Energy Darśan🔗

18.62 Surrender to Him completely. By His grace you will attain supreme peace and the eternal abode.

Krishna switches gears and starts giving Arjuna the experience. He starts radiating eternal consciousness. He is putting Arjuna into that consciousness, into the experience of enlightenment.

Just relax for a few minutes. Relax from all the thoughts and ideas going on in your head. There is every possibility that you can also glimpse what Arjuna received by His grace. We always miss due to our instinct to survive and possess. For a few minutes, relax from thoughts. You can pick them up later. There is no problem in that. Just for a few moments keep them away from your consciousness. Drop them from your inner space so that you may glimpse that consciousness. There is a distinct possibility that you may experience what Arjuna experienced by the grace of Krishna.

Throughout Bhagavad Gita, Krishna has been saying, surrender to Me. He has been saying ‘I’ and ‘Me’, meaning that He represents the Divine. Now, suddenly, He changes that and says surrender unto Him as a third person. For the first time He refers to the Divine in this way. This means that He has expanded beyond the body. He now speaks as Parabrahma Krishna, the universal Krishna. He speaks from the eternal consciousness. That is the reason He says surrender unto Him and not surrender unto Me. Earlier He used the word ‘I’ or ‘Me’. This change means that He is in an expanded state to put Arjuna into the experience. In order to give a disciple the experience, the master must be in the same state, too. That is why Krishna went into that expanded state.

Before a pūjā, the priest chants the aṅganyāsa karanyāsa mantra - aṅguṣṭābhyāṁ daśadibhyāṁ – these mantras are chanted in order to expand and go beyond body consciousness. These purify the body and help us go beyond the body. Actually, purifying and going beyond are the same thing.

So now Krishna says ‘Surrender unto Him’ since He has expanded and He cannot use the word ‘Me’. He says, ‘Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain eternal consciousness and supreme peace.’

He has expanded into that consciousness and is about to give energy darśan. He is ready to shower His energy on Arjuna.

Q: Swamiji, you referred to the energy darśan that Krishna gives Arjuna. You also give energy darśan. Can you please explain what it signifies?

Yes, the energy darśan or ānanda darśan (blissful darśan) that Krishna gives Arjuna is the same darśan that enlightened masters give to devotees and disciples. The darśan is that of the universe, cosmic energy, and the Parāśakti, and not of the master’s form in front of you.

When I talk about giving ānanda darśan to you, I must become an observer and look at myself as a witness, since the player is Parāśakti!

The word darśan comes from the Sanskrit word, darśana that refers to the experience, the vision that is not just what you see in front of you. This darśana happens with the unseen third eye. The purpose of the master giving ānanda darśan is to awaken the intelligence and awareness in you by opening the third eye. Darśana is not a physical experience. It is a being-level experience.

During the energy darśan, or ānanda darśan as I term it, the master is one with the universal consciousness. He is the formless in form. He is Existence itself. Through ānanda darśan, out of His deep love and compassion, the master opens Himself completely to everyone so that they experience the universal consciousness through Him.

The recipient feels the master’s compassion with tremendous intensity. The master radiates the Existential energy during darśan. At the time of darśan, He makes himself available totally in order to instill the divine energy into everyone. In each one He plants the seed that can flower and radiate His fragrance, the fragrance of Existence.

If you are receptive to the energy, it can penetrate and transform you at the being level. If you can be silent within, free from the grips of mundane logic and free from thoughts and words, you can become a drop in the ocean of bliss that surrounds you.

The only thing expected from the devotee is a trusting, receptive approach. If you drop your mind for a few minutes and fall in tune with the mood that is created, you will pay your deepest gratitude to the whole of Existence that the master represents.

The joy created during darśan that is supported by kīrtans (devotional music) and a general expression of devotion, dissolves the mind and takes one beyond to feel oneness with the Whole. The mind is on vacation, freeing the being of its burden, allowing the being to experience what it had always longed to experience. The Being experiences what it truly is, and revels in the joy of Existence of which it is an integral part. The mind vanishes, leaving a void that is filled with an overflowing love for life.

Ānanda darśan is the time when barriers break — social, economic, and so forth. One sees Divinity in everyone and enjoys the liberation this feeling brings. All identity of self and of the other disappears and everything and everyone is accepted with sheer bliss. Every being shines forth in its brilliance, radiating the divinity within.

You can hear the master's words at other times. But during darśan, the master does not speak. He bares Himself. It is the greatest, direct gift from the master to each person. If you are silent and aware, you see it. If you are caught in thinking and verbalizing, you miss it.

