the third eve: truth is the third dimension of fact: truth is something more than fact. Usually the truth should be understood through our third eye.

If we try to analyze the truth with our limited vision of facts, we will miss the whole juice of it. That is why so-called logical people question our Puranas, again and again misunderstanding the words of our rishis. A big group of so-called logical thinkers are formed in our system, because they do not understand the difference between fact and truth. If we can understand the difference between fact and truth, we will understand why our religion was created, why our great Masters created the Puranas.

Some of the Puranas say things, to which we cannot logically relate. If one is a very logical person, one can never relate to the Puranas when taken as they are. However, why should an enlightened person, who has experienced the ultimate, say such an illogical thing? Why should he make a statement that does not suit our logic?

That is why I always tell people, science and logic is vet to catch up with the mystics, Just because we are not able to catch up, we should never blame the mystics; we should never blame the experience of the Masters.

When the Masters make a statement like 'There are stars in the sky 24 hours of the day', it is not a lie. It is the truth! There are stars, but we may not be able to see them in the daytime because of the sunlight. Just because we are not able to see them, we cannot say that there are no stars. Just because we are not able to see the truth with our limited vision, we cannot doubt the truths declared by our Masters.

The logical person is yet to catch up with our Masters. If we are too factual, when we are too dependent on the experience of the five senses, we cannot accept that there are stars in the sky in the daytime also. Only if we use the right instruments, the right telescope can we see the stars in the daytime. In fact, if we go into a deep well and see the sky from inside the well, we will be able to see stars even in the daytime.

Of course, with the right instruments, with the right method, we will be able to experience what our Masters say. When we do not know the right method, we start blaming our Masters.

There is a very big difference between truth and facts. Facts are realized with a 120-degree vision, and truth is experienced with a 360-degree vision. For realizing the truth. we need a third eve; we need a higher sense, a higher awareness and a higher perception.

For example, when we read the Puranas, they explain extra-ordinary things like Hanuman lifting a whole hill and flying, or Krishna, as a small child, killing a huge snake. If we read with our logical mind, we will always find it illogical. We cannot believe a small child dancing on a snake and then killing it, we cannot believe a small monkey lifting a huge hill and flying off with it in his hands!

All these things look very illogical, but if we look deep, we can see that they are not just facts. These statements were made to qive the reader, the incident or to illustrate the power they had; in other words, the impact of the incident in reality.

We need to understand one more thing. Usually, historians record only what has happened in the plane of vision; they record incidents in the plane of length, breadth and depth. What happened, according to their vision or understanding, is what is recorded. They can record only in the level of their vision, which is what we also see through our eyes.

However, when the Masters see, they see other dimensions as well. Thev see not only the length, breadth and depth but in terms of space and time also.

We need to understand this concept of space and time.

A small story:

An old man had gone to a nearby village for some business. He was returning to his own village and when he was a little distance away, he saw that his house was on fire. He started shouting, screaming, rolling on the ground and weeping, 'oh, my house is on fire...please help me, somebody help me put out this fire',

One of his sons ran towards him and told him. 'do not worry Father; we sold the house only two days ago.' Immediately, the old man got up and smiled. 'Oh, is that so? Then there is no problem,' and his demeanor became normal. Within ten minutes, another son ran to him and cried 'no no, father, it is true that we have sold the house, but we have not yet received the money for it!"

Again, the old man started rolling on the ground and wailing, 'oh, no! What am I to do with this fire, my house burning down? We have not even received the money.' Just then, his wife came to him and reported, 'no no, do not worry, we got the money this morning and it has already been deposited in the bank'.

Aqain, the old man stood up, stopped wailing and became normal.

Look into this incident carefully. The person is the same, the incident remains the same, yet we see two different reactions within a span of just ten minutes! Within the ten minutes, he suffers, then he consoles himself, then again he is suffers, then again he consoles himself. He undergoes different emotions, different moods but the underlying incident is the same.

If a historian records this incident, he will record only what happened in length, breadth and depth. He will record only one thing: what happened in the outer world. The house was on fire on this day and time. He can record only what has happened in length, breadth and depth.

Only a rishi, a person with a higher consciousness can see this incident in its whole. He will be able to record not only what happened in the length, breadth and depth dimension, but also what happened in the space; what happened in the consciousness of the owner; what happens in the space and time because of this incident; what is the impact of this incident on the man's consciousness.

We need to understand one important thing: we cannot just read the length, breadth and depth and decide history. History cannot be reduced just to the level of facts. We need to understand much more deeply - the impact of the incident on human consciousness. Only then can we really realize the truth.

All historians try their best to record incidents in terms of length, breadth and in the process, miss out recording their impact on human consciousness.

For instance, consider Mahatma Gandhi fasting against British rule, and a housewife fasting after a fight in the house. These two incidents cannot be the same. Gandhiji fasting for the country's freedom and a housewife fasting for her freedom cannot be the same! If a historian records these incidents, naturally he will record that Gandhiji fasted two days for the country. The homemaker fasted for two days for her needs. This is what the records will show.

If we make a factual recording, naturally we will record both the incidents in the same way. Any intelligent person will agree that both are not the same. The two incidents, the impact of the facts on space and time is very different. When we record a history or an incident, we need to consider not only the length, breadth and depth, but space and time also.

Our Puranas were written by the Masters, who could realize the impact of an incident on space and time also. That is the reason why in some places certain statements were made, which we think as illogical or an exaggeration. It is not really exaggerated. The statement was created for us to understand or realize the importance of that incident on human consciousness.

The incident of Hanuman lifting the Sanjeevani hill and flying may not be factual, as is described. He may not have lifted the huge hill, he may have lifted just a portion but the incident had a major impact on history. He was bringing the particular medicine to the battlefield and it was a timely help to Lakshmana (Lord Rama's brother), to get his life back. That incident has contributed a lot to history. To impress or to express the importance of the incident in space and time, to express the importance of the incident in human history, the Masters would have expressed it in the way they did. They would have painted a more glorious picture of the incident, than what actually was fact.

Now, I come to the main subject.

With this understanding, if we look at our religious practices, we can see how they are the embodiment or the expression of spirituality, how they are directly connected to spirituality. The religious scriptures, religious doctrines, religious rules and the religious way of life itself were created based only on this angle. These scriptures are the practical day-to-day manuals to live by and experience the great truths experienced by the great-enlightened rishis.

We need just this one understanding; how historians usually record only the length, breadth and depth and how our rishis have recorded length, breadth, depth, space and time. The way in which our rishis have recorded is holistic; they have not missed anything. Regular historians tend to miss a lot, and they have missed a lot! That is the reason all Western history is based only on the date and year and never on what the impact of an incident was on human consciousness.

In the East, we created Puranas, and in the West, they created history. History is superficial, just recording the incidents, without bothering about their impact. In the East, Masters have given more importance to the impact of specific incidents on humanity. That is why we say, if we want to know the history of the East, we just have to read the history of a handful of Enlightened Masters. Then we will come to know the complete history of the East. We cannot say that about the West, because historians did not bother about the impact of a particular person or incident on humanity.

In the East, Masters wrote history based not just on recording incidents, but also on their impact. Very big incidents might have happened on Planet Earth, but if these did not have much of an impact on consciousness, the people of the East would not have bothered to record them. There might have been very small incidents, which changed the way of thinking. These were recorded faithfully with a lot of importance given to them; some so-called exaggerations might also have been made, in some cases. Of course, when I say so-called exaggeration, I mean that we cannot

analyze and criticize the incidents based on just our limited logic and understanding. We need to have the complete vision on why these statements were made.

We need to approach the whole of religion, all our rules and regulations, with the concept of why it was created. What did the Masters want to convey through these practices, through these rituals, through these customs? What did they want to express, what did they want to give us? What did our Masters want to tell us through these instructions?

If we have that much of respect, that much of understanding, that much of patience to look into it. with the question of what they wanted to convey, we will be able to understand, appreciate and follow the truth; follow the real thread, which is expressed through our religious practices. We will be able to receive the wisdom. We will be able to experience the truth expressed by our Masters. All we need is a little bit of compassion towards the teachings of our rishis. We need to have a little openness to the teachings of our rishis.

This one understanding; of length, breadth, depth and space and time, is all what we need to understand religion and spirituality. Usually, because we do not have this understanding, because we are unable to differentiate between facts and truth we confuse religion and spirituality. We mistake religion, as spirituality as religion and in the end. tend to condemn everything; tend to drop everything. Instead, if we look with understanding, we will be able to segregate, analyze, understand and experience the truth about which is spirituality and which is religion. We will be able to create our own methods, techniques and even our own religions to reach the spiritual experience.

With this one knowledge, our whole life can be transformed from contradictions into real spiritual experience. Without the understanding of fact and truth, religion and spirituality contradict each other. However, with this understanding of fact and truth, religion and spirituality complement each other. It is up to us whether we are in the contradicting plane or in the complementing plane.

Even though it is a little difficult, rather, you think it is a little difficult, contemplate on this great truth and your whole life will be transformed. All your questions will disappear.

This one understanding, this one truth will solve all our questions, almost all the questions we have on religion and spirituality.

• 1. You said that Smrithi is alterable and it changes with time. In the Bhagvad Gita, Krishna talks about the caste system, he talks about who can be a Brahmin, etc. However, in Bharat, we have so many problems with the caste system, so if Smrithi is properly interpreted, it should not give rise to any problems. Am I correct?' It is an important question. Let us analyze this.

First thing: Our Smrithis, especially the Bhagvad Gita, state that caste is based on a person's mental setup and not by birth; not based on the yoni, but based on the Karma.

So, why should the caste system have been created, even based on mental setup? Human beings cannot live without a community system. People need to feel they belong to some group. We cannot straightaway tell people to feel connected to the whole universe. That happens only after enlightenment. Until such time, they need to feel that they belong to a particular community.

Therefore, the Masters decided, 'let us create a community system based on which people will grow.' In Bharat, the community system was created based on wisdom and intelligence. It is intelligence, to which importance is given.

The person who worked for the sake of others' well-being, who did his work as a service, was called a Brahmin. Brahmins shared knowledge or wisdom. The person who worked out of fear, for protection, either of himself or of the people whom he thought of as his own, was a Kshatriya. The person who worked out of greed, to acquire more wealth was a Vaishya. The person who worked to serve all the other groups just to satisfy his own hunger, his thirst; working primarily for himself, was called a Sudra.

This is the way the Masters created the community system based on intelligence and not on birth. In the course of time, somehow, just like all truths, this truth too was lost.

One more thing, for any great experiment, any great innovation, if the next generation does not continue good research and development (R&D), the researches will end in failure. Some how, our R&D department was not too strong; it failed!

That is the reason we started associating ourselves with birth instead of the mental setup. At least, our community was created based on intelligence, but in other countries, they created communities based on money. One small example: get into the aircraft. When we cross the firstclass seats to go to the economy class, tell me how the first class passengers look at us? In just the same way that a fanatic, higher class person looks at a lower class person!

In every country, the community or caste system exists. Never say that only in Bharat does the caste system exist. Here at least we based it on intelligence. in other countries, it was based on money.

In Bharat, the whole importance goes to intelligence. If we want to be considered a higher person, we need to study. If we want the highest social respect, we need to renounce and we need to become intelligent. That is why in Tamil they say, 'thuravikku vaenthanum thurumbu', even a king will come and touch a sanyasi's (sage) feet, even though he has nothing. He has only one thing: his intelligence, his wisdom and he just shares it, with the world.

In Bharat, even if the community system has degraded, the original system was created based on intelligence, not money or power. Respect was given to the person carrying wisdom, the wealth of knowledge, not the outer world wealth. All other countries give respect to money or power; 'mightis-right' becomes the governing philosophy of all other systems.

If we see, in the social way, according to any other country's standard, I am a mere boy with nothing. However, if we see according to the Hindu standard, I am t respected, even worshipped. Even the top-level political people or business people worship me. Why should they? We are respected just because of the enlightenment, the wisdom or the service we are doing.

