Yoga: Eight Points to Ponder🔗

In Patanjali's Yoga, according to me there are eight points, though these are usually referred to as eight steps. Though you need to know all eight at a time for realizing Truth, these points are not sequential.

As long as you are here to understand and transform your lives it is worth spending your time in studying Patanjali's Yoga; not for acquiring knowledge.

Patanjali was a great mystic, a saintist, saint and scientist. He wrote the aphorisms of Yoga. Yoga is union; union of man with God. He laid down eight points to achieve this union, to reach divine consciousness.

Some one asked: all the techniques are practiced only by the mind, which you say is a dream. How can one dream awaken another dream? When you see a lion chasing you in a dream, you wake up. Any thing that inspires deep fear or greed will wake you up; nightmare or fantasy. All Patanjali does is add something to your dreams to wake you up.

Zen story: Disciple asks the master how I can be awakened. Master responds: slap your face, you will wake up.

Patanjali teaches us eight methods to slap ourselves and wake up. The more you practice these eight steps the more the clarity that descends on you. I have not seen any other Master speaking so clearly with such perfection in such a straight forward way. He is a scientist, saying 2 plus 2 is 4. Mystics don't speak that way. 2 plus 2 to them may be 4, may not be

4. A plus B may be C or D. if that does not come, wait, may be you did not write A or B clearly. Patanjali guarantees; he is so confident of his product; only he can use money back guarantee offers. In other systems, you may understand 50, 60 or 70 %, here you will get 110%; for past, present and future minds, not just your present mind alone now.

We use pesticides; if we use them continuously the pests get immune and even start using the pesticides as nutrient food to grow upon; so you need to increase the strength and vary the pesticide. Same way our mind learns the art of surviving masters. We all have survived Buddhas, Christs, Krishnas; we have survived the masters since our minds are cunning. Patanjali has created a system that can not be escaped; it's perfect; you have to get enlightened if you follow him. He has inspired more masters than any one else.

The first step is Yama, loosely translated as discipline. This means tuning yourself to the ultimate; it is not a set of dos and don’ts. It is a set of instructions to tune yourself to your Self. Within this Yama are: first is Ahimsa, non violence with understanding; Ahimsa is not a moral condition but a technique.

No morality can be practiced. Morality is great to give as advice, not for practicing yourself; which is good; otherwise you will all become schizophrenics. If you understand and practice Yama you will automatically fall in tune with your higher Self. There is no need to fear heaven or hell. Morality practiced to soothe your conscience is just skin deep, to awaken either fear or greed to make you comply. Morality should be based on consciousness. Otherwise you need cops to enforce moral rules; as soon as cops are out of sight you indulge. Breaking any law gives you pleasure. Kids feel they are grown up when they can say no. If you understand then you will not need to violate. All the violence, all the depression, all the sufferings on planet Earth are because of social and moral rules imposed on us.

You do not commit sins and go to hell. You commit sins because you are in hell. If you are relaxed and happy with yourself you will never be violent and commit sins. Only when you are restless, not at ease with yourself, you feel it necessary to find faults with others and commit violence. You do good things because you are in heaven not the other way around. There is no exchange counter between this world and the next; if you do charity you get no pass to heaven. Do charity for the joy it gives you; that’s the heaven on earth when you are still alive. There will be no one at the pearly gates waiting for you with a golden key.

If you are established in non violence, even wild animals, if they face you, will turn peaceful. You will radiate love and compassion. Patanjali says: If a man is established in non violence, in his presence, enemies and animals will drop their animosity and radiate love.

Sankara, the great enlightened master, walked all over India on foot, village to village, begged door to door for food, and lived with the common man, to update himself with what was happening around him. This was required of him as a teacher, as a master. As he went he learnt from various masters, universities, and temples which are spiritual universities. He wanted to create his own University to spread his message of Advaita, where the energy of love will speak. In a forest on a full moon night as it drizzled he saw a frog about to hatch its baby and a cobra spreading its hood to protect the frog from the rain; frogs and cobras are born as natural enemies; when Sankara saw this he decided here's where I should have my University where animals lose their enmity, and pure oneness and love starts happening. Once you experience this love you will never be violent; non violence, ahimsa, will happen to you.

Think: when you see someone falling, even if you rush to help, you have difficulty in suppressing laughter. Socially we express sympathy, but inside we enjoy.

