JAIN SUTRAS DISCOURSE 3🔗

TRUE KNOWLEDGE

From a Discourse by SPH JGM Bhagavān Nithyananda Paramashivam Buena Park, CA, USA March 8, 2007

Today's topic is true knowledge. Everybody, every Master, every spiritual person claims what they are teaching is true knowledge. How do we find out what we are hearing is the true knowledge? There should be a scale for satya. There should be a scale for Truth. What is Truth? There should be a clear definition. There should be a clear scale with which we can find out whether it is Truth or not. Mahāvīra is giving the touchstone definition of satya here.

Today we are going to enter into the satya sutra. Mahāvīra is giving the techniques, methods, to find out what you are listening is true knowledge or not through these beautiful sutras.

He will speak to the point, because basically he is brought up without fear. A king is a person who only creates fear in others. He doesn't have fear. He doesn't bother. He doesn't use the socially polite words.

But a person who is poor, or a beggar, or a person who lives in the forest, even if he becomes enlightened, he will not talk the Truth completely. He has to use socially polite words. He can't tell the Truth which goes against the vested interests of the society or the king.

But when a king becomes enlightened he doesn't bother. He says the Truth in the best way. He presents the Truth as it is. Here the best expression is happening, because Mahāvīra was a king. You see, one more thing, when you live a life with wealth and richness you know all the secrets of the human mind. Understand, wealth gathers around you only when you know the secrets of the human mind.

But when a king becomes enlightened he doesn't bother. He says the Truth in the best way. He presents the Truth as it is. Here the best expression is happening, because Mahāvīra was a king. You see, one more thing, when you live a life with wealth and richness you know all the secrets of the human mind. Understand, wealth gathers around you only when you know the secrets of the human mind.

There are many different expressions by different Masters. Consider a person who was a beggar, or one who has never seen the world, who just lived a life in the forest, did meditation and became enlightened. His enlightenment will be the same, but His expression will not be sharp because His constitution, or His mind, His inner software is not created based on fearlessness.

One more thing, even after enlightenment, when you settle into the body, when you want to teach, you use the same mental setup, with which you left. You may not have the greed and fear, the mental setup you had earlier, before enlightenment. But, the mental setup will be the same after enlightenment. The software programming will be the same.

Understand, this is an important revelation which you need to understand. Only then you will be able to appreciate the greatness of Mahāvīra's expression.

If a beggar becomes enlightened, he may not have the fear or greed, which he had before enlightenment, but the mental setup of living without possessing anything, or the mental setup of living by begging will be the same. So, he has to use that mental setup only to teach, to relate with the world.

Understand, after enlightenment, you use the same mental setup which you had before enlightenment. Only one difference, after enlightenment, if you want you can use, otherwise you can drop. You may have the freedom, but the mental setup, the software itself, will be the same.

Here Mahāvīra has the best software to express enlightenment - the fearless leader software, through which he can see the depth of the Truth and express it.

There are so many millions of examples I can give of people who did not have anything, renounced the life, and become enlightened. There is another set of people who became enlightened, but did not renounce after enlightenment. For example, Krishna, Janaka, and all these great Masters, who lived as kings, became enlightened, but they continued to live as kings. This is the second kind of mental setup. Such people will express the Truth with more clarity, in a better way than the first group.

The first group examples include all the rishis who lived in the forest and became enlightened. They have not seen the world. So that is the first group.

The second group is of people who lived as kings, became enlightened, but again continued to be as kings. Here the big problem is their teachings are interpreted, experienced, understood by the people who have vested interests.

Understand, when you are talking to your ministers, even if they don't understand they have to listen. But Mahāvīra has no captive audience. Mahāvīra is not talking to a captive audience.

In the case of Krishna, when Krishna is speaking toHis ministers, when he is teaching Arjuna, practically they are captive audience. Even if Arjuna doesn't want to hear he can't escape from Krishna. He has to listen because he is receiving some service from Krishna.

When your boss makes some joke, you have to laugh. You can't do anything about it. In the same way, when Janaka is teaching,His whole court has to listen. They are a captive audience. So the person who is listening, whether he agrees or not, has to listen. So the expression of the complete Truth is not possible.

I don't sit with my ashramites and take these spiritual classes. I give them only instructions what to do. They ask me, 'What is this Swamiji? You are not sitting and talking to us on Shiva Sutras or Jain Sutras and all these sutras.'

I tell them, already you are captive audience. Whatever I talk you have to listen. No other way. In that way the Truth can never be expressed. Truth cannot be expressed to a person who is bound to listen. Truth can be expressed only to a person who has got the freedom to doubt and question, who has got the freedom to doubt.

See you have a freedom, you can doubt me, and you have a freedom you can put the question. You have a freedom to go out. Only to you the Truth can be delivered. Truth can be delivered in its purest form only to a person who is not receiving anything else from a Master.

If you receive something else from me apart from Truth you may be sitting here for that. You can't receive the Truth. You are not qualified to receive the Truth.

Here, the whole thing, if you see, has come in a beautiful way. Mahāvīra is the ultimate category: he was a king who became enlightened and renounced the kingdom. He is teaching sitting on the platform of satya. Only one thing is holding him, satya. He doesn't have any other title, like a king, no.

He is heard by the people just because he is enlightened. See, after enlightenment if you are sitting on the throne of a king, people may hear you because you are king. You don't know why they are sitting and listening. You can't say people are sitting just because you are enlightened. They may be sitting because you are a king. There may be some other reason for you to sit.

In Hinduism during all of our rituals, means the homas, yagnas, we give free food, but I never give free food during meditation programs, because people may be sitting for food. I will not know whether they are sitting there to listen on meditation or enlightenment or for food.

I tell them give free food during yagnas, during rituals, not during meditation. It is a disrespect to meditation. I don't want that. There should not be anything else associated with the spiritual Truth, no.

If you associate anything else with the spiritual Truth the possibility is there the Truth will not be heard properly, it will not be received properly. Here Mahāvīra is talking to people who are not bound to him in any way, who are seekers. One more thing, seekers are the most dangerous people, because you can't bind them, you can't bind them and there is nothing which can bind them.

You can bind them only by love and gratitude. So, you can't even use the binding, it can't even be a bondage. You can keep them together only based on love and gratitude.

Here he is talking to a community of seekers, who are not receiving anything else from him but Truth. They are not there for anything else except Truth, and he is not carrying any title. He has renounced all the titles. So nobody is sitting in front of him because he has got some title, because he is a king of someplace, or he is somebody. No.

People are sitting in front of him just to listen to the Truth. He is a pure being without any personality, without any title. See, the word 'persona' comes from a Greek root. In those days the drama actors would use masks. That mask only is called persona. Personality means the mask which you are using.

Sukabrahma came to listen from king Janaka. Sukabhrama has to listen, because Janaka is a king. Janaka is a captive audience. Whenever a king speaks you can't tell anything.

But, here with Mahāvīra there is no other relationship except the Master and seeker. The purity of relationship is important to maintain the purity of the teaching, purity of the Truth.

And one more thing, Mahāvīra has no vested interest, he is not talking to His people to make them do something. No. There is no ulterior motive. There is no goal.

One more thing, Arjuna was thinking himself as a friend. That's why in Gita he says, 'Krishna, forgive me I thought you were my friend. Hail Krishna, hail Yadiva, hail Shaketi. I called you as Yadiva, by your community name. I called you as my friend.'

Because he was thinking as a friend, so the purity of relationship is not there. You can't deliver a Truth to your friend. You can deliver a Truth only to a seeker.

