FROM PLACE TO SPACE🔗

Since ancient times, there has been a tradition in the East to invite an enlightened person to one’s place of living or to the place where one does business. What is the reason behind this?

Contrary to what we think or understand, home is not a place where you just live. It is the way in which you live! Understand clearly, home is not the place where you live; it is the way in which you live.

Home is an expansion or extension of your being. That is the concept on which the science of Vastu Shastra is based. This science is a branch of Hindu Vedic Science that explains the ways and methods of how a dwelling should be constructed. It is based on the basic five elements in the Universe. As we all know, the five elements of the universal energy (known as panchabhootas in Sanskrit), are Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether (or Space). All the five elements are nothing but forms of the Existential energy.

In the Hindu scriptural works, the Upanishad, it is said, 'The whole Universe comes from Energy.' It comes from the Atman (Existence residing in each individual). From Atman comes Akasha (ether), from Akasha comes Vayu (air), from Vayu comes Agni (fire), from Agni comes Apaha (water) and from Apaha comes Prithvi (Earth). All these five elements are pure energy and not matter, as we think they are.

Only now, scientists have turned towards spirituality for explanations such as this. Einstein once said, 'What I want to know is God's thoughts, the rest are mere details!' Einstein was an intelligent man.

Before Einstein, scientists dismissed spiritual people as fools or as people who had lost the faculties of their mind. Scientists are so used to working on the basis of logic that they think of ancient Masters as fools or humbugs. In fact, some of the philosophical books classify strong religious faith, spiritual experiences and consciousness as mental disorders of some kind.

For a long time, the logical world thought of the sages, rishis, as mentally sick people and whose words had no relevance in the modern day-to-day world. Their sayings were ridiculed as superstition or senseless rituals. Ironically, it was after a few statements that Einstein made on spirituality and on God, that the logical scientific world turned towards the Upanishads, ancient Hindu scriptures.

Einstein said, ‘Whatever exists is nothing but pure energy.’ The Upanishads made this statement 5000 years earlier in the first line of the Isa Vasya Upanishad, ‘All matter arose from Energy.’

There is nothing that divides matter and energy. So, whatever exists is, in fact, pure energy. Some of you may ask, ‘How is it that matter becomes energy and energy becomes matter?’ Such questions cannot be answered by science; they can only be answered by the mystics.

When asked this question, Einstein replied, ‘Where science ends, spirituality begins!’ The last word in science which is, ‘Whatever exists is Energy’ is the first word in the Upanishads so many thousands of years ago. The first Veda is the Rig Veda and the first Upanishad is the Isa Vasya Upanishad. The first statement in the Isa Vasya Upanishad is ‘Isa vasyam idam sarvam’ (from this Energy arises all matter).

The ‘gross energy’ is matter; the ‘subtle matter’ is energy. All the five elements, Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether, are nothing but energy. In the East, there is a tradition of worshipping these five elements. Spirituality actually started by worshipping these five elements. In the earliest scriptures, from the Veda and Upanishads, there is no mention about Gods or Goddesses! There is no form that is mentioned in the Keno Upanishad; there is mention only of nature. Nature was considered to be the 'Doorway to Divinity'.

It is easy to recognize the forms of energy as they manifest in nature. The Earth energy is recognized by the power manifested by stones and volcanoes, as the ever-changing nature of Earth, as the powerful deities that are made out of Earth and installed in temples. Similarly, water energy is manifested in the form of floods, rains and holy rivers. The fire energy is perceived in the form of lightning, heat, fire rituals and so on. The air energy is apparent in the form of cyclones, tornadoes and our very breath. It is easy to comprehend these energies, since they manifest or appear physically. However, it is difficult to understand the ether energy, the fifth form of energy. Ether, or the space energy, is so subtle that one cannot see it, perceive it or feel it. The more subtle the energy, the more powerful it becomes and the more difficult it is to appreciate.

Ancient Masters, therefore, created the science of Vastu, to harness the energy of Space, or the Ether, in the correct and proper way. You would appreciate that man has manu-factured many pieces of equipment or instruments to use the energies from the first four elements. For example, he has designed an oven to use the fire energy to cook food and the turbine to produce electricity from the water energy. Similarly, our Masters have designed Vastu Shastra to harness the Space or Ether energy.

Vastu Shastra is the science of the structure of a building. It is a study to use the Space energy effectively within the house. It deals with how effectively we can enclose space inside a building to optimize its effect on the inhabitants of the house. There are three types of space:

♦ Space inside the body, called Chitaakasha

♦ Space surrounding the body, called Kataakasha, in an enclosed space

♦ Space surrounding the Universe, called Mahaakasha

The Mahaakasha is always energetic and pure. The Kataakasha, although pure, can become impure by one’s thoughts. The Kataakasha has the property to either gain energy or lose energy by one’s thoughts. It acts as if it is a live being. Your house, for instance, is filled with an energy that can easily be contaminated by the thoughts of those who live in it. Therefore, never think of your house as just cement and concrete decorated to your style. It is not just matter; it is a storehouse of energy that has a direct bearing upon your well-being. It has the capacity to exchange energy.

Your house is an expression of energy

When we compress water or fluids, it becomes energy (theory of Fluid Mechanics). When we compress air, it becomes energy. It has the capacity to drive many machines (Pneumatics). When we change the shape of a gross material (the Earth energy), such as iron ore, into a rod or a plate, it has its own properties. The same material has different properties when it takes up different shapes. If we make the iron ore into a sphere or a ball, it becomes very strong, dense and powerful. This is the way shape and compression affect matter.

Likewise, whenever we change the space inside our homes, the energy changes according to the change in space. This is a very subtle concept and we need to understand this clearly. Once we grasp this concept, we will appreciate the great gift of wisdom that our Masters have given us.

Just as the gross elements can be cast into different shapes to hold different energies, Ether can be transformed or molded into a different space and will radiate a different effect accordingly. Vastu Shastra is a science to make the best use of the Ether energy. It is the technique to use 'Ether Energy' efficiently and maximize the energy that is present.

Ether, therefore, can be controlled in a space, and that, in turn, controls those inside the space. The people who are inside the space, their thoughts, affect the Ether in that space, and the Ether in turn affects their thoughts. You may have experienced that when you sit outside in nature; under a clear blue sky, you feel expanded. Your being feels light and joyful. You feel your personality expanding and transforming; you feel bigger and without boundaries. Whereas, when you enter a small room with a low roof, you feel compressed and limited. Your mind does not feel free and your thoughts do not flow.

The dimensions of the room we are in play a major role in influencing our minds and thought processes. Our thoughts play a major role in influencing the place in which we live. A house is not a place where we live; a house is ‘how we live’. Vastu Shastra says, ‘All that exists in our surroundings, such as people, furniture, all animate and inanimate things, respond to our thoughts.’ This has been proven beyond a doubt by a number of pieces of research.

An experiment was carried out by placing three rose plants in three different rooms labeled A, B and C. The plants in these rooms were taken care of in a similar manner and were replaced with a new one everyday. However, there was one major difference. The plants in room ‘A’, while being watered, were cursed profusely and condemned with the worst choice of words. The plants in room ‘B’ were given a neutral treatment. The plants in room ‘C’ were heaped with encouraging words of praise and goodwill. The experiment was carried out by different people, twenty-one times a day, for eleven days.

The result was amazing! It was found that all the rose plants that had been in room ‘A’ did not survive and later simply died. The plants in room ‘B’ grew normally but the plants that had been taken care of in room ‘C’ grew beyond normal expectations and yielded twice as much! Just by the power of thought and word, the very growth and life of the rose plants was affected. So you can understand the extent to which objects in the surroundings reciprocate or respond to thoughts.

In another experiment, equipment (similar to the ECG in a graphical format) that measured vibrations from trees was connected to ten different trees. A woodcutter was asked to earmark one tree with a strong intention of cutting it down. It was found that that tree, alone, showed skewed readings. The other trees read normal. Like this, several experiments have been conducted to show that thoughts affect the animate and inanimate things in the surrounding areas.

The Vastu Shastra postulates that all the thoughts in a house are captured and stored in the Ether space in it. The space is, therefore, not dead or insensitive. It is ‘live’ energy. These thoughts grow like cobwebs. Then, they radiate the same negative thoughts back to us. Therefore, if the inhabitants of the house harbour repeated negative thought patterns, the cobwebs of negative thoughts will get installed in the space within. What can be seen physically can be cleaned. However, what cannot be seen cannot be cleaned physically. Therefore, whether one believes in it or not, whether one accepts it or not, thoughts are stored in the place where one lives.

People have asked me, Swamiji, when I am outside the house, I feel happy and joyous. Whereas the moment I enter the house, I feel depressed.’ The house is Kataakasha, a living space. Grihalakshmi, Goddess of Wealth, is supposed to reside in the space inside the home. Somebody asked me, ‘Swamiji, I want joy and bliss to flood my house.’ I told her, ‘You will find it when you yourself radiate joy and love and shower your love and affection on your children and your husband. Meditate and radiate positive vibrations first, yourself; that is the best way to open your doors to Grihalakshmi.’

She then immediately asked me, ‘Swamiji, shall I then do Grihalakshmi puja (offering or worship)?’

Please understand that it is all right to do the puja but what is the use when, after the puja, you come out of the puja room and do an archana to your husband! (archana means prayers. Here it means an outpouring of negative words!)

Puja to Lakshmi and archana to the husband! Will it help? No! It will in no way help. Your thoughts and words continuously energize the house in your presence. Therefore, it is up to you, whether you want to energize it positively or negatively. Unfortunately, most of the time, we are expressing words that are only complaining or expressing discontentment of some sort. Do we ever remember talking positively about our own health or about other people or about our work at home or office? Do we ever recall saying nice things about what is going on in the world, about the beauty of nature or about how wonderful it is to be alive in this wonder filled Universe? No! We release only negative emotions and words within the space where we live, and this contaminates and pollutes the space completely.

A flowing river is pure. If it stagnates, it becomes impure and foul. It gets covered with scum. When a person enters such water, he, too, gets covered with the scum. In the same way, the energy inside a house needs to be flowing; only then life in it will be bubbling with joy. If there is negativity in the space inside the house, the energy gets clogged and stagnates, and it affects the people in it. When this happens, you start complaining that, when you enter your own home, your joyful mood takes a dip into an all-too-familiar hole of depression.

♦ A small story:

Two friends met up after 10 years and decided to have lunch together. They discussed many things, from marriage to career to social life. One of them asked if the other was leading a happy married life. The other asked him a question in reply, ‘Do you know what it means to come home to a wonderful wife and two adorable kids who think you are the best father in the world?’ The other replied, ‘Wow! It must be awesome....’ The first man finished, ‘It means you are in the wrong house!’

