Pages 111–120🔗

On this day Draupadi came as usual wearing the seven saris and Dushashana started pulling them off one by one. One small mistake happened. Dushashana forgot to count. He forgot the count. Suddenly he forgot which sari he was pulling, whether it was sixth, seventh or fifth. Since he forgot to count, he started pulling off the seventh sari also. Now it is dangerous. He was supposed to pull only six and according to the story by the time he pulled the sixth sari Draupadi had to shout 'Krishna' and Krishna had to jump into the stage and Dushashana would fall.

Because the guy forgot to count and he started pulling the seventh sari also and Draupadi got so disturbed. She straightaway started kicking Dushashana. Instead of shouting 'Krishna', she started kicking Dushashana.

We were like, 'What is going on in the story?' Draupadi was not supposed to fight with Dushashana. She was supposed to shout 'Krishna, Krishna". She lost her temper and started kicking, 'Hey, Hey'. And this guy did not understand what Draupadi meant. He thought she was really acting and stated pulling the sari off again. Both started fighting with each other. In that fight nothing could be done. Dushashana finally pulled the seventh saree off.

Now Draupadi was standing on the stage with female make up and with a blouse on the top and with shorts below. The face is full of turmeric and flower. He had complete female decoration above the hip with all the jacket and female dress. Below he was standing with shorts. Krishna was behind the screen smoking a cigarette. He was thinking, 'What is happening? Still I'm not called'. He was enjoying his cigarette and standing behind the screen and thinking, 'Still I'm not called. What happened?' Because only when Draupadi shouted 'Krishna'. He could come in. Till the sixth sari Draupadi had to say, 'Madhava, Madhusudana, Govinda, Gopala'. Only on the sixth sari she would scream for 'Krishna' and Krishna would appear.

Krishna was smoking his cigarette and waiting. 'Still I'm not called. What happened?' Now the whole scene was over. What to do? We saw Draupadi standing in shorts and blouse on the stage with all make up.

The actor playing Draupadi was spontaneous in his reaction. He shouted, 'Krishna, because you were busy smoking your cigarette you made me a male and saved my life and my prestige'.

The whole scene took a different turn. Actually this spontaneity can happen only if you are not intellectual.

If you are an intellectual you can't be spontaneous. What will you be doing? At the most you will be picking up another sari and hiding. What can be done? Already everything is open. Of course, this spontaneity will be alive and active in you when you are not programmed intellectually and when you know you are unclutched. Even once if you experience the unclutched state, this spontaneity will be so alive and active in you, no cloud can cover your inner space. You cannot be disturbed, you cannot be depressed, and you will not be perturbed by your vasanas, tendencies of your mindset.

In Zen there is a beautiful saying, 'Birds don't leave their footprints in the sky'. If you work with that clarity that you are unclutched, your activities will not leave their footprints, the samskaras. No activity will leave the samskara or engrams in your inner space. Nothing will touch your inner space.

There is a beautiful story of Janaka in our puranas. Janaka was an enlightened master. He was a king and an enlightened Master. Both. Suka Brahma was another master, the first Paramahamsa on Planet Earth. Suka's father was Vyasa, the sage who compiled the Vedas. Vyasa sent Suka Brahma to Janaka. Vyasa said, 'Go to Janaka and learn the ultimate truth from him.' Suka Brahma went to Janaka's court. At that time Suka Brahma was not enlightened. He went to Janaka's court and saw Janaka sitting on the throne and enjoying himself. Suka Brahma did not know that Janaka was a king and he did not realize Janaka would be sitting in a throne. Suka Brahma thought, 'When my father told me to go and learn from Janaka I thought he was a sage, a rishi, and even if he is in a court, I thought he would be a raja guru (King's teacher). But now I understand that he is a king himself and what will I learn from a king?'

In those days, kings were not respected in Indian tradition. Only spiritual people were respected. The rishis hade created such a wonderful system, the Vedic lifestyle. The person who did not own anything, who didn't have anything, was respected more than a king. Neither a vaisya, a businessman who had money nor kshatriya, the king who had power was respected. Only the brahmana, the scholar who had the intelligence and spiritual wisdom was respected. Only the rishis were respected.

Suka thought, 'What will I learn from a king? After all, he is a king. He won't have anything to teach. Anyhow, my father said to learn from him'. He goes to the king and he asked him, 'What will you teach me?'

Janaka says, 'Stay here for three days'.

People come to me and ask me, 'Swamiji, give us a glimpse of meditation, please teach us how to live in the bliss'. No. To tell you honestly, I can't teach you, but you can pick up. I can't teach you, but you can learn'.

