1. Why Meditate

Meditation - Preventive & Curative Let us first understand the words curative and preventive. We all put so much emphasis and effort, we give so much importance, spend so much money and energy to cure diseases. However, we do not spend even one percent of our effort to prevent diseases. This is not only as an individual, but as groups, as society or as a country; all the governments of the world build so many hospitals, spending so much time, effort and money in curing diseases. We do not do anything to prevent diseases because for what ever reason we do not believe that they can be prevented. Medical people - scientists or doctors- either in psychology or physiology, are constantly working only with patients. They finally have come to the conclusion that man, as such, is illness. There is a poignant letter written by Sigmund Freud considered by many as the father of Psychology, after 30 years of research, that in his experience, man as such is sickness and cannot live happily. Of course, the specimens on whom he did his research were all sick people, his patients. He did not have an opportunity to interact with a Buddha - a person who has achieved spiritual bliss in himself. Because he did not have this opportunity he came to the conclusion that life is misery; and the human being cannot be healed and is nothing but a bundle of suffering. He concluded that humans cannot be healed as such. Eastern mystics, the Rishis, however declared that “ Amruthasya Putraha “ - human beings are the embodiment of immortality by nature, and the embodiment of energy and bliss. After so much of research psychology has concluded that the nature of human beings is sickness, but the rishis have declared the opposite; that the nature of human beings is bliss. Depending on which point of view you take your whole life will be changed. The rishis speak of potentiality; Sigmund Freud speaks of the reality “in which we are living. And the reality is sickness, be it physical or mental. Even though we may have sickness, life itself is not suffering; just because you see a cloud, you cannot say that the sky is nothing but clouds. There is some space beyond the clouds which we call ‘pure sky’. This is the space in which the sun shines, and where the silence, beauty and bliss of space prevail. The rishis declare that any disease is nothing but a cloud in your mind and body. Just like the clouds, these too will pass; they will move on. We work intensely on cure once we fall sick but somehow we do not try to turn it into prevention, because when we are healthy we take our health, our body for granted. We do not even remember our body when we are healthy. The definition of health is that if we are able to tolerate our boundary, to tolerate our body, we are healthy. There is a beautiful saying in Taoism: when the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten; when the belt fits the belly is forgotten; when the chain fits, the neck is forgotten! When we are healthy, we forget our body and boundary and do not think that we need to maintain the body. One more thing- you always think of health as no-diseaseness, the absence of disease. If you are not going to any hospital, if you are not taking any medicine, if you are able to manage your day to day routine, you think you are healthy. But according to me the definition for health is positive; it is "well - being-ness ". It is not merely no- diseaseness. No diseaseness is only part of health; there is something more than no-diseaseness; a positive well-being, more than no- diseaseness is what I call health. If you look at life from the point of view of the ancient masters , the rishis, they say it is just to be lived in a blissful way .They say “ Anandam Paramaha Nabhyajaanaath ”; in Sanskrit it means existence is bliss, do not waste it by missing it. The very existence, the very life and breath is bliss. They say that the body is filled with nectar and life is bliss - please do not waste it by not enjoying it; by not experiencing it. If you are experiencing life as misery, as a totality of clouds, you are missing life somewhere seriously. You are sick somewhere. Only when you feel that life is a great blessing, you feel that it is an overflow of energy, only then you are living it. Existence is bliss. You cannot exist without bliss - because anything in the world can exist only in the hope of achieving bliss. Bliss is the one and only inspiration; joy is the one and only hope with which human beings are still alive on the planet Earth. Only when you understand that life as such is bliss will you be able to move ahead in your journey of preventing diseases. As long as you believe that life is misery, whatever you do will be against life; you will be going against the current to escape from the misery that you perceive. However, if you perceive it as bliss you will try more and more to relax. Only two options: you think of life as misery and you try to escape from it; or, you think of life as joy, you try more and more to relax and enjoy. Meditation; when I use this word, I mean putting your mind totally at ease with your body and your consciousness . Now, your body and mind are not at ease with each other. Let me give you a scale of what is ease of mind and body with each other; if you are living comfortably within the boundary of your body, your mind is comfortable with your body. How does the mind live with your body now? When you are in your house, you are thinking of your office. When you are in the office, you are thinking of, say a beach. If you are in the house, you can be sure your mind is not in the house. If you are here, you can be sure your mind is not here. Wherever your body is, you are not. You are not happy with the present moment. Your mind is not comfortable with your body which is why it keeps moving here and there. This is why you are either caught up in the past or in the future. The pull towards the future or being caught up in the past happens because you are not happy with the present. If you are happy with the present moment, you will see that your mind is naturally at ease with your body, without any botheration of the future or the past. There are two kinds of thinking: planning and worrying. Planning happens based on your body. Chronological planning, what you are to do today, tomorrow and so forth is perfectly alright. This happens keeping your body as the centre. Your consciousness stays inside the body and it works. Planning never drains your energy; it does not tire you or depress you; you do not feel bored or disturbed about life. It continuously gives you energy. People who are in the field of construction or engineering feel a deep satisfaction of creating because part of planning is creativity. Understand, only God can create; so whenever you plan and create you are experiencing a moment of Godliness. That is why the great poets, dancers, musicians have such a deep satisfaction within their being, a deep fulfillment; the joy of creating. Even in the field of art, so many thousands travel; not all of them get paid; many of them do it as a hobby. They do it as a hobby because it gives them fulfillment. Fulfillment can come only when you experience the Godliness that is inside you. Only those people who experience Godliness can create. When a woman becomes a mother she feels totally satisfied- she reaches her fulfillment, because she has created, she has realized here potentiality. When a seed becomes a tree, it gets a deep satisfaction because it has realized its potentiality. So when you create, you realize the God within you. Creativity makes you realize your potential energy and rejuvenates you constantly. There is a second type of thinking, which is worrying. You will not be the centre of your mind while worrying. Your mind will be centered elsewhere thinking and brooding over the future. Your imagination is based on greed or fears, and phobias based on fear. When you travel in these two zones, greed and fear, the rishis have described the travel through greed, fear, anger, and jealousy as your journey through hell. You must understand that hell is psychological, not geographical. It is the state in which your mind stays, the space with which your mind is staying. When you are filled with greed and fear you are worrying; you are in the space of hell; you are not comfortable with your self, your body. You naturally feel a deep discontentment. You create more trouble for your body and mind. When I say the word meditation, I mean your mind living totally at ease with your body - you living at ease with your body, you living inside your boundary comfortably. There are thousands of meditation techniques to reach that state of ease. Let me explain how meditation can cure you and how it can prevent you from contracting sicknesses. Physically there are thousands of researches which have proved that meditation cures ailments. I have seen this not only in my own body but in others too - how meditation effects miraculous cures. Just a month before I left for this trip, a lady came to meet me who was suffering from psoriasis for the past 20 years. She had tried every possible medication but now wanted my help. As I sat talking to her, I realized that she had a sense of deep self contempt, low self esteem. I suggested that she should stand in front of a mirror and scream at herself for 15 minutes every day, to bring out the anger and self condemnation she had for herself. She resisted saying this was impractical. I again asked her to try it just for 21 days. It has been medically recorded that after 15 days she has been totally healed! The technique which I gave her is from Sufism. We have similar testimonials attesting to the power of meditation to cure many other sicknesses. Mentally there is no need for a testimonial: to know an apple is tasty, you only need to take a bite. Likewise you only have to meditate to know what miracles it creates . Almost all our psychological disorders are based on greed and fear. Excess of greed and expectation always leads to hopelessness. Any hope leads to hopelessness; hope is the path and hopelessness is the goal. If you hope to have some money, you have been saved if you have not achieved it! Achieving money only leads to depression of success. You never achieve the joy that you had hoped to achieve on achievement of money. You do not work solely for money; you think you will have something through the money. Only when you have achieved that status you sought through money, only then do you feel that you are a fool, that you have gained nothing. Only when you achieve your hope you understand that it has ended in hopelessness. Till you achieve your hope, at least you have a hope. Once you have achieved what you hoped for, you realize the hopelessness of it. This is why people who have enough of the outer world of material and money, turn to the inner world, because fulfillment of hope only leads to hopelessness. Only meditation takes you beyond fear and greed, it gives you a deep sense of fulfillment and well being; it shows that life itself is ecstasy and life is too short to be spent in worrying, that the present moment is too valuable to be spent chasing the past or the future. Meditation makes you realize the value of the present moment. It makes you feel and experience the ecstasy of the present moment. However, we rarely experience the present moment, what Buddha calls “Thathaatha”, which means ‘suchness’. We are nothing but a link between the past and the future. We are never an entity, an individual in the present moment and therefore never experience the suchness. Only when you experience the suchness will you understand the beauty and grandeur of it. Only then you understand my statement that life is bliss, it is joy, it is ecstasy. The rishis have declared just this. When you experience the bliss of the present moment you feel such a deep contentment, such a deep fulfillment, such a deep satisfaction, that not only do you prevent diseases from happening but also the basic disease of the feeling that you are the Body is cured. There are two kinds of diseases in us: one is sickness related to the body and the other is the sickness related to the idea, I am the Body. Sickness relating to the body can be cured and prevented by meditation. Dr. Muralikrishna from Oklahoma, who I know personally and who has done research on mind has in his report called ‘mind-matter’ given many scientific proofs as to how wrong thinking and wrong mental set up can disturb your health. In moments of anger, violence , vengeance you have a 220% greater chance of a heart attack ! The mind has so much power over the body. If you look deeply there are no two separate entities called mind and body. There is only one entity called mindbody. One end of your being is mind and the other is body. What you experience is the mind, what you express is the body. Expression of the mind is body and experience of the body is mind. It is the same thing; outer end is body, inner end is mind; they are not two separate identities. When you understand how to handle your mind, it does miracles on your body and your health; to cure and prevent diseases, including the ultimate disease, the idea that I am the Body. Once you start feeling I am the Body, you start feeling the boundary. Feeling the boundary is nothing but sickness. When you forget the boundary, you are in health. When you are in total health, you feel like flying. In Zen Buddhism, they say when somebody walks he cannot be Buddha; Buddha floats. It is not physical flying; it is the being which floats. When you are really healthy, in bliss and in ecstasy, you do not walk, you float because your being is so light, like a flower. Normally all the communities, societies and governments work to cure the people but do not work to prevent the diseases. But meditation will prevent and will destroy the very root of the disease. People want sick people so that they can serve. I used to ask the voluntary organizations why they could not invest in preventing diseases to which they replied they would have no more business if they did! They wanted people to fall sick so that they could serve and cure. Meditation is a wonderful technique to prevent illnesses because it never allows suppression or repression in your system. Meditation continuously rejuvenates you and it cleanses your whole being. Do take up a little bit of meditation, some technique as a part of your life, not only to cure but to prevent the illnesses and reach the bliss - Nithyananda. Q: What do you mean by bliss? A: Bliss! I can describe in two ways; one is, not feeling caged or bound, 'Swatantra'; this means freedom. Second, feeling blessed to have this body. You have a deep feeling that the Divine has blessed you, that the existence has blessed you; that your very life is a blessing, is bliss. A small story; a young man, poor and unemployed, went to church and prayed to God, "O God! Please have mercy on me ; help me , somehow give me 100 Dollars, I will be able to manage for a week. I shall then get a job and repay you ". The Priest, who passed by, heard this prayer and felt sympathy for the boy. He put 50 Dollars in an envelope and gave it to the boy, saying that this was a gift sent by God to be given to him. The boy rushed home, opened the cover and saw the money. He then prayed to God, "O God! Next time you send me money, please send it directly; the priest has taken half of what you sent as his commission! ".