One more thing, just because the caste system is degraded now because of a few people, we cannot condemn the original system. Just because some mistakes happened at some point, we cannot condemn the whole system. The system has helped us in so many ways.

Now, it is time for the system to die.

Nevertheless, let us clear the system of its corruption, with respect and gratitude. Why should we continuously condemn and weaken ourselves? If someone has a tumor in his hand, let us do some surgery and take out the tumor, why should we kill the person himself? We somehow got the tumor; we have some misunderstanding, so let us now analyze and clear it and use the other parts. There is no need to condemn the whole system itself.

We need to look into all these things with a little more love and a little more compassion.

Please understand. It is only because one community associated themselves with the scriptures, that the scriptures are still alive. They were preserved just because one community took the responsibility for it. They gave up all the outwardly comforts, they gave up everything in the outer world, they dedicated all their time, energy and effort just to recite those scriptures and thus preserved the scriptures. Our scriptures are the oldest scriptures, preserved in an authentic way, without any system, without any other method to record, any other way to transmit, any other way to preserve but just by repeating and memorizing. Hundreds of thousands of slokas (verses), millions of aphorisms, have been preserved just because of the dedication of one community. Our system is not entirely wrong; just a few small corruptions have entered.

All that we need to do is some surgery for the tumor, not murder the system. When we have the attitude of murder, we not only will kill the system, but we also will be killing ourselves.

Even though we might not understand, we might not believe, we might not accept; we belong to that system. So, go for surgery and not for murder. That is the right attitude.

• 2. There are all these great ideals in spirituality. However, what bothers me is that I find a great divergence between the ideals and the daily life. To be quite honest, there is not only caste discrimination, but also a variety of other discriminations, such as the discrimination against poor people. When a house cleaner comes to work in the house and she is ten years old and is missing school, my heart aches. That will not happen in the West. I am not defending the West, but we need to be very cautious when we make statements about the West. Yes, ours is a great religion, and I have great love for it, but have we updated it? Have we moved with time? Whose responsibility is it to make sure we continuously update the religion as we go? I also find a great love for materialism, which is totally against the laws of Hinduism. It is not enough for spiritual ideals and great men like THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM to practice the religious ideals but it should be possible for the common man to practice it. How can we say that we do not have spiritual freedom in the East and we do not have spiritual freedom in the West? We need to look at what we mean by spiritual freedom.' First thing regarding the statements that you made: are they your conclusions or your questions? If it is a question, I am here to answer; if it is your conclusion, then I have no right to answer.

You made a statement about the poor girl working and missing school. Please understand, just because of our religion much of the misery and suffering is avoided by our population. For our population, because of our religion, so much of misery is avoided!

Just look into the history of the West. Their population is ten times less, yet there is so much more violence. Our people are so silent, so beautiful, accepting the poverty, accepting the disease, accepting everything because of our spiritual background.

Bharat is in a much better condition. if we compare the quantity, the volume of the population. If we see all the basic things, we are doing much better compared to the West.

One other thing, you said I needed to be careful when I make comments. In the beginning I said very clearly, when I want to show the uniqueness or the extra-ordinariness of the culture, I have to compare a few things. Please do not feel hurt.

I have to say a few things when I represent the truth. I am not here to condemn anything, Nevertheless. I am here to show the truth as it is, to explain the facts as they are. I say repeatedly that whatever statements I made are the truth and fact! I am very clear and I reinforce the letter and spirit of the statements that I made in the whole discourse.

The next thing: in Bharat, we are able to handle so many problems only because even the common mass of Bharat follows the spiritual principles. Please, do not expect the mass of Bharat to become enlightened. I tell you one thing, go to any Hindu village, talk to a farmer and we will find that he knows much more spiritually, can talk much more spiritually and is more religious than any great professor of Philosophy from any other country. Only because they practice the religion, our people are not rebelling; they are not violent, even with so much of suppression, poverty and disease.

Just look into the life in the West. For instance, if somebody is homeless, do we go near him? We are afraid of him; we do not even lower our car window. We know he can harm us where as in Bharat, if a beggar comes, do we feel disturbed? Do we feel threatened?

In the West, I am advised, if a lower class person comes close, not to lower my window, that he may be violent. However, in Bharat, a homeless person is not violent. We cannot see violence associated with poverty. Poverty is not a sin in the Hindu constitution, in the Hindu system. Either we are handled with compassion or we are neglected. In all other systems, poverty is a sin. With poverty, one has no right to exist in society. If we look deep into the social systems we find that the gangsters, the homeless; they all continuously rebel against the rich people; they are continuously into terrorist activities. If we compare, on a per-individual basis, I do not think, in Bharat, we will see anything close to the scale that we see in other countries; it may be less than 1%.

This type of rebelliousness against the rich is far less in Bharat because of the spiritual ideas like karma; accepting their life, that the whole world is nothing, etc. All these concepts are infused into our system much more than in any other society. Poverty, in a way, is respected in our country especially when we come to the educated society; in many ways poverty and a simple way of life is respected.

In Bharat, when a beggar comes and stands near us, we either give him money or we neglect him. That is all. We do not disrespect him just because he is poor. If we did not give him any money, we actually feel a little quilt. Either we do something, or if not, we carry a little quilt, that we are not doing something we are supposed to do. Even that guilt is nothing but an offshoot of spirituality.

I do not think that in other countries this exists. In the West, we feel frightened, we feel threatened bv him. We disrespect the person because he is poor.

Another thing in Bharat is that whether we want it or not, whether we believe it or not, continuously, these types of ideas are put into our head, continuously we are made to listen to something about spirituality. If you see the number of people we handle, you can be sure that we have done a great job! I can applaud the job done by our people. I do not think any other country can handle such a variety of lanquages, such a variety of cultures.

For this population, no other country will be able to manage the peace; no other country will be able to manage the social setup.

I travel around the world continuously. In the last year, I have flown almost two hundred thousand miles. However, when I ao to different countries. I do not find the huge variety in any other country that I find in Bharat. The difference between Europe and America is much less than the difference between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (neighboring states in Bharat), such a variety of languages, such a variety of clothes, and such a variety of food.

Bharat is able to exist as a country without any problems just because of the religious faith and structure.

Please be very clear, already we are doing a good iob. We do not have to think we have to go from bad to good. We have to go from good to better. It is enough that we have condemned ourselves for so long. It is time to stand up! We are not in a bad shape at all. In fact, we are in good shape, just need to get to a better shape! That is all, only from good to better, never from bad to good!

We have done a great job!

One more thing I want to mention: I tell you honestly; at least the main problems of caste system are not there in present-day Bharat. Enough of culture and acceptance has spread around the country. We should not speak about Bharat with the data that we collected about 30 years ago, from times before our people migrated to other countries.

Today, practically every village has an educational and medical facility, and has some understanding about life. Especially after the new way of life and social service began spreading around the country, helped by the post-Vivekananda movements that serve society. Bharat has surely gotten much better.

I do not want to go into minute details. Please go into this deeply and see. We do not even hear of many types of crimes. We hear of them only where the things have become westernized.

In Bharat, all the houses are open, children move around wherever they want. At least I have seen this in my village, I used to enter into any house and eat. With hardly a few hundred houses, I could enter into any house and eat because that is the way we lived. We cannot even imagine all these things in other countries. Whenever we hear about child abuse and other crimes, the number of cases is on a lesser scale compared to the volume of people.

The other thing is that only in areas where television and other western influences have entered do we see an increase in such crimes.

In the past and in the present, we have done a great job. Of course, we can do better, no doubt, but we do not have to feel worthless. Sometimes, our own guilt that we have not achieved what we wanted, is projected on society: we collect the data, which supports our quilt, and project a picture. If we stand on the platform of truth and analyze, it is always from good to better, not from bad to good.

You say that a ten-year-old girl is working. It is not only here, you can collect data from wherever you want and verify. I see so many Mexicans and other girls working in many houses in other countries. Of course, the age is a little higher, that is all!

In addition, you talk about education. Even after education, what do they do? So, why are there so many gangsters? Even the idea of a gangster does not exist in Bharat. In Bharat when a crime is committed, it is done so for the sake of some money or benefit. There are three kinds of crimes: crimes done for the benefit of the world, crimes done to have direct benefit by robbing the person, and crimes done for no reason other than the sake of enjoyment. I can say that the third level of crime is practically non-existent in Bharat.

We hear, in other countries of so many gangsters and about their crimes done just for the sake of enjoyment, like shooting on the highways! I have never heard of such crimes in Bharat. People shoot, people kill, but for some benefit, some reason. However, in other countries, I hear so much of the third-level crime. committed due to deep depression and rebellious consciousness. "Why should the other person have something while I don't?' In Bharat, people do not say 'Why should he have while I don't have?' Instead, they say, "how can I have?" The third level of crime is the Tamasic (indolence) kind and I can say this is practically absent in Bharat.

Another thing: we should never believe the western media projection of Bharat. The media also plays a major role in creating these misconceptions.

For nine years, I walked the length and breadth of Bharat without touching money. Actually, this experiment is called parivrajaka in Sanskrit. It is supposed to be done as a vow, by all spiritual teachers just to understand the common life of the country. You are given the rule that you should not touch any money; that you should not preserve food for the next meal. For nine years, I lived like this. I was a healthy young man and for nine years, I did not work for my clothes or for my shelter. I just claimed that I was meditating, doing research on inner science and I was qiven food, clothes and shelter, everything, with respect.

Where else do you think this can happen? In any other country, they would have asked me to work or they would have put me in a homeless shelter with disrespect. I was given everything; and not just in one place, not just in one village. I have walked from Kanyakumari to Tapovan, from the southern tip of Bharat to the north and from Akshardham to Ganga Sagar, from the west to the east. In every village, you do not know the respect that these people have, for our truths, for our spiritual practices. Above all, even if they are unable to practice it, they have tremendous respect for the people who do practice it. That in itself is a great thing!

When we have respect for someone who practices, naturally every year we may imbibe one truth at least, in our life.

The very respect for our hero will make us imbibe those qualities in our life. I have seen in some villages, especially in Gujarat (a state in north-west Bharat), there is so much of Bhakti (devotion). Once I was traveling from Akshardham (a town in Gujarat) and I stayed in a village. An elderly woman invited me to her house. I went and staved there. All the property she had was just a cow and a hut. She made her living from the cow's milk, by making curds and selling it. I stayed with her for 10 days. She had a small Krishna idol. She lived with that idol of Krishna for company; she talked to that Krishna, she practically lived with that Krishna. She would go out everyday to sell the milk, she would bring back the money and put it at Krishna's feet and would tell all her complaints to Krishna, 'today that person did not give me the money, today he cheated me, today I got more milk.' After 10 days, I told her that I was leaving to have darshan (worship) of Somnath (a Shiva Temple in Gujarat state in Bharat). She said, 'no, no, why are you leaving? I will not ask you to work, I will give you food all the time, please stay with me. You don't have to work'

See the love!

I became very emotional and said 'Ma, it is because of people like you that Bharat is alive.'

I know the backbone of Bharat. Do not speak from the superficial skin and sweat of Bharat, speak to me from the backbone! What we see from the western media is the sweat smell, not the backbone. I have seen this in every village, in every village, I walked through or sometimes rode through, using a bullock cart (cart drawn by bulls), covering almost 30,000 miles! So, I know the backbone. The media is sensational - they need sensations to show people. I can relate a thousand such incidents.

If you can quote one ten-year old working without going to school, I can quote millions of people who give education for other people who cannot afford it. You know. only in Bharat, the charitable education institutions give free education to so many people. More than 43% of education is given to people by religious charitable institutions. In no other country is this much of education qiven by the charitable institutions!

