Analysis of the Mind🔗

How does the mind work? Just look at this diagram here (facing page). It is a diagram to show how the information that enters through the eye is processed; actually, not just the information through the eye but information through all the fives senses, that is through the nose, the ears, the tongue, touch and the eye. As an example, we are now taking the eye. Let me explain it to you.

When you see something, first, the eye sees it. There is something called chakshu in Sanskrit, which digitizes the information seen by the eye. It is something like a digital signal processor – the DSP. The signal or the input is converted into a digital file by this chakshu. This conversion happens to the information received through all the five senses, not just the eye. Then the file goes to the memory. In Sanskrit, we call this portion chitta. In the memory, a little more work is done on the file. For example, if you are seeing me now, the file is processed through the chakshu, then taken to the chitta, memory and the memory starts analyzing the information. It does a process of elimination on the file received. It starts saying: This is not an animal, this is not a plant, this is not a rock etc. The process of elimination is done by the chitta. Then the file goes to the mind or manas. The mind does the job of identifying the file. It says: This is a human being; a human being who is taking a class. The mind concludes ‘This is it’. Next, the whole file takes a quantum leap to the Ego and your ego decides based on your past experiences what your next action or decision is. If you have past experiences with similar classes, say yoga or meditation, and they have been alright for you, if you think that it has helped, you will decide to sit here, else you will think it is better to leave!

Just try to understand this process: You are seeing me. The eye passes the information to the chakshu. The chakshu converts it to a digital signal. The memory then does all the elimination on the file – ‘this is not…’, ‘this is not…’. Then, the mind does the identification of the file – ‘this is it’. Then the whole file takes a quantum leap to the Ego. Here, you decide based on your past experiences, whether to sit here or leave the hall. Now, let us call the time for the process between the eye and the mind, as Tp. Tp is the time taken for the process between the eye and the mind to happen. This process between the eye and the mind is logical and conscious. You are completely aware of this process. It happens with your awareness. Now, the quantum leap from the mind to the Ego is mostly unconscious, that is the time when the actual decisions are taken is mostly an unconscious process for you. It happens without your awareness. Let us call this time Tq. During this time, you simply decide illogically; you decide against your logical thought process. You take a quick and illogical decision.

Why does this happen? Why do you decide unconsciously and regret later?

The reason is, this Unconscious zone is filled with negative memories and restlessness. All your past memories, which we call samskaras in Sanskrit, all your past thought patterns are stored in this zone as files. In the field of psychology they use the word engrams to denote these stored memories. There are so many files stored in this zone. Without any logical connection between them, these memories or incidents are stored here. What happens is, when the file takes a quantum leap to this zone, there is so much of data stored, which causes so much restlessness in you, that the file does not even reach the ego properly for a decision. These stored engrams simply start playing upon the information received. They just impose themselves and cause havoc in the decision making process. As a result, the Ego just takes a quick and hasty decision purely at the instinct level, and passes the file back. It happens as an unconscious and lightning-fast process. For example, according to the data that you have collected, you know that smoking is injurious to health; it is not good for your body or your mind. You hold on to this decision as long as you are in the Tp level. But once the mind takes the leap to the ego, the engrams just instruct you to smoke; you simply decide to smoke! The Conscious process says: No, it is not good for health. But the unconscious process says…actually it doesn't even say, it just takes the decision and you execute it! It is a pure instinct-level decision.

This Unconscious area is very powerful. It can be used in three ways – at the instinct level, at the intellect level or at the intuition level. As long as the Unconscious is overloaded with negative memories and restlessness, it works at the instinct level, as we just saw. You simply decide instinctively, unconsciously. When you are at the instinct level, you always end up regretting most of your decisions. You wonder: Why did I behave in that fashion? This is not me! How did I allow this to happen? How did I take that decision? This happens because the Unconscious is working at the instinct level. At this level, you just associate things without any logical connection and jump to a conclusion unconsciously. For example, if you have been disturbed by somebody who was wearing a white dress, the moment you see somebody wearing a white dress, the past memory simply comes up without your knowledge and you feel the anger. This is the instinct level. Without your conscious mind, without even you understanding, just like that it happens.

In the chakshu diagram, when Tq is lesser than Tp, when the time taken to go to the Ego and back, is very short as compared to the time taken for the process between the eye and mind, you are at the instinct level. No time is given for the quantum leap. As soon as the file goes to the Unconscious, the decision is taken. You will be continuously passing judgment without giving any time for Tq. Your Unconscious will be so overloaded with your memory files. When you function this way, you will also feel tired. It is something like this: When your hard disk is loaded with all high-resolution photographs, there is no scope to work further on your hard disk, is it not? In the same way, when your Unconscious is loaded with past thought patterns and memories, it becomes inefficient and simply takes superficial and illogical decisions.

The next is the intellect level. At this level, Tq will be equal to Tp. Here, you are conscious; you take decisions logically, but you don't have any extra enthusiasm or energy. You are just there with a conscious mind, that's all; you are not creative, not innovative; you don't take big steps; you don't grow. You are like a faithful servant. Einstein says: The intellect is a faithful servant. You can be a servant throughout your life. You can be just a servant, but nothing more or big can be done through you. At this level, you will just be collecting the data, processing it and delivering it; you will be nothing more than a computer. When your Unconscious zone is at the intellectual level, Tq will be almost equal to Tp. You don't take hasty decisions out of restlessness and overloading of your Unconscious zone; you take decisions in a logical and conscious way. When you are at the intellect level, you are not tired but you are not energetic either. You are in a break-even state. At this level, you are still not using your potential to the maximum – the extent to which it can be used.

The next level where you can actualize your entire potential is the intuition level. If you can infuse a deep silence and awareness into the unconscious zone and replace your engraved memories or files with silence and awareness, you can be at the intuition level. When you can be free from your memories, and be empty and blissful in this Unconscious zone, if you can be alive and fresh every moment without the burden of your past, without the burden of these engrams, the Energy of your Being will express itself in its purest form. When this happens, we can say that your intelligence is at its peak, because Energy IS Intelligence. When this happens, you take decisions out of an Energy called Intuition, where you simply know with tremendous clarity. When you are at the intuitive level, Tq will be greater than Tp and you will take decisions from the energy of your intuition, from deep awareness and peace, from bliss! This concept needs a deep understanding. You need to go deep into the whole Science, only then will you be able to understand what I mean by the word Intuition. Intuition is something which happens in you beyond your intellect.

Let me explain. Suddenly you know for sure that something is the right thing and you feel that you have enough Energy also to do it, but you don't know the steps involved in doing it. You don't know the steps that led you to the conclusion but you know for sure that your conclusion or decision is right. This is Intuition. This Energy of Intuition is needed whenever you are faced with a situation where there is no precedence. When you are stuck with minimum data and you need to take decisions, or you have many choices and you are not able to decide what you are supposed to do – in such situations, the Energy of Intuition helps you. Not only in such situations…if you can be in this plane of your Being continuously, you will be totally present in every moment and you will give birth to future moments also in the same fashion. If you try to assimilate what I am telling you now, if you can just spend a few minutes sitting with yourself and feel how your stored engrams are causing havoc in you and burdening you, if you can just see the truth in what I am saying, you will slowly know the knack of how to get out of this cycle and move to the higher plane of your Being. One more thing with intuition: It gives you the Energy not only to take the decision but also to execute what you have decided. When I say this to people, they ask me, "Swamiji how do I find out whether I am having an intuition or I am just being intellectual." They tell me, "Swamiji, I am confused about whether it is Intellect or Intuition." I tell them: Be very clear: If you are confused, it is only intellect. The very confusion shows that it is only intellect. When you have intuition, you will be so confident and brimming with Energy that there will be no room for confusion. With intuition, the potential power which is inside your Being is simply unleashed. You open up and just like that you start expressing it, executing it. If you read about scientists and CEOs who have been involved in major breakthroughs in their fields, again and again you will find them attributing their success to something beyond their intellect, which gave them the Energy or the guts to take those decisions. Know one thing: Each and every one of you has the power of intuition in you. Let me ask you: How many of you have experienced at least once in your lives, that when you are thinking of a particular person, the phone rings and that person is on the line; or you enter a place and you feel you have been to the place before; or similar intuitive things? You see, these are the moments of intuition that you have experienced accidentally in your lives. During these moments, you are accidentally in a meditative state. Through these things, your Being tries to relate with you. But what do you do? You brush these things aside as coincidence and ignore your Being. We completely ignore the higher dimensions of our Being. How can something that has happened to 80% of you be a coincidence?

