Enlightenment — Back to Home🔗

You are like a wave in the ocean of Existence. The wave rises up from the ocean but it is still connected to the ocean. It may think it has an individual existence but that is just a myth. Whether it is rising, above the ocean or falling down, it is still a part of the ocean. On its own, because of joy, when the wave takes the body, there will be no gathered or agamya karma. When agamya karma is acquired, it will corrupt the total sanchita karma that was pure. This sanchita karma has to be exhausted in the next birth. Comipted total sanchita karma generates the cycle of life and birth— this is how the wheel of Parsa starts. The new body that the life energy occupies does not remember the prarabdha karma that the life energy brought with it when it took the body. So, you do not remember the desires with which you left your previous body.

Reminding yourself of those desires again and fulfilling them in this birth is what doing tapas (penance) and becoming enlightened is all about.

So what happens when you forget at birth that you have come through divine play? When the total karma weight becomes excessive, you realize, There is some problem somewhere. Immediately you wake up and get enlightened again. The rewinding and coming back is enlightenment.

Sometimes, if you get a really bad dream, only a thought like ‘I am dreaming’ will come at first. Then, you actually wake up. That thought of ‘I am dreaming’ coming is turning towards enlightenment. Waking up is getting enlightened.

That thought of ‘I am dreaming. This whole world is a dream’ and then renouncing the false world and catching the reality is enlightenment. In this world, the same experiences repeat making you tired and bored. It gives rise to the suspicion, ‘I am seeing a dream.’ Then, you start doubting the world, doubting the promise the world gives.

It is like the newspaper ads about some beachside resort that show the beach, the table, the food, all looking like heaven, giving a promise of luxury. You doubt that promise, because you realize that if hundred people see this and go, not many will actually feel the ecstasy promised. Similarly in life also, you doubt the promises your mind has been making all along but never fulfilling any.

Till now, what we discussed was a preventive measure for incurring karma. As a curative for karma, I will give you a simple technique. Right from this moment, try and remember all the incidents in your life. Start going backwards from this moment to your childhood days. Remember what you can.

Do not bother about what you cannot. Understand: what you cannot remember is only a hangover. It has not touched you deeply. That is why it is not retained in your memory. Try this technique for a year. Re-living is a wonderful way of relieving.

Our second level Life Bliss meditation program —the Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP) is focused on just this method of exhausting one's karma. It is like a complete spiritual bath in the presence of an enlightened master.

There is a way to again and again remind ourselves not to collect karma and to live without the influence of the earlier incurred karma. The first step is to have a clear understanding that karma is powerless in the presence of an elevated consciousness.

There is an important difference between normal human beings and enlightened masters. A normal person does not have the ability to make his body alive out of his will. His body is either alive or it is dead, that's all. It is not under his control.

But for an enlightened person, it is under his control. He can either make his body alive, or relax. Because of this ability, he can also make another body alive! When an enlightened being chooses to make a stone or metal alive, that stone or metal becomes a representation of his very self. All the deities in our major traditional temples are energized by enlightened masters. Masters like Arunagiri Yogeeshwara from Tiruvannamalai', Patanjali' from Chidambaram‘, Karurar from Thanjavur‘, Konganavar from Tirupati' and Meenakshi' from Madurai‘ have energized the deities in these temples.

Deities are therefore considered to be the very bodies of the enlightened masters. Disciples continue serving the deities even after the masters leave their physical body. The body of the deity is considered to be the body of the master himself. That is the reason why the deities receive the same respect offered to an enlightened master.

For example, all the disciples initiated by Arunagiri Yogeeshwara' will worship the Arunachala temple for generations together. You will see that whatever is offered to the master will be offered to the deity also.

Masters, even after they decide to leave the body, are continuously available to the disciples through the deities that they energized. For example, even during my lifetime, my physical presence is not

possible everywhere at the same time. So these deities are programmed to do my work where I am physically not present! They are my representatives!

The deities possess independent intelligence. Energizing the deities is a big process. It is like giving birth to a child. These energized deities will directly respond to your prayers. They will directly relate with you if you are open in relating with them.

If you see our puja,, (offering) and our ashram routine, you will see that in the morning, they play the wakeup song to wake up the presiding deity. Then they give a small cup of oil for His hair and a small cup of tooth powder for Him to brush His teeth! Then, they give Him a bath and offer fresh, ironed clothes, just like how they offer to the master. They offer food and perform the evening arati'. In the night, they put the deity to bed again in a ceremonious way.

Understand, all this does not add anything to the deity or to the master. It adds only to us! This is what is living with god. This is what is practicing the presence of god. Practicing the presence of the master is Puja. It is done every day because it is a technique to remember the presence of god every day.

What is needed so as not to collect gathered agamya karma, is life solutions, what I call nithyam (eternal) because you practice them daily. To dissolve the karma of this birth, you need meditation or dhyanam. That is why you see that most of our meditations are based on breathing. Altering the breathing, making it fast, slow, silent etc is what our meditation techniques are all about. The only thing that can dissolve the total karma is the master's grace or anandam (bliss).

So understand, karma is simply the effects of thoughts, words and deeds that stem from deep ignorance and cause you to again and again tread familiar patterns of misery. The way to break this cycle is to tune into the clicks received from the master and live in an elevated zone of consciousness.

You need to see the motivation for the social service. Honestly look at yourself in the face. What do you want by doing the service?

Do you feel motivated by the fear ofhaving to go to hell if you don't do good deeds? Is it the desire for a good name and publicity? Or is it just to do something to keep yourselfbusy? Is it the greed of a good afterlife after death? Is it a better next birth? If you are driven by fear or greed, you can never intensely enjoy doing the service. One part of you will be doing the act of service. Another part of you will be caught in thinking about the benefits of the service. So you are not integrated in that action. You are not completely fulfilled through it.

This action also binds. Outwardly, socially, it looks good and free from bondage. But inside your inner space, you can see it is not. The whole of mankind is swinging around result-oriented action. This is extended to service as well. At least in service, do not think of dollars or fame. Do not plan to impress. Do not plan to make your presence felt.

Do the work for the work itself! Do not plan anything. Just do any service anywhere. This kind of service will infuse tremendous power into your being. For at least half an hour a day do something

selfless, without any thought of results or benefits for yourself. You can then experience the true joy of service.

Karma can be exhausted only through deep understanding, awareness and at least one glimpse of consciousness.

In the case of premature death, the soul has to wait for the time it was destined to live, before it can take a new body. In the case of suicide, the suffering is much more intense than what would have been if the spirit had continued living. It is like when you have a plate of food in front of you but you don't have hands or a body to enjoy it! In the case of accidents, the spirit has to be without body. But there is no suffering as in the case of suicide. The spirit lives in the same consciousness it would have lived had it been alive. It just waits to get the next body.

Past life regression should not be done except by an enlightened being. It has such a strong influence it can affect this birth. For example, if you had been a blind person in a past life, when regression happens, you can become blind in this birth! An unenlightened being doing the regression will also suffer the karmas of the person he is doing the regression for.

To clear past life regression, one should know how to handle it, clear the past samskaras and close it.

When the master removes the karma, you call that feeling pain. Actually, the master would be removing in a second the suffering of many births, what would have otherwise taken many births to dissolve. So, it is practically no suffering in comparison.

Sharada Devi says, the master clearing the samskaras is like you facing a thorn prick instead of suffering a fracture!