Beyond Karma🔗

Beloved Master,

One usually understands karma as the cause and effect phenomenon. We have heard you say that karma is unfulfilled desires. You have also said not to worry about karma. Does this mean what we do now does not affect us at all?

A young initiate was under training by the older monks in the monastery.

One day, two older monks accompanied him into the meditation hall, which was just across a small lake from their living quarters. They walked all the way around the lake to reach the hall and were about to sit down.

‘Oh, no’, said one monk, ‘I forgot my meditation mat. Let me go fetch it.’

He walked to the lake, and as the initiate looked with disbelief, walked over the water! He disappeared into the living area, came out and again calmly and walked across the lake again. He then sat down quietly on his mat.

Just then, the second monk said, ‘Oh, no, I forgot my rosary. Let me go and fetch it.’ He too walked across the lake as if it was solid ground, picked up his rosary and walked back into the meditation hall.

They meditated for some time. At the end of the session, the initiate rushed out of the meditation hall and ran straight toward the water. He couldn’t wait to walk on the water like how the other two monks had walked. He stepped into the water and promptly went under water. Embarrassed and wet, he stepped out of water and looked at the older monks accusingly.

One monk said to the other, ‘We should have told him where the stones are!’

An interesting question on karma.

Cause and effect. Science tells you that cause causes the effect. Let me tell you, it is actually the effect that causes the cause.

According to scientific laws, whatever you see as the final effect is created by a set of events called causes. According to spiritual law, the desire of the effect, the effect itself in a subtle form is what causes the effect. In other words, effect produces the causes, which in turn produces the effect.

If you have deep desire, a very deep desire, that desire carries its own energy for fulfillment. You need to do nothing. The desire will fulfill itself!

When we are born, the universe ensures that we are born with all our needs provided for, that we shall not suffer because our needs go unfulfilled. This is a promise of the universe. All that we need to do is to believe this truth and we will see that the universe is fulfilling it every moment of our life on planet Earth.

The problem is that the needs we are born with become inflated as we grow up. We watch others, we learn from others, we imitate others and we want what others have. Our needs then turn into wants. Needs are what we are born with. Wants are what we acquire after being born.

Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi has said, ‘The Earth can fulfill the needs of all its children, but it cannot fulfill the wants of even one person.’

Our greed is such that the wants of one person can become greater than the needs of billions of people. There is no end to greed. Greed does not know the sufferings of others; it only knows the burning desire to possess all, at all costs and at any cost.

When I say that you are born with needs that the universe will fulfill, I mean that you bring with you these needs. These needs are called your prarabda karma. Throughout your life you live through experiences, which have a common thread of desire. This desire may be of many types. It can be for money, for name or fame, for health, for physical beauty, for intelligence, for sensual pleasures, for spiritual awakening and many other things. There is one core thread to all your desires.

If you are in politics, your desire is for power. That rules over everything else for you. You believe that once you have political power, all else will come to you – name, fame, wealth and so on. will automatically follow. If you don’t have power, you believe that nothing has happened in your life.

If you are a business person, by and large, money will be the driving force behind you. You will use money to build name, fame and power. Without money you will feel impotent and unimportant.

If you are an actor, physical appearance may be the most important factor. I heard that a famous actress insured her legs for millions of dollars! For actors, no beauty means no success, and therefore life without physical attractiveness is filled with suffering.

This deep driving desire that you have is what determines your life. That’s why the Upanishad says, as is your desire, so is your will; as is your will so are your actions; as are your actions, so your life becomes.

Your intent is what you become.

The truth is that not only do these desires make your life now, but they also determine your life for your future births.

Your intent is what you become, now and forever.

Krishna explains this so beautifully in the Bhagavad Gita. He says that your body is like a garment that the spirit leaves behind, changing it for another body. The spirit is indestructible, it cannot be destroyed by a weapon, it cannot be burnt by fire, it cannot be wetted by water and it cannot be dried by air. The spirit lives on, it moves on.

Krishna further says: this indestructible spirit seeks another body based on the last desires carried by it. These desires at the point of death determine what body it occupies next and what life it leads next.

You may ask, ‘What it is this? Krishna has said that the spirit is pure, nothing can affect it, and nothing can harm it. Then, how can desires hang on to the spirit, and influence the next birth?’

What hangs on to the spirit is the subtle essence of the mindset caused by the desires in you. These are termed vasana. The vasana tinges the spirit. A spirit with no desires, in which all desires have been extinguished, as that of an enlightened master, has no vasana, not even for any spiritual growth.

Some people tell me, ‘I too can say, “Hey Ram,” as Mahatma Gandhi said before he died, when he was shot dead.’ Understand that Mahatma Gandhi had the word ‘Hey Ram’ on his lips and heart all through his life and this was articulated when he died. If all through your life you had only the thought of money, your last thoughts would be on who owed you how much. If your mind was possessed by lust throughout your life, you last thoughts would certainly be focused on men or women for sensual pleasures. If it had been a focus on power, your thoughts and desires would center around power as you died.

It is impossible to break that thread that runs through your life at the last moment of your life. That thread carries on with your spirit into your next birth. That thread is the vasana.

This vasana or mindset that carries forward as a subtle mental attitude into the next body is the prarabda karma or the starting balance that manifests itself as the basic needs you are born with. These needs carry their own energy for fulfillment.