If you are analyzing the situation, deciding on whether to accept or reject the scene of darśan, you miss it. If you can just be, without agreeing or disagreeing, without passing judgment, without trying to verbalize and without positive or negative feeling, you catch the thread! If you can be with the love of realization and not the love of any theory, you experience it. With no exchange of words, something in you starts to respond. Darśan has been a transforming experience for thousands of people.

People from all over the world carry wonderful reminiscences of ānanda darśan. People report visions, ailments dissolving, healing, and many intense spiritual experiences.

Different people perceive this energy in different ways. There is no need to be greedy for an experience during darśan. Allow whatever happens to happen. Then you will create a space within to receive darśan. Energy is intelligence and knows what to do. There is no need to have expectations. There is no need to expect an experience of light or emptiness, or even to feel the energy.

Being in a prayerful mood is enough. This transforms you more than words. Prayerful does not mean asking for things. Prayerful means feeling deep gratitude towards everything. Of course, the master allows you to ask what you wish at darśan. You can ask about any problem for which you seek a solution.

But the moment is so overwhelming that it becomes difficult to ask. The moment you are in an asking mood, you miss the experience. To ask, the mind must step in. And when the mind steps in, you miss the experience.

When questions are asked at darśan, the master answers with compassion and concern. His answers are unique to each person even if the question is the same. Each being is different. Each person's path is unique. Everyone is connected to the master radially and independently. The master looks into the being of the person and answers the questioner, not the question! For those with complete trust, He says, 'I will take care.' People shed anxieties and depression with those words of assurance from the master.

For those few moments, if we can forget our prayers and place our trust in Existence, we can experience. A little faith that Existence knows what is best for us is enough. If we go with this attitude, we receive what the master tries to give us. Nothing more is needed.

Darśan is a wonderful opportunity to move from communication to communion with the master. In the lectures, we ask questions for intellectual clarity. We try to relate with our mind. We collect words and more words at the end of every session. And we come back with more words and questions! Darśan is the time to relate at the being level.

Allow some experience to happen in you. Leave the mind and be with the heart at least during this time. You cannot become one with Existence through your mind. It happens with your heart or being. Any merging happens with the heart or being. Darśan is when the master looks directly into your eyes and you can see your reflection in Him. He heals with His look, touch and embrace. With every darśan, you go back a different person, a little more evolved.

Every darśan is different. The whole beauty of Existence, of Nature, is that it never repeats itself. That is why it is said that God is an artist, not an engineer.

Every darśan unfolds in a different way, with a new dimension, a new intensity and a new unknown fervor. Every darśan seems like the best until the next one unfolds!

The master’s transfer of energy at ānanda darśan can put you into the desireless state. If you are loving and open, it can transform you in so many wonderful ways. With effort, you can achieve the desireless state with consistent intellectual understanding and meditation. However, darśan is when you can be directly put into the desireless state purely by the master’s grace.

If you can become completely filled with joy and gratitude and be totally present, the energy can penetrate you. It can help you fulfill your desires and take you to a desireless state beyond that. Being in complete joy is being in a madly desirous state of nothing in particular! It is intense desire for nothing in particular. In this state, you are receptive and open to the master. You don’t need to make effort. You must drop your efforts; that’s all! Then the energy takes care. It does the rest. Energy is intelligence. The Existential energy can flow through you and do whatever is needed if you just allow it.

Darśan means getting a clear vision and a flash of clarity. It is seeing without a blur. The energy that radiates can do miracles at the being level. If you bring in enough awareness at darśan, you glimpse the vastness of the ocean of Existence: a pool of serenity shines forth amidst the fervor created and amidst the music and dance. Even with the noise around, you find the central chord of vibrant silence that runs through the whole show. Then you understand the concept of remaining centered and being all-inclusive. You understand how not to exclude or renounce, but to encompass everything while remaining centered and being a blissful watcher of the whole show!

After darśan, after every touch, one’s intelligence increases; desires acquire more clarity and either get fulfilled or simply drop.

You lie completely bare before the master. He always sees you at the being level. Any attempt to ask anything is a waste of time because you only express deep confusion and ignorance. You don’t know what you need. He knows what must be done to take you further. You never need to ask. The surrender itself fulfills.

If you allow the experience to enter you and express itself in joyful ways, if you can be total and ecstatic and if you resonate with the energy, forgetting yourself completely, you are automatically emptied of your accumulated words and thoughts. There will be only emptiness and joy in you when you go near the master.

