CHAPTER 2: ANNAMAYA KOSHA🔗

The allopathic system of medicine is related to the annamaya kosha, the physical layer. For all problems related to annamaya kosha, allopathic medicine is the best cure. Allopathic treatment plays an amazing role in all sorts of problems related to annamaya kosha. Injuries caused in accidents occur in the annamaya kosha. Intensive care, emergency care, etc are available in the treatment of annamaya kosha. It is only allopathic remedies which are useful for treating fractures and other injuries related to accidents.

The trouble starts when the layers beneath the annamaya kosha need to be treated. After trial and error with various medicines, people realised that close to 90% of illnesses were psychosomatic in nature, and it came to be accepted that allopathic medicine was not very effective for it.

Today, research on mind-body medicine is happening at a very fast pace in the world of medicine. People have begun to explore the deeper, subtle layers that are inside the physical body.

Research is being conducted on the manomaya kosha, looking deep inside the physical body, the annamaya kosha.

The physical body, which we think of as solid, is not solid at all. It is like this: The Cosmic energy is all-pervading. The various living forms, such as trees, animals and the human body, are actually different forms of the same energy.

How is it that this cosmic energy is available in various forms, yet remains one?

Let us understand this with an example.

Suppose you have a picture of a wave that is six to twelve feet high. Is this wave a truth? No! It had just risen, when the picture was taken. The next second, it would have fallen. But how huge it looked when it was at its peak! But the very next second, the same wave ceased to exist. Only in the picture, the wave seems like an independent object. Apart from the photograph, the wave would be part of a continuous motion.

Similarly, we see various objects only through the mind. We are able to see objects independently only due to the presence of our mind. If we did not have the mind, we would not be able to realise the boundary between our own body and that of a chair that is present in front of us. Everything would be seen as a whole.

People who have slipped into deep meditation say that suddenly they feel they have totally lost their self. This is because the mind becomes still. This is the case of man going beyond the mind. This is the experience when you go beyond the manomaya kosha.

One more thing: Allopathy can cure the problems that affect the outermost layer of the human body. A person has to go for allopathic remedy to fix a broken bone. However, after it has been plastered, for the actual healing to happen, the energy play has to be addressed, nurtured.

There is a popular quote amongst the doctors: ‘Doctor Stitches, God Heals!’

God is the all-pervading, pure form of energy. God is neither an individual nor a character as we think. If we are able to connect to this pure form of energy, then we can maintain eternal youth. The energy called God is available aplenty in every single layer of our body. However, it gets filtered as it passes through each of the layers.

The divine energy is overflowing in the deepest kosha, which is the anandamaya kosha. It is reduced in the vignanamaya kosha and gets lesser and lesser as it comes towards the outer layer.

The medical system suitable for Annamaya Kosha is Allopathy.

The medical system suitable for Pranamaya Kosha is Yogasana and Pranayama.

The medical system suitable for Manonmaya Kosha is Homoeopathy.

The medical system suitable for Vignanamaya Kosha is Nature Cure and Ayurveda.

The medical system suitable for Anandamaya Kosha is Energy Healing like our Nithya Spiritual Healing. Only the healing touch of the master or the healing energy passed through divine meditation, can heal the problems related to anandamaya kosha.

So, please sit up with your spine straight in line with your neck and head. We will start the process on the first layer. Let us now work on the first layer that is the annamaya kosha. The layer that is the physical layer - the body which you are carrying now, the body made of flesh and bones and blood.

Annamaya kosha is the material part of Creation. Whether it is a tree or a rock or man, all these have the annamaya kosha in addition to having different degrees of consciousness. This kosha is the gross manifestation of energy as matter, in different proportions and strengths. It is the first layer of skin, muscle tissue, bones and organs. It is called the gross body, the tangible part of yourself that you can mostly see, touch, and feel.

You have actually created this body of yours out of so many engrams, or samskaras, or engraved memories, belonging to past lives. The base material out of which you created this body is your engraved memories or samskaras. Engraved memory means the memory out of which you do all the actions, including your thinking. The engraved memories or samskaras are the base material out of which you have created this body. If you ask me whether I believe in a person having many births, I don't just believe, I know it is the truth. You go through many births. The samskaras which you collect in the many different births - out of that you create your body for this birth. Two things you need to understand: all samskaras or engrams will have a certain power, a certain energy in them. There will be an energy and a certain love or hatred attached to it. Let me describe this engram concept very clearly so that you will understand what I am trying to convey. Let us take some engram: for example the engram to have a cup of coffee as soon as you get up in the morning. When you get up in the morning, you will have that urge to get up, go to the kitchen, pick up the coffee and drink. The picture of coffee and the experience of coffee - both these put together is what is called samskara. Now, we are trying to remove the picture and give the energy alone to you. If you remove the engraved memory completely, you will lose both the energy and the picture. But when you work on the annamaya kosha, the memory's energy will be there, but the pictures will disappear! The vasanas will be removed but the shakti or the power of the samskara will stay with you. Vasana refers to the object that created the samskara in the first place. It is like the seed. Shakti is the power of the samskara. Removing vasana but not the power of the samskara, is called Self-actualization. Understand: Self-realization can be achieved in two ways: by completely removing the samskara and the energy. This is the path of renunciation; or, by having the energy but not the vasana. This is the path of self-actualization.

Now, by working on the anandamaya kosha, you will be having the power but not the pictures.

The vedic way of putting the theory of evolution is the most beautiful way. Understand: Charles Darwin missed an important point in the theory of evolution. If Darwin had caught a little bit of the energy of enlightenment, the whole history of the West might have been different! He took the monkey as the father figure; there lies the problem! The vedic tradition says, man came down from God! Darwin says, man came down from the monkey! The throne is given to God in one tradition and to the monkey in another tradition. Whoever you put on the throne - you will remember and live like them. That is why Darwin missed the game. He did not catch the exact thread.

Again, Sigmund Freud, after 40 years of research, concluded that human beings, as such, can't be helped or healed! After 40 years of research, he said this. The problem is, he did not get a single enlightened specimen to work with! He worked only with patients, with sick people, who had not experienced the flowering of enlightenment and hence the totality of being a human. So, he was led to conclude that that was the normal state. He concluded that man, as such, was sick, and hence can never be helped or healed!

A follower of Sigmund Freud went to Tiruvannamalai, a spiritual nerve-center in South India, and my native place. He was afraid to meet enlightened master Ramana Maharishi and so came away without meeting Him. He writes, 'I was afraid I would be lost in His presence. I have done too much research, and I have too much investment in my beliefs. All my beliefs might disappear if I meet Him and sit in His presence.' Just see his mind game! It clearly shows that he was not a true scientist! He was just a marketing person; one who sells himself, not one who works for the truth. Understand: if you are a scientist, and you sign an agreement with a company, you are completely bound. The moment you sign an agreement, you give up your freedom to research the real truth. Then, you are no more a scientist. You are not a true seeker. In the same way, this man had lost the truth. In olden days in India, there was a taxi which you had to push half the distance and the other half, it would go by itself! This man writes in his reminiscences, 'Such a taxi came to take me to Ramana Maharishi's place. That morning, some fear gripped me and I simply took the taxi and ran away to Chennai. From there, I came back.' He went all the way and was just half an hour's distance away from Ramana. If he had met Bhagwan, the whole Western analysis of human psychology might have been different. They would have enjoyed the science of enlightenment!

You see: these people have done enough research in the waking state, dream state and deep sleep state, but they missed the samadhi state! If only they had one enlightened specimen, they would have been flabbergasted by the results! They would have had real fun with science, defying the results recorded!

