Pages 61–70🔗

Every moment if you start feeling comfortable with the neutral zone, every moment you get high on prana. Prana means the life source, the life force. It is the energy or the consciousness that is the base for your existence. Let you be very clear, the word prana does not mean air.

In Sanskrit, the word prana has got deeper meaning. It is not simply air. Air is the product delivered from the outer world and prana is the energy which you receive from the product. Prana is the energy. It is like a lorry is coming into your house and delivering some parcel and going away. The lorry is air and the parcel is prana. What is directly useful or what is directly the energy base of your consciousness is what is addressed or called as prana.

If you can be comfortable in that neutral zone, be very clear again and again you'll be infused with energy, because that is the energy zone. That neutral zone is what I call Shiva Consciousness, eternal consciousness, bliss space, Ananda Gandha or whatever, samadhi, satori whatever names you wish call as God. These are the different names we give the neutral zone.

If you can be comfortable in that neutral zone, every moment again and again you'll be rejuvenated, flooded with energy. In this lower neutral zone, when the incoming takes an outgoing turn, you are flooded with energy. When the outgoing takes the turn of incoming you are flooded with intelligence.

Please understand, as I was telling you yesterday, incoming breath is life and out going breath is death. This is the life line and this is death line. With the life line you are flooded with energy and with death line you are flooded with intelligence. If you are unaware, you'll miss the energy and you will also miss the intelligence. Every death experience teaches you every time.

One more thing, when I use the word death, I don't mean only physical death. If you loose some money, say suddenly you loose a million dollars, some part of your being is dying and that is why you feel so much of pain. Your identity as a millionaire is dying. Same way, even if you don't have a good relationship with your parents, if they die suddenly you feel emptiness, the pain. I've always seen in India, as long as parents are alive these guys will not give even little water to them, they won't take care of them. The moment they are dead, they'll have beautiful big photographs and put all kinds of food and sweets in front of that photograph and pray.

There's a nice proverb, nice one liner I read, 'As long as the grandfather was alive, he lived only in the out house. The moment he died, he was allowed inside the house as a photograph'. His photograph will stay in the main hall, but he had to stay in the outhouse. You don't feel, even when they are alive, you don't feel so connected to them. But when they are dead you feel the emptiness because something in you is dying. With every such incidence, something in you dies.

If you can be aware, if you are aware of that moment, you will receive intelligence. Every incident teaches you. Be very clear every incident in life teaches you something if you are aware you learn the lesson, or you miss it. Then again the life has to teach you but till you learn, life is not going to leave you.

Be very clear, a small story.

A singer was trying to satisfy the audience. He started singing Carnatic music, Aa, Ee, Oo. After he finished the whole group, the whole audience shouted once more, once more. Again he started. After he finished, again the audience shouted, once more, once more. He thought, Oh! God, people are all enjoying and it went on and on five times. He started to suspect that something strange is happening, anyhow after the sixth time, again the people started shouting once more, once more. Then he asked, are you are all enjoying the song so much.

They said, 'No! Till you sing properly, we are not going to leave you. Till you do at least once song properly, we are not going to let you go'.

Be very clear, till you learn the lesson, life is not going to leave you. If you are aware of the death and birth gap you will be aware when you loose something, when life teaches you something you will be awakened to intelligence.

Let me repeat once more, this technique does not mean that you'll only sit for half an hour and watch the breath incoming and outgoing or outgoing taking turn into incoming. Please understand, it is not just half an hour technique. You'll sit with eyes closed and you'll observe incoming breath, outgoing breath, outgoing breath, and incoming breath. That is the way to start but that is not the complete technique.

When I say be aware of incoming breath taking turn as outgoing breath and outgoing breath taking turn as incoming breath, I mean be aware that you are flooded with energy and intelligence. When you are given life, sometimes even a single desire can bring life to you. Sometimes you are lying on the bed in the weekend and you don't feel like getting out of the bed. Suddenly, you'll remember some friend, somebody's name and you just want to meet him. A single thought, your whole body is alive. You are out of the bed and you just run.

When you are flooded with energy, be aware that is happening in this neutral zone only. Same way, when something is taken away from you, you are flooded with intelligence. If you are losing something, immediately you are given some message and some understanding about the life. Be aware when you are flooded with intelligence. This is intelligence neutral zone; this is energy neutral zone.

When the birth is disappearing into death, when the death is disappearing into birth, be very clear you are flooded with intelligence; energy and intelligence. If you can bring your awareness to these two zones and the whole day you'll be constantly flooded with energy.