For the intellectually minded, let me explain the different types of karma. There are three types of karma: sanchita, prarabda and agamya karmas. Sanchita karma is like your opening bank balance, the karmic account credited to you at birth. Of this, is a certain amount that is meant for this life and that is prarabda karma. This is your current account balance, with no overdraft facility. Agamya karma is what you can do in this life to make changes to your account, which in turn affects your sanchita and prarabda karma. So each part affects the other, and all together, these three determine what your life is.

Your current account balance, the prarabda karma, is what determines all that you do in this lifetime. You may not believe in rebirth or incarnation. Your religion may deny this, but not biological sciences.

There is in your brain a part today accepted as the R Complex or reptilian brain. No scientist can explain how this functions, but they all agree that this part of the brain is a carry over from our pre-human days, not just from primates and monkeys but from the very beginning of evolution, from the reptiles, according to the term. The term reptiles is just a term. There is no distinction that can be made about whether this came from the single cellular living system or the fish or reptiles. At that level it is all guess work.

What is known, however, is that this part of our human brain is driven instinctively from deep memories of our distant past. It is known that this part of the brain dictates what is called the flight or fight responses, survival instinct, mating instinct, xenophobic response to strangers and so on. Biologists believe that these are animal instincts that operate from our unconscious and determine our behavior.

Just try to understand this: if I speak about the Dasavatara, the 10 incarnations of Vishnu as Hindu mythology explains evolution, you will laugh, but scientists are not laughing. The Hindu concept of dasavatara is a brilliant exposition of evolution from the simplest form of life, matsya, the fish, to the enlightened human being. This model was developed some 10 thousand years ago, with no modern scientific tools whatsoever.

Here, we are talking not merely about reincarnation and rebirth within one species, but over millions of years through variegated species. Throughout this evolution, there is one part that has continued without change and which still drives us as human beings. What does religion have to say about this? Can any one explain rationally how the woman was created from the rib of man? It is a metaphor and without understanding the basis of the metaphor, people believe it without doubt because someone’s scriptures say so. However, when it comes from a culture that they do not understand and accept, one quotes science and laughs.

It is known today scientifically that the woman is the default species and that man is the modification. So, do we rewrite that part of the Old Testament? Or do we try and understand what the story of Adam and Eve meant metaphorically instead of believing it as factual?

All scriptural truths of ancient religions and cultures, whether Hindu or Judaic, the truly ancient religions which came far before Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, like the Veda and the Old Testament, reflect incidents not as mere history but as major shifts in human consciousness. These truths are the expressions of enlightened masters who actually had these experiences; experiences of these incidents.

These masters conveyed these truths in a form that only equally enlightened masters can understand. Otherwise, every other person who has access to this knowledge can corrupt and convert the truth to suit his needs. So these truths were initially passed on personally. That is why some of the Vedic scriptures are called Upanishad, which in Sanskrit literally means sitting beside (the master). These truths were passed by master to disciple, mouth to ear, so in other cultures too.

Masters wanted to ensure that general public had no chance to corrupt these truths and coded them as metaphors, metaphors that only another trained disciple or another enlightened being could understand. A personally trained disciple could pass it down his lineage without corruption. An enlightened master, who becomes one with Existence, understands it without having to be told.

The rest read these scriptures like bedtime stories, with no understanding of what they mean. So, sex becomes the original sin. What is pure, what can be pure becomes a sin. You need to pay someone to be absolved of that sin. This was the first and most successful religious business model.

Science accepts today that something carries over from birth to birth, from species to species. Molecular biologists like Bruce Lipton categorically state that it is our conditioning that defines our cellular structure, not the other way around.

According to recent scientific studies, our cells and constituent DNA do not genetically program us; our experiences, memories and conditioning program our genes. Scientific truths have been made to stand on their head, not giving a chance for religion to meddle.

Vedic scriptures had said the same things tens of thousands of years earlier. Your mindset, your vasana, carries on. The body perishes no doubt, but the thin veneer of mindset based on conditioning lingers on. This vasana determines who you will be in your next birth, based on who you are today. Krishna said this in the Gita, thousands of years ago.

To some religious beliefs, this may not be acceptable, but not to scientists.

We are born with our needs, based on vasana or prarabda karma, the opening balance. As we grow, we accumulate wants. These wants are imposed on us based on our experiences and get embedded in our unconscious as samskara – memories lacking fulfillment. These unfulfilled desires, samskara, drive all our decisions and actions unconsciously, with no control on our part. They result in the karma that we accumulate during this birth, which in turn forms the common thread, the mental attitude that determines the last desires, the vasana, that we die with.

So, the vicious cycle continues: vasana, prarabda karma, samskara, karma, mindset, opening balance, conditioned memories and action, resulting from unfulfilled desires.

Vasana, mindset, is like a seed. Samskara, conditioned memories, is like a growing plant. Karma, action resulting from unfulfilled desires, is the tree that finally happens.

Imagine yourself in a mall, idly window shopping. You see a tie or a shoe. The first time you see it, perhaps you have no reaction. You see it again and again on the window, for the second or third time, and a seed of desire sprouts within you. You must possess the tie or shoe. This is vasana.

Soon, when you keep seeing it repeatedly, you start visualizing scenarios that make you strongly want to buy the tie. You imagine yourself in a job interview wearing that tie or at a party wearing the shoe and being the center of attention. You bask in that attention and the desire grows stronger. This is samskara.

Finally, you end up buying that tie or shoe. This is karma, action. For the first week or two, you almost constantly wear the tie or shoe. Then the frequency reduces to once in a while. After a few months you stop wearing it completely. After 6 months, it gets stored in an attic or you don’t even know where it is.

