The Simple Truth Straightaway!🔗

If you look deeply, neither science, nor mathematics, nor logic, nor history, nor geography - in fact, no other field has so many contradictions as the spiritual field. In all other fields, things are expressed almost in one line or one tune. Facts and figures may vary a little, but the main thread, the core, is one and the same. In science, you don't find much contradiction between one scientist and the other.

In mathematics, you don't find many contradictions. In history, you don't find many contradictions. In no other field do you find such major contradictions as in the spiritual field. In the spiritual field, if you don't have contradictions, that would be something new! There is a beautiful saying that if two sages preach the same thing, if two rishis don't contradict each other, you can be sure one of them is fake!

Why is there so much contradiction? Why are there so many new philosophies in the spiritual field? Everybody asks, especially in Hinduism, why are there so many groups, so many sects, so many devatas (Gods)? This is because, wherever you have freedom, you have variety.

In the Western society, they have plenty of social freedom. It is said that once in three months, they change their car, their house and their wife! All three are changed regularly, once in three months! They have tremendous freedom in the outer world, in the social structure. But they don't have freedom in the inner world. As far as the inner world is concerned, a set of beliefs, a set of faiths is spoon-fed to them. They have to eat that; whether they digest it or vomit it, is their responsibility!

In the Western system, they don't have the freedom of the inner world. That is why, not many groups or sects or cults have been created. Not as many Gods are brought into the market. But in the East, we have tremendous freedom in the inner world. Anybody can enter into the inner life, do some research and publish their report, bring a new philosophy to the world, bring a new God to the earth, bring a new ideology to humanity. As far as society is concerned, as far as the outer world is concerned, we don't have freedom. But in the inner world we have great freedom. This is why we have so many groups, so many cults, so many sects, so many ideologies and so many masters. Vivekananda says beautifully, ‘Freedom is the basic condition for growth in any field.’ In the East, we have total freedom to enter into the inner science.

In the West, for somebody to become a spiritual figure, the organization has to declare that person a saint. The organization decides whether or not he is a saint. In the East, there is no need for any such thing. If a man thinks he has achieved, he can simply declare it to the world. In the East, things are totally different. In the East, we are free to enter deeply into life and seek the truth. That is why you will find so many philosophies, so many varieties, so many masters and so many ways in which the truth is uttered. Each and every master, and each and every way of expression, will ultimately lead you to the truth. Of course, there will be as many paths as there are, faiths. Ramakrishna says beautifully, ‘Yathoma, tathopat – as many faiths, that many paths’.

Each and every person expresses his or her experience in a different way. For example: Patanjali says that the chakra in the head, the crown, is sahasrara

Your being expresses itself in all its glory. It is a metaphysical experience expressed using a physical example. But when the immature mind hears the expression, it tends to take the experience literally. So what happens is totally different from what is understood. When one attempts to explain metaphysical experiences in ordinary language, the words can't match the experience and tend to distort it.

A seeker approached an enlightened master, a Zen master, and asked, 'Master, does an enlightened man speak?'

The master replied, 'No, a really enlightened person can never speak. Enlightenment can never be expressed in words. An enlightened person can never speak - and if he speaks, be sure, he is not enlightened.'

The seeker then asked, 'So an enlightened person keeps quiet, he keeps mum?'

The master said, 'An enlightened man can never keep quiet. If he keeps mum, be very clear that he is not enlightened, because if you possess enlightenment, you cannot keep quiet. But in enlightenment, you can never possess, only enlightenment can possess you. If you possess something you can keep it under your pillow or put it in your treasure box and keep quiet. But when enlightenment, when God possesses you, you can never keep quiet. So if somebody keeps quiet, be sure he is not enlightened.'

The seeker was naturally confused, and asked, 'Then what is the truth? You say that an enlightened master never speaks, and then you say he never keeps quiet. Then what is the truth? What does he do?'

The master said beautifully, 'He sings'. There is only one way to express enlightenment - by singing. He becomes just a hollow bamboo. The divine uses him as a flute to express beauty, to express spirituality, to express reality.

What does the word 'singing' mean? The word singing means, the body language, the very body language is the only way to teach what enlightenment means. It can neither be said by words nor can it be conveyed by silence. Mere silence is something dead. Singing is also a kind of silence - a beautiful, vibrating silence. When the silence vibrates with energy, when it expresses itself at its peak, it becomes singing. It is neither words nor silence. Silence in negativity is wordlessness, soundlessness. Silence in positivity is singing.