Yesterday, Shiva was teaching us to be aware of this energy. See, yesterday I warned you not to create any strong thoughts or emotional attachments after the meditation because you'll be flooded with energy. Any thought that you create will become alive and you do not have the intelligence to use your viveka, discrimination, to analyze whether it is right or wrong for you.

Now with this meditation, you don't have to control yourself. You'll awaken the intelligence also. When you watch both the gaps, when you are aware of both the gaps, you'll be constantly be flooded with energy and intelligence. If you go little deeper, you'll understand one more important thing. You realize that every moment you have thought and energy.

Zero and one, the whole binary system is based on this only. The whole binary system of zero and one, thought and energy, energy and thought, thought and energy, energy and thought, one after another they follow and both are directly related. Actually, for a moment you'll be flooded with ichha shakti, energy of desire and the next moment you'll be flooded with kriya shakti, energy of action.

One moment you are flooded with energy, next moment you are flooded with intelligence. Constantly, these two are playing the game. This is the game of Shiva and Shakti. This is the whole cosmos, matter and energy. Constantly in your inner space, Shiva and Shakti are dancing; the matter and energy are dancing. If you can be aware of the gap, you'll experience the eternal Consciousness, the Shiva Consciousness.

Ichha and kriya shakti are both dancing in your inner space. If you can be aware of the gap, you'll achieve the gnana shakti, energy of knowledge. Ichha shakti and kriya shakti, both of them are just dancing, the energy is enjoying its self, the energy is expressing itself in your inner space and if you can be little aware of the gap, you'll be flooded with the Divine Consciousness.

Meditation

Sit in a completely relaxed position and let your body be completely relaxed. Start observing your breath. Start witnessing your breath. Do not increase the length, do not increase your breathing, do not inhale or exhale. Just witness it, let the inhaling and exhaling be normal and natural, just witness. Just observe.

Be aware the incoming breath and the gap and the outgoing breath. Feel your whole body being rejuvenated and alive. You are in a silence that is alive and energetic. You are in energetic silence. You are vibrating with high energy.

Witness the gap between incoming breath and outgoing breath. Just be the witness. Be aware of the gap between the incoming breath and outgoing breath. You may feel you are not breathing at all, witness that also, witness that feeling also.

Witness now the gap between incoming and outgoing breath. You are in Shiva Consciousness.

Be aware the outgoing breath and the gap and the incoming breath. Feel your whole body being filled with intelligence. You are in a silence that is intelligent and energetic. You are in intelligent silence. You are flowing in intelligent energy.

Witness the gap between outgoing breath and incoming breath. Just be the witness. Be aware of the gap between the outgoing breath and incoming breath. You may feel you are not breathing at all, witness that also.

Witness now the gap between outgoing and incoming breaths. You are in Shiva Consciousness.

Now, start witnessing both these gaps. Be aware of the neutral spaces between incoming and outgoing breaths as well as the outgoing and incoming breaths. Be aware of your breath taking a turn between incoming breath and outgoing breath, and again between the outgoing breath and incoming breath. Be aware of both these neutral spaces.

Let you now be immersed in the intelligent cosmic energy. Let you awake into Shiva Consciousness.

Om Shanti, Shanti , Shantihi

Q: Master, I have heard you say once that you do not recommend pranayama, breath control. In what way are these Shiva Sutra techniques different from pranayama?

Yoga is very much misunderstood term is this age. Yoga is the process of uniting body, mind and spirit. The entire science of yoga as expounded by Patanjali is a holistic combination of different practices that cannot be isolated and practised as techniques. Each of the eight limbs of ashtanga yoga is a part that seamlessly merges into another and makes sense all together. This is what we teach in Nithya Yoga.

Yoga is about adding life to your movements, not adding more movements into your already overcrowded life!

First, let us look at asanas. You will find that those whose aim in life is only to practise asanas are the most egoistic people you can see. They become like body builders and lose the perspective of what they started with. They end up in a situation that even when the spirit wants to leave the body, the body that they have so assiduously built refuses to let go. They suffer. They are sad people.

Prana is not breath. It is the energy underlying the breath. Breath is the vehicle that carries this precious cargo of energy into your mind body system. Prana is energy. Prana is the energy of your desires. In an impure mind body system prana will inflame and aggravate the negative tendencies, the vasanas and samskaras. These practices were developed in Patanjali’s age when people had far less corruption. They had far fewer samskaras.

Now if you practise pranayama without preparation you will enhance the samskaras that are already in you instead of eliminating them, as yoga should help you to do. Practise meditation, dhyana, before you practise pranayama. Practise only such pranayama as would benefit your system. Your Nithya Yoga teachers can advise you on these.