One thing to note when it comes to percentage is the quantity. Another country's 100% is Bharat's 5%! See the quantity. I know how many thousands of people are given free education in Bharat. At least in the last 50 years, we have done tremendous work. Especially the post-Vivekananda movements have done an enormous job. I am the very proof! How many houses are ready to give food? How many villages are ready to take care of the spiritual truths? Just because of this, this saffron cloth that I wear!

Moreover, remember: I can be a robber; I can be a thief. There can be so many possibilities because I am new to that village. We have media in the villages also; there are enough televisions and the people are aware of folks coming in different disquises and committing crimes. Nevertheless, beyond all these things, the spirit and culture are still alive.

Just a week ago, I was in the Himalayas. We saw thousands of sanyasis, just wandering as I had done: not caring about the next meal. These people, who are taken care of by society, are enough proof that we respect the religious ideals and that we follow religious ideals. We have done a great iob, if we see the size of the population.

After going all over the world, when I come back to my country, I just feel like touching that sand and putting it on my head. I feel so much of gratitude to the country in which I was born and brought up.

Let me tell you: when a premature child is born, we need an incubator to keep the baby healthy. Just like that, Bharat is a spiritual incubator. I tell you, the Hindu culture is a spiritual incubator. We may say there are one or two holes here and there but it is still a working, usable spiritual incubator.

Devotee: I just have a comment to make from Vivekananda's words: 'If only we can combine the spiritual wisdom of the East and the material wealth of the West. '

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM:

Yes, I am all for progress but I am not for condemning!

Please be clear, we have not done anvthing wrong!

Please understand, only on a full moon day can we see the black patches on the moon. We cannot see the patches on a new moon day. By its own light, the moon shows its black patches. By its own qlory, Bharat shows its own problems.

Because we have the ideals of perfection, we understand and realize our problems. The moment we understand our problems, we prove that we are great; that is enough proof that we are intelligent.

Why do we say that we have the problem? We say that because we have the ideal of perfectionism! That itself shows we have done great things. The idea of perfectionism reaching a billion people is itself a great job!

Understand, even in the lowest slum, they celebrate Vinayaka Chathurthi and Durga Puja (festivals in honor of Hindu Gods). They may not know the spiritual ideal of Vinayaka (a Hindu God), but they know that there is some energy greater than us, so they have simple rules like, we need to bow down to that energy, we should do this, we should not do that, etc. Reaching even the most diluted and lowest morality or an idea, to a billion people, is not a joke. That itself is a big job! Understand that that itself is a big job!

When I was in Brazil, a priest came to meet me. He was a Catholic from Bharat. I asked him, Father, how are you here? He said, 'Master, any religion, if it wants to flourish, has to come only to Bharat. If they want workers, they have to come only to Bharat. Whether its Christianity or Hinduism, we have to get them only from Bharat! Brazil has a very big representation of Catholics, but no one becomes a monk. Nobody takes up the spiritual life. Therefore, Rio de Janeiro has only 3 native Catholic monks and 33 Christian priests from Kerala (an Bharat, the spiritual life is in our blood.'

Whether it is Krishna or Siva or Christ, living the spiritual life is a basic thing. It is in the blood of the population all across the country! That alone shows we have done a big job.

I have seen this in many countries, not only in Brazil. Fulltime dedicated people; the monks or the spiritual servants are from Bharat.

Another thing is that in London, churchgoers are 2% and in Bharat 93% of Christians go to church! Even other religious systems are stronger in Bharat because the very understanding of following a higher life is in our blood. Hindu Christians are more dedicated to their beliefs. Whatever our people believe in spiritually, they are dedicated to that. If we penetrate and see the root, we will see that our ancient Masters have done a tremendous job.

When compared to the volume of people that we are handling, whatever service we do, it is like mixing asafoetida (a pungent Hindu spice) in the ocean.

Somebody asked me once, 'Master, You think You can change the country by just Your service? Whatever You do, it is just like mixing asafoetida in the ocean. The smell of the ocean is not going to change. How do you think You can help the whole world?'

I told him: 'I do not know if I can change the whole ocean or not, but I am sure my hand smells beautiful. I am enjoying that, nothing else can be done.'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM!!

Thank vou.

Chapter 8

Why do we need Temples? Were temples relevant only for olden cultures and were they ignorant and less sophisticated than the modern scientific cultures or is it the other way around? What were our ancestors thinking and were they more intelligent and in tune with subtler energies than the modern culture? Are Temples relevant now?

From time immemorial, not only Hindus or Rishi, but cultures from all over the world in all traditions have been creating space for the Divine as part of their culture and lives. Researchers say that even animals living in groups, allot a specific area for rest which is not used for eating or anything else. Hindu culture created huge temples for communities as a means for relating with the Divine. Every village in Bharat has a temple making one wonder why these huge structures were created, even if the homes in most villages were made of mud. Most of these temples are constructed in granite and are sometimes more expensive than the cost of all houses in these villages. What did we gain spiritually, culturally and socially from these huge structures?

Scientific studies were conducted by a scientist Dr.Rudolf, who stayed in the Amazon along with a group of tribes for over 30 years to research the tribes' lifestyle. These tribes believed that by creating an image of a particular person and by invoking that person's energy into the clay image they could heal or transmit any disease of that person, even if the person lived thousands of miles away. This scientist published papers and a book named 'Hidden Mysteries' and produced ample proof, evidence and case studies in which he reported that in 98% of observations, three things were evident. First conclusion was that they were truly able to heal people of any disease, secondly, they were able to heal even animals & trees -by making clay models of those trees and by making vibrations or sounds they could bring the dead tree to life and thirdly, they were even able to handle energies of dead human beings or talk and relate to them continuously. In most cases they could bring a dead person to life within three days.

If this tribe related to ordinary persons through a clay image why is it mysterious or strange to relate with the Divine energy that envelopes us and has created the whole Universe. This is where our ancestors succeeded in giant leaps. It is a common mistake to think that Hindus worship idols. In Hinduism, there is no idol worship, but only worship through idols. There is a big difference between idol worship and worshipping through an idol. When idols are created out of stone, clay, marble or any other material you would not find one saying 'Ok stone give me a boon' or 'Ok marble heal me', instead you would find them saying 'Oh Shiva, heal me, bless me' or 'Oh Devi, bless me'.

lanorance sets in with great speed when there is a rush to imitate what seems like another glamorous culture or so called scientific cultures and more so, when there is no clear knowledge or patience in understanding of the original cultural practice. Some of the western scholars translated Vedas - just to prove there is nothing worthy in it. Max Mueller translated the Vedas

and in one of his letters to his Mother, he mentions with deep disrespect, that he did this just to prove there is nothing worthy in it. Many Eastern scholars have also picked up the same trend, same thinking style and started condemning the Hindu worship, culture and the way of life, and started giving more importance to Advaitic philosophy without understanding that it not just one philosophy, but the whole Vedanta itself is a clear and practical essence or juice of the fascinating facts of spiritual science discovered and recorded by the rishis, saints and mystics.

A scientist is a person who creates a formula to recreate the same experience he has in the outer world. He is able to reproduce this experience of the outer world in others. The one who is able to reproduce an experience which happens in the inner world is a mystic. These temples, rituals, poojas, homas, etc are formulas created by our rishis to reproduce those inner world experiences in other beings. Misunderstanding or not understanding or not practicing these formulas due to lack of patience, guidance and knowledge does not make it untrue. Before understanding any of these formulas it is interesting to note a recent research conducted by a Japanese scientist who has published a book named 'Messages from water', also widely popular due to the movie 'What the bleep do we know..'. He conducted more than 300 experiments where he has proved that water can hold, radiate and respond to our thoughts further proving how thoughts directly affect us human beings who are composed of 71% water.

Rishis, not only proved that water could carry thoughts and vibrations, but the whole Universe is constituted of thoughts and energy vibrations. It is alive and bubbling with our thoughts and emotions. Even Einstein says there is no such thing as matter and energy separately with boundaries between the two and that the whole Universe is energy. The last statement of science and quantum physics saying that everything is energy, is the first statement of the first Veda of the first Upanishad. "Isha vashyam idam sarvam" meaning, whatever exists is energy.

Our seers have created so many methods and techniques to hold and radiate cosmic energy so that humanity can be helped by this positive energy. This whole universal energy is symbolically constituted of five elements namely ether, air, water, fire and earth. They have tired to install the energy first in the earth element in stone idols or 'moorthis',(idols) secondly in water or 'tirthas' (every temple has a tank or river); thirdly in fire or 'agni' in the form of at least one lamp which is never put off; fourthly in air which is filled with vibrations of mantras so that the very air vibrates with energy and finally in ether or space. These temple architectures are created in a dome structure to hold energy like a battery. If a bolt of lightning could be stored in a battery, we could supply electricity for more than one year for any big city. These temples are created to hold enormous energy, so that when enlightened masters come, they would install their energy in these structures. Our masters have designed beautiful batteries in the form of temples that can hold this energy and radiate it to help millions of people for thousands of years. It is because of the concentrated energy in the central dome structure or 'garbha mandir' that our prayers become a reality.

The science behind realization of prayers can be explained with an example – anything kept in front of a projector light, will be seen in the screen. If you keep a slide of a temple scene you will see the temple. If you keep a slide of an actor or actress you will see their image. In the same manner, any thought kept in front of concentrated energy, will become a reality. The garbha mandirs of temples hold high, intense potential energies created by enlightened masters and

maintained by reqular poojas and mantras. Continuous repetition of mantras charges the whole space and keeps it alive. When you stand in front of this energized moorthi or space and create a thought or wish, your whole body and mind will be tuned to that thought and so naturally it will become a reality in your life. In the temples in the energized space, two things will happen, you will have shakti or energy to make your dreams into reality, next you will have buddhi or intelligence to realize that what you see or think as reality itself is a dream. Enlightened masters designed these temples because they wanted some space which could continuously heal, inspire and give the humanity an experience of spirituality.

The energizing process of these temples itself is one of the most fascinating aspect of our spiritual sciences. According to Taitriya Upanishad:

• from 'ākāśa' or ether came air or 'vāyu'
• from 'vāyu' came fire or 'agni'
• from 'agni' came water
• from water came the earth and finally everything else.

In this manner the energy is harnessed. It is understood that this cosmic energy exists beyond ether, beyond space, as ātman or ātma shakti.

Through visualization or meditation this energy is brought to 'ākāśa shakti' or ether or space.

• From ether through verbalization or mantras it is brought to the air
• Through fire rituals such as 'homas' it is brought to the fire
• From the fire to the 'kumbha' or water
• And finally this energy is installed in the 'bimba' or moorthi or vigraha inside the 'garbha mandir'.

When the 'prāna pratishta' or energy is installed in the idol, it is no longer an idol, it becomes a deity or 'archavatara' with different incarnations of God. The Upanishads beautifully explain how the 'brahmānda' expresses itself in form of 'pindānda' through the idols. This cosmic energy radiates itself, making itself available to us through these idols, statues or vigrahas. One can derive enormous benefits by understanding this science.

ldols are the windows through which you can see and relate with the vast sky or 'Brahmānda'. For example, if someone with a cell-phone stated to an entire culture which had no idea about phones, that he could speak to people on the other side of the world with a tiny device or instrument they would not believe it. If he were to prove that he is able to talk, then he would become a great saint and worshipped and respected. This is exactly what happened with saints and eastern cultures too. Temples are cell phones, in those days everyone was able to relate to the Brahmānda through these structures. But in modern times with the cultural invasion, ignorance has led to strong disbeliefs and misuse of such powerful resources to the wonders of the Universal energy. Now only a few are able to operate these cell phones and the younger generation is not able to believe that these cell phones actually work. Secondly if at all you saw some proof of a person using it, then you would make him a saint and call him a great saint and enlightened person. These cell phones work and it is very easy. It is for common man and common public - for all of us.

