11. Meditation techniques🔗

Be intense in whatever you do. Whether you eat, sing, dance, pray or work, be completely into that, in the moment. Intensity is enlightenment. As of now, some part of you is intense while some part of you is lazy. Being 100% intense is enlightenment.

The first thing you need for living enlightenment is intensity. Intensity is the sword with which you can break the mind. It is just like awakening from the dream. The first thing you need is the intention, the idea that you should wake up. So now you need to have the intense idea to wake up.

Understand, the intensity with which you work towards wealth, relations etc., if you just turn a little towards enlightenment, you will awaken. Intensely decide, ‘I will wake up from this life that I call life.’ Create an intense will or prayer. When you create a will and direct it towards you, it is called a will. When you create a will and direct it towards the Divine, it is called prayer. Intensity is a strong intention to wake up, the strong intention for fulfillment, for living enlightenment, for eternal bliss. The only gap between you and enlightenment is intensity.

Try this technique: Anything comes in your mind, ask ‘How will master behave?’ Do the same. One more thing, be very clear, when you behave as I am behaving, you will have what I am having. That is a promise from Existence. I don’t have anything with me for which I am not qualified. That is why I don’t have fear that something will be taken away from me.

In the same way, when you just carry this one message, live like a master. Whatever you are qualified for will always gather around you and it will always stay with you. It will always be with you.

The person who is courageous enough will say, ‘How will master live? Let me live that way.’ If your mind repeats some other question, ‘Who knows how will master behave?’ ask, ‘How will master respond to this question?’ He will simply silence the mind. Then, do the same, that’s all. That’s all you need to carry. When you carry this one truth in you, you are carrying me.

Carry the master! You will give birth to yourself. Don’t bother about any difficulty. At the most what difficulty can come? Death. Just remember, ‘How will master die? He will leave the body beautifully. Let me do the same thing, that’s all.’ Just remember, ‘How will he live? How will he leave?’ Do the same thing. Actually, this feeling connected is what gave me the truth and made me alive, intense, and energetic.

Carry this one message with you, ‘How will master behave?’ Any problem can be solved with this one technique. Anything in the internal world can be solved, because Paramahamsa is a person who has seen all experiences. Only such a person is called Paramahamsa. If he has not had some experience, Existence makes him goes through that experience so that he becomes Paramahamsa. So whatever you go through, went through, or are yet to go through, I went through already. So there is no space that you can say I have not gone through!

Visualization of light If you are not getting the burning intensity, pray intensely for the intensity to happen. It will happen. Remember how intensely and anxiously you run behind things that give you joy. Suppose I tell now that whoever prays intensely will get a ten million dollar prize, you will show the intensity of your life, is it not? Just because you think there is some product that will fulfill you, you are intense. With money you know it is going to add something to your life. In the same way, enlightenment is also going to add something to your life.

In order to have intensity towards enlightenment, you can start by creating intensity towards things that you have experienced a desire towards. For example, if you desire health or wealth, be intense about that. That yearning will become integrated and will get directed to the unknown, to enlightenment. Not only that, your unfulfilled desires can be simply burnt with the intensity.

Whatever you experience as fulfillment, yearn for that. The intense yearning is enough, it will evaporate you. And the fulfillment you experience will be many times more than the fulfillment you may have ever experienced before.

Here is a beautiful technique from Shiva Sutras¹³, delivered by the enlightened master Shiva to His consort Devi. Shiva says, ‘Consider your essence as light rays raising from center to center up the vertebrae, so the livingness rises in you.’

Understand the importance of this technique. I have added this same part as the third step in our Life Bliss Meditation or Nithya Dhyaan technique. Visualize you, what you think as you, as the light and move from chakra to chakra. You will see the livingness, intensity, is rising when you move from center to center up higher and higher. Your intensity will also be moving higher and higher.

Consider your essence as intense light and rise from energy center to energy center, from the root chakra or muladhara to the being center swadishthana, from swadishthana to the manipuraka chakra in the navel region, and so on.

You may be thinking how visualization can lead to beyond visualization. It is just like you can always choose choicelessness!

Understand, you can always visualize in order to move beyond visualization. Then suddenly you will see you are using visualization as a jumping board to dive into the super-consciousness.

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This is a very powerful technique from the Shiva Sutras.

The aphorism or sutra says, Die into the infinite void where you are no more Moving beyond the senses into Shiva Consciousness. This technique is called the Shanmukhi Mudra¹⁴. As it will be difficult to maintain this posture for a long time, you may sit on the ground and support your hands on a chair to maintain comfort. You can put a chair in front of you and turn it facing towards your side to support your hand.

Alternatively, you may sit in a chair and support your hands using the chair in front of you. By supporting your hands on a chair, you will avoid shoulder ache. This technique closes the doorways to your senses. This should only be practiced by people who have some experience in meditation.

As in all meditations sit comfortably cross legged or in a chair with back, neck and head in one vertical line. When you are in Shanmukhi Mudra, the energy flow to the outside world through the seven openings of the face (two ears, two eyes, two nostrils and one mouth) is blocked and turned inwards. Your hands are very powerful. The energy centers in the hands are so powerful that it can stop the energy flow, turn it into a concentrated beam of energy and direct it towards the ajna chakra or third eye. Normally our breath goes in and out chaotically. By closing the nostrils partially with your fingers, you can reduce the air flow and balance it. The Shanmukhi Mudra firstly stops the energy flow towards outside. Secondly, we are turning the senses inwards. Thirdly, we concentrate them towards the third eye.

Instructions: If you wear spectacles, remove them. Place your fingers as follows: Thumbs pressing down on the short ear lobes till you hear a humming sound. Index fingers lightly on both the eyes. Middle fingers on the bridge of the nose. Ring fingers lightly under nostrils. Little fingers on lips. For the next 21 minutes, follow the steps given below. Close the nose partially. Just reduce the prana flow. When your mind settles down by itself, the prana flow will reduce. Be in the Shanmukhi Mudra and inhale and exhale as slowly as possible and as deeply as possible. Keep your mouth shut tightly.

Visualize that both your eyeballs have become stones and let them not move. Intensify your awareness. Do not create stress. Try to penetrate with deep awareness. Don’t create pressure, create only awareness. Visualize intensely as if you are penetrating your third eye.

Visualize deeply as if you are penetrating your third eye with a drill bit. Relax. Open your eyes slowly. It is important to make yourself comfortable by supporting yourself properly to be in Shanmukhi Mudra. You will see tremendous energy created in your third eye, to awaken your intuition. When you are comfortable, you will see that you are entering into deeper energies or higher consciousness.

Exercises: