Chapter 1 You Are Invited🔗

Beloved Master,

I don't know how to ask this, but can you tell us who exactly you are. What are You?

I am nothing but an invitation for all you guys - for all who are searching, I am the ultimate invitation; for all of those true seekers who want to find their way back; their way back to the source.

I am the answer to the ultimate question. You might be wondering what the ultimate question is. It is the question which each and everyone of you has deep within but that which cannot be put into words, cannot be verbalized, because it is not just a question; it is a deep craving to return back to the source, to merge with the source. And because you cannot verbalize this single craving effectively, it expresses itself as hundreds of illogical questions and desires. Actually, it is a quest, not a question; it is an urgency, not just an urge to know. It is a deep craving, a deep thirst coming from your being; it is the thirst which you have bubbling in each and every cell within but which you cannot find the words to express. I am the answer to this. I am the answer to this inexpressible thing in you; to this quest which you are struggling to fulfill.

Be very clear about one thing: when I say that I am the answer, I am not saying that I can give you the answer. It is more like if you are ready, you can simply take it!

It is like this: I am a lake available to you, a lake of bliss. You see it. The lake cannot jump on you without your effort. You have to jump in. I am ready for you all the time, but you must make the effort to jump; you must take the initial leap. The lake can never jump on you.

You may be thinking, 'How does he expect me to jump into him?'

Yes, this is a different type of invitation! It is an invitation to a journey where the first leap is the final one because the first leap takes the longest time. And this leap will take you on a long path, on a long journey. And finally, you will see that your journey will end right where you were but on a totally different plane. You will understand how many steps you moved forward on this path to actually reach this new and liberating plane. This is how far you have moved away from yourself. It is amazing how you have simply forgotten your way back to yourself!

So, I am your reminder. I am the reminder of your home.

Understand one thing clearly: I am neither present as you see nor absent as you think. You may see me here talking to you, laughing with you, cracking jokes and what not. But be very clear: I am in a thousand other places with a thousand other people at the same time.

When a person remembers himself, when he knows himself, he has simply disappeared! He is no longer there. The body may be there, but he has gone. There is only the presence; a vibrant presence. This is the presence which can quench your thirst. This is the presence I am talking about.

In one word, I can say that I am the ‘invitation’. I am for those who have a deep longing in their being to know themselves. I am for those who feel that unless they have found themselves, everything becomes meaningless. It has to become your only concern, that you are ready to drop and lose everything for it, but you are unable to drop this one thing.

There will always be desires; there will be thousands of them. But as your being ripens, all of them will simply vanish and only this longing to return home will persist. This will be the only longing. Once you start experiencing just this one thing, you have found it. Then you have found whatever is of any value to be blissful, to be full of ecstasy.

You may have been near many masters, near many realized souls. But at all those times, you were not ready and alert to receive them into your being. You were not aware of your longing to know yourself. The longing did not become a longing. It was still under the cover of illusory desires.

Now, the fire is there in you. This fire needs to be kindled, made more intense. You need to feel the urgency to intensify it, to take quick steps before it dies down, to not miss it one more time. When the fire is awakened and kept burning, totality and fulfillment happen and bliss flowers. So, the invitation is simply to awaken you, to put your being aflame.

So just let go and jump. What is there in it? Your whole journey is to lose yourself, to merge with Existence, to drop the questioning mind and merge.

Only when you lose yourself, you have really found yourself.

Yes.

Beloved Master,

For some reason, each time that I see You, I am shocked by Your beauty. I think that You are the most beautiful being that has ever happened!

In what way do You experience Your own beauty?

Actually, there is no way to experience your own beauty. If the beauty is physical, then there are ways to know it. You could look in the mirror and see your own reflection.

If the beauty is coming out of your silence; if it is being reflected from within, then it does not belong to your physical body. Then it is not physical at all; you cannot know it yourself because this beauty cannot be reflected in a mirror. You cannot see the beauty of silence through a mirror.

It can only be experienced. There is one thing that you must be made very clear on:

The beauty that you see in me is not my own. It is not mine at all. It is everyone’s. It is part of Existence. There are so many different bodies, but within, we are the same. The inner fire is one and the same. When you start radiating this flame, a certain grace starts happening. It is a beauty that cannot be described because it is from a different dimension altogether.

So, if you are able to see my beauty, it is simply a reflection of your own self. The master is nothing but a mirror of yourself. He is a reflection of yourself.

But it so happens that when you look into a mirror, you start to think that the mirror is beautiful, that the mirror is so child-like, so innocent! What you don’t understand is that the mirror is actually you; it is your own reflection!

In life, whatever you see is simply a reflection of yourself. Just look into your lives. A sunset may look beautiful to one person; it may look depressing to another. And another person may not even care; he doesn’t bother about it at all. It is the same sunset that comes through in three different ways. It is not that the sunset is beautiful, or depressing, or difficult to notice.

It is just your attitude which determines what you see. In other words, if you are beautiful, the sunset appears beautiful too.

If you are yourself a beautiful person, everything will appear beautiful to you. You will project your beauty onto the sunset. If you yourself are depressed, everything will look upsetting or disappointing to you. You will project your depression onto the sunset. And the third person, who doesn't notice the sunset at all, doesn't notice the moon, doesn't see the trees around him, is simply missing it. He is always in such a rush, always trying to reach somewhere; he doesn't have the time to look at the sunset which according to him comes and goes anyway and which he can see tomorrow anyway.

But I tell you: Every sunset is new. It is fresh everyday.

So, the way in which you see the sun, or anything for that matter, depends on you. If you are seeing some beauty in me, something beautiful has arisen within you; remember that.

