Sutra 7🔗

From gross to subtle to the causal, from waking to dreams into death Let breath move through chakras into Shiva Consciousness.

Shiva Sutras is the applied science, the technology to experience the ultimate truth in our life. Vedanta philosophy is the theory, the scientific theory. Shiva Sutras are the applied science, the technology to experience what Vedanta gives as a theory. In Vedanta what you learn is the intellectual truth, in Shiva Sutras you are made to experience that. That truth becomes part of your being.

Just reading about the ultimate truth may not be a direct help. It may be an inspiration but it won't be useful in any way unless it becomes your experience. Unless they become your experience, words alone cannot do anything. They won't be able to transform your life.

Small story:

A father goes to meet his would-be son-in-law. After meeting him, he asks, ‘My dear, what is your plan about the future? What do you want to do to make your living?’ The boy asks, ‘Living? I will study Vedanta. God will take care of me.’

After a few minutes, again, the girl’s father asks, ‘My dear, how are you planning to provide, to take care of my daughter?’ The boy says, ‘Oh, your daughter! Well, I shall study Vedanta. I shall study Gita. God will provide.’

After few minutes, again the father asks, ‘My dear son-in-law! What’s your plan about taking care of your kids, your children?’ The boy replies, ‘Oh, kids! I will study Vedanta. God will take care. God will provide.’

The father comes back home. His wife asks, ‘What happened to your meeting? How do you feel about the boy? What do you think about him?’

The father says, ‘I know two things. One, he has no plans for his life. He has no plans about the future. Another thing, he thinks I am God!’

‘He thinks I am God’ means the boy expects that the father-in-law will provide!

Understand, Vedanta is not going to do anything directly in your life. It may be an inspiration. But, unless you are transformed, unless it becomes an experience in you, you won’t be helped. The Shiva Sutras are the technology to directly transform your being. They work directly on your being. They straightaway transform your being.

Here, Shiva is not giving you any theories. He is straightaway giving you the technology to explode, to expand, and to experience your inner space, what I call ‘Shiva Consciousness’. Many different words, Atman, God, Self, Nirvana, whatever word I may use, it is the same eternal bliss.

Now, let us enter into Shiva's words, the Shiva Sutras to understand the teachings of Shiva. Today's topic is 'Death Demystified'. So, let us enter into the Shiva Sutras so that we can demystify the death experience and death itself.

Beautiful verse! Let me give you the translation; then, we will enter into the sutra itself. Of course, I am giving you the translation just to give you the understanding. You will really be able to understand the sutra only when you see the explanation.

To tell you honestly, none of these sutras can be translated. Each has got so many meanings. It is impossible to translate. If you have deep knowledge of Shakespeare or if you are really a poet and have experienced Gitanjali in original Bengali, you will understand that translation of these poets is simply impossible. If you enjoy Shakespeare, you will understand translation is simply impossible.

Even a single word if you miss, you won't be able to experience the juice or the real essence.

So, now, I will try to give you the translation just for your information. But, we will understand the sutra itself when we see the explanation. Because only that can give the real meaning what Shiva wants to convey.

This is one possible translation. Let us explore step by step what Shiva means by this sutra and how it can transform our life.

One thing I want to tell you, this single sutra can give you the tremendous power to fulfill all your dreams and to give you the realization that dreams are not ordinary things as you think.

Dreams are made of the same stuff of which this world is made. If you think dreams are ordinary, this world is also ordinary. If you think this world is some kind of reality for you, dreams are also reality.

This sutra will give you the experience, it will give you the power, it will give you the energy to make your dreams into reality and it will give you the intelligence to understand that whatever you think as reality is nothing but a dream.

It will work deep in you. It will give the energy to make your dreams into reality and it will give you the intelligence to understand the reality itself is nothing but one more dream.

Here, we are talking about the breath energy. In Sanskrit, we call it prana. Breath does not mean the air that goes in and comes out. Air is just a vehicle in which the energy of prana comes in and goes out.

Prana is the life force, the energy itself. Understand this one example: if a truck comes inside this temple and leaves something and goes out, the truck is like the air, the truck is like the breath. The product that comes in the truck, the product that is delivered from the truck is prana.

Constantly, the air is going in and after leaving the prana inside the air is coming out. The air is going in, leaving the prana inside and the air is coming out. Constantly, we are taking prana through air. From the cosmos, we are taking prana through air.

Here, when Shiva talks about breath, he is talking about prana. He is not speaking about breath. He is not concerned about breath.

In India, if you have attended Kumbh Mela festivals that occur as massive gatherings once in 12 years on sacred riverbanks, you might have seen this. I have seen the yogis who will put their heads totally in the earth and be buried for three days. Three days, they will keep their head under the earth; the head will be buried. Logically, you can’t understand. Logically, you will be thinking, ‘How are they alive? How are they breathing? How is the prana being supplied to the body?’ In India, yogis know how to take the prana directly from the cosmos without the help of air.

As long as you take prana through air, you need to breathe. You need to inhale and exhale. But, when you can take the prana directly without the help of air, you don’t need to inhale or exhale through the nose. Your body can directly take the prana through the cosmos.

One more thing: as long as the incoming breath is bringing more prana and going out empty, as long as it comes in as prana shakti (energy) and goes out as empty vehicle, your life will be strengthened.

If the reverse starts happening, if it comes with less prana and goes out with more prana shakti, the person can understand his death is nearing or he is going towards the death.

That is the reason all the great masters who know or who can sense the prana shakti can tell about their death. They were able to predict their death. Before six months of their passing away, they were able to see very clearly the prana moving out of their body. Just the empty air will enter but when it goes out, it will go with the prana.

There is a powerful concept in Ayurveda (traditional Indian system of medicine) called as the peak age. Till a particular age, the person will be receiving more prana through the incoming breath and less prana will be going out through the outgoing breath. The moment the outgoing breath starts carrying more prana than the incoming breath, they know now the person is moving towards death.

If more prana is brought through the incoming breath, if the incoming breath is carrying more prana than the outgoing breath, you are going towards the life, you are expanding, you are strengthening your body, and you are strengthening your energy.

If the outgoing breath is carrying more prana than the incoming breath, be very clear, you are going towards death, and you are working towards the death.

The great masters, Buddha, Shankara, Guru Nanak, Mahavira, all of them had predicted their death. All of them had very clearly predicted the time of their leaving the body. It is just because they were able to sense their prana. They could very clearly experience the amount of prana. They were able to very clearly see what was happening with their breath.

This technique is a very beautiful technique. Now, Shiva is giving you the technique to work on the prana and to increase the amount of the prana. Not only is He telling the basic truths about the prana, He is giving you the technique also to work on the prana, to increase the incoming prana. And, above all, He is giving you the ultimate freedom from the death itself through this technique.

Let us enter into the technique.

From gross to subtle to the causal, from waking to dreams into death Let breath move through chakras into Shiva Consciousness.

Now, He is introducing the next part: ‘let the breath move through the energy centers’. The prana moves, functions and stays in the center of the forehead, which is the ajna chakra (third eye energy center) when you are in the waking state. When you are in dream state, it moves around the neck around the vishuddhi chakra (throat energy center). When you are in deep sleep, it moves around the anahata chakra (heart energy center).