Then, one day you see a tie or a shoe on the window as you shop in the mall. The story repeats! The desire repeats till it is fulfilled completely.

What do I mean by saying fulfilled completely?

Look at a poor man who has just one pair of footwear. He will wear it till it completely wears out. He cannot afford to do anything else. It is his basic need. It is not a want.

When that footwear is no longer wearable, he will buy another, till then he has no desire to buy another pair.

World famous actors accumulate thousands of shoes, many that they wear once. For them, the purchase is a status symbol, a symbol of their ability to buy and display. Indulging in that want can never fulfill such a want. It will never die; it becomes an addiction.

All addictions are wants that are unfulfilled. Some are driven by physiological impulses, but most are driven by psychological play.

A young man starts drinking or smoking or using drugs to prove his independence from his parents and elders and to gain what he thinks is peer respect. He gets addicted. More he drinks or smokes, less and less is the enjoyment. He needs to consume more and more to get less and less pleasure. In the end, the cigarette smokes him, the liquor consumes him.

A young man came to me saying that he smoked and he wanted to quit. I asked him why and how he started smoking in the first place.

He said that once, many years ago, his father saw him with friends who were smoking. Though he himself was not smoking his father refused to believe him and scolded him. In retaliation, he decided to teach his father a lesson and started smoking in earnest.

This was a need to prove himself. I explained to him that this was a long time ago and that there was no longer a need to prove anything to anyone. He was successful on his own. He knew that smoking was harmful.

He said he knew all this intellectually but still found it difficult to give up. So, I told him, ‘smoke as much as you wish, and as much as you can. But, finish each cigarette that you light. Another thing, be completely aware of what is happening to you when you inhale and exhale the smoke.’

He came back to me after two days and said he had given up smoking completely. I asked him what happened that was now different. He said ‘when I became aware of the smoking, each inhalation and exhalation burnt my windpipe and lungs. I could feel the damage that the smoke was causing inside me. Why would I want to continue?’

A rich man addicted to liquor approached Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. This man was also a great devotee of Goddess Kali. He sought help. Ramakrishna told him ‘drink as much as you want, but before you take a sip, offer it to Kali and then drink’.

Ramakrishna’s disciples were horrified. They asked their master, ‘What are you saying? How can you advise him to offer liquor to Kali? It is a sacrilege.’ Ramakrishna just smiled and kept quiet. After a few days, this man came to Ramakrishna and fell at his feet crying. I thought I could keep doing it, but I found there was no way I could abuse Mother Kali with the poison I was consuming myself. I have now stopped completely.

When such people come to me, I tell them to smoke or drink as much as they want but to do it with utmost awareness. Smoke, I tell them, smoke as much as you want, but smoke each cigarette completely, to inhale fully and taste the smoke. Within a day or two they stop smoking. It is impossible to inhale all that destructive smoke into your lungs without the body crying out to stop it.

Any addiction that you are plagued by can be dissolved if you become aware of its control over you and the destruction that it is causing to you.

The cycle of karma continues only till desires are unfulfilled. Once the desire is truly fulfilled, it leaves you, it is dissolved.

Sitting in a forest or a mountain, far from other people and material possessions may reduce the wants, but cannot dissolve the wants. When the myths say that the sage Viswamitra was diverted by the celestial maiden Menaka, it is only metaphorical. If that were true, and tapas or penance can attract celestial nymphs, most of the men will go into deep meditation immediately! It was Viswamitra’s fantasies, his unfulfilled desires, which had been suppressed, that burst forth as he meditated and diverted him, not any real-time maiden! Many of you do not need meditation for the maidens to appear. You can day dream and fantasize about celestial or earthly nymphs without a problem!

You need to understand the futility of continuing with such desires, such wants which carry you again and again into the cycle of birth and death. This is what Buddha meant when he said that desires cause suffering. Desires have no logical end, no finish line. Since they cannot be fulfilled unless dropped, any expectation of fulfillment causes sorrow when it fails to materialize.

Listen to Krishna to learn the first step to dropping desires. He says, do whatever you have to do but do not get attached to the result of your actions. He says, carry on with what you do, what you need to do, without thought of success or failure, without happiness in achievement or sorrow in non-achievement. He says, do your duty and leave the rest to me; sacrifice the result of your action to me.

If these words are burnt deep into your psyche, you will never suffer another moment in your life. Once you drop your attachment to the results of your actions, you will feel liberated. You just do, that is all.

You are in the present moment, focused on what you do at that point in time, without any worries about the outcome. The work continues; there is no pressure on you and you are in bliss.

People tell me: master, it is easy for you to say all this. How can we, people working in corporate jobs, not be worried about what we have to achieve. Our entire life, our career depends on how successfully we produce results. How can we let go?’

I ask them: does worrying about the result and being obsessed with the result, guarantee success?’

If that were so, there would be no failures in corporate life, because everyone is obsessed.

What is important is how you do your job and your being focused on the process of what you do, not constantly worrying about whether results are happening or not. If the process is right, results would be right.

The so-called quarterly result syndrome of Western corporations is what would kill them eventually. They are driven by greed, the greed of the stock market. When you are so obsessed with such a goal, you cannot focus on the present; you cannot focus on what you need to. Instead, you resort to manipulation. The result is your corporate scandals of Enron, Tyco and others.

In fact, modern management theory reinforces the truth of Krishna. Celebrated and successful management techniques such as Six Sigma are based on controlling the process, the present moment, and not the end product. If you wish to achieve quality, you need to control the process. It is through this approach that they have reach such minuscular defect levels of products.