In the vedic tradition, evolution is linked to the different avatars of Vishnu. The first is considered to be the fish body. You are born as a fish. You accumulate some samskaras through a few incidents when you are a fish. Then, you see a tortoise going around. You see a better possibility in the body of the tortoise. You decide: next time I create, I will create a body like that. A tortoise can live in water and on land. Then, when you are in the tortoise body, you see a better and bigger body, like that of a pig or some other animal. Then you decide, 'The next time I create a body, I will create that kind of a body.' So when you die, you create the next level - that is the pig body. As this cycle happens, you evolve, and also collect different engrams or samskaras every time you take birth anew. You raise the frequency of the system, or the body, every time you are given a chance to create or design. This same sequence, you can see in the incarnations of Lord Vishnu as well! First, it is the matsya avatar – the fish incarnation, then the tortoise, then the pig, then half-man, half-animal, then the pigmy man, then the primitive man, then the civilized man like Rama, who is dharmic. Lastly, even beyond civilization, there is the civilized poorna avatar – the completely enlightened being, who is not bound by any rules and regulations, who is just radiating joy, energy and enlightenment. It is this evolution that happens in man also. Step by step, different kinds of beings happen. At every stage, you collect samskaras and design a body, when you are given an option, in a better way. This is the process of the evolution of the physical body, and the intelligence of evolution.

Anyhow, let us both work together. Let us not hate each other until the process is over. This is a very important thing, so understand and remember this statement deeply. Let us not hate each other till the end of the program. I say this because, when the master starts doing his work on you, burning all your cancerous points, the points where you have invested your ego, you will experience hatred towards him. Right now, this may seem impossible to you, but when the work starts, you will be surprised!

During these few days, your food will be a little delayed, your sleep will also be a little delayed. Please bear with it. This is required, because if you are caught in your regular routine for these few days, your second and third layer energies can't be awakened. You cannot be brought back to life from your deep sleep. So understand the whole truth, only then will you be able to enter into the process.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says of himself, ‘Even seeing me is like a glimpse of enlightenment for a person!’ He used to go to Calcutta in a horse carriage. He lived a very joyful life - picnicking, going out, jumping, dancing, etc. He did not undertake the responsibility of a mission during his lifetime. Ramakrishna Mission was not created by Ramakrishna. He initiated around 60 disciples. When he died, only they gathered. He says, ‘Even if someone sees me accidentally, they don’t even have to understand that I am enlightened. Even if they just see me casually, they are blessed!’ You might think: how can that be? It sounds too egoistic. It is like me saying that if my car is standing at the signal and another car comes next to my car, if the person in the other car just happens to turn and look at me, he is blessed! He doesn’t have to understand that I am enlightened. He does not even have to think that I am a holy man. Just a casual glimpse is enough! Ramakrishna says he is blessed! How can that be? When you understand how to design your body after death, you will understand this statement.

A small incident from Ramakrishna’s life:

One day, suddenly, he permitted his photograph to be taken. He selected one of the three photographs and said, ‘Please make prints of this photo. This is going to be worshipped by thousands of people.’ Ramakrishna kept the print in the prayer room, and worshipped the photograph. The people who saw this were confused by this act of Ramakrishna and asked him the reason. Ramakrishna explained that he was in the samadhi state when that picture was taken, and hence it had become the very form of Parashakthi (cosmic energy), which could be worshipped.

Another interesting story from the life of Krishna:

Once, Krishna and Arjuna were walking in the forest, after the Mahabharata war was over. Suddenly, Arjuna said, 'Krishna! You told me so much in the Bhagavad Gita during the war. You delivered such beautiful aphorisms. But because I was feeling deeply troubled at that time, I am unable to remember them all clearly. Can you please repeat it to me now? I will absorb it deeply in my mind.'

Krishna replied casually, 'What? You do not remember! Even I do not remember anything now!'

Arjuna was perplexed. He asked, 'What are you saying Krishna? How is it that you yourself don't remember what you said?'

Krishna replied, 'Yes Arjuna, I would have remembered if I had told you all the sutras myself.'

Now Arjuna was even more perplexed and said, 'Krishna, do not confuse me. It is you who told me the seven hundred verses during the war. If you say that you did not tell me, then who did?'

Krishna replied calmly, 'All that was said was not spoken by me, but by the Parabrahma Krishna – the cosmic Krishna! The Krishna who is talking to you now is Vasudeva Krishna – Vasudeva's son!'

Through these stories, understand that the physical body of enlightened masters is not their own. Whatever they do with their physical body is only through divinity. They are a pure channel for Existence to flow. That is why getting even a glimpse of them is enough in a lifetime.

Understand: whatever samskaras you collect when you are alive, gets recorded in you, even if you have not paid conscious attention while collecting them. For example, let us say that you were driving your car, and on the way, some accident or some loud expression of grief was happening in the road. You did not really observe much; you just drove past quickly. Consciously, you may not have even registered the car number, the color of the clothing of the person, or the face of the person who was involved in the accident. But, if you are hypnotized, you will tell the exact car number, the color of the clothing, the person's face, etc! What does this mean? It means that, even if you don't pay attention to the scenes in your life, there is a system inside you which records anything and everything happening around you! Anything happening around you is getting recorded inside.

When you leave the body, all the things which gets recorded in your entire life will replay in front of you. Like an option, your mind will ask what you want to pick up. See, by natural intelligence, you know that the body of an enlightened being which is there in your memory is the best body to choose. But you choose only out of whatever is available in front of you. When you are living as a fish, if you have seen a tortoise even once, you will choose only a tortoise! From the fish stage, you can only take one jump at a time - like the zoning system in USA! Only one jump at a time. There is nothing else you can do. But the next jump you take, will be based on the best information available, the best data available.

One important thing: the onlooker, the man who got a glimpse of an enlightened being during his previous birth, may not recognize that he is enlightened, but after death, the memory will show him very clearly that he had the darshan - glimpse - of an enlightened person. This happens because that memory alone will shine! At the time of death, that will be in multicolour, while everything else will be in black and white!

Yes…any questions till now?

Q: Some people are born blind or handicapped. Why is that? Did they consciously choose it to be so?

A: Yes. They consciously chose. I was once healing an autistic child in America. The child was born and brought up in a Telugu speaking family. When I put my hand on the child to heal, the child started talking to me in singular Tamil, a child who was 4 years old! He spoke to me, ‘Remove your hand.’ I slowly asked him, ‘Why are you asking me not to heal you? Don’t you know that I am here only to heal you?’ He replied, ‘Yes, but I don’t want to get healed. I am the owner of this body. I have consciously decided to take such a body.’ I asked him why. He replied, ‘I am not interested in taking the responsibility of going to school, going for a job, etc. I hate this civilization. I just want to rest and relax. I don’t want anything to do with the so called civilized life. That is why I chose autism.’ I told him, ‘But your parents are suffering. They are such nice people. They are suffering because of you. Why did you decide to be born to them?’ He replied, ‘Only because they were nice people, I chose to be born to them! They will take good care of me.’ Remember: he was answering all these things logically in Tamil! The whole family was looking baffled and troubled because this boy was talking in Tamil so fluently! Not a single person among them knew Tamil. I don't want to reveal the identity for privacy reasons, but this incident actually happened.

Your birth is your conscious decision, your conscious choice, the reason for which only you know. Sometimes, a particular part of the body might have been involved in some activity which you did not like, so you will renounce that part of the body when you take birth the next time. Just because of hatred towards that activity, you renounce that part of the body itself! It is true!

Q: Even if we do the mistake just once, will we renounce that part of the body?

A: If that one instance created a strong memory, then yes, you will renounce it.

You see: when you leave the body, and you are about to choose the next body, all the cards will be in front of you. Naturally, you will pick up only the master Card. You will say, 'I have played with all other cards like Visa Card, etc....now I want to play only with the master Card. You would have got tired with all the other types of cards. So you decide, it is time to pick up the master Card. That is why Ramakrishna says that even seeing an enlightened master casually is a blessing! It is a blessing.

Never take an enlightened master's darshan for granted. Working with him or knowing that he is enlightened is secondary. Just understand that getting a glimpse is a blessing. The entire planet earth does not have more than 2000 enlightened masters. When I say 2000, I am also including all those persons who are claiming that they are enlightened also. If there are 2000 enlightened beings on earth, what are your chances of meeting one in a single lifetime? Half a million is the maximum number of people you might see in your lifetime. In 6.5 billion population of the world, half a million is about 10%! So understand: you are clearly blessed to be a part of that 10%. Don't take yourself for granted. Don't think that having darshan of a master is a casual thing. Further, in that 10%, probably only 0.1% will work with him – like going to his meditation camps, sitting around him, etc. Even setting your eyes on him for a brief moment, puts you in the 10% category! Just imagine! So don't take yourself for granted. It is a very dangerous attitude. Be very clear: you are blessed.