Here the best mental setup, best software and the greatest enlightenment, greatest experience of enlightenment, and right persons with right attitude sitting in front of Mahvira. So the best Truth is being delivered.

True knowledge is coming out. He is giving us the scale. He is teaching us what is satya and how to find out whether something is Truth or not.

Apta pramana are the words of the enlightened ones. No. They say everything should be scrutinized. There is no such thing as apta pramana. There is no such thing as words of the enlightened beings, no. Everything has to be scanned. Everything has to be analyzed. He is giving beautiful teachings to find out what Truth is and which is true knowledge.

One more thing, please understand, this true knowledge is like a touchstone. If you use these sutras and analyze all your decisions which run your life, all your ideas which are base for your life you will achieve satya.

If you are established in Truth you don't have to do any spiritual practice. If you understand this one sutra and redefine all your decisions, ideas, concepts about your life, you don't need to practice any spiritual discipline; you are enlightened this moment. All you need to do is redefine all your ideas.

See, there are only a few pillars on which your life is standing, your life is established - your desires, your idea about yourself, how you position yourself in the inner world.

Understand, I am not talking about how you position yourself in the outer world. That all of you know, it is not worthy! Not only that, it is pure lies. All of you know whatever you may talk about yourself to others, you don't believe that. You may make others to believe but you really don't believe.

Just look inside, you can laugh at yourself. I always tell people, really when you sit alone and start thinking what all you project as you, actually if you really believe what all you project as you, by now you would have become enlightened.

Ramakrishna says, ‘Man muk ek karo.’ - if you make the mind and the words as one, you are enlightened.

If you believe what you speak about you, you are enlightened. Actually, believing in a strong way whatever you speak about you is also a spiritual practice. Whatever you talk about you, ‘I am this...I am that...You don’t know me,’ all those things start believing.

I tell them, ‘Do this only one thing as a spiritual practice. Go back. Now whatever you told me, write it down. Again and again help yourself to believe that, that is enough.’

But the difficulty is you won’t believe, that is the problem. When you try to believe also the mind will tell, ‘Eh! You can talk all these things to others, not to me.’

Many times I have seen people come to me, just wanting to throw their weight, to impress me. They come and tell me, ‘You know, I am this. I am doing that. I do so many philanthropic activities. I do this. I do that. I have so much wealth, and I give so much...’

You can do anything. Either talk only what you believe is you or believe what you talk about you. Then you won’t have pus. You won’t have cancer.

At the end of the conversation I ask them only one thing, ‘Sir, do you really believe now whatever you said?’ They say, ‘What, what, what? Yes we do believe, that’s why we are talking to you.’

The gap between the words and what you believe, that space is what I call cancer or depression. If you are carrying a depression in you, be very clear you have that gap between your words and your being, between your words and what you believe. If you can remove that gap, you will not have that tumor which I call depression.

I had the fortune to be at His feet for six months. I was blessed, fortunate enough to be at His feet. He would always be smoking ganja (marijuana). You may think how can a person who is smoking ganja be enlightened? That is what I also thought when I went to serve Him.

You see, traditionally you are supposed to serve elderly sādhus to achieve enlightenment. So, before my enlightenment I was serving wherever I saw some elderly sādhu. I would go and sit at His feet. I would give them whatever food I could beg and collect, and wash their vessels, and do whatever little help I could do.

One thing I was surprised about was I never saw him eating. He had no food and no water. Except ganja, he took nothing else. I was shocked. But he was such a pleasing person. When you went and sat around him you would feel so beautiful and you would feel like sitting around him, because he was so innocent. He was not even aware he was innocent. I never saw him wearing any clothes. He is an avadhuta naga, wearing no clothes and not bothered about anything happening around him in the world. He was just in a high state of samadhi.

One day I asked him, ‘Baba, you are such a great person, why are you smoking ganja? Don’t you think it is an immoral thing and people will start smoking seeing you? Already they are doing, they only want some reference and support. Especially for a person with arrogance, if you become the reference then he can do anything.’

He said beautifully, ‘Fool, you think a big elephant can be tied inside a small hut! I can’t live inside the body without any desire, so I have to just dull myself.’ Understand, when he said I saw the authenticity.

The other day also, one more person came and spoke to me. He said, ‘Swamiji, I am also smoking to put me inside the body.’ I told him, ‘ Do whatever that naga baba is doing, then do this also. The baba doesn’t wear clothes, he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t drink. You also do all those things, then you can justify your smoking. You can’t just do whatever you want unless it becomes your experience.’

One important thing, I saw in the baba when he was telling, ‘I have to dull myself,’ it was an authentic Truth. His mind and His words were the same. Not only that when you lived around him you realized he was established in satya, he was established in Truth, and had no vested interest.

See, if somebody doesn’t eat or smoke, if somebody doesn’t eat or drink, they would have made a big business out of that power. But I had never seen him making a big fuss about it. If people asked him, ‘Why you don’t eat baba?’, he would say, ‘Ah, who will get up and go and cook and eat! Forget about it.’ He would not even show that it is a big power. You couldn’t even see that ego, that he lives without food and water.

When you are really established in Truth you will not be aware of your own powers. You will only radiate, but you will not know those words.

I asked him, 'What is atmagnana?' He did not even know that word, but he is an atmagnani. He was radiating atmagnana, he was radiating enlightenment, but he didn't know the word.

And he said, 'I am fortunate I did not learn about Brahman. I achieved Brahma gnana because I did not learn those words!'

In the same way, when people asked Ramana Maharshi, 'What is Brahma gnana? What is atmagnana?' He said, 'I am fortunate I did not learn those words before my enlightenment.' Because learning some words may postpone your enlightenment.'

Sometimes learning too many words will postpone your enlightenment. I always tell people, never read any book which is written by an unenlightened person. Don't read anything which is written by an unenlightened person - because you may create words which will stop your enlightenment. You may create a negative software which does not support the enlightenment process.

An enlightened person's words will create a positive software in you, which is constantly inspiring you toward enlightenment. See in the end, all enlightened Masters will be pushing you towards sadhana, towards enlightenment.

There is a beautiful book called Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita called in English as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. In that one of Ramakrishna's disciples, Brahmānanda, says, ‘If you read Ramakrishna's words in that book every day for one year, I assure you will have the darshan of the Ultimate, you will experience enlightenment.’ You will be shocked. How can a person assure, how can a person guaranteed enlightenment in one year?

I tell you, when you read these Master's words again and again, when you listen to these great Masters' words again and again, you create a new software, you create a new mental setup, which reminds you the ultimate Truth again and again, which inspires you towards that higher ideal again and again.

Every day you are again put on the track. You are again inspired to run. You are again given the enthusiasm to take up the journey. It is like an everyday inspiration and it creates a new mental setup.

One year is actually too much time! It is true when you read or listen to the Master's words, one year is enough to create a mental setup which will radiate enlightenment.

It's like there is a light. In every one of you that light is there. In front of the light if there is a wall that light can't shine. If there is a glass that light can penetrate and it can shine. Putting glass instead of wall is reading an enlightened being's words.

As of now you have a big wall in front of your light which is the swayamprakasha jyoti, the self-effulgent light which is inside your being. You have put a big wall. That wall is your mind.

If you just put a glass - the mental setup which can allow that light to express itself, the mental setup which does not block or stop that light from expressing itself - you will see that enlightenment is radiating through your senses, it is radiating through your being.

See, I can't even say enlightenment needs to be achieved. No. Your senses are supposed to be purified, so that that light can penetrate and express through them, that's all.