is the body. Expression of the mind is body and experience of the body is mind. It is the same thing; outer end is body, inner end is mind; they are not two separate identities. When you understand how to handle your mind, it does miracles on your body and your health; to cure and prevent diseases, including the ultimate disease, the idea that I am the Body. Once you start feeling I am the Body, you start feeling the boundary. Feeling the boundary is nothing but sickness. When you forget the boundary, you are in health. When you are in total health, you feel like flying. In Zen Buddhism, they say when somebody walks he cannot be Buddha; Buddha floats. It is not physical flying; it is the being which floats. When you are really healthy, in bliss and in ecstasy, you do not walk, you float because your being is so light, like a flower. Normally all the communities, societies and governments work to cure the people but do not work to prevent the diseases. But meditation will prevent and will destroy the very root of the disease. People want sick people so that they can serve. I used to ask the voluntary organizations why they could not invest in preventing diseases to which they replied they would have no more business if they did! They wanted people to fall sick so that they could serve and cure. Meditation is a wonderful technique to prevent illnesses because it never allows suppression or repression in your system. Meditation continuously rejuvenates you and it cleanses your whole being. Do take up a little bit of meditation, some technique as a part of your life, not only to cure but to prevent the illnesses and reach the bliss - Nithyananda. Q: What do you mean by bliss? A: Bliss! I can describe in two ways; one is, not feeling caged or bound, 'Swatantra'; this means freedom. Second, feeling blessed to have this body. You have a deep feeling that the Divine has blessed you, that the existence has blessed you; that your very life is a blessing, is bliss. A small story; a young man, poor and unemployed, went to church and prayed to God, "O God! Please have mercy on me ; help me , somehow give me 100 Dollars, I will be able to manage for a week. I shall then get a job and repay you ". The Priest, who passed by, heard this prayer and felt sympathy for the boy. He put 50 Dollars in an envelope and gave it to the boy, saying that this was a gift sent by God to be given to him. The boy rushed home, opened the cover and saw the money. He then prayed to God, "O God! Next time you send me money, please send it directly; the priest has taken half of what you sent as his commission! ". You see, the boy is looking at what is missing, not what is given! He feels life is a suffering even when he gains. He is not able to enjoy life even when he gets something. When this attitude is set mentally within you, whatever you gain, makes you feel the same way as the boy. A person came to me and said, "Swamiji , you say life is bliss but I have lost my diamond ring! What do you have to say to my suffering?" I replied, " Fool, feel happy that you have not lost your finger! Enjoy, feel the joy the bliss of being alive. Can you earn your life, even a single breath?" Life is a pure gift from existence. You must feel blessed for having this body and life. First thing, not feeling bound or caged; feeling a tremendous freedom, inner freedom. Next, feeling blessed for having this life itself. These two put together and something more, is what I call bliss. In Sanskrit there is a word called "Ananda". I broke it and gave you the meaning. "Aa" means a feeling of blessedness, "Ashirvada" and "Nanda" means a feeling of freedom, unboundedness. By your very nature, you are in bliss. That is why you work for it. If you get a headache, you try your best to come out of it, why? Because you know that is not your nature. Your nature is headachelss-ness. If your very nature were to be with headache, would you try to get rid of it? You would not even be aware of a headachelss state. You would simply be in it. You now work intensely to come out of the headache by taking medicines, by resting; because that is not your nature and you want to go back to your true state. In the same way you know for sure in your heart of hearts that bliss is your nature. You work for it, strive for it. Whether you search for it through the outer world of money and material benefits or through meditation, it is still the search for bliss. Search for money is also nothing but search for bliss. You want to expand your boundary because you have more choice. That is the reason why you want more money, because you have more freedom to choose as your boundary is big; money as well as meditation - both are nothing but paths to bliss. If you strive for money you work through the outer world, and when you work through meditation, you strive through the inner world. Both are techniques to achieve bliss. But the trouble with money is that you get a choice of sufferings instead of the bliss you seek! But meditation puts you in choicelessness, which is the ultimate bliss. Q: Can you explain the difference between pleasure and bliss? A: Pleasure is that which rests between two pains. Bliss, when it is marked and limited between two pains is pleasure. The gap between two wars can never be called peace; it is merely a preparation for other wars. In the same manner the gap between two pains can not be bliss, it is merely pleasure. To put it more clearly, bliss is eternal, but a small portion of it is pleasure. Bliss experienced for a very short time is pleasure. When you try to hold bliss, it slips away from you; this is pleasure. Anything which is experienced for a short time is pleasure; a part time bliss is pleasure; full time pleasure is bliss, that is all. Q: Is this why we greet people as "It is a pleasure to meet you"! A: (Swami Laughs) ..See, bliss itself is choicelessness. People around me are greedy of the state I am in! It is not that they do not know of my problems. I have enough of them. Just yesterday somebody asked me after seeing the way we work, "Are you a spiritual master or CEO?" How do still live in such a continuously joyous state? " I answer "It happens because I do not have a choice. Choicelessness is bliss". But when people choose bliss they suffer. When you choose choicelessness, you are trapped. Drop the idea to choose the idea of choicelessness. Drop even the choice towards choicelessness. You will then see bliss happening to you. Bliss is like a breeze; you cannot make it happen; you can only open the door to let it in; you can only make space for it. So open the door and let the breeze in. Drop the choice between choice and choicelessness; then you will see the bliss happening to you. Meditation- The Ultimate Gamble (...for your ego , living with old masters or dead masters .is very easy ... how these qlitys are ncssry in ultimate sense for meditation -) What are the qualities necessary for the ordinary gambler and how are they applicable to the ultimate gambled, the meditator ? For the ordinary gambler 3 things are ncssry- the courage to understand the laws of gambling - these itself are intimidating - fear that the gains will go away - if it goes it goes, if it comes it comes - the courage to start, the power to proceed- to stake what is necessary and finally, the energy to let go - to accept the positive or negative. You must understand it requires energy to let go both the positive as well as the negative - a small story - a man with a weak heart won 5 million dollar in a lottery. His wife heard of it but did not want to tell him this on account of his heart condition , fearing his collapse. Wondering how to break this news to him, she went to the local priest and apprised him of her problem. The priest assured that he would handle it as he had known her husband for the past 25 years. The wife did not want to chance it but the priest was confident. The priest accordingly met the man and after a long chat slowly opened the subject of the lottery. He asked the man what he would do if he won 5 million dollars in a lottery. The man said he would give half of it to the church.. on hearing this, the priest collapsed of shock ! It is not so easy to accept even the positive things. You need the power to stake , the energy to let go. We shall see how these things are required in the ultimate gambling - meditation - First understand the laws , the structure of the universe and meditation - why and how to meditate , what were the benefits and what would happen if one did not meditate . Someone asked me , "If everything in life is evolving .. the monkey into a man etc naturally by evolution would man not ultimately evolve into God ? . where then, was the need for meditation, for inspiration ?" I replied, " It took 5000 years for monkey to become man and it would take equally long for you to become God. If you are willing to wait this long, it was alright with me ! " Alternatively , take up meditation and revolutionise the process of evolution. Enlightenment can be achieved only by revolution. The very the word meditation make many people reject this idea, saying they were too modern for this concept. A truly logical person would see the truth behind medition or spirituality. In Tamil Nadu, India, there is a group of people who believe there is no God. To believe there is a God, one does not need to be a fanatic or illogical. But it would need an illogical person or a fanatic not to believe in God. Being logical only leads one to the ultimate search. People who are logical have the courage to seek . People who understand that their life would transform or change after meditation, still hesitate to take the step. By this they show that they do not have the courage to accept this transformation. This fear is one of the obstacles in spiritual life. If people complain of not changing despite meditation, they only believe they are meditating but are not actually doing so. For example, if you have set the alarm to wake up early in the morning to take a flight but want to sleep just a few minutes more after the alarm rings , you have a dream during these few minutes that you are actually awake and taking the flight. This is a suggestion of your mind. Likewise, if you think you are meditating but without any transformation, check again what you are missing . The fear of transformation is deep and one needs real courage to face this reality. A truly logical person like the scientist, has the courage to seek the truth. The fear of transformation is such that most of the time we do not want to follow the truth - we give some reason or other to not let the truth penetrate our lives. One of our devotees wanted to know what was the primary duty of a man. The real purpose of a man is simply to achieve bliss inside his being. Unless he achieves this, he cannot give this to others , even if he lives to fulfil all his responsibilities. Without this , he will only be living for others - either pushing or pulling - achieving bliss is therefore, the first duty. Understanding meditation leads us to this path and after doing so, the courage to take the first step. Next , the power to put things at stake. When people see me in my joyous state, they ask me that I should bless them to be like me. Being in an ecstatic state entails responsibility - energy and responsibility come in the same package. One of the ashamites, tired of the long hours of work , wanted to know why he should work and serve at all when he could meditate and be happy ! I told him that energy descends on only him who was ready to take responsibility to serve the world and had compassion for others. The energy , the power and ultimately, enlightenment , descends only on him who is ready to take this responsibility- this feeling for every being . This