Stepping Stones To Spirituality...

Chapter 1: Freedom from Dilemma

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I welcome you all with my love and respects.

Today's topic is “Freedom from Dilemma”. Of course, it can also be called as ‘Freedom of Dilemma’. I shall start the subject from Of or From. Freedom of Senses or Freedom from Senses. That is the basic dilemma which we have in the Life. People who think they need freedom of senses go towards the outer world and are materialists. They want freedom of senses; they want everything as they want. They do not want their senses to be disturbed, or to be conditioned by any social rules and regulations. The West works towards the freedom of senses and the East towards freedom from senses. Freedom of senses and freedom from senses is therefore the basic dilemma of the Humanity. The Human Consciousness has suffered from this one dilemma since the beginning, whether freedom of senses or freedom from senses.

Can you achieve freedom of senses? So much has been done in working towards freedom of senses. However, I do not know if even a single person has achieved it with success. It is because the very basic quality of senses, the very basic energy which moves the senses which we call ‘Emotion’, keeps us in bondage. What ever is the emotion, it keeps you in bondage. When I say bondage, I mean Dilemma. Anything which creates dilemma is Bondage.

Desire means before the enjoyment you get the deep desire, but once you’ve enjoyed you suffer deep guilt. Guilt and Desire, they just come and go. Desire puts you in the dilemma of guilt and enjoyment. Similarly, when you experience fear, you do sometimes feel courageous and sometimes fear. You feel confident of facing anything at times and sometimes you feel depressed and dull. It is so for all other emotions such as anger, desire etc. Almost every one of us makes ‘Sankalpa’ that he will not get angry anymore.

A man came up to me one day. He said “Swamiji, I have been reading a lot of books on the ill effects to our body due to the habit of smoking”. I said “Well, is that so? Have you stopped Smoking? He said “No Swamiji, I have stopped reading such books!”

Most often you know intellectually, however you are not able to follow experientially. You know intellectually that all your emotions are not going to be of any help in your life, and you also know that they disturb your life. However, you realize that it is not under your control. On the contrary, you are under its control! Any emotions when it rises, it rules your whole being and when it subsides, you feel a sense of deep guilt. With emotions you are in dilemma and with senses also you are in dilemma.

We now shall deal with three major dilemmas. They are the dilemma related to:

(i) The Physical Level – Freedom of Senses or From Senses. (ii) The Mental Level – Freedom of Emotions or From Emotions. (iii) The Being Level – The Ultimate Dilemma whether to be In the World or Out.

There are two types of people, the first who think that either way one is going to die and therefore why not enjoy the life. The other type feels that in any case one is going to die and therefore why squander the life in pursuit of the outer world. They turn Spiritual. You see that the end is the same but it has inspired the people to have two different approaches to the same end.

A small story:

There was once a Preacher who was narrating the story of Raja Harishchandra. (Raja Harishchandra was a king known for his courage to speak the truth even in the most adverse circumstances). After delivering the discourse, the preacher asked a person what lesson he learnt from the discourse. The person replied that even if one died, one should speak the truth. The same question on being put across to another replied the when the situation demanded one could sell his own wife and there was nothing wrong in that. So you see that from the same story two different persons have understood two different meanings, the first interpretation being the correct.

It is in the same way that you interpret your life when you know that death is certain. Thus, one group decides to enjoy the body and one decides to sacrifice the body. This is what I call Freedom of or Freedom from the Body. The Dilemma in the Being level is wanting Freedom for something or Freedom from something. Let us analyse this step by step. Freedom of senses means the power to enjoy anything that you want, the power to enjoy anything as you feel.

There is a story in the Puranas (ancient texts) that explains the insatiable greed for senses in a human mind. Once there was a king who had lived his life for a hundred years. At the destined time of his death, Yama the Lord of Death approaches him to take him to the other world. But the King was not prepared for his death and therefore pleaded with Yama to spare him. He pleads that he had not enjoyed his life on earth enough and wanted to live further for a few more years. Yama declines his request. However, he says that he could do so on a condition that if someone else gave up his life in place of the king, he could spare the king. The king therefore turns to his sons and requests if one of them could give up his life of hundred years so that the king could live a hundred years more. One of the sons readily agrees to do so and gives up his life for him. The king lives on for a hundred more years. Yama approaches him on completion of his time. Again, the king pleads and begs Yama to spare him once more saying that there were few more things that he wanted to enjoy and hence was not yet prepared to die. Lord Yama reluctantly out of extreme compassion yields to his request and takes away his other son and gifts him a life of hundred more years.