Ananda Pappiah woke up to find himself in the hospital with his friend by his side. Anand asked his friend: What happened? Why am I in hospital, unable to move? Friend said: Last night after a few drinks you wanted to fly down four floors and you did, that's why. Anand shouted angrily: fool, why didn't you stop me? Friend said: at that time I too thought you could do it!

Non violence does not come from practice, only from experience. Whether you believe it not, accept it or not, understand it or

not, the whole Universe responds to your thoughts. After my enlightenment I was relaxing in front of a cave, sitting with my self. A few feet away a big Cobra was lying. I was not even aware of it though my eyes were open; my mind was not linked to my senses. After some time I woke up to what was around me.

You come back to reality after sometime. Suddenly the thought of the cobra entered my mind. Only then the cobra realized I was a man. Till then both were comfortable with each other. The next thought was fear. This was reflected in the cobra as well and it raised its head. When I moved back, it moved away.

When we are established in love nothing touches us. We do not need to defend ourselves against anything. Defending is what creates the thought of offending. All countries say that they have armies only to defend themselves. Who then is offending? The more you try to defend you enter into offense. Violence starts. Violence starts with defense. This is what Jesus meant when he said to turn the other cheek when someone slaps you. What he said is not impractical. This can be practiced. What have we achieved by protecting ourselves, except suffering? On the other hand, if you radiate love, you will be a God on planet Earth. Can you defend yourself against death? By defending yourself you may add some years to your life; by trusting, by loving you will add life to your years. What would you like to do, add years to your life or add life to your years?

A great Zen master Suzuki was asked: what was the greatness of your Master? Suzuki replied: the most extraordinary thing I found in him was that he always thought he was very ordinary. It is only people who are very ordinary who think they are special, extraordinary. Even if we are too polite to say I am great, we say our country is great, out language is great, our

religion is great etc. Why not come out and say I am great instead of in a round about way? We always think we are extraordinary. When we live in an ordinary we way we become extraordinary.

Some one came to me and asked, Swami, am I enlightened? I have a doubt. I said, as long as you have a doubt be very clear you are not enlightened. The moment you are enlightened, not only will you never have a doubt about it, nor will you even think that you are enlightened. You will not even remember you are enlightened. You don't continuously go on thinking who you are and keep repeating your name. People worship dead masters about whom stories are spun as to how special they are. You do not see anything extraordinary about living masters. We live as you do. I also have rest rooms. No dead master's life talks about his rest rooms. Only their peak experiences are recorded. Their miracles are archived. Enlightened masters radiate ordinariness.

The second point Patanjali takes up is brahmacharya. You can not stop talking about something you love. When you talk about people you do not like, you will change the subject. I love Patanjali and am so comfortable with him that I can go on and on. Normally brahmacharya is translated as celibacy. This is wrong. Celibacy is suppression, perversion. Brahma means existence, reality; chariya is to walk in it, to live with it; brahmacharya is living with reality.

People ask: to become enlightened, do I need to leave my wife and children? I tell tem: renounce only what you do not have; live comfortably, intensely, happily with what you have. If you have a wife, live fully with her; not with the fantasy of some other woman. Renunciation is Brahmacharya; it is dropping your fantasies.

Brahmacharya is accepting reality as it is. When you drop your fantasies and accept your beloved for what she is, your life becomes heaven. If you live with your fantasies, you will be uncomfortable with your real wife, and the same will happen to every one you meet and choose.

The idea of beauty is just an idea. As long as distance is maintained things look beautiful. Close ups are always ugly and flat. Even if you marry the Miss Universe the idea of beauty will not last more than 15 days. The moment you start living together reality comes in. That's why you call it honey moon, not honey sun. When you drop your fantasies you can live with reality for ever. That's why in Sanskrit there is no word for divorce. If you feed your fantasies you can change your partner any number of times and still be unhappy. Only in fairy tales do people live happily for ever. Dropping your fantasies is brahmacharya. Outer world can not disturb you or feed you fantasies; only inner fantasies can.