That is why you can never fall asleep if your head is straight. Unless you relax the head, unless you allow the prana movement, unless you relax, the prana cannot move from forehead to anahata. This is the reason why unless you relax your head you can’t go to sleep.

Even if you are lying on the bed if try to keep the head straight, you will never be able to sleep. If you think constantly, your head will be straight and your shoulder will be under stress. The stress in shoulder and the head being straight, both are very closely associated. You can see in your life. Early morning, go to your office, you don’t have to do any work, just sit in your chair and think about the problems, get stressed, you will have shoulder pain!

Without starting any work, you don’t have to do anything, just remember your manager and meditate on him. You will have shoulder pain! Actually all the pain and the stress you experience first is from the shoulder. When your shoulder is under stress, your head cannot bend and your head can never relax.

That is why people who think constantly can neither relax their head nor will they be able to fall asleep.

Even when you are lying in the bed, try to keep your head straight. You can’t fall asleep. You won’t fall asleep. Even when you are sitting, just put your head down. Simply, you will start sleeping and snoring.

Actually, going to some spiritual discourses is the best way to get sleep! Spiritual lectures, spiritual books and if nothing else works, start chanting some mantra! These are the ultimate techniques to fall asleep. Because in these spiritual lectures you don’t have to think much. You think, ‘He is talking and I can just sit and relax!’ We don’t need to do anything.

Whenever you relax, whenever your neck is relaxed, your prana will start flowing towards the anahata, towards the heart center; you will fall asleep.

Usually, when you are in the waking state, your prana will stay in ajna. You should know these few basic pieces of information to enter into the sutra or the technique. That is the reason I am trying to give you all this esoteric information. These are all the knowledge of the experiences of the ancient sages. They have done deep research in human consciousness and how to use human consciousness to develop the life.

Actually, the whole West has done so much in the field of mind! It has done all possible things to enrich human life using the mind, using the outer world. The East has done all possible researches to enrich the human life using consciousness. The West has worked in the line of the mind, the outer world. The East has worked in the line of consciousness, inner world. Both of them have tried their best to enrich human life, to make the life more comfortable, more blissful, and happier.

These are all the few techniques created by the ancient rishis to make your life more blissful, more ecstatic, using your consciousness.

From gross to subtle to the causal, from waking to dreams into death Let breath move through chakras into Shiva Consciousness.

Now, He is giving the technique.

He says, be aware at the moment when your prana reaches to the heart when you fall asleep and have control over dreams and over death itself.

Let me give you a small diagram and explain how this technique is going to help you and how to practice this technique.

Each day we go through four states of consciousness, whether we are aware or not. Two of these have our awareness in different degrees and two happen in unawareness. In two our mind functions generating thoughts and in two others it stays silent. This is a direct learning from the diagram. Now let me explain this differently.

We all know of two things for sure, life and death. These two basic things we all know. Constantly, life is slipping, entering into death. Life slipping into death is what we call living. Please understand, actually we don’t live. We are just waiting for death to happen. Ordinary human beings don’t live.

Life is just slipping into death and life is disappearing into death. That is the reason however many years you may live, you won’t feel satisfied, and you won’t feel you have lived your life because you don’t know what life is. Just, something is slipping. You are not aware. You are not even aware of what is happening in your being.

When you become conscious at some point in your life, when you become conscious of the life, when you start thinking, contemplating about your life, when you bring awareness into your life, you create a new center in your being.

Between this life and death, when you bring more awareness into the life, you create a new center, new space in your life, and that is what I call consciousness. Whenever you are conscious, you will start deciding about your life. Please be very clear, whenever you are aware of your life, you will naturally start deciding.

For example, the more you become aware, the more you start designing or choosing what type of car you should drive, what type of house you should live in, what type of life you want; every inch you start deciding. You start deciding about every inch. You become conscious about everything: how you should talk, how you should behave, how you should think, and every inch you start becoming aware.

The consciousness starts happening only when you become aware. You start controlling the life itself only when you become aware. So, awareness creates a new thing in your life; you start controlling the life. Only when you become aware, you start controlling the life.

And if you become completely aware, you will start controlling death also. The moment you start becoming aware, you start deciding, you start controlling your life.

You bring things under your control only when you become aware. The moment you bring awareness into your life, consciousness grows and you start deciding, you start controlling life.

Both life and death happen in the conscious level. In the unconscious level, two other things happen, dream and deep sleep. If you are consciously thinking, it is life. If your consciousness can't think, it is death. In the unconscious level, if you are aware, it is dream. If you are not aware of anything, it is deep sleep.

Please understand this one diagram. You really need to understand this technique and this very understanding can transform you. Practicing is one thing; this very understanding will inspire you to practice because these are all the basic truths about life.

One you know how to breathe, what is the best way to bring energy through your breathing, after that you don't have to do that consciously. Just because of the very understanding, you will start doing it.

Now, we are working on your consciousness. In the waking state, when you are aware, when you are in the conscious state or what psychology calls as conscious state, if you are aware, it is life. If you are not aware, it is death. In the unconscious state, if you are aware of something, it is dream and it is called as dream. If you are not aware of anything, it is called deep sleep.

If you bring more awareness into your life you start controlling your life. Same way, if you start bringing in more awareness in your dreams you will be able to control your dreams and deep sleep.

Understand, in the conscious level, if you are aware of any movement around you, it is called life. If you are not aware of any movement, it is called death. In the unconscious level, if you are aware of any movement, it is called dream. If you are able to see anything, if you are able to sense anything, if you are able to feel anything, if you are able to experience any movement, it is called dream. In the unconscious level itself, if you are not able to feel anything, if you are not able to understand any movement, then it is deep sleep.

These are the four states you live in everyday. Between life and death, if you become aware of living, if you are conscious about living, you start controlling the life. You start deciding. You think, 'I think this type of car won’t help me’, 'This type of house is not going to work for me’, ‘Enough with this wife!’ You start deciding, ‘I am done with this job.’ You start deciding. The more you become conscious, you start chiseling your life. You start controlling and deciding about your life.

Same way, again here, if you bring little more consciousness to this space, if you become conscious of the dream state, if you bring the same consciousness to the dream state, you will be able to control the dream and the deep sleep.

Controlling life and death, controlling dream and deep sleep both require one important thing: awareness. Awareness is the main thing to control life and death and to control dream and deep sleep.

Here, Shiva is giving you the technique to bring awareness into your dreams. He says, bringing awareness into your dream not only can help you to control the dream and deep sleep but it can help you to control the death and life also.

You may think, ‘How?’ He is answering. Let us see the sutra and you will see the answer.

All of us know, if you bring the awareness in the life, you can control your life. If you become completely aware of the prana, prana flow, how the prana is coming and how the prana is going and how to retain more prana in the body, you can then control the death process as well. This all of us can understand.

But, Shiva says, bring awareness to the unconscious, to the dream state. Not only you will be able to control the dream, you will be able to control the deep sleep. He says, you will be able to control death and life.

He gives so many different techniques. He offers so many different techniques to give us the experience of ultimate truth and the energy. How Shiva is saying control over dream and deep sleep can bring control over life and death, let us see.

When you bring prana to the forehead, when you start experiencing prana in the forehead, you will understand that not only prana is supplied from air and it is made of the stuff out of which the reality and the dream both are made.

Whatever you call as reality, whatever you call as dream, both are made of stuff called prana. Prana is the energy and prana is the substance out of which this reality and that reality both are made.