Be very clear: These moments of intuition are clear signs of the latent power in you. If you recognize and encourage it, you can express the higher dimensions of your Being. The other day I had an opportunity to have a meal with Dr Charles Townes, Nobel laureate in the field of LASER and MASER. I asked him 'How did it happen? How were you able to do this?' He answered in a beautiful way. He said, "I was just sitting in a park in Washington DC and suddenly something happened in me. The conclusion was there in me. Suddenly the conclusion was revealed to me. I immediately penned down what I got. I then realized that I had a difficulty - I had the conclusion but not the steps! I was not able to present it to anybody else because I knew only the conclusion; I did not know the steps. Then when I sat down, I was able to get the logical steps." Not only with Charles Townes, even Einstein says, "Whatever new happened to me, it came through intuition, not through intellect." He says beautifully, "The Intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant." We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. Whether we believe it or not or accept it or not, there is something called Intuition in us. Of course, even Einstein calls this as a gift because he didn’t know whether it can be consistently had. He is not sure when it will happen and whether it will happen or not. But Yogis, the great Mystics, again and again say that you can very well work for it and you can be sure about having it all the time. You don’t have to think that Intuition is a gift. You can work for it. It can become a part of your life.

When intuition happens beyond your intellect, your whole Being is integrated. You are at your peak. When you are at your peak, something opens. You may call it a revelation or an Intuition or anything. Yogis have again and again said that it is a Science. If you can tune yourself to this Intuition or this Energy, which is continuously available in your Being, you can use this in your regular life. Intuition is the Energy of your Being. When this pure Energy starts coming out from the Unconscious level, it also heals you physically, mentally and emotionally. Apart from healing, it reduces stress and helps you to take decisions spontaneously. Spontaneity has nothing to do with data that you collect; it is something to do with the way in which you process the data. The same data, the same information can be processed in many ways. Intuition is all about how you process data and how you come to the conclusion beyond your intellect. We can prepare ourselves, we can tune ourselves to this Energy of Intuition through techniques and methods.

These techniques are what we call meditation. In the East, we use the word meditation, to tune ourselves with the higher Energy, which is in our Being, which continuously invites us again and again to experience it. Whenever you find time, just sit with yourself and observe... We are always ready to give an appointment to others, but never to ourselves...! If you just sit with yourself, you can always see that some part of your Being wants to express, wants to do something more; but we never give the chance or time to that part, to that portion of our Being. We are so caught up with our intellect. We think that our intellect is the Ultimate, but again and again Yogis prove that something more than intellect is possible.

Vedanta declares that the world is nothing but a dream. Everything is just Maya. In Sanskrit they say beautifully “Yama, Iti Maya”. Means something, which is not there but gives you a feeling as if it is there is Maya. This is an important thing to understand. It is due to the force of Maya that man lives in a deep illusion, in deep ignorance. We need to analyze this in greater detail. People get away easily putting the blame on Maya for their mistakes. The real problem is that when we make mistakes we always want to catch somebody on whom we can attribute the mistake. When we don’t find anybody we try to put the blame on God. This does not work for majority of people as God is something which they hold very sacred and putting the blame on God would be like a blasphemy. So naturally the next scapegoat is Maya. Its very easy to put the blame on Maya as it is just a concept we have created to justify our actions. Because of our samskaras we keep repeating the same mistakes again and again and put the blame on Maya. An action is never pure or impure. It’s the intent behind the action which is pure or impure. It’s the idea about that action which is pure or impure. There was a saint and a prostitute who used to stay just opposite to each other. The prostitute was a very devoted lady and

We live in a deep illusion, a deep ignorance about our own selves. We need lies in order to continue living. As it is man cannot exist without lies. He has to build around himself an imaginary structure of hope in order to live. Man needs dreams and illusions in order to live. He finds it difficult to live with the ground reality. When man builds this imaginary structure, he does not understand that this structure can collapse anytime. And when this happens he ends up in misery. Yoga is a way to enable man to get rid of this false identity he has built upon himself and to realize his true nature, his true self. We are caught so much in dreams that we forget that there is something called existential reality and start believing our dream world as the truth. Once a gentleman was confronted by a ticket collector in a train. The ticker collector asked the gentleman to show his train ticket. The gentleman started searching his pant pockets for the ticket. He could not find the ticket. He again and again searched the pant pockets but never bothered to search the shirt pocket. The ticket collector enquired as to why he is not searching for the ticket in his shirt pocket. The gentleman answered that the shirt pocket was his last hope. If he loses that hope then he would be totally shaken. This is exactly what we do in our lives. We build hopes and live with them. We are afraid to approach the reality and we continue to live with these false hopes throughout our lives. When you live with hope you miss the present moment. You never live, the hope lives through you. That hope gives rise to worry which sucks your energy and in fact makes it difficult for you the achieve what you would like to achieve. If there is a legitimate desire within you, the desire would have enough energy to fulfill itself. And you don’t need to think of the result once you know the path. Again and again thinking of the result makes you deviate from the path. Only when you start enjoying the path to live in the present. A great saint Mahavira said that God sends an individual with enough energy to fulfill his desires. Then why don’t all our desires get fulfilled. The reason is that we take other people’s desires thinking them as our own and try to work for them. We never sit back and think whether it is our desire or somebody else’s desire. We blindly follow all our desires. If it is really our desire it would result in a deep fulfillment and feeling of bliss. If it is not our desire then when the desire gets fulfilled one of the two things can happen. Either we feel guilty or we feel empty.