People forcing themselves into celibacy are sitting on a volcano. They can not look into your eyes for fear you will see their suffering. If you meditate and practice celibacy, Hindu mythology says that the gods above send celestial beautiful women to disturb you. Nobody sends women to disturb you; if that’s true everyone will start meditating. These meditators start hallucinating because of their suppressions, suppressed fantasies. Brahmacharya can not be practiced as morality, but as an understanding. When you accept your partner as he is or as she is, your fantasies drop, and you start accepting yourself as you are. Your partner then becomes your beloved.

Next is Satya, truthfulness. It’s not factual but truthful. Living the truth, not just speaking the truth is what Patanjali talks about. If you want to break a law, all you have to do is follow it verbatim; literally; you will then break the spirit of that law. You will catch the letter of the law not its

spirit. That’s why people fight in the name of God. Jesus says love thy neighbor as you love yourself. Krishna says see me in everybody. Religious zealots follow the letter not the spirit of what their masters said. People who talk about peace say that they want you to be in peace in the manner that they wish.

A preacher, lawyer and Doctor were in discussion. Doctor said that God must have been a doctor because he made Eve from Adam’s ribs. Lawyer said no he was a lawyer because he was passing judgment. Preacher said no, there was chaos first, and who else but a preacher can create chaos. Rama called his capital Ayodhya, which means it is a place without strife. Today it’s a city strife torn in the name of Rama.

An enlightened Master lived on the banks of Ganges. He used to read the Bhagavad Gita which was the only possession he had, It had become his life. One day a poor man begged him saying he had not eaten. The master was deeply moved that someone was begging from him, who had nothing. He gave the beggar his book and told the beggar to sell the book in the market place where one of his followers may buy it and give him money. Beggar took the book away. The next morning Master prayed: God, I gave away your words to keep your word. Legend says that God appeared to him and blessed him, as one who believed in the spirit not just the letter.

There is so much corruption because we think Satya is factual, not truthful. You have to live the truth by living through your body language. You have to think, speak and express the truth in your life. You have to observe all these 3 dimensions to be in Satya.

The other two aspects of Yama are Astheya and Aparigraha. Astheya refers to non covetousness; not desiring what belongs to others. Astheya not only refers to material possessions of others as in the case of the Old Testament's Ten Commandments, but also to not coveting what others desire. Universe provides every one of us with all that we need in this life from the moment we are born; but it is unable to cope with our wants that we covet from others. Our own desires come with the energy that will help fulfill these desires. Once fulfilled, these desires get extinguished leaving behind no hangovers or vasanas. It is these vasanas and samskaras, residual unfulfilled desires that cause suffering in life, as Buddha points out.

Aparigraha is related to Astheya, meaning living within our means, living with our own desires, living with the needs that Universe has provided us the energy to fulfill. Non covetous nature and a simple life focused on the ultimate goal of uniting with our own divine self is the practice of Aparigraha.

The second limb of the eight limbs of the Yoga path that Patanjali describes is the Niyama, the set of rules that he enjoins us to practice daily in our personal lives. Yama refers to discipline as it relates to our interaction with others, whereas niyama refers to discipline within our own mind body system. In the Patanjali Sutras five such rules are referred to under the path of niyama.

Saucha or cleanliness refers to cleanliness of body and mind, both through regular physical cleansing of the body parts, and the inner cleansing of our minds through other practices referred to later on such as pranayama and asanas.

Santosha is being happy with what we are given, to accept things as they are rather than wanting them to be as we expect them to be. It is the mindset of renouncing what we do not have, and not needing to renounce what we already have, in the hope of seeking something better. Ultimately this attitude of acceptance leads to surrender and enlightenment. With an attitude of santosha there will never be depression and there will always be peace of mind. With it there is always the attitude that the Universe will provide for us what ever is best.

Tapas, the next niyama, is commonly translated as penance, though rightly it is self restraint in controlling all urges, born out of body and mind. This refers to restraints in desires of the mind and actions of the body, controlling lust, anger and greed as well as sensory functions including eating. Tapas leads to a healthy body and a healthy mind.

and the Sutras, as well as the Stotras, help in leading to a practice of Svadhyaya, the grace of a master arising out of one’s surrender to him leads to this naturally.

The last niyama is Isvarapranidhana; it is surrender to the Divine, the Ultimate, the Master, Parasakti, and an acceptance that whatever happens as a result will be good for us and for all Universe.

The third limb of the eight limbed Patanjali Yoga Sutra is Asana. This word means position, and this limb or module is also referred to as Hatha yoga.