One more thing, when Shankara says this whole world is maya, He means this only. He means the stuff in which this world is made, in the same stuff only, that world is also made.

When you understand this, you will have the tremendous power and you will create tremendous energy to control both. As on now, you are just a victim; you can't even control your dreams; understand.

You may think you are a big person. You may have big identities. You may have big concepts about you given by the world, given by the society that you are a great person, you are this, you are that, all your university degrees, all the certificates given by the society, all the name and fame, everything you may have but you can't even control your dreams. You are just a victim of your dreams.

Can any of you dream what you want? You can't! You can't control a single incident in your dream. As on now, either you go through the whole dream or you can get out. You can get out of the dream, you can come out of the dream, and you can just wake up. Only these two are possible. You can't control the dream itself.

First thing, you should understand is that when you can control your life, why can't you control your dreams? As on now, you are not able to control your dreams. When you can influence your life, why can't you influence your dreams?

Actually, you can control your life. You can sit here. If you want, you can get up and go out. You have freedom to do some movement. Here, you see clear individual consciousness. We call it in Sanskrit, pratyagatma chaitanya, inner consciousness. We have individual intelligence.

You can decide and you can do things. You can control your life. But why are you not able to control the dream? That is what Shiva calls as ignorance, not trusting yourself, not bringing enough awareness to the dream.

He says, when you bring enough awareness to the dreams, you will become more aware in life also. Actually, as of now, you have certain amount of awareness, consciousness in the life. That is why you are able to control the life. But you don't have awareness in the dream state.

If you can bring more awareness to the dream state, the awareness in the life state will increase. The awareness in your life, awareness in the living state will multiply. If the awareness in the living state multiplies, naturally you will be able to control the state of death as well.

He is going in a very beautiful way, technical way. Sorry; it is little boring but truth! It has to be understood. It is a very important thing in the life that everybody needs to understand. Otherwise, death will be just a frightening experience.

Small story:

One parrot was brought up in a pet store. It was taught all foul, slang language and bad behavior. One guy, somehow, without knowing, bought the parrot and brought it to the house.

He was trying his best to teach good words, good behavior to the parrot. He was not able to. And he tried to punish; he tried to do all sorts of things. But, nothing worked. The parrot was only getting ruder. It was not ready to listen.

Finally, this guy got fed up. He put the parrot in the freezer and closed it. After a few minutes, he felt pity, 'All right, now it is time. Let me open.' He opened the freezer and took the parrot out. The parrot started saying, 'Please forgive me. I am sorry. Now, I understand I have disturbed you with my language and behavior. I won't do so from now.'

This guy was shocked. He thought, 'Oh God! I did so many things. The parrot was not ready to understand. Now, just a few minutes in the freezer, how did it understand?' He asked the parrot, 'What happened to you? How did you change your behavior? How did you realize your mistake?'

The parrot replied, 'I want to know only one thing: what did the chicken in the freezer do? I am afraid you may do the same thing to me!'

Only death can teach. If we don't learn now, death will teach. Let us learn now; let us not wait for death to teach.

There is one more beautiful one-liner: 'Go to the church by yourself; don't wait to be carried by four men.'

Understand the truth about death yourself from the right source. Don't wait till the death comes!

As on now, you have some amount of consciousness and awareness in the life. You are not completely aware or conscious. You can move, you can control only the things related to the body. You can't control the things related to prana.

You have many layers in the life also: annamaya, pranamaya, manonmaya: the body level, the prana level and mental level. There are many levels. As on now, you have enough awareness and consciousness to work on your body. If you want, you can stand. If you want, you can walk. If you want, you can decide anything related to the outer world.

But, you can't work on the level of the prana. You can't change the prana shakti coming in or going out. With this level of consciousness, you can't do even physical level changes in the dream.

In life, there are the physical, prana and the mental levels. Same way, in the dream, there are physical, prana and the mental levels. In life, you can do changes in the physical level, but not in the other two levels. Same way, in the dream, you can't even do changes in the physical level.

If you bring more and more awareness into the dream, if you can bring more and more consciousness into the dream, suddenly the quality of consciousness in your life will increase.

Shiva is actually helping us by giving us the technique to work on the dream state. He is actually helping us to work on the dream state to increase the awareness in the life state. He is going in the other way; He is not directly working on the life state. He is not directly working on the awareness.

He is working on the dream because he knows that in the living state you can work only to a certain extent. In the living state, whenever you are in this space, you are completely occupied by the outer world. You don't have time to work on the spiritual line.

You don't have time to work on meditation. Because when you are in this space, all your time is taken away by the outer world and you are continuously bothered, continuously you are thinking about how to expand your house, how to get a bigger car or to how to create a bigger bank balance. Your energy is totally in the other direction.

But, in the dream level, you have no other business. You know if you buy a house and you do complete housekeeping in the dream state, it is not going to work. In this level, you are more available.

That is why Shiva is trying to work on this level to improve the consciousness in this level. For the result of life and death level, Shiva is working in the dream and deep sleep level. He is not asking you to work directly on life and death because the more he gives you the techniques about life and death, the more you can be clear that you will not practice.

I have seen that whenever I give a technique to people, the first thing they will say is, ‘Master, we don’t have time. We don’t have time.’ All their time is completely occupied. When they are in the conscious state, all their time is completely occupied with outer world. Because the outer world looks very solid, strong, as if it is a reality, as if everything is truth.

So, even if I try my best, I can’t convince people. Not only I can’t convince, even you can’t convince yourself to put more time or more energy into spirituality, into meditation, into awareness, into bringing consciousness.

In the unconscious level, at least that energy, that space if it can be used to bring more and more awareness into your being, if it can be used to raise the level of consciousness in your being, it will reflect in your life.

If the quality of your dream changes and as a result if the quality of your deep sleep state changes, then the quality of your life will also change. The quality of your dreams and the quality of your life are both directly connected with each other. Life is nothing but daydreaming. Dream is nothing but nightlife.

Nightlife is dream; daydream is life.

In the day, whatever you do, you call it as life. In the night, whatever you do, you call it as a dream. In the day, if you are not able to do anything, you call it as death. In the night, if you are not able to do anything, you call it as deep sleep.

In the day if you have three things, trividhi, experiencer, experienced and the experience, it is called life. I can give you the example. If you have all these three, coffee, the person who drinks the coffee and the experience of the coffee state in the daytime, it is called life. In the daytime, if you don’t have all these three, it is called death.

In the nighttime, if you have all these three, it is called dream. In the nighttime, if you don’t have all these three, it is called deep sleep.

Now, you can understand the direct relationship with your dreams, with your deep sleep and with your death and with life itself.

Shiva is trying to give meditation techniques for all kinds of human beings. For people with insomnia, not only will this technique heal them, it can straightaway help them use the time for useful things.

After finishing the explanation, I will exactly explain the technique itself, how to go into that space. If you enter into the technique, not only will your insomnia be healed, it can give you different consciousness, different understanding.

Shiva says,

‘In the waking state your prana stays in the forehead. As on now, always your prana stays in forehead. The moment you start moving towards the dream state, it starts coming towards the vishuddhi, throat center. The more you move towards the deep sleep state, it moves towards the anahata, heart center.