If the path is right, the destination will be right. In fact, if you follow the right path, whatever destination you reach will be the right destination for you!

When you lead a material life, whether corporate or otherwise, you will need to plan. I call this chronological planning. You need to decide when you will do what and how. You may set some directional end results. All this is essential since you interact with so many people and so many events and you need to interconnect. You are not living isolated in a forest. However, there is no need to get obsessed with such directional end results as if they are matters of life and death, or even if they are matters of life and death, there is no need to be stressed about them all the time. People get so stressed and they keep reviewing their plans all the time, without doing what needs to be done to achieve the results!

You are only one person in the system, even if you are the Chairman or CEO. Results depend upon so many people, not just one. Even if it depended on one person, what is the guarantee that this one person will still be breathing after an hour?

Of course, thinking that results are uncertain, you cannot stop planning and acting. Just understand the thread: instead of planning and worrying about execution, plan and be in deep awareness and do the work. The very quality of the awareness will make you do things without bothering about the end results and not only that, the awareness itself will never allow you to sit idle. It will constantly keep you moving to do things. The energy within you will be so bubbling and powerful that it will not allow you to laze around. You will intuitively know how to move and you will.

In the same way, never use karma as an excuse. Karma is not destiny as you imagine. It is not a frozen path that you must follow. As a human being, you have the freedom and will to make your own decisions. When you make a decision, results follow. As long as you do not judge the result to be good or bad, whatever you do is ok.

It is only when you start judging, for example, when you say: , ‘when I make money it is right and when I lose money it is wrong’, then problems arise. When you make money, if someone else loses, is it right for him? If what is right for you is wrong for another person, is that still ok and so on.

You rise in spiritual awareness when you face gains and losses with equanimity, when you are no longer disturbed by what you consider to be a success or failure. You become aware that all that happens, happens for a cause, even if it is a cause that you do not understand.

Nothing is accidental, nothing is coincidental, everything happens for a cause and with a meaning.

People get locked up in karma. They say, ‘What can I do, this is my karma. I have to bear what happens. I am helpless.’

Part of this is true. You have to bear what happens if that is a result of your actions. However, you are not helpless. You have freedom to act; you have the freewill to act.

Act with awareness. It is time. Act with consciousness.

Everyone talks about conscience and want to act in accordance with conscience. Conscience is just your social conditioning. It is what society wants you to do. You must differentiate between conscience and consciousness. Consciousness is your inner voice. You need to shut all your outer noise to hear this inner voice. You need to meditate in order to hear it.

Awaken your consciousness. Only then you are truly awake. When you are awake, you are in bliss, nithyananda!

This technique energizes the brow chakra (energy center), located on your forehead between the two eyebrows. This chakra is known as the ajna, which literally translates as command. This is the master chakra. This chakra is the seat of will. When it is activated, you will experience intense clarity of understanding. Your reasoning and decision-making capabilities are enhanced.

Above all, the third eye is the eye with which you look inward. You begin to see within for the first time. You begin to see beyond your karmic bondage.

Instructions

Sit in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. Bring both your palms up to your eyes and place them very gently on the eyeballs. Your touch should be like a feather; apply no pressure on the eyeballs.

In the beginning, you may be pressing without realizing. Slowly, put less and less pressure on the eyeballs.

There is energy flowing outward through the eyes all the time. It is a very subtle energy. You are touching your eyeballs to turn the flow of the energy back in, into yourself. If you press into the eyeballs, the eye will begin to resist. Touch as if you are not touching!

When you touch gently, your thoughts also fall still. When your eye movements increase, your thoughts are also racing. When the eyes are still, your thoughts also freeze. Have you noticed?

With the gentlest of touches, you will soon start to feel the energy moving back inward. When the energy falls back, you will immediately feel freshness, lightness, moving all over your face, your head. The energy hits your ajna chakra. In a few minutes, you feel clear and refreshed.

When you continue the meditation for up to half an hour, the energy moves downward into your heart. Your heartbeat slows down. Your whole body will feel relaxed. This is an excellent technique for instant relaxation. You don’t even have to enter into meditation. Simply by placing your palms gently upon your eyeballs, you can rest your eyes.

Whenever your eyes are feeling tired, if you have spent too many hours before the television or the computer, try this technique.

When you continue to practice this meditation for months, you will start feeling a permanent energy in your ajna and heart areas. In the beginning, it will be just a trickle of energy, but in a year’s time you will feel a flood of energy inside you at all times.

With the awakening of the ajna, you will experience clarity of your meaning in life. You will begin to see into your own reality. And with the activation of the heart chakra, you will feel immense love flowing out of you. You will feel connected to Existence.

To summarize

1. Practice the meditation for moving beyond karma.

2. Intend that you will be fulfilled in all that you do.

3. Visualize this state of intent as real. Visualize total fulfillment in every single action. Visualize that you are wealthy, healthy and happy with joyful relationships.

4. Let go.

5. Offer your gratitude to the universe for what you are NOW and for what you are continuing to receive.

May you be fulfilled and be in nithyananda, eternal bliss!

Q: Master, you have often said that meditation is the highest form of worship. You also promote ritual worship in temples and through homa (fire rituals). I am confused by the contradiction. Please explain.

The pastor was standing by the doors of his church greeting everyone in.

When John strolled in, the Pastor looked him sternly in the eye and said, ‘John, it is about time you joined the Army of Our Lord!’

