You are no Sinner🔗

Guilt,
The Sure Killer Of Intelligence

In a small village, a little away from the main living area, the temple
priest lived with his family. He was a pious man and his whole life,
he spent in taking care of the local deity. He would bathe the deity,
decorate it with fresh flowers and do the daily puja - offering. All the
villagers respected him and his family.
One rainy night, just after dinner when the priest was relaxing with
his family, he heard a knock on the door. Someone was knocking
rather urgently. The priest was puzzled as no one from the village
would come at that time of the night to his house. He opened the door
and was totally surprised to see a young woman standing, completely
soaked in the rain. The woman looked beautiful and well dressed.
She asked the priest, 'Please, can I stay here tonight? I was traveling to
the next town when I got caught in the pouring rain. Tomorrow
morning I will be gone. I will leave this place.'
The priest did not know what to do. He called his wife and informed
her of the situation. The wife saw the poor woman standing and
shivering outside. Being a compassionate woman she immediately
asked her to come in, gave her dry clothes to wear, some hot food to
eat and a warm bed to sleep in.
The next day morning, the woman thanked her hosts for their
generosity and was about to take leave. As she was standing, waiting
for the horse-carriage to arrive, the priest and his wife started talking
casually to her. They said to her, 'In India we don't hesitate to ask
about each other and share personal information.
'Who are you? Where are you from?'
The woman replied, 'I am the king's favourite courtesan. My mother
has taken ill suddenly, so I am on my way to my mother's place.' At
that very moment the carriage arrived and she left.
The priest and his wife were very disturbed. They thought, 'What a
big sin we have committed by giving shelter and food to a courtesan.'

They immediately ran towards the well and drew water from it to
clean the whole house! They burnt the bed she had slept in and then
had a complete head bath to wash away the sin of sheltering a courtesan
in their house that was filled with pictures of all the Gods.
They felt so guilty that they even went up to the temple deity and wept,
'Oh God, please forgive us for the sin of giving food and shelter to a
woman of loose morals. Even if we did it for a single night, we are
guilty of sinning against you! Please forgive us.'
Suddenly the priest heard a voice from heaven. The voice was also
weeping. The priest and his wife were surprised. The priest asked, 'Who
is that who is weeping?'
From above the voice came again, 'I am God. I am weeping.' The
priest was shaken. He asked, 'But why are You weeping?' God replied,
'You have given shelter to a courtesan for one night and you think
that it is a big sin. I give food and shelter to her everyday and for
many others like her! Where will I go and wash my sins? That is why
I am weeping.'

There is a beautiful moral to be understood from this story. The
priest and his wife thought that they were holier than the courtesan.
They offered her a place to stay out of a superior feeling, not out
of compassion. It was their ego that played up.

All our guilt, all our rules, all our morality, all our ideas of right
and wrong, are created only by these types of priests. When I say
this, I mean the type of people who think they are holier than others;
whose morality is confined to the skin level; who think they are more
pure than others; that they are greater than others for no real reason
except that they are priests. They are responsible for creating the
rules which create guilt in us.

According to me, guilt is the greatest sin that we can commit.
For our other sins, we will be punished only after our death. The sin
of guilt punishes us while we live.

Look a little deeper. What is the root cause of guilt? It is our
idea about right and wrong - our understanding about what is right
and what is wrong. That is where guilt starts. What is right? What
is wrong? Let us analyze. What is the scale to measure right or
wrong?

In Hinduism, vegetarianism is right; in Christianity non-
vegetarianism is right. In Hinduism you can marry only once; in Islam
you can marry four times. In Hinduism, you can't drink alcohol; in
Christianity, wine is part of worship. There are so many rules, so
many regulations, different in different places, different in different
situations and in different societies.

For somebody, a particular food might be amrita (nectar), while
for another person the same thing might be poison!