Otherwise pranayama can be like steroids. They temporarily and seemingly can reduce some difficulties that you presently have, but will in the longer term leave you with deep scars.

I do not say do not practise pranayama. I only say that first cleanse yourself before you activate your mind body system with the powerful pranic energy through pranayama.

In the middle of that unmoving expanding energy space, be unclutched and witness Shiva Consciousness.

Shiva is taking us into the deeper layers day by day. Today he is taking us to a different dimension. Let’s enter into the sutra:

The translation is,

In the middle of that unmoving expanding energy space, be unclutched and witness Shiva Consciousness.

The energy of breath should neither move out nor enter. When the center unfolds by the dissolution of thoughts, be unclutched, then you attain the nature of Bhairava, then one attains the nature of Bhairava.

Again this is also a technique related to breathing. Actually, first nine techniques of Shiva Sutra are related to breathing. First day itself I was explaining that breathing is the right place to start. That is the right place to begin the spiritual practice. There are so many masters who try to work on people on this planet earth. All the religious techniques, the puja, yoga, all of them start with earth, the physical part. Then there are some techniques related to fire, homa, yaga and such techniques to fall in tune with fire. There are also some techniques to fall in tune with ether. But the problem is that when you try straightaway to fall in tune with ether, akasa energy, sometimes you are not subtle enough to enter this subtle energy. You will not be able to grasp it.

Prana, the air, is the right space. Anybody can start from this space. Nobody will miss it. There are many masters who directly try to work on ether. A great master J Krishnamurti worked straightaway on the consciousness. He has always said that ‘no technique is necessary, nothing needs to be done’.

The big problem is that he was not able get through because he was talking to people who were far less subtle. To them, listening to J. Krishnamurti became one more ritual, an intellectual ritual.

For 40 years or 50 years people used to go, sit and listen to him since he was a very powerful and logical speaker. His messages went above their heads. It’s like he was sitting on the 10ᵗʰ floor and calling ‘please come, come, come’, but people do not know where the lift is or where the steps are. It’s like he’s telling you to come, but he has not given you directions. He says, ‘truth is the pathless land’. This is absolutely true. It is the expression of a realized soul. But I tell you, straightaway trying to work on the Consciousness may not help all the individuals.

Here Shiva is trying to work through the breath, through the prana. He is taking us to the same height as he is at, but with directions that work. He is leading us to the same height through proper methods, through proper channels, through proper techniques, by helping us to work on the breath. You are supposed to start where you are. You can only start from where you are located. You can’t start where you have to end. You are supposed to end in consciousness, but you can’t start in consciousness because you are not there.

If you are already there, why do you need all this teaching? You don’t need anything. You don’t need meditation.

Somebody goes to a great yogi and asks, ‘Master, I want to learn meditation’ Master says, ‘No, no, first you have to master the yama, means first you have to practice yama and niyama as described in yoga sutra.’

‘What is the yama, niyama?’

‘Be truthful, practice brahmacharya, don’t steal other’s things, live a non-violent life. You have to practice all these things. Only then you can start meditation.’

The disciple asks ‘If I can do all these things, why do I need meditation? If I can do all these things already, then why I need to meditate?’

When a master starts placing all his emphasis straightaway working on consciousness, he forgets that a person who can straightaway work on consciousness doesn’t need anything. He doesn’t need teachers. He doesn’t need any help.

You have to start where you are. You can’t straightaway think of the goal. Goal is truth. But, you can’t start with the goal. Shiva is practical person. I have read thousands of spiritual books. If at all I am asked to choose a single book amongst the thousands, I will choose these Shiva Sutras only. It is the pure essence of the great truths, and not only that, he is so practical. He is taking us to the same height, but step by step. He is beautifully leading us step by step to the highest truth. Today, he is opening up, and declaring the highest truth, but not straightaway, only after preparing us first. With the first two sutras, he has prepared us. Now he is opening up with the truth.

In the middle of that unmoving expanding energy space, be unclutched and witness Shiva Consciousness.

As I was telling you, the other day, a scientist is a person who creates a formula to reproduce the understanding that happened to him in the external world. Master is the person who creates a formula to reproduce the experience that happened to him in the internal space. Scientist is a person who creates a formula to reproduce the intellectual understanding related to the outer world.

For example, Newton saw an apple falling in his garden and all of a sudden he had some understanding. He had the glimpse of truth. Why the apple should fall? If we saw, either we would have picked up and eaten or forget about it. Why unnecessarily think about all those things. Why it falls? Why should it be attracted towards the earth? Anyhow he had some understanding. Why is it falling? He had the glimpse of truth. He created the formula for us also to understand the truth. He created a formula to reproduce the same understanding in us that happened in him regarding the outer world.

