THE POWER OF CONSCIOUSNESS🔗

Mystical ways of awakening

One beautiful thing: you may have five senses but you do not live in all five senses at a time! You may ask, 'What are you talking? I am seeing you, I am listening to you and I am feeling the warmth or cold and all my senses are active. How do you say all five senses are not active at a time?' Please understand: one moment you may see, next moment you may listen to my words, third moment you may feel the warmth, but you can't do all at the same time.

You can see in your life: if you are thinking about something when you walk into this hall, for those few moments you won't feel the cold. If you are sitting and reading intensely, even if somebody calls you, you won't hear. Your senses are not all active at a time as you believe. The gap between the thoughts is too less, so you start imagining that all senses are active at a time.

Even your two eyes are not active at the same time. There was a great monk - I had the fortune to see him and be under him. He was a Naga baba. Naga baba means swamis who don't wear clothes. In the Himalayas, I had a great opportunity to be with him. If people go to him to have initiation, to learn something, he would put his trishul - the trident, Shiva's trident in front of them and tell them, 'Stare at this trishul. Stare at all three tips at the same time. You must be able to see all three tips of the trishul at a time.' I wondered, 'What is there, after all the trishul is of such a small size; it is not a big thing. I can stare at all three tips at a time. It is not a big thing.' And he has got a unique method of testing. He will tell people, 'If you are able to stare at all three tips at a time, then I will initiate you, you are ready, otherwise I will not initiate you.' I was surprised. After all that was such a simple thing, everybody can do it.

He would just put his finger on one tip and he would ask you, 'Are you able to see this?' You would say 'yes'. Then he would change his finger to the next tip and ask, 'Are you able to see?' At this moment, if you move your eye balls a little bit, he would say 'No! You are not able to stare at all three tips at a time! Your eyeballs are moving. You are not able to see all three at a time.' I was shocked and thought, 'Yes, he's right because your eyeballs are constantly moving at such a high speed. You are not able to understand that you can't see everything in one vision. Constantly your eyeballs are moving, so you are getting a complete picture. Because of that you don't understand one truth - you are not using both eyes at the same time.' Please understand: senses are not called indriyas. Eyes are just an instrument, a tool. There is some energy with which you see through the eyes that are the tools. The eyes are just a window. For eyes, that indriya or energy is called chakshu.

I was shocked the first time I realized that we can't even see the three tips of that small trishul in one vision. He would make them sit there and he would not give food or let them sleep. He would tell them, 'Till you are successful in this, nothing is allowed. No food, no sleep, no initiation.' Any sincere person, if he sits there, in three to four days, he will be able to see!

Suddenly I realized, only when I was able to see all the three points without moving my eyeballs, I realized there is a center within me which is using these senses! I myself am not directly connected to these senses; there is a center within me which is using these senses. Suddenly I felt, I am disconnected from the senses! And I tell you, my senses became so sharp, so alive, for the first time after that. I felt I could handle these eyes. Then, I could see through these eyes any number of hours without tiredness.

St Louis ashram, USA

Paramahamsa

Be liberated

Shiva says: you are weightless. If you want to find out if you are having ego or not, there is a simple technique. If you are constantly feeling heaviness around the head, then be sure you have tremendous ego. Sometimes you are not aware of your head - like when you are laughing or dancing spontaneously or sitting with your beloved. You do not feel the boundary of your head. You feel the weightlessness. Those moments you are actually in meditation. Those moments you are having a glimpse of meditation. When you dance out of abandon without measured steps, like kids jumping & whirling in joy, or when you paint, you will be spontaneous and you will feel boundaryless.

If you are aware of your tension, you cannot be spontaneous, artistic. There was a beautiful Zen story: a disciple of a Zen Master was asked to paint the Master. The Master was sitting and the disciple started painting. After painting, when he showed it to the Master, he straight away gave him a kick. Zen Masters work like that. They don't waste time talking. He said, 'Fool don't paint you, paint me. When you paint with your ego, you will paint with your idea of me, not me.' The same thing happened for 10 days. The Master is actually teaching him, working on him - teaching him how to paint without ego, without his personality stepping in.

In those days, the disciples used to be afraid of the Master. One day, the Master got up and walked out. When the Master came back, he discovered that the disciple was painting without the ego. Once the Master moved out, the pressure to please him disappeared. Now he was painting without individuality, without his Being. When he started, he had all kinds of pressures and expectations in the head. It disappeared once the Master left. The disciple had learnt to paint egolessly. This is how Zen Masters work. Spontaneity is born and the disciple feels the weightlessness. The disciple enters into spontaneous energy and becomes a great painter.

Paramahamsa Drop your Mind, Find your Center - Shiva Sutras USA