Just because we lost a few keys, we cannot say that this lock will never open. Just because we lost a few techniques, we cannot say our ancestors are fools for building these huge structures. These ancestors were highly intelligent beings who designed and created these temples for the benefit of humanity. We seem to have lost the technique or methods to use them in our day to day life. This does not mean that our original system itself is useless. It is much more important than any other comforts to rejuvenate your self. Temples have played a major role in keeping the social structure alive. Hinduism, is alive as a community or country just because of these temples and it is these temples, which keep our whole culture alive despite endless invasions. There is no culture or civilization that did not invade Bharat and there is no culture or civilization that was invaded by Bharat. It has survived with its roots for more than 10,000 years of recorded history. In modern day, societies and civilizations that are just a few 100 years old, are shaking with younger generations questioning and rebelling and are laden with confusion and depression.

These temples were broken and destroved repeatedly. but they continued to come up and stand in a much more beautiful way every time. For example, the Vishwanath temple was destroyed more than fourteen times and Somanath temple was destroyed more than seventy times. All major temples of Bharat were destroyed at least ten times, but they stand up again, because they are more -than physical structures - they are like satellite relay centers where the high intense spiritual energy is created. These spiritual vibrations are created and sent all over the world to help human beings to heal them physically, mentally, emotionally and above all spiritually. It is we who are supposed to understand the science behind and take the responsibility to learn how to tune ourselves and relate with this higher energy to derive the benefit from this higher energy. It is we who are supposed to discover the keys to unlock this lock and experience the inner treasures and it is we who should know the contact number to activate this cell phone.

Meditation is the key to unlock this door and experience the inner treasure. Meditation is the number through which you can activate and relate with this higher energy. Meditation is the master key to relate to higher energy which is also available to us in the form of moorthies or deities to see and experience the Brahmānda, or the cosmic energy to have all the physical, mental and emotional benefits. Practical techniques have been handed over passionately by the intelligent seers to tune ourselves into this cosmic energy. It is our responsibility to see how religion is relevant to spirituality. Day to day practice of religion can be made into spirituality. When done with awareness, any ritual can become a meditation technique and without awareness any meditation can become a ritual. There are beautiful ways how we could make spirituality into religion and how we should make religion into spirituality.

Chapter 9

I welcome you all with my love and respects.

Let us completely analyze this topic Rites and Rituals, an updated understanding. Let us look deeply into why the rituals are created.

In ancient times, meditation techniques were used by Masters to feel the connection with the divine, in them selves. Over the course of time, the meaning of these meditation tech niques was lost. When a meditation method i.e. physical action, with out the idea or philosophy behind the technique was transmitted, those meditation techniques became rituals.

When a ritual is conducted with full understanding and consciousness, then that ritual becomes a meditation technique. There is no difference between a meditation technique and a ritual when done with full understanding and consciousness. Both the techniques can directly put you in-tune with the ultimate energy.

There are so many different kinds of rites and rituals. I think Hindu religion has a few million rituals. Please understand, it is not a few thousands, or a few hundred thousands but it is a few millions. There are so many different types of mudras (special finger postures), homas (prayer done with fire), and poojas (special way of worship) existing in Hindu culture.

The whole of existence is made up of five elements. We can relate with existence through any of these five elements. When we relate to the cosmic energy through stone or metal idol, it is known as pooia. When we relate with the cosmic energy through water, by taking bath in a river or pond, it is known as thirda snana (bath taken in holv water). When cosmic energy is related through fire, it is called homa. Cosmic energy related through air element by chanting of sounds is mantra japa and when we fall in-tune with the cosmic energy through ether, it is Meditation.

Rituals can be classified mainly as rituals done for human beings and rituals done for the gods.

The rituals done for human beings are many, right from the time of birth until death. There are rituals observed when a baby is born, when it is qiven a name, when we qive food to the baby for first time, which is called as anna prasanna . There are rituals for marriage and death. These are one set of rituals.

Rituals for God:

In the other set of rituals done for gods, we invoke their presence. We invoke their presence in temples and at home, by doing poojas and homas. There are many times when we invoke God's presence.

Pooja is nothing but receiving the quest (God) with all the respects. Actually, what priests do in temples is nothing but that: receiving the quest, the God with all the respects. When a quest comes to our home, for e.g. when a very elderly person visits us we receive him with all due respect. We offer him a chair, give him water to wash his hands. We ask him if he wants to go to bathroom, offer refreshments.

The traditional way of receiving a guest was in this way. The offering of a chair is Asanam Samarpayami; we offer a chair to the quest. Then we ask him do you want to use the bathroom. This offer of bathroom is Vadyam Samarpayami. We offer water to wash his feet. When we offer little flowers to the quest, it is Argyam Samarpayami. After the flowers are offered, naturally we arrange for his bath and comfortable stay. That is s Snanam Samarpayami. Then naturally we ask him to eat, the offered food is Nivadvam Samarpavami. Then betel nut is offered, which is called Thambulam Samarpayami. Then in the end of the day we show the quest to his bed and wish him a good night's sleep.

The same thing happens when we do pooja. This is the reason why pooja is seva (service) in the Hindu system. It is serving the lord or serving the deity.

We need to understand the concept of serving. For logic-centered people it is very difficult to understand that energy can be alive in one stone and that we can serve that energy continuously. day in and day out. Serving living energy inside an idol is a very difficult concept to understand. However, I have seen people really feel that devotion through the service and not only feeling but also expressing that devotional feeling; in the physical world, in the physical form.

When Ramakrishna (an enlightened Master of Bharat) used to perform poojas, some times would doubt; 'Is Devi (Goddess) really accepting my Pooja or am I just wasting my time'. He would draw a thread from his clothes, keep it around her nose, to see if she was breathing or not! He achieved the peak, the ultimate experience, just through rituals.

Let me narrate an incident to you.

If at all, you get a chance you must go to Calcutta, and see the Kali (Goddess) temple where Ramakrishna did poojas. People are allowed to go very close to the deity. In north Hindu temples people can go near the deity, and in almost all the temples, they can even touch the deity. Whereas, in the South people are not allowed to touch the deity as they are covered with gold and silver jewelry. In the North, not only can we go very close to the deity and touch them but also in some temples, we can even do the pooja by our self.

In Calcutta's famous Kali temple, do not miss one important thing: Goddess Kali with four bangles. Let me narrate the incident, and then you will understand. In Calcutta, devotees habitually offer konch (a type of metal) bangles to deities, bangles made of konch.

A devotee bought four banqles for Devi (another name for Kali). The Kali idol has four arms. On the right side, the hands are in the Abhaya (Assurance) and Varada pose. On the left side, Devi holds a sword with one hand and the head of an asura (Demon) with the other. The sword is removable so Ramakrishna was able to slip the bangles on over that hand and the other two hands but he could not put the bangle on the hand holding the Asura's head as there was no way a bangle could be slipped on to it.

A priest asked Ramakrishna why he was not able to put the bangle on to the fourth hand. He replied that the hand had the Munda (head of a demon) attached to it and there was no way of putting the bangle on. The priest said, 'You are a great devotee, why don't you request Devi to open her hand and then you can slip the bangle on'. Ramakrishna, very sincere and very devout, asked the Mother to allow him to put the bangle on her. She dropped the head; Ramakrishna put the banqle on and qave her back the demon's head to hold!

Neither was the idol broken nor was the bangle broken! The bangle is still there today, on Devi's wrist. You will be surprised to see a banqle on the fourse still; I am not able to understand, even after seeing the deity for myself. I can only believe, respect, do namaskar (worship) and come out. If you go to Calcutta, do not miss seeing this. At the time I went to the temple, I was in a famous ashram so I went there as an ashramite, Therefore, I was allowed to touch the bangle and look at it. Not only did I touch the bangle: I also completely rotated it to see whether it was broken at any point. I inspected it carefully, to see whether Ramakrishna had broken the bangle and had then stuck it together, after slipping it on to the wrist. I can tell you this; the bangle is a complete whole, it is not broken and the idol too is whole.

It is certainly very difficult to believe. It is not a 300 or 400-year-old incident. It happened just 130 years ago. In 1886, Ramakrishna passed away, so it is only about a130 years ago that this happened! I do not know how, there is no logical explanation, but the truth is there for all to see. All we know is that the power of the mind is such that devotion can express itself, physically. If we have a darshan (vision) of Devi. or if we feel that Devi is here such things are subjective. We cannot prove them physically; it is such an individual subjective experience. Nevertheless, in Ramakrishna's case, his devotion towards Devi was expressed physically in a miraculous event.

We have heard many such stories, like for instance, Udupi (a temple town in South Bharat) Krishna's statue turned around for the sake of Kanakadasa, a devotee, or the case of Vittala, who stood, waiting on a brick, for the sake of his devotee. We hear many such stories but Ramakrishna's incident is something that happened in the recent past and I have seen the bangle with my own eyes. Very difficult to believe, but it is there.

He had reached the peak state just by rituals. Vivekananda says beautifully, 'if we can create one Ramakrishna, not one idol but have thousands of idols and start doing rituals.' Start doing rituals. There are so many other experiences of Ramakrishna, related to these rituals, but this one incident is enough to explain the power behind rituals. Physically he was able to alter the whole structure; physically he was able to command, the Murthy or deity, out of his devotion, out of his power. Not only this incident; there are so many other incidents that have proved the power of devotion and rituals.

Once, Ramakrishna requested a nearby hibiscus plant to bear its flowers in two colors. His devotion, through pooja, resulted in two different colored hibiscus flowers blossoming from the same branch! Like this, there are so many incidents where he was able to command, through the power of meditation or the power of mind, to produce many miracles. When we do the rituals

intenselv, we completely fall in tune with that energy, with that Murthy and the Divine just listens to us.

There are many incidents attached to Madurai (a famous temple town in South Bharat).

A great, enlightened Master lived in Madurai temple has eight huge, beautifully carved stone elephants in the Garba Mandir (main temple). Actually, the story is about these eight elephants holding up the Garba Mandir or the Madurai temple. The Nawab (king) of Madurai made fun of the statues, when he visited the place. The Nawab said. What is this? Why are these elephants standing here unnecessarily?' The Nawab made the comment casually. Then the Master replied, 'do not think they are stone. They are living elephants. They are here to serve the Chukkanadha (deity in the Madurai temple).' The Nawab laughed with disbelief and said. 'What are you talking?' Then the enlightened master offered sugar cane sticks to the elephants, and the story goes to say that the elephants ate the sugar cane!

All our pooia, is nothing but receiving, respecting and serving the Deity. That is why we call it as seva or serving. Ramakrishna says, 'When I fan the mother, I feel that she is experiencing the cool air', He said he could clearly see that she was experiencing the cool air and some times, he would say he could even see her very clearly, adjusting her sari. Like this, so many beautiful experiences have happened in Ramakrishna's life.

All rituals performed for the Gods are of one type. The type of rituals performed for human beings are of another kind. Especially the Pitru Darpana (ritual done when parents pass away) is one of the most important rituals. The Pitru Darpana is done, to give a beautiful farewell to the soul or to release the soul from earthly the bondage.

Let me describe the whole scene of what happens, when a person dies.

First, his soul leaves the physical body and it moves to the subtle body, the sukshma sarira. In the sukshma sarira it stays for three kshanas (unit of time as per Hindu Scriptures). When I say kshana, I do not mean seconds. According to the Vedas (sacred Hindu Scriptures), time is not calculated chronologically, it is calculated psychologically. A kshana is the gap between one thought and another thought.

If we live a peaceful life, our kshana can be a hundred years as per chronological time. If we have lived a restless life, your kshana is not even a micro second. less than a microsecond. That is the reason people who live peaceful lives have peaceful deaths, because they are allowed to stay only for three kshanas in the subtle body.

The length of three kshanas is decided, based on ones life. How you live your life and how long you can manaqe with out having thoughts are important factors in deciding the kshana length. Kshana means gap between one thought and another thought. In the Vedic system, we measure time in a very different way.