When you choose the next body, you will sit and try to recall the best physiological structure that you have seen in your entire life. You will analyze the best physiological structure possible and naturally, the enlightened physiology is the best! Human beings are the best physiological structures as of now. And naturally, out of whatever human structures you collected in your lifetime, the best will be the enlightened physiology. It is the physiology that does not bother much about food, eating, the outer world; that which is established in bliss and ecstasy. You see all this, and naturally you say, 'O God! This seems to be a very strong and beautiful physiological structure. Let me choose to work for this.'

Either you may choose the enlightened physiology for yourself, or you may choose to live around that kind of an enlightened being, to be in the same space as that being. But your next decision, the decision of your next birth, will be very strongly towards enlightened physiology. So Ramakrishna's words are true. Even casually seeing an enlightened master is a blessing. At face value, it may sound egoistic. Only if you look inside logically and understand, you will know that it is a blessing. When I read this before enlightenment, it looked egoistic. When I got enlightened, I clearly understood what it was! Either you are on this side of the game, or on that side of the game. But blessed are those who understand the real inside view of this game, who understand the ideas or truths underlying the game.

You don't even have to wait till death to create an enlightened physiology. If you are seeing me now, you can pick up the master Card rightaway! You see: every night your sleep is actually death for you. Every day you wake up; it is a new birth for you. If you look a little deeply, every ingoing breath is birth and every outgoing breath is death. Every moment, you are actually dying and taking birth. If you understand this, you don't have to wait till death to create an enlightened physiology. You can start right away!

You can create the enlightened physiology NOW. How to do it?

Two steps to create an enlightened physiology: the difference between your physiological structure and the enlightened person's physiology is that he does not carry the samskaras from so many births; he has burned everything. So, you also can renounce all the samskaras brought from animal body to human body. Basically, the samskaras that you bring from the animal bodies are violence and greed – that give rise to sex and fear. Because animals don't have a mind, they don't have intelligence, they have only instinct. But they have true instinct. They can save themselves from any survival threat. Also, they can reproduce themselves through physical relationship - sex. They don't do anything else. Your body, the base material for your body, is basically made up of these two engrams – fear and greed. If you can enter into the animal body again, and release these two engrams, your body will be ready, purified, to be programmed for enlightened physiology.

Understand: there are two steps. One is throwing away the engrams you brought from the animal body and other births. The second is, programming your body to have an enlightened physiology - a more positive and energetic physiology. The first part is cleaning, and the second part is programming. Cleaning, you will do. Programming is my part. I will do it. I always do my job in the best way, so don't bother! I will do my job. Programming is my job. You just do the cleaning part. Now we will do both the parts.

In the first part, become the same animal that you were. How will you know from which animal you took birth, from which animal you took this jump? In India, they have a technique based on your time of birth. They will predict the animal from which you took birth! It is part of the science of astrology. How many of you have studied your own horoscope? If you have, you will know your animal. There are 27 nakshatras or planets. For each planet, there will be an associated animal. Usually, only from the 5-sensed animal, you will take a jump to the 6-sensed human form. So among the 5-sensed animals, they very clearly categorize and classify the animals. But now, how do you tell from which animal you took birth? Just close your eyes, and start visualizing; whichever animal comes spontaneously is the animal.

Yes…I think someone wants to ask a question in the back row?

Q: You said that you disagree with Darwin when he said we came from animals. Now you are asking us to believe that we took birth from an animal.

A: I am not disagreeing with Darwin in the theory that man came from the monkey. I am disagreeing with the part where he says where we will proceed. He spoke of only the physical body level. He did not say that there is a part of the human being that has come from the Divine! Understand now: your whole being has not come from the monkey. If that was the case, there is no way of saving yourself. There is some part of you that has come from the Divine. He forgot to touch that part. He forgot to look into that part. He decided straightaway and put the monkey on the throne! From the monkey body, you brought only your engrams, not your consciousness! Your consciousness, you brought from the Divine. This has to be clearly understood. The whole game is about your consciousness. The body is just the vehicle.

According to Darwin, all the systems developed in the West, say that you are just the body. They say you are just a bio-mechanism. No, you are not! You are not just a bio-mechanism. The basic mistake Allopathy did, was to declare that you are a bio-mechanism. If we are just a bio-mechanism, then the person who is dead, and whose body parts are not touched and removed, the medicine put into his body and the medicine put into a living body, should cause the same reaction, is it not? Why is it not so in reality?

There are so many ways in which I can explain why we are not just a bio-mechanism. We are something more than a bio-mechanism. We are not just monkeys. There is an ingredient in us which is taken from the ultimate Divine Energy. You are not just monkeys put together or animals put together. No!

One more thing: today's medication looks at the human body as a combination of several independent parts such as hands, legs, head, etc. If we take the field of dentistry, I am told that there are seven areas in that field! Just imagine: one mouth and seven areas! These seven areas have been further split and have become nine now, I am told. As they specialize deeper, the nine might become eleven. This is the status now, in India. In the West, the specialization is even more.

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

Whenever any cure approaches a disease from the outside, the cure can never be total, because the body is not made up of independent parts; it is a whole and holy system. Meditation is what looks at the outside from within. Meditation approaches the body in its totality. There is nothing like meditation separately for the head, hand or stomach. Any meditation technique energises the whole body; the whole body benefits from it. Medical science has grown vastly, with specializations, but medication, along with meditation, is what will restore a positive well-being-ness in the person as such.

We must first understand that the disease is not caused by disorder in any particular organ. Disease is related to the whole body. When only the diseased part is treated, the cause for the disease still remains inside the body; it will not be eliminated. Since medical science looks at curing only affected body parts, the simple approach of eliminating the root cause of the disease is missed. Why did this approach of dividing the body into parts come into practice? The reason is that there are many mysteries about the body, which science still does not understand. Many functions of the body remain unexplained.

Whether we understand the body parts or not, it is important to understand these five vital layers in our bodies, which are called koshas. It is difficult to understand these five koshas as they are of a subtle nature, and based on spirituality. Since we are used to analysing everything through scientific methods, let us try to understand these five koshas scientifically.

Let us take the example of an electric cable. What is inside the electric cable? Copper wire. What is inside the copper wire? Electricity. What is electricity made of? Electricity is made of electrons. What are electrons made of? Electrons are made of vibrations and information. What constitutes the information and the vibrations? It is all energy!

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

You can use this example to visualise the five koshas.

Now, we are going to work on the physical and outermost layer in which the animal engrams are engraved; we are going to work and cleanse that part. But that does not mean you are only that. You are a mixture of these two. When you clean and release the animal part, the conscious parts start shining or flowering inside you. That is the whole purpose. Now, I hope you understand what I am saying. I think you are clear.

Let us start the work now. You don't even have to know which animal you came from. The animal from which you took birth will automatically come out. Greed and fear are almost the same for all animals. It will be more intense than your human greed and fear, that's all. You can see whenever you are caught in fear and greed that all your civilization suddenly disappears! You feel like an animal! When you are filled with fear or lust, immediately, the animal in you comes out. You become just like an animal. All your civilization, your title, your name, etc, disappear. If you tell someone to video record you when you are expressing your fear or greed, and watch it later, you may even have a fear stroke watching it! Or you may get into an inferiority complex just watching it.

So, instead of unconsciously falling everyday into the animal body, let us fall consciously into it now, and release everything. Let us get rid of it. It is a very powerful process. Take any animal's body, become just that. No one is going to watch you. No video recording is happening here. No photography is happening here. No one will look at you. Everyone's eyes will be closed. Just become that animal and bring yourself to the peak of fear and greed. Just feel the lust and survival fear. React in the way you feel that the animal will react. Let your whole body shiver. Be filled with violence. Be filled with greed. Let your whole body boil with those engrams. Let them all come out. Only then, will programming you be possible for me. Understand that. Unless the strong animal engrams in you leave your system, unless the pashu (animal nature) leaves you, you cannot become Pashupati! (Pashupati is a form of Lord Shiva).