All of you have it, there is no doubt about it. All you need to do is purify your body and mind, so that you can allow that to express through you, so that you can radiate. Nothing else needs to be done.

The purifying mechanism or the alchemy process - you can't even call as mechanism - the alchemy process is what I call flooding yourself with this Truth, satya.

Vivekananda says, 'Flood your whole being with the Truth. Whatever can be washed away, let it be washed away. The earlier it is washed away, the better it is for you and for the people who are around you.'

See, one thing, if you have a clear idea about what you believe is you and what you talk about you, what you express as you and what you believe as you, you will attract that same kind of people around you and you will live completely at ease.

You see, one thing, there is no such thing as morality. If you have the wrong ideas about morality, only then you need to hide what you are and you need to project what you want and what people want. You need to project yourself as society expects you to be, if you have the wrong ideas about morality. Only one thing you need to understand is just be what you are. This is the ultimate morality.

If you lose some friends because of that, perfectly alright, nothing wrong. It is better to lose your friends than your self. If you present yourself as your friends want you to be, you will lose you. You are more valuable than your friends.

Understand one more important thing, if you start talking about you which is not you, by and by you will get confused about who you are! See, whatever you speak continuously, you start believing that as the Truth. That is the big difficulty.

Take this as a simple spiritual practice and try to do. Just for ten days, again and again tell everybody that you are an honest person, you are a person living the Truth. Just continuously, even if they are not ready to listen, you talk. Just say. After ten days you will really start believing it.

Another difficulty is, whatever you start telling, you start believing. And if whatever belief you had about you already is the same then you fall in tune. This becomes a spiritual practice. But if what you are believing and what you are saying now is different, then there is a conflict between you and You.

Understand, when the dream state is exhausted because it doesn’t have any more material, any more fuel, then the conscious state takes over. If the conscious state has no fuel, the dream state takes over. If both of them have no fuel, then the deep sleep state, sushupti, comes up.

Your whole life is a fight among these three. Whoever is strong, whoever has got more samskaras, they rule you, that’s all. If you are suffering without deep sleep, it means your conscious and unconscious, your jagrat (waking) and swapna (dream) states have got too much of samskaras. They are not ready to relax. They are not ready to give space for your sushuputi.

They say, ‘Enough, no, we don’t need sushupti. We have enough fuel. We have enough of desires. We have enough of anxiety. We have enough of fear to create again and again more and more scenes in front of us.’

One more thing you need to understand, what you see during the waking state: this auditorium, me sitting in front of you, your friends, the chair on which you are sitting, everything is created out of the same stuff in which dreams are created.

Understand, let me repeat once more. Whatever you are seeing now: this auditorium, the person who is sitting in front of you, and the person who is sitting next to you, and the chair on which you are sitting, everything is created out of the same stuff, the same stuff out of which your dreams are created.

Now you have a lot of difficulties, ‘Oh, for this only I am working from morning until night. No, no maybe this auditorium is created out of the same stuff, but not my house and my car.’ No. Whatever you are seeing, whether in the dream or in waking state is created out of the same stuff.

See, it is like any slide which is kept in front of a projector light becomes reality on the screen, it appears as reality on the screen.

A small story:

One man, fully drunk, came back to his house late at night and fell on the way, but he didn't want to create any sound. So, he came very politely, and silently entered the house, and covered himself with the blanket.

But suddenly he realized that there was blood all over his face. He ran to the bathroom, tried to put on a bandage, put some medicine and tried to dress himself. He came back and somehow managed to sleep.

Next day morning his wife started shouting at him, 'Fool, did you drink and come last night?'

He said, 'Drinking, why?' He started acting as if he didn't know anything and he was innocent. 'No, no, no, no, no. How do you know I drank and came? No. I came a little late, because there was too much work in the office.'

She said, 'No. I can be sure you were drunk.'

He asked, 'How do you know? How can you be sure?'

His wife replied, 'Because you put the bandage on the mirror, not on your face!'

Seeing the mirror, he put the bandage on the mirror. Understand, you working with the outer world is nothing but putting the bandage on the mirror. That is not going to heal you. That is in no way going to help you.

You may have an idea that you put some bandage, you have put some medicine. You may try to sleep with the idea that you will be ok by next morning.

Working with the light beams is not going to help. Fighting with the screen is not going to help. Just do a small correction on the slide. And I tell you, doing a small correction on the slide needs intelligence. That is where the problem starts.

You do not have that much of sensitivity to look into your life and see that you are creating it, you are projecting it. You are expressing it, because you never connected and verified all the outer world incidents and your inner world thoughts.

You neither gave that much time to yourself, nor had the intelligence to connect and see. Connecting and seeing how your thoughts are creating your world is what I call meditation.

People come and tell me, 'Swamiji, in meditation I am getting too many thoughts. What to do?"

Please understand, meditation is not trying to create a thoughtless state. It may happen in the end, but when you sit in the beginning, you will not have a thoughtless state and you are not asked to meditate to immediately get the thoughtless state. No.

Whenever I ask people to meditate, the first thing I expect them to have is thoughts which create intelligence, thoughts which create clarity and the thoughts which give life solutions.

First in the beginning, when you sit with yourself you will have only these things inside you. You will not experience the thoughtless state immediately. You will have pratyahara and dharana. Only then dhyana will happen.

In the beginning when you sit you all your problems will come up and you will start having life solutions. You will have the clarity to solve all your problems.

So I tell people, 'Even if thoughts are not disappearing, don't stop sitting.' Because the first time when you sit with yourself, it is like an appointment with yourself. All the things which need to be settled, all the things which need clarification, all those things will be happening inside you. You will be falling in tune with satya. You will be falling in tune with the Truth itself.

Here, Mahāvīra is giving beautiful sutras, beautiful teachings, to measure some idea whether it is Truth or not. Understand, he is not teaching you to speak the Truth - because if you position yourself in satya, if you are established in satya, speaking the Truth will be an automatic thing. It will become a natural thing for you.

If you are practicing just verbal satya, please understand that is not the ultimate satya. If you are practicing only verbal satya, any time you may escape from it, you may move away from it. Even the so-called Dharmaraja, who is considered to be a great satyavan or one who is established in satya and a great speaker of Truth, has lied.

A small story:

In Mahabharata, there is such a wonderful story. Mahabharata and Ramayana are the great epics of Hinduism. They are still the world's longest poems.

There is a beautiful story in Mahabharata. To kill Dronacharya you have to depress him mentally. Unless you depress him mentally, you can't reduce His power. If you put somebody in depression, they will have shoulder pain and they will not be able to handle their hands powerfully and they can be defeated.

Dronacharya is the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas. Now Krishna wants Drona to be put into depression, otherwise he can't be killed, he can't be conquered. He can't be conquered directly. Physically His power is extraordinary, because he is a teacher. Naturally no student can cross a teacher.

The only way to put Drona into depression is by telling him that His son has died, because he is too attached with His son. That is the only samskara in him which can put him in depression.

He is unclutched, detached from everything else. Putra shoka can put him in depression. The suffering related to His son can put him in depression. That is the only possibility.

Now somebody has to tell Drona thatHis son Ashwatthama has died. If normal people tell him this information he may not immediately believe, he may go to verify.

The only person everybody believes is. He is supposed to be a person who speaks only Truth, nothing else. He is established in the verbal Truth. He speaks only Truth verbally. Everybody believes that. So Krishna wanted Dharmaraja to tell Dronacharya that Ashwatthama has died.

Now when Krishna requested Dharmaraja Yudhishtra, he says, 'No, I can't tell a lie. It is absolutely against my life and my policy.'