Let me explain the concept of time. For example, if you are sitting with you friend whom you like very much, whom you love, whom you feel in tune with, even if four to five hours pass, sitting with him. you will not even know you have spent so much time with him. Suddenly you realize, 'oh. four to five hours have passed and I don't know how the time has passed!' On the other hand. if you are sitting with a person who is boring and torturing you, you tend to feel tired and every ten minutes will have you glancing at your watch, wondering why time is not moving!

Do you see what is happening? Actually, time is more psychological than chronological. If you are in a state of bliss. if you are here, and now in the present, you will not know how time passes.

If we are restless, if we are continuously moving from the past to the future and future to the past, time will never move for you. That is why, it is said that, one full year for us is one day for the Devatas (demigods), because they are in a higher consciousness hence they have less number of thoughts per second. The number of thoughts are less for them as they are in a more joyous and peaceful state.

That is why time iust flies for them. One vear for us is one day for the Devatas. In Nataraja (Lord Shiva) temples, only six poojas are done in a year. This is because they follow the calendar of the Devatas and not of the human beings.

When the number of thoughts comes down, time just flies. If you are more restless, time does not move; time seems to stand still for you. For people who are in hell, our one day is equal to one full year for them. That is why hell is called eternal hell. Hell is always used with the word eternal; hell is not eternal, but it feels like eternity because time never moves. You are continuously waiting but time never moves, there is too much of restlessness.

Heaven or hell is actually based only on your state of mind. If you have less number of thoughts, you are already in heaven. If you are very restless, if you have too many thoughts, then you are already in hell. It is not that we ao to hell or we go to heaven after we die. We carry heaven or hell with us when we are alive. Be very clear, we do not go to heaven or hell; we carry it with us here, wherever we qo, we carry our tent, open it and stay in it.

When a person dies, he stays in the sukshma sarira for three kshanas. If we have lived a restless life, we will stay in subtle body for three microseconds. In those three microseconds, we will not have enough time to choose our next birth and will just choose the next birth in a haphazard way; based on whatever thought that comes to our mind. If we have lived a peaceful life, we will have time to look into our complete samskaras (engraved memories) structure; we will be able to see how we lived our whole life. One more thing, the moment you leave the body you will have the capacity or energy to see your complete life.

If you have lived a peaceful life, you will be able to have a complete overview of your sixty or seventy year life span. If you had lived in the body peacefully, you will be able to see the whole structure of your life. You will be able to see the whole life and then, you can decide whether to take a human body or stay with out a body, become enlightened, relax and liberate your self or take any other type of janma (another birth cycle). You will be able to choose because you have the freedom; you are relaxed.

I always tell people, live peacefully, do not be on the run continuously. If you are running continuously, running for material gains, you will not get any VIP seat when you leave the body. Again, you will be running; whichever train comes along, you will be put onto that and sent back to planet earth. You will not be able to stay there. If you have lived peacefully, you will be able to relax: you will be able to stay in the subtle body for a longer time. which will enable you to choose right birth.

There are many reminiscences of Masters. They wait, even for three hundred to four hundred vears, to take the right body. They wait for the right parents and the right place. If you have lived peacefully, you can wait and choose your parents, the place and the time to take birth, the right body and the right social setup.

If we live in a restless way, naturally we will not be able to wait for the right body. In addition, if we have lived a restless life, we are in continuous need and we depend on body and mind. Our dependency on the body and mind is what restlessness is; we are very dependent on our body and mind when restless. So naturally, we cannot be with out the body and mind. After death, we take a body randomly: we do not bother. We are not interested in waiting and think 'let me have some body first, later on I will think about other things; first let me catch a body.' Then we get onto the first train that comes by, whichever it might be and start the journey of our next life.

If you have lived a deep and peaceful life, you can wait and choose the next body and take birth according to your decision.

Katopanishad (Hindu scripture) beautifully explains the whole process of death: how we leave the body, how we can choose the next body and how we miss the opportunity to choose. That is the reason when a person dies we always repeat the katopanishad , sitting next to the dead body. Even at the time of shradda (ritual performed at the time of death), the katopanishad is repeated. These last rites are performed to liberate the soul and give a good fare well.

Actually, if you are continuously bothered or worried about the dead person's soul also cannot continue its journev. Hence we bid farewell to that person by saying 'yes you lived with us, it was really great. Now this is the time for you to carry on your life. Even though we are not able to digest it, we respect your decision. We are here just to respect you, just to support you in your journey.' It is a good farewell and positive farewell that we give to the departed soul, to enable that soul to continue on its journey.

In every ritual, again and again, Rishis (Masters) have imparted their knowledge to us. Moreover, the Rishis, our Masters, made use of every single opportunity to impart the truths to us. They did not miss a single opportunity. Therefore, whether it is birth or death, naming ceremony or marriage, in every step that knowledge, the wisdom about life they gave us, is contained.

The other day I mentioned that in Sanskrit there is no equivalent word for divorce. The word for divorce does not exist because the very concept of divorce does not exist in our system.

In sapthapadhi (the seven steps taken by the couple, around the holy fire), when we take the vows of marriage, we decide to be together until the end of life or until death. Couples can separate only if wife or husband takes sanyas (renouncing life). There are only two ways by which married couples can separate themselves, either death or sanyas. No other way, no other permission or no other possibility exists for separation after marriage.

There is a beautiful sloka (stanza), one of many, chanted at the time of marriage. In the Vedic system, we use this mantra to bless the couple; it is actually a sloka from tantra sastra (branch of Mysticism). The sloka says in the eleventh vear of marriage; at the end of eleventh year. Iet the wife become a mother to her husband and let the husband become a son to her. A new dimension to the relationship emerges. The wife is asked and blessed, to become the mother and the husband, to become a son. This blessing is a very strange thing and very difficult to understand. How can a wife become a mother? Actually, if a real love happens or real intimacy happens, women reach the state of a mother. She flowers in to motherliness.

There are more, deeper concepts, which the tantra shastra explains, how when a woman reaches the depth of love she becomes more motherly. more like a Devi (Goddess). That is reason why in the east, women are always respected and recognized in the nature of a mother. She is respected more as a mother, because we respect the motherly dimension of women. Only when a woman reaches that dimension does she express her fulfillment.

These are beautiful lines, asking the woman to reach the state of a mother and man to reach the state of a child. The man needs to come back to the stage of innocence; he needs to achieve his innocence just as the wife needs to achieve the motherhood, which is the purpose of whole concept of marriage.

Let me explain the Gurukula (educational system of the Vedic tradition) system.

At the age of seven, we are initiated with the Gayathri Mantra (a powerful chant). From age seven to fourteen, we have to work and continuously practice the mantra. By the age of fourteen, if we achieve the first experience of consciousness or divine, we study the Brahma sutra; the training for sanyas, training for a spiritual life. If we have not achieved the first divine experience then we are asked to study the Kama sutra, from the age 14 to 21. From age 14 to 21, those who have achieved the divine experience are asked to study the Brahma sutra; others continue studying the Kama sutra.

The sishyas (pupil) studying the Kama sutra will then go on into the life of a gruhasta (householder), the gruhasta dharma. The sishyas studying the Brahma sutra will be 21 by the time they finish it. They are expected to achieve enlightenment. If they have achieved enlightenment, they get the status of a sanyas and lead a sanyasi's life. If they do not achieve enlightenment by the age of 21, then they are asked to study the yoga sufra and continue with spiritual practice.

The Gurukula structure was created in such a way that the system quided each person on the path to move on. based on their interest. Neither did the sanvas think he was not suited for his life nor did the person living as a gruhasta feel he was missing something. Each person lived in his own way, following his own path.

Gruhastas are given another chance to take up sanyas or spiritual life, any time after ten years of leading the life of a householder. If they want to enter into the spiritual life full time, if the family agrees then they can take an initiation called Vanaprashta dharma, which is living towards eternal life. Vanaprashta dharma is not sanyas, it is living towards eternal life. After the vanaprashta life, they can decide to take sanyas. Once a person takes sanyasa, he starts the Gurukula or university for the next generation. This is the way the system of the Gurukula structure.

There are so many remarkable lessons that exist in our rites and rituals, which we can explore if we have interest. If we qo deep into it, it is a big science, an ocean by itself, an endless ocean to explore.

I think it is time for me to stop now. I will answer your questions. I do not think I will be able explain all the rituals and rites, it is a big ocean. However, what ever you ask, those few things I will try to explain. You can ask any question about rites or any rituals. I will try to explain, in whatever way I understand. You are welcome to put forward your questions on this subject.

Actually. Badrinadh is like a center through which you can relate to Pitru Loka (Parent's abode). It is like a runway where you can take off and you can relate with the Pitru loka. It is true that Darpana, when done in Badrinadh, is very powerful. One more thing, which I want you to understand is that continuously doing darpana, whether it does good for the parents or not, does good for you.

Let me describe how it helps you. Until the end of your life, some part of your energy, some portion of your energy represents your father and mother. In later studies, they say if your father or mother dies at a very young age, there is more chance for you to have a paralysis stroke. This is because part of your energy is disturbed and the other part of your being is a gift. By doing the Pinda darpana or Shradda reqularly, you make that part of the energy, that portion peaceful; you invoke peace in that area.

We do not know whether it does good to them or not, but it certainly does qood to you. Please do not miss out the traditional Pinda or Shradda. All the ritual mantras create vibrations, they heal our energies and they pull us out of depression. These vibrations relax us; they create positive vibrations inside our being. To console our self, it is said that once we do the Pinda in Badrinath, there is no need to do it again.

Nevertheless, from my experience, I recommend doing it once a year, even if you have done it in Badrinath and continue to do it once in every year. These shradda rituals are done on the amavasya (new moon) day. The amavasya is the time when we face low energy.

Have you heard the word lunar or lunatic? Do you know why people are called lunatics? People whose mind go up or down, along with the lunar cycle, are called lunatic. On Poornima (full moon) and Amavasya (new moon) days, the oceans have big waves, especially on Poornima days,

because of the moon rays. There are many scientific explanations. According to the Hindu system, the moon creates an energy in which the salt water is aggravated. Our body is filled with 80% of salt water and just like oceans' salt water being aqgravated, the body's salt water is also aggravated, and that is whv some people feel aggravated.

On amavasya and poornima days, in a humorous way, we say, 'I think today is amavasya, that is why there is too much of noise in the house.' People who suffer from depressed on those days. In someway the moon is associated with our mental setup. On amavasya day, naturally, we will have low energy and that is the reason we are asked to do the ritual shradda and darpana. When these rituals are done, it creates a little peace in side our being and we can pull our self out of depression. It is better to continue these rituals, do not drop them or at least chant those mantras.

Nice question, here I have to be little clear. In my system, I allow women to perform the darpana. I am open and I feel women are qualified because they are more emotionally attached to parents. Attachment of a son is more like a professional or business attachment of a daughter is based more on heart and emotion: I think women should perform rituals. They must be allowed to do them. At least in our system I allow and encourage women to do all the rituals that men can do.

Yes. In the Hindu system, we have Mitrayi, Garyi, and many other women rishis, who were enlightened women. The other day I was reading a book, where there was mention of Sulabha a great-enlightened Master who challenged Janaka and Bhishma (enlightened men). We have enough records, on women rishis, who took vanaprasta, followed by sanyasa and of those who directly took sanyas, from the brahmacharya state (being unmarried), who are called Paramahamsas.

Now a days, all the Hindu missionaries give sanyas to women: it is allowed now. Even in the Dasadami Sampradaya (Hindu scriptures), in Omnaya Pathadhi (Hindu scriptures) also, there are very clear mantras to give sanyas to women, a set of rituals are available to give sanyas to women.

It is like going to a five star hotel and having nice food versus you yourself cooking and eating at home. What is difference between these two? You cannot go to a five star hotel everyday. You cook and eat at home but occasionally you go to a hotel and enjoy the food. When you go to a temple, you can enjoy the pooja, as it is done in an elaborate and beautiful manner. You get to see and understand every step and you enjov it. When you cannot go to a hotel, at least do not miss food. Cook what ever you can and eat something in the house. That is all: this is the difference between doing your own and attending a temple ritual.