Master is a person who creates formula, who creates a technology to reproduce the experience related to the inner world. Here, Shiva is just reproducing the technology to achieve the bhairava consciousness, Shiva consciousness. He says ‘one attains the nature of bhairava’. He says ‘bhairava rupata’. You achieve me. You achieve the same consciousness in which I am staying. You achieve the Shiva consciousness. You achieve the bhairava consciousness. You become me!

There are so many levels of experience of the ultimate truth that is called mukti or liberation. These are salokya mukti, samepya mukti, sarupya mukti, and Sayujya mukti. Salokya mukti means the state in which you get to live around the master. It’s like you stay in the same space in which the master stays. I always tell people, it’s like becoming an Ashramite. You live around me. That is the salokya mukti. You enter into his loka, you enter into his world. That is salokya mukti. So lot of problems will be avoided because you don’t have to think for your life. He will think for your life. So many things, so many responsibilities are taken over by him. He takes care of you. He takes over your responsibilities.

The next level is samepya mukti. This is living closely around him. I compare and tell people that this is the state of the crew members who always travel with me. That is samepya mukti. You are 24 hours around the master.

Third is sarupya mukti. Sarupya mukti is the state where you take the master’s own form. You are in that same form and body language and you do what he does. It’s like becoming an Acharya, a Nithya teacher. You do what I do, at least you try to. You become a teacher and start taking classes. This is sarupya mukti. That is why you can see in all the temples that the features of the guardian deities, dwarabalakas, will be almost the same as the main deity. Whatever weapons and accessories that the main deity is carrying, the same weapons and accessories these guardian deities will also carry. If the main deity is wearing naamam, vertical stripes on the forehead, then these guardians will also be wearing naamam. If the main deity is wearing the kumkumam, the red dot, the dwarabalakas also will be wearing kumkumam. This is sarupya mukti. They achieve the same swarupa. They are in that same rupa. That is sarupya mukti.

The next, last, and ultimate is sayujya mukti. You achieve his consciousness. You achieve master’s consciousness. You become him. You start staying in the same space where he is staying. You achieve the same consciousness. Shiva doesn’t believe in the other three levels of mukti. He doesn't believe in salokya, he doesn't believe in samepya, he doesn't believe in sarupya. Straightaway, he takes us to sayujya. He gives us the techniques to reach the sayujya state. Beautifully he says, 'bhairava rupataa'. You achieve the same consciousness in which I am staying. You achieve the same space in which I exist. You achieve the Shiva consciousness. You become me!

In the middle of that unmoving expanding energy space, be unclutched and witness Shiva Consciousness.

The key in this whole sutra is 'be unclutched'. Shiva, straightaway comes to the subject. But sometimes I don't go straightaway into the subject because I need to prepare your mind. Shiva is speaking to Devi, but I am speaking to you. That is why I am not straightaway entering into the subject. Our mind is too much bothered about matter. Unless I prepare your mind, you don't start listening to the truth. It takes a lot of time for us to come and settle down into the hall itself. Be very clear, you may be sitting in the hall but you have not settled down into the hall. You may be sitting in the hall. It takes at least 20 minutes for you to settle down into the hall. I have always seen. At least 20 minutes. That is why I am not entering into the sutra. I am just playing.

Shiva is speaking to Devi, so he doesn't have to use more words. He doesn't need jokes. Throughout this book, not even a single joke! Not even a single small story! That is because he is speaking to Devi. She is already completely settled. There is no need for any story. There is no need for any jokes. She is straightaway concerned only about the essence. Actually, in our case, we are too much concerned about too many other peripheral things, and we miss the essence. We just miss the spirit.

A small story,

One yuppie stopped his BMW on the highway and opened the door. Suddenly, another car came and crashed into his. The door was completely ripped out. The yuppie started screaming. Police came, and the yuppie started weeping 'See what has happened to my car!' The officer looked at him and starting shouting 'You yuppies don't care about your life. You bother only about your materialistic things. Don't you see, your left hand is missing?' That guy looked at his left hand and screamed 'Oh my God! What happened to my Rolex watch?"

'What happened to my Rolex watch?'

Again he is only bothered about the matter. Now we are too much engrossed in the matter. We forget the life itself. That's the reason I first try to settle down before entering into the sutra. If you missed your Rolex watch it's OK you can get another, but you can't get another hand. You missed the BMW, it's OK, but you can't get your life. If you miss the introduction it's OK, but you can't miss the sutra itself.