realization dawned on me on my enlightenment. When people see me they are inspired to meditate but are not prepared to put their lives at stake. An atheist once went to a picnic ..he fell from a mountain cliff but held on to a root of a tree . He screamed for help as the root slowly got loose and.he now realizes that he would die. At the last minute , he appeals to God for help. God says that He would take care of him if he would just let go of the root. He immediately shouts , “ Is there anybody else who can save me ? ” ! We are not ready to put our lives at stake. We say we do not have time to meditate but the truth is that we do not want to admit that this is not one of our priorities, that this is not important enough for us. One night I got a phone call at two a.m.. It was from the dist. Collector , an IAS officer , asking for guidance from a problem which was of life-and-death importance and insisted that I see him immediately. I agreed to see him early the following morning but he replied that he had to go to his office then ! See what I mean by priority ? I understood his problem was not serious after all . One person asked me if I had seen God . I answered in the affirmative. He wanted me to show him - I told him he could have the experience if he was ready to practice. People are unwilling to take this step. They tend to think of enlightenment also as one of their possessions in the house but are unwilling to pledge what it takes. You need power to undergo meditation, power to stake , power to decide to live the truth.. Truth has three meanings - as of now we know it only as speaking the truth. The other two are thinking and living it. Thinking of it means constantly looking for it and living the truth means the readiness to live the truth as we perceive it. Just like you know that touching the fire would burn you , the truth would likewise transform you when you know it . If it has not, be sure you have not known it. The power to understand and go after the truth is the power to put at stake what it takes . Thirdly, the energy to let go - the real thing. This is the major difference between gambling and ultimate gambling. In the ultimate gambling, there is no element of loss, only gain. Here lies its greatness. But you need courage to start , walk and let go. This means you would happen on a space ; that moment when a seed fears to let go and go on to become a tree. This is why we call Nirvana the lastnightmare. If a dream is too wild, we come awake . Similarly when you get a jolt or shock in life, you wake up to enlightenment ; enlightenment happens when there is a sudden shock to your dream state. In Zen monasteries they have strange techniques to enlighten a person. A master was walking on the third floor . A disciple sincerely asked him for enlightenment. Suddenly the master turned and pushed him from the third floor. But the disciple who had total faith in his master was entirely calm and fell like a flower and got up to dance. Strange as this may seem , research says that it is our body’s heaviness that causes a heavy landing. When children fall they do not hurt themselves badly. When you fall and drown in a river, your dead body though filled with water and therefore much heavier, floats, whereas a lighter, living person drowns. They infer that it is your ego , your solidness , which causes the damage. There was a whirling sufi dancer who used to be airborne in moments during his dance, but never ever hurt himself on landing. Levitation done by yogis is similarly achieved by egolessness( Time magazine, Aug 2003 ) - Likewise , such was the egolessness of the disciple , such was his courage and trust to stake his whole life ,that in that moment, he became enlightened. The wonder with masters is that there is no failure, ever. This is a fool proof system. A naga disciple was so fond of his master that he had the habit of constantly imitating his hand and body movements. The master who knew this , did not mind on account of the disciple's sincerety. Once when a discourse was on, the master suddenly turned and and cut the finger of the disciple with a sword - so great was the disciple's devotion that with finger his ego too fell and was enlightened. The other disciples wondered if this was not too high a price to pay, to which the master replied that compared to the number of lives people have to take to achieve this state, this was a very small price indeed ! Only people who are ready to put everything at stake are the real gamblers, the courageous ones, the ones qualified to play this ultimate game. Meditation does not mean changing your routine by half an hour. It means you will change the very quality of your routine. If you take up meditation, your very understanding will change ,life will change and become new. When you meditate, you gamble your whole life , you put your whole life at stake - only then a transformation happens. Only when you commit the whole can you become holy. You need the energy to let go , to allow the transformation to happen. Like the seed which lets go of its fear in becoming a tree, you too - must have the energy to let go , to allow the transformation to happen. In Christian theology they call the last moment 'the last night of the soul '( termed by Buddhists as the last nightmare )- In the moment when your ego is dying, you must be willing to let go of the past . Enlightenment never happens as a continuity but as a new birth. The Hindus call it “ Vishaada” - the 1st chapter of the Gita is called “ Arjuna Vishaada Yoga “ - his dilemma was so great yet he was willing to trust Krishna and let go. In such a situation no decision taken is correct and when the master guides you , you must be ready to let go and follow what he says completely, implicitly. Arjuna had to courage to believe totally in Krishna and let go, which was how he had the “Vishwaroopa Darshana”. You must have the energy to let go, to allow the dark night to happen to you. Only if you have trust in the master can the ultimate gain happen to you. The master George Gurdjieff had strange techniques to enlighten his disciples. He had a stream inside his ashram - he had a rule that , anybody engaged in any activity , on hearing his cry, “Stop ! “ should immediately stop whatever they were going , sit down and meditate . Three disciples were in the water when he once cried 'Stop '. However, no sooner than he had cried out, the water in the stream began to rise . Seeing this two of them immediately came out of the water. But the third continued to meditate - his ego drowned with his body and a new being floated. You need to have the trust to experience the unknown space - at that moment, you have only the master to hold on to - the energy to accept the new experience happening to you , the energy to transcend your old personality. You then have the third quality to play this ultimate gamble. People will meditate till the family members do not object. Ramakrishna gives an open sanction to go against father, mother, husband, wife ,duties or responsibilities if need be, in the path to spiritual progress- this is the power to put things at stake - the second step you take towards spirituality. Finally, the power to let go of your ego, your old personality and being totally, the power to trust the master even at the last moment , to face the last nightmare. To survive, to withstand the “Vishaada” of the soul's squeezing depression- the quality required for this ultimate gamble. When you play this ultimate gamble, you cross all the three steps-The only great thing I promise you- in this gambling, there is no losing, only winning . Let you understand the methods of gambling and stake your Nithyananda to achieve and attain eternal bliss. Through this gambling may you achieve Nithyananda. Q: ---( what is Samadhi ? ) A:Sama plus Adhi is Samadhi. Adhi means the original source from which we have all come. Sama means becoming that original source. Becoming one with the original state. Q: ---( are there many other enlightened people , where are they and what are their roles ? ) A: There are many who are enlightened. In your level there are many who are enlightened. In my state there is only one energy. They all have the responsibility of equating the positive energy on this earth. All the negative energies create terrorists like Bin Ladens and all the positive energies create Buddhas. Enlightenment possesses you and drives you towards this responsibility. You do not possess enlightenment, in turn it possesses and drives you. When there is no more positive energy produced on earth , there will be no more earth left. In Bhagwata it is asked why the earth still exists after the age of Kali. Krishna says that enlightened people still walk the planet. As long as they do so , the planet will always live as their very being on earth is a great blessing. Q: -- A: ….will there be any time ? I do not know ( laughs) Q: Swamiji, what do you say about this saying, Work is Worship ? A: Work is worship when you do it intensely, totally. But most of the time, we make worship as work. Two things - work without any fear or greed while working , without any thought ; if you live and work in the present moment and involved , absorbed in your work totally, that work is worship. It becomes a technique to bring you to the present moment. If a professor teaches seeing only the faces of his students and not the dollar bill, the quality of his work will be great and with it the dollars would follow of their own accord. But most of the time we try to find some short- cut and are thinking only of our salaries at the end of the month , which affects our work. When the whole being is involved in the work, the work itself becomes worship .Krishna says, “Karmanye vadikaraste mapaleshu kadachana ”- you have freedom only to work, not to expect the results . If you expect results, the very expectation will hinder the results. If Vivekananda says , “ Arise awake, stop not till the goal is reached !”, I tell you, “Arise, awake, stop , the goal is reached !”. Come to this moment, this present moment , be intense in your present work totally , not even thinking of it as worship. “ Phala sruthi ”-all the saharanamas will have a “Phala Sruthi’ - ‘what will happen ‘ ; “ Sivena sadamodathe ”- you begin your worship only when you know what you are going to achieve. When if you worship, expecting the fruit, it becomes work. If you do your work intensely it becomes worship. “Living in the present moment “ is what is emphasized by the words, “ Work is worship “. Any work done in this way only rejuvenates you ,never tires you. You have the capacity - whatever is your ‘Iccha’ can become “Kriya” - desire can be expressed in reality. Whether you believe or not, you are God and have the power to bring desire into reality. If you work intensely, you will neither be tired nor be bored - both are by - products of expectation of results. This is your deep understanding to live in the present. Q:..( I sometimes have doubts , sometimes faith ).. why does mind have this personality ? A: One thing, if you do not doubt me, you cannot have faith in me. Doubt and faith are both sides of mind. Both faith and doubt are given by the master ; surrender both at his feet. Then you will see that you have a new experience called ` knowing’. After this you don’t have to believe, you will know. Q: How does one surrender ? A: Feel that both doubt and faith are from the master. Don’t associate yourself with the doubt or its roots. Don’t follow the decision of the doubts- surrender both , you will see how the knowing happens. If I say that the sun rises in the East, do you need to doubt it or believe it ? You will know just by getting up in the morning. Only knowing can transform you. Open your eyes and see.. practise. Faith will not allow you to know. Like doubt, faith too is an obstacle. People who have doubt ,have faith , will not benefit from me. At the most they will add my photo to the already existing 33 crore Gods of India ! Dropping both and knowing the truth of my statements and my teachings is the only real achievement you can have in your life. When you know, you have a transformation and beyond your doubt and faith, you feel a sense of gratitude flow towards me. It is this gratitude which is devotion. Meditation: Plan for a Miracle What is a Miracle? What ever happens in the Universe has a reason had a cause, has a reason, nothing happens by accident. If something happens in one side of the Universe something else happens somewhere else. If there is a big bang in one place there is a black hole some