Krishna says, 'Alright, we will kill an elephant that is called Ashwatthama. You tell, 'The elephant called Ashwatthama died and I'll take care of everything else.'

Yudhishtra asked, 'How can that happen? If I tell the elephant which has got the name Ashwatthama has died, how can Drona be put into depression?'

Krishna said, 'That you don't bother. When you say the word 'the elephant which has got the name,' I will blow my conch. I will create some noise and Dronacharya will not be able to hear that word. He will hear only the word 'Ashwatthama died.' The moment he hears that word from you he will not go for verification. He will take it for granted and he will believe 100% and he will fall in depression, and we will kill him.' Yudhishtra agreed. He said ok, because he was not telling a lie. He may not tell a lie verbally, he has not crossed the verbal Truth, but he can't be called anymore a satyavan.

He told the words, 'Ashwatthama ada kunjanaha' - the elephant which has got the name Ashwatthama, has died. At the time the words 'the elephant which is called,' were said, as planned, Krishna blew His conch, shankha, and Drona was not able to hear those words.

Drona heard only these two words, 'Ashwatthama died.' As they had planned, Drona literally believed and fell into depression and immediately lost the power in His shoulders. And he put His weapons down, and he was killed.

But along with that, something happened to Yudhishtra also. It is said that His chariot never touched the ground, it used to always float. Even if Yudhishtra got into the chariot, the chariot would float. The moment he said, 'The elephant called Ashwatthama died and Drona fell into depression and was killed, the story says Dharmaraja Yudhishtra's chariot fell on the ground.

He lost the title of Dharmaraja. Dharmadevi who was holding him till then, dropped him. Then Dharmaraja says, 'How can you drop me? How can you leave me and go away? I did not tell a lie.'

Dharmadevi says, 'No. You might be established in verbal satya, but you are not established in the Truth itself. You did something which is against the Truth knowingly.'

You see you may tell satya, but you should ensure that person understands as satya. You can't tell some word which will not give that same meaning, You can't use cunning techniques. If you do that, you are not Dharmaraja anymore.

And the story says, from that day Dharmaraja's chariot was on the ground. He walked on the ground.

See, actually when you are really established in dharma you live so gracefully, you float. When the story says he did not walk on the ground, I don't think he was flying. It is a metaphysical explanation, that he was never touched by these worldly things. He lived in a different space, where he did not have all the problems.

See now, you do not have the problems which the Hinduismn people are facing in Hinduism. There are so many things Hinduismns are facing. Your problems are totally different. It is not that you don't have a problem. Your problems are different, their problems are different.

In the same way, Dharmaraja was never touched by problems of this planet earth. He had problems but only in a different level. That is what they mean by the words 'he was always floating.' He lived gracefully, till he did this act.

Let me give you the translation:

'Being continuously alert, one should renounce asatya and speak only Truthful, honest words. Speaking such Truth is difficult indeed. A true sage does not speak words which can hurt others. Similarly any true person should not speak sinful words, even in anger, greed, fear, or ordinary talk with friends and relatives.'

And he further explains on satya with the next sutras. In the later sutras he gives a scale of how to judge whether something is Truth or not. On satya he has got so many sutras. Then the next sutras are on moksha and brahmacharya. There are so many other sutras, I have selected what I feel as important sutras.

'Being continuously alert, one should renounce asatya.' Understand, being continuously alert means establishing yourself in satya, being aware.

One more thing, if you decide just to speak the Truth verbally, you may do the mistake of Dharmaraja Yudhishtra. If you are established in satya you will never do that kind of mistake.

See, if you analyze this Dharmaraja's incident, that itself shows there was a hidden greed for kingdom. That is why he had to compromise.

See, many people come and tell me, 'Swamiji, I am not a spiritual person. I do not believe in spirituality, but I live an honest life, a moral life. I do good things for others. I speak Truth and live a good life. Is that not enough?' I tell them, 'No. Because what you are saying is a lie. If you do not have a spiritual base, spiritual seeking, you will never be moral.'

Be very clear, you may think you are moral. You may think you are living a good life. No. You will not even be able to scan and find out whether you are playing cunning games or not with others, unless you are that intense.

Here that is what Mahāvīra says, 'being constantly alert.' When Gandhiji says, 'Till I started my spiritual practices, I never realized I am not perfect in my practice of satya. Only after practicing spirituality, after my spiritual sadhanas, I am able to perfect myself in the practice of satya also.'

See, at least cancer will take away only one life, but the depression will swallow your janmas after janmas. Cancer will not come to your next life. The moment the body is dropped, the disease also will disappear. But the depression is not like that, it will come with you forever.

If you are depressed, first thing, even if you lose everything it is ok, but correct yourself. Flood yourself with the Truth and remove the depression from you. Do not compromise this one line. Do not compromise in this one step.

I always tell people, 'If you can, go and talk to the murti of the god or goddesses. If you can, go and sit in front of Mahāvīra and completely open up. Understand, when I say open up, I mean really feeling and telling him, 'This is what I am.' I promise you will be healed.

There was a devotee called Girish Chander Ghosh. He was the father of Bengali drama. He used to go to Ramakrishna but he used to live a different kind of a life - wine and women and what not. Once Ramakrishna told him, 'Go to Ganga and tell her all about your life, whatever you did, and just have an honest relationship with mother Ganga, the river Ganga. You will become enlightened. Everything will be washed away. You will become a mahatma.'

Girish was not able to understand, 'What is this, me going and just talking to a river? How does he think that I will become enlightened? I will become a mahatma, all my sins will be washed away!'

But Ramakrishna says, 'Go and do.'

Girish says beautifully inHis reminiscences, 'I went and told everything to Ganga. Suddenly I felt, now I am not able to see her anymore if I am not able to correct myself. So whenever I crossed Ganga I started feeling that guilt.

Now I know somebody is watching and after a few days whenever I was drinking the Ganga water, I felt the same thing. Somehow, I don't know how it happened, simply the purity happened in me. Now I know I can face Ganga honestly.'

Understand, if you really open up, even with your teddy bear, that's ok. Even with your teddy bear, nothing wrong, but you should have the honesty to open up. You should have the honesty to open up, at least with something.

If you open up in front of a milestone, or in front of a brick, in front of a stone, anything is fine. In Hinduism all milestones are gods! See, in those days the milestones used to be painted with a yellow and red paint, and people started worshipping them.

In Hinduism anything you get they will start worshipping. You can see the culture which has dedicated itself for worship. It emphasizes on opening up and feeling connected. If you feel connected even with your teddy bear there is a possibility. At least with somebody be honest, be straight.

When you feel connected to the great Masters like Mahāvīra, when you sit in front of their murtis and feel connected and open up, and maintain the honesty with them, suddenly you will see they are working on you. Their presence is working on you. Allowing the Masters to work on you is the best way for enlightenment.

Here Mahāvīra is saying, be honest and speak only the Truth. And he is again telling, ‘Speaking such Truth is very difficult indeed. It really needs intense awareness. You need to be alert. You need to be aware.’

One more thing, unless you raise the very frequency in which you are staying, unless you raise the very consciousness in which you are staying, you can’t be Truthful.

You can’t be Truthful, because if you are living in the same mood, you will forget many times that you are telling a lie. Only after telling a lie you will realize that you are telling a lie, because you are habituated to tell lies. For no reason, the moment you open your mouth nothing but lies will come. Just try to record one day whatever you speak. Tell somebody else to record, without your awareness, and the next day sit and edit and tick and see how many lies you told.