I always tell them, 'Just be with me for 24 hours for a few days. I cannot teach you with verbal language. With words, you cannot learn anything. May be you can pick up from my body language. Just see how I live. Feel how I'm living. That may give you a glimpse. That may give you the confidence'.

Be very clear: words are not going to teach you. Here also the words that I'm uttering are not great and I'm not an orator. And I know my English. Oh God. I have my own way of expressing. Anyhow, I don't bother about that also because I'm not here to teach you English. I'm not an English teacher. I'm only teaching spirituality.

Somebody asked me, 'What is this Swamiji? You should improve your English a little bit'. I said, 'I'm not teaching English, I'm teaching spirituality. Do you understand what I want to express?' He said, 'Yes. I understand'. 'That's all. For that much only we need language'. Language is necessary to convey. That's all. That's enough. Nothing else is necessary. We don't have to bother about anything else. I'm not giving you words. Words can't do anything else. The words that I'm using are not important.

The confidence that is radiating in my eyes, the honesty that is in my body language when I utter this truth is the reality. I always tell people, 'If you can pick up this honesty and confidence, then you have achieved. If you have picked up these words it means nothing. You are not going to be helped. But if you pick up this honesty and confidence, then you have done what you are supposed to do. You have achieved what you are supposed to achieve'.

I always tell people, 'Stay around me, be around me, watch. Just be a spy. See how I'm living. 24 hours'. See you can't hide something from someone 24 hours. You can't act 24 hours. It is impossible. You can act two or three hours on stage. Stage show is very easy. Anybody can get into the stage and do 2-3 hours of show. That is not a big thing. But you can't be the same for 24 hours. Be around me 24 hours. That may give you something.

Janaka says the same thing. 'Stay with me for 24 hours and you may learn something'. Take swimming for instance. Nobody can teach you swimming. But you can pick up swimming when you see somebody swimming. Nobody can teach you. When you see somebody swimming, you will understand three things. First thing: Swimming is possible. Man can float on water. Secondly, you get a tremendous urge. When they can do, why not me? Why can't I? I too can. The third thing: Let me jump in; the courage.

Same way, when you see an enlightened being walking on planet earth, when you live around him, you will understand three things. First thing: Enlightenment is possible. You can live like a God in this Planet Earth. Next thing: When he can, why not I? Because he will radiate such simplicity and such ordinariness, naturally you will have the confidence. Third thing: the courage. Let me also jump in. All these three will happen only if you live around a master, seeing the body language. Nothing else can help you. I always tell people, 'Spirituality can never be taught. You can pick up. It can't be taught'.

In the same way Janaka said, 'Live around me, stay here'. Suka Brahma stayed there for three days. He was not able to understand. Suka Brahma was not able to relate with what is going on there. Janaka was sitting enjoying his wine and opium. Singing was going on. Dancing was going on. Whatever was normal in the court of a king was going on there and Janaka was just enjoying the whole thing. Suka Brahma was not able to relate with the whole scene. He was not able to understand what there was to learn.

After three days, again Suka Brahma went to Janaka and asks, 'Do you want to teach me anything?'. Then Janaka said, 'See how I'm living, and try to learn'. Suka Brahma said, 'I'm not able to learn anything. I don't understand anything. I'm seeing only one thing. You are living happily with the whole kingdom. I don't think I can learn anything from this'.

Janaka gave the boy a pot filled with oil and said, ' Please carry this pot and go around this palace for 7 times. Even a drop of oil should not spill out. That is the condition. Suka Brahma went around and returned successfully. Janaka asked him, 'You went around the palace 7 times. During that time period, did you see anything? Did you notice all the dancing or singing or anything?'

Suddenly Suka Brahma realized that not only was he not aware, he did not even remember all these things. All these things are going on and everything was in front of his eyes. It was not that he was away. He was not in a forest. He was not in his gurukulam school. He was in the palace. But nothing had created any engram or samskara in his inner space.

Then Janaka said, 'Like how, in these few moments even though you are here, nothing has created engrams in you, samskaras in you, in the same way even though I'm here for 24 hours, nothing has created engrams in me. No samskaras are created. My inner space is not touched by all these outer events. Nothing of this world touches my inner space. I'm pure in my inner space'.

Understand the meaning of purity. Purity does not mean that you will be sitting in Himalayas somewhere, hiding yourself, not ready to face the world. No. Purity does not mean that you will escape somewhere. Purity means you will have a beautiful inner space. The outer world things will not be able to penetrate you. The outer world events will not be able to fill you. Outer world things will be not be able to enter into you. Your inner space will be beyond any conditionings or samskaras related to the outer world. All you need to do is to understand and remember that you are unclutched!.