In South India, fish is considered to be non-vegetarian food. But
in West Bengal, they refer to fish as Gangaphal (fruit from the sacred
river Ganga!). Bengali brahmins who are considered a priestly class,
eat fish and fish is considered vegetarian food. There is no Bengali
house which doesn't have a small pond in front of their house where
they grow fish. They eat fresh fish! Enlightened master Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa used to eat fish regularly. For Bengalis, fish, sweet
and tobacco are the basic requirements. Coming to the immoral habit
of smoking, Ramakrishna used to smoke! Vivekananda used to smoke!
They were enlightened masters, without a doubt. Of course, they
smoked not as addiction but as a technique to keep themselves in their
body. Enlightened masters develop some habit that would keep them
in the body on planet Earth, or else their pull in the upward direction
simply causes them to leave the body.

So what is this so called 'morality' about? It is just local customs
and traditions. In the course of time, they become moral principles.
If you read the ancient scriptures, the great epics of India such as
the Mahabharata, you will see that Princess Draupadi was married
to five men! She lived with five men! If that was the case today, she
would be in prison! There are so many different kinds of life systems
with so many different kinds of customs. In the Mahabharata, Kunti
had five sons from five different men!

There are so many kinds of morality; so many kinds of life
structures and so many kinds of thinking systems. At different times,
different rules were formed by different leaders. In some societies,
something is considered moral, while in some other society, the same
thing is considered immoral. In some society, something is right and
in some other society, the same thing is wrong.

Here in America, in a particular state, casinos are allowed, while
in the neighboring state, casinos are illegal. A river separates the two
states and in the border line on the river between the two states there
is a big casino! On one side it is legal, and on the other side it is
illegal! Something can be a law in one place and the same thing can
be illegal in an adjoining place.

So how does one scale right and wrong? Where is the scale to
measure what is right and what is wrong? There is no scale. That is
why in Sanatana Dharma, which is the correct name for Hinduism,
we have two scriptures. Sanatana Dharma is the only courageous
dharma (system of righteousness), to have two kinds of scriptures.
In all other religions on planet Earth, they have only one scripture,
only one ultimate holy book. And in most of the religions their holy
book cannot be updated.

Sanatana Dharma is the only courageous religion which says its
holy books can be updated. The scriptures here have been divided
into two portions: Sruti (Vedas and Upanishads) and Smriti (epics, books
of conduct, etc). Sruti consists of the ultimate laws about
enlightenment; Atman (the Self); Brahman (the divinity); the concept
of self realization, of the universe and so on. Smriti consists of the
social laws, day-to-day rules and regulations.

Hindus are the first courageous people who declared that their
Smriti can be changed. From time to time, enlightened masters could
create new Smriti because it is known that no moral principles can
be moral principles forever. No law can be a law forever because both
morality and law are based on situations, based on the type of people
involved. If the deer population becomes too much, we are allowed
to hunt. Similarly at one time, the population of cows was excessive
in India. This resulted in cows being given away in sacrifices. Once
the number of cows became low, they started to worship cows again.
It is all done with supreme awareness and in smooth harmony with
nature.

These rules are created to maintain equilibrium in society; to
maintain harmony in society. When we all live together, we need to
understand and follow a few basic principles to live happily. For
instance, you will not try to kill me so that I will not kill you. We
both can live happily without fear. Like this, a few basic principles are

drawn and put into being. Slowly they become rules. Then they
become moral principles.

As long as we understand the root of these moral principles, we
will neither behave immorally nor will we be disturbed by these moral
codes. The problem arises when we are not taught the basis of these
rules. When we don’t know the basis, they become forced rules. Then,
we not only try to step around these rules, but we also create deep
guilt within ourselves when we disobey them. We get caught in this
cycle of guilt because of a sheer lack of understanding.

When anything is a forced rule, we always try to break it. For
instance, we always speed when we don’t see the policeman around.
Actually, there is some sense of adventure and satisfaction when doing
things that one is not supposed to do.

A man who became addicted to smoking came to me asking for help,
‘Master, please help me to quit smoking. I don’t know how I became
addicted. Please help me.’
I asked him, ‘How did you start?’
He replied, ‘Master, I never wanted to smoke. In fact, I hated the smell!
One day my friend and I were talking on a street corner. My friend
was smoking. My father saw us from a distance and thought that I
was also smoking. When I went home, he started shouting at me. I
tried my best to explain to him that I was not smoking, but he would
not listen to me. So I thought, anyhow he is not willing to believe me
and he is already shouting at me for smoking, so I might as well smoke!
I had already been punished. That is why I started smoking.’