When ever one talks about yoga, probability is that they talk about Hatha yoga and asanas. Hatha yoga is about physical fitness and consists of a set of physical postures people adopt in order to achieve physical flexibility and tone. Concept of Hatha yoga is based on the assumption that physical fitness is a must for mental concentration and focus. At another and deeper level, Hatha yoga refers to the integration of mind body, allowing one to become aware of the flow of prana or energy in our body system. Hatha yoga asanas when performed with awareness lead to awareness of one's emotions and can help clear blocks leading to a greater awareness in one's action in day to day life.

Hatha Yoga exercises provide physical fitness and flexibility at one level; when done regularly and with awareness they also enhance emotional fitness and flexibility. Patanjali says: Infinite flexibility is the secret to immortality. Like the Tao, Hatha Yoga promotes flexibility to counter stresses of life, mental and physical.

Popularity of various forms of Yoga, all derived from the original Sutra's of Patanjali, have made this one of the most popular forms of physical exercises and raised Yoga to a cult level. Practiced without awareness and focused merely on the body instead of mind body, as in the

Pranayama, controlled breath is the fourth limb of Patanjali's yoga system.

Breath is energy and is the core of our life. We inhale for the first time shortly after arriving in the world even before your umbilical cord is cut. From the point of birth we inhale and exhale about seventeen thousand breaths each day, which over a lifetime amounts to 500 million breaths. We inhale and exhale from the last time as we depart from Planet Earth. The last breath marks the end of this life cycle for us. Our breathing supports every experience we have from birth till death, from the first inhalation to that of our last exhalation. Breath is the essence of life.

Prana means breath; more specifically it refers to the energy behind breath that makes our body functional and Ayama means control. Pranayama therefore means the control of Prana and the vital forces of the body. Pranayama begins with the regulation of breath and ends in establishing full and perfect control over the life energy currents or inner vital forces. In other words, Pranayama is the perfect control of the inner life energy currents through regulation of breath.

Prana starts functioning from the very moment the child is conceived. However, senses of the body such as hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching begin to function only when their organs such as the ears and eyes are formed. In the Upanishads, Prana is declared to be the master force within the mind body system. Mind and the five organs unequivocally declare: "O Master! O Prana! Supporter of this universe and the supporter of our very lives, the first-born! Adorations unto thee! Thou art really great. Do not depart from this body. We shall serve thee. We duly acknowledge thy superiority." Prana functions even while the mind is absent during deep sleep.

Prana is primordial life energy that governs all our mental and physical functions. Pranayama is the technique to regulate our prana to calm, balance, cleanse, and invigorate our mind body. Our breath integrates all the physical layers of our mind body system and influences the emotional layer as well.

Regulating our breath helps to regulate and uplift our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. It is the key to a healthy and vibrant life.

Prana is life energy. When prana flows smoothly in our mind body system we feel healthy and active. When prana is blocked, fatigue and disease set in.

Pranayama helps to master this life energy. There is an intimate relationship between our breath and our mind. When mind is calm and collected, breath too is calm and collected. When mind is turbulent, breathing becomes disordered. Prana is the life energy that flows throughout nature and the universe. When we are tuned in to the pranic energy of our body, we become aware of the integral relationship between our individual self and the universal Self. Pranayama helps us into this awareness of the union of self and Self.

Prana connects our physical and astral bodies. When Prana is cut off, the astral body separates from the physical body. Death is the result. The Prana that was working in the physical body is withdrawn into the astral body.

Prana is the universal principle of energy or force. It is vital force. Prana is all-pervading. It may be either in a static or dynamic state. It is found in all forms, from the lowest to the highest, from the ant to the elephant, from the unicellular amoeba to a man, from the elementary form of plant life to the developed form of animal life. It is Prana that shines in your eyes. It is through the power of Prana that the ear hears, the eye sees, the skin feels, the tongue tastes, the nose smells, the brain and the intellect perform their respective functions. The smile on the face of a young lady, the melody in music, the power in the emphatic utterances of an orator, the charm in the words of one's own beloved wife—all these and many more have their origin in Prana. Fire burns through Prana. Wind blows through Prana. Rivers flow through Prana. The steamer and the plane, the train and the car move about only through the power of Prana. Radio waves travel through Prana. Prana is electron. Prana is proton. Prana is force. Prana is magnetism. Prana is electricity. It is Prana that pumps blood from the heart into the arteries. It is Prana again that does digestion, excretion and secretion.