Thoughts rise and fall chaotically; nothing is logical; they rise, live and fall. It is not thinking; it is just association. That's why there's so much confusion. Association causes dilemmas. When you bring your thinking process into consciousness our desires too become conscious. As of now they are mostly unconscious. You realize only after a while that what ever led into a problem is just association, not your desires. It's like sitting in a car moving by itself which you do not control. Moving with a mind that is moving by association related to unconscious desires is dangerous. We try to suppress desires or fulfill them. Suppression does not work. Fulfillment does not remove desires, it creates more desires. Bring your desires to consciousnessness from unconsciousness. If the desire is really worth fulfilling, the desire itself will have its energy for fulfillment. If not it will disappear. Either way you are in relaxation. Without consciousness, either suppression or fulfillment leads to suffering, guilt and tension. Psychologists say that if you take a wrong choice your unconscious mind is your first and worst enemy which tries to ensure that you fail, e.g. you want to be a doctor instead of an engineer etc. Whenever your unconsciousness does not recognize your desire it works against the desire. Unconscious is 90% of your mind, which itself only 10% of your total being or consciousness of which 90% is energy. They say mind's safety mechanism works against fulfillment of wrong desires, which will lead to deep disappointment. Once the desire enters your consciousness it energizes you. Fear: Psychologists talk about fear stroke. You are walking in the garden in the dark, see a coil of rope and you start shivering imagining it to be a snake. The jolt, the shock that you get is a fear stroke. It is like shaking a rose plant. If you keep shaking it will die. We are told that we undergo 6 to 12 fear strokes every day, day and night, in dreams and wakefulness. Imagine what can happen to us. Fear strokes originate from the unconsciousness. When the fear stroke is viewed through awareness and consciousness fear strokes are substantially reduced. Fearlessness is not absence of fear; it is the courage to face fear. Fear can be absent only when you die. The safest place for any one is the grave yard, no one, nothing can harm you. Similarly desirelessness is not the absence of desire; it is the energy, awareness and courage to fulfill desire. Fear and desire are energy, and can guide is if we are aware. What we need to do is flood our desire and fear with consciousnessness. In Eastern mysticism three words are used for this: Mind your Mind: Contemplation, concentration and meditation. Guiding you mind is contemplation; centering on one subject is concentration; when mind disappears into that subject and no mind remains it is meditation. When you become aware of this table it is contemplation; when you center yourself on the wood it is concentration; when your mind become the wood it is meditation. Q: Do deities exist or are they from our mind? A: As long as you believe you and deities are different, they are projections of your mind. Ultimately everything is from your mind; therefore Gods are projections of your mind. When your mind is tuned to physical level, you see material objects; when you are tuned to subconscious level you see dreams; when you are tuned to higher spiritual levels you see God. Q: A: You need to meditate only if your mind is restless. Meditation techniques make focusing the mind easy. Q: A: We are disturbed by our surroundings out of choice, not because of surroundings. You forget that you are making these choices, because you take them for granted, and they become a subconscious process. You can choose to be happy or angry when some one criticizes you. Decide that the next 5 times some one criticizes me I shall be happy instead of being upset. Your mindset will change. You will not be disturbed. Nothing external will disturb you. Q: can I stop my heart my heart when I am conscious A: A beautiful question. Yes, Swami Rama proved that in LA. When I switched off my mind in a PET scan study done at Oklahoma U, my entire neurological system went into silence. I has explained to them how my mind, consciousness and Being worked, they wanted me to demonstrate. They tested my mind with radio isotopes. Only the portion of intelligence was alive. The brain was equally grown in left and right, masculine and feminine. In the EEG pictures they found that the color changes were rainbow instead of gradual change. Each step was in awareness. Each was a conscious choice. Q: Are your words a conscious choice? A: Yes. I never keep may notes for my discourses, nor do I prepare. My thinking is my speaking. Q: How does one know whether one's desire is right or wrong? A: Start with small things like walking, eating, talking, and flood them with consciousness. Make each step when you wake up a conscious step. Let them not be automatic, robotic. Make the present movement aware, conscious. Gradually your entire being will be flooded with consciousness. Maslow calls this Peak Experience or Self Actualization. When you actualize your Self you will be in bliss. Q: what is the source of desire? A: energy is the source of desire. The same energy that converts food into muscles, blood circulate, moves your body. Between body and energy desires happen; they are closer to energy than body; they are more powerful than body. If you change your desires your whole body can change. Physiologists have shown that once in 80 days all your cells change; once in a year liver changes; once in several months everything in your body changes. Yoga says you can create your body with your thoughts. A meditator acquires grace. Q: How to make desires aware? A: Writing is the best way to raise desires to awareness. Once a week give an appointment to yourself for 30 minutes and ask your Being what it wants. The primal desire is Sex which we suppress immediately, relationship disconnects. Four levels of desires: I is the ego that creates pleasures, sex, taste etc. Mine is status, fame etc. Physical and Psychological desires are the other two layers. Don’t label your desires as bad or good. Just listen to your mind and note down. Whatever is necessary will stand, whatever is not will disappear. Many of you desires we never verbalize, we never bring to light; many are not your own deep desires; they are of others which are not relevant to you. You have life and energy to live only your own desires. Q: How can we balance our life? A: Only by balancing your desires. Iccha, Kriya and Gnana are the 3 energies: to desire, to work, to be. Difficult to understand the last which happens when you meditate. 80% is spent on Iccha only in desiring, only 20% in working towards the desires. When you bring Gnana or wisdom into it, the proportion reverses, 20% to desire and 80% to create. Balancing you Iccha and Kriya shaktis will balance your life. Handle the energy not the activities. Automatically all your desire levels will be handled effectively. Q: What is your objective? A: To spread the joy that I received through meditation. This also helps in economic growth. Unless you work at the inner level you can not achieve at the external level. Q: How do you distinguish between conscious and unconscious activities? A: In unconscious activities you have discomfort; you wish to do be doing something else. You can be sure that when you are here you are not HERE. There is no pull or push; you are relaxed; you are home. You feel homely you are Home; you are lonely you are in your House. Q: International politics and corporations are corrupt and only benefit the rich. What hope is there for the world? A: People with these thoughts are revolutionaries. In 10 years revolution becomes tradition. The spirit is lost. Whoever comes to power, power corrupts. No revolution or war helps others, only those who come to power. In 3000 years there have been 5000 wars all with the intent of equality. All our atomic weapons can destroy planet Earth 700 times. All these were created only with this inspiration. Every country says it's army is for defending; who then is offending if every one is only defending? When you are an insider in any revolution you turn corrupt. We are jealous of the rich and powerful, and so say they are corrupt. Not that we can do any better. Social revolution can happen only through internal evolution. We can change our Being. We can change our thinking and behavior. You and I can decide to be not a part of the collective negativity. Let us try the techniques of the enlightened souls; either that or global suicide. The next war will not be the Third world war but the last world war. Q: Does Life end in a graveyard? A: Life does not end in a grave yard; it is just the climax of one episode. You are born again and again. Read Sigmund Freud and you will understand empirical proof. Q: A: If your desire is conscious there is no need to suppress. It will die if not real, or be fulfilled by generating its own energy. It will guide itself if flooded with awareness. Just Mind your Mind. meditation. Medtation is not sitting in a corner, alone, in a cross legged position, with back pain, knee pain, neck pain, complaints, saying - i am not able to control my mind - all these things! Meditation is all about making a shift in your Consciousness. The moment you bring yourself to the present, you feel enthusiastic, alive, joyful and blissful. So the cognitive shift or shift in your Energy is what i call meditation. That is why I tell people, AG meditation is the ultimate technique which can put you in enlightenment. It will show you that you exist in higher frequency. What you think as you never dies. It exists always in higher frequency. What can die never existed. In you if you think that something can die, it never existed. Even now it does not exist. To you it may exist, but it never exists. In you, something that never dies can never be killed. That which cant die, can never be killed; that which dies never existed. So naturally, there is no need for fear. AG meditation will prove that you exist in higher frequency. In which there is no death. When I awaken, sometimes I feel I am paralysed. It is as if I am in between two layers, it is quite scary. It is like I am not quite conscious but out of sleep, what is this? See, understand: you have two things: Hardware, software. Software is mind, hardware is brain. In the mind, there are two parts - Conscious mind and unconscious zone. Unconscious zone is virus. Conscious zone is the actual software. The Conscious zone can be cleansed by the teaching. Unconscious zone can be cleansed by meditation. The hardware, the brain itself, will be tuned to hold this experience by energy darshan and Master’s blessing - the dhiksha. When you clean the conscious and unconscious and create an effect, the hardware may not be able to hold and sustain that effect from