After waiting for a hundred years more Lord Yama approaches the King. But the king, to his surprise, is still not satisfied. Lord Yama now drives home the point that it was time the king realized the fact that freedom for senses would never work and running after it time and again endlessly would never give the true satisfaction. Of course, the king now understands the point that even after having lived for 300 years if he was still not satisfied, he would never ever be satisfied.

Therefore one should realize that ‘Freedom for Senses’ never ever satisfied a person. It was similar to pouring oil or ghee (fat) into the fire to quench the fire. The thirst for Freedom for Senses is a never ending process and leads to no satisfaction. Some of you may think that I propagate against life or happy living. Please understand that I do not tell you to go against your life or living. If you completely understood what I meant by ‘Freedom from Senses’, you’d fully realize the freedom and joy it offers.

When you work towards Freedom for Senses, you lose all your senses. Whereas when you work towards Freedom from Senses, you’ll realise the true joy and sensitivity. Let us now examine this. What I mean when I say ‘Freedom from Senses’ is that you’ll be able to control your senses i.e. handle your senses whenever you want and stop your senses when you do not want. Without the ability to handle senses, it is similar to driving a Mercedes, you know how to start the car and drive but you do not know how to stop!

Understand that in the above situation you are not driving the car, the car is driving you! It is only when you know how to start and stop the car that you are driving the car, otherwise it is the car that is driving you. Similarly, if you work towards attaining Freedom for Senses, the senses drive you but not you driving the senses.

There a beautiful simile that is brought out in the Katopanishad. It says that your body is like a chariot, the five senses are the horses, the path on which you travel is the life, the reins of the horses is the mind, the whip is the Buddhi or the Intelligence. If the horses remain under your control, you are driving the chariot. However, if you are under the horses control i.e. unable to control, the horses are driving the chariot. Mind you, you are not controlling a horse; you need to control five horses.

Therefore, if you cannot rein in the horses to follow the path, the horses are going to pull the chariot in five different directions. Your eyes pull you towards seeing appealing sights, ears towards seductive sounds, tongue towards gluttony, nose towards stimulating smell and your skin or the body towards sensual pleasures. You are constantly pulled and pushed by these senses. Know that if you work towards freedom for senses you’ll ultimately destroy your body. You may wonder how? Learn from the examples in your own life.

When you watch a Soccer match or a thrilling movie well past your bedtime, your eyes or your body beg you for rest. You do not pay heed to your body and continue enjoying your senses. You force your body to feed the senses. It is same way that you punish your tongue by consuming spicy substances that the body cannot tolerate. It is so with the other senses too. When you abuse your senses you work towards freedom for senses. You exploit your body to feed your senses.

I came across a billboard in Chennai. It said “Cancer cures Smoking”! Addiction to smoking leads to Cancer and results in certain death. If you abuse your body trying to satisfy your senses, it results in the senses consuming your body. You need to know how to handle your body which is gift of the Divine. When you know how to handle your senses you’ll know how to switch off as well. Knowing how to switch your thoughts on and off, is what I call the technique to handle your senses. Sensitivity happens when you work towards freedom from Senses, you start living through your senses. Only when you are able to withdraw from your eyes will you totally live with your eyes. Anything that you have the courage to withdraw from, will you have the courage to live with it. All our love is shallow because we do not know how to withdraw from the person whom you love. It may sound like a paradox. Understand ‘Living’ and ‘Leaving’ are one and the same.

If you know how to ‘Leave’, you’ll have the courage to ‘Live’!

Most often, you are afraid to open up to relationship because you afraid that you may lose the relationship at anytime and you may not able to forget. When you don’t have the courage to leave somebody, you’ll not have the courage to live with them. So, freedom from senses is when you know how to live without the senses.