Understand: you have got so many samskaras from the animal layer, because you never allowed them to become reality. These samskaras are expressed in your everyday life. You can see it surfacing even when you are eating sometimes. You can see it, when you are angry. When you are really angry, the animal engrams express through you. Sometimes, it may even frighten you. You might wonder, 'What am I doing? What is going on? Why am I so aggressive?' Understand: till you allow the animal inside you to be completely fulfilled and relaxed, you can't escape from it. It should be allowed to come out completely. It should be allowed to actualize itself.

These animal engrams are so powerful. They are called prarabdha karmas. This prarabdha karma is so powerful. If you allow them to work through you, they will empower you. If you suppress them, they will constantly depress you. You will be fighting with them all the time. Whatever quality you are fighting with, in whatever way you are fighting with yourself, these animal engrams are responsible for it. If you are fighting to control your anger, if you are fighting to stop smoking, if you are fighting to stop drinking, everything is directly connected to this annamaya kosha, the animal memories; the samskaras which you brought from the animal layer. Even for any addiction, if you are fighting with yourself, the responsibility is this annamaya kosha's. Whatever may be the reason for the fight with yourself, the responsibility is the samskaras which you bring from the animal body.

Now, we are going to give the opportunity for all those samskaras to leave you; all those personalities, the animal layers which you brought with you, to leave you. The animal in you has to leave you; only then you can become God; only then, the consciousness can shine in you. As long as you are having the physical layer of animal engrams, any small disturbance is enough to awaken that in you; you are there, ready like an animal. See for yourself, how many times in your house, animal-like fights go on when the tempers rise! Look back in your life to see how many times the violent animal nature in you expresses itself. Even though you do not want it, it simply expresses, and later, you regret. Sometimes, during this meditation, people tell me, ‘I don’t feel like becoming any animal. I don’t feel I was any animal. I don’t feel anything is coming out.’ I tell them, ‘Then you must have been a buffalo!’ At least become a buffalo and act like one. Use your hand as its tail and drive the flies away! At least become that buffalo.

In the ancient traditional vedic system, before the Gayatri initiation – the initiation into the prayer for awakening the innate intelligence in the child – he will be made to live in this mriga shareera or animal body for six months. In today’s modern world, the whole system has disappeared. It has been simply washed away. We can forgive all the injustice done to India in the name of war and plundering; we can forgive even the damage done to our wonderful ancient temples, because they can be rebuilt. But we cannot forgive the destruction of our vedic education system, the vedic tradition that got destroyed during foreign rule. Nearly two hundred thousand vedic gurukul centers or universities were there in South India alone. Two lakh gurukuls were there in South India alone. Now there are hardly six thousand. In the vedic tradition, when a child takes birth, they will clearly predict, from which animal the child took birth, and what samskaras he is carrying. They will help the child release those samskaras in his young age itself. Yoga is also one of the ways to release these engrams. That is why each asana or posture is related to one particular animal in a certain way. The posture is a technique to release the associated engrams. Then, when the body becomes graceful and pure, they will program it with the Gayatri initiation, with the mantra and with the energy.

The whole system was lost because the gurukul system was lost. Now, even the so-called Brahmins, who wear the yagnopavita (sacred white thread), do not know anything of these long-lost traditions. They don't even know why they wear that thread. The science is largely lost. Earlier, by age ten, you are expected to finish all these things. Now, I am giving you a half hour opportunity to live like the vedic times. If you do this meditation intensely, understand, not a single engram will remain in you.

In those times, an enlightened master would guide the whole process and tell the children individually, which animal engram he took birth from. They would ask him to eat in the same way as that animal; live in the same way; create sounds in the same way. The child would become almost that! There is a beautiful story of a boy Satyakama japa in the Chandogya Upanishad. His spiritual name is Shwetaketu. I have spoken on this story in the discourse entitled 'The Happening'. He took birth from a cow's engrams. Following the master's instruction, he went away and lived with cows for a few years, until they multiplied into 1000 cows, and then came back. As soon as he came back, with just a single word from the master, he became enlightened! So understand: this is a very powerful process. Of course, unfortunately in today's rat race, we don't have six months to live like animals, but at least this next thirty minutes, we can live intensely to release our animal engrams. Even if you bring out most part of the lust and greed in you, it is enough. The other smaller samskaras, I can take care of. From your side, just work towards removing strong and heavy samskaras like lust, anger and fear. When you get fear out, your whole body will be shivering. Just visualize how an animal shivers and shiver in the same way. In the tips of your nails and teeth, you will feel violence. Even now, sometimes you can feel this when you look at your in-laws, mother-in-law especially! And this is the case mostly in India. In USA, the relationship between the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law is much better because when they meet, they have time only for work - like babysitting etc. When the mother-in-law babysits, some responsibility is temporarily taken away from the daughter-in-law for those few hours, so she is very happy. Also, they meet only occasionally, so it is not a problem.

Bring out the whole animal emotion in a live way. Relive and relieve. Re-living is relieving. Choose any one animal. Suddenly you will see two to three animals coming out. Let all of them come out. Just become each animal and live it out completely, that's all. To start with, just feel your head. From your head to your toe, think that you have become the animal. I will guide you step by step. Just one thing, you shouldn't disturb the person next to you.

You might experience a lot of pain and discomfort discarding your identity as a human while doing the meditation. Your pain is nothing but the fight between your animal samskaras and the higher civilization samskaras. When the higher civilization happens to you, when you become civilized, a big layer of conditioning and engrams are kept on you. The fight between the civilization engrams and the animal engrams causes pain and discomfort in your body. If you are just animal, you will not have pain. If you are just human, you will not have pain. When these two start fighting inside you, you start feeling the suffocation.

For example, you will never find a buffalo having knee pain. Fortunately, they are not educated by television. They don't see the advertisements that say: if you have knee pain, call now! They don't see the tablet advertisements that keep calling your attention to an imaginary headache and offer relief from it. If you watch this commercial few times, you will have a headache. You don't have to do anything else. You just need to see the commercial three times, that's all.

Anyhow, the fight between the engrams of civilization and engrams of animals is the pain and suffocation inside your body. If you have asthma problem, just breathe like that particular animal; your asthma will simply disappear! When the engrams of civilization and the engrams of the animal fight with each other, the breathing system starts suffering. Understand one thing: when I make such statements, I am responsible for it. I don't make any indefinite statements. In the last four and half years of the mission, I have worked with almost 1.2 million disciples; at least a hundred thousand patients I have worked with. I don't think any doctor can claim he has worked with hundred thousand patients till now! When I say I worked with these numbers, I mean I have healed them! At least 1.2 million persons have had spiritual initiation or healing. At least a hundred thousand persons have been healed. With that experience, I am telling you, just altering the way of breathing, will heal your asthma. When I make all these statements, I am responsible for them and I mean what I say. Out of the hundred thousand persons, at least ten thousand have been cancer patients.

Let me give you an example for samskara. Every morning at 7 o' clock, if you have the habit of having coffee, as soon as it is seven, the bell inside you will ring for coffee even if you are not looking at the clock. The memory, which makes you do the same activity again and again, is called samskara or engram. Your walking, talking, standing - everything is based on samskara. If you notice, you do all these things in pretty much the same way. There is no variation.

So just visualize the animal first. With the visualization itself so many things will start happening in you. Just become arrogant and violent and express it. Make enough space around you. When you hit another body, just move away, that's all. Moreover, I am going to be here; so I will manage the process.

Start with one animal; you will see that two or three animals come out slowly. Live out all the possible emotions. Just become that particular animal and you will see that all the samskaras come out. Every animal has the survival instinct. There is no animal that does not have fear or greed. There is only one animal, or you can say only one being, that has no fear and greed, and that is an enlightened being!

Only from an animal you have taken the jump to a human being. In your previous birth, you may have been a human being, but those samskaras we are not going to bother about now. We want to touch the root from where you took the jump to the human form - and that is the animal form. That is the base material. We are trying to cut that thread so that everything gets dispersed. Just like all pearls are strung on one piece of thread, this base material that is fear and greed, from where you took the jump, is the thread on which all samskaras are strung. If you just cut that thread, everything will get dispersed!