day 1. If the Master’s energy darshan happens, the hardware also changes to hold that effect. If you don’t get that dhiksha, constant meditation and teaching will change the hardware. Hardware is more like grooves created, samskaras created; the grooves created in that. If the hardware is not proper, once the new software happens, the hardware will slowly get changed. Immediately if you want a change in the hardware, energy darshan is the right thing. Straight away it will change the hardware. Sometimes, without even changing the software the hardware can be changed and the person will straightaway start radiating the software’s quality. That can happen when a disciple is completely open to Master. If he is in love with the Master for no reason… sometimes a disciple falls in love with the Master for no reason. They may not be attracted to teachings, they may not be attracted to meditation techniques, just they fall in love. Straightaway, you can change the hardware. Only those kind of disciples will be simply radiating the quality of the teachings and meditation without even going through all of them. They would not have gone through all those things but straightaway the result is seen. See, as on now. both hardware and software are outgoing. If you do the ASP, suddenly the software becomes ingoing; gong in, towards spirituality, towards cleansing process. Conscious portion by teaching and unconscious portion by meditation - it starts going inside. Then naturally what happens? You see: even if software turns inside, hardware will not be able to handle it. Then naturally hardware will try its best. If the software is too strong and stays in the same tune, then hardware will change. But immediately, if after the teaching and meditation is given, the dhiksha and blessing is also given, the hardware will also change and it will start holding. It will be prepared to hold on to the same experience. Mind and meditation are like the Indian mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Whatever they might try, they cannot live together. They are both trying to possess the same person, which is not possible. Similarly, you can be possessed by ether mind or meditation, you can’t be possessed by both. It is now your choice. You lived according to your mind all these years. Just these 36 hrs, try to live and work with meditation. Give yourself a chance. If you bring all the old knowledge, you will either agree or disagree with me. Disagreeing will not allow you to do the meditation is lost. Agreeing will create a thought that you already know. The moment you create that mentality, you stop following the meditation, the enthusiasm is lost. Just be here like an innocent child so that you will have the curiosity to explore every inch. Enjoy yourself completely. There is a statement - even if

you miss the joke, don't miss the laughter. Even if you miss a couple of statements, don't miss the meditation. Try to put in your whole effort to experience it. Now, we will have a sankalpa to make an effort to commit to this course for the next 36 hrs. Close your eyes and make a commitment to yourself -- physically, mentally and emotionally, I will put my complete effort to experience meditation, to channelize all my efforts to experience the meditation. Make a strong decision (sthira sankalpa) to yourself. Does there need to be any physical change in your body while switching from functioning as a bullock cart to a tractor to as an aircraft? No. It can be the same body. What then is the difference? The technique of handling it is different at each stage that's all. When the right technique is known, you are able to function as an aircraft. This technique is what we call meditation. The mechanism inside us or the boundless energy inside us needs to be brought out. The technique for this is meditation. True experience will happen when you start meditating. Our heart which is as hard as a stone will flower and become as soft and sensitive as cotton and we will feel the need to help others. At present, we either read in some magazine or have been told by elders that is good to give our seat to elderly people in the bus. Instead, that feeling should flower within us and we should offer help. For this, meditation should have happened in us at some point in time of our lives. Sensitivity will become a way of life only if meditation has happened in you, else it will remain just skin deep. To push the preaching received through the mind to the heart requires a drilling machine that is meditation. Then, justice, honesty and similar virtues taught to us will become a way of life and there will be a certain juice that you feel when following it. Else, all these virtues will remain as intellectual knowledge without turning into experiential knowledge. In Sanskrit you call the former paroksham and the latter aparoksham. What operations do at the physical level, meditation does at the energy level. After taking this dheeksha, every breath that you take should be with this goal. Else, you will forget that you have taken this dheeksha. This will seem as just an entertainment, that's all. You may all have taken many type of dheeksha from other Gurus prior to this. Just to remind yourself that you need to meditate and live with a goal, this title is given. Take this as a new birth. Next, in the evening, either everyday or weekly once, wear white clothes and take part in the satsangs in the ashram. It will help bring about a change in you. In your worldly affairs, you are so caught up in your worries and depression. To help re-charge yourself as an Energy body, this will help. In the ashram, there are no rules. You can eat non-vegetarian, live a married life etc. The rule is - there are no rules! If you meditate, these conditions will be automatically taken care of in you. Any such rule should not be imposed upon a person. It should happen from within the person. Meditation will make it happen. All virtues should flower from inside a person. You can wear this mala at all times, to any function - happy or sad. It will protect you and guide you in life towards happiness. With the right attitude, anything can be converted to meditation, to worship. With the wrong attitude, even meditation will be converted to work. Going intensely into anything with absolutely no attachment to the results is the way to convert work to meditation. One more thing that has to happen here is a deep awareness about the core in you that is lying undisturbed inside although you are continuously working outside. When the British were trying to establish their supremacy over India, they were very keen on taking control of a small village in Central India for strategic reasons. There were only about a hundred tribal people living there (This village does not exist anymore). The villagers were highly esoteric and mystical. They practiced meditation and it is said that they never fell sick. They were such highly evolved people that even if they hurt someone in their dreams, they would go and apologize to the person the next morning. They did not even want to harbour unconscious vengeance or hatred. They were a mature and spiritual group that had nothing of the outer world but everything of the inner world. When the British tried to force their culture on them, they would not give in. They resisted. Even when they were threatened to give up or face dire consequences, they refused to do so. They gathered in the center of the village and right in front of the British soldiers, they chanted a mantra (chant) and dropped dead. Every single one of them dropped dead. The soldiers could not believe their eyes. They had not anticipated that the villagers would commit suicide. This incident has been recorded by British soldiers. They also said that for the first time, they felt guilty for being responsible for the death of such innocent, simple, yet great people. These people knew the art of dying. They could just drop their body and leave the world. When we leave the body, we cross seven different layers of our body: the physical, pranic, mental, subtle, causal, spiritual and finally nirvanic. As soon as we leave the body, as the spirit leaves the physical layer, we undergo a tremendous, unmanageable pain. A small cut in your hand gives you so much pain. Can you imagine what the pain will be when your whole body, your consciousness from head to toe is torn? The pain will be similar to the pain that one will undergo when stung by ten thousand scorpions at once! A little meditation while we are living, will help us have a painless transition. It can heal and guide us at the time of passing away. As long as we are in this body, we see the whole world in four dimensions. We have seen movies in three dimensions where we feel that we are a part of the scene. But in 4D movies, they also make us experience it by rocking our chairs and causing some special effects at the physical level! For example, if we are sitting and there is an earthquake being shown, we will not just be watching it but we will also experience it! When we are in this body, the outer world is exciting and colorful; meditation and spirituality take the back-seat. They don't seem important or necessary. We feel that these can wait. But the moment we leave the body and start travelling inside, the outwardly trip becomes inconsequential and meditation and other spiritual interests become more important and enjoyable. As long as we are in this physical body, we continuously chase material things to make our lives comfortable. People come and tell me that they don't have time for meditation. I tell them to take back their words. Be honest and accept that you don't have the interest. At least be clear to yourself that your priority is not meditation. Our aim is to make more money, and make our life comfortable. Be honest to yourself about it. Our money and status, our social life, will not contribute to anything when we leave the body. Remember that. The karma theory is a very poor substitute for meditation. I always tell people it is time for us to drop our toys and become mature. Devotion helps but devotional activities which are the outwardly activities like pouring milk or water on the deity, done without awareness are not going to help. If we feel that God is residing in us and we can relate to Him deeply, it is going to definitely help. Physical activities are not going to help. Working in the line of awareness and working for improving one's consciousness through meditation is the only solution. If a person has taken birth with the intention of living a hundred years, but commits suicide before that, for the remaining years of his destined life, he will be without a body. This is what we call ghosts. In the case of accidents, if the person has had a glimpse of meditation, or lived consciously till until the accident, the person will be given the next body immediately. If before the accident, he has lived unconsciously and has not had a glimpse of meditation, he has to wait for his body just like people who have committed suicide. The suffering in those remaining years is great. They will feel the whole world but they cannot enjoy it. It is like placing a variety of sweets before a man who cannot use his hands to reach the sweets! Suicide is the worst crime. These people who are without a body try to take over the bodies of people with low awareness and try to possess them. This is what happens when a person is possessed by a ghost. A meditator can never be possessed or troubled by a ghost because his awareness and consciousness is high. So never postpone meditation, since accidents cannot be predicted! In this life, meditation will help the whole family because the house will be filled with positive energy and vibrations. Our well-being and joyous