You see, this is how each one feels about the other and the house! Anyhow, when a Master, who is the embodiment of the Existential energy, enters a house, when he sets foot in a house, he is like the Mahaakasha, a flowing river or open sky that is entering. The enlightened person is the Universe in himself, because there is nothing inside him. He is just a hollow channel for the Existential energy to flow. He has no thoughts, good or bad. He is just emptiness, an open sky. It is through him that the energy radiates.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, how do you heal? Do you chant any mantra or do any sankalpa for the person to be healed?' I do neither. In fact, I don't even consciously think that the person should get healed. I don't even wish for the person to get healed of whatever diseases they might be suffering from.

I just give them the Presence and healing happens! When somebody comes, I just touch them; I allow the energy to flow; I let go of the energy and allow it to do what it wants. The healing happens, that's all.

Master means, a person with no thoughts or with no mind, who is the representative of the Mahaakasha, Universal space. When the Mahaakasha enters the Kataakasha, that is the space in the house, it is simply flooded with energy. It is like a big river entering into a small pool! The dirty pool is simply washed away, cleansed and filled with pure water.

When a Master enters the space where you live, it is simply rejuvenated or recreated. It is said that the Vastu (matter) becomes Vastu (space where you live). That is why we say, place or matter is different from the space. Remember, the place can be cleaned by a vacuum cleaner, whereas space can be cleaned only by your meditation or by a Master's presence! When people gather too much dirt (negativity) in the space where they live, it can be cleansed or burnt by the Master's presence, in a moment.

These concepts are too subtle to be understood by logic; they can only be understood by examples and by understanding them step by step. Let me tell you, where logic ends, great things begin to happen! Great things never happen by your logic. If they do, then logic becomes greater than God and it can never be.

People ask, 'Swamiji, why don't you prove the existence of God; why don't you prove it by logic?' I tell them, 'When you try to prove God by logic, then logic becomes greater than God!' God is great, because he is greater than, or beyond, logic. He cannot be measured or attained by your logic. These are the subtle truths; they are so profound that they cannot be understood by logic.

It is as simple and as profound as the existence of the sun. Whether you want it or not, believe it or not, the sun will always rise in the East. One may try to prove logically that the sun does not rise in the East, but can that change the existence of the Universal Truth? The sun will always rise in the East. Truths are of two types: evidence based and experience based. The existence of God is the truth that has been experienced by the great rishis.

Whenever an enlightened Master or a spiritual person, such as a saint or a seer, enters a space, the space is simply flooded with energy. Many come to me and say, ‘Swamiji, what magic have you done? Ever since you stepped into our house, so many good things have started happening!’ I tell them, ‘I have not done anything, and that is the magic!’

So many of you always try to do something or want to do something and end up with something different in trying to do something else! But a master does nothing. His presence does everything.

Therefore, whenever a ‘nobody’ enters the space, i.e. a man who has become the akasha (the ether), the whole space becomes ‘spaciousness’. A man who is enlightened is mahaakasha; he is ‘without boundaries’. A man who is limited by boundaries is chitaakasha. So, when a chitaakasha becomes a mahaakasha, and enters a kataakasha, the whole space is cleansed and flooded with energy. The ‘space’ becomes ‘spaciousness’ and it comes back to its original pure state of life.

That is why it is said, ‘Tirtiye kurvanti tirtinah.’ When an enlightened person enters a place, it becomes a ‘Tirta’ (a place of pilgrimage near a holy river). Gribalakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth who resides in the house, enters into such ecstasy, that the place becomes a ‘Tirta’. It is also said that, when we go and bathe in the sacred river Ganges, all our sins are washed away. Whereas, when an enlightened person goes to the Ganges and dips, the Ganges is cleansed of the sins! It becomes pure and holy!

This is what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa also said when he was asked why he went on a ‘Tirta Yatra’, pilgrimage to the holy water spots. Wherever he dipped, the water got purified. Masters descend with the tremendous responsibility of bringing good will to mankind. So they do all that they can, in whatever way that they can, to fulfill this responsibility.

Questions and Answers:

Q) Swamiji, we have so many Gods and Goddesses in our house. How does that help in cleansing the house?

A) When you have real respect and adoration for the Gods and Goddesses, your mind acts like a bridge to bring the Mahaakasha in. The faith and the trust act like drill bits to open and bring the Mahaakasha into the Kataakasha. The faith and trust make the idols alive. If there is no faith or trust, then it is just a stone statue.

Just having belief will not do. You should have faith. Belief is different from faith. Having belief is just like having a secret wish that something is true. It is not deep rooted. Faith, on the other hand, is an experiential feeling or emotion. It is deep rooted and can become unshakeable if it is allowed to grow in the right direction. But some of us have faith of convenience! If we pass our exams, then Lord Ganesa is worshipped. However, if we fail, then our idol, Lord Ganesa, hits the road!

This type of faith is not good. It is only if you have the real feeling that the photos or statues of the Gods are embodiments of energy, will you be able to feel how they cleanse the whole space. Faith and trust have the unique power to expand the Chitaakasha. It is said that the faith of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gave life to a statue of Goddess Kali.

In the temple of Goddess Kali in Dakshineshwar, the deity has four hands, of which one hand holds a sword that can be removed, and another holds a skull that cannot be removed.

It is a practice in the temple to adorn the Kali deity with conch bangles on her hands. It is easy to insert the bangle on three hands, including the one holding a sword. However, inserting the bangle into the hand holding the skull is not possible.

The temple priest used to put the bangles on the three hands and place the fourth at the feet of the Goddess, as it was impossible to put it on.

Ramakrishna said, ‘Why can’t you put it on?’ He went inside the sanctorum and put the bangle on the fourth hand. The priest was surprised and asked if Ramakrishna broke the hand. Ramakrishna replied, 'Why, what is the need? I just told her to put the skull down for some time and I inserted the bangle. Now she's holding the skull again!'

Such was his faith in Mother Kali that the deity simply did what he requested it to do. Even now, you can go and see the idol. They allow you to go and touch the idol there. You can actually see the conch bangle without any breakage and the hand also intact.

When you feel that the deities are alive, they become real energy centers. They become your bridge to the Universe.

Idols are not mere idols; they are energy. That is why I say, worship is never of the idol, it is through the idol, the Existential energy.

In the Hindu sect of Vaishnavism, there is reference to a Divine incarnation, or avatar, called the Archaavatara. Apart from the dasavatara (ten living incarnations of the Lord) that are described in the Hindu epics, they believe in one more avatar, wherein the Lord takes the form of whichever idol you have immense faith in.

So no logic can explain these phenomena or concepts. Trust has got a tremendous capacity to create a bridge between you and Existence. Never think that anything is dead matter. Everything is 'live' energy.

Q) Can singing bhajans (devotional songs) create positive vibrations? A) Surely they do. Bhajans are positive energy. The problem is that we do not understand ‘emotion’. That is why I do not delve on bhakti and prayers, because prayer cannot happen unless one has had a glimpse of meditation. Unless you have had a glimpse of the energy or the ecstasy, prayer cannot happen, and then, whatever you do is like putting up an application with no proper credentials. All applications without proper credentials are simply consigned to the dust bin! So, when you have not experienced something on your own merit, it gets wasted and there is no benefit from it.

5

MASTER – THE MASTER SURGEON

A Master is a person who removes the ultimate cancerous tumor that happens to our being, which I call Ego.

A Master does surgery on that tumor. He never allows you to be stuck or comfortable with anything less than the enlightened state. Even when we start progressing spiritually, at some point, without knowing it, we get stuck in some layer and remain there with suffering. In all these situations, the Master will push us again and again to move forward. He never rests until he transforms our whole life.

Whenever a surgeon comes with a knife, we think he is going to hurt us but the knife of a surgeon is not for killing. It is for healing. In India, Gods have swords and many other weapons, that symbolically and metaphysically, represent that they are surgeons who will remove our ego. Goddess Kali has a big knife in one hand and a severed head in the other. The severed head represents the ego and the sword represents the knowledge or the wisdom that has destroyed the ego.

Let me narrate an incident that explains how the Master takes care of the disciples and never lets them get stuck at any level. Not only that, even when the disciples feel cozy and secure, the Master shakes them up and makes them aware that what they think of as security is actually just another way of getting stuck, and that they should move forward.

This is an incident from Sri Ramakrishna’s life. He was a great spiritual Master from the last century who, in turn, had a Master called Totapuri. Ramakrishna used to meditate on a particular form of the goddess Kali and was living his life happily with that form. Suddenly, one day, Totapuri, an old monk, appeared and asked him to go beyond the form of Kali and not meditate on it. Totapuri was a Master of advaita, non-dualism, which is based on the formless reality that the individual is one with the Divine.

Ramakrishna was surprised. He said, ‘The form of Mother Kali is so beautiful that I feel totally connected to it. Why should I not meditate on it?’ Totapuri replied, ‘Forms are always ephemeral; only if you go beyond it will you experience the eternal bliss of the Universal consciousness.’

When you meditate on a form, you feel comfortable. You can project your entire ego on that form and feel satisfied. If you want a caring and loving mother, or if you are missing a caring, loving father, you can always project that onto the form you worship and think of it as a caring, loving father or mother. The more strongly you visualize, the more the visualization will become a reality.

Ramakrishna felt what he was so strongly visualizing was reality. He was happy but it wasn't the ultimate truth. So Totapuri did not allow him to stay there with his ephemeral happiness but inspired him to go beyond the form into the formless, which is Eternal Bliss. He advised him, in fact forced him, to visualize destroying the form, in order to have the formless experience. Ramakrishna was an intelligent disciple. He did as he was told and reached Eternal Bliss.

The Master ensures that we are not stuck anywhere and that we reach the ultimate. That is why in the East, so much importance is given to the Master. The West only knows about teachers. The idea of a spiritual Master exists very meagerly in the West. However, in the East, gurukul, or the traditional schooling system that imparts spiritual education at the feet of great Masters, is very popular. Even the regular non-spiritual education was received only from Masters, not from teachers.

The difference between a Master and a teacher is this; a teacher is a person who knows intellectually, while a Master is a person who knows experientially, who has experienced what he is speaking, the truth. Ancient Indian kings, if they wanted to learn archery, would go to a Master.

Everything, including art and science, has a sutra, an aphorism. At the age of seven, a child would be initiated into meditation, which he would practice until fourteen. If he had his first spiritual experience by then, he would study Brahmasutra, the great literary work which imparts advanced spiritual truths, and take up monkhood, sannyas. Otherwise, he would study the intricacies of life through the study of Kamasutra (the science of sex appropriate to married life) and enter into married life.

Everyone was happy, because they were properly guided by enlightened Masters to live a life that was best suited for them.

A teacher teaches through verbal language, while a Master teaches through body language.