Most of the time, if we are asked not to do something, we feel
provoked into doing it. We feel a sort of joy or satisfaction in doing
it. That is a basic tendency in every human being. When you say
‘no’ to your parents, you prove you are a man. As long as you say
‘yes’, you are only a child. You feel you are not mature until you start
saying ‘no’. When you say ‘no’, you feel mature! It is a basic tendency.

You can see this in teenagers, especially in the Western countries.
The moment they say ‘no’, they think they are grown-up and mature.
They feel they have become mature, that they have become a man
or woman by saying ‘no’ to their parents. That is why there are so

many rebellious groups; so many so-called ‘gangs’. It is because there
is a deep satisfaction in saying ‘no’.

Saying ‘no’ is addictive. When we say ‘no’, we are trying to prove
we are somebody special - that we are a distinct individual. As long
as moral principles are forced on us without any understanding of
their source, we create two things; first, the desire to move away
from them, and second, deep guilt within our being.

Two children were talking about their grandparents. One child said
to the other, ‘My grandmother talks a lot. I can’t understand how she
can talk so much. What does your grandma do?’
The other child replied, ‘My Grandma crams in as many pages of the
Bible as she can from morning till night.’
The first child asked, ‘How come? Why does she do it?’ The other friend
replied, ‘She says she is preparing for her final exam.’

The way in which morality and religion are projected to us, we
pray only out of fear and guilt; that is the problem.

A great pundit - learned man - wanted to bathe in the sacred river,
Ganges. He had a kamandalu (water pot) with him. He needed to
keep it safe while he bathed. He looked around, but there seemed to be
nobody trustworthy around who would keep it while he had his bath
in river. So he made a small pit in the sand on the banks of the river,
placed his kamandalu in it and covered the pit with sand. In order to
remember where he had buried the kamandalu, he put a heap of sand
on that spot. He then went to bathe in the river.
There was a farmer watching the pundit from a distance. He saw what
the pundit had done. He thought to himself, ‘Oh! I did not know that
one is supposed to make a small sand mound on the river bank before
bathing in the Ganges!’ He immediately made a heap of sand similar
to that of the pundit and then entered the Ganges to bathe.
Another person came to the river bank just then and saw the farmer
making a small sand mound. He thought, ‘Oh! It seems to be a
tradition to make a sand mound before bathing in the Ganges.’ He
too made a small sand mound and went in to bathe.
By and by, all the people who came to the river for their bath started

making sand mounds before entering the Ganges.
When the pundit returned from his bath in the river, he saw hundreds
of sand mounds all over the river bank! He was now in trouble. Where
was his kamandalu? Under which heap of sand was it hidden? He
started to search, destroying the sand mounds.
Suddenly the freshly bathed farmer returned and shouted at him
saying, 'Why are you destroying our Shivalingas? (symbol of God
Shiva) Why are you destroying our sand mounds? You are a pundit,
you should have some sense! Don't you know that one is supposed to
make a Shivalinga before bathing in the Ganges? You are destroying
our Shivalingas. Don't you have any sense?'
A sand mound naturally looks like a Shivalinga. The pundit
wondered, 'What is this man talking about? When did this ritual
start? It was me who just kept my kamandalu in a sand pit and now
it has become a Shivalinga with a big following! I don't think I can
do anything about this now.' He was not allowed to destroy the sand
mounds. He had to move on without his kamandalu.

If we look into our lives, there are so many mounds that have
entered it in the same way. There are so many speed breakers; so
many obstacles that have entered our lives without any solid basis.
By and by, with the passage of time, many regulations which were
meaningful in the past have become rules in the present without
having any meaning!

In India, in the olden days, they would not do any sewing work
after sunset. As they used needles to sew at night in the dim light
of a hurricane lamp, it was difficult to sew and so it was customary
not to sew after sunset. Even now in India, we can see that after
sunset, people will not do any sewing! Not even in some of the tailor
shops where there are bright tube lights! There are so many tailor
shops that have electrical lights, but they will not sew by hand after
sunset. They may use machines, but never the hand alone.