You will be shocked, there is no word which is Truth, you are habituated. Even small, small things you plan how to present to get maximum out of this situation. You do not tell what exactly happened. There is an automatic censor system inside you.

The other day a university professor asked me, 'Swamiji, every day you are talking hours together somewhere or other in the world.' If you see the website, there won't be a single day gap. Somewhere or other, I am constantly talking. He asked me, 'I don't see that you use any hints.' Here also only the sutra is there, no hints actually. Only the sutra and translation is there.

He told me, 'Swamiji, I have to speak one hour, means I have to prepare three hours. The same subject I am teaching for years, but every time I have to prepare three hours and I know for sure you don't have time to prepare every day you are speaking. How are you speaking, Swamiji?'

And he told me another thing, 'The moment I finish my lecture, two things happen to me. One, you become tired. Second thing, guilt - you repent, 'I forgot this point, I should have presented in that way.' Tiredness and guilt is always the result after my lecture.'

And not only for him, it is for all speakers. Any public speaker in the end will repent, 'I should have done this. I should have done that.' And he will be tired. Not only the speaker will be tired but usually the audience also will be tired.

He asked me, 'How are you speaking for hours together, Swamiji?' Only one Truth, I don't have a censor system inside. There is no automatic sensor system. That is why I don't feel tired.

One more thing, you have a censor system, because you are afraid that you might tell whatever you are thinking. And you have to prepare and carry notes, because you are not supposed to speak what you are thinking. You are supposed to speak only what you are supposed to speak.

Understand, that is why you carry notes. Your carrying notes means you are not supposed to speak what is going on . You are supposed to edit and present. If you edit and present you will become tired, because such a big process is happening inside you.

First, words will come. You have to edit them and see the hints and connect with them, then speak. So naturally three or four processes are happening inside. You will become tired in one or two hours and the person who is hearing also will become tired.

But in my case I don't have the editing system. I just speak, because what I am speaking has become part of me. It has become part of my blood. It has become part of my inner software. It has become part of my system. That is the reason I can continue, continue, continue, continue. Not only I don't become tired, people who listen also don't become tired.

They suddenly realize, 'Oh God. So many hours passed, what happened?' When you speak without editing, the power of ojas expresses through you. Vivekananda says, 'When I speak I don't have inner chattering. Because of that state when you hear you also will not have inner chattering.'

If I am speaking without editing, without two activities, you will also listen without two activities. The intense tuning will happen when you sit with an enlightened being. If you become honest in the being you don't need to prepare, you don't need to use notes, you don't need to edit.

He says, ‘Speaking such Truth is very difficult indeed.’ your very inner consciousness has to be raised to a different level. Just speaking the Truth is impossible by you, unless you are constantly being alert.

Maybe you can take this as a small homework, just try. Till tomorrow, try with full alertness. Maybe you can have a small notebook. Whenever you miss, note down how many times you missed. Just try to see. Then you will understand what Mahāvīra means by the word ‘being continuously aware.’

If you try just for twenty-four hours, only then you will understand the meaning of the word ‘being continuously aware’. Today you need to carry only one message, only one line, ‘being continuously aware.’

Please try to experiment with this one idea. Till tomorrow be continuously aware and see how many times you are failing. That is enough. You will learn what Mahāvīra wants you to learn. You will learn what you need to learn. That is more than enough.

Instead of carrying one thousand ideas in your head and not practicing or experimenting with anything, just carry this one idea and experiment with them. You will see the transformation simply happens in your very being.

Let you experience this Truth, achieve and radiate eternal bliss, nithyananda.

Thank you!

Jain Sutras Discourse 4

I welcome you all with my love and respect. Before entering into today’s subject, ‘Power of Wisdom’, just a few points to complete yesterday’s discourse. Yesterday’s subject was ‘True knowledge’ – not only about true knowledge but also the knowledge to find out the Truth.

Only two sutras, two ideas I want to add today – first important thing, Truth is something which does not create fear, greed or guilt in you. In the same way Truth is something which creates complete easiness with your inner self and your day-to-day life.

There are three levels of Truth. All the three put together only enriches your life, it leads to enlightenment. All your desires, greed, fear or guilt, let them be flooded with one idea; you will be established in Truth. This is the scale to find out whether what you are thinking, saying, living is Truth or not: does it add more awareness to you? Does it add more consciousness or 'chit'? Does it make you more comfortable or at ease with yourself – 'sat'? Does it give you unending joy or bliss, without depending on something?

Anything which is satya, sat will create chit and ananda in you. Chit means consciousness, ananda means bliss. If there is something that you feel is sat, Truth, but it is not creating consciousness and ananda in you, be very clear, it is not the ultimate Truth. It is not the reality.

In the same way, if something creates consciousness in you and it is not creating sat feeling or ananda in you, it is not the Truth.

We had a radio show today morning in which I was being interviewed. The interviewer has become my devotee. He was asking me, 'Swamiji, I am seeing especially in the West many people receiving spirits and they become hysterical and shout. But the Upanishads describe that when a person becomes spiritual, he is not supposed to become hysterical. What is the Truth, Swamiji?'

Whether you leave your job or relationship or love or home or your car or whatever you may leave, it is perfectly alright. You will expand. You may think, ‘What Swamiji? You are making us swamis?’ No. If really Truth works on you and expands you, wherever you go you will feel only health, bliss and joy.

One more thing, many time people come and ask me, ‘Swamiji, as you said, I was thinking, contemplating and I felt so high, so inspired and took some major decision in my life. Now I repent. What to do? Now I am feeling I took too many big steps. I renounced too many things. Now I am feeling little lost. Now I am feeling I have done things little quickly. I should have waited.’ Understand, even if you feel later on that you have done something in a hurried way, do not bother about your steps.

One more thing, you are not able to keep yourself constantly in that high space of inspired energy. It may come down once in a while, that’s ok. Do not count the moments of coming down. Count the moments you experience when you are high. That is why in Jainism and all Vedic traditions, anybody who feels inspired is allowed to take sannyas that very moment. All you need to do is inform your Master or the traditional acharya that you are ready for sannyas.

What is the power of wisdom? I can say, there is nothing which can't be achieved by the power of wisdom. Anything whether in this world or the other world, wisdom can simply make it happen. Only one thing you need to understand, you need to give little attention to the wisdom.

Lakṣmī and Saraswati stay with you only when you give attention to them. Usually people always say that if you have money, you may not have intelligence and if you have intelligence you will not have money because both of them demand your complete attention. If you give attention to Lakṣmī, wealth, you may not have enough energy or attention to give to intelligence. If you give attention to intelligence, you may not have enough time or you may not even be interested to maintain all this wealth.

An intelligent person, a person of wisdom, after his basic needs are fulfilled, will not be running behind wealth. Somehow he will feel the emptiness of the wealth. See, wealth is for some utility to achieve something like the basic needs of food, shelter and your needs for medical care.

Once you have enough money to buy whatever can be brought through money, if you are still running behind money, surely you are a fool because you are running to expand somebody's ego. You are not running for yourself. You are running creating infrastructure which is empowering somebody else's ego.

As far as my experience goes, it is better to give energy and attention to Saraswatī than to Lakṣmī. If you give attention and energy to Saraswati, you will know how much of Lakṣmī you need and how much you can handle, how much you can enjoy, and you will live in an intelligent way.

Wisdom is such that you can bring anything in the inner world or in the outer world. I tell you, many a time just the understanding can transform the way you think and act. Today morning we had a radio show. The host was asking questions about what changed my life and my first experience of Truth and my first inspiration and all such questions.