Whenever a person becomes enlightened, his very walk becomes a dance; his very movement becomes an expression of love; his very being sings, oozes bliss, oozes joy. That is the only way, the one and only way to express the simple truth. Whenever words are used to express the truth, you can be sure that it is not the truth. Of course, the Master is saying the truth – but you are not receiving the truth. Something happens in between; something is lost in transit, because he speaks on a different plane and you listen from a different plane. What transaction can take place between these two planes? Just one thing, actually: you can pick up something from his body language. You pick up something from his presence. That is the only truth that can happen with the master. That is why I say, ‘The simple truth straight away’. The simple truth can come to you in a flash, simply by being in the presence of a master.

Once a Zen master was invited by the king to his palace to express, ‘What is dhamma’ (spirituality).

The master came, sat on the dais; he was just sitting, sitting and sitting.

After a while, he simply walked out.

The astonished king asked the master’s disciples, ‘What happened? Your master never said anything. He came, sat and went away!’

The disciples replied, ‘Oh, no! He has never spoken so beautifully before. He has explained so wonderfully whatever needed to be explained!’

‘What do you mean?’ asked the King.

‘Whatever had to be said, he spoke through silence,’ explained the disciple.

‘Then why did he come here? He could have done this sitting in his monastery! Why did he need to come all the way just to say nothing?’

> The disciple replied eloquently, ‘What he has to share cannot be spoken, > but it can be given. Just through body language, by the being, by the > presence, it can be conveyed in a way that is far beyond words.’

Something happens in the presence of the master. If you listen with inner silence, you can hear it. If you listen with your mind, you will be attending to your inner chattering, which will measure my words rather than receive my message.

Either your mind will be accepting my words, and responding with, ‘What a great orator he is! What a way he has with words!’ and so on, or you will be resisting my words, thinking, ‘I don’t believe a word of what he says. What I feel is totally different.’

Either you will be accepting my words, or you will be resisting them. If you listen with your head, with your intellect, you will be doing only one of these. Either way, you will have missed the whole point of my presence. In the process of accepting and rejecting, you will not be listening to what I say. By the time you accept, you have already missed one statement of mine. By the time you resist, you have already missed two or three good statements of mine. So what you carry with you is not the total truth. What you carry is not the whole. Only when you carry the whole, do you carry the holy truth. Only whatever is whole is holy.

If you listen with your head, you will be either accepting or rejecting – both are not going to help. Instead, if you listen with an attitude of openness in your being, if you drop your continuous inner chattering, you will hear something that is beyond my words. You will see that something happens in you. My presence transforms you in a way that my words cannot. What you receive then is what I call the simple truth. You cannot find it in cassettes or video discourses. It cannot be stated in books. It can only be given to you by the master - straight away.

In fact, you can never get the simple truth from the Vedas or the Bible or the Koran. Certainly, they were all truths when the masters who spoke the words were alive. But now they are just words. Whenever masters speak, they do not speak just to give you some understanding or impart knowledge. Their whole purpose is different. They talk so that you drop talking. I talk so that you stop talking. Only if you stop talking, can something happen between you and me, some chemical process. Of course the right word is alchemy. Some alchemy happens. Some transmission of light takes place. That is the real truth.

Because you are not able to receive the message as it is, we just use a few words to put your mind aside, to keep your mind engaged. While your mind is engaged in the words, your being opens to my giving. The simple truth can be transmitted, the light can be transmitted, the reality can be experienced, and Nithyananda can enter into your being.

So just drop your mind; just drop your inner chatter, and see what is happening in your inner body right now.

We have two bodies. One is the outer body, which is here and the other is the inner body, which may or may not be here! Just feel what is happening to your inner body. Just put your inner body into your outer body and experience the presence of your inner body in your outer body; that is enough. You will learn from the body language of the master. If only your outer body is here, you will learn from my words. If your inner body is also here, you will learn from my body language. Whatever you can get from my words is half-truth. Whatever you can learn, whatever you can get from my body language, is the simple truth. Even as you are listening to me, something is transpiring between us. Simply allow that spiritual experience to happen to you, and you will have received the simple truth – straight away!

Thank you.

I shall spend a few minutes sharing your feelings, either answering your questions or questioning your answers; either way I shall spend a few minutes.

By the way, someone told me when I entered the hall, ‘the group is very small.’