The idea that god is everywhere can becomes a truth only after your self-realization. Seeing God everywhere happens, only when you reach that state. One more thing, I have had many people come and tell me, 'Master, I love the whole world'. Loving the whole world is very easy; loving vour wife is very difficult. Loving the whole world is very easy. You do not have to do any thing but just make a few statements like 'oh, I love the whole world'; 'I care for the whole world' etc. You do not have to do anything to make these statements.

Loving your family is a very difficult thing to do. First, create that love and then love the whole world. With out even creating the idea of love we iust say 'we love the whole world'. In the same way, with out even feeling God in a statue, how can you feel God is everywhere? First thing we need to do is feel God, feel divine in one place and then project the same feeling to the whole universe.

First try to relate, through one source, first achieve, establish that relationship, then you will be able to project the same feeling, same relation ship with the whole world. If you cannot relate, even with one statue, how you will be able to relate with the rest of the world. Please understand. the concept, the ultimate truth that God is everywhere, is not a relative truth.

There are two kinds of truths: absolute truths and relative truths. As of now, you cannot experience the absolute truth simple things and then you will be able to experience the absolute truths. However, until you experience the absolute truths, you cannot use it to escape from your duties. I see many people who use all these big, big words, just to satisfy their life, just to satisfy their mind or want to justify what they are doing. We use these big truths, just to satisfy what we are doing. Please understand, start relating; first with the temples and then you will be able to relate to God, who is everywhere.

Ramakrishna says beautifully, 'Where else can you go to get what you want?' Asking God for materialistic benefits is not wrong. It is fine, but stopping at that is very wrong.

Starting your devotion in a kāmya (desirous) way i.e. kāmya bhakti (devotion), is not wrong, but stopping at that is wrong. I always tell people, when you start praying your religion starts, but when you start qiving gratitude, your spirituality starts. With prayer your religion starts, with gratitude your spirituality starts. After some time you should start feeling how much He has given to you.

Another thing is asking for something is not wrong but forcing it is wrong. See, why do you pray? You pray because you believe God has śhakti (power) to give you what you want. That is perfectly all right. Sometimes, we force; we say 'I want this, you have to grant it'. Why do we force? We believe that He has śhakti to give what we want, but he also has the buddhi (Intelligence) of when to give! When we want something, we believe he has śhakti, we do not believe he has buddhi; that is where the problem starts.

When you believe he has the śhakti, you start praying and when you know he has buddhi also, you surrender. The real surrender starts and you reach the peak of devotion. You reach the level

Part 3: Stepping Stones to Spirituality

of gratitude, so of course, it is a good start; it is a qood way to start devotion as kāmya bhakti. However, that is not the way to end; that is not the place to stop.

Not only at the time of meditation but we ao through it at the time of sanyas as well. At the of sanyas, we go through a ritual of complete death. We are told to drop our past name and every thing else. related to the past: we have to live like ghosts for three days and three nights without. any identity, with out taking food. We have to live in the mashāna (graveyard) for three days with out eating; one can only smell, that is all, we cannot eat. After those three days, we are qiven new names, a new form and a new meditation technique called kavyastra.

At the time of death, at the of meditation and at the time of sanyas, we go through the same path; we under go the same transformation. In meditation one practically dies. It is nothing but taking a new birth. The mother carries you in bhugarbha, the teacher carries you in ariḍhgarbha and THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM carries vou in jñānagarbha giving you the birth. the spiritual realization. So you under go three different stages, first is bhugarbha, second is ariḍhgarbha and the third is jñānagarbha. In meditation, the jñānagarbha, you really take anew birth: you are no more same old person.

I do not know. One thing I can say for sure is, energy of the woman cannot be imbalanced by a mantra. and surelv. I do not think it will happen. I do not know for what reason women are not allowed to stay in a Hanuman temple. I know for sure that all mantras can be chanted and used by every body.

One thing, mantras have come out of the experiences of ṛiṣhis, in that state there is no male or female. It is pure consciousness; it comes from consciousness, and it will directly work on the consciousness. Therefore, the body is in no way related with these mantras.

When a Master gives a mantra, it will surely grow, as the power is more and even if you do not have a Master, it is fine: the very mantra can do miracles, on your consciousness.

These are all different kind of rituals, different ways of repeating mantras; some people chant with water, some people chant with fire while doing homa. There are different methods and you can do it any way, the key point is that you need to keep repeating the chants; that is important. You need to repeat the mantra, that is enough, nothing else is necessary.

There are special stones that hold energy and radiate it for long time. They are like batteries. When we do not get electricity, we use batteries. In the same way, when you are not able to go to temples, when you are not able to visit the energy centers, you can use these batteries in your home, to recharge yourself.

They are actually techniques, methods to recharge your self. Śālagrāma and bāṇalinga are called healing stones. They hold energy and radiate it for long periods. I have seen this many a time, especially the stones available in Omkareshwar (a holy city in Bharat), called bāṇalinga. If you have knee pain, headache or back pain, iust keep the spot for two to three minutes and the pain will disappear.

I have experimented with hundreds of cases, not just once or twice. I have brought back lot of stones to the ashram from there. I used to give it to people very simply their pain would be removed. Even arthritis, so many cases have been healed. I do not know the mystery behind it. but it does work, I do not know how to explain, but one thing is sure; it works. All I can say is it works. These stones are filled with energy and you can use them to heal your self, or to relate with higher energy. That is the reason; we worship śālagrāma, bāṇalinga and several other stones. All these stones that we worship are from different rivers.

The other day I was talking to you about the messages from water experiments. Have you heard how water responds to sacred words?

A scientist did a beautiful research: he kept ten glasses of water in ten different rooms. All the ten glasses were of the same type and the water in the glasses was from the same source. He would go to one room and use beautiful, nice words; words like peace, silence, bliss; all positive words. Corresponding positive type of waves were created in that room. Then he would go to the next room and shout terrorism, and violence and war: all negative words, which created corresponding type of waves. In the third room, he chanted some ślokas from the Dharmapadha. In each room, he used different emotions thus creating various types of vibrations. After doing this, he froze the glasses of water and photographed the ice.

There is a beautiful movie released, 'What the bleep do we know', where they have beautifully described the whole research. He says he got amazing results. The water to which he related very positively showed characteristics of a diamond. The picture of the water, exposed to negativity showed like a devil! The water to which he related with words from the Dharmapadha showed like a Buddhist temple. The picture it presented was like a Buddhist temple!

It is amazing how water can respond to your energy. Understand if water responds in this manner, what vibrations an ordinary doctor can create, in 15 minutes. Imagine thousands of ṛiṣhis and sanyāsīs standing in a river and continuously repeating the mantras, what will happen to that river. It becomes living energy. Imagine, what will happen to those stones, they become healing stones! They can help you relate with the higher energy.

One more thing, when the British people used to come from London to Calcutta, they would bring water with them, in the ship. The water would spoil half way through the journey. On their return iourney, they would take water back with them, from Calcutta and that water would not spoil. Even after reaching London, it would be okay. They did a research on this, thinking 'how could this happen?' Then they understood; the Ganga (sacred river) water has a beautiful quality of purifying itself continuously. It has a quality, a special energy that purifies it continuously.

With so much of mantra, so much worship, not only its water, even the stones vibrate with this high energy. That is why I sav Bharat is a spiritual incubator.

Our bodies are filled with memories; if you are filled with positive memory, you will attract positive energy and radiate it. Almost like satellite, a relay center. If you are filled with negative energy, you will attract and radiate negative energy.

The body of an enlightened Master, as they say in Tamil, 'Jñānam viḷenda būmi', is the land in which wisdom is grown. Therefore, when enlightenment happens, when a spiritual energy happens in their body, it continuously attracts spiritual energies and radiates the same. That is reason their bodies are buried and not cremated. We need them: we need those energies.

Where as, in the case of ordinary people, we just want to get rid of them. We need to get rid of them. That is why we burn them and put the ashes in the Ganga River, to liberate them from this world. Liberate the world from them, which is good for both.

Nice. I think this is the time to end the session. Prathosam function is also there and you all have to go. Let us pray to the ultimate energy, the divine energy, to bless us all with the understanding, of all these great truths, in our life and experience eternal bliss.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM!!

Thank you.

Chapter 10

Western medical science has never been able to give accurate causative factors and provide complete cures for many diseases. They simply say that more than 90% of these diseases are psychosomatic. What it means is that they do not know how these diseases are caused and how they can be cured!

Man's understanding of medical science has barely reached the mind, through modern medical knowledge. However, beyond the mind, there are so many subtle things hidden inside the body and medical science has not grown to the extent of bringing these things to light.

Ṛiṣhis (holy men) studied the body in minute detail, thousands of years ago. They have talked about the seven chakras (subtle enerqy centres) hidden inside the body, based on their insights into the human anatomy. The simple and lucid explanations of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM on the truths of these seven energy bodies, time wheel and three levels of consciousness are astounding.

Ṛiṣhis are scientists of the inner science. Through their consciousness, these inner science scientists have divided the body into 5 layers. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has analysed these divisions and presented them in a way to make the reader feel these are recent discoveries rather than truths that were discovered many thousands of ago; certainly a treat for the reader!

Excerpts from THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's discourses on meditation from a medical angle are presented here. He has introduced a new technique where meditation becomes the medication.

We are happy to compile and present the different forms of meditation; a compilation that is the forerunner of the concept Medication, a quideline for healthy living.

A small story:

One day, four boy scouts arrived late to class.

Teacher: Why are you late?

Students: We helped an old woman to cross the road.

Teacher: I only advised you to help the aged to cross the road but what is the connection between helping an old woman cross the road and coming to class half an hour late?

Students: The old woman did not want to cross the road!

Doing service by compelling others is not a service at all. Many people are doing this type of service in the name of religion. There is no better service than allowing oneself to live happily and allowing others to live happily as well, to live and let live.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has taken the task of creating people who do not create problems to one's own self and to others. Presenting meditation itself as healing is also a step in that direction. Healing by meditation will make the healer enlightened and the person taking healing, in to a jewel.

John was furious when the waiter brought the bill.

'I did not order the bill amount. Why are you bringing it to me?' asked John.

You are bound to get such a fat bill if you order and eat so much in a five star hotel.

The problems and troubles we claim to have are the bills for what we have ordered for ourselves. We need to take the bill and pay up. There is no escape.

In addition to the existing debt, the karmas and agamiya karmas add to this debt, as additional bills.

The karmas are the collection of good and bad deeds of the unfulfilled rituals in this birth affect the present life. If we correct that, 80% of our problems will disappear.

Once a devotee. Professor Sivaqami asked the Master whether destroying the agamiya karma alone was enough.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM smiled and said: / understand the point you are coming to. Even if you destroy the agamiya, the sanjita and praptha will exist. Am I correct? You will under stand with this simple example.

Saniita is what we have earned for our good and bad deeds from all our past births. That is equal to the bank balance. Praptha is what we have brought when we were born. Agamiya is what we have earned here. It is difficult to destroy the agamiya. It is directly connected to us through the

present birth. If you destroy agamiya, it is easy to destroy the other karmas. Guru Sakthi will take care of that.

The professor asked, 'does the meditative healing destroy the samskaras?'

Yes, definitely! The Ananda Gandha meditation, which you do for healing, works deeply on agamiya, saniitha and praptha. That alone will liberate you totally.

'In which chakra does Ananda Gandha work deeply?' asked the professor.

It works in all the seven charkas and beyond them as well. These seven chakras merge at the eighth chakra called the Ananda Gandha and that is where the healing process takes place.

'During healing which meditation technique gives the maximum result?'

There is no need to do any meditation during healing.

'Why Master?'

Because healing itself is a meditation. This healing technique itself is the short cut to God.

'What is meant by short cut to God?'