mood will be felt by other family members and they will also benefit. At the time of death, meditation will help only you and not the others in your family. Having the right master and practicing meditation is essential. Even a glimpse of joy or deep feeling while meditating is enough. A continuous practice of meditation will be a path-finder and will definitely help you at the time of death. Even without meditation if we feel the truth consciously, we will feel liberated. But when emotions start erupting unconsciously, our conscious will not be under our control. For that we need meditation. As long as we are balanced, all the logic and reasoning will work. But when we are confronted directly by these imbalances, we see a problem. If we are balanced even at that time, we are truly liberated. When we are imbalanced, only meditation will give us the power and energy to shift the balance. If we have a glimpse of consciousness, we will have an understanding of the samatva, the sameness, the non-differentiation between these emotions. All our understanding of samatva right now is wrong. Our idea of samatva is based only on the dictionary meaning. After the glimpse, it will be experiential. Forget vastu (ancient Indian science relating to house-building), gemology, astrology, numerology; just do meditation. The experience will stand by you at the time of death. It will help you have a painless transition. Understand the truth of dying and you can start living better. Raise your awareness through meditation, by looking inwards and opening up your consciousness. There is no other way for you to understand and accept the way of nature. There is no absolute right or wrong in nature. Nature just flows. With meditation, you too learn to flow. That is why meditation is such a powerful tool of personal transformation, in fact the only tool of personal transformation. No one can meditate on your behalf; you need to do it yourself. Meditation immediately brings you into the present moment. So, you can be transfotmed, liberated, and enlightened. Bhagavad Gita is meditation. Each verse is a sutra that you can meditate upon. Thes everses,nthese profound truth will take you deeper into inner awareness in meditation as you contemplate upon them and ytransform you as nothing else can. That is why Sankara says even a little reading of the Bhagavad Gita will liberate you. Krishna says that our senses are turbulent and, however much we try to control them, they stay out of control. Some of the greatest sages, the rishi, have been known to have succumbed to sensual pleasures. There is the legendary story of Viswamitra, a great sage, who was seduced by the nubile celestial maiden Menaka, in the midst of his intense penance. Do you think the Gods above have no other business than sending young women down to people who meditate? In that case, I am willing to bet that all you men here will start meditating from tonight without any compulsion from my side! Nothing of that sort will happen and don’t start meditation for this reason. It was the suppressed fantasies of Viswamitra's mind that created the celestial nymph. His senses were out of control. Hindu scriptures have referred to Brahmacharya as a prerequisite to spiritual evolution and many misinterpret this to be celibacy. Brahmacharya is not celibacy; it is living in reality without fantasies. There are many out there in the robes of monks, trying to control their minds and trying to be celibate, and most of them fail because they cannot control their senses. Suppression does not work on senses. Suppressed emotions explode when they get the chance. They just wait for the opportunity. When you settle into the present moment, you are out of the clutches of your senses and mind. You will still hear and see but none of what you hear or see will divert you from what you are focused on. You will be aware of only what you are doing in that present moment. This is what we call meditation. Meditation is nothing but being focused completely on what you are doing at a particular moment. This is what Buddha calls mindfulness. This is what Krishna says will lead you into peace. When you are aware, your senses are in your control instead of you being under their control. You become peaceful, you are in bliss. Be very clear, the moment you understand that life is purposeless, the moment you understand the purposelessness of life, you start experiencing the meaning of living, the bliss. The moment you drop the goal, the very path itself will become beautiful; your whole life will become beautiful; your whole life will become ecstasy. There is nothing to achieve separately; the whole thing is purposeless. The moment you experience in your inner space that nothing is going to be with you permanently, or nothing is permanent, the moment you understand that, a deep healing, a deep cooling breeze enters into your consciousness. Your whole inner space will be healed. You have so many thousands of wounds in your inner space; wounds created by your own desires, wounds created by your failures and by others, wounds created by your near and dear ones. All these wounds will be healed with this one single medicine. This one meditation of understanding that life is purposeless, one meditation of realizing that whatever you achieve is just nothing, and that nothing is going to be with you, is enough. : Master, is it possible that meditation takes into inaction? Even though my intention is to energize myself through meditation, I find I lose interest in things after meditation. Why? When you go into meditation, and practice seriously, and this happens especially when you are in an ashram kind of environment, you realize the futility of these goal based actions. All these, all the triggers that activate you, seem to be negativities of some sort. You tend to drop these negativities. When you drop these negativities and do not want to do anything with them, the state that you move into is tamas, or lazy inaction. Suddenly you find that you are disinterested in everything. You may just want to sleep, that is all. It is not quite depression, but a disinclination to cat, because all actions seem negative. This may last a while, a few days, but not for long. Let it happen. Let yourself go through this process. Let all the negativities work themselves out of you. Then, gradually, you will move back into action with awareness, satva. You will act, since you cannot but act, as Krishna says, but now you cat without a purpose. The results of your action are no longer of relevance to you. Success and failure no longer bother you. So, do not worry if you slip into what you think is laziness while practicing meditation. It is likely to happen. It is a normal process. Just continue and you will move into purposeless action. When you are with me, the mind is no more in control - you simply flow into meditation. You become a loving, serene silence. In this state, only a question that is truly your question, one that is completely relevant to you, will still remain with you. Studies conducted using meditation techniques related to truths expressed in the verses of Bhagavad Gita have shown that Quality of Life is significantly improved through meditation. A greater sense of peace resulting in reduced tendency towards conflict has been found. Meditators gain greater respect for others and appreciate others better. Their own inner fulfillment, without external inputs, increases resulting in self respect and reliance leading to Self Actualization. Ability to focus enhances and brain function integration has been demonstrated. These have resulted in greater comprehension, creativity, faster response time in decision making as well as superior psychomotor coordination. Stress levels have been shown to decrease with enhanced sensory perception and overall health. Tendency to depression has been clearly shown to decrease. There is enough evidence to show that as a result of meditation, individuals gain a better ethical lifestyle which in turn improves their interaction with others in the community, resulting in less conflict and crime. Group meditation of 7000 people (square root of 1% of World population) was significantly correlated to reduced conflict worldwide. Meditation leads to higher levels of Consciousness. There is supporting evidence to show from the work of Dr David Hawkins and others through the tools of Kinesiology that Human Consciousness has moved up in the last few decades, crossing a critical milestone for the first time in human history. Dr. Hawkins also rates the Bhagavad Gita at the very highest levels of Truth conveyed to Humanity. Only through meditation that one becomes well-born. It has nothing to do with the family, it as nothing to do with the blood. You cannot find any difference between the blood of an aristocrat and that of a beggar. There is no aristocratic blood as such; that is all a myth. A man certainly becomes an aristocrat when he moves into the world of meditation because now he is no more of the crowd. He is no more part of the mob and the mob psychology: he has gone beyond. And that is really becoming noble. Bliss and peace have to be attained together. It is very easy to attain one, separate from the other -- very cheap, simple, but not of any significance. Peace without bliss is dead, and bliss without peace is mad. When both are attained together -- the synthesis, the symphony of the two when one is as mad as one should be and as peaceful as it is possible to be, that is the point where sanity and insanity are transcended, where ignorance and wisdom, both, are transcended, where life and death, both, are transcended. But it is an arduous task. Remember: meditation gives you a new birth, you become twice born, and it gives you a new being -- very individual, unique. It gives you the quality of the chosen few: a Buddha, a Jesus, a Pythagoras. These people are noble, these people are well-born; these people are real aristocrats. Become a real aristocrat. The way of transformation is meditation. Life is a river. It does not something static; it is not a thing at all, but a process. Existence does not consist of things but of events. To understand it is of tremendous value because then you stop clinging. When everything is changing what is the point of clinging? By clinging we can only create frustration. When everything is bound to change one accepts it joyously, and one moves with life because not to move is to be dead. Then remains is a kind of let-go. That is really the way of becoming free of all attachment, all greed, all possessiveness. And the man who is free of these poisons is ready to become enlightened! He becomes pure! Purity is not something that you have to practice, it is something that is already at the very core of your being. But we have never allowed it to surface; on the contrary, we have been repressing it. Our society teaches us repression. And when you repress you become divided, you become split; then your whole life is going to be just a conflict, an inner war, a civil war. And the whole war is absolutely absurd because you are fighting with yourself. It is self-destructive. By purity I mean innocence -- not the purity of the moralists, not the purity of the puritans, but just the simplicity, the innocence, of a child. The child remains pure till we force him, till we initiate him into our so-called society, culture, education. Either Arjuna has become mature or Krishna realizes, 'If I don't give him a technique, I cannot escape from him.' Masters give meditation techniques in two situations: one is when they see the person is mature enough. The other is when it is better to give some technique, otherwise the person would eat the Master's head, he would continue to question, he would not keep quiet.