Man builds his entire life on dreams. Not only when he sleeps even while awake he is dreaming. All the time man needs to dream in order to survive. He thinks that by dreaming he is creating an identity for himself. He thinks that if he stops dreaming he would lose his identity. He does not understand that the identity created by dreaming is a false identity and it can collapse anytime when confronted with reality. Most of our nighttime is spent in dreaming. If we stop dreaming then one or two hours of sleep is enough to keep the body and the mind fresh throughout the day. Dreams take a lot of our mental toll. It’s an unconscious activity going on and on. If we were to record all our mental chatter throughout the waking state we would make a fifteen hours cassette. If we listen to this cassette we would realize that almost 10 hours in unnecessary. It’s absolutely absurd, irrelevant and illogical. It has no relation with the things happening around us. If we can get rid of the unnecessary portion of the mental chatter then we would automatically fill our being with bliss. Dreams are a way to forget oneself. Because we are uncomfortable sitting with ourselves, because we have lost the habit to sit with ourselves we dream so as to forget ourselves. If we were not allowed to dream a continuous agitation would be caused within us. We always want to escape from ourselves. We are not comfortable to rest with our true self. As per Vedanta the self passes through three states. Its called Jagrat (Waking State), Swapna (Sleep State) and Sushupti (Deep Sleep). In the Jagrat state the man experiences the material world outside him. In this state man sees the physical objects and interacts with them. In the Swapna state man sees the subtle objects and interacts with them. By subtle objects, I mean the objects you see in your dreams. In the Sushupti state the man does not see any objects. We spend very little time in deep sleep. Because of our continuous habit of dreaming we spend most of our time either in the waking state or the dream state and very little time in deep sleep. There is also a forth state called the Samadhi state, the super conscious state. Actually this state is not a state separate from the other three states. It’s a state that encompasses the other three states. The other three states appear and disappear in this forth state called Samadhi or Turiya. It is only our wrong identification with the state that the self starts thinking that either it is in waking, dreaming or deep sleep. Let us understand the four states of consciousness using this diagram.

We need to understand a concept called I-consciousness. I-consciousness is a sense of awareness, a feeling of existence of the self. I-consciousness is an experience of “I am” or “I exist” not as such and such a person but rather an experience without any attributes. So when we have the I-consciousness and we have thoughts we are said to be in the waking state. Since the self is confronted with the objects of the world in this state, automatically thoughts keep rising and falling in consciousness based on the sensory input received from the sense objects. As per the psychologists this is the most conscious state, though the mystics say otherwise. The next state is the dream state in which there is no I-Consciousness but the thoughts are present. This is a very subtle thing to be understood and it’s more at the experiential level. When you are dreaming you are not aware. Simply the thoughts are coming and going and continuously you are flowing with the thoughts. Important thing to understand is that when the awareness starts coming in the dream you immediately get transported to the waking state. For e.g. when a lion in a dream confronts you, what happens – you get up screaming. This happens as a result of fear. Both fear and greed make you aware and you get transported to the waking state. As long as you are not aware you are dreaming. This is also sometimes true in the waking state. That’s what they call as daydreaming. When you are not aware in the waking state you are said to be daydreaming. When somebody just pinches you, then you regain your awareness and come back to the waking state. In the dream state the frequency of I-consciousness is very low as compared to the waking state. For a person who has low awareness level in the waking state or the frequency of I-consciousness is low in the waking state, he is dreaming even while awake.

Actually fear and greed if rightly used can get us out of this dream of illusion. That is the exact motive on Yoga and Tantra. In Tantra the greed aspect is used to make you realize the self and in Yoga the fear aspect is used to make you realize the self. In Tantra no restrictions are imposed whereas in yoga as you may see in the proceeding chapters a lot of restrictions are enforced. Both are techniques to liberate you from the illusion that you have created about the world around you.

We have read in many scriptures that the world is an illusion. This may be misunderstood, as the world does not exist. But what it actually means is that the world is not as we may imagine it to be. The world we see right now is just a projection of our past and the imagination of our future. We never see the world as it is. We always see a projection; a projection of our mind. There was a sage lying on the ground. He was in deep meditation. A thief happened to pass by and he saw this sage lying on the ground. The thief thought that the person lying was a thief and during an attempt to steal the person has fallen down unconscious while running. Some time later a drunkard passed by the sage and thought that the sage is a drunkard and due to excessive consumption of alcohol he has fallen down on the ground. After some time a sage passed by the area and he correctly recognized that the person on the ground was a sage in deep meditation. He immediately gave him some water and started taking care of him. As we see in this story, each person created an impression about sage based on what they were. The entire world is our projection. We look at things based on our previous conditioning. When Columbus's ship first arrived to the United States the red Indians could not see the ships even when the ships were very close to the shore. The reason was that the red Indians had never imagined and seen an object like ship floating on the surface of water. Only after continuous observation for a month or two they could see the ships. Previously all they could see were ripples on the surface of the water. This is what it means when they say that the world is an illusion. We never see the world, as it really is but rather always see based on our past memories and experiences.

In Vedanta there are two theories: Shrishti Drishti (Vision – Appearance) and Drishti Shrishti (Appearance – Vision). In the former, it is believed that first the creation came into existence and then the seer. In simple language it means that the world exists as it is and we see the world. It means that the existence of the world does not depend upon whether we see it or not. If you accept this theory, you start running after the world. You become a materialist. In the later it is believed that first the seer came into existence and then the creation. In simple language it means that we see what we want to see; the world is what the seer imagines it to be. If you accept this theory, you will start running away from the world. You become a so-called spiritual person. In both the cases you miss the reality as both these are concepts at the level of the mind. Both these theories are explanations for creation; the cause of creation. Both these theories are incorrect because the truth is uncaused. There is no cause-effect relationship between the appearance and the vision, between shrishti and drishti.

When we operate from what we want to see mode we forget the consequences. Nitti Mudaliar goes into a restaurant and orders his fill. As he gets up to leave he is presented with a bill. Startled he says: but I didn't order the bill. Like the unordered bill consequences of our actions follow without asking us. This is karma that our mental set up that drives us to our unfulfilled desires, which if they are to be experienced now will no longer be desirable.

When we feel we have mastered some skill and are proud of it, we become solid; we become dull, stop enjoying. Children on the other hand are always liquid, always full of joy; they are intelligent.

40-year-old father is dying his graying hair. Child asks why his hair is white. He says if you tell a lie one hair turns white. Child looks at grandfather whose hair is all white and wonders aloud what a liar he is!

Intelligence is simplicity, it's also innocence; being intellectual forces one to be complex. Intellect is like left over food, tamasic(dull), whereas Intelligence is fresh, satvic (equilibrium). In the gurukul system in ancient India there were many child sages as there was no linkage seen between age and wisdom.

Rich people have money but not happiness; they are constantly afraid of losing their wealth, and their wealth losing them when they die. Poor people have no such problems. They are happy to be alive. Their perspective of life is very basic and much larger than money.

A Zen master had to choose his successor. He drew a small black dot on a white board and asked his disciples to tell him what they saw. Almost all saw only the black dot. One disciple alone told him: what I see is a huge expanse of white, in which there is an insignificant black dot. He was chosen as the successor.

We forget all good things that happen to us, we take them for granted, and only remember the negative incidents. Problems become status symbols. We would like to boast that we are on sleeping pills or anti depressants or whatever, as these are symbols of our apparent prosperity. Children learn these from us; it is neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

We do not realize how powerful our words are. If you listen to good words you find peace. That’s how satsangs (company of the truth) work; if you are not aware they bring peace to you.

Doctors particularly should be careful, they should meditate; they have so much negativity being poured into them. The way they are particular about washing their hands they should also wash their minds. “what you think you become”

Our eye vision extends only 120 degrees. Life though is 360 degrees. By confining ourselves to this 120 degree vision we become solid, dull, without joy; people see us being serious, they think we are ok; if we laugh without reason they think we are crazy. By being serious, we make our life our graveyard.

When we look at ourselves and others we tend to look down, not up. By looking up towards high standards we grow. By focusing on negatives we drag ourselves down.

God is one who remembers one good thing we did and forgives and forgets millions of bad things we do. Only man remembers the one bad thing of others and forgets million good things.

Don’t judge people. Don’t worry about what people think of you. Drop preconceived notions about time and place: office is hell, beach is fun; mornings are tough; evenings are cool. Then you will be happy wherever you are, whenever it is. Live and enjoy life as it is. Drop all your prejudices of people including yourself, events, time and places.