For instance, when you have a headache, you do all that is possible to relieve yourself of the pain. Why would you want to do that? It is because you know that you at some point of time you were free of the headache or the pain and you felt good. You had the same head but there was no pain. You therefore compare the time when you did not have a headache and a time when you had. You want to attain the previous state when there was no pain. It is in the similar way that when you taste the freedom from senses, you will realize what it is to be free from the torture of the senses. As of now you are suffering from that perpetual headache. It is only when you experience the actual freedom from the ache that you realize the difference.

Just imagine or visualize a state where you are experiencing a continuous state of joy without the help of the external sources. If that is so, then you will realize how wonderful the experience would be. It would be in fact beyond your imagination and expectation. Of course, as of now that is impossible to experience. It is only when you work towards the freedom from senses you’ll realize the importance or the true joy of the being. Let me tell you this, when you have your freedom from senses, the same senses give the joy which is thousand-fold. It is because your involvement with your senses will be greater when you get the courage to leave your senses and it results in having the courage to live through the senses. As of now you think that it is your eyes that are seeing and your ears that are hearing. You identify with those senses. Once you understand the senses, you will realize that it is something more to it than meets the eyes! You will realize that you are not the eyes that are seeing; it is somebody beyond who is seeing through the eyes. Once you realize that it is somebody else who is actually witnessing, you will be able to ‘live’ through the eyes and ‘leave’ the eyes. You will then be free from the physical dilemma. Thus the first dilemma will be settled once you know how to switch off the indriyas or the senses. Once you taste a little bit of meditation, here I do not expect you to become a ‘Yogi’, you’ll understand that even little freedom from senses teaches you a new way of living. It gives you the new dimension of living.

You cannot explain to a man who is born blind the joy of seeing; it is the same way that you cannot teach a man who has not experienced the joy or the moment of bliss, the joy of freedom from senses.

We shall now deal with next step, the ‘freedom from emotions’ or the dilemma at the emotional level.

Desire and Guilt are like the Samsara Chakra. These two alternate with each other. If the peak of the desire is more, the trough of the guilt is also more. It is like a graph or a sinusoidal curve, going up and down. If you are in a high energy or a good mood, it expresses itself as desire. Whereas, when you are in a low mood or energy, it is expressed as guilt. Desire and Guilt are the two sides of the same coin.

Put your total effort when you are in desire and put your total effort when in guilt. Put your total effort in one of the things, you’ll see that you are out of dilemma. For instance, if you put your total effort in the guilt, you’ll realize that the desire was actually unnecessary in your life and you’ll drop out of it. Conversely, if you put your whole efforts on the desire, you’ll see that your guilt has dropped. However, as of now you are in dilemma because half your energy is expended in the desire and the rest half is on guilt. Therefore, you either continuously struggle or suffer. When you drop one emotion or channelize energy into one emotion, you’ll soon realize that the guilt was neither true, nor was the desire. Both were just your mental waves or projection that was generated depending on the mood.

The third is whether to live towards life or towards death. We know that someday the life must come to an end. The question therefore is whether to live or prepare for the death. Let me tell you, living deeply is the way to prepare for the death. Once a man lives his life totally with full awareness or consciousness, he will reach the maturity to leave the body totally. The man who has not lived a life totally, struggles at the time of death. The man, who has lived totally, never struggles at the time of his death.

Einstein towards the end of his life, remarked that he always wanted to be a plumber but somehow became a scientist. He said that he had whatever that the society could give in terms of the name, fame or money. Yet, he felt that at the end of it his life had become a big lie. He said that although the greatest truth E=mc2, was discovered by him, yet his life became a big lie. He therefore did not live his life in his own terms. He in fact, died unhappy that he did not live his own life.

Therefore, even if you die in a five star hospital, if you did not live life totally, you’ll struggle when you die. A man, who has lived his life totally, does not suffer from this dilemma of whether to live or to die. He has the tremendous maturity or he’d be totally ripe to fall / leave the body.

‘Living’ and ‘Leaving’ are one and the same.

Freedom from Senses - removes the dilemma in the Physical Level.

Living through your Emotions – removes dilemma at the Mental Level.

Living with total Awareness in every moment – removes dilemma at the Being Level.