When we don't have the correct understanding, practices become
dead rules. When we have the correct understanding, any rule can
become a technique to live life happily. When we have understanding,
we will realize that rules facilitate happy, blissful lives for ourselves
and people around us. We will automatically fall in line with them.
Otherwise these very rules create hell for us and others.

I have seen a few people who sit down for meditation. Before they
start their meditation, they create such a fuss at home! They will
shout, ‘Keep quiet, don’t shout, switch off the music, do this, do that.’
They practically turn the whole house upside down for the sake of
ten minutes of meditation. Do you think that they will even manage
ten minutes of meditation? The moment they start, they are either
distracted, or dozing, or killing the mosquitoes sitting on them, or
scratching some body part. At the end of it, they think they have
done enough for the day. For this minor effort at meditation, they
create so much drama! They practically turn the whole house upside
down without understanding that meditation itself is done for the
sake of peace in the house! Their meditation becomes a torture for
the others at home!

Some people, when they try to silence others create a big noise
themselves. They will be telling others to keep quiet in such a loud
voice! In schools sometimes, one can see teachers make more noise
than the children in trying to keep them quiet!

Anyhow, most of the time when we don’t understand the root
of moral principles, we start living in a dull and dead manner.
According to me, any rule if internalized, will create guilt in us.
Understand: it could be any rule. When I say ‘any’, I mean ‘any rule’.
Any rule which we follow without experiencing its essence will create
a deep guilt in us because by nature we aspire for freedom. Svabhava
swatantrata means our nature itself is freedom. We are free by our
very nature. We are nithya muktas – eternally free. We never want to
be caged! We never want to be slaves to rules!

Actually, if you see, society is struggling – working only towards
attaining freedom. Our entire struggle is nothing but a struggle for
freedom. Even our search for money is the search for freedom. If
we have more money, we have bigger choices, bigger house, bigger
car, more comforts; more freedom. Our choice for freedom is the
real search. Our search for money is nothing but a search for freedom.
So by our very nature we are searching for freedom. We never
wanted to be caught by rules or moral principles. When some moral
principle is given to us as a rule, either we try to go beyond it or if
we can’t, we take revenge on the people who imposed the rule on us.
We always take revenge. We wait for the right time and take revenge
on them.

People come and tell me, ‘Master, my son is not taking care of
me.’ Be very clear: your son may be your worst enemy and you may
be his worst enemy because you have imposed so many rules, so many
regulations on him. You have laid down so many laws; you were his
guide when he was young. Naturally, one part of his mind will respect
you, while the other part will always be against you. The other part
will be waiting to take revenge on you because you imposed rules
and regulations on him. Therefore it can be expected that he will
naturally be against you. This may not be obvious but it will be true
at the subconscious level.

There are a few people who try to give us rules in a very subtle
or cunning manner. They exploit our fear and greed by showing us
hell and heaven; desire for heaven and fear of hell. They create so
many concepts of hell and heaven in us. They say, ‘If you practice a
certain way of life, you will be rewarded with heaven; if you practice
other ways of life, you will be rewarded with hell.’ This concept of
heaven and hell is a subtle way of exploiting our being.

When we are given rules based on greed and fear, it leads to the
creation of deep guilt in us. This is one of the ultimate laws which is
very difficult to understand. Nobody can live their life based on any
law. When I say nobody, I mean nobody. When I say any law, I mean
any law. Life is far superior to laws. All laws, rules and regulations
are based on some understanding of life. But life is beyond our
understanding and beyond our logic. People ask me, ‘Why is life
created at all?’ I tell them, this ‘why’ can never be answered because
this ‘why’ is based on your logic.

Life is based on God’s logic. Our logic and God’s logic can never
meet. His logic is so big, so vast and so infinite. We can never meet
His logic. Life is created by Him. Rules are created by us. Life is
created by Him. Laws are created by us. Naturally, our laws can never
match or fit with God’s logic or God-created life. Life is natural. Laws
are societal. Life is physical. Laws are mental. So all our ideas, all our
do’s and don’ts, all our morality, all our right or wrong is given to
us by society.