When I look deeply, to tell you the Truth as it is, the biggest transformation which happened in my life is, the idea of me has changed in me because of my wisdom or knowledge. Whatever I was thinking about me has changed.

I tell you, that is the best thing that can happen to a human being - whatever you think about you completely changes. We are constantly working to change what others think about us, not what we think about us. That is where the problems start. You are caught, you are busy, and your whole energy is spent in working on changing the ideas of other people about you. I tell you, when you work on yourself, change the idea about yourself inside you, suddenly so much of energy releases and so much of energy expression happens.

By the end of the interview, he was telling me, 'Swamiji, I have interviewed so many people, so many Masters, so many researchers, so many people, but I can feel some intense energy around you. How can you explain this Swamiji? Such an intense energy!' The thing is, I am very clear about what I know as me.

All you need to do is look at yourself and change your idea about you. Wisdom will give you clear idea about you. The power of wisdom first changes you. There are two views: the materialistic people constantly say, change the world and your life will change. Spiritual people say, change you and your life will change.

Nobody is successful in changing the world and thus changing their life. But there are millions who are successful in changing them and thus the world. You can't cover the whole world with leather. Better wear shoes. Covering the whole world with leather is impossible. Wear shoes, that is the best thing.

Let us enter into the teachings of Mahāvīra so that we can understand the power of wisdom. Today we will be entering into a sutra called Chaturangi sutra and Brahmacharya sutra. We will be working on Chaturangi and Brahmacharya sutra.

Let me read few words from the original sutra. Yesterday somebody wrote a letter to me, 'Swamiji, we are not able to understand the original sutra, it is better you read only the translation.' Not only you, I also don't understand the original sutra because I don't know this language, it is not Sanskrit. It is a different version of Sanskrit which was used for speaking in those days. So not only you, I also don't understand but Masters' words have their own sanctity. Even if you don't understand, just listen.

The word which came out of Mahāvīra naturally will carry His presence. The words, the very sounds that came out of Mahāvīra's vak- the energy which converts the air into sound - are sacred.

See, when the air travels through the vocal cord, it is only air. From there something happens and that becomes the sound. So any sound that comes out of an enlightened vocal cord, enlightened vak energy, is His mantra. That is the reason I am reciting those words. So even if you don't understand, it is ok

Please understand, in the Eastern tradition, language is not only used to convey the ideas but it is also used to create certain kind of vibrations. It is not only linguistic but it has phonetic importance also added to it. All the Sanskrit aksharas, letters is just like a beautiful dance and it is like cleaning your prana flow. The person who chants some mantras at least 10 minutes everyday morning will never have gas problem.

Understand, it is my experience. If you have any gas problem or any difficulty related to breathing, prana flow, asthma or any thing just chant some mantras, some enlightened Master's words even though you may not understand. Just chant for 10 minutes those words which are in Sanskrit, the traditional language.

You may think, 'How can creating some sound for 10 minutes heal?' You don't know the power of these sounds. They come from the hara means your very root and they completely heal the whole path in which the prana flows. The whole prana energy flow is cleaned.

That's why I never miss the original sutras, even if you don't understand them. Many times I have seen people are closed to something which they don't directly understand. In Bhagavad-gītā books also I have seen people just move the page where the Sanskrit slokas are printed; they just jump and go to the next page. They think, 'Why should I unnecessarily touch these things?' No, just try to experience that sound. You don't even have to understand, just experience that sound. It can do miracles in your being.

People come up with all types of dharma. People come up with all types of weird excuses to escape from dharma. I have seen many people telling about me, ‘He is so young; what can he teach!’ That is the big problem, what to do? In the spiritual field always age is a big problem. In the Vedic tradition age is not required to achieve enlightenment.

Anubhava Vs Anubhooti

See there are two things, anubhava and anubhooti. In Sanskrit we have two words for experience. In English we don’t have two words, because they do not know about anubhooti, that is why no word exists.

Anubhava means experience by so many incidents in your life. Anubhooti means experience of enlightenment. Let me explain anubhava and anubhooti, then you will understand about the pure dharma and how we are escaping from pure dharma.

Anubhava means going through many experiences, like first you touch the fire from matches, and then you understand this fire will burn. Then you touch the cigar fire, ‘Oh, this fire also burns,’ you touch all kinds and all varieties of fire and understand that all these fires burn. By the time you come to the conclusion by again and again touching and experiencing, that all fires burn, your body is ready to be burnt! You become old enough to die and be burnt. This is called anubhava - adding more and more experiences and doing big analyses and coming to conclusions.

The person who sees others and learns the lessons without even going through them uses the knowledge of others' research and development. He is a Paramahamsa.

Spiritual enlightenment does not need anubhava. It needs anubhooti. Many times when we don't want to listen to the higher Truths, we create all kinds of confusion and difficulties for ourselves. The mind is so cunning, whenever you cannot practice some Truths, you just pretend as if you are practicing.

When you can't come out of your hypocrisies, you feel comfortable thinking and believing that everyone is hypocritical. When we can't come out of hypocrisy, when we cannot raise ourselves to higher spaces of consciousness, we feel comfortable feeling that others also are like us. Our mind creates enough difficulty to listen to the higher Truths.

Only the one who is capable of listening to pure dharma is a person who is ready to transform. A person who is not ready to transform will find thousands of reasons not to sit here or not to listen. And you can always find a reason, it is not a big thing. You will find thousands of reasons not to listen.

Only the one who is capable of listening to the pure dharma and find trust in it can understand and live the dharma. Many times I have seen people come and sit and listen to all these things and at the end of the discourse, they come and tell me, 'Swamiji, I am listening to so many things and I really trust them but I don't know how to become enlightened.'

I tell them, first thing celebrate that you have taken such wonderful steps. First thing, you are sitting here. Second thing, you are feeling connected, that is the reason you are continuing to sit. Third thing, you are trying to work towards this. You trust it.

Celebrate all the achievements which you had, then we can find time later on to repent what we have not achieved. Do not take yourself for granted. Celebrate your being here and feeling connected and having trust in these great words. You have done a great thing.

According to Mahāvīra, now you need to take only one step through right conduct. Releasing the baggage of karma takes you to the higher consciousness. Understand, the last step you don't even have to struggle. Just sit and listen intensely and allow these words to work on you. You will see you are simply doing it.

Just one example: if I am talking about fasting and clearly explain not to eat tonight and if it goes straight and touches your heart, do you think you will be able to go and eat? No! You won't. Simply you will see you will not even have an idea of eating. Only one thing needed is allowing these words to penetrate you.

You don't even have to bother, you don't even have to plan how to practice. If you are sitting here and planning how to practice, you will miss the words which I am uttering. So don't plan, allow the words to go into your being first; let them work on you and find their own way. They are capable enough to show you the way to express themselves in your life.

I always tell people, whenever you listen to the great Truths, don't plan on how you will go back to your house and start practicing them. No, if you plan you will be a failure. Just listen. Let these words go into your being, let them work on you, they will find their own way to express themselves in you through your system, because they are very powerful.

Understand, they are very powerful. They are not simple as you think. They are so powerful that simply they will work on you. They have their own independent intelligence. Master's words have independent intelligence. They work on their own.

Let us start the sutras word by word.

It is indeed very difficult for anyone in this world to achieve four things. Almost all the great Masters are saying you have achieved the difficult thing of manushyatva. In the same way Shankara is also telling manushyatva - achieving human body, mumukshatva - seeking for enlightenment and satsanga or the nearness of an enlightened being are very difficult.