Let me tell you that the Freedom from Dilemma is the Ultimate Freedom!

Dilemma makes you postpone your life; it is like an energy clot. Your energy does not expand or spread. You remain struck up or stagnant. The very understanding of this fact can give you the freedom.

You need not search for any technique to be free of dilemma. Just understanding the fact that you are in dilemma is sufficient to remove your dilemma, the understanding takes you beyond the dilemma. To understand that you are in dilemma sets you free from the dilemma and let you live in ‘Nithyananda’.

May you be free from dilemma and reach the state of ‘Nithya-Ananda’ or the Eternal Bliss.

Questions and Answers

1. Swamiji, what does it mean to live life totally or deeply?

You see, in the morning when you are at home, you think about going to the office. At the office, you look forward to the lunch break. At the break you wait for the next session. Again, after noon you look forward to being at home. At home, you look forward to going out, maybe to the beach or any to recreation club. At the beach, you want to get back home. Finally, on reaching home you are once again preoccupied by your next day at the office. So there’s one thing that is for sure, that is when you should be where you are, you are physically present but mentally elsewhere.

Living intensely is living inside your boundary. As of now we never live within our boundary. We use our body like a cloak-room, where we leave our baggage and go around. Do not use your © 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved body like a lodge or a cloak-room. Use it like your home. If you use the body as a home, you will feel homely on this planet earth. If you use your body only to board, you will be bored of this planet earth. If you are here, be here totally.

Our physical ailments occur because we do not live totally inside our body. Whenever you neglect any part of your body, it seeks your attention after a while and it manifests in the form of pain and illness. The begging or seeking attention is the pain and giving attention or the awareness is the healing process.

2. Swamiji, is enlightenment possible through meditation efforts or does it comes without any efforts?

Let me tell you a small story. A guy purchases a lottery ticket worth Rupees Two (Indian Currency). He wins Rupees Two Crores (Two Million). Now tell me whether he got his lottery through his efforts or was it a gift? If he put his efforts and spent the money to purchase the ticket, you could say that much was his effort. However, the lottery is a gift. Can the money he invested be compared to the rewards he got? Therefore if you invest what you have with you, god gifts what he has with him. The man put the Rupees Two that he had in his hands and God gave him Rupees Two Crores that he had in his hands.

Enlightenment is also the same. You need to put in your efforts that you have in hand; you'll receive a gift that would be incomparable to the efforts put in. Unless you invest your bit, you cannot receive the gift that is Enlightenment. It therefore works either ways. Whoever had the Enlightenment always says that he was not qualified enough to receive the blessings.

3. Swamiji, How do we control our thoughts during meditation?

Swamiji – Let me give you a small technique. I am instructing you all to stop your eye ball movements. If you put your efforts in stopping the eyeball movements, that itself will control the flow of thoughts.

The movement of the thoughts and the eyeballs are the same.

Even when you close your eyelids, you may have observed that this does not prevent the flow of the thoughts. It is like as if a continuous movie show that is running behind the eyelids. However, if you stop that even he slightest movement of the eyeball, the flow of the thoughts as a result, naturally ceases.

4. Swamiji, people who have had deep and bitter experiences in their lifetime tend to harbour the pain despite controlling their emotions externally. How do we free ourselves of this pain?

Firstly, you said that because you experienced so much pain in your life the burden has increased many folds. Let me tell you, you have not experienced any burden that is why you are unable to take the burden of pain in your life. If you had experienced an emotion or a pain in its totality or intensely, it'll cease to be a burden or a hangover.

Every emotion, thought or every desire has got its own power or strength to pull you back to fulfill the experience. For instance, if you had the desire to enjoy the pleasure of a sweet or a candy, your desire will be so powerful that it keeps attracting you towards the candy. It goes on until the © 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved

thought of enjoying has been totally satisfied. The pull is what is called Karma. Anything that you have not enjoyed tasted or experienced totally pulls you back to fulfill it, because you are ‘Total Fulfillment’. It is your basic nature; you are ‘Nithya Trupta’. Therefore there cannot be anything inside you that cannot be fulfilled. You incarnate to attain fulfillment. Your past emotions are also unfulfilled feelings. If you have really experienced, you’ll never have a hangover or so much of pain.