Remembering that you are unclutched will take you beyond body and mind. It will take you beyond space. In yesterday's technique Shiva taught us how to go beyond time. Now he is teaching us how to go beyond space. After a small break, we will see the technique and practise it.

Meditation

Q: When talking about enlightenment, are you talking about the omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, Self-realization?

A: All the ‘Omni’s you want to, put all those ‘Omni’s together. I am talking only about that Self-realization. I am not talking about small ‘s’. I am talking about the capital ‘S’. Be very clear, in enlightenment there is no variety. It’s not like a pizza you can order with different toppings. According to me there is only one kind of enlightenment.

I don’t use those big words like atman because they are too much loaded. People are afraid of those words. Constantly people are asking me again and again, ‘Swami, should I become sanyasi, should I renounce everything to achieve to attain enlightenment?’

Just renounce what you don’t have. That is enough. There is no need to renounce what you have. Whatever you have, keep it. Just renounce what you don’t have.

The one important thing that you don’t have, I mean the shaft that you don’t have, is what you are constantly creating. Drop it. Just renounce that shaft, that’s enough. One more thing, as of now, out of 10 000 flowers you just pick a few and make a garland and you start identifying yourself with the 10 flowers. You give power and attention only to the 10 flowers. If you stop giving power to the 10 flowers the whole heap, 10000 flowers will have energy.

There is a possibility of all your thoughts becoming reality. All your thoughts will have tremendous power and strength. I’m talking about an important thing. In tantra they say that to achieve the state of enlightenment there are two ways, either you have to make all your dreams into reality or you should understand all your reality is nothing but a dream.

If you make all your dreams into reality suddenly you will realize that all your reality is nothing but your dream. If you do the first step, the second step will happen. If you do the second step first will happen. Both are directly connected. If you realize what you think as reality is nothing but a dream, all your dreams will be realized. If you realize all your dreams, all your reality will become nothing but a dream.

As of now you just pick up a few flowers and create a shaft and give power to that. Give your attention to that. You think you are only that. You’re identifying only with that, that is why all the suffering. If you stop identifying with that selected thoughts, you have a big selective amnesia problem. If you stop identifying with those selected thoughts, suddenly you will see all the thoughts get the power. Your whole being is energized. Whatever is happening in you is having the same attention, energy.

First thing, you will be able to realize all your thoughts as reality. Be very clear, this a very simple powerful method to make your dreams into reality. Whatever dreams you have about future or life, if you can relax, if you can unclutch, you will see suddenly a new kind of energy flowing through the thoughts. Even to achieve what you want, unclutching is the ultimate technique. That is a powerful technique, even to achieve what you want; whatever you want. Let you be very clear, the unclutching is the ultimate technique, which can give you everything.

Understand the shaft is a lie, and once you do even if you create a shaft what is there to worry? Even when you create a shaft and suffer, remember, even this idea that I am creating a shaft is one more shaft. The shaft which I created 10 years ago, the shaft which I created 9 years ago and the shaft which I created yesterday, they are not connected. Connecting all these shafts is one more shaft. That’s all. Connecting all these shafts is one more shaft.

Let me be very clear, even connecting and creating these shafts is one more shaft. This understanding when it goes to the deeper level, that itself is enough. You don’t have to think that emotions override rationality. Understanding once again to form shafts you will need to practice. Do not practice. When you remember this moment that shaft is a lie don’t create shafts.

Don’t bother about the next moment. The big problem is that you want to be assured now itself that you won’t create shafts once and for all in your future. You can’t have that assurance. When you want to have the assurance that you will not create shafts, you should achieve a state where you will never create shafts any more. You can’t do that now.

Let you be very clear, when you try to create that state you create problems. When you don’t create shafts you feel some inner relaxation, an inner healing. You will see if you are tortured with your mind, if you are suffering with your mind, this truth will give you such an inner healing, relaxation; now you will become greedy about this joy. Now you have become greedy about this joy, you are then afraid in any moment you may forget this truth; you will start getting caught with this shaft again.

So, now you want an assurance, ‘Swamiji, tell us some way that we should always remember and not to create this shaft’. When you are trying to obtain that assurance, be very clear you are creating one more shaft. The moment you decide this is joy and you want this to be permanently with you, what you have done? You have started creating one more shaft. Then you are in trouble, whether it is joy or pain, the moment you create shaft you are in trouble. You are in trouble.

He is asking how you deal with it. You don’t have to deal with it, why should you deal with it? If the shaft is there then you can deal with it. Here there is no shaft so why should you deal with it? All you have to do is know that you are constantly telling yourself that there is a shaft. You are doing everything to yourself to believe that there is a shaft.