I felt really happy. Whenever I sit with a small group, I have the tremendous satisfaction that I have really shared something. For political meetings, you need big numbers. For spiritual meetings you need only the group, never numbers.

OK, first question?

Neither are you in the world nor is the world in you. The very idea that you are in the world makes you materialistic. The idea that the world is in you, makes you spiritualistic. Both are ideas. Please be very clear that if you think you are in the world, you become materialistic. You run behind the world. You just run behind it. You want to have it. You want to possess it. If you think the world is in you, you run behind your being. You want to possess it. It is the same running, just that it is diverted a little bit inside. The running for spiritual progress or running for some spiritual experience, we call mystery mongering. Even the running for mystical experiences is nothing but mystery mongering. Both are actually concepts; both are ideas. When you understand both are just ideas, you start allowing the spiritual experience to happen in you, and this cannot be done by words.

For example, take the river Ganga. Suppose a small bamboo stick is floating on the Ganga. Considering the bamboo as the center, if you think that the Ganga has been split into two halves, right-side Ganga and left-side Ganga, would you be right? Can you say the Ganga has been divided? No, in reality Ganga is never divided. Because you have taken the bamboo as the center and divided the river for the sake of utility, for the sake of your understanding, you have labeled it as right-side Ganga and left-side Ganga. In the same way, just for the sake of utility, you name this as the body and that as the world. It is just a naming, a labeling.

Just look in; look into yourself. Why do I say, ‘Look in’? You know that for a long time you have only looked out. That is the reason I ask you to look in. When you look inward, you see there is really no boundary between this and that, between you and the world. If you perceive one boundary as stronger, you will feel that you are in the world. If you perceive the other boundary as stronger, you will feel that the world is in you. The worldly people and the so-called materialists say, ‘We are in the world.’ People who close their eyes and sit in the caves in the Himalayas say, ‘The world is in us.’ But both are just concepts. If you feel this boundary is stronger, you think you are in the world. If you think that boundary is stronger, you think the world is in you, that’s all.

Once you drop both concepts, you will see simply that you are, and wherever you are, you are joyful. Generally the great saints and enlightened people teach you that the world is in you. Do you know why they teach you that way? Because you are already addicted to the opposite idea, that you are in the world. Just to bring you out of that idea, they teach that the world is in you.

Actually to remove one thorn from your foot, you need to use another thorn. But once you have removed the thorn, you need to throw away both. The idea that the world is in you is only another thorn to remove the thorn that is already piercing you. In the ultimate sense, both are just concepts. When you drop these boundaries, you understand reality, you understand what the truth is. It cannot be expressed by either of these concepts.

If you remove that bamboo from the Ganga, can you say Ganga has become one? No, because it was always one. The very word ‘one’ exists only if you say there is ‘two’. If there is no ‘two’, how can you say it is ‘one’? Is it clear to you? The word singular exists only as long as the word plural exists. When the word plural is lost, how can you say this is singular? That is why the rishis and sages called this philosophy advaita.

Dvaita means plural - duality. But advaita cannot be translated as singular – because that would imply the presence of a plural somewhere, which advaita does not acknowledge. Advaita can be translated only as non-dualist.

It can never be expressed as ‘single’. It can be expressed only as ‘where there is no duality’. Dvaita means duality. Advaita means where there is no duality, that’s all.

If you say you are in the world, you are expressing duality. If you say the world is in you, you are doing the same thing. Only if you experience the fact that neither is true, do you experience the truth. The truth cannot be expressed with dvaita, it can only be expressed with advaita.

Of course, the program that we are going to conduct in the next two days is the awakening of the kundalini shakti in a very safe and practical manner.

To get the best out of life, to have a joyful blissful life, to have a spiritual life, a real life, two things are necessary. One is maturity, the understanding about the being and Existence. The second is meditation. Understanding clears your conscious mind. Meditation cleanses your unconscious mind. There are lots of things that cannot be followed by understanding. Everybody understands that smoking is bad for health. In all the billboards about cigarette advertisements, they include a statutory warning. What are the words they use? ‘Cigarette smoking is injurious to health.’ We know it. Yet people smoke and suffer. They are unable to control themselves. Why is this so? Just an intellectual understanding will not be sufficient in some places. So we need to channel energy into the unconscious zone.

The conscious zone can be cleared by intellectual clarity, maturity. Of course, at least 50% of the problems can be cleared just by intellectual clarity. We cannot deny the role of intellectual clarity in our joyful life. It has its own place and importance. But it is not sufficient; it is not the ultimate. If you have intellectual clarity, it means you have an understanding about each and every chakra, the way in which the chakras work; what is the way in which the energy centers can be opened.