Prana is expended by thinking, willing, acting, moving, talking, writing and all such activities. A strong and healthy man has an abundance of Prana or nerve-force or vitality. The Prana is supplied by food, water, air, solar energy, etc. The supply of Prana is received by the nervous system. The Prana is absorbed in breathing. The excess of Prana is stored up in the brain and nerve centers.

A Yogi stores up enough and more of Prana by regular practice of Pranayama just as the storage battery stores up electricity. That Yogi who has in his store an amazingly large supply of Prana radiates strength and vitality all around. He is a big power house. Those who come in contact with him imbibe Prana from him, and get strength, vigor, vitality and exhilaration of spirits. Just as oil flows from one vessel to another, Prana also actually flows steadily from a developed Yogi towards weak persons. This can be seen actually by the Yogi who has developed his inner Yogic vision.

If you can control the breath or Prana, the mind is also easily controlled. He who has controlled his mind has also controlled his breath. If one is suspended, the other also gets suspended. If the mind and the Prana are both controlled, you get liberated from the cycle of births and deaths and attain Immortality.

As long as you speak, you cannot breathe; then you offer the breath in the speech. As long as you breathe, so long you cannot speak; then you offer the speech in the breath. When you want to hear a faint sound, the breath gets suspended for a while. Any one carrying heavy loads instinctively fills his lungs with air and practices unconscious retention of breath (Pranayama) till the load is lifted on to his back. This retention of breath augments his strength and vitality. It immediately provides him with an abundance of energy. It induces great concentration of mind. When you cross a small rivulet by jumping over, when you practice long jump and high jump and various other exercises at the parallel bar and trapezium, you practice retention of breath instinctively.

If the breath is unsteady, the mind also is unsteady. If the breath is steady and calm, the mind is also steady and calm. A Yogi gets longevity of life by the practice of Pranayama. Therefore the practice of Pranayama is indispensable requisite. Just as it takes a long time, patience and perseverance to tame a lion, an elephant or a tiger, so also you will have to tame this Prana gradually. Then it will come under your perfect control.

Incorrect practice of pranayama can lead to discomfort the same way as incorrectly performed asanas can lead to discomfort. Pranayama performed incorrectly, without the guidance of a master and practiced without awareness can release suppressed negative emotions leading to depression and other mental disorders. However, correctly practiced with awareness, pranayama, along with other limbs of Patanjali's eight path yoga, can help lead to realization of truth.

The ascetic with matted lock, the one with his head shaven, the one with hairs pulled out one by one, the one who disguises himself variously with the ochre-coloured robes - such a one is a fool who, though capable of seeing, does not see. Indeed, this varied disguise is for the sake of the belly.

Bhaja Govindam 14

Let us see how our mind works, and how we work through our minds from three different levels of instinct, intelligence and intuition.

As long as all your decisions are conscious and you are aware why and how you are doing something, why you are thinking this way, you are in the intelligence level. If you are not aware and conscious of your thought process and feel guilty about your actions you are at instinct level. If you are doing or not, and yet you are continuously at blissful level you are at intuition level.

How do we process information? When we see something, we perceive the object through the energy controlling our eyes, called chaksu, which is a digital signal processor. The digital file goes to our memory, called chitta, and from there to our mind, manas. The file then takes a leap into our ego, ahankara.

Chitta, our memory, decides what the information is not, to arrive at what it is. For instance, what I see is not a plant, not an animal etc, na iti, na iti, to decide what it is. Manas, our mind later comes into the picture and says this is a man who is conducting a class; it identifies the object as a man. Then the digital file, already processed my memory and mind, leaps into the ego, which based on past experiences decides whether to sit in the class or to go out.

Ego decides and you express and act on that decision. This zone of ego is not under your control. Ego is a collection of impressions, past memories, or samskaras. These samskaras force you to take illogical, unconscious decisions. You decide to smoke knowing logically fully well that it is bad for health. You still go ahead. You have no control. Samskaras come up and confuse you, depress you, disturb you, stress you; they can change the whole course of your life. They can create conflicts and suffering. Samskaras are the sub conscious layer of our mind.