Every 11 days your emotions go through a cycle; that’s why the Ekadasi vrata of fasting was introduced. For the next eleven days think only good things about your body and see how it changes your perception. Just be aware of all its greatness.

A couple got fed up of their home and called a realtor to sell it. The realtor worked hard and placed an ad to sell the house. The next day the couple called to say that they do not wish to sell, they are happy with the house. Realtor, puzzled asked why. The couple said: when we read your ad we realized this was our dream house. Why would we want to sell it? Seeing the advertisement again and again, unconsciously they started believing what was written.

In Tibet there are communities where a man of 130 considers himself young. People live to 300 years in that community. Their perceptions change their expectations; their expectations make their life.

Let us move from the ephemeral to eternal; all we need to do is to deal with things as they are, as we find them, and not try changing them. We need to change ourselves, not others.

Man has forgotten how to relax. When people come to me for some life solutions I sometimes tell them, just relax and everything will be fine. They ask me “How to relax”. Now people also want a technique to relax. It’s a pathetic situation man has found himself into. Relaxation happens not by doing or not doing. Relaxation happens when we just surrender to existence. When we just start flowing with existence we relax automatically into our inner space. There cannot be any technique to relax. Relaxation techniques might give you temporary relaxation, just a feel good feeling but it won’t be permanent. True relaxation happens when we start accepting reality as it is and not based on our dreams.

There was a person with three sons and all had been to a neighboring village for business. On his trip back he saw that his house was on fire. He started weeping and wailing in sorrow. Then one of his sons suggested that we had just sold the house and so it is no longer ours. On hearing this, the father suddenly became alright. His mood changed immediately and he relaxed. Then the second son said that the person who bought the house has not yet paid for the house. The deal is still on paper. Again the father got tensed and starting weeping. Then the third son said that he just checked the bank account and the money had been deposited. Now we are absolutely safe. Again the father became alright. In this story the incident which happened was the same. Only the idea of mine and not mine created the whole psychodrama. It was just an idea which was causing the mental trauma. This is what we do throughout our life. Throughout our lives we have lived with ideas; ideas which are absolutely fleeting and impermanent. There is nothing wrong in having ideas. The problem happens when we clutch to that idea, when we get attached to the idea. Our ancient mystics have identified 7 chakras or energy centers in our body which are directly related to human mind. Though this subject is not directly related with Patanjali’s yoga sutras, it’s a good understanding on the reason for human suffering, why it happens and what can prevent it. This science of chakras has been greatly expounded in one of the famous scriptures called yoga vashishtha; a discourse between the great sage Vashishtha and Lord Ram. Now we will study briefly the science of the chakras.

Chakras Inside our bodies there are 7 energy centers or chakras

Anahat Chakra In Sanskrit, Anahata means ‘that which cannot be created’. This chakra is located in the heart region.

The Anahata chakra is concerned with love, sentiments, and similar emotions. This chakra gets locked when we constantly seek attention from others instead of exuding love from ourselves and it flowers when you express selfless love without expecting anything in return!. Its very meaning is 'that which cannot be created' and it signifies that real love can never be created from outside and put into you; it can just happen in you, that's all. It can only happen when a deep awareness enters you.

When real love happens, we will stop seeking attention from others and become a source of Energy ourselves. What do we mean by attention-seeking?

You see: Whatever we do, whatever we think, we are subconsciously seeking concurrence and approval from the people around us - in some subtle way. We are very keen that we should earn a good name from everyone. We may not do this in a very obvious fashion, but if you analyze deeply, you will not be at ease without the appreciation and endorsement of the people around you. This endorsement, this approval, is what we call 'attention-need'.

80% of our problems is due to this asking for attention or approval. If you just sit and note down, in a day, how many things you do to get a good name, to maintain your reputation in society, you will see.

You will find that all the 24 hours, all your lifetime, you are involved in getting approval from others. All your activities, all your efforts, are to get the signature of the others around you. In a big register you make a column - Good Father, and every thing that you do for your children, you do, and expect their signature of approval under that column! Then you go to your wife, to your boss, to your friends. You prepare columns with suitable headings like Good Husband, Good Employee, Good Friend etc. and wait for them to sign under it. You are requesting for approval signatures all the time, that's all.

Of course, all these people also come to you for your signature! You too need to sign on their registers under the columns applicable to you! Each of us is continuously on a signature campaign. We need to collect as many good opinions as possible from society and prove our worth to ourselves and to society.

The Bhagwad Gita beautifully says: Karmanyevaadhikaarasye maa phaleshu kadaachanah It means, Your job is only to do the work, not to be concerned about the result.

You need to keep doing things because you have so much of loving Energy inside you. You can just exude Energy without any reason or any expectation. When you are like this, you are not bothered about the results. When I say you are not bothered about the results, I don't mean that out of a frustrated or cynical conclusion, you are not bothered. What I mean is, you don't even know to expect results because you are continuously moving and expressing your blissful inner Energy, that's all. So we can't even say that you don't expect results. You are just flowing joyfully, that's all. This flowing Energy is real love.

When you start expecting from other people, there will be no end to it. And let me tell you: The most difficult thing is to satisfy all the people around you. Do you think you can satisfy all the people, all the time? Never. It is the most impossible thing to do on Planet Earth.

We need to stop asking and start giving. We need to radiate Energy instead of asking for Energy. But we don't even know how to shift the focus from us to the other. We are so used to seeing ourselves as the center of attention. We need to start seeing the world outside as the center of attention. How to do this?

Real love knows no object. It is simply there whether there is an object or not. Real love is the subject itself. It does not know any object. You are the subject and you have become love, that's all. Any object that comes in touch with it, feels it, that's all. Like how a river flows naturally and people enjoy it at the different places that they encounter it, real love exudes from a person and the people around the person will be able to feel it.

There is absolutely no room for conditionings in real love. The Energy in you should overflow and express itself as love. It is then that you can break through the highly knotted boundaries of relationships and express yourself beautifully, as a loving Being! Do you understand? Yes...

In order to discover the quality of your Being that is love, two things can be done. The first thing: Repeatedly listen to words like these so that they create a conviction in you about what is being said; so that they create a space in you to start the process of transformation. Second thing: Meditate so that the transformation can actually happen.

Just try to understand one thing: Your inherent nature is love. Love is permanent. All other emotions simply come and go, that's all. You are caught in thinking that all the other emotions are real and that they are destroying love. Love can never be destroyed. If love could be destroyed, it would have become extinct long ago.

Also, when you really love, the opposite emotions cannot enter into you. They will simply be excluded. When there is bright light in a room, can darkness be brought in? No! Only when you dim the lights, darkness can enter. In the same fashion, only when real love has not happened in you, the other emotions can take over. When you are brimming with love, there is no way another emotion can enter. And this chakra, the Anahata chakra, is supposed to make you brim with love, because it is overflowing, energizing, loving Energy.

Love is not an object, it is the subject, it is you. You become love, that's all. Then you will start loving without a reason. You will love the trees, the flowers, the earth and what not. You will simply radiate love. You then become one with the whole Universe. All boundaries disappear and you merge with Existence.

The Manipuraka chakra is located in the navel region. In Sanskrit, Manipuraka means ‘The City of Jewels’.

This chakra is locked when you constantly worry and it flowers when you stop worrying about your worries!

We all have so many worries all the time. And if we can't find any worries, we will start worrying about not having any worries! We start feeling insecure and so we start thinking about what we can worry about! I tell you, it is a fact!