It is known now that ninety percent of communication happens through body language alone. The direct touch and presence of a Master can transform and awaken a person by creating such a space within him.

♦ Let me narrate a beautiful story which Vivekananda, a great Master from India, used to narrate:

There was a lioness in a forest, close to giving birth any day. One day she was searching for food. She saw a herd of goats and ran towards them. While attacking the goats, she gave birth to a lion cub and died. The cub was left orphaned with nobody to attend to him. The goats looked at him, felt pity for the helpless cub and took it with them and raised it. And, of course, the cub started living like a goat, drinking goat's milk and eating grass! The cub believed that it, too, was a goat. You see, purely based on our upbringing, we have an idea about ourselves.

Anyhow, after awhile, a lion attacked the goatherd. When he saw the lion cub, he was astonished! He wondered how on Earth a lion cub was living with a goatherd, eating grass and drinking goat's milk. He stopped chasing the goats and went away.

The next day he returned, determined to find the lion cub. He watched the cub from a distance and when he found that it had strayed away from the goatherd, he simply picked it up and took it away from the goats.

The cub pleaded with the lion not to kill it. The lion tried his best to convince the cub that his aim was not to kill it. He also told the cub that it was not a goat but a lion. The cub was gripped by terror of the lion and refused to believe both the statements. He pleaded to be left with the goatherd. The lion left it but was determined to make it understand who it really was.

Over time, when the lion did not attack the herd, the cub started trusting the lion and allowed itself to be taken away by the lion. It even started getting attached to it. One day the lion took the cub to a nearby river for a picnic. He slowly took it to the river and showed it its reflection. He asked if it could see that his own reflection and that of the cub were the same. The cub looked at the reflection and remained silent. The lion took the opportunity and made him eat a piece of meat. The cub swallowed the piece of meat, and suddenly dropped his fear and let out a roar!

This is exactly what happens between the Master and us. When we see the Master, and he says we are not as we think we are, that we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience, not only are we not ready to believe this, but we are acutely uncomfortable as well. We feel he is preaching his ideas and trying to convert us. We get frightened and want to run away.

As long as he is joking around, it is fine but, when he starts telling us some truths about ourselves, we get frightened. We want to be happy with our goatherd; we want to be stuck with our regular life of wife, children, work, pain and pleasure. So the master also plays the game and tries to raise in us the trust in him. He acts like a goat to make us comfortable and feel that he is one among us. After some time passes, he catches us and tries to give us the same truths. This time, we listen to him with lesser resistance, although we are still resistant but, by now also, we start thinking of the Master more than we can help. We feel an attraction to him despite our fear. We start remembering him, his presence, his words. He becomes almost a part of our being but still, we are not ready to accept what he says; we play a game of hide and seek. At some point, when he sees that he has instilled a strong trust in us, he catches us and shows us that we are the same as him! He shows us that we, too, can realize the truth and eventually be like him. He forces us to experience that we are lions. That's what I call initiation, or the first experience! He forces us to experience that we are lions but, even after that experience, people deny it.

Eventually, the Master makes us experience our true nature and gives us the ultimate freedom. Then and only then, do we realize that we were always a lion! He only shows us what we already are but can't see. It is a beautiful game that he plays so patiently, so compassionately, despite our resistance and lack of trust in him.

We don't have to become something new, we just need to wake up and realize our true nature. The Master never allows us to stop at any step. Again and again, he inspires and takes us to higher levels of conscious experiences, till we realize we are That, till we realize our true potentiality, the Ultimate Truth.

♦ A small Zen story:

A disciple grew up with the Master from young age. He used to imitate the Master. The Master, while speaking, always did a certain action with his hand, by making a fist with the thumb pointing up. The disciple, too, would do the same when the Master gave discourses.

Master – the Master Surgeon 69

One day the Master took a sword and cut his hand off! The disciple had so much trust in the Master that, without any doubt, he felt whatever the Master did must be good for him. That very trust transported him to a higher level of consciousness and he suddenly experienced enlightenment. The other disciples, who took care of him, asked the Master why the disciple had to lose a few fingers to get enlightened. The Master said, ‘People lose many lives to get enlightened, so losing a few fingers to become enlightened is not so bad!’

This is the ultimate trust in the Master. It is beautiful purely by virtue of its purity.

♦ Another small Zen story which I want to tell:

A Zen Master was walking on the third floor balcony of a building, with the disciple walking behind him, asking for guidance to become enlightened. Suddenly, the Master turned and pushed him off the balcony. The disciple was so deeply connected to the Master that he felt there must be something good in what the Master did. While falling down, he felt like he was floating. The story says that, when he touched the ground, he touched heaven. He became enlightened!

These stories clearly show that pure trust in the Master is enough; nothing more is needed. The Master never allows anyone to get stuck with ordinary experiences. Even though we may call it a spiritual experience, only when we stop experiencing anything, do we enter into the real spiritual experience. Only in such an experience, the experiencer, the experienced and the experience all disappear into one; all three merge into the experience. Only 'we' remain. Even the word 'we' can't be used since there is no other. All boundaries are lost!

Unless that experience of tat tvam asi, 'That art thou' happens, the Master never rests. The Master is the ultimate Master surgeon who removes the ego at all levels, physical, emotional and spiritual. People have spiritual egos when they have a 'holier than thou' attitude. The Master will never allow you to be stuck in this area especially. He will push you forward till you experience the Ultimate. The more you allow his surgery to happen, the more you will realize the truth. A few people run away from the operating table during surgery. That is dangerous. Before surrendering to the Master, you can do the entire checking, verifying, window-shopping etc., but once you surrender to him and he starts the surgery on you, you have to allow him to work on you.

It will be painful, the surgery. Unless he hurts you, he cannot perform the surgery but the hurt is only because of your own tumours, your own ego. And he knows exactly where the tumours are. He will place his hands exactly where the tumours are. That is the problem!

So, let us pray to the ultimate Master, the divine Existence, the cosmic energy, to do the Master surgery on us to give us eternal bliss – nithyananda!

Questions &Answers:

Q) How does an enlightened person react to the physical environment?

A) In the same way that an ordinary person does. There is a beautiful statement: before enlightenment, a mountain is a mountain, a tree is a tree, a river is a river; while seeking, a mountain is not a mountain, a tree is not a tree, a river is not a river; the seeker is confused about them. After enlightenment, again, a mountain is a mountain, a tree is a tree, a river is a river! After enlightenment, things seem to be the same; the enlightened person sees it all from a different plane. A normal person always sees things in a distorted way, as he wants to see them.

♦ A small story:

An old lady who was particularly obsessed about looking good, walked into the beauty parlour one day. She asked for the beautician and started chatting with her. The beautician was a very practical lady and told her not to be worried so much about her physical appearance and that it was enough if she looked neat and presentable. The old lady said, ‘No, you don’t know. My latest problem is I am getting wrinkles around my eyes.’ The beautician looked at her and said, ‘I have a solution for that!’ The old lady asked her eagerly, ‘What is it, tell me. I don’t care how much it costs.’ The beautician replied, ‘Just take off your glasses when looking into the mirror!’

Everything depends on how you see it! Perception is what makes each one's world different from the other. You can make or break things with your perception. Depending on where each one is stuck, the world can cause havoc on them. An enlightened person, on the other hand, sees things as they are, with neither hatred nor attachment, with neither greed nor detachment. That is why they live a liberated life while they are living.

Q) How do we distinguish between allowing life to flow and laziness?

A) In laziness, you will always be tired. The more you rest, the more tired you will be; you will be tired of taking rest! There will not be any energy flow in you. There will be no sign of growing intelligence in you. Neither others nor yourself will be inspired by you! Your presence will not contribute positively to the environment you are in.

On the other hand, if you have understood what letting go and allowing life to flow means, you will work with great zeal. You will be bubbling, alive, fresh and radiating energy, because you will have given up the attachment to results to the Supreme Life Force. The quality of your work will be totally different. You will radiate inspiring energy to others.

If you are confused about which category you fall under, then you are in laziness only, because, if you have surrendered to the flow of life in the right way, you will have no doubt or confusion; you will be only in ecstasy! So, if there is doubt, then you are in laziness.

Q) Can we, the untouchables, ever find enlightenment?

A) As long as you have an idea that you are untouchable, you can't find enlightenment. The moment you drop that idea, you can find enlightenment. Nobody is untouchable. The very idea is wrong, and may be due to some inferiority complex. If somebody claims, 'I am holier than you,' then don't touch him; only he is untouchable. Aside from him, everyone else can become enlightened.

Q) Comment on the state of the world, environmental destruction, population explosion, wars, etc. Should we not do something about it?

A) A social answer would be, you must work for global peace; work for revolution, etc. My honest answer is, transform yourself; you can't do much else. If you could do anything else, you would have done it by now. Over years, people would have done it. So let us at least be honest that we are not able to do anything socially. If each individual, first, became conscious of the violence within and this caused him to transform the base energies within to higher level energies of love and compassion, automatically, we would have mass transformation and peace. There is a lot more attached to this question.

We always feel the world is totally spoiled now, and that, in ancient times, the world was beautiful. If you look deeply into history, into the so-called golden past, you will see that, from the Harappa-Mohenjadaro culture that is thousands of years old, they found writings that state that there was so much war in those times, that society was deteriorating and, that in olden times, society was much better! Even at that time, they said what you are saying today of your past!

There was no such time when only good prevailed! The idea of a golden past is used only to postpone accepting reality. It is used as an escapism technique. Maybe the news about the bad things in the past did not reach as many people, so they did not know about it but good and bad existed in the past and will always exist. If you awaken yourself, you can go beyond it. If you become enlightened, you can take yourself out of the collective negative consciousness, thereby reducing it. That’s all.

Everybody wants to spread peace according to his or her perception, not according to others. I was in an inter-religion conference the other day, where one guy was preaching, ‘All of you accept and convert to my religion so that there will not be any fighting. Let us all take the sword to spread peace.’

First of all, why should anyone convert to any religion for peace? This concept itself is wrong. All these claims are with vested interest, nothing else. I tell you, don’t fall for any religion conversion. And no revolution will help; it will only make matters worse with mass repulsion. Only individual evolution will help. Individual evolution in a mass way is the only solution. First, make a conscious decision to look into yourself and see where you are contributing to the overall violence and negativity. Then, transform yourself; that is enough.

Q) How did you know you became enlightened?

A) The moment you become enlightened, the very doubt itself disappears, just as you have no doubt that you are seeing me, just like it is such a clear experience to you, and there is no question about it. As long as the question is there, you are not enlightened.

Q) You say that you follow consciousness, not conscience?