Understand one thing: it is the samskaras which you brought from the animal life that are haunting you; the animal itself is not haunting you. The same animals might be your pets, but the animalistic engrams are harmful for you. It is a disturbance on the path to enlightenment. In enlightenment, you cannot have any engrams - whether animal or human.

One more thing: you can pick any animal; the instinct of that animal will simply start opening up. That's enough. All we need is the instinct that is lust, greed or fear to open up in you. Literally, the shivering, or the survival threat, or the intense energy flow of lust, should happen in you, just like animals. If that happens, it is enough. The next process, I will take care of.

Understand: express the emotions intensely through action; don't just visualize and leave them.

Whether you are battling with anger, or lust, or greed, any emotion which makes you fight with yourself, anything which you think you are not able to handle, are only from those animals. For example, if you are not able to control your anger, now enter into any animal body. For example, you may feel connected with a lion. Just become a lion and be angry like a lion, literally! Nobody is going to see you; no photography and no videography will be done here. Just become that animal. You don't know how powerful this process will be; how it will liberate you from so many problems that you are literally dying with. You may be suffering with a particular emotion for the past ten to twelve years. This one session is enough to liberate you from it! I tell you: this one session will simply heal you. I have seen people coming out of not just physical diseases, but years of addiction and mental problems, like lack of self-onfidence, etc. You see: you don't have self-confidence, only because you are not able to win yourself; you are not able to do what you want to do within you. All those difficulties are because you have not completely expelled the animal engrams. Now, all these will simply disappear. They will just melt away when this animal is given the satisfaction, when this animal feels completely total and leaves your system.

Understand: right now, your human existence, the human body, is not completely owned by you. You are not the complete owner of the body which you are having. That is why you are not able to completely control it. There are so many entities who are sitting inside your body without paying rent! Each one is saying, 'This is my portion, get out!' These entities start fighting with each other, and you are unable to do anything about it. You are like a man who is married to four or five women! Sometimes, you talk on behalf of the first wife, sometimes on behalf of the second! Whoever is in front of you at that moment, demanding your attention, you talk on their behalf! That is what is happening.

We are working on the major portion of the prarabdha karma which you brought with you when you created this body. That is what working with the annamaya kosha means. We are working with the base metal, the base material with which you created the first layer. Then, we will work one by one on the next layers.

So assume any one animal form. You don't have to wonder which is the right animal for you. All you need to do is break from the idea that you are a human being, that's all. Once you break from it, the whole thing will come out. These are all very esoteric and mystical processes, done only when a disciple is really interested and intensely wants to experience the higher consciousness or enlightenment. That is why these methods are not available, in common, for the masses. You may think that you have never read about this in your scriptures. Understand: in religion, you will never learn this. Only in spirituality, you will learn this. These are methods from the esoteric traditions where the science of enlightenment is kept alive, where the living stream is maintained. Fortunately, it is still available and you are fortunate to drink that divine nectar from the very source!

You may wonder: what will I gain out of this process? Once you experience, you will know. I have seen so many people coming out of arthritis; so many disorders related to the body, that they get relief from. They go through this process just once, and they come out of the disease! People come out of so many sexual disorders after one session of this meditation. The problem is really nothing. You have not allowed the animal which is in you to live and leave you, that's all. You have not liberated the animal from your system. You might have taken the human body, but you never liberated the animal! You never allowed those engrams to completely come out of your being, out of your system. So, they sit inside and rule you day and night. When they are inside you, they don't keep quiet. They will simply rule your whole life. They directly or indirectly guide your whole life and all your activities.

Just enter into the process; you will see the relief, or the new space, or the new energy which happens in you. Unless you enter into it, you will not have the confidence to do it. You might have so many questions such as how can I do this kind of meditation, etc. All this is because you have never imagined yourself becoming some animal! Even when kids play animal games, when they imagine they have become an elephant and walk on all fours, you just laugh at them.

Sometimes, people remain frozen during this meditation. They don't want to get out of their frozen identity. They will just sit, and make some humming sound. They must have been buffalos in their previous births! Understand: this is not even a technique. It is a process which needs your 100% commitment.

Even in techniques, I have seen: when I say hum as intensely as possible, people don't hum with intensity at all. So be very clear: if you do that here, we will conclude that you were a buffalo. Actually, I should not say 'you were', you are! Then, at least sit in that buffalo body which usually sits silently with legs crossed and chewing something all the time.

Sometimes, you may feel like an animal which you have never heard of, or seen before. Let everything come out. Just live as that, that's all. Move your body, or do any activity just like that animal. Don't just keep quiet. No animal will keep quiet.

Only human beings will keep quiet. No animal will usually keep quiet. It will be doing something all the time. It will at least be moving its body all the time except during the time it sleeps.

All the emotions which give you the peak experience - like anger, lust, etc, should be lived inside that animal body, because all your peak experiences are driven only by those animal samskaras.

Only one thing: don't disturb the person next to you. You shouldn't touch the person next to you. Otherwise, you are free to do anything; you will see that it is an intense catharsis of samskaras. Don't think that this is just a psychological catharsis. In techniques for psychological catharsis, they ask you to shout and scream and punch the bag. That catharsis is just for emotions. This is catharsis for the samskaras, for the kosha itself. We are working with the very base. This will be a thousand times more effective than any psychological catharsis. Psychological catharsis is like cosmetic surgery. But with this, your complete personality will be transformed!

Those who have heart problems, or have had recent surgery, or any major health problem, or women who are pregnant, please refrain from doing this technique. You can come and sit on the side here, and I will guide you all, through separate instructions.

Just express the whole thing. Let the whole body act out and release those engrams from the system. Once it comes out, it will leave your system forever. When it is brought to consciousness, it will leave you. So make enough space for a zoo! And do not be near your husband or wife!

(Meditation starts...and ends)

Om Nithyanandam

Relax. You can open your eyes.

Please remain silent for the next half an hour, so that the silence can work on you. Do not talk. Please be silent. If you use any words, the process will be disturbed. Do not use any words. We will gather here for the next session after one hour. I want all of you to be back here, in one hour's time.

Thank you.

The group gathers again.

(Questions to do with the animal body meditation have been grouped together for convenience)

Q: During the animal meditation, you said to make sounds like an animal, but I didn't take up an animal like that. I was imagining being a fish.

A: That is not a problem. If your body is alive, that is enough. Fish don't make any audible sound, do they? They might be making sounds, but we don't normally hear them.

Q: Swamiji, I had a vision a couple of times during the meditation. Does it mean that I must have taken that particular animal body in my previous birth? A: Yes, surely. If it was a clear vision, a clear picture, then surely it is a samskara. It means that those engrams are coming out. You see: your prarabdha is like a Pandora's box; when you open each layer, the next will emerge. It is good that you really opened one layer. Good job. If you had at least one violent experience for a few seconds, if you lost the idea that you were a man for even one second, then you have been successful; you have done it!

See, I have an idealistic goal, as well an actual goal, for this workshop. The idealistic goal is: you getting enlightened. The actual goal is like this: I know to what extent you will do the meditations and open up. The technology itself is powerful enough to make you enlightened, but your capability to experience that technology, your capability to put yourself into it, I am aware of...so with that, I have a practical goal also for you. At least, you will have good rejuvenation and release the engrams which you use in your day-to-day life.

The engrams with which you suffer day-to-day are the simple and basic diseases like insomnia, tiredness or chronic fatigue, addictions, etc. Also, you will experience intense joy or excitement. Physical and mental healing is the practical goal. The ideological goal is enlightenment.

This opening that you feel, for even one second, this feeling of being disconnected from your identity that you are a man, itself will release these basic engrams which are constantly bothering your life now. You see, the moment you lose your balance, emotions like anger or lust, will surface. Those engrams will come out first. Those layers will be healed first.

Even that will give you so much benefit. That itself will take care of you so much. That is the purpose. So even for a few moments, if you completely forgot that you had a human body, you have done it!

Q: During the animal body meditation this time, I felt like an eagle and many other birds. But I felt strongly about the monkey. It was the only animal that I felt experientially.

A: It means that in one of your previous births, when you took the jump from animal to human form, you must have been a monkey. You might have taken three or four human births prior to this. But just before taking the first human form, the animal from which you took that jump, would have been the monkey!