John smiled and said, ‘But I am already in the Army, Pastor.’

The Pastor said, ‘John, how come then I see you only twice a year, at Christmas and Easter. This is no way to be serving the Army.’

John replied, ‘No, Pastor, please understand, I am in the Secret Service.’

There are many forms of worship. Each form of worship suits a particular need and a particular person. It also depends on one’s conditioning, spiritually, emotionally, physically or intellectually.

You do not need an enlightened master to become enlightened yourself. I have said this many times. You can remain next to an enlightened master all your life and yet remain a stone, and many do. On the other hand, a stone can transform you to enlightenment, and again many have been enlightened in this manner!

The difference is not whether the master is an enlightened being or a stone, but the extent of trust that you have in that master and the mode of surrender. Many hundreds, no, many thousands of devotees, have melted into enlightenment by surrendering to images of clay, stone, metal and timber. So, can one say that temples and idols are a low form of worship?

No, that will not be true at all.

We need to understand the function of worship. What is worship, how do we worship and why do we worship what we worship?

Worship, by dictionary meaning, is the extraordinary respect that we show and shower upon those whom we consider distinctly superior to ourselves and who we think can in turn shower gifts upon us. The second condition is not always true but mostly true.

As human beings, we rarely do things without a reason and unconditionally.

Men and women worshipped Nature and natural phenomena since the beginning of mankind. They worshipped lightning, wind, oceans, fire, water and even earth. They worshipped these elemental forces of Nature because of two reasons: fear and greed. They feared the elements as these elements could and did wreak havoc upon them. They desired them because they could not live without them.

These reasons have not changed in the many tens of thousands of years through which mankind has evolved. These reasons have become more sophisticated, but essentially they remain the same.

Man fears Nature because he cannot control Nature. However much science advances, it can never control Nature. Science may help in mitigating the risks of Nature, to run away before a volcano erupts and an earthquake sinks, but thousands and millions would still be affected by what Nature does.

Many animals have a better instinct in escaping from the ravages of Nature than man does. There are documented incidents about how animals and birds have fled before volcanic eruptions, tsunami strikes and earthquakes while humans slept on with no sensitivity.

Man deified what he could not control and what he could not understand.

This is how the Vedic and other early deities came about. Not from ignorance but from a need to protect oneself from natural calamities. So, men and women of all cultures offered prayers of protection and thanksgiving including various sacrifices to these deities. Agni was the Vedic god of fire, Vayu of wind, Varuna of the oceans and so on. Indra became the chief god.

A pantheon of gods was created to suit various needs and to fulfill various prayers. So it was with many other early religions and cultures, whether Egyptian, Sumerian, Mayan, Greek, Minoan or Roman.

Some individuals turned within themselves to understand the why of what was happening without. Their focus on the externals turned them inward and they found that they could get many answers to their questions by looking inward. They chose to shut their sensory perceptions to the external world and deprive their senses of the food in order to go inward.

These intelligent few focused inward and found a strange truth.

They found that that they were no different from Nature. They found that when they accepted that they were part of Nature, their entire life transformed. Nothing troubled them any more. There was neither fear nor greed. There was neither pleasure nor sorrow. They realized that they, the microcosm of Existence, a puny living being, were an inherent part and an integral part of the macrocosm, the infinite universe.

This realization, tat tvam asi, Thou art That, You are Existence, made them enlightened. That is all that enlightenment means. It just means that you are Existence, that you are God, that you are divine, that you are what you have been worshipping out of fear and greed.

Once you realize this truth, there is no need to worship externally. But till then, human nature demands that you find some tangible form that you can worship. Even those religions that claim worshipping the form to be sinful do worship form in another manner. There is nothing wrong at all in worshipping a form, because that is how we start. We are so attached to our own form, to our own body, and so we need a form to start with.

Many educated Hindus come to me and ask, ‘Isn’t it foolish to waste so much money on temples and decorate the deities with jewelry?’

Isn’t it foolish to decorate your body and that of your wife with jewelry when you know fully well that you will either be burnt to ashes one? Here you are deifying yourself; in the case of a temple you are deifying Existence in a form, that’s all.

No one can come to you, pray to you and be comforted or healed. At least by going to a place of worship, whether a temple, a church or a mosque, millions of people get comforted and healed. So, which is more foolish?

Whether Hindus or Christians or Buddhists, when we worship a form, be it an idol, a cross or Buddha, what we worship is the energy behind that form; it is not the form itself. Hindus do not worship what you consider to be the terrifying image of Kali or the sweet innocence of Krishna. Through that form they worship the energy inherent in that form. This awareness may not happen to everyone, but it is the truth. When this awareness happen, the transition from idol worship to meditation begins.

Traditional temple architecture in the Vedic culture dates back to thousands of years. The construction of a temple is a labor of love, and the artisans who are engaged in this scientific art are a special breed. One of the objectives of our mission is to strengthen this art, which is in danger of being lost.

Those of you who have seen the Anandeshwara temple being built in our ashram in Bidadi would know that the stone pieces, the pillars, columns and beams were all fitted together without any need for cement or mortar bonding. The sanctum sanctorum, the garba graham of the temple where the main idol, the mula vigraha, is installed, is built with extreme care accompanied by Vedic rituals to energize the idol.

Many famous temples in India, especially in South India, are also the burial spots, jiva samadhi, of enlightened masters. They are doubly energized so to speak. Temples such as the ones in Tirupati, Palani, Tiruvannamalai, Srirangam, Nerur and others even today carry the energies of the great masters who are buried there. When people talk about miracles that happen in these temples, it is not unscientific and idle talk. It is just that science has not evolved yet to be able to explain these miracles.