A) Consciousness is a guru, conscience is not. Conscience gives do's and don'ts, which you will always be fighting. The more conscience you have, the more you will be dead, and the more you will be schizophrenic (split personality). With consciousness, you will be operating out of a space where you will never have a doubt about what is right and what is wrong; you will just do what has to be done, correctly. That is why consciousness is a guru. A guru is one who gives you the intelligence to do things correctly, not one who gives you rules to do things correctly.

With conscience, you don't get a feel of your true self because you are operating from a layer of rules, from a layer of right and wrong. With consciousness, you are operating from your core. So the more you do it, the more you travel within and the more you expand. Q) How can we become enlightened?

A) It is as simple as 1, 2, 3

Meditation is the only key to experience that you are enlightened. Start with some meditation technique and surely you will see the Ultimate Truth. Even though you don't believe you are a lion, you are a lion.

Q) Do we need to follow some specific steps, like yama, niyama?

A) Yama and niyama are two of the eight parts of ashtanga yoga. With yama and niyama, even after death, you won't be convinced you did it perfectly. They are nice techniques for you and the Master to escape! For example, if you ask the Master, 'Why am I not yet enlightened?', the Master can tell you, 'Because you did not practice yama and niyama properly.' And you can convince yourself of the same too. Yama and niyama are nice methods to postpone your enlightenment. According to my experience, for the modern-day man, yama and niyama will happen after he becomes enlightened, not before. For the man of yesteryear, who was not so complex in mind, these things would have been easy to follow, and, also, it was created for this type of man. With the evolution of man, the techniques, too, need to be updated.

Tell me, can you be completely, honestly, truthful? The first rule is ahimsa (non-violence), then asteya (not stealing), satya (truth), aparigraha (living with minimal things), and finally brahmacharya (celibacy). I have seen thousands of yogis but I have not met a single yogi who has accomplished all this and then gone to meditation. Patanjali says ashtanga yoga means 'eight parts of yoga', not eight steps. So, all eight parts should be practiced at a time, not one after the other. That is possible and happens automatically only if you are enlightened.

Q) How do you release doubt, even doubts about Self?

A) Surrender to the Divine saying, 'You are the one who gave me belief and doubt; you keep both and let me be free.'

A part of you believes in you and a part of you has doubts about you. Surrender the doubt and faith to the Divine. You want to keep only belief but leave the doubt; that's where the trouble begins. Surrender both; only then you will go beyond both. That is the only way for doubts to disappear.

Q) You said we don't need conscience. A serial killer has no conscience. How do you explain that?

A) I never said you don't need conscience. You have taken one part of what I said as the whole thing. No! A man who has real consciousness can't hurt or kill others, because he feels others as an extension of himself. A person with a conscience may not kill with a knife but he will kill with words because his being will be violent. With conscience, you may be socially non-violent but, with consciousness, your being itself will be non-violent. What I meant was, morality should be based on consciousness and not on conscience.

A serial killer has no consciousness, which is why he does what he does. When he does not have consciousness, he should have, at least, a conscience or else he will be what he is. The fact that he does not abide by societal rules, what religion and moral studies would term as conscience, is only a secondary issue arising out of the first. If he had consciousness of his existence, he would be aware that he is the same as every other being and would not harm another being.

Conscience is a poor substitute for consciousness. In the meditation program called Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP), I help people to get at least one glimpse of deep consciousness, so they can start living with consciousness instead of conscience. Anything based on conscience is skin deep; it is not eternal, but anything based on consciousness is eternal. We should work for conscious experience. Just because we don't have any conscious experience, we should not compromise with conscience. Our morality, understanding, lifestyle, everything, should be based on consciousness. When it is based on conscience, it is based on fear and greed.

◆ A small story:

One man was very depressed and went to the church to see the Father. He went up to him and asked him, ‘Father, I want some guidance from you. My conscience is bothering me.’ The Father looked at him kindly and asked, ‘Do you want to know how to strengthen your conscience?’ The man replied, ‘No, I want to know how to weaken it.’

This is what will happen to us if we are under the compulsion of our conscience!

For example, if the idea that you should not speed is based on fear, when you don’t see a cop around, you will speed up. This is what happens when things are conscience based. It becomes tasty to break laws and you feel good about doing it too! Whenever anything is followed because of fear and greed, you will be waiting for a chance to break the rules. Kids saying ‘No’ to parents has a similar underlying basis. Children feel they have proved themselves when they say ‘No’. When they miss school, when they break a rule, they feel good. The compulsion to be under a conscience causes these things to happen. Consciousness, on the other hand, does not give rise to any compulsion. It only liberates.

◆ Another small story:

The class teacher asked one boy in class, ‘Tell me, do you use bad words?’ The boy replied, ‘No.’ Then the teacher asked, ‘Do you disobey your parents?’ The boy said, ‘No.’ The teacher asked, ‘Then what do you do that is naughty?’ The boy said, ‘I tell lies.’

When children are brought up under the compulsion of conscience alone, they start revelling in flouting their own conscience. To start with, you need to introduce conscience to them or else they will become loose in virtues but it should slowly be replaced with consciousness. Only then they will fall into the right track.

6

REALITY DREAM

Why do we think the way we think? How does our reactive mind work and what can we do to make our thinking much better than it is now?

I will present a few truths about this. We can analyze them with questions and answers, and then we will go for a technique to make these truths a practical reality in our lives.

The ancient Masters, the rishis, have done a lot of research on the mind, how it works and how we can develop it to use the system in a much better way; how to handle it better for our success. They have discovered many techniques and methods to express the power of the mind in the outer world.

Ancient Masters are inner world scientists. A scientist is a person who discovers something new and creates a formula to reproduce the same thing in the outer world. A Master is a person who discovers something new in the inner world and creates a formula to reproduce the same experience within others. Masters and scientists both work along the same lines but, the difference is, a scientist works in the outer world, while a Master works in the inner world.

There are two statements you need to understand. First, whatever we think of as the world is made of the same stuff of which our dreams are made. This is an important statement. If we understand this statement, we can use it for many purposes. For example, the power we use to create our dreams, can be used to create the real world, too. Our dreams are the energy out of which our world is created. Second, whatever we see is created by us, so we have the capacity to change the whole thing!

We always think our life is an accident. No! It is not an accident, it is an incident. If we understand this one statement, our life can change in so many ways. It can change our visualization, our thinking patterns and our imagination that creates our dreams. Most of the time, we create dreams that contradict themselves and this causes confusion. The energy wasted in unnecessary dreams could be conserved and put to proper use; then, the reality that we see would be much better than the reality we live in now.

We will have the important ability or power to realize our dreams, and more importantly, we will realize that everything we see as reality is also one more dream! These two things together can transform our lives: the capacity to make our dreams into reality and realizing that all reality is nothing but a dream. The powers of intention and creative visualization and the power to use our dreams are very important to create and achieve whatever we want in our life, to create the energy and mood to live, to achieve, to get whatever we want. However, that is only one side of the coin. An important thing that science has missed is the intelligence, the intelligence to realize that whatever we see as reality is nothing but our dream. Only when you understand that truth, you settle down with yourself.

The other day, Dr. Murali Krishna, an American doctor and a friend of mine, shared this with me when we were discussing this same concept. He said, ‘In our brain, we have something called a D-spot, where the pleasure chemical, Dopamine, is created. Dopamine can be activated just by imagination; you don’t even need the reality to feel pleasure.’

That is why the ancient sages say, whatever you experience is reality. If you go deep, you will understand it is only a higher level dream, not reality. There are two ways to approach any situation: one is collecting arguments and passing a judgment based on all the arguments; the other is having a judgment and then collecting arguments to support it. Most of the time only the second approach is used.

♦ A small story:

Two women were comparing notes about their husbands. The first one said, ‘I have noticed your husband sometimes; he would seem to be lost in thought.’ The second one replied, ‘That’s not surprising. He is a total stranger there!’

The lady has already formed a judgment that her husband has no power to think properly! So she says it is not surprising that her husband is lost in thinking! This is exactly what I mean when I say you form a judgment and collect arguments to support the judgment.

In the night time when we dream, we have the capacity to create our whole dream world; we live it and, when we have had enough, we pack up. We have so much energy and capacity to create a world with this mind, we can do wonders but we don’t know how to tap into that energy and use it in real life. So many times, in our own lives, we experience the power of our mind but the difficulty is that, from the beginning, we are brought up with certain concepts and ideas, because of which, we miss the real miracles that are happening in our lives all the time.

For instance, sometimes when our cell phone rings, we suddenly remember a friend that we have not been in touch with for awhile; when we answer the phone it will be him on the line! When our doorbell rings, we suddenly remember a friend’s name; when we open the door, he will be there. You are at a party and you suddenly think something will happen in the next few minutes and it actually happens. Suddenly, beyond our intellect and logic, something will erupt from our being and we will see that it becomes reality! How many of us have experienced this at least once? If it happens rarely to one person, it can be termed coincidence but, from all of our experiences, we can say that it has happened to many people many times. So it can't be coincidence! Without our conscious awareness, our being is expressing its capacity. Our being is capable of much more than what we can imagine. Our capacity, our power, is much more than what is told to us. From the beginning, we are taught that we are limited!

I was living with a tribe in India for some time, during my days of wandering, before enlightenment. You would be surprised to hear that people of that tribe give birth to children without pain, without an attendant, and without any medicine! I myself witnessed it. I asked them, 'Don't you feel pain?' They didn't seem to understand what I was talking about! They didn't even know the idea of pain. Even after talking to them for four to five days, I was not able to make them understand the idea of pain. From the beginning, they had not heard about pain.

Then I realized how many times we all hear these words, pain, suffering, etc. When they go into our system again and again, they create an idea of how we are supposed to respond to things with pain and suffering, and we do things in exactly the same way. Then I studied with them and learned some of their techniques: how they respect life, women, and the knowledge of the ancient Masters. Recently, we have successfully created a system of delivery that is helping women give birth painlessly. After this, I understood how, in this one zone, we create unnecessary suffering and boundaries for ourselves by believing we are too small. There are so many understandings that need to be questioned in the same fashion.

Let me now come back to the first statement – the world is made of the same stuff of which our dreams are made. As of now, most of our dreams, be it daydreams or night dreams, are of no use. Night dreaming is not under our control. In daydreaming, the starting point is under our control but it goes on without our control. We start to dream of something and then it takes its own course and by the time we come back to awareness, it takes so many turns. We start with one subject and land up with some other subject. Only the starting point is under our control. Once we choose the starting point and fall into the track, we get lost!

But in daydreaming, major points are under your control. For instance, sometimes you will find yourself lost in some thoughts, so suddenly you will decide not to think about that track and you will change the track. In night dreaming, nothing is under your control.