Q: I got really aggressive during the animal meditation. I just didn't want to let it go until I felt the last drop of it had come out of me. When it happened, I felt like it was finished.

A: Beautiful! You will see from now on, that when you become angry, or when you are possessed by lust, you will not have violence; you will not have the animal nature in you. You will have beautiful grace! When you start expelling all the animal engrams in the path of enlightenment, your body will start acquiring such grace.

Actually in our ashrams, the big problem is that the ashramites don't take me seriously even if I become angry. Even if I shout at them, they will go behind my back and discuss amongst themselves, 'He looks so beautiful even when he shouts!' The problem is, the enlightened body language, because it is devoid of any samskaras, is packed with so much grace, that it is difficult to show violence in it. Even when we try to show violence, it will not come through as real violence! That is the problem.

Anyhow, you will see that you will not be able to have violence anymore. Even when you become angry, you will not have the monkey violence which was in you all these days. One more thing: even if you get angery, you will be able to quickly recover from it also. See … when the monkey was sitting inside you, your anger might have taken two days to settle down. But now, when the animal is not there in you, you might become angry, but the next moment it will just disappear! That is the tremendous transformation that this meditation does in you.

Your annamaya kosha, your physical body, is not just your body. It is a collection of so many prints together. Now, we are working to make the physical body as your own body, that’s all. We are working to bring the whole thing under your control so that you will live completely inside the body. It will be a very pleasant feeling if the body is owned completely by you.

A: You see: the suffering recorded in the animal’s body when it was killed, that suffering will be there in your body if you eat the animal. But the animal’s samskara itself will not be there. The animal’s quality will not be there.

Whenever an animal is killed, it experiences tremendous suffering. You see: you are not eating the animal that died naturally. You are eating it after killing it. It is a premature death for the animal. Because it is killed prematurely, it harbors a lack of fulfillment in its flesh. When you swallow that flesh, those feelings will naturally be recorded in you. But the quality of that animal will not get recorded in you.

I have seen that vegetarian people are less prone to depression. Understand: No vegetarian food company is sponsoring me to say these things. I am not sponsored by any vegetarian food producers or companies. From my own experience, I am telling you. I have done enough research in human consciousness. I have worked with millions of disciples. So, I can tell you for sure that vegetarian food helps you, even if you are not a spiritual seeker. Even if you are not a person who is interested in spirituality, even to live a normal life, vegetarian food helps a lot.

A: I have consciously scanned and seen the case with plants. Plants do not have so much of consciousness as to suffer, to experience pain. But animals experience a lot of pain; that's the thing.

A: In eggs also, there is a possibility of life if allowed to continue. With milk, there is no possibility. People ask me, 'Swamiji, like milk comes from the cow, egg comes from the hen; then why is it that milk is vegetarian and egg is not vegetarian? If you sit on milk and incubate it, you won't get a calf! But if you sit on an egg, you will get a chicken. That is the reason. Somebody may ask if it is alright to eat poultry eggs. Poultry eggs may not have the male part, but the feminine part of life is there. The moment the possibility for life is there, it becomes non-vegetarian food.

Q: Swamiji, I just wanted to know…when we were doing that exercise, it was so powerful…what is your part in the exercise?

A: My part… to open you up! You see: there are many strong and hard nuts in every meditation program. To crack them is my first job. Second thing: those karmas which are released, have to disappear. That job too, I do. Moreover, the vacuum spaces which you create within you by releasing the animal engrams will be filled by my presence! Understand: it is a very esoteric process.

Usually when I explain these esoteric processes, it seems like I am claiming too many things. So I generally don’t answer these in a detailed fashion. Even this morning, when I claimed that I am enlightened, I saw that a few people were hurt.

But what can be done? Krishna says very clearly in the Bhagavad Gita, ‘Unless I tell about myself, you can’t know. You will not know.’ In the same way, whatever you know about me is not enough. If you attend two or three programs, your understanding about me will start developing and expanding.

Just try to attend two or three programs; then you will understand. Your understanding about me will also expand. See, before the meditation, you had the animal parts inside you. After the meditation, most of those engrams have been released. Now, the possibility of having an enlightened body will be recorded inside you. So, during the moments that you decide your next body, there is a possibility that you will design it to be an enlightened master! You will ask for the best model. You will rewind and view all the models that you saw. You will see that the enlightened model is the best model, and you will say, ‘Okay, let’s go ahead!’

Q: Swamiji, I tried very hard to get into the animal meditation but I couldn’t, and I don’t know if I am doing something wrong by not getting into it.

A: No, you are not doing anything wrong. If you are unable to open up, it means that you are not able to get rid of the strong human identity that you are holding now. Alright, at least in the next few meditations, decide that you are going to break. Even if it is like acting, in the initial level, it is alright. For a few minutes, it will seem like acting; then you will see, that suddenly things open up.

Again, I am seeing families sitting together. Please sit away from each other, for at least these few days. (Pointing to a particular person) I think you did a program in Canada, am I right? Yes! I can even tell you where you sat during the program. You were sitting and leaning on the wall; am I right?

You are shocked! You see … because I don’t have any emotional memories, I have access to everything that happened in the past! Emotional memories are like high resolution pictures; they will take away too much of your hard disk space. If you don't have emotional memories, which are actually like high resolution pictures, you can store millions of Word documents in your memory!

In my case, everything is only a Word document, because there is no emotional attachment to any memory. So, I can store, recall, process and handle millions of documents. When I tell some of the ashramites to pick up particular books from the library, I will tell them the exact location where to find it! I will tell them: go to the second cupboard and look in the seventh row. Pick up the tenth book, go to the forty second page, pick up the verse in that page and bring it! That is the way the instruction will be given! This is because I have no emotional attachment to any memory. There is no emotional attachment to any one form or any one thing.

Another big problem with me (enlightened beings) is, the moment I am away from a particular country or ashram, I won't even remember the names of the close disciples in that country or ashram. This is a big problem for the disciples! They will start saying, 'Swamiji never remembers us, he never asks about us.' It is not that! I just access different portions of the memory, as and when required, that's all. If you are in front of me again, I will attend to everything concerning you, from where we left off, perfectly!

There is no emotional attachment for me with anything or anyone. But I have so much space, that I make everyone feel special. But everyone wants to be specially special, there starts the problem! This problem is not just with women. It is everybody's problem. At least women are simple, and innocent enough to tell me that they need my attention. These men are very cunning; they don't have the courage to tell, but when they get attention, they will be so happy and beaming!

Q: What form will an enlightened person choose when leaving the last human form?

A: Actually, enlightened people need not take up any form. They have nothing to achieve by taking up any form because they can always operate without assuming any form. When there is something to be achieved with the help of a body and mind, you choose a body and take birth. Enlightenment is like an overflowing fulfillment. When you become enlightened, you feel your enlightenment not just within your own skin, but you feel it alive in every other creature's skin, in every tree and rock. I tell you … I feel alive inside every skin! How much I feel alive inside this skin, with the same depth and same energy, I feel alive in every other skin. That is the reason why enlightened beings do not need a separate body or form to operate. Of course, when they take up a form, the form is used as a center from which the operations can be performed. Other than that, there is nothing to be enjoyed through this form for them.

Q: Many people say that when they come near you, they know for sure that you are reading their mind.

A: Actually, I never read your mind. I respect your privacy. I never read your mind. Only when people ask for some guidance, I try to help them. But when you come near me, understand that I am alive inside your skin also. The person who is alive inside this skin is alive in your skin also. That is why you feel a little shaken with the feeling that I might be reading your mind.

Q: Human beings who do not see an enlightened person in this birth, cannot chose an enlightened form after death, so what are his options? Another human form?

A: You can become a little more intelligent human being, or an artist, or something like that. Whatever option you saw in your life, from that you will choose the best option.

Q: How many life forms do we take, and what happens after the maximum number?

A: There is no maximum number. Till you achieve enlightenment, you continue to take life forms.

Q: How can I continue to have dreamless sleep?

A: If you do the Shakti Dharana meditation before going to bed, it will lead to dreamless sleep. Of course, if you want to have permanently dreamless sleep, even without doing Shakti Dharana, you have to get enlightened. After enlightenment, you won't have dreams, because daydreaming stops, and because of that, you will not have night dreams either.