In that mood, you are silent inside. You are receptive and loving. You are bubbling with inner silence. At that time, the energy can enter you like a ray, like a flash. It can go deep and touch you at the seed level. It transforms you in ways that you don't know.

The Existential energy expresses itself and flows through every inch of the master's form. Just watching him can bring glimpses of the divinity it embodies. The more you allow yourself to dissolve in the experience, the more you resonate with it; and the more you can be awakened to the touch and flow of the cosmic energy.

This is the time to break your pseudo-identity, to break your social conditionings and celebrate. This is not the time to fasten your seat belts and sit back. The energy will touch you, but you will not be open to receive it!

Just being near the master at this time can cause you to merge into Him. It can make consciousness meet consciousness. Like a river merging into the ocean, you merge into the master who is the oceanic Existence, the formless in form, the universal consciousness. That is why you feel relaxed and rejuvenated after darśan. Sometimes it goes on for long hours throughout the night. Yet, you feel vibrant at the end. A shift in consciousness lifts you to a higher plane.

When one is near the master at darśan, unconscious fears, guilt, desires, intense silence, joyful tears and more surface. One might not know why, because these surface from the deep unconscious layers due to being in the master's presence.

One need not hold back these emotions or suppress them. Let them surface freely in the presence of the master. Let them come out in totality. All that you cannot express in words come out as emotions. These are the deeply engraved unconscious memories that you are unaware of, and yet trouble you. This is a rare opportunity to be free from these engraved memories. All these emotions will be wiped out at the root level. The master's overflowing compassion wipes them out. The repressive structure that you have built over the years can break at this time if you give it a chance.

Whatever happens during darśan happens in totality. You clap your hands, dance, laugh or cry without logic; this results from the totality of feelings swelling from within. Tears or laughter do not arise from specific reasons of joy or sorrow. They are expressions of an overwhelming, deep feeling within. The being is never given a chance to express itself because of the mind. It has been repressed and overpowered by the mind. This is when the being expresses itself. And when this happens, the expressions cannot be framed within the relations of logic. Pure totality expresses itself; that's all.

You are not an integrated personality as you may think. You are composed of many fragments that fight with each other within you. At one moment you desire one thing; the next moment, you want something else. A particular emotion rises in you at one moment. The opposite emotion surfaces the next moment. You are chaotic, although you may appear calm on the surface. Darśan is the time to drop this inner struggle and allow the master to take over and do what is needed. He knows you. And He will do whatever is necessary if you relax and let go. Darśan is the time to put aside learning, collected judgments and conclusions about ourselves and open up to the master's transforming love.

With every darśan, the master lights your being. The real transfer from Him happens at this time. He gives the Ultimate to you. He gives you His own Light. Once He lights you, if you allow, you can carry it as your torch wherever you are, wherever you go, in whatever you do. One touch is enough. It is an opportunity to know without knowledge and experience without explanation.

If the energy touches you deeply, your life can be transformed forever. A space is created in you where awareness enters and dissolves your questions. There are many doors to the Divine. Once you enter, the experience is the same. Darśan opens all possible doors. It is an invitation to the ultimate experience. Everyone's door is different. The door doesn't matter, as long as you find one.

The energy released during darśan is so intense that it can kindle your intelligence to move from intellect to intuition. Most of the time you are caught up in the deep unconscious patterns of your mind. These pull you repeatedly towards familiar patterns of misery and unconscious decision-making. With the power of intuition, you can tap into the energy of your being and harness it in decision-making in any sphere of life. The energy at darśan can open up this intuitive power in you.

You may not understand the depth of what happens during ānanda darśan, the tremendous gift given to you. Even so, try to be open, enjoy it and accept it with openness. The rest will happen automatically.

Ānanda darśan is when you can come close to the master, feel His Love through physical proximity and feel the direct transfer of energy from Him. Darśan can destroy what you are not: all that causes illusion in you, and all the borrowed desires that cause misery in you. Darśan is a tremendous opportunity to become one with the universal consciousness and dissolve into the Ocean of Bliss!

Ānanda darśan, the energy play, is a pure gift from the master. It is an unconditional offering arising out of deep compassion. You merely need to be open and let it flow in, that's all.

Krishna was choosy. Of all the people around Him, He chose to impart His energy to Arjuna. I am not like that. All are welcome. Times are different now. Needs are different. The more people that one can direct towards the Parāśakti, the universal energy, and the more people one can energize to have a glimpse of the Existential bliss, the greater are the chances to bring peace and happiness to planet earth. That is my mission. That is what Parāśakti directs me to do.