Too much energy and power is wasted in dreams that are not directed. In the West, now, they talk about harvesting the power of dreams. You can use the power of dreams. For example, at night before falling asleep, if you contemplate some problem that you want the solution for, and then fall asleep, you will have the solution to the problem! All you need to do is trust that your mind has the capacity. It is our mind that creates the trouble; naturally it has the power to solve the problems, also. All we need to do is trust that we can do it, and then contemplate the problem before sleeping. It will go directly into our unconscious and get processed at night. The next morning we will see that we have the clarity.

We don't know the power of dreams. They are so powerful that many times we come upon the dreams that can guide us regarding our future but we don't recognize them. People ask me how to distinguish the dreams that are guidance from general dreams. Here's the technique. When you wake up in the morning, if you can remember your dream vividly in multicolor, if you can smell the same smell you experienced in the dream, if it feels like a real-life experience, be very clear that it's a message for you from your being. On the other hand, when you wake up, if you are not able to remember the dream so vividly, if it's not in multicolor, if it's just in black-and-white, then it's not a message or guidance, it's just related to your fear and greed.

Anything related to your intelligence will be solid and vivid; anything related to your fear and greed will be in black-and-white. Even in this world, if you take a deeper look at your life, those memories that make your being blissful, the memories that are the path for your life, will be a solid visualization when you close your eyes and remember them. Any memories related to fear and greed will make you uneasy.

I’m speaking of subtle truths. If you are a little introspective, if you are already a meditator, practice yoga, etc., you can understand what I say. The moment you get some thoughts based on fear or anxiety, you can feel butterflies in the stomach, because there is an energy center in the navel that is directly related to depression and worries, and fear and anxiety-based thoughts lead to depression and worry.

There are many energy centers in our body that are directly related to certain emotions. If we can handle the emotions with the proper techniques, through what I call meditation, we can open up new dimensions or powers in our being. Even in our day-to-day lives, the moment we remember any thought which is going to help us, we feel at ease and have a cool feeling in our being. On the other hand, thoughts that are not ours, but are imposed on us, or that we have unconsciously picked up from others because of jealousy and comparison, will make us feel uneasy.

Sometimes, thoughts can be imposed on us even without our knowledge, through advertisements and media. Media gives us many ideas that are not ours. We are just beautifully exploited without even realizing that we are being exploited! For instance, look at many of the cosmetics products. Advertising agencies know where to touch us; they know that sex is our weakest point. That is the reason why, with any product aimed towards youngsters, you will notice there is sex appeal and this will be directly recorded in your being.

If you can be a little more intelligent in your thinking system, you can avoid these traps. Whenever you think, whether while driving or talking to friends or reading, just try to witness your thinking system. Create a gap between you and your thoughts and try to witness them. You will realize you are creating self-contradictory thoughts and dreams. You will realize how you are draining all your energy. First, you will have a thought, ‘I should go here and see this person.’ Immediately after that, you will have another thought, ‘No I should not go; it won’t work out.’ Before you even consciously know what’s happening in your mind, there will be self-contradictory thoughts.

When these happen continuously in your being, you live in a space called hiranyagarbha in Sanskrit, which I call ‘ultimate chaos’. You are neither moving in this path nor that. You continuously feed both sides. Many times people ask me, ‘Swamiji, should I sit here and attend the discourse?’ If I tell them, ‘Okay, attend it’, immediately they will give me all the arguments why they can’t. They will tell me, ‘Oh! I have so many pending chores to do,’ etc. If I tell them, ‘Okay, please attend to your work,’ immediately, all the arguments as to why they should stay and attend will line up in their mind, and they will say, ‘Oh, but I will miss the lecture and all the wonderful things you talk about. This is more important. I think I had better stay!’ Our mind is such that whichever side we stand on, all the arguments for the other side will come up. Continuously we are in a space called dilemma. If we can give ourselves at least ten minutes everyday, we can sit and see how our mind works back and forth. Just sit and watch it. Don't try to control it; meditation has nothing to do with control. Just sit and watch, like watching a television. Create a small gap between you and your thinking system. You will understand that whatever you think of as reality is made up of your dreams.

Above all, you will understand what I mean by self-contradictory dreams. Without your awareness, you are continuously hurting yourself. You are the cause of all your suffering. In the East, we believe that even accidents are invited by us, by our thoughts. You might be shocked when you read this. How can that be true? Why would anyone want to create accidents in their life? When I started analyzing how the mind works, I realized the great truth that even accidents are in fact our own creation.

There are a few truths that cannot be explained logically but can be realized from within.

♦ A small story:

One man visited the doctor for relief from laryngitis. The doctor gave him a dose of antibiotics and told him, ‘This is a heavy dosage with a sedative effect. It might put you to sleep by 9 pm. So for this one week, finish your work early.' The man was listening and looked disturbed. The doctor asked, 'What is the matter? You don't seem to be alright.' The man said, 'I don't think that is good for me because, at 10 pm, I need to take my sleeping pills.'

The man was so used to taking sleeping pills all his life, that he could not even imagine sleep without them! When the man goes to sleep by 9 pm and wakes up in the morning, he will understand for himself that he doesn't need his pills! Similarly, if you can create a gap and witness your thinking, you will understand that you create self-contradictory dreams in your life, because of which you waste much of your energy and even create accidents!

In our meditation camps, we play a small game where a person has to argue for both sides of a topic given to him. Two chairs will be placed. The participant has to sit in one chair and argue for the topic and then sit in the other chair and speak against the same topic. This is what we do in our lives; continuously inside our minds we argue for both sides, by creating self-contradictory visualization.

Your dreams are so powerful that they directly impact the outer world. I was reading a beautiful book called Messages from Water. The author of the book has done research with water, where he has proved the power of thought on just plain water. He has done a big service to the Western logical mind in showing how our thoughts impact the outer world. In his research, he took a glass of water and started repeating to it the words ‘love’ and ‘peace’. He then examined the crystals formed by the water sample through an extremely accurate microscope and took photographs of the crystal formation. He took another glass and repeated the words ‘anger’ and ‘violence’ intentionally to it and then photographed the crystals formed in it.

You would be surprised at the results. Photographs of the water crystals, to which loving words were spoken, were so beautifully formed, like a diamond, while the photograph of the crystals of the other glass, anger and violence, looked so ugly. He proved water responds to our thoughts. It simply changes its whole quality based on our thoughts.

An important thing you should know is that eighty percent of your body is filled with water. So, if water is so impacted by thoughts, your thoughts play a major role in your mind-body system. Your dreams play a major role in creating your real world. He explains, in conclusion, why, in the East, people use mantra, why in India people repeat a particular word again and again, to create a particular mood and energy in a person.

When I read that book, I understood what really happens when a person repeats certain words. The power of words, visualization, thinking and dreams is tremendous. You can’t imagine the power of your imagination. You have so much power and energy in your dreams and visualization. Not only are you not using it, you are misusing it, too! Any energy that is unguided will become misguided. All misguided energy is dangerous for your being. You continuously create self-contradicting visualizations.

You can do one more exercise. Just speak your thoughts out, without logically analyzing or suppressing them, and record them. Play them back and transcribe it. If you read it, you will see what a big lunatic asylum you are running inside your mind! It's an asylum of self-contradicting thoughts, self-contradicting visualization, and self-contradicting imagination.

If you create a small gap, that is enough; automatically, your visualization will be brought in line, on track, and you will be on a clear path. Actually, the more you create a gap between you and your thinking system, the more you will become a witness and the more you will become intelligent. You will not lose your balance and be swept away by the chaos that is happening inside your system.

As of now, all our decisions are made only in the reactive mood, not with clarity and not with a clear mind. Continuously, information comes into our being and we process it at a high speed. We miss some information, mess it up and come up with an incorrect solution. The information that comes in is one thing; the decision that goes out is something else, because we process too much information in a very short time without creating a gap between us and our thinking. Once in awhile, let us create a gap to witness our thoughts. Let us try not to control or suppress our thoughts; just allow the thoughts to move, and witness them and then we will understand that we create self-contradicting thoughts.

This is the main cause for all our troubles and problems, because the thoughts are unguided; they become misguided and cause a lot of confusion in our being. Above all, we don't realize the true potential of our being. Once we create the gap, we will realize that our world is made of the same stuff our dreams are made of. The moment we understand this one statement, we have the possibility of transformation in our life.

Let us analyze this statement and see how to apply it in your day-to-day life with your questions.

Question and Answers:

Q) Now scientists and doctors have come to an understanding of how the brain works and chemically, what happens in which part of the brain based on thoughts. Can you comment on it?

A) I was with a group of doctors in Oklahoma one day. They did research on my brain to see how it works during meditation and during normal times, and compared it with how the brain works for a non-meditator. The research was done using PET scan and QEEG, by a group of doctors who have been in this field for the last thirty years. At the end of their study they concluded, 'We thought we had come to an understanding of the brain but, after studying your brain, we can say we still have a lot to learn!' I asked them a few questions about the brain and mind that they could not answer. I have met many scientists. I was in a discussion with Dr. Charles Townes, a noble laureate from the University of California, earlier on this tour. He said very honestly, ‘There are thousands of things science cannot answer, and we still cannot disprove answers and experiences of mystics.’

Unless you disprove something, you cannot say it is wrong. There are two ways: one is making a statement and proving it, and the other is removing all possibilities of disproving the statement. Mystics have gone the second way, removing all the doubts to disprove, which is more solid. We should understand one thing, in science, the discoveries and research can be presented in an objective way without you being interested in it. In the inner world, however, we need to have interest and look into it. Only then, truths can be realized. The inner world is such that it can’t be brought across the table, because the table is in the outer world!

Q) It is said that you made idols of many Gods as a child. If there is only one God, why did you need to use idols?

A) Idol worship, an important belief of Hinduism, is being questioned here. You must understand that there is no such thing as idol worship in Hinduism; it is worship through idols only. It is never worship of idols. The Eastern mystics always say God is one. He is the all-pervading energy beyond form and formless, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Let me ask you honestly, the moment I say formless, what comes to your mind? The sky, an ocean, an open space, am I right? Again it is a form but it is not described by length, breadth and depth.

Please be very clear, unless you experience it, you cannot relate with something formless. So, as an initial way to relate, some forms are created. It's a technique. For example, after learning cycling, you can remove your hands from the handlebars and ride the bike but, initially, you need to hold them and learn. Similarly, when you learn driving, initially you need to follow many rules; you need to be very alert. Once you master it, you can drive casually. You can even chat with your friend over the phone while driving. Just in the same way, when you enter the spiritual journey, in the end, everyone experiences the formless but, at the initial level, you need a form to relate to.

As long as you think you are a form, you can't relate with the formless. Even if you think of something as formless, you will again be giving it a form. It may be a sky or an ocean, something vast, but again it is going to be one more form. How many of you can visualize the formless without visualizing a sky or open space or ocean? Tell me honestly.