A small Zen story:

Any wandering monk can lodge in a Zen temple. All he has to do is win an argument about Buddhism with those already living there. But he cannot stay in the temple if he is defeated.

It so happened that a wandering monk asked for lodging in a temple where two brothers lived. The older brother was well-read and wise, but the younger, who had only one eye, was a fool. The older brother was feeling tired. He asked his brother to take on the wandering monk. But he warned him, ‘Don’t talk. Have the debate in silence.’

After some time, the wandering monk came to the older brother and said, ‘I am very sorry; I can’t stay. Your brother has defeated me.’

The older brother was surprised and asked, ‘Tell me what happened.’

The monk said, ‘I held up a finger representing Buddha. Your brother held up two fingers symbolizing Buddha and his teachings. Then I held up three fingers symbolizing Buddha, his teachings and his followers. He shook his head and clenched his fist near my face, signifying that all three came from one realization. So he won.’ The monk left. Immediately after, the younger brother rushed in angrily and shouted, 'Where is that fellow? I will beat him for his arrogance.'

'Why, what happened,' the older brother asked.

The younger brother said, 'He held up one finger, mocking me for having only one eye. To be polite to a stranger, I held up two fingers, congratulating him for having two eyes. Then that rude fellow held up three fingers to remind me that between us we had only three eyes. I got mad and wanted to punch him. But he ran away!'

The same set of actions interpreted in entirely two different ways! Just watch how our minds work! We are so boxed into our own psychology. It is this psychology which we project all around us.

A man who is an embodiment of silence will see the whole world as silence. Any sound that he hears will only be lost in the silence which he feels. On the other hand, a man who is full of noise will never feel even a moment's worth of silence. He will only feel noise. The whole world is nothing but the projected version of yourself. So, it is good that you see beauty in me; it shows that you yourself are beautiful. But don't stop there. This is not an experience to get stuck in. Notice the beauty which is growing within you as well.

Notice it.

Go into it.

Only then will your whole being be filled with beauty.

If a person is able to see everything as beautiful, then what does it mean? It means that he himself is beautiful. So the way in which you see the world, the way in which you see the people around you, all depends on you. You are living in the world which you have created.

Have this understanding: there are as many worlds as there are people because everyone is living in their own world. No two people think in the same way. No two people see the same things.

It is perfectly alright to see beauty in me. But know that it is your beauty which you are seeing. I am simply the mirror, that's all! This must become a deep understanding in you. You must know that whatever you see in the world is just a projection. Of course, there is a state where the mind is no more and projections have dropped; it is here that you see the world as it is. It is here that you see the world as nothing but beautiful. But this beauty is different; it is not a projection at all.

When you have transcended the mind, you have become a mirror. You then reflect reality. It is nice that you see something like this in me, but trust it only when you see it in everything else too.

When a poet looks around at the trees, just observe him. He looks at the trees, or anything for that matter, with such sensitivity. He sees not only one shade of green, but many shades.

If you were to look at the same tree, you would simply say that the tree is green. It takes a very sensitive person to observe beyond that.

Once you have clearly understood that you are the world because you yourself are creating it, you will automatically become centered; you will see the world as it is. It has to be remembered continuously: whatever you see is your own projection. Once you start seeing the same everywhere - the same in a friend as you see in an enemy, you have entered into a new space.

And it is possible. Just drop your judgments.

It will happen.

It has to happen.

Beloved Master,

I often feel blessed by an overwhelming feeling that this family, this Nithyananda family is becoming gently one body, one organism, one heartbeat. Is this a dream? Am I just being a utopian?

And please tell me that this is not a dream...

First I ask you: name one person who is not a utopian. Name a single person who does not wish that the world didn't have problems. Name one person who doesn't want peace and harmony; who wants fights and conflicts. You simply cannot! Everyone wants to live in a peaceful way.

So first be clear that you are not in a minority community. Everyone is a utopian. In a subtle way, in some small corner of everybody's mind, whether they are aware of it or not, they want peace and harmony.

Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, everyone is a utopian, including your so-called criminals. Certain criminals may have done wrong; they may have committed some crime, but for them it is not a crime. They feel that they are perfectly right. They feel that there is nothing wrong with what they did. They feel that whatever they did made their people happy.

So first understand that everyone is a utopian.

Next, about your family feeling: of course it is not a dream. It is real. Everyone here is living with one another, helping each other grow. In fact this relationship is much more than a family feeling. It is a deep bond, a deep connection with everyone at almost the being level.

Just look at the way in which you all are living. I will recall to you an incident that happens almost everyday in our 'Nithyananda family':

One of our devotees would have come to the ashram. You would have never seen him before; never even heard of him. But what happens when you speak to him for the first time? You feel instant bonding with him. You feel that there is something there at a deeper level. And you will be wondering, 'I don't even know this person. Why am I feeling this way?'

The reason is: you all have intense love for the Master. The moment this happens, you feel connected with anyone and everyone who also shares this love for him. Whether you know the person or not, you all share a common factor - love for the Master. So naturally, you all feel like one being.

You all understand each other. In fact you all love each other with the same love as you love me. This love is unconditional, regardless of gender, culture or religion. You all may fight, argue and what not, but no grudge remains. This is because of the unconditional love that you have for me and for each other. Because of this love, you all feel as if you are one being, one heartbeat.

Allow this feeling; allow it to grow. You will become so overwhelmed with love and oneness that it will spread outside the boundaries of just my devotees. You will feel this same love, this same connection, with the whole of Existence.

Yes.