Some elderly retired people don't know what to do because they don't have any worries! They try their best to think of something that might keep their minds occupied, but there's nothing coming up to keep it occupied! And this is new to them because they have all along been occupied with some worry or the other, with some thought or the other.

Before defining worry, I just want you to understand that whatever may be our culture, financial status, age or anything else, we all have one thing in common - and that is worry!

If I ask you why you worry, you will list out so many reasons. You always think that worry is caused by external matters. You always blame the outside world, the people around you, accusing them of causing worry in you.

Just think: If the cause for worry was external, there should be at least one person who has beaten all these causes and free from worries? But everyone seems to have worries. This is because, although we think that the cause for worry is external, actually, the cause for worry lies deep within ourselves. This is the truth. This is the reason why everyone has some worry or the other all the time.

If you look deep inside, you will find that worry is nothing but our response to an event. Whether a situation makes us worry or not, depends entirely on how you choose to react to that situation. And worry has become a constant inner chatter within you, all the time causing uneasiness in you.

For example, suppose your friend gets a new job and comes and tells you about the perks and benefits of the new job and talks about it enthusiastically, how will you react? Unconsciously, you will start thinking, Oh, he's got a new job. What about me? What will my wife say if she hears these perks and benefits? I will get into trouble. .....

Without a reason to worry, your ego loses its reason for existence! That's why you choose to remain in the dimension of misery. You feel you are a solid entity because you are solving worries and thinking about them all the time.

Whereas, when you are free from this constant worrying, you are in bliss, but in this dimension you are nobody! You feel insecure, like a non-entity. To enjoy a worry-less state, you need to first drop your ego about wanting to be a solid entity.

Each person thinks that only he has got a lot of worries and that only he is unhappy, and everyone else is very happy!

Just do this small test: Whenever you feel negative thoughts coming up, look into them and see where they are rising from. You will find that they always rise up from the navel.

Whenever you feel worried, whenever a situation arises that you simply can’t handle, the first thing to get affected is also your navel region, your stomach. You can physically feel depression as a weight in your stomach. That is why we always say, “I can’t stomach it; I can’t digest it.” This expression is there in all the languages. It is universal. Constant worrying locks the Manipuraka chakra. How do we get over this?

Worry is caused by negativity; by expecting that whatever happens will be bad; this is what is the root of worry. The thing about our worry is, 99% of our worries are never true. 99% of our worries are totally unreasonable.

Gradually, this negative attitude, this negative chatter solidifies in your Being permanently, and becomes a negative influence in everything that you do. The clinical name for this negative attitude is Depression. Some people are less depressed, some people are more depressed, that’s all. The more you allow this chatter to consume you, the more depressed you become.

So depression or negativity is nothing but a collection of negative thoughts, which you speak to yourself. And once you allow such thoughts to enter into your mind, they will keep reinforcing this attitude, and become a habit.

The mind is an excellent recording system. It stores your negative thought patterns, your complexes, your worries. Whatever you teach the mind, it learns and repeats faithfully. This is how you create a solid mental makeup with all your negativities. So be very careful what you tell your mind. We always take so much care in how we speak to others, but we never pay enough attention to how we speak to ourselves.

How do we go beyond depression or negativity?

Just be aware and alert. Whenever you become aware of a negative thought surfacing, just visually scatter the negative words and see them disperse. If you go beyond inner chatter even for a few moments, you will become more aware, more alive. Just understand and accept that worry is unreal, unnecessary.

When you accept your worries, when you enter deeply into them, you will come to a tremendous understanding that all your worries are just your own creations. You will be able to see how your mind plays and causes tension in you.

When I tell you, you can understand it only intellectually. When it becomes your own experience, when you have that clarity, you will go beyond worries. Then depression cannot touch you. You will go beyond misery.

All your worries are nothing but a collection of words in the languages that you know. And they cause so much of confusion and misinterpretation in you. Words are the root cause of all misconceptions. But what to do - words are the only form of communication we are familiar with.

I always tell people: When I say something, you understand it as something else. And that is where the problem starts. Each one carries their own dictionary and interprets the words in their own way.

Your awareness will slowly grow and make you centered in yourself and increase the silence in you. When I say increase the silence, I mean, your inner chatter will reduce and you will be more of a watcher. With that increased silence, there will be more awareness in you and this will become a cyclic process in you.

With this awareness, you will be able to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. It is not that the beauty came in suddenly; it was always there! But you were not aware of it. You were too busy within yourself and so you failed to see it. Now with your awareness, you will be able to celebrate it! Suddenly, Nature will start revealing itself to you in its entire splendor. Your inner self will transform, and when this happens, the outer world transforms automatically!

When you learn to be in awareness, you can use your mind at your discretion. It becomes a vital tool at your disposal. You can use it just when you want to. From being a dangerous enemy, it becomes a reliable friend.

When your inner chatter comes down, when your TPS or Thoughts per Second comes down for even a split second, for that split second you are totally in the present and for that split second, you have the ability to access your past and future like an open book. When your inner chatter is high, your TPS is high and you are all the time either in the past or in the future; never in the present.

You are never consciously in the present. You are always in the past or future. You move from past to future without touching the present. This is the truth. But accidentally your thoughts per second come down for a moment and you are jolted into the present.

When you are completely in the present for even a second, your past and future become transparent to you. That is why you see intuitive things like déjà vu happening to you.

Masters live always in the present. That is why they have access to the vast ocean that is the past and the future. For you, it is an accident. It is a split second when this happens to you. You even feel scared when this happens! You are so used to living unconsciously, that when you are jolted into consciousness, it is too much. Reality becomes too much!

Your TPS plays a major role in determining how far you are from reality or the present. You live unconsciously when your TPS is high. You are so far flung from reality.

Simply bring in awareness and automatically you will stop speaking unnecessarily.

We carry our worries with us everywhere we go and feel comfortable nurturing them. But we also complain that we are so worried all the time! We want to be free from something but we are not willing to transform and be free from it. This is how self-contradictory we are.

How to be free and what should be your attitude – both questions have only one answer: Whatever you do, you should be able to do with a feeling of bliss, that’s all. You see, the space inside you, or your consciousness, decides the quality of your life. This space should be pure and blissful always.

If you are really interested in dropping your inner chatter and worries, you could try a small exercise:

Think of all the things that give you joy. Make up your mind that you will allow your mind to linger on only these things and nothing else. Anything else, you will give it just enough energy to get it done and then forget about it.

Try this exercise and you will see that you conserve a lot of energy.

See, understand, that you have given a lot of power to your worries by simply talking about them more and more. For example, when a housewife picks up the telephone, she will start by telling her friend that the house maid did not turn up for the day. That is her depression for the day. If you are really depressed about the maid not coming and you are really interested in coming out of it, then you should simply drop it and finish doing the work yourself! Doesn’t this sound more logical?

But what do you do? You keep on talking about it and expect your friend to feed your depression as well. If she doesn’t sympathize with you or if she tells you that is how life is and you have to move on, you will make a call to another friend and tell that friend about how inconsiderate this friend was! Just think: If you really wanted to move on with your life, you would appreciate the words of the friend, is it not?

If you really wanted to come out of the depression and move on with life, you would definitely spend your intelligence on doing that. But why are you reacting differently? The reason is, you are so comfortable just talking about your worries and not finding a way out of it.

Again I tell you: I am not asking you to run away from your worries. I am saying, don't magnify them by talking about them. Don't expend your energy on them. Instead, address them for what needs to be done so that they stop worrying you. Address them without loss of time, that's all.