If you say the formless just IS, it is an experience. If you experience, then it is okay. You don't need anything but you cannot start with that experience. You can only start from where you are. I have seen many people who start straight away with the formless but they don't feel totally connected. That is why, in Eastern religions, they have the initial step as worship through idols as a way of relating and connecting. Once you master that, you can feel the formless everywhere. At least, I can say from my experience, surely a person in the initial level cannot relate to the formless directly. You may say it is possible but, if you do an honest check within yourself, you will understand that it takes some maturity to relate to the formless, and that it has not happened within most of us.

Q) It is said that after your enlightenment, you were lying for nine months without food and water. Why did you need to starve yourself?

A) If you are totally intoxicated with something, do you feel like eating? If you are filled with love, say you are meeting someone after a long time, will you feel like eating at that time? When my years of search ended, I did not feel like eating. After my experience of enlightenment, I didn't feel like I needed anything from the outer world!

When I experienced that ecstasy, it was such a great joy and fulfillment that, for nine months, I didn't need anything from outside. Only when you are empty inside you fill yourself with food! Obesity is directly related to feeling empty inside. In some way, at some point in time of our lives, we all feel empty and that is why we eat too much. When you feel fulfilled, you feel full also. I was so satisfied that I did not need food and sleep for nine months.

Q) When everyone has their own reality and worships their own God, won't it create chaos? I believe in one God. I don't understand why everyone worships a different God.

A) As long as you don't realize everything is Divine, you need to create something special and worship it. Once you grow and become mature, you realize the Divine in you; you realize that everything is worthy of worship and you don't need anything special. Then your very life, becomes worship; your walking, talking, sitting, everything! You feel so connected to the Ultimate. After that, you don't worship one form; you relate with everything, whatever is. It is such an ecstasy; everything is blessing you and you are blessing everything. Not only living persons, even inanimate things; rocks, rivers, and the things you use in your daily life, you start relating with. You include everything; nothing is excluded from worship.

Until a person grows, each one needs their own path; every person needs to be guided from his level. We can't stand on the fifth floor and ask someone on the ground floor to come up; we need to show him the steps and the way to get to the fifth floor. If I stand on the fifth floor and say, 'Everything is divine, everything is God. Come on, realize it', I will be wasting my time and he will be wasting his.

People come and tell me, 'I love the whole world.' I tell them, 'Loving the world is easy; loving your wife or neighbor is difficult!' Loving the world is easy because it's just an idea but loving your wife is difficult, because you need to do something tangible to prove it! She is with you all the time. Whereas, the world is an abstract idea; you don't need to do anything to prove your statement. You can just make the statement and be quiet. Reality is different and thoughts are very different. It's the same thing we are doing in spirituality, also. We say, 'Everything is God,' but we never experience it. That's why mystics say, 'Start with one thing.' Feel that as God and start applying that to everything that is around you.

In the beginning, for the energy you have, relate with one stone as God. Then expand the same attitude towards other things; create the same effect with every stone, every person, and every living thing, animate or inanimate. Then you will start experiencing that everything is Divine. Unless you love your wife and your neighbor, you can't really taste love. Then you can expand and start loving your state, your country and the whole universe.

Expansion is possible but, if the Master copy is not created, how can you make more copies? In the same way, first you need to feel divinity as a solid experience in your life, not as a vague theory. Only when you see it as a solid experience can you reproduce it with others.

When you experience everything as divine, you won't feel the need to defend yourself. You will be in such ecstasy; you will become open. You will feel everything is supporting you. If you really feel everything is divine, you will feel this one truth: they say the whole cosmos wants you to achieve success in your life and it continuously supports you. If you really feel this truth, that the whole of Existence wants you to be successful, is supporting you to express your potential energy, if you strongly feel it in your life, you are already enlightened!

Idol worship is to create the feeling that meditation, spirituality, etc. has come into existence. If this happens in you through worship, you will never feel like defending it; you will be just like a flower living on planet Earth. This happens only as experience, not as words.

Q) Why does the mind create self-contradicting thoughts?

A) To tell you honestly, I don't know why! I can help if you ask me how to go beyond it. I, too, wondered why we create conflicts but I cannot find an intellectual answer. How to go beyond it? The only answer is meditation. It worked in my life, so it will work in your life also; I can guarantee that. Practice the simple technique of creating ten minutes of time for yourself to sit and witness without judging, suppressing or analyzing your thoughts.

It is like watching a movie on television. Let your mind become a screen and watch it. The very witnessing will infuse intelligence in your thinking system. It can stop the self-contradicting thoughts. We create self-contradicting thoughts as long as we are unconscious about our thinking system. The moment we become conscious, we stop creating self-contradicting thoughts. So just create awareness about your thinking system.

Just be a witness to your thinking and automatically, you will resolve the conflicts. As long as you are unconscious, your thoughts will contradict each other. The moment you become conscious, they will complement each other. Just infuse silence into your thinking system by being a witness. The moment you practice this, your whole life will be transformed. It's a small key but only small keys open big doors!

Q) Can you talk a little about the practice where people get their nourishment from other sources, such as sun, wind, etc. and how it enhances life?

A) In yoga, they believe that energy can be taken directly from ether and air, the two higher elements; you don't need it from Earth (i.e. food) or water. This technique is called Hatha Yoga or pranayam. There are many other technical terms for it. It is possible. I read about some research done by Wisconsin University scientists on Lamas who directly take energy from ether. They did research on them and they said that, if you take, say 200 grams of some food, some energy is created in your body, but, in the Lamas' bodies, the same 200 grams of food creates six times more energy! Their system is such that they produce more energy, and doctors don't know where that energy comes from. They conclude that they get energy from unknown sources beyond food and water. Lamas say they get energy directly from the sky and ether. It is perfectly possible by practicing appropriate techniques.

Witnessing your inhaling and exhaling process can infuse energy in you. The breathing cycle has four steps: inhaling, breath taking an outward turn, exhaling, and the breath taking an inward turn. You can't be aware of it all twenty four hours a day but take twenty minutes to sit with yourself and be aware of these four steps in your breathing process. You will be infusing energy and automatically, your food intake will reduce.

You can find specific meditation techniques on our website (www.dhyanapeetam.org). Depending on your need, be it physical health, mental health or spiritual growth, you can download the appropriate technique and practice it; it will surely transform you. I pray to that Ultimate Energy, to bless everyone with eternal bliss, nithyananda.

Thank you.

7

FROM WORDS TO SILENCE

A musician plays the piano and sings:

How could anyone ever tell you, that you’re anything less than beautiful How could anyone ever tell you, you are less than whole How could anyone fail to notice, that your loving is a miracle How deeply you’re connected to my soul (Repeat)

I love you just the way you are There’s nothing you need to do

When I feel love inside myself It's easy to love you

I love myself Just the way I am

Actually, we can't talk about silence. The moment we speak, we disturb the silence! I'll try to say a few words about how to create that silence within us.

It is vibrant and living. We should understand one thing; when I use the word silence, I don't mean soundlessness. Soundlessness is negative silence. When I use the word silence, I mean a living, vibrant silence, not the silence of a graveyard; it is the silence of an enlightened Master. The silence of a graveyard is totally different from the silence of an enlightened Master. An enlightened person's silence is vibrant, living and alive. When Jesus says, 'Be still and know that I am God,' he means only this silence, the silence of enlightenment. Be still and know that I am Truth.

When you are really still, you will know that you are the truth. And you will know that you and He are not two different things; you are just one and the same. You merge with Him; real unity happens in you. You start experiencing the same energy inside your being. You start experiencing the Christ Consciousness in you.

♦ A small story:

A person goes to a great enlightened Master of Zen Buddhism and the disciple asks him, 'Master, do enlightened people speak?' The Master says, 'No, enlightened ones never speak. If they speak, be very clear, they don't know.' The disciple asks, 'Oh, that means they keep silent; they remain silent? They won't speak?' The Master says, 'No, they will not be in silence. They can't keep quiet. If they are not talking, be very clear, they don't know.'

The disciple was puzzled, just like all of you now! 'What will they be doing then? You say they will neither talk nor keep quiet. What will they do?' he asks. The Master beautifully says, 'They just sing.'

Their silence will be so vibrant, so alive, that the very silence will be like a song. It will be radiating. Wordlessness cannot be silence. Soundlessness cannot be silence. It is negative silence. It is okay once in a while. It is good to be silent.

The silence of an enlightened Master is totally different. To enter into that, you need to go beyond words. Going beyond words and silence, crossing both, should help you realize that silence of an enlightened Master.

An ordinary silence which we understand, which is wordlessness, is not enough. The wordlessness should happen in our being. When we enter into that silence, our whole being starts radiating; we start singing.

When I say 'start singing,' not only through your mouth, your whole being starts singing. You radiate a different grace. Your very walking will be like a dance. Your very movements will be graceful. Your presence will be a blessing. When you enter into that silence, your very presence on planet Earth will be a blessing. Your air, your space, will heal. That itself will radiate so much energy, so much life and so much light. You can touch and feel God in the presence of the man who has experienced God.

When we go deep into that silence, we experience what Christ meant by the words, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ We enter into that Christ Consciousness. I'll try to explain what the obstacles are.

One, we are not able to experience that silence. The reason being, we don't trust that we, too, can experience that silence. We always think, ‘This is not for me. I am not able to have it.’ Again and again we postpone, by thinking that it is not for us, that we may not be able to achieve it. I have seen people making up their own reasons for it, also! We are experts in creating statements to support our conclusions.

Someone came to me the other day and told me, ‘I was born and brought up in the West. How can I become enlightened?’ I asked, ‘Who said that enlightenment is the copyright of Easterners? You can have a copyright for pizza; you can have a copyright for food; you can have a copyright for commerce; you can have a copyright for light but not for enlightenment!’ It is the property of the whole universe. It is our birthright. Please be very clear, it is our birthright. The silence I speak of, the enlightenment which I express, is our birthright. We don’t need any qualification for it!

In the East, again and again, women come and ask me, ‘Oh we are women. How can we become enlightened?’ Again, it is a very wrong idea created by society over years. Actually, for women there is a stronger chance to become enlightened because, by nature, they are more passive; by their very nature they are loving and caring. For them to receive, express and radiate that silence and energy is a far greater possibility.

Somebody went to a great enlightened Master in South India. That Master’s name was Ramana Maharishi. I was born and brought up in his place, Tiruvannamalai. This man went and asked him, ‘Bhagavan (Bhagavan means Godlike), can I become enlightened?’ Bhagavan said, ‘Yes, surely you can.’ The disciple asked, ‘What is the qualification?’ Bhagavan said, ‘Are you alive?’ The man said, ‘Yes, I am alive; that’s how I am here.’ Bhagavan said, ‘That is enough. That is the qualification.’