For example, why is depression very closely related to the manipuraka chakra, the navel center? Whenever you hear some news that you can’t bear, that you can’t tolerate, immediately the first blow would be to the stomach. You will either have a stomach upset or diarrhea. Has any of you experienced this? We always say, ‘I can’t digest it’. Not only in English, but in all languages this expression exists. In all languages, we have an expression; whenever you receive some news that you can’t tolerate, we say, ‘I can’t digest it. I can’t stomach it.’

The anahata is related to love. Love and heart, these two words are synonyms in all languages. It’s not that all the languages were created at a time, as if God had created CD packages and put one package in each country. No! Tamil in South India, Hindi in North India, English in England - every language has evolved in a different place, at a different time. But in all languages, you see love and heart are used as synonyms. It means some deeper connection exists between your emotions and your being.

The anahata chakra, the heart center, is closely related to love energy. If you know how to handle that emotion, the maturity, the understanding to handle the emotion solves 50% of your problem. The energy to awaken that chakra solves another 50%. The maturity creates energy. The energy creates maturity. The ball rolls and you finally experience ultimate bliss.

Maturity clears the conscious portion of the mind; meditation clears the unconscious portion. When both are cleared, you will see a tremendous transformation of the being; a tremendous flowering of the being happens in you.

That is why I call this program Ananda Spurana or Life Bliss. Spurana means flowering. The flowering of bliss is happening in our being continuously. Only, we don’t look inward. We don’t see what is happening. Just look inward, and you will find it - this Ananda Spurana, this flowering of bliss.

Nice question. The very idea that the person is not qualified for a spiritual opening or a spiritual awakening was created by the priests. If you are alive, that is enough; that qualification is enough for a spiritual awakening.

| A small story | Somebody went to Ramana Maharshi and asked, ‘Bhagwan, am I qualified for spiritual progress; am I qualified for the spiritual line?’ Ramana Maharshi asked, ‘Are you alive?’ The disciple said, ‘Yes, of course.’ ‘Then you are qualified enough,’ replied Ramana. |

It is only the priests who created this idea to exploit the public. You see: if you are not held in guilt, if you are not kept one step lower on the pedestal, you do not obey. Just to exploit people, the idea of qualification was created. The very basic thing, which has killed intelligence, which has killed spirituality, is this business of qualification; the idea of qualification. You can never find anybody who feels they are qualified. Even after hundreds of years of practice, you will wonder whether you are qualified or not. I don’t know why! This is because guilt has been implanted in you. Be very clear, not only in Mumbai city, wherever you live, you are qualified. If you think you are alive, that is enough; you are qualified. The idea of qualification was brought in just to exploit you mentally.

| A small story | A man goes to a master with the same question, ‘Master, am I qualified for the spiritual progress? I feel there are so many obstructions.’ The master replies, ‘The word ‘obstruction’ is the only obstruction, nothing else.’ |

The word ‘obstruction’ is the only obstruction to spiritual life, because each and every being is potentially divine. When a person is already potentially divine, how can you say that he needs some other qualification? All the rules are there merely to instill guilt in the other person, just to keep him on a lower step. Otherwise there is nothing like qualification. If you need to have a qualification, what is the purpose of spirituality?

Somebody came and told me, ‘Master, I have never practised ayama and niyama.’ In Patanjali’s yoga system the first step is ayama. Ayama means - brahmacharya, ahimsa, satya, apaikara and astheiya. These great vows – celibacy, non-violence, truth, non-stealing and non-possessiveness are the ones you need to practise, and only then are you qualified for yoga.

Somebody came and asked, ‘I am not qualified in all these five things. How can I enter into yoga?’

I said, ‘If you are qualified in all these five things, you don’t need yoga!’

Both maturity and meditation help each other. Maturity gives you energy and energy gives you maturity. At first, you start wherever you are, that’s enough. You will see that the ball rolls.

The same question in the opposite way! Like old wine in a new bottle.

Be very clear, you neither think, nor you are. I am giving the same answer in the other way. You neither think nor you are. If you think, you must be. If you think, you must exist, if you exist, you can’t think. If you exist, you can’t think. If you think, you must exist. Actually it’s a very intricate question. The same old question, whether we are in the world or the world is in us: whether we exist and think, or we think and then exist.