This meditation transforms you into God. During healing, the Ananda Gandha meditation transforms a man into an enlightened soul. As Master has said already, this meditation helps you to blossom into a blissful and transformed being.

In the conference hall of the National Hotel, the song "Mannadhi boodham" (a Tamil song) was being played and the entire hall was full of doctors who had come to listen to Master's discourse entitled "Meditation as Medication"

The organisers were a little tense about bringing THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM safely in through the crowd. However, there was a pleasant surprise. He entered into the crowd with a blissful face like Lord Subramanya. The crowd, with folded hands, made way for the Master. How was it that the doctors who were seeing Him for the first time awarded him so much respect?

We have been with Master for so many months and we have a humble respect towards him, as an enlightened Master but it was surprising that the doctors, who had never seen him before, were giving him so much respect? These doctors had received the research report by Dr.Murali Krishna from USA, about the mind of a mystic. The report is about THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's no mind state and being doctors, they all understood His enlightened state. That explained their undue respect for the Master.

Reporters' interaction with the Master

Reporter: Does meditation cure disease?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Definitely, it does.

Reporter: What are all the diseases that can be cured?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: All the diseases that you can name and those that you cannot name can be cured.

Reporter: How does meditation cure all diseases?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: What ever be the disease, the root cause for it lies in any one of the internal organs which has been damaged, understand the truth; whatever be the disease, it is because of less energy in our body.

Reporter: How does meditation improve our energy level?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: There are seven energy centres in our body.

Reporter: Is it inside the body?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes, Mooladhara, Swadistana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Visuddhi, Agna and Sahasrara are the seven energy centres in our body. The Vedas have explained these chakras in a detailed manner.

Reporter: What is the proof that these Chakras exist?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Do you love your children?

Reporter: Yes, I love my children and my whole life is centred, on them. If you ask like this, what can I say, Master?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: If I ask you to prove that, will you show me the proof for that?

Reporter: No.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Why?

Reporter: It is an emotional truth.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: What you call as a feeling of love is inside you. The Rishis call that place the Anahata. Love is a feeling, a form of energy. The energy centre for love is the Anahata chakra. If the Anahata Chakra does not work properly, you feel irritation, depression and anger. The blood starts boiling. Blood pressure will rise and you will not have peace of mind. You will get all sorts of physical and mental problems, related to this. We call this as disease.

Reporter: Master, if you analyse your statement, then is it that all diseases are illusions.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: You can say that also. For example, fever is an increase in body temperature and cancer is the multiplication of cells at a particular place. If you balance these, the increase of temperature and increase of cells will disappear.

Reporter: Is it so Master?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: It is very easy to be healed, from disease.

Reporter: Can you explain this Master?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: When the energy flow in the body gets disturbed, you get diseases like fever and cancer. Similar to the way our heart controls the blood flow. the chakras control the energy flow. Majority of the diseases disappear when the chakras are healed.

Reporter: How do you heal chakras?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: That is a very subtle thing, related to the emotions.

Reporter: What is the relation between emotions and diseases being cured?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: More than 90% of our diseases are psychosomatic means diseases related to the mind and body. The diseases that affect the physical body are caused mainly by the mind. Turbulence in the mind creates diseases. If these wrong emotions are rectified, close to 90% of the diseases can be cured.

Reporter: Is it so easy to cure diseases, Master?

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: A Tao saying preaches the following:

'One who has conquered the mind has conquered the world. One who can rule his mind is capable of ruling the world.'

Your mind is your world; mind is your life and only the mind determines death, achievement, sorrow etc. If you heal your mind, you can not only cure the diseases, but also win over the world. To heal the mind, learn the art of controlling the emotions. Your life will become blissful. MEDITATION AND MEDICATION:

What is medication?

Medication is giving medicine from the outside to a disease, which is inside the body.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is the process of sending out the object that causes the problem inside the body.

This is the main difference between medication and meditation.

Medication originated in the west whereas meditation took its birth in the east. Meditation has spread across the seas and is protecting the whole world.

We all know that the ultimate aim of both medication is to cure and have qood health. Medicine, definitely, has to give good health. However, meditation does not have this compulsion. The aim of meditation is to give ultimate happiness, the eternal bliss.

Side effect of Medicine: Disease Side effect of Meditation: Getting cured

Meditation was not created to cure diseases. People who lived without diseases explored deep into the mysteries of life and created meditation.

Kosham means layers. This chapter describes the five layers of the body with its medical background and relation between the diseases and their causes.

Sankara says beautifully 'The only thing our mind keeps on saving is what next'.

Dhadhakkim, Dhadhakkim means what next. Constantly, the mind thinks only about what next, what next.

Meditation is a technique created for people who think that they are all right, who think they do not have problems that others have and want to know what next, is there, in their lives.

Medication looks at the body in parts. i.e. hands separate, etc. If we take the field of dentistry, there are seven areas in that field; one mouth and seven areas! Now these seven areas have been further split and have become nine. As they specialize deeper, the nine will become eleven. This is the status now, in Bharat. In America, the specialisation is even more.

An American devotee, a dentist, shared this information, about the high specialisation in his country. If we look at things in such high detail, how can we understand anything useful? Studying the simple tooth itself may take 32 years! Then, imagine how long it will take to study the rest of the body. A specialist will be able to take care of only the part he has specialized in, who will cure the rest?

The problem with today's medicines is that they really cannot cure many of the diseases. This is because the body is approached from the outside. The whole approach goes from outside in. Since the approach is from outside to inside, we need to approach part by part.

However, meditation looks at the outside from within. Meditation approaches the body in its totality. There is nothing like meditation for the head, hand and stomach. Any meditation technique energises the whole body; the whole body benefits.

Medical science has grown vastly, with specialisations but the cures have not grown. Why is it so?

We must first understand that disease is not caused by disorder in any particular organ. Disease is related to the whole body. The result of an unhealthy body will reflect as a disease one day.

When only the diseased part is treated, the cause for the disease will not be eliminated. Since medical science looks at curing only affected body parts, the simple approach of eliminating the root cause of the disease has been totally ignored.

Why did this approach of dividing the body in to parts come into practice?

The reason is that there are many mysteries about the body, which we still do not understand. Many functions of the body remain unexplained. We cannot say that our body is a single unit nor can we say that that it comprises the body, life and mind.

We have five layers in our body. These layers are known as koshas.

They are:

• 1. ANNAMAYA KOSHA
• 2. PRANAMAYA KOSHA
• 3. MANONMAYA KOSHA
• 4. VIGNANAMAYA KOSHA
• 5. ANANDAMAYA KOSHA

It is difficult to understand these five koshas as they are of a subtle nature and based on spirituality. As we are used to analysing every thing through scientific methods we will try to explain these five koshas scientifically.

Take the example of an electric cable. What is inside the electric cable?

Copper wire.

What is inside the copper wire?

Electricity.

What is electricity made of?

Electricity is made of electrons.

What are electrons made of?

Electrons are made of vibrations and information.

What constitutes the information and the vibrations?

It is all energy!

Will people not laugh if you say there are five invisible layers inside a cable? Only people who know science will agree to this.

Similarly, there is a definite thing called spirituality.

Spirituality was taught in schools called gurukulam. In the olden days, the disciples did not do chores for the Master nor did they massage his legs, they were in the gurukulam to learn about spirituality.

What do we search for ultimately, in life?

We really do not know what we are searching for.

Education, in the gurukuls, was meant to identify the answer to that search. The qurukul system, an eastern concept, is totally forgotten now. When foreigners invaded Bharat, amongst the many things they destroyed was the gurukul system. Spirituality has almost been wiped out by this destruction and it has been masked by ignorance.

Even in the old days, there were quacks, pretending to be doctors. In that era, Hippocrates launched a new concept of reforming people. He proclaimed, 'even if you are not able to help, it is alright, but always keep in mind that you should do no harm to others.' He is the father of allopathy. Since there was no spirituality at the time, something intelligent needed to be done; hence, the concept of allopathic form of medicine came into being, to prevent people going off track!

Annamaya kosha is the outermost layer; the solid layer of the body. It is the outside layer. The allopathic system of medicine is related to the annamaya kosha. It is the physical body with which, we feel and enjoy. For all problems related to annamaya kosha, allopathic medicine is the best curative.

Allopathic treatment plays an amazing role in all sorts of problems related to annamaya kosha. Injuries caused in accidents occur in the annamaya kosha. Intensive care, emergency care, etc are available in the treatment of annamaya kosha, It is only allopathic remedies, which are useful for treating fractures and other injuries related to accidents.

The trouble starts when the layers beneath the annamaya kosha need to be treated. Allopathic treatment, when used, results in side effects. Medicines, created with a blind belief that they are cure alls, instead of curing produce side effects. Even medicines to cure mental ailments produce no results.

After trials and errors with various medicines, people realised that close to 90% of illnesses were psychosomatic in nature and it came to be accepted that allopathic medicine was not a remedy at all.

The best part of allopathic form of medicine is that, at least, they all accept and agree to its shortcomings!

Today, research on mind, body medicine is happening at a very fast pace in America. People have bequn to explore the deeper, subtle layers that are inside the physical body. Research is being conducted on the manonmaya kosha, looking deep inside the physical body, the annamaya kosha. Science has ignored the intermediate pranamaya kosha, which is between the annamaya kosha and manonmaya kosha.

The physical body, which we think as solid at all. Nobody would be agreeable to this concept, scientifically or rationally. People, who do not know what spirituality is, will not be able to understand this; nevertheless, a little more explanation can throw some light on it.

The Cosmic energy is all-pervading. The various living forms, such as trees, animals and the human body, are actually different forms of the same energy.

How is it that this cosmic energy is available in various forms, yet remains one?

Let us understand this with an example.

Suppose you have a picture of a wave that is six to twelve feet high. Is this wave a truth? No! It had just risen, when the picture was taken. The next second it would have fallen. How huge it looked when it was at its peak, but the next second, the same wave ceased to exist. Only in the picture, the wave seems like an independent object but apart from the photograph, the wave would be part of a continuous motion.

Similarly, we see various objects, only through the mind. We are able to see objects independently only due to the presence of the mind. If we did not have the mind, we would not be able to realise the boundary of our own body or see a chair, which is present in front of us. Everything would be seen as a whole.

People who have slipped into deep meditation say that suddenly they feel they have totally lost their self. This is because the mind becomes still. This is the case of man going beyond the mind. This experience is the one where you go beyond manonmaya kosha.

Next, let us look into the divinity within us, beyond the body and mind.

Only allopathy can cure all the problems that affect the outer most layer of the human body. A person has to go for allopathic remedy to fix a broken bone. However, after it has been plastered the actual healing is not in the hands of the doctors.

There is a popular quote amongst the doctors: DOCTOR STITCHES, GOD HEALS!

At the most, a doctor can cut and stitch, but the cure can only be provided by God.

What is God?

God is the all pervading, pure form of energy.

God is neither an individual nor a character as we think.

If we are able to connect to this pure form of energy then we can maintain eternal youth. The energy called God; Parasakthi, is available aplenty in every single layer of our body. However, it gets filtered as it passes through each of the layers.

The divine energy is over flowing in the deepest kosha. which is the anandamaya kosha. It is reduced in the vignanamaya kosha and gets lesser as it comes towards the outer layer.

The medical system suitable for Annamaya Kosha is Allopathy. The medical system suitable for Pranamaya Kosha is Yogasana and Pranayama. The medical system suitable for Manonmaya Kosha is Homoeopathy. The medical system suitable for Vignanvamava Kosha is nature cure and Avurveda. The medical system suitable for Anandamaya Kosha is Ananda Healing.

Only the healing touch of the Master or the healing energy, through divine meditation, can heal the problems related to Anandamaya Kosha.

Here is an excerpt from a discussion on Nisarqadatta Maharai, between the Master and Acharyas (ordained teachers) during one of the healers' initiation programs.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Nisarqadatta Maharaj is a wonderful person, Acharya: Does that mean he is a sacred man. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Man? He is a God by himself! Acharya: Is it so Master? THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes, consider the following conversation between Maharaj and one of his disciples.