It works the same way in death also. The more you are energetic, the more you grow in the life, the more the prana gets centered, accumulated in the forehead. When the incoming breath is bringing more prana and the outgoing breath is going empty, your prana will be centered on the forehead.

If the incoming breath is getting less prana and the outgoing breath is taking more prana, means slowly the prana will slip into vishuddhi, throat center. If the incoming breath is not bringing prana at all, only outgoing breath is taking the prana, means you will fall completely into the heart center.

Understand, if you understand prana, the basic truth about the prana, you will understand life and death, dreams and deep sleep. Both have got the same formula.

Actually, falling from life to death, falling from the waking state to the deep sleep state, both are directly related to prana movement. If the prana movements, the prana coming in, going out is handled properly, you can handle life and death as well as dream and deep sleep.

Both can be handled by handling prana; prana is the thread. If you know how to handle that single thread, you can handle life, death and dream and deep sleep. This single key, single thread called prana can handle dream and sleep, as well as life and death.

It is a very deep, yogic subject. It is a very intense subject. I am trying to explain the intense truth, intense subject, and basic truths about the life, how you grow towards the life or you grow towards the death.

In life, you can see, till a particular age, you will be becoming stronger. After that age, you will be becoming weaker. That point, that center point is what ayurveda calls as peak age or the peak energy.

Going towards life or going towards death, both are directly connected to the prana. Both are directly connected to the movement of the prana shakti.

Same way, moving towards dreams or moving towards deep sleep are both connected to the movement of prana. If you can handle the prana to control dreams and deep sleep, you will be able to handle the prana to handle life and death as well.

Shiva says very beautifully that if you can be aware of dreams, if you can be aware when you fall into the dream state, when your consciousness is slowly fading away, whenever you are falling asleep, whenever your consciousness is slowly fading away, if you can remain aware, you will be able to change the dream itself.

One more thing, let you be very clear, if you are able to change your dreams the first thing you will do is you will stop dreaming. You will stop dreaming because you know the uselessness of dreams. You know you are wasting time and energy in dreams.

Those who can be aware of dreams will never dream. Those who are aware of life will never take one more birth. That is why in the East, all spiritual scriptures, whether the Vedas or Dhammapada or Jain sutra or Guru Granth Sahib, any spiritual book, are aimed at only one goal: not taking one more birth. Only one goal: moksha.

A person who is aware of dreams will never dream. He will simply stop dreaming. A person who is aware of life will not have the desire to live. He will simply stop the life pattern. He will not take one more body.

When you become aware of dreams, you stop dreaming and you simply enter into deep sleep. In the same way, when you become aware of life you stop living and you enter into death.

Now, you need to understand one important thing. When I use the word death, I don't mean you will commit suicide. When I say that when you become aware of life you enter into death, I don't mean you will commit suicide.

You will stop living in the normal way. You will stop living with identity. You won't carry it and you won't give importance to identity. That is why enlightened masters are called dead people.

Actually, enlightened people are dead as far as this world is concerned. They don't have identity or they don't have life as you understand. Their life cannot be called any more as life.

Practically, if you want to give any term to their life, the only term that you can give is death. They are not alive as you think. That is the reason, again and again, all the scriptures say, the spiritual people are called 'reborn'. They are no longer alive as you think.

The moment one is aware of dreaming one stops dreaming. The moment one is aware of life one stops living the way one used to.

When you are in deep sleep, you are beyond dreaming. The same way, when you stop living, you are beyond life. The games of life can never torture you.

Life will look just vague or like a film. It will look like a film. It won’t penetrate and it won’t disturb your inner space.

Let me give you the gist of this whole sutra: By bringing more and more prana into your ajna chakra, the third eye and being aware when the prana falls into the anahata when you fall asleep, you will have power over the dreams. You will be able to alter and arrange your dreams as you wish.

Because of this power, you will simply stop dreaming. When you can stop dreaming and fall into sleep, when you can control your dream and sleep as you want, be very clear that you will have the tremendous power over life and death because dreams and deep sleep are made of the same stuff in which life and death are made.

Even though it is little difficult logically to understand how, once you enter into this technique and try to practice it, then you will understand how Shiva is giving you the straight truth and the technology in the form of the Shiva Sutras.

For example, if you remember you are a doctor or a lawyer constantly in your daytime, you will remember the same in your dream also. If you are taught to remember something in the daytime constantly, you will remember the same in the night also.

That is why if you are afraid when you are studying that you may fail in any of your exams, the very fear will reflect in your dreams. Always, you will have the dream as if you missed the exam, you did not go to the exam, or on that day something has happened, you are sick. You will always have this type of dream. This is the impact of life over the dream.

Now, Shiva is asking you to work on the dream, change the dream and change the consciousness of the dream so that it impacts your life.

So far we know only one route. We know that by penetrating or changing our life we can touch our dreams. Now, Shiva is telling us how to touch our life from our dreams. It is because in dreams you don’t have to go for a job. In your dreams you don’t have to work for your living. In dreams, naturally, by very nature, you don’t believe anything is important.

You are not bothered about building a house in dreams, buying a car in dreams or having bank balance in dreams. But, you are really concerned about buying a house in the waking state, building your bank balance in the waking state. You are bothered about your car in the waking state.

Trying to do the spiritual work in the waking state is difficult because you are occupied with so many things.

But, trying to do some spiritual work in your dreams is possible because there is no need to do anything in the dream state. So, Shiva is working from the other way. He is asking you to improve, to develop the awareness, consciousness, in the dream state.

Now, let us go to the practical side of the technique. You are supposed to be aware of your being and of the prana movement when you fall into the dream state. When you fall asleep the prana moves from the ajna to anahata. When you are falling asleep you will travel through the same route. When you are dying as well you will travel through the same route.

If you become aware of the route when you are falling asleep, you will become aware when you are dying also. If you become aware when you are falling asleep and you are able to handle and control that route, you will be aware in the same way when you are falling to death.

When you fall asleep prana moves from your ajna to the heart center. Whenever you grow weak, you become weaker and weaker, whether you are traveling towards sleep or traveling towards death, prana will be falling to anahata, it will be falling towards the heart. Be aware at that moment. You will then have direction over dreams and over death itself.

If you can be aware when the prana falls into the heart center everyday, you will stop, alter, and manage your dreams and deep sleep. If you are aware of prana slipping from ajna to anahata once and for all means at the end of your life you will be able to stop and you will be able to change your life and death.

If you want, you can extend. If you want, you can bring it little early. If you want, you can postpone. You can play in whatever way you want.

Here, Shiva gives the ultimate technique to predict or postpone death itself. Be very clear, these are not theories. These are all the truths of thousands of years of research and development of our rishis. Our rishis have done thousands of years of research and development in the human consciousness. These are all the truths published by them after thousands of years of their research and development.

Let you be very clear, this technology, these techniques can directly develop the quality of your life from today. You don't have to think, 'Oh! If I practice this technique for ten years, maybe in the eleventh year, it will give results.' No!

Let you be very clear, because we do not know this technology, we started suspecting the science itself. For example, in some way if the theory of gravity is useful, applicable in your life, you will not suspect the truth of the theory of gravity. You will not suspect the science of the theory of gravity. You will not suspect the formulas created by the scientists.

But, if it doesn't have any direct application in your life, if you don't have any direct benefit in your life from the theory, naturally, you tend to forget, you tend to question, and you tend to suspect. Finally, you tend to completely throw the whole science itself.