Meditating upon the radiating energy rising from the muladhara dissolving in the subtlest center of consciousness between eyebrows, let Shiva Consciousness be expressed.

Today’s subject is Awareness: the Gates of God. Awareness is gates of God, gates to God and gates for God. It is everything related to Divinity. Yesterday, I was explaining the difference between concentration and awareness. Today we will go deep into the subject of Awareness.

Shiva is expounding a new Sutra. From today he starts speaking on a different center. Last 4 sutras were related to breath. Today he is moving to a different center. Let’s see the sutra then we will see the meaning.

aa mulaat kiranaabhaasaam sukhsmaat sukhsmataraatmikaam chintayetaam dvishtakaante shaamyanteem bhairavodayah

In this sutra Shiva says,

Meditating upon the radiating energy rising from the muladhara dissolving in the subtlest center of consciousness between eyebrows, let Shiva Consciousness be expressed.

It is one of the esoteric mystical techniques. First time he is introducing esoteric technique to us. In the first 4 techniques, Shiva is very plain, simple, and direct. He is just making us feel comfortable. He is giving us feeling of homeliness. Now he is taking us to a deeper level.

Subtlest center of Consciousness between eyebrows: he speaks of the third eye, what we call Ajna chakra. The whole East, all eastern religions masters, mystics, whoever is from East, they continuously work on the Ajna chakra, the third eye. Whether it is Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism or any other spiritual group from the East, they will be working on their third eye. Third eye is the greatest gift given to planet earth by the Eastern mystics.

To awaken this third eye, there are at least 5000 techniques. There in no master or no teacher who has not worked on the third eye in the East. In the East, they start with the third eye. Anybody interested in spirituality, they start with the third eye. Even in our regular life in India, constantly people work on the third eye. Sometimes they work indirectly through cosmetic approaches. Placing kumkum, the red powder, on the forehead between the eyes is a technique to work to the third eye. Constantly you will be aware of third eye. The turmeric in the kumkum activates the ajna chakra. If you constantly give attention to third eye it will be awakened. It will start directly expressing energy. It will start expressing pure consciousness.

All Vedic powers are expressed from this third eye only. All Vedic powers, whether it is power of materializing or the power of teleporting or power of telling the future or power of making dreams into reality, all these arise from third eye only. Third eye is the subtlest and the most powerful energy center. Here Shiva is teaching us how to awaken the third eye and use in our normal life.

One simple thing, very simple thing, I will tell you about third eye. If somebody is sitting in front of you, just look at his third eye. You can look from the rear of the head as well, you don't have to look from the front. Just give any command. Simply the person will obey. Now you can check. You can test this on your neighbor.

You don't know the power of third eye. Simply a thought will be created in his consciousness. If you concentrate on his third eye, and utter a particular thought, simply his inner consciousness will get that thought. In his space that thought will be reproduced. I have seen many times the power of this third eye.

I was staying with a great master, a Naga Baba. Naga baba means a saint who does not wear clothes. He was a great sanyasi. He stayed in the Himalayas. I had opportunity to learn from him. Whenever people came to him to learn, to study anything, he would not teach. He would put his trishul, trishul means a trident that Shiva carries, and he would put his trishul and ask them to look at the tip of the trishul. Trishul has three tips, so he would ask them to look at all the three tips at the same time. At a single moment you should be able to look all three tips, only then he would teach you. He would place the trident in front of people who came to him to learn and make them focus on it. I have seen people sitting for months with him in front of the trident.

It is not as easy as you think. You may think, what is so difficult in looking at all three tips at the same time? After all it is a small trident. What is there? Never think like that, you cannot see anything in the same moment. One moment you can see one tip, next moment next tip and the next moment the third tip. You can't see completely.

As and now you can see 120 degrees at best, that also if you focus and see. Otherwise you have maximum 30 degree vision. If you start concentrating more you exclude things. The more you concentrate the less degree you can see. That is what I was saying yesterday, concentration means excluding things.

When he asked me to do this I was surprised,. I also used to carry a trishul when I was wandering. He told me look at all tips of this trishul at a time. You cannot move your eyeballs. But you should be aware of all the tips. He has got a strange test to see if you are really aware or not. He will look at your eyeballs and put his finger on the three tips. A small movement in the eyeballs also he will notice.

Remember, a small movement in the eyeball, means what, you are not aware of the three tips at a time. He will just shift his finger and ask: are you aware of this tip? He will clearly find out whether your eyeball is moving or not. When he started I too thought what is so special and difficult. I thought I can see the three tips of the trishul at a time, but then I understood that without moving the eyeballs, without changing, I was not able to see more than one point.