We are called a saint or a sinner only by society. As long as we
are given the title ‘saint’ by society, we are saints. The moment society
gives us the title ‘sinner’, we are sinners. If we kill someone in society,

we will be called murderers. We will be punished. If we kill someone
in war, we will be called heroes. We will be rewarded with a big award!
So understand that these things are purely societal. When we start
internalizing the laws of society in our minds, we create a deep wound
in our beings; we destroy our intelligence. According to me, rules
and regulations are only superficial. All our concepts of morality are
shallow; just look a little deeper! They are only skin deep!

In some religions, people are made to believe that they are born
sinners. They live their entire life in guilt. This situation offers the
religious leaders control over people through the fear element. The
only sin, the 'original sin', is the ignorance of not realizing the truth

Our true nature is always struggling to express itself, to go beyond
all rules, regulations and all moral principles. Our consciousness is
always trying to break through our conscience. Our consciousness
continuously fights with our conscience. Conscience is societal.
Consciousness is natural. Conscience is a poor substitute for
consciousness.

People ask me, 'What is this, master? You are breaking basic laws.
You are pulling down the whole social structure. You are pulling down
the whole structure of rules and regulations. Then how can we all
live morally? How will people live without morality? Why are you
doing this?'

You see: for children, we need rules to introduce them to morality.
But for us, it is time! We are not children anymore! It is time to stand
up and have morals based on understanding, not based on fear and
greed. As long as morality is based on fear and greed, you can be
sure that it is just skin deep. You can never be moral based on fear
and greed. If fear and greed are the basis for your moral values, you
will try all possible ways to escape them. For instance, you will speed
just ten miles over the local speed limit and think, 'As soon as I see
a policeman, I can press the brake and slow down.'

As long as your moral values are based on fear and greed,
understand that you are still a child. You are not a mature adult. If
you are really grown up, your moral principles will be based on
understanding, not on fear and greed. According to me, a mature
person means a person who lives a happy, blissful and quiet life without
fear and greed. When we drop our fear and greed, a new kind of
morality arises in our being; a morality which is different from social
morality; a morality that is not superficial. It arises out of our being.
Our entire being experiences a different kind of well-being.

There was a Zen master in a small village. For some unknown reason,
the King of the land declared that this master should be killed the
next morning. The Zen master was informed of the king's orders. The
King had also said that the Zen master could do whatever he wanted
until the next morning. He could live as he liked; he was given
complete freedom.
But the master was seen following his daily routine even on his last
day. He was seen gardening, fetching water from the well, cooking,
serving his disciples and living in the same manner as before, like it
was just another routine day.
His disciples asked him, 'You are about to die tomorrow morning.
Don't you want to do something else?' The master replied, 'My life is
based on a clear understanding. This is the best way I can live. I am
totally fulfilled. I have nothing else I desire to do, whether I live for
24 hours or 2 hours. This is what I want to do. This is my enjoyment.'

If somebody gives us a similar deadline, 'You will only live till
tomorrow morning; you can do whatever you want until then,' just
look inside your mind; think of all the things you would do! You would
probably live a life on this last day that you would never have lived
before because of your suppression in the name of morality. That is
why I say: our morality is superficial. We are controlling ourselves
for some reason that we are not fully convinced about. We are not
living life. As long as we don't live life, we will always feel that we
are missing something. The feeling that we are missing something
is the primary reason why we fear death. Mostly, we are not afraid

of death itself. We are afraid that we have not lived our life fully and
therefore we are afraid to die! Actually, it is not fear of death. It is
the fear of not having lived life fully.

Guilt is the root of fear of death. This is an important thing we
should understand! Guilt is the root of greed also! As long as we
suffer from guilt, we can never enjoy anything. One of my devotees
told me, ‘Master, the moment I see an ice-cream, I get a cold. I don’t
even have to eat it. If I just look at an ice-cream, I catch a cold.’ She
had been suffering for the last twelve years. I attempted to trace the
root of the problem with her; it was almost like psychoanalysis. I
traced it to its root cause. Her mother created guilt in her about
eating an ice-cream when she was a child. The mother didn’t want
her to eat too much ice-cream, so she created guilt in her; a deep
negative attitude towards ice-cream. The negative attitude was
responsible for the allergic reaction triggered just by looking at ice-
cream. When we were talking, she said, ‘Sometimes when I see an
ice-cream, I can hear my mother’s voice saying, ‘Don’t eat!’ Even now
I can hear her voice.’