So you, too, can become enlightened. If you are alive, that is enough; you have all the qualifications to become enlightened. No other qualification is necessary.

Next, we always have guilt about ourselves. We don’t respect ourselves. Jesus says beautifully, ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself,’ but the problem is we don’t even love ourselves! How can we love our neighbours when we don't even respect ourselves!

The musician sang, 'Let us accept ourselves as we are; let us love ourselves as we are,' but we neither respect ourselves nor love ourselves. That is the reason why we think this silence or this enlightenment experience is not for us. We postpone and postpone. We have deep guilt about ourselves.

We have some idea about how life should be and we try to recreate or reproduce that imagination or idea into reality. When we are not able to, we create guilt. It goes on and on. It is a vicious cycle. We continuously disrespect ourselves.

When you want to measure the strength of a chain, you always measure based on the weakest link, the strength of the weakest link. Based on that, we know the strength of the chain.

When we try to measure the strength of our life, of our being, again we try to use the same logic. We try to measure ourselves based on our weakest moments. That is not the way it should be done.

When we measure the strength of our life, being and mind, based on our weakest link, we commit a big mistake. We should never measure ourselves based on our failures, on our low energy moments, our low energy moods, or our wrong decisions. We should measure ourselves with the highest moments of our lives, because we have already touched those high moments! It is a clear assurance that we can touch those heights. We have already touched them!

But what do we do? Whenever we are going to take a new step, we remember only our past mistakes and wrong decisions. We want to be careful, so we weigh and measure ourselves only based on our past mistakes. The good things we have done or the right decisions we have made don't even surface in our minds.

The more we remember the negative decisions or our mistakes, the more we create guilt within ourselves. One thing that we should understand is, guilt will, again and again, attract the same negative instances in our life. It's like pain will attract pain. Money will attract money. Joy will attract joy.

If we are joyful, we attract joyful people around us; we create a beautiful community around us and we create a blissful group around us. If we are in suffering, if we have some depression, naturally, we attract only that type of people around us. We attract people who will abuse us, who will give us pain, who will torture us.

When we conclude that we are an inferior person, when we create a deep guilt in ourselves, naturally, we attract only those types of incidents, those types of people, those types of situations in our lives that support our view. If we turn on the television to watch the CNN channel, we will see CNN news. If we tune our television to watch cartoons, we will see cartoons. In the same way, if we tune our mind to a positive attitude, to positive things, we will start seeing positive people and incidents. We will start meeting blissful friends; we will start facing blissful situations and we will start creating a blissful life. When we do it the other way around, we will be continuously seeing people who create more depression in us, who abuse us, who disturb us, who create more and more bondage in our life.

It is we who decide. So don't think that the silence of enlightenment is not possible for you in life. People always come and ask me, 'What you say is really beautiful; it makes sense but tell me some practical method.'

The moment you ask, the moment you say 'practical', you have already decided what I am saying is impractical.

Be very clear, the very understanding and the courage to think, 'What he says is practical; I will express it with my life,' is more than enough. Usually we neither respect ourselves nor trust that we can have the experience of that silence and enlightenment. Just have faith in what you hear from me. I talk from my own experience, not from anything else. And that is more than enough for you. You don't need anything else.

First thing, understand that you can, you are eligible. Everyone is entitled to enter into the Kingdom of God, to enter into the divine space. Every one of us is eligible. God cannot send us out. Be very clear.

♦ A beautiful story:

There was a king in India, who was self-centered and very egotistic. His ego had grown to such a great extent that he started saying, ‘I can do everything God does. I am greater than God.’ If someone objected to his view, immediately, he would order, ‘Kill him!’

There was one enlightened Master in that kingdom, in a nearby village. He visited the capital, heard the whole story and wanted to teach the king a lesson. He went to the court and started praising the king, ‘O king, you are equal to God; you are God.’

The king was delighted. He said, ‘You are the right person. Come, come on; teach us all the truth, whatever you have realized.’ The Master said, ‘I have to tell you one important thing. There are some things you can do, that even God cannot do.’

Now, the king was just floating. He said, ‘Come on, tell me what it is that I can do that even God cannot do.’

The Master continued, ‘If you are angry with somebody you can send him out of your kingdom but God cannot!’

The king was shocked. The scope of the statement hit him suddenly and he realized how foolish he had been. So be very clear, God cannot send us out of his kingdom! The whole universe is His! And the Kingdom of God, enlightenment, the vibrant silence, is our birthright.

The second thing we need to understand is, we have wrong ideas about this enlightenment. People come and ask me, 'If I become enlightened, will all my desires be fulfilled? Will whatever I think come true?'

Be very clear, that would be a big punishment. Really, I tell you, just because of his compassion, God never fulfills our prayers. If he fulfilled all our prayers, our whole life would become a mess. It is out of his compassion that he fulfills only a few prayers, and out of his greater compassion that he leaves most of our prayers unfulfilled.

Please be very clear, it is out of his great compassion, sometimes, that he never fulfils our desires. We don't even know the after-effect or side-effect of many of our desires. Without even knowing the after-effects or side-effects of those desires, we start hankering after them. We start asking for them. We believe God can give them but we don't believe God has the little intelligence to know when to give, and whether to give, some of those things, even. That is where the problem starts. If we trust in God's intelligence, first of all, we won't even ask. Even if we ask, we should know that God intelligently fulfills some desires and leaves the rest, for our own good.

◆ A small story:

O ne pseudo Master (pseudo Master means one who is not enlightened; just an intellectual who starts preaching) was claiming that he was enlightened and tried to create disciples. Of course, pseudo persons can imitate beautifully. Original Masters will never really match our concept of a Master. That's why they are continuously crucified, stoned and poisoned. Original Masters will just be. They will be original; they will not be acting or imitating anybody. They will be themselves.

It is very difficult to recognize somebody original but somebody pseudo, you can easily think is a Master because he will be imitating; he will be following; he will give you an image, a clear-cut idea. The original person, on the other hand, will be so rebellious; he will be such a live energy that it will be very difficult to understand him.

This guy, a pseudo person, started attracting many disciples. Many disciples gathered around him. One day, suddenly, he died. His closest two disciples thought, 'How can we live without our Master?' They committed suicide.

All three of them reached the other world and stood at the big beautiful gates. The pseudo Master said, 'See I promised you all heaven. Now I have brought you here. I deliver the things that I promise. Come on; let us go inside.' He knocked on the door. The security person opened the gates and all three entered inside. It was a beautiful place, such a wonderful place. Whatever they wanted, was there. Then again, the Master said, ‘Look at this, I promised you paradise; now I’ve delivered. You can see that I do what I say.’

They went around. The security person said, ‘Sir, whatever you want, you can have here. You just have to order.’ They started ordering. Whatever they wanted, immediately it was delivered. There was no gap between the thought and result, between desire and reality. They just had to wish and the wish was fulfilled.

All three started living a kingly life, the best palaces, the best food, beautiful women, whatever they wanted. They had everything. Anything they asked for was immediately delivered but we don’t usually understand one important thing. If we get everything, whatever we want immediately, we enter into a space called ‘depression of success’.

As long as we have hope, as long as our hopes are not completely fulfilled, we have hope! The moment our hopes are fulfilled, we become hopeless. We enter into the space of hopelessness.

For these three people, whatever they wanted was given and all desires were fulfilled. After one week, they got fed up, tired and bored, because they had everything. What to do now? They lost their taste for life. They went to the security staff and asked, ‘Please do us one small favor. Just open the window to the world, our old world. We wish to see that world so that we gain some more taste and develop some more desire. We can then come back and enjoy this world, because now we are fed up.’

The security guard said, ‘Okay, welcome. Please come.’ He opened the window and they looked at the world. They saw the suffering, how the world was going on and becoming worse; how people were struggling to achieve even small things. Now, again, they got renewed interest about life, about things. They got new desires and started living again.

This went on and on and on for some time. After one month, again they were fed up. Now they were lost in confusion. They went to the security guard again and asked, ‘Sir, can you do us one favor? Can you open the door of Hell, so that we can see how the people are suffering there? Based on what we have seen, we will have some more desires and we can once again start enjoying what is here.’

First they saw the world, so they got some more desire, and they started enjoying where they were. Now they wanted to see Hell, so they would have a little more inspiration to enjoy. The security guard laughed and said, ‘Where do you think you are? You are in Hell!’

The three of them experientially understood what hell was. In life, what we think of as heaven is actually hell for us but, if we are told that in the beginning, we will not believe it. We have to experience it ourselves!

So please be very clear, if all our desires are answered, if all our desires are fulfilled, we are in Hell, because we will neither get fulfilled nor will we move beyond desires. We will not be able to experience the bliss of desirelessness. A person who thinks enlightenment is about fulfilling all his desires is mistaken.

Enlightenment is about going beyond desires, not about fulfilling all our desires. Fulfilling all our desires is again nothing but Hell. When we become enlightened, we go beyond desires. The bliss of 'desirelessness' happens in us.

By fulfilling all our desires, we will never achieve the state of desirelessness. We can achieve the state where we are not able to desire anymore, depression, but, by working towards enlightenment, we can experience the bliss of desirelessness.

First thing, we should start trusting, trusting that we can achieve, that we are qualified. Next thing, we have to drop all our wrong ideas about enlightenment. First, we have to drop all wrong ideas about ourselves, that we are not qualified. We have to drop that wrong idea. Next, we have to drop all the wrong ideas about enlightenment; if this happens that will be; if that happens this will be.

Now, if we can drop the wrong ideas about ourselves and enlightenment, then both will become one and the same. Our Self will become enlightened! As long as we have wrong ideas about ourselves and about enlightenment, we will keep both at a distance from one another.

The moment we drop the wrong ideas about ourselves and the wrong ideas about enlightenment, we can start experiencing that we are enlightened. We are in that silence. We are in that experience. The silence of enlightenment is a living, vibrant silence, a living, vibrant energy. It is the heartbeat of the absolute, the heartbeat of Existence.

When I say the word 'silence', I mean it is the heartbeat of the spiritual being: the ultimate, the Divine, what we call God. I pray to that Ultimate Energy, God, to shower his blessings upon you and to make you experience the silence, to lead you from words to silence. Let him give you the ultimate experience of that living silence, Eternal Bliss, nithyananda.

We will spend a few minutes with your questions. If you have any questions, you are welcome to ask them now.

Questions and Answers:

Q) Can you grant enlightenment to someone if he wants it?

A) Surely. Anybody who really wants it, without an iota of doubt, can surely have it. Not only can I grant it but, also, when you intensely want it, simply without even my giving, Existence can grant it to you. The very Existence can grant you enlightenment. There is no need for even me to be between you and Existence. When somebody wants intensely, Existence simply grants.