Here Mahāvīra is saying, human body is very difficult for anyone in this world to achieve because only from human body one can experience enlightenment. Understand, human body is like a runway where you want to take-off or land. You have to only take the human body for enlightenment.

You can't get enlightened from devata sharira or the body of angel. Or you can't get enlightened from the body of an animal. No, they don't have the possibility. Only from here, from the body of human one can go to hell or heaven. You have the choice only in the human body. Other bodies don't have the choice. They may have little freedom but all the senses and the mind have freedom only in the human body.

Understand, in other animals they may have freedom in one sense or two senses, but they will not have complete freedom. Only in the human body all your five senses and your mind have the freedom.

You have the choice, you can choose, you can select 'What next? What next?' You have complete freedom to choose only in the human body. The possibility for enlightenment exists only in the human body. That is why I always tell people it is so difficult to achieve this body.

Do not waste your life behind the currencies which have no value. Any currency is a promise by the person who is ruling that country. Currency to fulfill your basic needs is wonderful, there is nothing wrong with that but even after having that, running behind the same thing is wasting your life. See, if you are running behind the same thing without working towards enlightenment or the higher consciousness, you will be wasting such a wonderful opportunity of having a human body.

It is like you have got a new diamond, a big diamond and you use it as a table weight! You are laughing but you don't understand that you are doing exactly the same thing. See the possibility for enlightenment.

The human body means possibility for enlightenment. It is the mechanism with which you can experience liberation once for all. This availability is the most beautiful. Currency is ok to buy a home, to protect the body and to give medical care. But after that, work towards the ultimate conscious achievement.

Do not waste your life by running behind the foolish promises given to you by society. Understand, they are empty promises. Currency is a promissory note till you fulfill your basic needs. After that it is an empty promissory note. There is no utility directly out of it. After that, it is time for you to work towards vanaprastha.

In Sanskrit that's why we have four words: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, sannyas. Brahmacharya is an age where you learn vidya and avidya both. Vidya means education for enlightenment and for creating an infrastructure for your comfort and wealth. The next 25 years is the grihastha stage where you live and create the infrastructure for your safe, comfortable and secure life.

The immediate next stage is you starting as vanaprastha. Vanaprastha means working towards your conscious development, your enlightenment - because the great possibility is there open and available for you.

Sannyas is achieving and radiating enlightenment. Understand, the secured feeling which you experience by having wealth is too poor a substitute for enlightenment. It is too small a substitute for enlightenment. The possibility for enlightenment exists only in the human body. No other animal, no other devatas, no other gandharvas, no other creatures, can even think of enlightenment.

One more thing, the possibility for hell also exists only in the human body. Only from the human body you can take any route. Whether to hell or heaven or enlightenment, only from here you can choose to go. Listening to dharma, no buffalo can go for spiritual discourses. It can't go and it can't understand. It doesn't have that suffering which drives it towards enlightenment.

Understand, human beings are blessed that they can experience suffering consciously. Animals may have suffering but they do not have consciousness. They are not conscious about it because they do not have a choice, they do not know that they have a choice. They have only instincts but they do not have a conscious choice. Human beings know they can escape from the suffering.

In Sanskrit that’s why we have four words: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, sannyas. Brahmacharya is an age where you learn vidya and avidya both. Vidya means education for enlightenment and for creating an infrastructure for your comfort and wealth. The next 25 years is the grihastha stage where you live and create the infrastructure for your safe, comfortable and secure life.

The immediate next stage is you starting as vanaprastha. Vanaprastha means working towards your conscious development, your enlightenment - because the great possibility is there open and available for you.

Sannyas is achieving and radiating enlightenment. Understand, the secured feeling which you experience by having wealth is too poor a substitute for enlightenment. It is too small a substitute for enlightenment. The possibility for enlightenment exists only in the human body. No other animal, no other devatas, no other gandharvas, no other creatures, can even think of enlightenment.

One more thing, the possibility for hell also exists only in the human body. Only from the human body you can take any route. Whether to hell or heaven or enlightenment, only from here you can choose to go. Listening to dharma, no buffalo can go for spiritual discourses. It can’t go and it can’t understand. It doesn’t have that suffering which drives it towards enlightenment.

Understand, human beings are blessed that they can experience suffering consciously. Animals may have suffering but they do not have consciousness. They are not conscious about it because they do not have a choice, they do not know that they have a choice. They have only instincts but they do not have a conscious choice. Human beings know they can escape from the suffering.

The greatest thing in the human body is you can transform all the emotions. The possibility for transformation exists only in the human body. Understand, take a moment and look into your body and thank that you have the possibility.

You have the possibility. In this whole cosmos millions of types of creatures are there but only you have the possibility of freedom from the birth and death cycle. Manushya only has the possibility. Celebrate your possibility. Celebrate that only you have the possibility towards the higher experiences and the higher goal of enlightenment.

Not only Mahāvīra, but also Buddha, Shankara and all the Masters are emphasizing again and again, repeating again and again, that only human beings can achieve enlightenment. They come just to tell you that you have a possibility. Do not waste it. Do not miss it. Think of going to the higher space, higher conscious level.

Other beings can’t think in the same way. They cannot work for enlightenment. They cannot achieve it, only you can. The Vedic system again and again emphasizes, if you want enlightenment, you have to take the human body. Even devatas have to come down and take the human body to achieve enlightenment. You now need to understand a few secrets about birth and death, the laws of life, the laws with which life or the universe functions.

It is you who decides your birth. Before taking birth, you sit with all the engraved memories, the samskaras in front of you. Somebody asked me the question, 'What do you exactly mean by samskaras?'

Samskaras means the experiences which you gain through all the five senses and through your mind - what you see, what you listen, what you smell, what you taste and what you experience through touch and the mind which develops it.

For example, you might not have seen an elephant with 4-5 trunks but you can visualize and develop it through your mind. That is also samskara. Whatever you receive through the five senses and whatever you develop based on that material through your mind is called samskara.

In front of you all the samskaras, engrams, which occurred will be there before you and you decide what kind of engrams you want to experience and go through. Why you decide I also don't know. I don't know. You just decide. What kinds of engrams you want to leave and what kind of engrams you want to go through and what kind of engrams will give you fulfillment, you choose your body according to that. According to those desires, you choose your body.

They don't have to suffer thinking of other animals being killed. They don't have to suffer the cruelty and negligence which other creatures are going through. But with a human body, you have a possibility. You have a sensibility to suffer for other creatures.

Understand, only in the human body there is a possibility for more suffering. Even then knowingly you have chosen the human body. It means you must have had the desire for enlightenment, you must have thought about the possibility of enlightenment.

Let me be very frank and I tell you from my experience, with anybody who has a human body, in one corner of their mind they had the desire for enlightenment. Human existence, especially over the last 30-40 years, is filled with suffering, filled with pain. But even then if you have taken the human body, it means you must have had the inspiration or search for enlightenment and there is no other reason why you chose the human body.

To tell you honestly, planet earth is not livable any more. Now you think we don't have choice that is why we took birth, and that our birth is an accident. No, there is life in other planets also and millions of possibilities are there. But you chose the human body, human existence, after seeing all these choices - just because of the possibility of enlightenment.

Never think there is no other kind of life existing in other planets. No, there is life, that is what we call devatas, gandharvas, siddhas, munis. Different kinds of life exist but you chose the human body just for enlightenment, so do not miss the purpose. Do not miss the ideal. Do not miss the Truth for which you have taken this body.

Patanjali goes one step further and says, all the best things of all animals - swimming, flying, and all possibilities are added and put in the one form of the human body. You may ask, 'Then why are we not able to fly?' It is because you never trusted yourself that it is possible to fly.