There are legends associated with many of these temples. In the temple at Madurai, the idol of the dancing Shiva is seen as Nataraja (king of dance) depicted with His left foot placed on the ground and the right foot in the air in dancing posture. Traditionally, in most temples and bronze statues, Shiva while dancing his tandava – cosmic dance – has His right foot on the ground and His left leg raised high.

It is said that one of the Kings of Madurai in distant past was concerned about how much pain Shiva must be enduring during His eternal dance and requested Him to at least shift the position of His leg. Legend has it that Shiva obliged, and so, rested his left foot, raising His right leg high!

You may say that this is a myth; who knows what happened some thousand years ago? But here is an incident that happened just over a hundred years ago and well documented.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is one of the greatest enlightened masters of recent times. He officiated as the priest in the Dakshineswar temple of Kali not far from the city of Kolkata. The Kali idol has four hands. Two of Her hands are in the abhaya (protection) and varada (giving) postures. The third hand holds a sword that can be removed, and on the fourth She holds the head of the demon whom She conquered. This head cannot be removed from the hand.

When Ramakrishna first came to this temple as a junior priest, a devotee offered four conch bangles to the deity. This is a traditional offer amongst the local people and the priests would normally fit three of the bangles on Kali’s hands. The fourth would be placed at Her feet as it cannot be fitted on the fourth hand without breaking the bangle. Ramakrishna took the four bangles inside to fit them. He was done and when another priest went near the idol, he could not believe his eyes; all four bangles were on Kali’s four hands!

The priest asked Ramakrishna whether he had broken Kali’s hand or the bangle while fitting the fourth bangle on Her hand holding the skull.

Bemused, Ramakrishna said, ‘No. I asked Mother to put the skull down so that I could fit the bangle on her wrist. She did and I fitted the bangle. What is wrong?’

What is wrong?

An idol, what is believed to be a lifeless statue, came to life at the bidding of an ardent devotee. You need not believe this story from just what I have said. You can go to Dakshineswar and see for yourself as I did. I also did not believe the story the first time. I was a skeptic when I went there. The priest allowed me to go to the idol and verify. I found the bangle to be intact; it was a seamless bangle without a break. The hand holding the skull was made in one piece. Records show that the idol was not built with the bangle on that hand.

Now I know the truth of Ramakrishna's feat. I know how He did it. It can indeed be done by a devotee with the kind of faith Ramakrishna had. Often Ramakrishna used to say that he would check whether Mother was breathing, by holding a thread under the Kali idol's nostrils, and he would offer Her food only when She was breathing!

Idols are not mere statues; they are energy and their living energy can be demonstrated if one has the trust and faith.

This is an incident that happened to me, when I was on my monastic wandering days, the parivarajaka, before my Self-realization.

I was traveling in Western India, in Gujarat, and was on my way to the ancient temple town of Dwaraka, where Krishna had ruled. I stopped at a village and stayed with an old widow. This lady had meager possessions. Other than the small hut she lived in, she had a cow, that's all. She sold the milk and survived. Most of what she earned went to feed the cow. She had a small statue of infant Krishna. She spent hours talking to the idol. She would complain to him about all her troubles and also tell him all her joys.

I stayed with her for a few days. She was a very generous lady who shared the little she had with me with great joy. When I was ready to leave after a few days, she wanted me to stay on. She said, 'I am so happy to have you. Krishna is also so happy that you are here. Please don't go. Stay on with me. You don't have to do anything. I shall take care of you baba.'

Because I wore saffron clothes, she called me baba, the traditional term that actually meant 'father', though I was so much younger than her. When I told her that as a monk I needed to move on, she started complaining to Krishna, 'Krishna, this baba does not care about us. He is leaving us. Please make him stay.'

I was getting irritated. It was bad enough that she talked non-stop with the Krishna idol, but now she was complaining about me to the idol. I had no belief that the idol was anything more than what it seemed to me, an idol, though she claimed that Krishna talked to her through it. I thought she was a little crazy. I went near her to take her leave and she held out her hand and held mine.

At that moment, as her hand held mine, I saw Krishna alive in that idol. Just as alive and real as any of you in front of me now. I promise you that this is true. I saw Krishna talking to her as she talked to Him. I saw Him in flesh and blood. After a few minutes she let go of my hand, and all I saw again was a plain idol.

To me she was an enlightened being who could converse with the Almighty. Her trust was so much that not only could she visualize Him in reality, but she could also make me see Him in flesh and blood! Such was her faith.

So please understand that idols are not mere idols. They are living energy.

When millions of people come to pray at these temples, the collective faith builds up the energy of these places of worship. They are no longer mere buildings, however big and grandiose they may be; they are in fact power stations, energy stations, far more powerful than nuclear reactors. One day, science would have the wherewithal to measure this energy and prove what I say.

In the days of the British rule in India, the Britishers used to arrive in Kolkata (at that time it was called Calcutta) by ship. They used to carry water which they had to change at the Suez Canal on their way into India, as it became undrinkable. However, on the return trip, they found that water from the Hooghly River, which is a tributary of the sacred Indian river Ganga, remained unspoiled even after they reached England!