See, it’s like a boundariless thing. Again you want to stand at some point, again you want to stand. Either you want to take a bath in the left side of Ganga or in the right side of Ganga. You must understand: you are neither in the left nor in the right! You are in the Ganga. Once you understand, thinking and being are not different; you will see that there is no boundary.

Today Raj was asking me in the car whether both matter and energy exist in the world. I told him, ‘No, there is no matter, only energy. And when there is only energy, how can you say even the word energy? If there is something called matter, then you can use the words energy and matter. If there is only one thing, how can you call it either matter or energy? Similarly there are no 'two things' - thinking and being. There is only one thing. But you make a boundary, because you are not comfortable without boundaries.

The logic, the very quality of logic is cutting things into pieces. Unless you cut things into pieces, you can't understand. That way of understanding is by labeling things, by making them more intellectual, by making them more logical. So just for utility's sake, you can say the left side of the Ganga or the right side of the Ganga. But in reality, no two Gangas exist. Only in comparative reality, left side and right side exist. In existential reality, there are no two Gangas.

Like that, only in comparative reality, thinking and being exist. In reality, in existential reality, you exist. That's all. Only the word 'exists' exists. There is nothing different called thinking and being. If you make a boundary, then you can think that this is thinking and this is being, but there is no boundary actually. Can you say that up to this boundary you are being, and after this boundary you are thinking? There are no two such things. There is no Shakti and Shiva. There is only one thing - pure Shakti. When it is one, the word Shakti also cannot be uttered.

As long as you worry, whether you think because you are, or you are because you think, you will have confusion. Both are mere words with which we play. For play it is perfectly alright, but not for real life. If you fly in a small airplane, a toy airplane, you know where you will land, do you not? It's the same with words; they are good to play with, but taking them too seriously can never lead you anywhere.

Fights and violence are not because of spirituality; they are because of religion. Whenever spirituality is alive, there are no fights. Whenever mere rituals are alive, the problem starts. If you give importance to Gita, there is no problem, but when you give importance to Krishna, the problem happens.

But to understand Gita, you need to give a little importance to Krishna. To start with, Krishna is perfectly alright, but if you end with Krishna, surely there is some problem. It's beautiful, good to be born in the church, but not to die there. You can start with religion, but when you go beyond that, there won't be any fights.

Do you know the meaning of the word 'Ayodhya'? Ayodhya is the birth place of Rama and the word comes from Ayodhi - where there is no yuddha, where no war happens. The very word Ayodhi means 'where no war happens'. Because of the concept with which Rama created Ayodhi, the concept with which Rama named Ayodhi, I think he must have visualized a peaceful, joyful heaven. That is the reason he named that place Ayodhi - beyond wars, beyond fights, beyond disturbances. We idolise Rama, but drop his vision. There starts the problem. We caught him, but not his vision. When we catch Christ instead of the Bible, then the problem starts.

| A devotee of Rama lived on the banks of the sacred river Ganga in the | holy town of Benares. | | His routine was, every morning he used to sing and chant the Tulsi | Ramayana. He had one copy of Tulsi Ramayana. He used to recite the | Tulsi Ramayana, to attain Godhood. The whole day he used to recite | Rama's name and enjoyed the 'Ram Nam' - the name of Rama. | | He was in a heightened state of bliss all the time. He was very popular in | that entire area. | | People used to go to him for blessings and he was leading a joyful and | ecstatic life. | | One day a beggar went to him and asked, 'Sir, I have not taken food for | the last three days; please give me something to eat.'

> He was filled with compassion, and could not tolerate that somebody > had not taken food for three days. He could feel the man's suffering. > > He could feel the man's emotion in totality. When you share your grief > with ordinary people, when you share your suffering, they too get trapped > in your pain. They 'fall in love' with your problems. They too fall to your > level and just become part of your suffering. But evolved people, they > just raise you with their love. > > The sage could not tolerate that somebody was living without food, > that he was hungry. He had with him nothing except a copy of the Tulsi > Ramayana. Without thinking, he gave the beggar the book saying, 'Please > take this book to the market, tell them that this book belongs to me, > that this book was given by me. You will see that people will purchase > this book paying a lot of money. With that money buy yourself > something to eat.' > > The book which he was worshipping every day, which he never even > opened in front of others, which was like his very being for him, he just > gave it away! > > When the beggar left, the sage prayed to Rama, 'Oh Rama! I have given > away your words to keep your words. I have given away your words to > keep your words.'