Meditation is actually a quality that needs to be added to your life. It should permeate the very way in which you view life, the attitude with which you perceive everything. When you infuse awareness into every action, you are in meditation. How can you be in complete awareness? You can be aware only when you can distance yourself from what is happening. When you can witness the scene without getting involved in it yourself, only then you can watch the scene clearly. Otherwise, you assume some role yourself in the scene. Now, you have some vested interest in it, you have some expectation that things should happen in a certain way that you think is beneficial to you. The moment you get involved, the distance between the scene and you has dropped and you can no longer be the witness. Then, you can never see things as they are. It is just like when you are in a dream. When you are in the dream, you don't realize it is a dream, you think everything that is happening is reality. The moment you wake up from the dream, you realize in a flash that it was just a dream; it has not basis, no significance whatsoever. Understand, the way you are living life now is exactly the same way. You are living life in the dream of the future and the past. And you think that dream is reality. You are caught up in the dream thinking it is reality. The reality is actually in the present. When you realize this, you simply wake up to reality from the dream of maya. Then, you understand that the senses, the body, the mind are not you. You are something much beyond these. With this awareness you become blissful. Meditation takes you beyond the body-mind-heart complex, because meditation is nothing but not identifying with all that which you have become identified: I am not the body nor the mind nor the heart. When this understanding arises in you meditation has flowered. In that flowering is bliss. The master replied, 'This is meditation. If you can eat totally when you eat, if you can sleep completely when you sleep, you are in meditation.' You see, they had listed, say fifty, desires but after the meditation they can remember only a few of them, less than ten. Why is it like that? It is because, what they remember are their true desires. These are the desires that they truly want. The rest of the forty desires are borrowed desires. These borrowed desires are the play of the mind. You can see how dangerous it can be to run behind desires that build due to outside pleasures. I tell them: To learn mediation, two minutes are enough. To learn what is not meditation, you need ten days. In life, we do many things which are not meditation. To unlearn, it takes time. When we express the truth logically, our mind always goes to the other end of the logic. We need to understand the truth from both ends. Meditation is the key to imbibe the etheric energy of the Cosmos, which is the largest and subtlest energy source. Vedic fire rituals are mass meditation processes: meditation for the dummies, if you will. You just have to be there to partake the energy, even if you do not have the capability to meditate. The Cosmic intelligence reflects in the human as the mind. Mind in turn uses the senses, the indriya, to access the external world. Each of the senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are related to the natural elements. Man made of light? They must be talking metaphorically, not literally. But mystics were really talking literally. Now science not only says that man is made of light but that everything is made of light, all is made of electrons, electricity. Science has come to this understanding from a very long route. The objective route is a very long route; the subjective route is very easy, the shortest possible, because you have only to look within. Nothing else is required: no lab, no instruments, no sophisticated devices, nothing else is required -- just the art of closing your eyes and looking in. And that's what meditation is: the art of looking in. The moment thoughts disappear and the mind is utterly quiet and silent, the inner light is seen. That is a revelation. And once you have seen your light, you will be surprised: you can see it now in everybody else. Then the whole existence is nothing but an ocean of light. It is not matter, it is pure energy. It is bliss. Ordinarily love is unconscious, it is instinctive; hence it is not love but lust. Unless we transform our love into a conscious phenomenon it is not really love. and to make love conscious takes great effort. That effort is meditation: meditation is the process of changing love into a conscious phenomenon. Hence the first step of true knowledge is to know 'I know nothing'; that is exposing your ignorance. And from that moment a turning happens, a great change happens: one starts looking inwards. True knowledge has to happen within you. It can't come through thoughts, it has to come through a thoughtless space within you. It cannot come through studying, it comes through meditation. It comes only when the mind becomes absolutely empty and pure, uncontaminated, unpolluted, that your own inner sources start flowing because all the hindrances have been removed. One is almost in prison and a great fight is needed to get out of it. The prison consists of our mind. Consciousness is the prisoner; the mind is the prison. The whole process of meditation is to dissolve the mind, to dissolve the walls of the prison, to help you to become no-mind. and the moment you know that even for a single moment you can become a no-mind, you have known your potential, you have recognized your possibility, your future has dawned. Now you can move with the absolute guarantee that the morning is not far away, because the first ray has been experienced. The first ray is difficult. The whole difficulty consists in the first glimpse. We have lived in the mind for centuries, we have become so accustomed to it. Day in, day out, we are surrounded by thoughts, desires, memories, imagination. I say, 'In prayer, you pray to God; in meditation, you become God!' See, prayers give you immediate results and as we all know, anything which gives immediate results will have their own side-effects. This is with respect to prayers. Praying to that higher principle or to the Divine is not wrong, but not enough. Whereas in meditation, we ourselves realize that higher principle or the Divine to which we are constantly pouring our prayers. And, this is very much permanent. Human beings are given intelligence so that they can rise above intuition and operate out of intuition. This intuition comes out of awareness. It comes through meditation. With awareness, one can understand that there is truly nothing that one can be attached to, since everything is impermanent. As I said earlier, every moment of your life, is only a psychodrama. That exactly, precisely the case with bliss: one has to experience it. One has to prepare oneself for the great experience. Meditation simply prepares the ground, it helps you to open your eyes, it is medicinal. And once your eyes are cured you know what it is. We just have to look in, we just have to turn in and it is discovered. It is a discovery not an achievment. This is the whole foundation of meditation. Meditation means that all that is worth achieving need not be achieved because it is already inside you, and all that can be achieved is not worth achieving. Money can be achieved, prestige can be achieved, but they are not worth achieving because all will be left behind; death will come and snatch you away. So that which can be achieved is not worth achieving, and that which is worth achieving need not be achieved at all because it is already there; you are made of it. Love, bliss, God, these are our intrinsic ingredients. They are given; nothing is to be done about them. Meditation is the art of listening to existence. The wind is passing through the trees; listen to it and listen obediently, as if God has called you. God has really called you because the wind belongs to him and the trees belong to him and the sound of the passing wind though the pines is his sound. Listen to the water, the running water, and the sound of it; listen to the clouds and listen to the silence of the night. And in the same way listen to the noise of the marketplace, the train passing by. Listen to everything with such deep silence that you become capable of not distorting the messages that are arriving every moment. God goes on pouring his messages from everywhere. The definition of meditation is also the definition of the disciple: the art of listening to the master. Now we start living the life of meditation, and meditation means the life of no-mind. Don't allow thoughts to interfere. Be in direct contact with existence: with trees, with rocks, rivers, people. Become a child again; then the circle is complete. Meditation is the way to cure your eyes, to help you to open your eyes. Maybe they don't need any treatment, you have just forgotten how to open them. Maybe for centuries and lives you have kept them closed. Or maybe you are going to see; it is better to remain in your closed world, it is cozy. Systemized service often leads to such a situation. So, don't plan anything. Just do any service anywhere. This service will infuse enormous power in your being. For at least half an hour a day, do something selfless. I tell my devotees to contribute some service to the mission in some form at least half an hour a day. This service is meditation. It inculcates in you the spirit of Collective Consciousness and lays the path to realizing the divinity underlying the service. Meditation simply means effacing all the memories, not getting involved with the past, becoming detached from the past, so much so that you don't think of it as your past. One slips out of it like a snake slips out of its old skin. That is the whole art of seeking with awareness; to slip out of the past and to avoid entering the future. Then you are just here and now. And that absolute newness brings great ecstasy. It is not meditation. Constant repetition of a name simply creates a state of deep sleep in the head: you fall asleep. It is good, nothing is wrong in good sleep -- but it is not meditation and it is not going to transform you. The real transformation happens when your energy moves from the head to the heart. The heart is always peaceful. It is like the ocean: on the surface all is turmoil -- waves, great waves arising -- but in the depth there is not a single wave; all is utterly silent. The head is our circumference and the heart is our centre. My whole effort here is to help you to move towards the heart. Hence so much emphasis on singing, music, dance, love; these are the ways in which you can be persuaded back to the heart. Once you are there, once you have tasted the peace of the heart you will be surprised: the head is left far behind, it is none of your concern. It is as if it no longer belongs to you, it may be somebody else's head. It is so far away, so distant that you don't even hear the noise. The heart is so deep that the head becomes infinitely distant. Those are the moments when you feel for the first time what bliss is; otherwise it is only a word. Very rarely have people felt the real taste of bliss. People use the word and they think they understand it too. They don't understand, they can't understand; it needs some existential experience to understand, because bliss is synonymous with god. Bliss is the ultimate meaning of life. Many people have reported that after that meditation, they began respecting their spouse; they do not take them for granted any more. When you think of the possibility of death, you will never take life for granted, or your spouse for granted. You start living. The only way to know truth is to be meditative: to be able to sit absolutely silently, without any thoughts, and yet remain conscious and not fall asleep. That's what meditation is: consciousness without thoughts. The moment the clouds of thoughts are gone and the mirror of consciousness is absolutely empty, truth is revealed, truth is reflected in you. And truth liberates. To realize truth you