They were completely taken aback at the observation and decided to research the water. They researched and found that the Ganga water could remain pure and unspoiled, unaffected by bacteria for a long time. The Ganga river is worshipped as the Divine Mother – Ganga Ma – to millions of Hindus. She is their life-giving Mother. They believe that Her waters would liberate them forever, and they long to die in Her arms. They bathe in Her and pray to wash their sins off. Imagine the power of millions of people praying every day to Her. Imagine how energized Her waters would be.

Your education, or rather the lack of it, may prevent you from accepting the truth of this, but this is recorded. Many scientific experiments have been done on the waters of Ganga and these verified what the British soldiers experienced 200 years earlier.

Idols as well as waters are energy. So are the other three energy bodies: fire, air and ether. Air and fire you may even accept as being sources of energy, even if you are not sure how this works at the individual level. But ether, what is ether?

If I tell you that ether is the stuff of space, you will have a problem in accepting it. Space is vacuum, you would say. Understand that science today understands that the entire expanse that is called space, which is what occupies almost 99% of the entire universe, is not vacuum, it is energy. We may not yet know what form of energy this is or even how to use it for our needs, but surely it is known that this is energy.

If you go deeper and deeper into matter, you will find that almost all of it is space, not matter as we would imagine it to be. When you look into any material body through a high-powered microscope, what you find is space; what you may consider empty space.

How can it be empty, when you now know that matter is energy? So, this space too has to be energy.

From time immemorial, Vedic culture developed ways of tapping into these elemental energies. At the level of the earth, elemental energy was worshipped and tapped through temples and idols. At the level of water, the energy was tapped by ritual bathing using sacred mantra syllables. Fire was a major medium of worship in rituals such as homa and yagna and was the main visible form of individual worship. The energy of air was invoked through the sounds and vibrations of mantra (chants). The energy of ether was tapped through meditation.

At each level from earth to ether, the energy form becomes more subtle and more intense. The earth level energy is associated with the root center or the muladhara chakra, water with the spleen center or swadhishtana chakra, fire with the navel center or manipuraka chakra, air with the heart or anahata chakra and ether with the throat center or vishuddhi chakra.

Each of these elemental energies is also associated with our senses, gyanaendriya, and actions, karmendriya, in this manner. Smell and elimination are associated with the muladhara, taste and procreation with the swadhishtana, sight and locomotion with the manipuraka, touch with the anahata and finally, hearing and speaking with the vishuddhi. So, every single thing that we sense and act upon is driven by one of these energy forces.

When one is not aware of these facts, worship is merely driven by fear and greed alone. That is why over time, without understanding and awareness, rituals become superstitions.

A small story:

An abbot had a pet cat that was allowed complete freedom of the monastery. But at the time of worship alone, because it was sure to disturb the prayers, the abbot instructed his disciples to cover the cat in a basket during prayer time. This became a ritual. Everyday at prayer time, the cat would be in a basket near the abbot.

When the abbot died and another disciple took over, this practice continued. It continued till the cat died. When the cat died, it was a big problem; no prayer could be held till a substitute cat was brought; but substitute cats were not as patient as the original cat was. They all ran away at the first opportunity.

Soon, all prayers stopped at the monastery for want of a cat!

This is how rituals become superstitions and rule our lives. With awareness and understanding, these rituals have meaning, very relevant meaning. However, shorn of that understanding, they become mechanical and robotic. That is how most rituals are practiced today and that is why those who try to analyze these rituals find them meaningless and superstitious.

This takes us back into where we started. What is worship and why worship? If worship is about seeking that superior being or state, why so many methods and why is that many of them do not seem to be logical?

Understand that each one of us is driven unconsciously to find the source we come from.

You may realize this or not, you may understand this or not, you may accept it or not, but it is the truth and it is happening in every one of us every moment. This is why whatever else we achieve, materially, relationship wise, intellectually and in every which way, we feel dissatisfied. We feel that we have not reached, that we have not come home.

One of my devotees told me when I was giving him energy darshan, ‘Swami, for the first time in my life I feel I am home!’

During the energy darshan, I am pure energy, pure existential energy. What he felt was that oneness with his source, the very Existence he has sprung from, and he felt he was home.

The same thing happens when you relate with other energy forms that we described earlier, that are earth, water, fire, air and ether. With each of these energy forms, when you embrace them with an open mind and an open heart, you merge into that energy form and become one with Existence. It is not difficult. It requires a deep longing, a deep seeking, utter honesty in seeking.

It is that or nothing. It is at that stage that the merger happens. It is at that stage that you realize where you came from. Worship is the process that leads you to this stage.

As I said earlier, any of the techniques relating to any one of the energy forms can take you there. Going to a temple and praying to the deity, bathing in a sacred river that millions have prayed before, worshipping the fire, chanting mantra and meditation, each of these techniques separately or combined will help you reach that stage and state.

All you need are two things: the desperate desire and the unflinching commitment.

In ancient times, people were less complex. Their brains were differently configured. Their entire mindset was more intuitive and less intellectual. Logic and reason occupied less importance than faith and trust.

Today, we are intellectually arrogant. We are in a state of what I call ‘cerebral pollution’. So much intellectual knowledge bombards us from all around, all seeking to secure a mind space, all competing with facts of logic and science, that our mind becomes paralyzed.

Physical and grosser forms of worship are no longer understood by us and so seem illogical. The purpose of these techniques is no longer understood. Whenever I do a homa, a fire ritual, I explain it in this fashion:

The fire absorbs the energy of ether, akasha, through the energy of air. This is done with the help of the vibrational energy of the sacred mantra that are chanted. The energy that is absorbed in the fire, in the fire pit or homa kunda, is then transferred into the water stored around in pots. This water when sprinkled on people or deities or the ground delivers that energy to the earth.