There is a technique in the ‘Vigana Bhairava Tantra’ of re-living the past hangovers or the situations that is haunting you. It encourages one not to suppress any emotions and to let them come out It is to re-live the situations not only in memory but re-living in its emotions as well.

Re-Living is key for Relieving!

Go into the emotions without suppressing, go into the memories that you don’t want to remember. Go into it deeply. You’ll see that instead of the burden of the hangover of the past, you’ll be totally free from it.

Sit at least for an hour and thoroughly allow the past emotions rise up in you. You’ll see many thoughts and the associated emotions or experiences surfacing. Totally accept that what had happened had happened and nothing can be done to mitigate the pains in the past. Go through the whole incident once more, emotionally and intensely. You’ll see that by re-living you have been relieved. The Karma that has not been fully enjoyed or experienced will be relieved by re-living. The Tantra gives this as a meditation technique and not as a psychological exercise. Once you go through the Karma, the Karma never returns. There will be memories (Chitta), but there will be no emotions associated or attached with it.

5. Swamiji, please tell us what technique do you use or what happens within and the person being healed?

This is a question I have come across from many people. They ask me what Mantra or what Sankalpa (affirmation) I use when I heal. I shall give you my honest reply, I do not do anything. I do not use any technique. In fact, I am totally absent when the healing takes place. I simply relax. It is like when the Sun rises, the lotus blooms by itself. The Sun does not have to physically open the petals of the lotus, the lotus blooms by the very presence of the Sun. It is the same way that when I switch off myself, my very presence heals!

The problem is that, you are unable to switch off your mind. However, when you become hollow like a bamboo, the divine uses you like a Flute!

When you are relaxed into yourself, your energy radiates automatically.

In our healing system, our healers are requested never to make a Sankalpa or an affirmation for the patient to be healed. They always say ‘let what is good for the patient, happen’. When the healer does the healing, he does not have an interaction with the patient. He only places his hand on the patient and goes into meditation, he relaxes into himself. The meditation radiates the Energy, the Energy automatically heals! The Healers do not concern themselves with who the patient is or what his problem is. They simply place the hand and go into meditation. The flow of Energy automatically heals.

Many have asked, “Swamiji, are the types of diseases that you can heal?” I say “The diseases that you can name and the diseases that you can’t name, everything can be healed!”

Energy is Intelligence.

Power + Intelligence = Energy

Conversely,

Energy – Intelligence = Power.

Therefore, Energy is not a simple Power, it is inclusive of Intelligence! Energy knows what is to be done. So all you have to do is relax and let the Energy do its own work or take its own course. When I heal, I just switch off and lose the idea of my boundary and others. When the idea of my boundary is lost, naturally the Energy flows into the others. It is like a Communion!

When anything happens by the power of the word, it is Communication. When it happens through Energy, it is Communion!

When the Energy flows one is in the continuous state of Bliss and is Alive!

6. Swamiji, what is the difference between Healing and Meditation?

When I am in the Meditation, I am in the Meditation. When the Energy goes to somebody else, it is Healing. The Atma Shakti when it expresses through the Head, it is Intelligence. When it expresses through the Heart, it is Compassion. When it expresses through the Being, it is Energy. When it is not expressed and is there as it is, it is Bliss.

I shall put it this way - Meditation is the Cause, Healing is the Effect! Healing is the side-effect of Meditation. A ‘positive’ side-effect! Meditation is the Sun, Healing is the Rays!

7. Swamiji, you said that the life is about total fulfillment of desires. You also said we should aim to attain freedom from senses. Aren’t they contradictory?

When you are really free from the senses, only then will you have the total energy to fulfill all your desires. As of now, 80 % of your energy is spent in desiring and the rest 20 % in fulfillment. When you change, only 20 % of your energy is spent in desiring and 80 % in fulfilling. You have two energies; they are the Iccha-Shakti and Kriya-Shakti. Iccha-Shakti is the capacity to desire and Kriya-Shakti is the capacity of fulfillment. If you are free from senses only then will you have the tremendous capacity to fulfill your desires. If you are caught up in the senses, you can never have the energy to fulfill your desires.