Let me be very frank, I have seen with my own eyes a person who has achieved perfection in the science of yoga and he was able to levitate from the ground. His name is Raghupati Yogi. I myself have seen this with my own eyes and I can really vouch for Patanjali's words. Flying is possible by human beings.

But Raghupati Yogi who achieved these powers was so honest, even though he had so many powers, after exhibiting all those powers to me and inspiring me, told me in the end, 'My son, I have not achieved the ultimate thing and am still struggling. Don't put too much of your energy in achieving all these powers. I showed all these powers to inspire you but do not waste your time in these extraordinary powers. Achieve the best thing which can be achieved through the human body. Now I am telling you about all these possibilities just to tell you that the human body is the best system, the most sophisticated system. All intelligent things, all great powers are available in this system.' That is the greatness of Raghupati Yogi. I had the fortune to live with him for ten years.

I myself have seen a person who lived at least ten years without food or water. One great siddha, Narayanaswamy, was living in my hometown for more than five years. I had the opportunity to be around him. He never ate or drank anything. He used the possibility to get energy directly from the sun rays. See, what plants do, you can also do. What birds do can happen in your body. The possibility exists. All you need to do is remind yourself. You need to remind your system about the possibility.

I am telling all these things to inspire and to give you the courage that the possibility exists. I tell you, the same way the possibility for enlightenment exists in you. Remind yourself. Remind your senses, remind your system - you can radiate enlightenment.

Reminding your system that you can radiate enlightenment is what I call meditation, tapas. As of now only your mind knows you can become enlightened. It should sink into you. Your blood, your bones, your muscles, your whole being, every cell in your body should know that you can become enlightened.

Radiate enlightenment, that is what I call seeking. Seeking will completely purify your being. When your whole being knows, you can radiate. Teaching your being you can radiate enlightenment is what I call tapas and meditation. When your whole being knows you can radiate, you simply start radiating, that's all.

Only one who is capable of listening to pure dharma and finds trust in it, through right contact, releases the baggages of karma and attains the higher consciousness. One more thing, he says, only one who is capable of listening to pure dharma and finds trust in it, feels connected to it. If you are sitting and if you are able to listen to everything without prejudice and if you are feeling really connected to whatever words I am saying, then 66% of the work is done.

Mahāvīra says three things - capable of listening to pure dharma, finding trust in it and expressing through the right contact. So if you can listen to the pure dharma and trust and feel connected to it, then 66% of the work is over and the other 33% you don't even have to do.

Just maintain that feeling connection. By feeling connected to these teachings, simply these words will work on you. Feeling connected is like a bridge. On one side of the bridge is the enlightened being and on the other side is human being who is ready for enlightenment. Feeling connected is the bridge.

Here Mahāvīra says, one who is capable of listening to pure dharma, the seeker, is on one side of the bridge which is the feeling connection, and on the other side is the enlightened being. So naturally His energy passes through the bridge to the being of the seeker and works on him.

Listening to the Truth and feeling connected is what is needed. Many times people clap their hands during the lecture. If they feel what they think is expressed by the speaker, if they hear exactly what they want to hear, they feel like clapping. They acknowledge to the speaker that is what they exactly want to listen. So they feel connected with what the speaker is expressing.

So now you need to be capable of listening to pure dharma. Understand, the capacity to listen to pure dharma does not mean only having ears, only not being deaf. No, it also means being here without prejudice. There are so many kinds of prejudices which can come. If you feel connected to whatever you are listening without prejudice, 66% of the work is done. The last thing is having the right contact, this releases the baggage of karma.

In Sanskrit we have two words nivrutti and pravrutti. Pravrutti means acquiring more and more karma. Nivrutti means going towards the unclutched space. If you just listen to the Truth and go to the space of unclutched-ness, it is called nivrutti. The very listening and feeling connected is more than enough to lead you towards nivrutti.

Let you feel deeply connected with these words. Let these words work on you and give you the strong experience of the Ultimate. Mahāvīra is a dynamic diamond. Anything except diamond will at some point in time just reduce to ashes. So if you really let Mahāvīra work on you, anything inside you except the Mahāvīra consciousness will become ashes.

Suppose there is a big stone and in that a little portion of it is diamond and other things are carbon covering the stone. Now if you bring a dynamic diamond towards the stone, except the diamond portion everything else will be taken away and will become ashes. So if you bring the dynamic diamond towards that uncut diamond, the uncut diamond will be cut and it will be purified. All the portions except the diamond portion will be removed and disappear

In the same way, in your being there is also a spark of Mahāvīra consciousness and there is so much dust and carbon in the form of impurities around this. If you bring the dynamic diamond, Mahāvīra, towards your inner space, everything except Mahāvīra consciousness will be taken away and will be reduced to ashes.

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Now there are two questions from you I want to answer.

Q: Why is divorce not allowed in Vedic marriage?

Because our Masters understood that constantly changing the outer man or woman is not going to help. Why is divorce not allowed in the Vedic system? We don't have divorce. You take vow in front of agni (fire) saying that till death these vows will be practiced. You don't say, till I divorce these vows will be practiced.

No. And in the Vedic system, the witness for all the vows is the life energy and cosmic consciousness, not any lawyer or any priest. The fire and the cosmic energy is the witness. We don't have an equivalent word for divorce in Sanskrit. Only in later Sanskrit, the equivalent word for divorce was created. In the traditional system we don't have the word for divorce.

Our Masters are very clear, by changing the outer man or woman, the problem is not going to be solved. When I read the book 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,' I felt that it was too close - Mars and Venus are too close, maybe it should be men are from Mars of some solar family and women are from Venus of some other solar family!

Anyway, usually if you change constantly again and again, you will never realize, changing the outer woman or outer man is not going to help. Only changing your ideas is going to help. That is why our Masters want to stop the possibility of changing in the outer world.

They want to tell you, 'Do not waste your time, enough. Try once, when you find it is not working, now it is time to turn inwards.' If you can't cope up with one person, how do you think you are going to live by changing the other person? Because you are going to carry the same mind. Changing the inside is more important. That is why in our tradition we do not have the very concept of divorce.

There was one another question which yesterday somebody wrote and gave about going and listening to other religious Masters or other traditional Masters. It is a very important question we need to analyze.

There were two enlightened Masters living at the same time. Both of them had so much of reverence and respect for each other but they always told their disciples not to go to the other Master. One disciple asked one Master, 'Bhagavān, you don't even put your feet in the direction where he is staying. You have so much respect for him but you say not to go to him or listen to him, why?'

The Master replied, ‘Fool! Whenever I work on you, when you feel pain during the operation, you will try to escape and go away to him and when he works on you, when he does some operation on you, you will try to escape from there and come here. You will not allow the operation to be completed either by me or by him. You will escape from both the Masters. That is the reason, I tell you not to go there.’

In those days, may be for that reason they would have told at some point, do not listen to other religious Masters. But now I feel it is time to update some of these beliefs. I feel now you are intelligent enough to learn what is right and what is wrong.

See, you can go around and pick up the best flowers and make a beautiful bouquet, nothing wrong wrong. It is time to update yourself. So I always tell people, learn the best things from all possible sources. Pluck flowers from all the gardens, make a beautiful bouquet and make a garland for yourself.

There are only two possibilities. If I tell you, 'Don’t go,' either you will listen to my words and not go, or you will just go and see what is going on there. If you really feel connected so much to me, even without telling you will not go anywhere. If you really want to go and search, even if I tell you to not go, you will go.