The Taittreya Upanishad explains this process clearly. First there is the energy of the Existence, brahman, from which the energy of ether arose. From the energy of akasa, ether, arises the energy of air, vayu. From the energy of air arises the energy of fire, agni. From the energy of fire arises the energy of water, apu. From the energy of water rises the energy of earth, prithvi. From the energy of earth arise plants and herbs; from the energy of plants arise energy of food; and from the energy of food arise man and woman. The energy of man and woman is atman, Existence. The cycle is complete.

When people attend the fire rituals I conduct, they say that it is the first time they understood what it was all about. What was a superstitious and meaningless ritual that they had tolerated or walked away from in the past had become alive and energizing now!

I can tell you this: when done with sincerity, when done by an enlightened master, the energy of the deities automatically descends into the fire pit of the ritual.

The same is true of a puja, the ritual Hindu prayer. It is now obligatory for all our healers and teachers to do the Nithya Dhyan or the Life Bliss Meditation. All those who do it have shared so many experiences about its energizing power.

The end point of the Nithya Dhyan is the Guru Puja, homage to the master. It is a ritual, where one offers various things, such as water, incense, perfume, light, food and so on to the formless form of the master. It is almost like bathing, purifying, beautifying, feeding and worshipping the vision of the master. In this case, the master is Existence; the Existence is you. You are worshipping yourself; you are paying homage to yourself. Ultimately, you are the master; the ultimate master resides in you.

That is why all Vedic prayers, end with the statement namaha, which means I am not.

When one chants achutaya namaha, anantaya namaha, govindaya namaha and so on., one denies one's ego. You say, I am not what I seem to be. I surrender to the real me, the true form of mine, which is Existence.

Any worship, if carried out sincerely, results in surrender of one's physical identity and realization of one's true spiritual identity. In the case of meditation, dhyana, this happens directly by putting us in touch with the energy of ether. This is the largest and subtlest energy body in Existence and closest to the existential energy.

Meditation is the most powerful form of worship as it is the most direct route to Existence.

The most powerful forms of meditation are those that are formless; meditations that do not use a verbal or visual trigger, without any accompanying mantra or mandala, audio or visual aid. It is a different matter that when a powerful formless meditation is used, a sound, vibration or vision may be created which is the effect of that meditation. But no triggering device such as repeated chanting of a mantra or focusing on a visual entity is used in formless meditation. Such formless meditations take us directly into the seventh and final nirvanic layer of energy, of which I have talked elsewhere.

In our first-level meditation courses, which are now taught by our ordained acharyas (teachers), we have a meditation to energize the heart center, the anahata chakra. This is a formless meditation that involves deep breathing and humming; no visual or verbal triggers are used. This meditation is called mahamantra, or the great sacred syllable. When this meditation is done regularly, the sound of ‘om’ automatically arises from inside the anahata chakra. No amount of chanting ‘om’ will produce this effect; but the regular practice of this mantra will make it happen.

Dropping the form is very important at an advanced level of worship. For most people it may not be possible to start without form in any worship. When one is forced to do this, it is like skipping kindergarten and primary schools and enrolling directly into a post graduate program. It can cause harm. It can make people prejudiced.

Religions that force people into formless worship without an underpinning of the understanding can only do that out of fear and greed; not out of love, devotion, faith and trust. It may be called surrender but it is forcible surrender, not willing surrender.

Such worship leads to hatred and contempt for others who do not share your views. True spirituality has no place for hatred and contempt. True spirituality is about understanding and compassion. True spirituality is about embracing Existence and all its creatures as a Whole. True spirituality is not about saying that if you do not share my belief and accept my god as your god, you are an outcaste; that you are an enemy who I can kill. True spirituality is not about killing, it is about transformation.

At our advanced meditation courses leading to initiation as Nithya Spiritual Healers, the disciples are warned not to meditate on my form. The Nithya Healer’s meditation requires them to focus on my form for a few seconds in order that their scattered thoughts and inner chatter can be controlled into one focal point. Once that is done, they are taught to drop that form. Only when they do that can the healing process begin.

Only when all form is extinguished can one move into existential energy.

Meditation is being in touch with oneself, one’s deepest self. This state can only be reached by cutting off contact with the senses and putting the mind at rest. Meditation does not imply that you become deaf and dumb.

When you are deep in meditation, your awareness becomes acute. Some people make a lot of noise before going into meditation. They need to disconnect the phone, tell their children and spouse to be quiet, and still the slightest external noise can disturb them. This is not the way meditation is done.

You can be in meditation when you are active. Meditation is being in the present moment. Just to be aware of who you are, what you are, where you are and what you are doing in the present moment, in the here and now is meditation. Watching the sun set, watching a flower bloom, hearing a bird sing, watching a child at play, any one of these events can be a meditation. When you are in meditation, you just are.

In the advanced form of Healer's meditation, the meditation occurs as a result of the Ananda Gandha chakra (Fragrant Bliss Center) being opened at the time of initiation. Only an enlightened master can do this.

Ananda Gandha is the convergence point of all the seven chakras, the seven energy centers of the body mind system. Meditating on this Ananda Gandha chakra for the initiated is an easy and continuous process. One can meditate on a 24 × 7 mode, along with whatever else one is doing. The meditation keeps one in constant awareness and in the present moment.

Such meditation is worship of the highest order.