As of now your energies are spent only in Iccha-Shakti and you don’t have the energy to spend in Kriya-Shakti. If your Gnana-Shakti (knowledge) awakens, that shift will totally change you and you will spend only 20 % in the Iccha-Shakti, your desires will reduce automatically. The number of desires will reduce and the power to fulfill desires will increase. Naturally, you will have the freedom from senses and the fulfillment of desires. Freedom from senses and fulfillment of desires are very closely related. When you don’t have the freedom from senses, you will have thousands

© 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved 13 of desires and very little energy left to fulfill the desires. You will not be able to cope up with your desires and you will be caught in a 'Rat-race'! Once you are free from senses, then you will understand that you in fact have an abundance of energy to fulfill the few desires which is left.

8. Swamiji, practically how do we get the freedom from senses?

You have asked the right question! The only answer is through Meditation. The word meditation gives us the impression that it is a long process. Don't think that it is so. Let me assure you that it is not so. When you don't get the right technique only then does seem so. If you get the right technique and the Master, it is surely not so. Let me tell you a simple technique. When you eat, become the tongue. When you drink, become the mouth. Even this simple technique can relieve you from the tongue and give you the freedom from that sense. Similarly, when you listen to the music, simply forget yourself and lose yourself in the music. Become the music, you will be free from the ears. When you see something, become the object and you will be free from the eyes.

9. How can you heal a person with bad Karma? Can we also heal by praying?

Let me explain it to you this way. Suppose that you are in a dark room and you switch on the torch. The room is now flooded with light. But, what happened to the darkness? Did it disappear? No! Darkness is what I call as 'Lightless-ness'. Darkness has no positive existence. It is only the light which has a positive existence. Similarly, Bad Karmas have no positive existence. 'Energy-less-ness' is what I call as Karma. Karma does not have positive existence.

When the energy is given, the very energy takes away the Karmas. There no need for me to take the Karma on myself. Understand therefore that Karma is nothing but the 'Lightless-ness' or 'Energy-less-ness'.

The answer to next question is that healing by prayer is restricted to only being at the mental layer or by thoughts. The healing happens on the basis of the intensity of the prayer. When you heal through the 'Atma-Shakti' or 'No-Mind, it is healing by itself. There are two layers of energy. They are, energy from 'Mind Level' and the energy from 'No-Mind Level'. That is Mano-Shakti and Atma-Shakti. To release the Mano-Shakti, you need to pray intensely. Whereas, to release the Atma-Shakti, you need to relax totally! Our healing technique is based on Atma-Shakti and not on Mano-Shakti. If it is based on Mano-Shakti, you will take their Karma. You go down to that energy level. When you heal by Atma-Shakti, there are no Karmas, because they get washed away. Just the presence of the energy makes the Karma disappear. To release the Mental Energy you need prayers, to release the Spiritual Energy you need to totally relax.

10. Swamiji, what happens to you when you heal? Do you lose energy?

Honestly, I become rejuvenated! I do not give my energy; I only become a channel for the energy. Energy just flows through me to the person. It is so with my healers also. All of them say that they feel rejuvenated whenever they heal. It is a 'Win-Win' policy! Just become a hollow bamboo and relax. Let the energy flow through you freely. You will experience the higher levels of Consciousness and the mundane issues do not bother you. You have been solving your problems everyday only to face a new set of problems. Higher consciousness teaches you the art of dissolving the problems. If you are intelligent and wake up from the dream, you totally dissolve your problems. Meditation is the technique to reach the higher consciousness and to dissolve the problem.

11. Swamiji, how does one protect himself from the negativities that surrounds him?

Swamiji - The very fear that you should protect yourself from the negativities is the first hindrance and negativity. Just relax and do not bother about the negativity that surrounds you. Never bother about the idea that you have to be protected, you will see that you will be protected. Negativity has power only when you have the faith that it does. Understand that the very meaning of the word 'Negativity' is that which is not there. In Sanskrit it is called 'Maya'. 'Yama iti Maya' - that which is not there is Maya or Illusion. So, how can that which is not there, disturb you!

May you all reach the Nithya-Ananda.

Thank You!