What is the philosophy of Rama? What are his words? Nothing but giving. The ultimate sacrifice, tyaga. 'I have given away your words just to keep your words.' So when you give away the words, just to keep the words, no fight happens. Naturally the unity, the experience of bliss, the experience of peace, the experience of harmony happens, when you hold on to the spirit of the words, instead of clinging to the words themselves.

Instead of applying the words in your life, if you keep them in books, then the problem starts! So if you are ready to give away your words to keep the words, no problem can arise, no problem can exist. This is the only solution, the one and only solution. Put your energy into understanding and developing your life, than giving importance to the forms and the outer rituals.

Q: Dear master, could you throw some light on chakras and mantras?

You have asked about two things – chakras and mantras. Let me first explain the chakras. Chakras are the subtle yet vital energy centers which are in your being. Of course, they have no physical existence. By activating them, you can relieve a person of disease. There are seven such major energy centers that manage all your physical, mental, psychological, emotional and spiritual activities. Your attitude and activities are controlled and managed by these chakras.

For example, if your stomach is upset, even if you hear some good news, you will not be in a mood to relish it, cherish or enjoy it. If your stomach is relaxed, if your being is light, even bad news or mistakes, you would take in a lighter sense. You would forgive the other person.

That is why we say that these chakras play a major role in your physical, mental, psychological, emotional and spiritual attitude and activities. When they are disturbed, when they are not at ease with your system, the dis-ease occurs; when they are dis-eased with your being, the disease happens.

If the chakras can be activated by proper methods, by proper techniques, you can be freed from disease. Not only do you come out of the disease, you taste real well-being.

Even if we are not suffering from any disease, we rarely feel a true sense of well-being. What is the scale? How do you measure whether you are in a state of well-being or not? Early in the morning, as soon as you wake up from your bed, watch your steps from the bed to the bathroom. If they are a dance instead of mere steps, you are healthy; you are in a state of well-being. The steps from the bed to the bathroom should be more like a dance than mere steps. That is the way to measure whether your being is beautiful, whether you are joyful, whether you are healthy or not. That is the time you emerge from unconsciousness, out of your sleep. That is the time to measure who you are, how well you are.

Just watch the animals as they wake up from sleep each morning. You see birds chirping for no reason. The calf leaps at least two or three times around the rope with which it is tied. The cat does a few rounds for no reason. Man is the only animal that turns over and goes back to sleep! Early in the morning, as soon as the alarm rings, man is the only animal that turns over and goes back to sleep. He is the only animal that needs an alarm clock in the first place. He is the only one who has disconnected himself so completely from nature, from existence.

Once a middle aged man, for some reason, wanted to get rid of his wife.

His wife had a cat and the man thought he would get rid of both.

Thinking that he would start with the cat, he caught the cat, took it some ten miles away, dropped it in an unfamiliar place and came back.

When he left the cat and returned to his house, he saw the cat already standing there waiting for him at the doorstep!

The next day he took the cat to the other side of the town – 20 miles away. He dropped it and came back. Within one hour he saw the cat standing there at the doorway.

By the third day he was really disturbed and annoyed. He took the cat, put it in a gunny bag, took the bag and drove left, right, south, west, this way, that way and after two or three hours' drive he reached a place like a forest, a dead end.

He said to himself, 'I myself have not gone to this place, so the cat can never find the way back. Let me drop the cat here. This is the best place because I myself didn't know that there was a place like this; so the cat will never find the way back home.

He just dropped the gunny bag and drove back.

On the way back, he rang up his wife, 'Dear, is the cat in the house?'

She said, 'Yes, the cat is right here.'

The man asked, 'Can you please somehow find out the way back from him? I have lost my way.'

Man is the only animal that has lost connection with nature altogether, that has lost the way. So if you see that your steps early in the morning are more like a dance, you can be sure that you have not lost your way; you are living a life of well-being.

Awakening of the chakras not only cures you of disease, it also gives you a glimpse, a taste of real well-being. Most of us have never touched the state of well-being. We have never experienced the state of well-being. Just like a man who is blind from birth can never understand what he is missing, we too never understand what we are missing.

We would never understand what it is to feel a sense of well-being, because we lost it at a very young age. So only when you enter into these charkas, would you understand what you were really missing all these days. This is the basic explanation about chakras.