Q: It is very painful for me to carry these engrams. Why are we carrying these painful engrams? Is it because of our ego, or is it an unavoidable principle of rebirth?

A: It is an unavoidable principle of rebirth. It is not just your ego. Your ego can accumulate the social conditioning of this civilization. But the animal engrams that you bring, are a natural thing. Not working to clear those engrams, can be the play of your ego.

Q: What is the practical technique to work on animal engrams? If I feel anger or irritation, how do I come back quickly to my natural self? Do you ever mildly even feel anger, or any of these engrams?

A: This is a beautiful question. If you expand your inner space, you won't have this problem. Even if you have anger, the anger won't disturb you. Your inner space is filled with too many things. Actually, you don't know how to dispose of these things. That's where the problem starts. Disposing can be done only by meditation. Meditation is like cleaning and rebooting your computer!

Q: Do you have anger? When we have anger, we may think of you, but whom will you think of if you have anger?

A: I don't think of anyone or anything, because I don't have a mind. Understand: I don't have inner chatter like you have. What I say to you is what you may call my chatter. It is the only chatter, and it happens spontaneously as I am talking to you. It doesn't take any time to even form inside me. It just comes out, that's all. In the gap that I give between my words, there is no inner chatter going on, like for you. It is difficult for you to understand unless you experience it yourself. Alright, have some experience of this, only then you can relate with what I am saying! For now, understand that I don't have any inner chatter. That is enough. Also, any anger that I show, is only a thread that I bring in to deal with an issue or a person. As such, the anger that I show is not the same as the anger that you display.

Q: For someone to see the future, does it mean that the future is fixed? Is it already written or decided?

A: No. It is not already decided, but the course of the future is decided based on your attachment to the past. What happens is, because you are not so intelligent to create a new future, you will reproduce only your past, altered in some way, as the future.

Understand: by constantly jumping from past to future, you will corrupt and pollute your future also, just like your past. You will reproduce the same past in the future; maybe with a little alteration, nothing more. If you scratched with one hand, you might scratch with two hands…a little alteration… nothing much. You will reproduce your same nonsensical past into the future. If you don't take the conscious decision of penetrating the present, if you don't bring down your TPS and settle with the present, you will only reproduce the past in the future. But if you consciously take these steps, you will become intelligent enough to let the future open, and be free for you to create it. The more your TPS, the more unconsciously you will reproduce the same past into the future. It is like this: when you decide to accept a 2 million dollar home, you accept that the next ten years you will reproduce the past into the future. When you accept the mortgage, what do you actually mean? You consciously decide to reproduce the same past into the future, am I right? In the same way, you will reproduce your past into the future in living also.

Unconsciously, you make so many decisions because of your high TPS, and so you feel that your future is almost bound. If you consciously decide and bring down your TPS to the present moment, your future will be open and available to you for your creativity, for you to design.

One more important thing: when you go through these steps one by one, you will understand how many decisions you made, just because of an unconsciously high TPS going on inside you. Not only that, you will see that you also complained that your future is not under your control! Actually, it is under your control. If you come down to the present moment, you can simply break the time shaft. You can simply break the cycle of your future becoming past. That is what I mean by living in eternity, living in eternal bliss. Not allowing this cycle of your future becoming your past, is what I call ‘eternal bliss’. You will wonder: how can it be done Swamiji? I tell you: when you don’t allow something called past or future in your inner space, when you are just settled in the present moment, the past will not create its footprint in your future, that’s all!

As of now, your future has become completely dirty because of your past. Because you are constantly jumping from past to future and back to past, the future is continuously getting corrupted. It is like this: in one bowl, there is cow dung, the other bowl has food. If a fly keeps flying from one bowl to the other, from the cow dung to the food and back to the cow dung, what will happen to the food? Little by little, it will start getting the flavor of the cow dung, that's all. The very same thing you are doing to your future also. Your future is like good food waiting to be consumed. Your past, because of your past mental conditioning, is like cow dung. What do you do? You keep jumping between the two, carrying the cow dung to the fresh food.

The reason why you constantly jump is, your past is familiar to you. You feel secure when you think of the past, even if it has not been joyful. It is a familiar pattern to you. You wish your future to also be clear and familiar, without any unknown areas, and so you keep referring to your past and bringing it to your future, with a little change... here and there... that's all. The fear of the unknown in the future, drives you to reproduce the past in the future. But just think: how much can you alter and create your future if your past is the base material out of which you are going to create your future? You might do a little tailoring here and there, that's all, nothing much. You will reproduce the same cow dung, that's all. Actually, cow dung is a decent word that I am using. In fact cow dung is sacred in India. I should be using some other word!

Anyhow, just completely understand the time shaft. So many questions can be answered if you can understand the kaal chakra. The time shaft is called the kaal chakra. If you see Nataraja, the Dancing Form of Shiva, you will see a big circle behind Him. This is the kaal chakra. You will see two big animals symbolically swallowing the past and the future. In the center, He will be dancing. It implies that He is dancing the grand cosmic dance in the 'present moment' between the past and the future.

Q: Can a human be born as an animal in the next birth?

A: Yes, you can consciously decide to be born as an animal.

Q: Why do Hindu gods have animals as their vahanas (vehicles)?

A: It is more than just a mystical representation. In those days, human beings used only animals as their vehicles. There are many philosophical explanations that can be given here. I am giving you a simple one. In those days, human beings used animals as vehicles, and so they designed or visualized gods also in the same way. Also, these vahanas represent the individual soul and the gods represent the cosmic soul. So, it is a symbolic representation of the jiva - individual soul - being at the feet of the paramatma - the cosmic soul.

Q: Why does the spiritual name that you give us, require a legal name change? I take my spiritual search as personal and private, not public and legal.

A: Oh that's nice. Spiritual seeking can be something personal. In that case, there is no need to take a name. It is not necessary. And I don't say that taking a name is compulsory. It is optional. The problem is, unless it is made legal, people don't take it sincerely and go by it. They take it lightly. It is a name given by an enlightened master; it cannot be taken for granted. It represents your very path to enlightenment, if you take it sincerely.

_Q: What is it that causes cancer? What can a person affected_ _by it do?_

A: Out of the many causes for cancer, the first is, your not feeling completely comfortable inside your body. That is the first thing, the first reason. There are so many other reasons. For example, if your inner space is crowded with too much furniture, and you don't have place for your self, for you to be with yourself, it could lead to cancer. Or, if you are constantly haunted by your past, then your whole inner space is constantly irritated. This could also be a reason. I have spoken on cancer in detailed ways in earlier discourses. Maybe you can try to listen to those discourses. Even in day before yesterday's discourse, I spoke on cancer. Meditation can help you a lot, along with your medication, if you are afflicted with cancer.

_Q: There is a nice question here. It says: it is said that lust_ _is like fire. The more you try to feed it, the more it gets_ _inflamed, like trying to put off fire by pouring ghee in it._ _Does the same hold true for tamas? If you feed it to the_ _maximum, it gets exhausted or does its appetite get stronger?_ _Please explain._

A: Understand; if you feed lust unconsciously, rather if the lust gets fed by itself; only then it grows and grows and grows. It gets inflamed. But ... when you feed lust, it will never get inflamed. You feeding the lust means; you know when to say 'No,' and you are saying 'Yes'. Then, it will never get inflamed. The same holds good for tamas. When you are saying yes to sleep, say for one month, it will never get inflamed, it will never grow. But ... if tamas takes revenge on you, it is depression. You did not allow tamas to have its role in your life. Then it puts you in depression and takes revenge on your body and mind. And lust, taking revenge on you, is restlessness. You did not give enough place for it; it just gives you so much of other greed. You see, all greed which you experience in your life, is revenge by lust. When you don't give enough place for lust, it gives you all sorts of greed, like eating, or having more and more new items; more cars, a big house, and so many other items that drive you crazy.

If you consciously don't give enough place for tamas, it will completely depress you, and swallow your whole body and mind. You consciously giving place to lust or tamas, will never inflame them, will never increase them. But when you don't, you are not ready to give place for them, they will take revenge on you, that's all. It is all about you allowing.