Somebody asked Buddha, ‘Buddha, you know enlightenment is the greatest experience and bliss. Why don’t you grant it for everybody on this planet Earth?’ Buddha asked, ‘Please find out how many really want it. Please go around and find out how many really want it.’ The man went around and was surprised to see that no one was really interested in enlightenment. They were so caught up in their own things that no one was bothered about getting enlightened.

Even if we want it, we want enlightenment as one more showpiece in our house. We are not ready to work for it. We are not ready to undergo the transformation which enlightenment will bring. I have seen many people when they come and live around me, when they see my joy and ecstasy and the way in which I am living and radiating bliss, they start asking me, ‘Swamiji, why don’t you give us enlighten-ment?’

We need to understand one thing here. Along with enlightenment comes a tremendous responsibility of compassion. Don’t think a person who is enlightened will be the authority of the world. He can’t even think of doing anything by himself. He will be just an instrument in the hands of God, of Existence. Whatever Existence wills happens through him, that’s all.

People ask me, Swamiji, whatever you think comes true. How is it?' I tell them, 'No! Never think that whatever I think comes true. I can't even think. I have no freedom. The Divine simply thinks through me, that's all. I don't even have the freedom to raise my little finger. If the Divine wills it, it can be raised, that's all. Even that much freedom I don't have!

We always think that enlightenment is one more possession. No! Please be very clear, you can't possess enlightenment. Enlightenment will possess you. And anybody who is really intense about the desire for enlightenment, can surely have it. Of course, the Master can grant enlightenment. Paramahamsa means one who is liberated, who can liberate.

A person who creates a formula to reproduce the experience of the outer world is a scientist. Newton created a formula to reproduce the experience of gravity, that he experienced. When he was sitting and relaxing, he saw an apple falling and he understood something. He had a certain glimpse, so he created a formula to reproduce the same experience, so that many people could understand it. He was a scientist.

A person who creates a formula to reproduce the same experience that happens in the inner world is called a rishi, a sage; he is a seer, saint. A saint is a person who creates a formula to reproduce the experience that happens in the inner world. That formula is what we call meditation. Meditation is the formula that is created by an enlightened person, sage or a saint, to reproduce the same experience that happens in his being. Paramahamsa is a person who not only creates a formula but also liberates. He can guide people to follow the formula and experience it.

That is what the Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP) is about; it means the flowering of eternal bliss. It is a formula that I have created to give the same experience that happened in me, to those who want it. The NSP was created to reproduce the same experience that happened in me, in all of you. The same experience that happened in me will be created in your being.

Again, anybody who is intensely asking for it can surely have enlightenment. Sometimes, even I am not necessary. If your intensity is deep, Existence can directly grant you the ultimate experience.

Q) How is ego an obstacle for enlightenment?

A) The idea that ego is an obstacle for enlightenment is the only obstacle. If you search deeply, the ego is not there at all. It is our idea that something called ego is there and that it is attacking you. It is almost like a ghost that is not there but you start thinking it is.

You should understand this one important thing. All negative things have got power; they have got only one power, which is your faith in them, that's all. Whether it is your depression or low energy or ego or ghost, witchcraft, black magic, anything, they have only one power, which is your faith in them. They have no other power. Be very clear, they are like shadows. The more you run, the more they will be following you. If you just stop and look into them, look at what they are. You will realize they are nothing, that they are just your shadow. Have a little intelligence to stop and look. You will see they are nothing; you will simply see they are nothing.

Q) How does enlightenment affect our everyday lives?

A) That is something you can experience only after enlightenment happens to you! If you are bothered now about how it affects your everyday life, then be very clear, you still want some portion of your everyday life not to be affected. You want it to remain, to be retained as it is now. So naturally, you can't become enlightened! As long as you want to retain some part of you, some portion of your life, be very clear, you are not ready to enter into the zone of enlightenment.

This is exactly what I mean when I say, 'Although you say you are ready for enlightenment, you are not really ready.'

It is a pure alchemy process; when you enter into it, you will be a totally new, different being. People ask me, 'Will I renounce everything and go away?' For enlightenment, you don't have to renounce anything; just renounce what you don't have, that's enough. There are thousands of things in your life you don't have but, yet, you are living with them. They have become your fantasies and desires. Just renounce all these that you don't have, that is enough. You can become enlightened.

You don't have to renounce what you have. Live intensely with what you have; just renounce what you don't have, that's enough. As of now, you have an idea as to how your future should be. You even have fantasies about how the continuity of it should be. If you think that your future should be a continuity of your present, even that idea is a desire; it is one more fantasy.

As of now, if you can drop what you don't have, that's enough; you can become enlightened. All you need to do is just drop what you don't have, and start living with what you have, the present moment. Never think, 'How will I be transformed, how will things be changed, should I go for it or not?' etc.

I have seen many people at Universal Studios. Before entering the ride, they ask the people who have just come out of the ride, 'How was it? Is it alright for me to go inside?' They ask for opinions. In enlightenment, you can't ask for anybody's opinions. You have to simply take the risk of entering into it. If you want to have a particular idea when you enter, you will never be able to enter. It's a pure risk but a beautiful risk!

Q) In the organization, Alcoholics Anonymous, if somebody feels they are not yet ready to give up drinking, they ask for the desire which desires to give up drinking. You have said that the reason we are not yet enlightened is because we aren’t ready to be enlightened. How do I desire for a desire to be enlightened?

A) Actually, when I talk about desirelessness and the ecstasy of that, people immediately start creating one more desire about desirelessness. All you need to do is understand the ecstasy of desirelessness and start relaxing from the existing desires. Please, don’t create one more desire for desirelessness. Then you are adding a little more load. No, try to drop from what you have, instead of adding a little more stuff to what you have.

It is like this, when I tell these restless people to sit for a while doing nothing, they ask me, ‘How do we sit doing nothing?’ They create one more restless thought in their minds! I tell them, ‘Arrey! Just sit, that’s all!’ That is how this desirelessness also is.

The experience of desirelessness will start happening in you when you simply relax from what desires you have. Start living with what you have, instead of living with what you don’t have. This is the simple sutra or technique for this.

You cannot create desire for desirelessness and, if you create desire for desirelessness, you are creating one more desire. Please be very clear, just relax from the mind, from these very words, and you will drop into the silence. Just relax from the desires and you will drop into desirelessness. Never make the mistake of creating a desire for desirelessness.

Q) Is the first step for enlightenment meditation?

A) We can say this is the first and last step. When you start meditating, you enter into the space of enlightenment. When you stop meditating, you are enlightened. Meditation is the first and last step. Meditation is the alchemy to give enlightenment. It just gives you the ultimate experience which I call enlightenment. So starting to meditate is one of the best, the first and the last step for enlightenment.

Q) Can you please explain more about positive and negative thoughts?

A) As such, there is nothing called negative thoughts in our being. Understand light and darkness. Light has got positive existence but darkness has no positive existence. Lightlessness is called darkness. It doesn’t mean lightlessness has got an existence; it just means an absence of light, that’s all.

In the same way, negative thoughts have no positive existence. They are there, no doubt, but they don’t have such an existence that you can push them out.

All we need to do is create enough light so that lightlessness no longer exists. You can’t directly do anything with darkness. For example, if a room is dark, no matter how much you try to push the darkness away, you cannot. Even if ten people sitting in that room try their best to throw the darkness away, do you think they can? No! You can't do anything directly with darkness, because it doesn't have a positive existence. All you can do is just bring in light and darkness disappears.

In the same way, you can't remove your negative thinking by fighting with it. The more you fight, the more you will be creating negativity. With negative thinking, you can't do anything with it, because it has no positive existence. You can't try to push. If you try to suppress your negative thinking, control your negative thinking, please be very clear, you are doing the same thing as when you try to push darkness away from a room. Can you suppress darkness?

All you can do is just bring light into the room and the darkness will disappear. All we can do is just bring in positive energy, positive thoughts; simply, the negativity will disappear. As darkness disappears, the negativity will disappear. To remove darkness, bring in light. To remove negativity, bring in enlightenment, that's all!

Q) In America people have difficulty in stilling the mind for meditation. What will you tell them?

A) Not only in America, all over the world, wherever people have a mind, they have difficulty in stilling it! It is not just in America. If you are a human being with a mind, the problem is there. The very word 'mind' means that which oscillates. Somebody came and told me, 'I have too much trouble from my wife.' I told him, 'If she doesn't give you trouble, how can you call her your wife?'

Anyway, the very word 'mind' means trouble. There must be some trouble, otherwise we can't call it mind. In Sanskrit, we have a beautiful word for mind, manas. Manas means 'that which oscillates'. So all we can do to still the mind is, don't bother about it, don't try to stop it, just relax and it will also relax.

Don't create a thought; don't try to sustain a thought by supporting it nor try to destroy a thought. Just stop these three and sit with yourself. You will see there will be no-mind. If you try to create a thought, there will be mind; you will be giving power to the existence of the mind. If you try to sustain a thought by supporting it, again you are sustaining the presence of the mind. If you try to destroy a thought, again you are strengthening the presence of the mind.

When you are trying to still the mind, the first thing you try is to destroy the thoughts. By trying to destroy them, you will be creating only more thoughts. Our mind is like a lake. If somebody throws a small stone, ripples are created. If you want the ripples to settle down, if you want the silence and, if you go and try to stop the ripples by hand, what will happen? You will be creating only more and more ripples. And you will wonder why the ripples are increasing when you are trying to stop them with your hand! You will get confused and in the process, you will start creating waves instead of ripples!

That is what we usually do when we try to still our mind. Please be very clear, if someone has thrown a pebble and if ripples are created in the lake, just sit silently and see that no more pebbles are thrown. Sit silently and make sure no more pebbles are thrown. That's enough; it will become silent.

In the same way, neither create a thought nor support it by your energy nor try to destroy it. Just drop these three. Sit and you will become God, the Ultimate Energy, the Divine. In India, we call God a Trinity comprising these three parts

Creating a thought, sustaining a thought or destroying a thought; if you don't do any of these three, you enter into the consciousness of God, Super Consciousness, Christ Consciousness or whatever you may name it. You enter into that ultimate spiritual being.

So, let us pray to that Divine to help us try it once in awhile and give us that experience. Try to make some time for yourself. Try to make one appointment with yourself. We give appointments to everybody but we don't give appointments to ourselves. Please give an appointment to yourself and have a little time for yourself. Sit with yourself without creating any thought, maintaining any thought or destroying any thought. Just sit with yourself. You will see that you are sitting with God. When you sit with yourself, you will be sitting with God.

I pray to that Ultimate Divine Energy, God, to give us all the same experience of unity with him, God Consciousness. Let Him lead us all from words to silence, Eternal Bliss, nithyananda.

Thank you.

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