Check yourself to find out if you are starting to feel comfortable with your worries. This is the scale to see if worries are controlling you or you are controlling your worries. If you are feeling comfortable talking about them repeatedly without taking any action, then worries are controlling you. If you don't linger on them and address them correctly, then you are controlling them!

Muladhara Chakra

Muladhara chakra is located at the base of the spine. In Sanskrit, Muladhara means 'the root and basis of Existence'. Mula means root and adhara means basis.

This chakra is locked by fantasy and imagination and it flowers when you drop your fantasies and welcome reality! The Muladhara chakra is concerned with sex, fantasy and imagination.

The most talked about, thought about and written about subject is sex. The most misunderstood, misinterpreted and confusing subject is also sex! We either try to avoid the subject, or we try to indulge in it. Sex is deeply buried in our unconscious minds. Right from the start, we find no one to enlighten us on the truth about sex.

Sex, more than any other subject, needs to be illumined. It needs to be illumined with the light of Consciousness!

Our condition right now is like that of a man walking in a forest on a pitch-dark night. Somewhere there is a big pit that has been dug and kept. The man who tries to avoid the subject is in total unawareness; he doesn't even know where the pit lies – then how can he avoid it? The man who indulges in the subject is aware of the pit, but can't see any other way than to jump straight into it. Can either of these be the solution? What to do? One should know where the pit lies, and then take the right steps to move around it.

The topic of sex is always swept under the carpet. It is a taboo topic. Parents do not come out and discuss it with children. First of all, the parents themselves don't know the underlying facts of the subject! On any subject, you need to ask an authority, else you will miss the right understanding and when you miss the right understanding, you mis-understand.

Sex is a tremendous creative Energy. It is a meditative energy. The whole world has arisen out of sex energy.

Our ancient enlightened Masters, the Rishis, have given us great clarity on this subject. Do you know that Vatsyayana - the man who wrote the Kama Sutra, the book on the science of sex – was a sannyasi? He was a celibate!

In fact, he delivered the Kama Sutra to his own mother. After his enlightenment, he came back to his mother one day. She told him that if he was enlightened, then he should have insight into any subject on planet Earth. He agreed and asked what she might like to hear from him. She told him, “As your mother, I know that you are celibate since birth. There is no chance that you would know anything about the subject of sex. Can you tell me something about it?” Vatsyayana smiled and delivered the Kama Sutra – the science of sex!

Vatsyayana was questioned once, “What authority do you have to speak on this subject?” A natural question! I think many of you might be silently putting this question to me also! The answer that Vatsyayana gave, I am translating into modern language for you, using a modern analogy: An electrician who visits your home, knows exactly what happens when each electric switch in each room is put on and off. He knows the entire circuitry hidden beneath the wall. If there is a problem, he can gauge the possible problem and give a solution for it, is it not? He understands the science of electricity. On the other hand, you, who puts these switches on and off fifty times a day, have absolutely no idea what is actually going on behind them! Am I right?

Many of us know nothing more than how to put on and off the switches. That’s why we sometimes get an electric shock! So, understand: We may be fathers, mothers, grandparents – but still, we may know nothing about sex.

Only an enlightened person, can give you the science of sex.

Biologically no man is 100% man, and no woman is 100% woman. A man is 51% man and 49% woman. Likewise, a woman is 51% woman, and 49% man; just a difference of 1 or 2%.

You have taken birth from the Muladhara of your father and the Muladhara of your mother. Then, how can you be only male or only female? The qualities of both are bound to be there in you! Is it not?

This is the basis behind our symbolic representation of Lord Siva as Ardhanareeshwar - the figure that is half male and half female. Whether we accept it or not, we are an embodiment of both male and female energies. We are whole, not divided.

In order to be complete, to be whole, it is essential that we are able to accept and express both the masculine and feminine aspects of our nature.

But does it really happen? Are we allowed to express?

Right from the moment of birth, society labels you as either male or female. And it expects you to start behaving accordingly. Society simply does not allow boys to express their feminine side, or girls to express their masculine side. Right from a very young age, one half of our Being is suppressed.

Till the age of seven, till the social conditioning has not taken a deep root inside, the child is not conscious of being male or female. That is why a very young child has a sense of completeness. He is centered and secure. He is so beautiful and joyful to look at! By around seven, the child comes under society's control.

A male child is not encouraged to play with dolls and kitchen sets. A female child is looked upon disapprovingly when she wants to play with racecars and rockets. Even when it comes to colors of their clothes and other belongings, there is discrimination. You choose blue for boys and pink for girls. Am I right?

In earlier days, the responsibility of parents was only to give birth to the child. At the age of four, they left the child in the Gurukul with the Master. In the Gurukul, the children were taught the Gayatri mantra – an initiation chant to kindle the intelligence - at the age of 7. If by 14 they had a spiritual experience of some kind, they were taught the Brahma Sutra – the greatest book on world philosophies, else, they were taught the Kama Sutra – the science of sex, so that they learnt the art of family life. If before the age of 21 they were enlightened, they were initiated into Sannyas. If not, they were taught the Yoga Sastras. This is how a child was allowed to evolve in its own way under the guidance and love of the Master.

But now, such strong conditioning goes into the child, which is so damaging for it. The child begins to suppress that part of himself which is not approved by society. We don't realize it, but this period is traumatic for the child. He suddenly feels uprooted, cut off from one half of his Being. He starts searching for this suppressed half outside.

You see: Man's inherent nature is fulfillment. He came from fulfillment and looks to attain it as well. So he begins, unconsciously, to search for the lost half, the suppressed half. He starts looking to the outside world for a substitute for his own lost half. The male child starts searching for a female presence, and the female child for a male presence.

This is where the whole idea of sex starts. This is how the idea of sex takes root.

In the period from 7 to 14 years, the child is closest to its parents. From them, the child collects images about how the ideal woman or ideal man should be. For the male child, the suppressed half of his own personality is replaced with his mother's image and for a girl child, the suppressed part of her personality is replaced with her father's image.

That is why every boy's first heroine is his mother, and every girl's first hero is her father. This is the unwritten law! This deep-rooted search is what lies behind the so-called Oedipus and Ophelia complexes of Freudian psychology. A boy expects care from his wife like the care he received from his mother and a girl expects the security and assurance from her husband that she enjoyed with her father.

In broken homes, where the child has been deprived of the mother's or father's presence due to death or divorce, the child carries a sense of incompleteness, because the imprint of the parents is the first, and the deepest. Even long after you are an adult, no matter how many differences of opinion you have with your mother or father, you can never remove their imprint from your Being.

At fourteen, the child attains physical maturity. Naturally, social laws don't allow them to have the same intimacy as earlier with the parent of the opposite sex and also, their activities become diversified and they don't spend as much time with their parents.

So at 14, the search continues, but this time in the outer world. These days it is happening much earlier than 14. These days, children are exposed to the television and internet from a very young age. That's why they grow up faster mentally. It's not a healthy sign. Anyhow, at about 14 years of age, the search begins in the outside world.

The child now begins to collect images from outsiders and media. The media is perfectly aware of this. That is why you will see that all advertisements always have sexual undertones – an attractive woman or man will be modeling for the product, even if the product has nothing to do with them.

Almost all motorbike ads show women – and how many women ride motorbikes?! Whatever the product may be, you will find a smiling woman recommending it. And when you go to the market, you promptly pick up that product – forgetting that the woman does not come with it! Even a simple ‘Pure Magic cookies' advertisement shows only women! This is the media's way of cashing in on your suppressed desires.