Now about mantras. Never think words are mere words. Be very clear: never think words are just words. They are embodiments of energy. For example, if I utter the word 'cow', immediately a figure appears in your mind, with four legs, a tail, two horns, two ears and so on. Am I right? Immediately, just by the sound, the form is created in your system. Just try to recollect the form without the sound. It may not be the cow but 'gau'

You have three energies in your system: ichcha shakti, kriya shakti and gnana shakti. For the other two energies, ichcha shakti is the base metal. From this base metal, gold is created. Ichcha shakti is the raw energy, raw material from which gnana shakti and kriya shakti are developed. When it is 22 carat gold, it is kriya shakti. When it is 24 carat, it is gnana shakti. When it is 18 carat, merely a raw material, it is ichcha shakti. Raw material is ichcha shakti, 22 carat gold is kriya shakti and 24 carat gold is gnana shakti. But the raw material is the basic thing. The capacity to visualize, the capacity to imagine, is what is raw material. So the visualization capacity and the words are closely associated.

Adding mantras to raw material is like processing the raw material and purifying it in to pure gold. The word mantra can mean two things: man- tra: man means mankind, tra means that which shows the way. So mantra is that which shows the way to man.

Man-tra: Man also means mind, tra means that which shows the way, so mantra could also mean that which shows the way out of the mind, which brings you out of the mind. So the technique to bring man out of the mind is mantra.

You can say, the technique which brings man out of the world, which paves the way for man, is what mantra is. When mantras are added to your being continuously, like acid being added to raw material to cleanse it, it becomes 22 carat gold. If you continue the process, it will ultimately become 24 carat gold. So mantra is a powerful technique to enter into the spiritual zone or enlightenment or reality.

Even in day-to-day life, mantras are necessary. It is not necessary that the mantra should be in Sanskrit. You all use English mantras: I must succeed in my office; I must convince that person; I must flourish in my business. Even these words which you continuously repeat unconsciously are mantras. Don't think mantra means Om Namah Shivaya, or Hari Om Namo Narayana. These are ancient mantras, that's all. The modern mantras can be even what you think as soon as you wake up in the morning: Today I must talk to that man and get the business; today I must talk to her and settle things. Whatever you utter as a goal can become a mantra. That is the way to attain something.

Anything that becomes a reality in your life first appears only in the form of a mantra; then it becomes reality. If the mantra is unconscious, the result is also unconscious. If the mantra is conscious, then the result is also conscious. If you do it consciously, then you get conscious results and you will know how to enjoy it. If the mantra is repeated unconsciously, you will not know the cause and the result. When it is repeated consciously you will be very clear about the purpose and what you want to reach and what will happen.

If consciousness is flooded into your mind, into your mantra structure, then the path and the goal both become clear to you. You will achieve it safely and beautifully, by dancing and not by walking. If it is unconscious, you are unaware about your path and your goal, so naturally you just get dragged along. If you are conscious, you are traveling beautifully, or else you are dragged. If you know how to stop the car, how to apply the brakes, you are driving the car. If you don't know, then the car is driving you.

You are all chanting mantras continuously, whether you are religious or non-religious, spiritual or materialistic. You are chanting mantras continuously, either consciously or unconsciously, that's all. If you decide to chant the mantras consciously, you will know how to stop the car, and you will be driving the car. If you let the mantras chant you, if you let the unconscious process continue in you and control your actions, the car will be driving you. If you drive the car, you know where you are going. If the car drives you, you have no idea where you will end up!

Q: Dear master, you say we are part of the whole, but I experience myself as a separate individual. Can you explain?

You may think that you are separate from Existence, but you are not. Whether you like it or not, accept it or not, understand it or not, believe it or not, you are connected to God. It is like you are God's child. Suppose you have a small baby on your lap, even if he kicks you, you would still keep him on your lap. Just like that, even if you resist, you are in divinity. Whether you float with the current or swim against it, you are connected to the river. You are related to the cosmic consciousness.

All minds are very closely related to each other. If you look at the circle of cosmic consciousness, only on the periphery are there many points, but in the center all just converge. If you go towards the center, the distance between you and the other point becomes lesser and lesser. If you move out of the center, the distance between you and others becomes more and more. So whether you believe it or not, at the being level you are connected with all the beings on planet Earth.