All of us hear voices in us. Actually, we don’t even know how many
times we hear voices! We are not so sensitive, which is why we don’t
realize we can hear voices. Our being is a crowd of voices.
Understand: we have reached a stage where our being is not just
our being; it is a totality of a crowd of voices. All the voices are
there: our mother’s voice, father’s voice, teacher’s voice, neighbor’s
voice, professor’s voice, our hero’s voice, etc. We are a sum total of
a crowd of voices. That is why we feel there is so much contradiction
inside ourselves. If there were only one voice, we would never have
a problem; our mind would flow like a river.

This is a beautiful analogy that we should understand. The mind
is like a river; like a stream! Guilt is like the rocks in the river. It
blocks the flow, creating whirlpools, creating energy blocks. Any guilt
we carry in our being is blocking energy. Similar to a blood clot, this
is an energy clot. All the voices which are inside our mind are the
cause of guilt. And this guilt kills our intelligence.

As long as we flow like a river, like a stream, we will express
extraordinary intelligence in our lives. We will express a different kind
of intelligence; a different kind of energy; a different kind of bliss.

The moment we start creating guilt in ourselves, the moment we
are stopped in our free flow, we create an energy clot inside our being;
we create an energy clot in our mind. The older the culture, the
greater the guilt. We tend to think that if our culture is old, we are
better in some manner and so more guilt happens when we do things.
All this will get offset when you operate out of consciousness.

Also, the older the culture, the lesser the understanding of it,
because over generations, it gets diluted in understanding. If we live
based on past rules without comprehending why these rules were
created, we will create a deep wound inside our beings. We will create
a deep wound inside our minds.

After talking to this lady, I came to the conclusion that it was her
mother’s voice that was creating the disturbance. I gave her a simple
technique. I told her, ‘Just get yourself five ice-creams; don’t bother
about your mother. If you hear your mother’s voice, just be angry
with her and eat the ice-cream.’

Anger is a beautiful way to release guilt. The moment we express
anger, guilt is also released. Actually, anger and guilt are two sides
of the same coin. Anger is a wonderful way to release guilt. The
moment we become angry with the person who is responsible for
creating guilt in us, we release the guilt.

When we create guilt within ourselves based on somebody’s
opinion, how do we create that guilt? We create it because we respect
that person. The moment we become angry with him, naturally that
respect is lost. We understand we have been exploited and are
disturbed by it. Quite often that person may not even realize he was
exploiting us.

An American lady brought her son to me with a complaint. She said,
‘Master, he is not obeying me. Please advise him.’
I felt a little awkward. I never obeyed my mother. How could I advise
this boy to obey his mother? The boy looked intelligent. But the mother
kept pestering me, so I had no other option.
I started talking to the boy. I asked him, ‘Why don’t you obey your
mother? She made even me obey her just now. Why don’t you listen

to what she is saying?
The boy looked at me and replied, 'Master, she herself is not happy. If
I follow her words, where will I end up? I will also end up in the
same way. Why are you asking me to obey her? Why are you asking
me to listen to her?'

I was shocked! Somehow I managed to convince him for the sake
of his mother. But I think the next generation is going to sue their
parents if they fall into depression! Children are going to sue the
parents. They will say, 'My parents didn't give me the correct mental
set-up which is why I am now depressed.' Be careful! We have to
find a means by which we will not create guilt in the minds of children;
a method by which we will create only more intelligence, more
understanding and more bliss in their lives.