Just because we have not practiced this technology, this kind of truths and techniques in our life, we started suspecting the whole science of spirituality itself and we started suspecting, ‘Is it really going to work for me? Is it really going to help me? Is it really going to do anything for me?’

Let you understand two things. Now, whatever I have spoken, it is not only going to help you for your death, it will help you every moment.

You may think, ‘How?’ You may think, ‘How can it help every moment of my life?’

Actually, dream state means the low prana, means the prana moving towards the heart center, which is the time you fall, you drop into the dream state.

If you can be aware at that time, naturally, you will be able to control your dreams. Naturally, you will be able to control the prana. Not only will you be able to control your dreams, you can bring yourself up any moment. You can bring yourself directly up. Whenever you are aware that the low prana level is about to happen, you can increase the percentage of prana in your body.

Power is knowledge. The power, the prana is becoming low is enough to bring more prana into your body. That power is enough. That power is knowledge.

If you know that the prana is coming down you can bring the prana up by bringing in more awareness and more energy in the dream state, whenever you are falling into dream or falling asleep. If you are aware, you can immediately stop and bring it up.

Same way, when you are dying, relaxing from the body, when the prana falls to the lower level, you can stop and bring it up.

It is not only at the time of death, but also when you are sick that prana is slowly falling into the anahata. The more your prana falls towards the anahata, more you start falling sick. If you can stop the prana movement and bring it up, you will naturally heal yourself. You will heal yourself. It is the ultimate technique to heal your body and rejuvenate your body.

Next thing: if you can change, alter, if you have power over your dreams through the prana, you will be able to exercise the same power over your life and alter the incidents.

Altering the dream and altering the life is nothing but one and the same. Both are connected to prana. When you are able to handle the prana, naturally, you can handle the life itself.

Only when you enter into this technique, only when you enter into this meditation itself, you will start experiencing the depth of the truth expressed through this technology, through this technique. This one single sutra will not only lead you to liberation, it will bring the tremendous energy to heal you physically and bring tremendous energy to make your dreams into reality.

Let me give you the gist. By becoming aware of the prana in your forehead falling towards the heart center, you can stop the prana from falling down.

It falls on two occasions, once when you fall asleep and again when you are falling into death. Both when falling asleep and falling into death prana is coming down. You will be able to stop that prana just by becoming aware of it. Just by being aware of that prana movement you will be able to stop it from falling into the dream state or deep sleep. You can bring it back to life.

Same way, when it falls into disease or death, you can stop and bring it back to life. You can heal your body and mind.

The next thing: whenever you are aware of this falling, not only you can bring it back, you can even handle it and manipulate it as you want. You can start having the dreams of your wish. Same way, you can start having incidents in your life as you want.

You can repeat or create or remove, manipulate any incident in your life.

It may look like too big a promise from Shiva. But, I tell you, anybody who can enter into this technique and play with these techniques will understand the truth behind these techniques.

If you are constantly thinking about something, you will start remembering the same thing in the dream also.

For example, whenever you are frightened, if you have the habit of calling ‘Rama’ or ‘Krishna’ or some God’s name, even in the nightmare time, you will remember the same name. How many of you have experienced this? Even in the nightmare, if you are threatened, you will remember the same name. You will remember the same God. Automatically, it will happen.

If you are doing anything strong in your life, it will impact and it will create an impact on the dream state.

Whatever happens strongly in the dream state will create its impact on your waking life.

Now, Shiva is asking you to work on the dream state so it will create the impact on your life.

Now, let us enter into the technique of working on the dreams, of stopping when your prana flows into the heart. It may flow to fall asleep or to die. For both reasons, it may flow towards the heart. Now, how to be aware and how to bring it back, how to rejuvenate it, how to raise the consciousness, we will see in the meditation technique.

Now, it is time to enter into the meditation.

Now, if any of you have any questions, you can ask. Of course, there are one or two people who have given some questions but they are not directly related to this subject on which I spoke today.

Somebody has asked, ‘If your heart says one thing and your mind says another thing, which to follow?’ These type of questions which are not directly related to this meditation technique, you can ask when you come for ananda darshan, when you come for energy darshan. If you have any other personal questions also, you can ask when you come for energy darshan.

Now, let us enter into the meditation. Before entering into the meditation, let me give you the instructions. Now, I am giving you the whole gist of this great wisdom or the science of life that Shiva is trying to gift us.

The prana energy that is taken through air is the core of this technique. That is the main thread of this technique. The amount of air, the quantity of air which you are taking in, inhaling and exhaling, is in no way related to prana.

Sometimes, you take less prana with the incoming breath and leave more prana through the outgoing breath. At that time, even if you are inhaling and exhaling, you are traveling towards death. You are not inhaling life; you are exhaling death. You are breathing for death.

If you are taking more prana through the incoming breath and leaving very less through the outgoing breath or you are not giving any prana at all to the outgoing breath, then you are breathing for life. Then, you are going towards the life. You are expanding.

Prana is directly related to life and death and it is directly related to dream and deep sleep. The prana moves towards the heart when you fall into deep sleep and when you fall into death. Both the times, it moves towards the heart center. Everyday, it moves towards the heart center when you fall asleep.

If you can be aware of that prana movement when you fall asleep, you can stop it and control it. Hardly 10 days of practice! Very simple, beautiful practice! You can't say 'I don't have time' because everybody falls asleep.

This technique is so simple. Only one thing: you have to be aware when your consciousness is disappearing into the sleep. When you are falling asleep, when you are dissolving, you have to be aware; that's all. That is the whole technique. You can't say 'I don't have time' because everybody falls asleep. There is nobody who says 'I don't sleep'.

If you are aware, you will catch the moment when your prana is slipping from ajna to anahata, when your prana is slipping from forehead to heart center. Not only you will stop it, you will rejuvenate. You will create a different energy. Your whole prana energy will become different. This is the first step.

Next, second important thing: when you master this one, the same thing happens when you fall sick or you fall into death. So, you will be able to heal yourself and postpone your death.

Third thing. You may ask, 'If I can postpone my death, do you mean I will never die, Master?' Be very clear, when you understand about dream, you don't feel like dreaming anymore. When you understand the futility of the dream, you don't feel like dreaming.

So, when you understand the futility of life, you don't feel like living. When you understand the futility of life, you won't feel like living. Even if you live, you will live as long as you want to finish the responsibility or whatever it is that you must do.

When you want to live, you will not have any problems. You won't have any difficulties. Moreover, if you want to live and your prana movement is towards death, you can alter it.

You have complete freedom in front of you. You have freedom; you have choice. You are liberated from the forced death. We call it iccha mrutyu. Iccha mrutyu means dying when you want. This is the technique to bring that iccha mrutyu consciousness to your being.

Bheeshma is called iccha mrutyu. They say that he was waiting till uttarayanam to leave the body. Uttarayanam means the sun moving towards the northern hemisphere, the northern solstice. When the sun moves towards the southern hemisphere, it is called dakshinayanam and the movement to the northern hemisphere is called uttarayanam. Uttarayanam starts around the 14ᵗʰ or 15ᵗʰ January. Bheeshma was waiting for uttarayanam.

Be very clear, the very possibility that you are able to postpone or wait till certain date shows that you have control over your prana. That can happen only if you have control over your prana. That itself clearly decides you are already liberated.