Disciple: Maharaj, why was I born in such a world where there is a lot of sorrow?

Maharaj: That is your foolish decision.

Disciple: What, was it my decision?

Maharai: Then whose decision? Without using your brain properly, if you decide to choose this life and then crib that it is paining here and paining there, who else will be responsible?

Narrating this, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM asked the Acharyas to think it over and discuss.

All the Acharyas remained silent, not even blinking an eyelid.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, caressing his hair, was smiling at the crowd. He prodded them to come out with an answer.

The Acharyas were waiting to hear the explanation from the THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM himself.

One person, who cold not remain silent, came out with the following explanation. 'f it is a pain then the body is not okay. If it is a problem then the manonmaya kosha is not okay. You do meditation and keep your annamaya kosha and manonmaya kosha clean.'

As soon as THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM heard this answer, he retorted. What Annamaya Kosha? What Manonmaya Kosha?.Where is the body? Where is the mind?

Then he narrated a conversation between Nisargadatta Maharaj and a philosopher.

Once, Nisargadatta Maharaj was conversing with a philosopher.

Nisargadatta: Listen to this truth. I was not speaking with you.

Philosopher: Oh! How can it be false? You are standing before me and talking. Nisargadatta: What talking, who told you all these stories? I think you are thoroughly confused and shaken.

Once, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa permitted his photograph to be taken. He selected one of the three photographs and said, 'Please make prints of this is going to be worshipped by thousands of people.' Ramakrishna kept the print in the praver room and worshipped the photograph. Some people were confused at the act of Ramakrishna and asked him the reason.

Ramakrishna said that he was in the samadhi (a deep meditative state) state when that photo was taken, hence it had become the very form of Parashakthi (cosmic energy), which could be worshipped.

The following anecdote is from the Anugita, a particular version of Gita.

Once, Krishna and Arjuna were walking in the forest, after the Mahabharata war. Suddenly, Arjuna had a doubt. He said. 'Krishna! You told me so much. in the Bhagavath Gita, during the war. All are very beautiful sutras (aphorisms). I am unable to remember them clearly, as there were so many of them. Now, if you tell them to me once again, I can grasp it deeply in my mind.'

Krishna replied casually 'What? You do not remember! Even I do not remember any thing!'

Arjuna was perplexed. He asked, 'What is this, Krishna? How is it that you yourself don't remember what you said?'

Krishna replied, 'Yes Arjuna, I would have remembered if I had told you all the sutras.'

Now Arjuna was even more perplexed. 'Krishna, do not confuse me. It is you, who told me seven hundred sutras during the war. If you say that you did not tell me, then who did?'

Krishna replied calmly, 'all that was said was not spoken by the Parabhrama Krishna!'

For enlightened Masters, the physical body is not their own. Whatever they do from their physical body is through divinity only. This episode is an example of this.

Once, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was doing Kali pooja (worship done through rituals) to Sharada Devi.

The pooja was the same that he generally performed to Kali Mata. Sharada Devi was a young girl at the time and was living just like any other girl of her age. She had not yet attained enlightenment.

One of the disciples asked Sharadha Devi the following question.

"Mother, Gurudeva did pooja to you. Do you not think he has come down one step by doing that?"

When Sharadha Devi replied to this question, people became aware of her maturity and understanding.

She replied, 'he did not come down one step but instead he helped me step up, in spirituality. From this moment onwards my responsibilities have increased.'

If someone accords you a similar respect, you will not stand on your legs. You will be flying. You will be so proud of yourself.

Thousands of questions came to our mind for which, there seemed no answers. We were not able to see the six feet Parashakthi who was sitting before us.

The Master's question shook us deeply. We began to think deeply about it.

Sundaram asked the Master a question, 'Master, you say that during the healing process the divine energy that flows from the body is what heals the disease. Is it not you, who heals? Is that why, you call this treatment as a meditative or spiritual healing? Does it mean that you become Parabhrama Krishna during healing?"

The simplicity of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, the way he expresses things, clearly says that he is not an ordinary man.

He said, exactly! It is not the Master alone, who becomes Parabhrama Krishna; you too will be in the same state. When you do healing, you will be in Ananda Gandha meditation. Each and every moment of the Aananda Gandha meditation will see you in an enlightened state.

Sankara says beautifully, there are two types of human beings.

During healing, your body becomes a temple where Parabrahma resides. Your whole body fills with meditative energy. Bevond Annamaya Kosha, the Parabrahma shakthi that flows in the body heals everyone. Siva, Buddha, Jesus and Rishis healed people by their touch based on this concept.

Sundaram: 'Swami, people are healed by your touch and you initiate people as healers as well. We know that Jesus healed everyone. But why is it that Jesus did not initiate people to do healing like him?'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: The enlightened Masters have modernized and simplified the Ananda Gandha Deeksha meditation, which initiates people to heal.

When the computer was first invented, the size of the a three-storied building. Now you can get a computer the size of a wristwatch! Those who have helped us invent the computer to the size of a wristwatch are also equally important.

It is not their mistake they could not initiate people as healers in their time, as only so much was possible then. Whatever was possible, they did with sincere totality.

When THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM gave his answer, the mature expression of his face instilled in our mind, the constant thought that we were in the presence of an enlightened Master.

Sundaram: 'Now you are a living Jesus.'

Dr. Regis interrupted in between and said, 'Master, you are not Jesus but you make living Jesus'!'

Enlightened Masters do not have their own body and mind and meditation is not necessary for them, who have already come out of their mind. Only the man, whose mind is oscillating, needs to meditate.

Our Master is not the six-foot physical body, as the common person perceives.

Dr.Bala: 'People treat you as God and people worship you as God. How do you feel Master, when you heal people by touching their feet? What will be your state of mind at the time?'

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, laughs and replies: Firstly, I do not have a mind! Secondly, when your Master's feet you pull him down to your level. However, when the Master touches your feet and does healing, he lifts you up to his level.

In the way you enjoy the Master's body. He also enjoys his own body. Now. I am sitting on the throne. I can get down any time from this throne, as and when I feel so. Similarly, the Master may go out of his body any time he feels and then come back to it.

Have a look at the handkerchief in my hand. There is a small thread hanging from one of the sides. However, though the thread is a part of the handkerchief it cannot be the kerchief itself. The Master becomes the all-pervading energy, once He becomes enlightened. The body is only the thread.

Cosmic THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM shakthi is what drives this six foot THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's body.

What does Cosmic THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM mean?

The true state of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is the Cosmic THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. This is equal to the whole handkerchief. The thread, which hangs from the kerchief, is the six-foot body of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. The decisions of the Cosmic THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM control this six-foot body.

Since 2000, when the Master attained enlightenment there has been no separate thought, action and decision of his own. After I totally surrendered, I died on that day. Parashakthi is using this body. The annamaya kosha, too, is transformed completely during enlightenment. It becomes completely blissful.

Ramakrishna savs 'For this modern day man. when you look at Guru's image it becomes a great meditation technique.' Just looking at the blissful image of Guru can lead you to mukthi.

Pranamaya kosha is the second layer, after the annamaya kosha and is related to the prana shakthi.

Man's energy centre is pranamaya kosha.

The medical techniques that work deeply on the pranamya kosha are yoga and acupressure.

When the root cause of the disease is in pranamaya kosha allopathic and other systems of medicine will not heal the ailment.

Pranavama. Yoga, acupressure, etc have cured many diseases in a wonderful and miraculous way. The diagnostic methods of these techniques and the medication methods are very simple. There are permanent cures as well. However, when the root cause of the disease is beyond the pranamava kosha even these methods cannot help.

Energy spreads into our body due to the entry of pranashakthi. together with the air we breathe. We do not just inhale and exhale when we breathe. If we can live by air alone, then when air is circulated inside a dead body, it should come to life. Why doesn't that happen?

It is because, along with the air there is no prana going in. The pranashakthi that prana along with the breathing air, no longer exists. The prana that comes into a body, when birth happens, keeps circulating inside the body. We keep the circulations going by breathing air.

Air alone does not go inside when we breathe. We also pull in the energy called pranashakthi along with the breath. Even biologists agree with this theory. Science has understood up to the point that there is Shakthi, which goes along with the breathing. Science has not gone beyond this knowledge and only Yoga and Pranayama can cure diseases related to the pranamaya kosha.

Nityananda!!

The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism ("SPH"), Jagatguru Mahasannidhanam ("JGM"), His Divine Holiness ("HDH") Bhagavan Sri THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, is recognized as the 1008th living incarnation of Paramashiva as per Sanatana Hindu Dharma ("Hinduism") and by His predecessors of enlightened masters and adepts.

The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is reviving Hinduism as the 1008th Acharya Mahamandaleshwar (the head for all spiritual leaders) of Atal Akhada (ancient apex body of Hinduism), coronated as Mahamandaleshwar (Supreme Spiritual Head) of Maha Nirvani Akhada (largest apex monastic order) and the youngest Mahamandaleshwar, ordained as the 233rd Guru Mahasamidhanam (Pontiff) of Thondai Mandala Aadheenam, ordained as the 293rd Guru Mahasamidhanam (Pontiff) of Shyamabetam, ordained as the 23rd Gury Mahasamidhanam 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 Universe, assumes a body out of His Free Will for the protection of the Universe, and for the welfare of the Spiritual seekers and Devotees.

The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is the reigning spiritual emperor of 17 ancient traditional Hindu kingdoms and the reviver of the most ancient, most peaceful, still-living and long-lasting demonstrable system that shows the possibility of peaceful co-existence amongst people. Following the coronation to establish KAILASA worldwide at the age of 16, for the past 27 years, The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, as the unified Hindus, has been single-handedly, tirelessly inspiring the dispossessed Hindu Diaspora to reclaim their Hindu centric freedom and centuries-old unified for Hindu stand the genocide.

The 1008th living incarnation of Paramashiva, The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM stands as the unifying force for the 2 billion born and practicing Hindu diaspora worldwide and established the Hindu State, KAILASA for the persecuted Hindus in over 100 countries.

The SPH THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has made resolute efforts towards recognizing and legitimizing the Hindu genocide which has been receiving scant consideration by global leaders and international bodies.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM founded KAILASA Uniting Nations. For the past 27 years, this international body has been responsible in building relations, bridging dialogs, inspiring 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 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 SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's response to humanity's global problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence and global warming and the continuing ethnocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries.

Over the last 50 years, the effects of meditation and its significant impact on stress, 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 Hindu liberty. mass execution, en looting and personal enslavement. or

Hinduism was once practiced freely in over 56 nations across the continent from Afghanistan, Bharat, Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka, all the way to Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia and 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 millenmia of Hindu Swarajya, or selfrule. 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 THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM 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 THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM 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 THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM 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, selfdeception, diffused responsibility and has resulted in continued systemic complicity with torture, murder and genocide
• Well-planned multi-layer false hate propaganda by the 'fourth estate' media sustained by moral disengagement, ● leaving the broader public in a state of willful ignorance, motivated denial, out-group victim-blaming, dehumanization and bystander apathy to even genocide.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM stands in solidarity with the untold, multi-level - social, political, intellectual, religious, cultural, linguistic, economic, legal, digital - persecution done to Hinduism and Hindus and Hindu minorities worldwide for the past several thousands of years continues through the modern day. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM has been recently acknowledged by the United Nations for the SPH and the KAILASA global community, especially the affected women and children.

The KAILASA with de facto spiritual embassies operating across over 100 countries and having presence across the globe as the largest spiritual knowledge source on Hinduism is spiritually governed with the life positive, all inclusive, universal policies sourced from Hinduism revived by the THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. Having enriched and enreached more than one billion individuals over the KAILASA raises the voice to protect Hindus, defend Hindus and preserve the Hindu narrative for the world.