That is why I tell people to, once in a while, retire from life. We should have a system; where once in three years, a person should be able to take off for one year. That should be the life, say maximum for three years only and not more than that. Then, one year off. No routine, no identity, just go somewhere and do whatever you feel like or don't do whatever you feel like, something like this. See, after all, you can waste one third of your life ... nothing wrong. It's not something so serious. After all, you have so many lives! See, all the western religions are teaching that there is only one life. That is why the West is suffering so much. So much of suffering in the West is because these guys are teaching that there is only one life. And it is not true, also. That's the problem. I think you guys can understand. There is so much of time; eternity is there. Don't bother … just enjoy. Just enjoy! Do this once in a while if you feel like it. Otherwise, there won't be any fun, will there?

I tell only one thing: just do not abuse your body, or waste it by using it for drugs and those things. Otherwise there is nothing like, you should do this, you should do that, you have to finish all these things in this life; there is nothing like that. Just live happily, enjoy, and I can give even some methods to keep your property properly, and secure for you to come back and enjoy. If you consciously build, meaning, if you feel connected consciously, clearly make a map, and meditate on it, and put it in your mind with a clear suggestion. When you come back, all those property owners will be just waiting to hand it over to you.

That's what happened in our ashram. You guys will be shocked if you all know that we have 18 ashrams all created in four years. You will be shocked as to how it could happen! When I came back to Bangalore; the land-owner had the vision that a young Swami named Nithyananda would come, and that he had to hand over this land. He was searching. He came and handed it over. Now, I don't know how many crores (millions) the property is worth. He just came and handed over.

All you need to do is consciously make a sankalpa, 'This is my property, I am leaving now, I'll come back and enjoy'. You see, you may all think, 'Oh! I am telling some stories. But this is what happened in my life. Simply I came back and these guys were waiting like trustees. The moment I came back, they handed over the land and went away. And don't even for a moment think that, only in an enlightened master's case, these things will happen, and in your case it won't happen. No ... not at all. To keep the property , you don't need enlightenment. No, I am really telling you, for all that, you don't need enlightenment. Just a little bit of your mind and clarity is more than enough. A clear sankalpa is more than enough. For that, you don't need enlightenment. Enlightenment is far more worthy.

So, just create a strong sankalpa, 'These are all mine. I'm leaving now and going, and when I come back, it has to be handed over to me'. And you might think, 'What is this master, it all looks very funny'. It may look funny, but this is what we call attracting the abundance, the shree or the lakshmi. Shree means the energy which flows towards bliss. In Sanskrit, shree is the energy which flows towards bliss or the truth, or consciousness. So actually, you can create some property and tell, 'Now, I'm leaving all these things and going. But, I'll come back and enjoy'. You will see that when you come back, people will hand over the property to you properly and sincerely and go away.

The people who are possessing it will be like trustees! And you should also respect them, because they are taking care of it in your absence. All this may look too mystical. But, when you see in life, you will see all these things happening. That's the way it happened at a couple of places; 'We will have land in Chennai near the airport only'. We were about to land; the aircraft was landing in Chennai, and I got up and said, 'We are going to have an ashram. Just now I saw. The land is here. We will have an ashram'. Within a few months, one devotee came and offered this land which was just near the airport. Maybe, when I said, we were flying exactly over that property. I saw below that the ashram is there, and that we are going to have to get ready.

I told one of our brahmacharis, 'You should be the spiritual head, so start your training'. See ... don't think it is some magic, or a miracle. It is simple intelligence, which is not very difficult. You see, when you are honest with your thoughts or honest with your sankalpa, you will have a clear memory of your past life and everything else.

When I say honest: don't bow down unless you feel the respect. Don't smile unless you feel the love. Take all these things as honest things. Don't smile at somebody having some calculation in the mind. Only if you feel that you have some love for that person, maybe for some reason ... any reason it could be. Sometimes, when you see a beautiful or handsome person, you feel like having a little love. If you have some reason, any reason to smile; smile. If you have some love, smile. If you feel you don't have love, don't smile for mere social reasons. That'll be ugly. A plastered smile is always ugly.

The same way with anger also. When you have anger ... show. Don't show it keeping in mind, that this guy can be exploited easily, or, 'Oh! This guy can't do anything. Let me shout'. I have seen these guys here. If small accidents happen on the roadside, if some old person is sitting in that car, these guys, these young fellows come out and shout. And if they see a big guy, they just keep quiet!

A small story:

One guy came out of a restaurant. He saw his car, which he had parked outside and went inside angered, because so much of paint was poured on it. He came inside the restaurant and shouted, 'Who is the fellow who poured paint on my car?'

One big, strong guy got up, and said, 'Yes, I did it. What do you want now?'

'No, no, the first coat is over. You can come and do the second coat. The first coat has dried. I just want to inform you now, that you can do the second coat.'

See ... that is what we do with our anger also. When we see, we see the person, and play accordingly with our anger. Just be honest with your ideas.

See, one more thing, the Yoga Sutras clearly say, if you are honest with your thought flow, you will have a very clear memory of your past life and everything. The reason you are not able to remember your past is because of this simple reason. You see in your own life; if you are very clear in your thought trend, you'll be able to remember the incidents that happened when you were five or six years of age. If your thought trend is too confused, you will not be able to remember even what you ate yesterday. That's the truth. Just keeping the thought trend clear, means honesty. Do only what you feel, and nothing else. Then, so much can be done.

The problem is; in society, you do only when you are paid. Just with this one idea of currency, these politicians have destroyed humanity. By just this one concept of currency, much destruction has happened. Otherwise, we have plenty; we have enough.

The other day, I was reading a nice article. Actually, in one of the states of the USA, Texas, you could accommodate the whole population. There was a nice article which said that the whole world can be kept free; the whole world can come, and we can accommodate the whole population in Texas, in just this one state. I was reading further that if you built homes and developed one state perfectly, completely, you could accommodate the whole world. So much is there. If one country's one state can accommodate, then there is enough land. You can use it for many purposes.

So much can be done in fact. One of the main problems we face is these politicians' ego. And just by this currency concept, the whole thing has gone. Another reason is the concept of 'legal inheritance'; legally inheriting the property. That's another concept which was responsible for this situation. Otherwise, see ... we hardly have six billion people. We can easily feed, give clothes, medical care, and literally provide everything. But we are so influenced, and we have so many ideas in our head; nonsensically spending all our money in army... What to do?

I feel that if all these things are taught to youngsters and if they work on themselves and throw all the violence out, they will not disturb other countries. Anyhow, that's why India never invaded any other country. They went out only once to one country, Indonesia. Even that was invaded, they created a city, and lived with the people who lived on that island. They never killed anybody, never invaded any country; never went out to conquer any country. They went only to one country, Indonesia, and to another country, that is, Cambodia. To Cambodia they went, and built a huge temple, which occupies ninety square miles; the world's biggest spiritual structure, the world's biggest religious structure. Even when they went, they did not kill people; they did not fight. They went and built temples.

I was wondering whether these people didn't have enough place in India, to go all the way there to stay. And not just that, the funny part is, the island did not have a single stone. The whole thing was carved in India, shipped and assembled. Even when they went to some place, they only built temples and contributed, because they had nothing else to do. They knew only that one thing, so that's what they did, that's all. A huge Shiva temple was built. I was shocked when I saw it. See, with that one temple, Angkor Vat temple is bigger than all Indian temples. God, I was always proud that my native place has the biggest temple. But when I saw this Angkor Vat, my temple was like one of these American homes, small.

These homes are very small when we compare to some of the houses in India. If you go to the South Indian villages, especially the Chettinad area, each home will be upto 2 lakh square feet. I know a home which has got 1000 windows; it is called 'the 1000 window house'.

People feel very happy if I sit and tell some stories, and tell me, that we can continue doing just this. And that is why these guys put so many questions, also. They start feeling, 'Let him talk and tell some stories; we shall just sit and listen. Nothing else is required. Why unnecessarily doing meditation and all'. Actually if you sit and listen to the stories and jokes, you'll enjoy me now. But if you do the meditation also, you'll enjoy me forever! You'll enjoy the presence, or this feeling forever.