There is a faith that if you die in uttarayanam, you don't have to come back to another cycle of birth and death, you are liberated, you will have moksha. I tell you, if you have the capacity to postpone your death till uttarayanam, naturally, you have control over the prana, means you are liberated. Naturally, you won't take one more body. All these things we know only as a mythology or a story. Now, Shiva is making everything alive by giving the technology. By giving the proper technique, Shiva is making everything into reality, into life.

I have seen so many people, so many enlightened masters, who have predicted about their death, who are very clear about their death time because they know how the prana is going out. While inhaling, the incoming prana is very low and the outgoing prana is more, so they know when they are going to leave the body. If they want, they can balance, they can handle. When they feel that the mission is done or the purpose is done, they say, ‘Beautiful! Good bye!’ They are very clear about their life.

Actually, when you master the prana, another one important thing happens to you, you understand that death as you think doesn't exist. Death as you think doesn't exist.

As on now, you are afraid of death mainly because of the uncertainty. It is not even about death, it is the uncertainty. That only creates more and more fear.

See, everybody knows we are going to die. We have to die and nothing can be done about it. All of us know that death is sure. But we don't know when, how and after that, what. The uncertainty behind these questions is what creates a big problem in our being.

So, the psychological suffering that we go through when we remember death or the idea of death is more associated, more related to uncertainty. It is not related to directly death itself. It is not related to directly death itself.

Once this uncertainty is clear through this technology, the very idea of death is totally demystified. The idea of death is totally demystified. The negative impact, the idea that death has in our being will be completely cleared. It will be cleared.

You will have more freedom not only to choose, but also to postpone or predict and to know the death itself. This is the ultimate gift you can have from any spiritual technique.

Above all, even when you fall sick, the prana directly may not go completely into the anahata but it will start traveling towards anahata. You know you are falling sick and you can bring it back.

It is enough if you aware of the flow of prana. It will automatically come back to the higher energy and your body will heal itself because the flow of prana is directly related to all your diseases.

All the pranayama techniques are nothing but bringing the prana back to the consciousness or back to the higher energy, back to the higher space.

So, now, Shiva is giving us a beautiful technique. He knows human beings are the only animals in the planet earth that can give reasons, especially these computer consultants! They constantly go on doing the project plan, project plan, project plan but never will the project get done. You can become a great consultant if you can just sell project plans but never implement them. If you implement, then you are in difficulty.

See, in India, usually, to do any work one decides and straightaway the work is done. Here in USA it is not like that. The other day I was sitting and talking to one of our devotees. I said, ‘Try to do this work in India and hardly it will take any time. To create a brochure in India will take ten minutes. I just call a devotee and dictate and he takes it down and does it, over. But here, they will put a big project plan and a deadline and the last date. They will do so many things and finally the job is not done. Except the job, everything is done!’ Really, sometimes, I am surprised.

They say, ‘No, no, Master! This is the only way you can sell yourself. If you do the work without showing how big it is, you can’t get paid. Before doing the work, you should frighten the person that it is too big a job, it can’t be done unless are involved and it is not so simple as you think. Only when you hypnotize him that you are giving a big plan and idea, then if you do it, you will get paid.’ And the whole attitude and the whole work, I was really surprised about all this.

In India, I think people are not so intelligent. I can’t say not cunning; they are cunning but not that much intelligent. They don’t know how to frighten the other person. They don’t know how to exploit the other person’s fear.

Here, nicely, they have a clear plan, that big thing on that computer presentation which nobody understands. I was just trying to create our website and I was struggling for the last six months with these computer consultants. I get only the project plan, project plan, project plan. Finally, one day, I got fed up and took two hours and finished the job. Hardly two hours and it was done! Because their mental setup has become such, things are completely complicated.

Corporate means nothing but complicating simple things. And there is a big link, big chain. The more problems, you are a big guy.

Of course, the same thing starts happening with your body also. Please be very clear, never think your profession is related only to the outer world. Your profession impacts your body, your health, your mental setup, everything.

When you learn to complicate small things in your profession, you start doing the same thing with your body also. With your body also, you start playing the same game. Even if it is a small thing, mentally, you start brooding over it.

I have seen in my young age, even if there is a serious fracture, the elders will just put some herbal leaves and tie the broken part using a wooden support, like the measuring wooden scale that you use in schools, and tie it. Done, that's all! And, now you can't think of this type of treatment.

Yet, even now in Andhra, there is a place called Puttur. I don't know if you have heard of this place. Each day, 3000 fractures are treated. 3000 fractures and not a single failure! Please understand, each day 3000 patients with multiple fractures, different kinds of fractures are treated free of cost; that is another great thing. Free of cost, nobody is charged. Just one family takes care. You should go and see the miracle.

No instrument, nothing! They will have some leaves and maybe they may ask you to get an egg to mix with that medicine. For any type of fracture, all they use is two or three stones. For example, if it is a leg fracture, few people will just hold the leg, one person will just beat your body around the fracture with the stones and adjust the bone! To adjust the bone, they also use a hammer sometimes!

They just adjust the bone and they know when it is fixed just by feeling with the hand. If things are clear, they will put some leaves, put the small wooden scale and tie it, over, done! Each day, 3000 fractures are getting treated. What I am saying is a fact. It is not just a story. This is not from the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra or from Shiva Sutras. I am saying it is happening in India in Andhra in Puttur. 3000 patients are treated and not even a single case is a failure! I have not seen a single case being a failure case.

Things are much easier, much simpler. One more thing, if you believe in your mind that things are simple, things will be simple. If you think in your mind that things are complicated, your body also behaves in the same way. It complicates.

The other day, I was reading a beautiful book called 'Biology of Belief'. The book's name is 'Biology of Belief' and a great doctor, scientist by the name of Bruce Lipton, writes it. He has written that book after thirty years of research in biology. He says, cells or genes do not control the body as you think, as biology teaches you. Body is controlled by your faith, belief and positive and negative emotions. I was shocked but there are so many other researches, studies that he also quotes to prove and to validate his statement.

There are so many other researches. I read another research paper recently. We all believe that many diseases are transferred genetically. You inherit the disease from your father or your mother, that the disease is transferred. There is a detailed research done to study this.

Without the knowledge of the parent and the child, the doctor removed one child and left it with another couple. After thirty years, the person gets the disease of the person who he thinks as parent, who he thinks as father or mother, not the biological father or mother. He did not get the disease of the original, biological father or mother, but he got the disease of whom he thinks as father. So, there are so many researches of this kind that say that your body is directly related to your faith, your emotions.

The eastern rishis were successful in creating a society where the ultimate truth is day-to-day reality. They tried their best and they were successful. Maybe in the recent days, due to too much of Westernization, there are some truths that are lost but basically, they were successful in bringing the ultimate truths into the day-to-day life of a common man.

There are so many examples I can say. Even a common man in a teashop or who is working in a farm in India, knows concepts like 'everything is maya', 'everything is Brahman', 'only God can decide'. The ultimate truths, even he has some idea about it. That is the greatness of the rishis.

All right, it is time to enter into the technique.

This technique is in two parts. One that you are supposed to do when you fall asleep, when you are lying in the bed and second one which you can do whenever you can remember during the whole day.

The first one will create more energy to do the second meditation. The second one will create more energy to do the first meditation. Both are complementing each other. It is actually two parts; same meditation but two parts.