Let us say that the time taken for the digital file to travel from our eye energy to mind, through memory, is Tp. Till this point the process is logical and clear. Time taken for unconscious process, mind to ego, through samskaras, which distort your file and twist your decisions is Tq. As long as Tp is more than Tq you will be more aware of your unconscious. If not, you are unaware and act on instinct. You are restless. You decide without knowing what you are doing. When the samskaras are more, and they move faster without your knowledge, you are in trouble. If time taken for conscious process is more than the time taken for the unconscious, if Tq is greater than Tp, you act instinctively. If Tp equals Tq, you are in Intelligence level. You will live your life without guilt. When Tp is greater than Tq, you are in super conscious level; your unconscious is infused with silence and intuition.

In Patanjali's Yoga system, the fifth limb Pratyahara works on taking your mind from all outward objects. Ahara is food and pratyahara is moving away from that food. This ahara, the food, is taken in not only from your mouth but also from all 5 senses energizing your memory. Pratyahara is moving away from ahara. If you stop this intake of sensory food, memory is given a rest.

Dharana, the sixth limb of Patanjali Yoga, is about focusing on one subject only. Then mind rests. Dharana is flow, mind's flow towards one object. The seventh limb of

Patanjali Yoga, Dhyana (being witness) is about infusing consciousness, spirit into your unconscious zone; this is spirituality; then this unconscious zone also rests. These three give rest to memory, mind and unconscious zone. All your samskaras disappear. They are burnt away. Your third eye opens when you start witnessing and your awareness happens, and you realize everything is a dream, and you are out of the dream. This is what the puranas talk about when they talk about Shiva burning Manmata with his third eye. He burnt all his samskaras.

When you infuse consciousness and silence into this unconscious zone you burn all your engrams, you become Shiva, and you reach super conscious level. When Tp is less than Tq you are an animal; if equal you are human; if Tp is greater you are divine.

J Krishnamurthy says: Only once if you can witness your emotions without moving your body, with out support or suppression, you will see very clearly that the emotion, the samskara, loses power over you. If you support it, it grows. If you suppress it, it leads to perversions.

Why should you follow spirituality? Why follow a Master? If you do not, you follow your samskaras. You become slaves to something far less uplifting.

Infusing silence, bringing thoughtless awareness to your unconscious zone is your ultimate liberation. You become videhi, one who is outside his body even when he is in his body. When you suddenly remember something that disturbs, you create an energy clot; there is less space in your Being. When you meditate on your inner space you expand. That is possible only when you do not have engrams, no energy clots within you, which disturb you.

From a young age you are taught your samskaras. You accumulate them. When you are attracted to something intensely or

hate something intensely you collect files on them. One kind of logic: all men have one head, Socrates is a man; you can conclude Socrates is a man. Another: there are two doors; one door is open, what about the other? You can not say. The second logic is the logic of intelligence. You need to be aware for this logic. Why we collect more and more engrams is because we are not aware, we are not using this logic process.

Q: Are there good engrams?

A: good engrams and bad engrams exist only socially, not in fact; no engram, no samskara is worth maintaining. Start living intuitively, spontaneously. You will be a free soul. You can not be exploited. The whole social structure is based on might is right; it is exploitative. Even a king will be at the feet of an enlightened engram less person. A King can not exist without subjects. An enlightened person exists on his own authority. All chaos is consciously created to keep people in control, to exploit.

Yoga is Chitta vritti nirodaha: thoughts which are created by external inputs and thoughts which are created by samskaras become chitta and need to be eradicated for Yoga. You can not do this unless all samskaras are eliminated.

Q: Change is threatening, what to do?

A: For children, the universe is wonder-filled because they don’t have logic. They don’t think that this is the same Sun which they saw yesterday. They don’t think that this was the same chair which was there yesterday. They don’t think that this is the same room which they sat in yesterday. They know the Truth - the Sun is new, this room is new, this chair is new, I am new, you are also new! You are changing continuously; continuously you are getting updated.

A Western philosopher said, ‘You can’t step into the same river twice.’ Why? Because the moment you put the second step, the water has already flown. But I tell you, you can't step into the same river even once, because the moment you put your feet in, by the time you travel from the water level to the ground level, the water has already moved! You can't put your feet even once in a river; where is the question of twice!