All forms of media are nothing but dream sellers. We collect all these dreams and keep running through them in our minds hoping to quench our thirst. Is it possible? Can your thirst for water be quenched by consuming salt? No! If you do this, your thirst will only increase, is it not?

If you are alert and aware, advertisement hoardings can never fool you. Of course, by seeing them, you can always be aware of the latest things in the market, no doubt, but they will not deceive you.

You will not be vulnerable to them. You will be able to see them objectively and leave it at that. You will not feel an instant and unconscious pull towards them. It is only when you allow your ‘reactive' mind to be your deciding authority, you are in trouble. You need to dissolve the reactive mind and function with your intelligence so that you are with awareness all the time. Of course, meditation will help a lot in achieving this.

Try your best not to allow children to watch the duets on television. If they simply enjoy the music and dance along with it, it's alright; but what they do is, they internalize all that they see - the duets, the emotions and what not. This is where the problem starts. Everything will get stored in the Muladhara chakra, the sex chakra. Then a mere suggestion is enough and the Muladhara will be ready.

By the age of 21 the identification with media wears off – but the ideas are already deep-rooted in our minds. Then a fresh search begins – to find that ideal person in our real life. This is the search with the idea of how our ‘would-be’ ‘should-be’. This is where the expectations start.

For the next 7 years, this search continues. Person after person we try out, and get disappointed. A few intelligent people figure out after a while that dreams cannot become reality. Only because dreams cannot become a reality, they are called dreams! But most of the people keep searching.

But after a long search, we suddenly find a person who seems to match our mental image – from a distance. The picture in our mind is green – and the person, the image that we see also seems to be green – and then, all is green! A match seems to be found!

What happens at this point is what is called ‘falling in love’. This is the science behind falling in love. Note that it is always ‘falling’ in love, never ‘raising’ in love! It is nothing more than the mischief of the hormones, masquerading as love. Because what actually happens is, because of our own strong needs and expectations, we see things as we want to see them. We project our mental image upon the other.

So anyway, the world becomes filled with greenery and music. Life becomes poetry. At last, our search is over! This is the stage at which we begin to write poetry, make paintings of each other and what not.

As long as this distance is maintained, things go on smoothly. We continue to project our imagination upon each other. But slowly, the person comes closer and then we feel that what we saw as green is not so green but only a pale green. But it is alright; you move on. After a while, you come still closer and feel that it is not even pale green but actually a sort of yellow.

But, at this stage, we don’t want to accept that our imagination has turned out to be a lie, so we start making excuses for the situation. We say to ourselves, “This is life! Everything can’t be perfect!” and so on. It requires tremendous courage, tremendous intelligence to live with reality. So we use these excuses instead, as a buffer system, to shield ourselves from reality. Finally, when we get close enough, we find that it is not even yellow, it is just white! What is inside us is green and what is outside is white. Fantasy and Reality are totally different.

The beautiful thing about this Muladhara chakra is, if this one chakra is opened, you will find that 50% of your problems have disappeared! This one chakra manages more than 50% of your life. In whatever you do, you will find a trace of this chakra! Even in your signature, you’ll find a trace of this chakra! When the Muladhara chakra is activated, even your signature will look different. If you pluck a flower, the way you do it will be different.

Sex is carbon, love is diamond. Sex is mud, love is the lotus that blooms in the mud. It is the same substance – the only thing is, you should know how to process it. Just drop your expectations, and you will find a tremendous upsurge of energy. Then you will start accepting reality as it is.

Swadhistana Chakra

Swadhishtana chakra is located 2 inches below the navel. Swadhishtana means ‘Where your Being is established’ – from swa which means ‘Self’ and adhishtana which means ‘established’.

This chakra is locked by fear, especially the fear of death and it can be made to flower by acceptance of fear; acceptance of Death itself.

Every single fear of ours is related to the fear of death, but in a convoluted way. Because it is convoluted, we don’t see it as fear of death. Without fear, the word death itself loses the meaning that we have been associating with it.

So what is death?

Death is not something that happens at the end of our lives. It is something which is happening every moment of our lives. Every act of ours is unconsciously related to our death, the fear of dying. Death changes the very quality of our life. It is not the end; it is the climax of our lives – towards which our whole life has been oriented.

Why do I say that? Because our whole life is controlled by our concept of death. Even our social structure is dictated by our concept of death.

All great religions and world philosophies have arisen out of trying to answer one question: What happens after death? In trying to answer this one question, different life solutions have taken root.

The cultures, which believe in a single life, with no concept of reincarnation, have poured all their energies into excelling in life. They have achieved the peak in terms of assimilation of information, gaining of knowledge and material comforts.

These cultures have given rise to Science. Science helps us live life at its optimum. Science helps us get the maximum out of this life.

The cultures, which believe in reincarnation, have turned the focus of their life inwards. Their search is different. They are not motivated to live life in a hurry, because Eternity is granted to them.

You can see the play of this concept clearly in the behavior of the people. In India, if a program is scheduled to start at 6 o’clock, you can be sure that it won’t start before 7.30! Because they have eternity before them!

Our whole mental set-up, the course of our lives, our society, our culture, our religion – everything is based on nothing but our idea of death. We try our best not to think about death – but death pervades every moment of our life!

When we understand the depths, the secrets and mystery of death, we understand the secrets of life. We need to solve death and see it as a mere continuity in a different form. Else, we will miss life itself.

If we understand that death is nothing but continuity in another form, we will not fear death. And when we stop fearing death, we will know to what extent we have been missing life.

We take life for granted, we live so superficially, we miss many aspects of life. Death will simply teach us to look into life with more awareness. Death is the greatest Guru ever.

We can categorize all our fears into five major categories: The first is fear of losing our wealth, our comfort, name and fame, prestige, and other outer world things. The second is the fear of losing our health, parts of our body through some accident or disease - the fears concerned with our physical health. The third is the fear of losing our mental health, our mental stability. The fourth is the fear of losing our loved ones, their love. The fifth is the fear of the unknown – fear of God, fear of ghosts and fear of Death itself.

Actually, if you deeply analyze our fears, all the five categories of fear are fear of death only. They manifest themselves in different ways, that’s all.

The main reason why people fear death is, they have not lived their lives totally.

What do we mean by living totally? Try to live with more clarity, that’s all. Make the other people see sense in whatever they try to impose upon you. With clarity, you will be able to clearly identify what your own desires are, what others have imposed on you and what desires you have borrowed from others. The first set of desires alone need to be fulfilled without any harm to any person or property. The other two need to be dropped with the help of clarity.

If you live this way, you will no more be fulfilling others’ desires and you will be no more living others’ lives. You will live your own life, and experience fulfillment, and you will be ready to die when the time comes. You will have no lurking confusion and fear of death. I am not asking you to be selfish. I am only asking you to bring clarity into the whole thing.

Fear strokes are short spikes of fear. They just come and go in a few seconds’ time. For example, you may be walking on the road. Suddenly you see a rope and think it is a snake. You experience a sudden rise of fear, which subsides in just a few seconds because by that time, you realize it is only a rope. This is a fear stroke.

You see: It is like this: There is always a current of fear in us. At times, it rises to a peak, that’s all. These fear strokes can happen with great intensity although they are for a short duration of time. Fear strokes weaken the immune system. They release depression-inducing chemicals and even accelerate our ageing process. They can even cause a heart attack or make our hair turn white.