Meditation

I will explain the first part that you need to do when you fall asleep. When you lie down, before falling asleep, just remember the area near the ajna chakra or the third eye, the center of the forehead.

Remember. Please do not concentrate. If you force yourself, if you start concentrating, your sleep will be disturbed, you will have headache. Don't concentrate. Don't create stress.

Just remember that area in a relaxed way. Just like you look at a flower, just casually, in a relaxed way, in a very relaxed way, remember that area, be aware of that area, the third eye.

And slowly, you will see that you are disappearing. You are relaxing, you are disappearing into the deep sleep state or you are slowly dropping into the deep sleep state.

Just be aware when you are sleeping. Put your awareness in the third eye region.

Practice, you can start practicing today itself. When you are putting your awareness in a relaxed way in the third eye region, the ajna chakra, you will clearly see how you are relaxing, how you are slowly falling, how you are slowly relaxing into the body, how you are slowly falling into the deep sleep state.

Just be aware of the prana movement, that is enough.

First day, you may feel that you are not falling asleep at all. Your sleep is getting delayed by ten or fifteen minutes; don’t bother about it. Don’t worry about it. Just be aware completely about this third eye, about this ajna chakra, means the prana movement in this ajna chakra.

Naturally, you will see you are aware when you are falling into the dream state. Maximum ten days is enough to experience this. Ten days is actually too much. You may think, ‘How can it happen?’ I tell you, ten days is too much. Just today, you can experience. Today, you can see, in the dream, suddenly you will see you are dreaming.

You will be aware that you are dreaming. If you want to continue the dream, you will continue. If you don’t feel like, you will come out. But, you will not have nightmares. The depth of the dream will not be there.

As on now, your dreams can shake not only your mind but also your body. You can see many times when you wake up from a nightmare that your heart is beating fast, your pulse rate is high and your blood pressure is high. The impact of the dream will be there on your body. You will not have that effect if you are aware of dreaming.

This is the first effect of this meditation. The next step, you will start having the dreamless sleep. That is the deeper level. Whenever you start having the dreamless sleep, you will start having the dreamless day. Dreamless day means without daydreaming, means your energy will be conserved.

As on now, the night with dreams will create the days with dreams because if you are dreaming in the night, you will do the same thing in the daytime also. In the daytime also, you will be sitting and dreaming. Your mind will be moving from this side to that side and from that side to this side.

You will notice that when you are driving it is only when you see the cop’s car that you will become aware. Till you see the cop’s car, you will not be aware of what you are thinking. Your mind will be somewhere doing something. Neither do you know what you are doing nor does any one else know what you are doing.

The daydreaming and night dreaming are directly connected. This technique will give you the dreamless, deep sleep. Because of the dreamless sleep you will naturally start having dreamless daytime, which means the pure awareness. You will start living in pure awareness.

Above all, when you are able to change your dreams, when you are able to handle your dreams, you will have the intense power and energy to handle the incidents of your life.

As on now, you are just a victim of your life, victim of your dreams. You can’t handle anything. You can’t stop even a small sneezing. Not only in the waking state, even in the dream state. You can’t stop anything. Just things happen to you, that’s all.

At the most, you can have a feeling, the wrong feeling that you are doing things or the illusion that you are doing things. If you can be aware of the dream state and have the power to work, to stop or to manipulate the dream state and your dreams, you will have energy, capacity, and awareness to work on your life in a much deeper way.

Even now, you can work on your life a little bit; the freedom is very limited freedom you have on your life. Your freedom will become more, your choices, your consciousness will become more expanded with this single meditation technique. It can do miracles in your being.

Now, let us start the meditation. I will guide you; you can just do it for ten minutes so that you can go and do it in your house when you fall asleep.

It has to be done only when you fall asleep but let you understand at least the technique so that when you fall asleep, you can do it.

Please sit straight, close your eyes. After the meditation, I will tell you the second part so that you will not get confused.

Please sit straight, close your eyes. Be aware of the third eye, the ajna chakra. Please do not concentrate, do not force yourself. Just be aware in a very relaxed way.

Be aware of the ajna chakra, third eye and be aware of the prana movement, how the prana is flowing into your body, how the incoming breath is bringing more energy and the outgoing breath is relaxing your body. Just feel it.

Do not concentrate. Just be aware in a very relaxed way.

Just flow with the incoming breath and the outgoing breath. Be aware of the ajna chakra, third eye and just flow with the incoming breath and the outgoing breath.

Just be aware of the third eye, ajna chakra. Without concentrating, be aware. Om shanti shanti shantihi

Relax. You can open your eyes.

Now, let me explain the second part. The first part is doing the same thing what you did now. Very simple thing, be aware of the forehead, third eye when you are falling asleep. When you are falling asleep, when you lie down in the bed, switch off the light, when you decide, 'Yes, now I am going to fall asleep', just be aware when your consciousness is getting diffused, when you are just disappearing into the darkness, into the deep sleep. Just be aware.

Just be aware of the prana movement. If you are aware of the third eye that is enough because that's where your prana is. From there only, it will start moving. Naturally, you will be aware of the prana. This is the first step to be done when you fall asleep.

The second step, the whole day, whenever you remember, remember and think this whole thing is maya, you are just dreaming. You are just dreaming. Whatever you are seeing is just a dream. Just try to think again and again and again.

Please do not bother whether it is fact or not. Immediately, you will think, 'How can I think that Master? It is not a fact. This world is a reality.'

Please be very clear, two things, one is a fact, another one is truth. What I am saying that the whole world is a dream may not be a fact according to you because your scale, the scale that you use to measure whether something is a fact or not, that itself is not fact.

The scale that you use to measure or the logic that you have to evaluate whether something is a fact or not is not a fact by itself. So, you may not understand what I am saying is fact or not.

Once you try to practice, in a few days, you will understand the truth behind these words. It will lead you to the truth. It may not be fact for your logical mind or the scale with which you analyze whether something is fact or not. With that mind, it may not be fact.

But, it is a deeper level truth. Whole day, just think whenever you can remember, think this is a dream; this is just a dream. And, slowly, you will see it just gets diffused and you will see the screen on which this whole dream is going on. The screen you project this whole dream upon and see is what I call consciousness or prana.

When you start seeing the screen on which you are seeing this whole dream, you will see the same screen with awareness when you are dreaming.

I am trying to help you from both the corners. Shiva is giving you the technique to work on the dream and through that to realize that the dream and the life are one and the same.

I am adding one more step with my experience. Only one simple thing I am adding, even in the daytime, whenever you remember, just remember this whole thing is dream: your eating, your sleeping, your walking, your drinking. Whatever you are doing, whether you are driving or whether you are sitting in office, whatever you do just remember you are dreaming.

Next question, the mind will ask, ‘If I am dreaming, why should I do what I am doing?’ Why should you not do? If you are dreaming, why should you not do? In the dream also, you can do; nothing wrong.

You don’t want to do because you take it seriously. If you remember you are dreaming, your dreaming or non-dreaming is no way going to change anything. Let it happen. Let you do what you are doing.

Just be very clear it is a dream. Suddenly, you will have the intelligence. Your intelligence will be awakened. You will be awakened to the truth that the whole thing is your projection.

Let you start doing these two things, simple things. You will see you will not be the same person again. You will never be the same person again.