So anything done consciously creates a ripple in the mind. It is like if you throw a small stone in the lake, it will create a ripple that reaches the boundary or the shore of the lake. A wave is created. If you drop the mantra like a stone in the conscious mind, a ripple is created. It travels all over the lake and reaches the shore. If the stone is big, the wave is big, if the stone is small, the wave is small. So whenever you chant anything, or whenever you pray for anybody, it surely creates an effect on your being and on other beings too. It enters just like the stone that is dropped into the lake; it is dropped into the mind and it creates ripples; it creates an effect in your system and in other systems. Whatever happens in the center of the lake, will happen to your being. Whatever happens on the periphery of the lake when you drop the stone, that much impact will be there on other beings. So when you pray for others, the effect is more on you than on others. Others do get the effect, but you get the result too. They are only affected. You get the result itself.

If the chakras are activated by proper methods and techniques, it only gives good health, never side-effects. The techniques which I have designed are fool-proof techniques, with no side-effects. Even if you commit mistakes you would only not have the full beneficial effect. There will be no side-effect. The techniques should be proper. If they are proper then these problems don't happen.

Secondly, there is no such thing as ‘hyperactivation’ of the chakras. If a chakra is hyperactive, you would only feel the expansion of your consciousness. It would only do more good. You can never die by falling into Amritasagara (the ocean of nectar)! By falling in Amritasagara you will never die. You will only become more and more joyful. As such the hyperactivity never creates any ill-effect in your system. If the chakra is hyperactivated, it creates only well-being, the joyful state, the spiritual experience, and ultimately enlightenment. It never disturbs you. It is only the laziness or non-activeness, the inertia, the tamas of the chakras, that creates trouble.

Q: Dear master, I am already following another master. Can I still practice these meditation techniques?

One thing: the practice does not involve a change of guru. Please be very clear: attending this two-day course does not involve change of guru. All great masters are embodiments of the same energy. So I never tell people to change their guru. It is the same energy through different channels.

People come and ask me, ‘Can I attend others’ discourses; can I follow another master as well?’ Certainly! It’s not like I am trying to get you away from someone else’s shop and into my own shop. Spirituality cannot be reduced to business. Whomsoever is your guru, to whomsoever you are attracted to, with whomsoever you fall in tune, he is your guru. He is your master; perfectly alright. My techniques, my teachings, will only help you more, they will just inspire you. They will awaken you to follow your own master in a more effective way. What I am giving you is only energy and inspiration to flower in your own path, that’s all. It does not involve change of guru or change of faith or change of religion or change of your spiritual system.

Of course, the Kundalini energy (the energy lying dormant at the base of the spine) can be awakened only by the grace of the master. When I say this, I don’t mean the grace of the master Himself, it is the grace of His energy, the guru Shakti - that is the Existential energy. Guru Shakti as such is the same always. It may differ only in the forms that it takes.

Rama and Krishna never had any conflict. But Rama's monkeys and Krishna's cows would be fighting with each other till the very end! So it is only our ignorance that makes us think in terms of conflict. I tell you: nothing needs to be changed. Only the inspiration and the energy need to be awakened. So attending this two-day course does not involve any change of faith, change of belief system, change of guru or change of religion. It involves only the change of personality; nothing else.

Now I think it is time to finish. I will answer one last question, and then we will finish.

Q: Dear master, why are participants and volunteers required to wear white clothes?

The mind is deeply influenced by colours. Now they have discovered something new in the West called colour therapy. Did you know? If you put a red light in your bedroom, you will not be able to have good sleep. If you use a dim blue light, you will have dreamless sleep! If multicolours are used, the mind gets activated. Maybe that is why disco lights are in multicolour!

In India, we have been practicing colour therapy for centuries without giving it a name.

We know that the white colour has the power to create peace in the mind, and an attitude of receptivity. When white is used, the unnecessary wavering, the unnecessary thoughts are brought down. White always creates a pleasant mood, a mood of relaxation, bliss and harmony. That is why white is emphasized. Of course, it is not compulsory. I don't compel anything. It is only a suggestion. If somebody comes without white clothes - but of course, wears some clothes - that is enough! It is not as if we say that if you don't wear white, you can't do the course. Nothing like that. Whatever rules are given are only as guidance. It is a guidance to have the maximum result for yourself. Everything else is your responsibility. It is just to give you a simple understanding.

I think it is time now for us to end this discussion!

Thank you.

Spirituality is relevant in every time and age. Meditation is not an esoteric art practiced by sages and yogis. It has practical benefits for each of us, no matter what our age, culture or religion.

Meditation not only enhances our physical health and mental well-being, it helps us understand our interpersonal relationships better. Above all, it brings us in touch with our own divine nature, which we have forgotten.