On an average, every one has about 6 fear strokes a day consciously or unconsciously. Conscious fear strokes are to do with things like - just the telephone ringing well past midnight, or just while in the car and a motorist suddenly swerves to your side or when you are watching a horror movie someone taps you on your shoulder; so many things like these.

You get fear strokes in your dreams also, but you forget them when you wake up. Fear strokes are like shaking the roots of the rose plant. It is very dangerous for the system.

As you said, at the time of the fear stroke, you will not have any time to go into awareness; you don't have time to chant any God's name and go through the stroke because it is just a spike. But after the fear stroke, you can very well analyze the stroke and get a deeper imprint of the understanding of your fears. This will help in dissolving the whole idea of fear.

The intensity and frequency of fear strokes can be greatly reduced by reducing the intensity and the depth of the regular fear that is in us. Only from this regular fear, the fear strokes arise. If deeper understanding and clarity can reduce the regular fear, the fear strokes will also reduce.

Vishudhi Chakra

Vishuddhi chakra is located in the throat area. In Sanskrit, Vishuddhi means 'beyond purity and impurity'.

This chakra is locked by comparison and jealousy and it can be made to flower, when we exhibit our individuality without worrying about others, and express fully our capacity, uniqueness and creativity.

We always compare ourselves with others, and more often than not we feel what others have or what they have achieved is more than what we have, and we start feeling jealous. When we are not able to bear others' excellence, we get jealous. Comparison is the seed and jealousy is the fruit!

Comparison and jealousy are both actually non-existent! We create them ourselves and talk endlessly on how to overcome them. This concept can be clearly understood by looking into the very name of this chakra that is Vishuddhi.

Shuddhi means pure. Ashuddhi means Impure. Vishuddhi means beyond both pure and impure. The name therefore means that this chakra can never get impure and hence never needs to be cleansed. That is why, Comparison, which locks this chakra is like a shadow without an object. There is no basis for the concept of comparison. It is purely a figment of our imagination.

We are so busy comparing all the time that we never see things as they are! Our mind is so caught up in comparison that it misses the actual quality of what it sees. We need to drop the comparing attitude to be able to see things as they are.

Now…let us say that you queue up all the people in the world in ascending order of money. You are also part of that queue. Where would you think you would be?

Somewhere in the middle ?

Exactly! You will be somewhere in the middle, is it not? You will not even be able to count the number of people on either side of you in the queue. The people in front of you will be so many in number and the people behind you will also be so many in number.

And the people might have to keep shifting their places also because the amount of money that they have keeps changing every minute! Now, with your thoughts, you have to decide, if you are going to look at the length of queue in front of you and feel jealous or look at the length of queue behind you and feel relaxed and grateful to God! It is in your hands.

You very well know that nothing can be told about where you are in the queue, but the thought disturbs you all the time! We are haunted by a phenomenon that does not really exist! It has got a negative existence!

Let me explain to you what I mean by negative existence. Take this bell here that is beside me. If I want to remove this bell, I can simply take it and leave it outside the room and it will not be here any more, am I right? This bell has a positive existence and so it is possible for me to do this. Now, let us say there is darkness in this room. Is it possible for you to take the darkness and keep it out? No!

But if I bring light into this room, the darkness will disappear on its own, right? This is because, darkness does not have a positive existence; it has a negative existence. Because it has a negative existence, we cannot simply remove it.

In the same way, comparison does not have a positive existence. It exists only in our minds; it happens only when we exercise a certain thought in our mind. Because comparison does not exist in reality, you cannot overcome it by simply asking it to go away. You can overcome it by bringing in an understanding about it in your mind, just like how when you bring in light, the darkness disappears.

The moment you are caught in the cycle of making others' dreams a reality for yourself, you are in the rat race. Comparison and jealousy are nothing but borrowing others' dreams and trying to make it a reality for yourself. It takes Shakti or Power to be in the rat race. Shakti or Power will make your dreams into a reality. But the real achievement is in understanding that reality is actually your dream! To understand this, you don't need power; you need Buddhi or Intelligence.

Power will make your dreams a reality while Intelligence will make you understand that Reality is your dream! Intelligence will make you understand that you are already what you need to be, you just need to wake up to it, and that everything else that you are trying to make as a reality, is only borrowed and illusory!

We are always looking to achieve in the outer world. This is the root cause of comparison and jealousy. People respect you only if you have achieved something tangible in the outer world. Educational degrees, beauty titles, company designations, published papers, bank balances, are all scales that society uses to grade you.

See, first of all, you don't need to be graded by anyone. Place trust in your own intelligence and grade yourself. Of course, there is a lot you can achieve and serve humanity in the outer world. After all, only because of the achievements of science, you are able to hear what I am talking through this microphone today.

But understand that there is a lot to be achieved in the inner world. The outer world achievements are all incidental. They will get you instant name and fame and money. The real achievement is in the inner world.

Center yourself well with acute awareness and simply take part in the outer world activities like a lotus untouched in a pond. Let the work in the periphery go on undisturbed, but center yourself in your Being. You will then be able to perform much better in the outer world, because your inner intelligence will be growing and guiding you in performing and watching the results as a mere observer.

Then automatically, you will stop swaying in accordance with the outer world achievements and feel stability and joy in the center of your own Being. Finding your center is the only way out of this whole cycle of comparison and jealousy.

We have three layers of Energy in us. The first layer energy is from our mind and it is this that we use for our day-to-day activities from morning till night. Once this energy expends, you start feeling tired and irritated if you are given more work to do.

The second layer energy is the emergency layer. It is the energy that arises from your emotions. At the time of emergency, this energy opens out. Say you are walking on the road. If a dog starts chasing you, the fear emotion surfaces and what do you do? You run much faster than the fastest you can run under normal conditions, is it not? Even if you are dead tired, even if you are unable to move a limb, if suddenly a dog chases you, you will run with a different kind of energy. This is the emergency energy - that arises out of emotion.

The third layer Energy is the Being level Energy. This is an infinite source of energy within you, which you don't use at all. This energy layer can be opened and experienced by deep meditation. Whether you accept it or not, you are in connection with all these three layers of Energies. This Vishuddhi chakra holds in it the key to these higher energy levels.

The Vishuddhi chakra is the door through which all these three layers of energy can be opened out, but you are not aware of it because you have not used these layers effectively in a long time.

If you keep this chakra in a cleansed condition, you can scale great heights in the outer world and great depths in the inner world. When you have low self-esteem or jealousy, this chakra is locked. Low self-esteem is a passive manifestation of jealousy, that's all. Jealousy is active while low self-esteem is passive. Both are a result of comparison. With low self-esteem, you feel you are no good and resign yourself to it. In jealousy, you are unable to bear it and start reacting; that is the difference.

Understand one thing: Any self-esteem that you have about yourself that indicates to you that you are lesser than God is low self-esteem, because you ARE God. That is why I say there is no scope to compare yourself with anyone else.

You need to experience the second and third layers of energy hidden in this chakra, in order to understand the infinite potential that is lying hidden in you. This chakra is really the seat of energy for us. When we concentrate on it, we will be able to feel the energy radiating from it.

When you start competing with others, you forget your own self. You forget to strengthen your own Being, which is your actual untapped source of Energy. If you have physical strength and intellectual strength without the strength of the soul, it is of no use. It is only when you discover the strength of your soul, have you touched your life source.

You need to stand up with courage of conviction in your own path. Courage of conviction will happen in you only when you are strongly centered in yourself without comparing with others.

Whether you know it or not, whether you accept it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, you ARE God. This is the underlying basis of the Vishuddhi chakra also – discovering your own unique self and infinite energy.