These two are so powerful, so energetic, that they can just transform your life.

When Shankara says, ‘The whole world is maya’, He is not stating a fact so that we can validate whether it is fact or whether it is right or wrong. He is not stating a fact. He is just giving you a technique. If you digest, if you accept that as a technique; you will realize the truth behind these words.

Immediately, if you start validating, ‘Oh, if it is dream, then what is this world?’, if you start validating a statement, you will miss the truth behind it.

As on now, even the scale that you are carry to validate whether something is fact or not is not fact. So, you cannot know whether it is fact or not.

All you can do is to just accept this as a technique and try. In few days, you will see the truth behind this statement.

If you see the truth, naturally, you won’t forget. It will become your experience. If you are not able to see as truth, naturally, you can throw it away; what is there? You will forget about it. Don’t bother thinking you are trying to grab some word that is not fact.

The so-called intellectuals or people who think ‘I don’t do anything unless I see the truth behind those words’ think that they are very intelligent and they think their life are very logical. They are completely wrong.

At least in India, somehow, whether people want to believe it or not, they have to, they are made to listen to these truths because the culture is such. Even if you don’t want, even in your village, some purana, some Bhagavatam, some lecture will be going on, some swami will come and you have to touch his feet at least for the sake of your mother, at least for the sake of your father. Even if you don’t want to go there, the loudspeaker will be so loud you will be able to hear from your house! Something will be happening; you can’t do anything about it. And all these things will be going into your life.

But, here USA, somehow because you are distanced and you are away from the constant repetition or constant remembrance, you tend to sometimes think that, ‘I don’t do anything unless I know it is a fact and unless I am very clear.’

There are some things that may not be fact according to the logic that you have now. But, if you are awakened to the higher intelligence, you will see the truth behind that statement. You will realize the truth behind that statement.

Now, when I say, remember this whole world as a dream, I am not stating a fact. If I say I am stating a fact, then you will challenge it with all your logic, with all your vengeance, with all your facts. You are all waiting to fight and you will start attacking me. I am not stating a fact. I am giving you a technique. Try it and play with it. You will realize the truth behind this technique.

These two techniques will change your whole life. One attains the supreme goal, you conquer the death itself, and you reach the ultimate goal of the life. You live beyond death.

One more thing, when I say death, when Shiva says death here, not only he means the death that happens at the end of the life, he also means the death that happens during life.

For example, if your money is taken away from you, the identity that you are a millionaire dies in you. If your brother dies, the identity that you are brother of somebody dies. If your father dies, the identity that you are son of somebody dies.

In all those moments, you feel you suffer; you go through the terrible pain. You go through half death. Some part of your being dies. Please be very clear, the whole, the complete death happens at the end of your life. Even during your life, partial death happens, some part of your being dies.

Even those moments, at that time also, you will not go through the pain, suffering. You will not be tortured. You will overcome death if you can handle the prana, if you can live with awareness. You will not only be able the final death but also be able to handle the death that you face everyday in different ways, in different contexts. You will be able to work, manipulate, postpone, move or even stop those deaths. So, let this great truth and technology of Shiva liberate you from death and give you eternal bliss. Let you be in and become one with and radiate eternal bliss, Nithyananda. Thank you!

Q: Much has been written on interpreting dreams by experts like Freud. There are theories on dream harvesting. Can you comment on these?

What Shiva says here is that our entire life is a dream. It is a long dream no doubt but still a dream.

Shakespeare meant the same thing when he said that, ‘All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players’. Some of you may think this is a cliché. Some may ask what if I hit you and you are hurt. You fell the hurt. You may even bleed. Is it still a dream?

As long as your identity is in control of you it is not a dream. You feel the pain and you suffer. Once you are able to shed the identity then it is really a dream. The body may experience what it is conditioned to feel as pain but there will be no suffering as a result of the blow. It is another experience, just another incident, neither joyful nor of sorrow. Without identity you are in equanimity. You are unattached.

The problem is that we do not realize that we are acting out our parts when we are awake. We are too serious to realize this. We are all so busy playing those respective roles of father, son, husband, wife, brother, sister or friend or enemy to relax into a witnessing mode and laugh at this play acting. If we do we are afraid that our relationships, our possessions, and more importantly our control over others will be lost.

This control becomes the center point of all our activities. All these questions about interpretation of dreams and harvesting of dreams arise from this desire for control over our dreams. Yes, it is true that Shiva gives you control over your dreams through this technique. However, the reason is different. Shiva wants you to understand how meaningless it is to control anything. Once you realize you can control you have the intelligence to relinquish control.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong in what Feud said. He was right to say that dreams erupt from suppressed desires or unfulfilled desires. Many such desires that we are afraid to express in our waking state for fear of social reasons we express without inhibition n the dream state. This is true. Because of his conditioning Freud linked all his conclusions to sex. I read somewhere recently that he was mistranslated from his native German. The critic, in this case a supporter, said that the German word meat something else. It is the sexually inhibited British who translated that as sex!

Where I believe Freud and others went overboard was in trying to find interpretations to these dreams and nightmares. They tried to use these as predictive tools. In dream harvesting they talk about planting, nurturing and harvesting dreams, which is probably even more dangerous.

Medical practitioners can tell you that dreams serve a useful function in most of you. Your sleep consists of interspersed periods of rapid eye movements that are dream related and undisturbed deep sleep. The composition of dream state and deep sleep state is important to your physical and emotional health. If you have no dreams, your unfulfilled desires will remain suppressed and cause you emotional disturbance. If you have too many dreams, your sleep time suffers and you cannot function effectively in your waking state.

In the dream state your identity dissolves. That is why you can express yourself in an uninhibited manner in the dream state. That itself is a catharsis. You do not need to interpret them to make them go away. By bringing in logic you will be interfering with the dream process. You will not allow this lack of inhibition even in your dreams.

If you indulge in activities such as dream harvesting you are deliberately interfering with your natural sleep rhythm and setting yourself up for ill health. This is also true of sleep-learning and all that stuff. It is not that these cannot be done. It is just that these are games that can be dangerous.

Shiva here taught you how to witness dreams. Witnessing brings with it the power to control. Along with that it also brings the awareness about the futility of control. As a result dreams stop of their own accord. Not because you force them to stop, which you cannot, but the understanding and awareness of the futility to utilize them in some fashion makes your sleep dreamless. Of course, if you wish to, as I said, you can do things in your dream that you do not find the time to do in the waking state and thus learn how to influence your living through your dreams.

The difference is that in this case the process is not initiated by fear or greed as in the case of interpretation and harvesting. There is no purpose except the awareness. You are conscious in your dreams. When you are conscious you are in control. When you are in control you can move beyond the mind. Dream is another mind game.

It is not that you dream only while asleep. Many dream while awake as well. The difference is relative. You are in a fantasy world where you believe you have control, but in fact you do not. You are driven by the unconscious mind though you are under the belief that your actions are rational and logical.

This is what we call samskaras or conditioning through engraved memories. These samskaras affect both your waking state activities and dream state activities. The nightmares that you have in your dreams continue as phobias and depression in your waking state. When you awaken from this unconscious state you become the Awakened one, the Buddha, the enlightened one. The enlightened one is free of dreams, both while sleeping and while awake. He is in brahman all the time, in ultimate reality.