need courage and faith. Meditation is the one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn from objectivity to subjectivity. You stop looking at man from the outside. First you start looking at yourself from your innermost core; you stand there and you look at yourself from there, and you become as big as the universe. In that moment great freedom descends. That moment is the moment of nirvana, enlightenment, unbounded. Meditation can be taught, love cannot be taught. Meditation is a science, it is a methodology, but love is just a feeling, and you cannot make a science out of feelings. At the most it is an art, or even better: it is just a knack. I always tell people, meditation and gambling both need courage. For gambling you need courage, for meditation you also need courage. We have all doubts - meditation is the ultimate gambling, with ordinary gambling, you gamble with only money, in meditation you gamble with your ego. You gamble with your whole being. But one thing for sure in this meditation gambling, if you lose you will win. Only losers win in this game. In ordinary gambling, the more you get, the more you win. In meditation gambling, when you put the ego at stake, you win the whole game. You put your whole ego at stake. Spiritual life needs courage; that is why Swami Vivekananda says spiritual people, he calls his disciples 'dheera'. Dheera means the person is courageous, who is courage personified. You might think, why do spiritual people need courage - for spiritual life you need to be silent? No! Spiritual life needs courage. To experiment with these truths, you need courage. In these past fifteen days we have heard about so many different teachings, so many different understandings, so many different techniques, you have heard everything, only if you have the courage to experiment with them, it can help your life, you can transform your life; otherwise it will add more weight to your head, that's all. Meditation prepares the way because it helps you to dismantle the false ego. Love helps because love also makes you aware of the falsity of the ego. Love gives you a few glimpses of egolessness; meditation gives you a solid ground on which to stand without the ego. Meditation helps you to be blissful; bliss helps the rose of the heart to open; and then love comes of its own accord, just as the fragrance comes to the rose. Meditation is going to become more and more important in the future. It has never been so important in the past as it's going to be in the future. Renunciation is going to be the only way for the future humanity because it will teach you how to be playful, how to be restful, how to be without any goals and yet happy. Through techniques like meditation you can bring down your TPS to zero; you are completely in the present moment; you touch eternity. Past, present and future put together is eternity. You can't touch it in the past since it's already gone, you can't touch it in the future since it's yet to happen. You can touch it only in the present moment. If you can totally relax in the 'here and now', be totally aware and totally conscious, you can touch the eternity and become aware of the whole past and whole future. If meditation is not the channel for spiritual enlightenment, then why should we meditate, what exactly are we supposed to do? Meditation Is a channel for enlightenment. I don't say meditation Is not the channel, but when I say the word meditation, being unclutched, not getting caught with one more shaft. If the meditation creates one more shaft, be very clear you will not be getting enlightenment. About The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism ("SPH"), Jagatguru Mahasannidhanam ("JGM"), His Divine Holiness ("HDH") Bhagavan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam, is recognized as the 1008th living incarnation of Paramashiva as per Sanatana Hindu Dharma ("Hinduism") and by His predecessors of enlightened masters and adepts The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam is reviving Hinduism as the 1008th Acharya Mahamandaleshwar (the head for all spiritual leaders) of Atal Akhada (ancient apex body of Hinduism), coronated as Mahamandaleshwar (Supreme Spiritual Head) of Maha Nirvani Akhada (largest apex monastic order) and the youngest Mahamandaleshwar, ordained as the 233rd Guru Mahasannidhanam (Pontiff) of Thondai Mandala Aadheenam, ordained as the 293rd Guru Mahasannidhanam (Pontiff) of Shyamalapeeta Sarvajnapeetam, ordained as the 23rd Guru Mahasannidhanam of Dharmamukthi Swargapuram Aadheenam, and coronated as the 203rd Emperor of Suryavamsa Surangi Samrajyam. The Srimad Karana Agama, Purva bhaga, Patala 71, Sakalotpatti vidhi, Sloka 8 & 9 (Sacred Ancient Hindu scripture) declares: इत्येवं निष्कलं प्रोक्तं परं भावमिति स्मृतम्। सृष्टिस्थं लोकरक्षार्थं लोकस्योत्पत्तिकारणम्।। साधकानां हितार्थं तु स्वेच्छया यदा तनु तनु॥ In this way (Shiva) who is Nishkala - without any body and parts, who is the Ultimate Supreme Being, who is established in the Creation, who is the Cause of the creation of the Universe, assumes a body out of His Free Will for the protection of the Universe, and for the welfare of the Spiritual seekers and Devotees. The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam is the reigning spiritual emperor of 17 ancient traditional Hindu kingdoms and the reviver of the most ancient, most peaceful, still-living and long-lasting demonstrable system that shows the possibility of peaceful co-existence amongst people. Following the coronation to establish KAILASA worldwide at the age of 16, for the past 27 years, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam, as the face of the unified Hindus, has been single-handedly, tirelessly inspiring the dispossessed Hindu Diaspora to reclaim their Hindu centric freedom and stand unified for the centuries-old Hindu genocide. The 1008th living incarnation of Paramaśiva, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam stands as the unifying force for the 2 billion born and practicing Hindu diaspora worldwide and established the Hindu State, KAILASA for the persecuted Hindus in over 100 countries. The SPH Nithyanada Paramashivam has made resolute efforts towards recognizing and legitimizing the Hindu genocide which has been receiving scant consideration by global leaders and international bodies, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam founded KAILASA Uniting Nations. For the past 27 years, this international body has been responsible in building relations, bridging dialogs, inspiring leaders, uniting nations towards acknowledging the Hindu policies which are universal, life positive as referenced from the ancient text of Hinduism. This is the 'ahimsa' (non-violent) way of bringing acknowledgment to the horrors of the Hindu genocide, the untold facts of the darkest act of mankind on Earth to the most contributing civilization - KAILASA. KAILASA is an apolitical nation whose vision is enlightened living for all. Towards this goal, KAILASA is the only Hindu nation on planet Earth today bringing legitimacy to the principles of Hinduism. Social principles, economic principles, judicial principles, Hindu medical principles, and Hindu economic principles. KAILASA is The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam's response to humanity's global problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence and global warming and the continuing ethnocide and genocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries. Over the last 50 years, the effects of meditation and its significant impact on stress, crime rates, violence, political decision making and even war in local and global consciousness is well established. Unfortunately, in the last two hundred years, forcibly we are made to believe Hinduism is a functional principle only for enlightenment and spirituality. It is absolutely dysfunctional for the political, social, economical system. Making Hindu family structure, Hindu social structure dysfunctional is the greatest crime done against humanity. Sanatana Hindu Dharma has faced both historical and ongoing religious persecution and systematic violence, in various forms including assassination attempts on living incarnations, targeted elimination of Hindu pontiffs through bio war and lawfare, cyberbullying, Hindu phobia, forced conversions, documented massacres, demolitions, desecration and grabbing of worship temples and monasteries, looting of Hindu temples properties, destruction of Hindu educational institutions, elimination of well known Hindu libraries, the gross violation to the freedom to practice the Hindu school of liberated thinking (Sankhya), Hindu schools of living enlightenment (Jeevan Mukthi), gross violations of the right to freedom of religion that includes violations of the right to life, personal Hindu integrity or personal Hindu liberty, mass execution, looting and enslavement. Hinduism was once practiced freely in over 56 nations across the continent from Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka, all the way to Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia and Indonesia, and in 200 states, 1700 samasthanas (provinces) and 10,000 sampradayas (traditions). Over several centuries the combined forces of foreign invasion, political upheaval, colonialism and religious persecution systematically ended millennia of Hindu Swarajya, or self-rule. Today Hindu temples remain in a few countries but the Hindus who worshiped in them have been ethnically cleansed. The revival of Hinduism through the civilizational nation of KAILASA globally irked vested interests of atheistic terrorist militant elements, caste supremacist terrorists and other anti-Hindu forces who executed a massive persecution and genocide on SPH and His followers on 2 March 2010 that continued for the next whole decade and comprised of over 70 assassination attempts, over 250 sexual assaults on SPH and his monks and disciples, lawfare of 120 false cases over 10 years, massive hate propaganda in electronic media of over 14,000 hours and print media of over 25,000 articles in 5 years, destruction of heritage properties worth over 27 million USD, and the continuing ethnocide and genocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries. Specifically, the lawfare involved: Delegitimizing SPH by hate propaganda, disenfranchising Him of His civil and human rights, prejudicing Him from fair representation and fair trial Repeated illegal imprisonment, with brazen torture, custodial assassination attempts, supported by system justification in various forms, including the common processes of bureaucracy, indifference, self-deception, diffused responsibility and has resulted in continued systemic complicity with torture, murder and genocide Well-planned multi-layer false hate propaganda by the ‘fourth estate’ media sustained by moral disengagement, leaving the broader public in a state of willful ignorance, motivated denial, out-group victim-blaming, dehumanization and bystander apathy to even genocide. The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam stands in solidarity with the untold, multi-level - social, political, intellectual, religious, cultural, linguistic, economic, legal, digital - persecution done to Hinduism and faced by Hindus and Hindu minorities worldwide for the past several thousands of years continues through the modern day. The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam has been recently acknowledged by the United Nations for the persecution of The SPH and the KAILASA global community, especially the affected women and children. The KAILASA with de facto spiritual embassies operating across over 100 countries and having presence across the globe as the largest spiritual knowledge source on Hinduism is spiritually governed with the life positive, all-inclusive, universal policies sourced from Hinduism revived by the SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam. Having enriched and enreached more than one billion individuals over the past 27 years the KAILASA raises the voice to protect Hindus, defend Hindus and preserve the Hindu narrative for the world.