Existence is continuously changing. If you trust that Existence changes and you also change, you can never get settled with your ego. Your ego is nothing but a rigid mechanism, a definite pattern. Only a person who is ego less can trust that the universe is changing and he is also changing. The man who sells his time will never understand that the universe is changing because he is caught in a routine. Not being caught in a routine is a basic discipline for enlightenment!

If you are in a routine, you become so unaware that you stop believing, you stop realizing that Existence is changing. I have seen some government servants working for 30 years in the same office. They would not even have moved their table from one place to another and eventually forget that their table can be moved! Even in your house, don’t live with the same kind of furniture arrangement for years together. Shuffle it so that your mind does not get stuck with a single attitude. Once in a few months, change the order; create a little bit of chaos! Otherwise you will become dead. I have seen people - they will have ten rooms and because of their habit, they will follow a certain track in their own house and as a result would not have stepped foot on eight rooms for months together. How many of you have not gone to the extreme of your own garden in the last two years? This is because you live on a certain track.

The mind feels comfortable if it has got a definite system. That is why rituals are so popular today. Rituals are so complicated and yet people do them with all difficulty, but when they come out of it, nothing would have changed in them. But in meditation, they are not sure of the outcome. Some personality change may happen. Going into meditation is seen as a risk! People are comfortable seeing Gods in temples because the Gods don't speak; because they don't change your life; but here I will ask you - what are you doing? How is your life? There comes the trouble. Either consciously or unconsciously you might start changing because I am such a solid force and I may start penetrating you.

Be very clear - the most definite thing on planet earth is your tomb, your graveyard! The more you live with definition and security, the more you are dying. That is why, when you live with a definite track in your house, your house will have the vibration of a graveyard. Once in a while, dance in the main hall of your house - the space will be purified. If you live with the same things, you will create a track of memory. You will then have very less access to your own Being. Your mind and your house are one and the same. Your Being and your house are one and the

same. If you don’t live in your whole house, be very clear, you are not living with your whole memory. Drop your rigid ego, break free from your mental patterns, understand change and discover the reservoir that you have within yourself. Explode in all directions and realize your unlimited potential!

Q: How to be a leader without ego?

A: When you live with the attitude that you are responsible for everything, your whole life will change. When you take up responsibility for everything that happens around you, you will start expanding.

Expansion is the only growth; contraction is death. The more responsibility you take up, the more you will expand and grow. You will become a leader. Most of us wait for the status to descend on us and then take up the responsibility. Be very clear - Only if we take up the responsibility, the status will come! People who wait for the status will not take up responsibility even after they get it. They will simply find another reason or excuse, that’s all. An ordinary sweeper in an organization who takes up responsibility and performs his tasks can inspire an entire organization into becoming more responsible. The person who passes the buck and relaxes will never progress significantly in life.

Responsibility is Consciousness. The moment you feel responsible for what is happening around you, that moment the Divine Energy will rush into you! These are all basic secrets of Life that I am giving you.

As long as you are self-centered, you will be nothing more than a blocked bamboo stick that serves only to carry the corpse. When you shed your ego and stand up with responsibility, you will become the hollow bamboo that serves as a flute! Like how the air that enters the flute leaves it as music, the air that enters you will flow as Energy! A cognitive shift will happen in you. Your mental setup will change.

When you work with no feelings of responsibility, you will work and feel like a slave. When you work with responsibility, your capacity will expand and you will flower and radiate Energy. Your worries and sorrows will dissolve and all unfinished work will get finished. Umpteen excuses can be given for dodging responsibility, but they will remain poor excuses.

With responsibility, a new kind of joy will engulf you. You will become a natural leader and life will become a celebration! There is a beautiful story on Buddha: It is said that when Buddha goes to beg, he would appear as a King and the kings who gave him alms would appear as beggars! Seeming like a beggar or a king is not in the property that you hold but in the state that is within you. When you take up responsibility for the entire Cosmos, you will expand and look like a leader!

Feeling that you are responsible is the greatest quality you can possess. When you stand up with a sense of responsibility, a new intelligence will awaken in you!

The regulation of breath, the withdrawal of the senses from objects, the inquiry consisting in the discrimination between the eternal and the non-eternal, the method of mind-control associated with the chanting of mantras - perform these with great care.

Bhaja Govindam 30