According to me, experience is more solid than morality.
Consciousness is more solid than conscience. Of course, we need a
little patience to create consciousness. We need to work on children;
we need to explain every step to them; we can't just spoon-feed them.
We can't just spoon-feed consciousness. We can spoon-feed
conscience; just do's and don'ts. But with consciousness, we can't do
that. We need to work with children. Unless we have this much
patience, we have no right to bring one more life to this planet. People
come and tell me, 'Master, you don't know, it is very difficult. If you
had a child you would understand. You say these things, but it is very
difficult to manage them or kindle their intelligence. We have to create
guilt and give them rules.'

If you can't take the responsibility, you must think twice before
you decide to give birth to a child. Understand! Have you solved
your life's problems? Have you found solutions to all your problems?
Then go ahead; bring the next generation to this planet. Otherwise...
wait! There is every chance the next generation will demand of you,
'What are you doing? Why did you bring me into this world?' Already
children have begun to ask, 'She herself is not happy. Why should I
follow her?'

There is every chance that tomorrow's children are not going to
listen to our idea of morality.

Not only for the sake of our children but for our own sake we
should look into our lives. I think that Vivekananda was one of the
most courageous masters who lived on this planet. He had nothing
to do with the so-called society. He broke every rule; he gave a new
light to humanity. I believe He was Manu - The sage who coded a
book on social laws - of modern days. He was the smriti kara - creator
of social laws - of modern days.

He said in one of his discourses, 'Reason and Religion': let religion
be flooded with logic. Let your religion be flooded either by reason
or by logic. Let whatever that can be washed away by reasoning, be
washed away. The earlier they are washed away, the better it is for
humanity.'

He said, 'flood religion with reasoning.' Allow reason to be the
main thing. Let our consciousness be the torch, while we flood
religion. The earlier the superstitions are washed away, the better it
is for humanity. If they can't stand the flood of reason or logic, let
them be washed away. It is better for humanity.

There was a scientist, Galileo, who discovered that the Earth was not
flat, that it was in fact a globe. He wrote after his research that the planet
Earth was round; it was a globe; it was not flat. But the Christian
Inquisition at that time, was so convinced that they were the total
authority, and the 'church' had such complete control over the culture,
that they succeeded in forcing Galileo to recant his discovery of fact.
In their ignorance, they knew the Sun went around the Earth, and
were not going to be told otherwise by a scientist.

So the Christian court, the Inquisitors, summoned the scientist. They
called him and said, 'You can't say that our planet Earth moves around
the Sun. You have to change your statement, otherwise you will be
killed.' In those days, they were not only killing anyone who disagreed
with them, they were also torturing in very un-Christian ways. Galileo
finally agreed saying, 'Alright, I will change my statement.' He
changed his statement to this: 'My earlier statement was wrong. The
Sun moves around the Earth.' He made a small footnote in this book:

Because I am Christian, I have changed my statement. But the Sun
and planet Earth are not Christians. So they go around as they go
around. They are not going to change their direction of movement
based on my statement.

When someone points to the moon with their hand, if you grab
their hand, naturally you miss looking at the moon because you have
changed the direction of their hand. The next generation ends up
looking somewhere else. Not only do we miss looking at the moon,
we ensure that the next generation also misses looking at the moon.
As long as there is understanding, there is nectar in our lives. It
creates tremendous intelligence in our life. The moment understanding
is reduced to a superstitious belief, the moment it is reduced to
morality, it creates deep guilt in us. And guilt is the sure killer of
intelligence. It will not allow us move on in our lives.

I would like to tell you about an incident. A devotee had a tumor
at the end of her spinal cord near the root chakra. She had suffered
for twenty years. She came to me and said, 'Master, please help me,
heal me. I have been suffering with this tumor for so many years.'
She told me that even after surgery, the tumor came back. I started
by talking to her to help trace the origin of the problem.

Finally, she opened up and started to weep. I asked her if she had
any guilt related to her sex energy. She told me that she had been
abused when she was very young, while she was a child. One of her
close relatives had abused her for many years. That guilt stayed with
her and she said, 'I started hating that part of my body. I started
wishing that that part of my body did not exist. I felt as if that part
did not belong to my body. My hatred towards that person was
redirected towards my own body.'

Her hatred had become very deep. She slowly opened up to me.
When she brought the guilt up, I continued talking to her, helping
her come out of the guilt. She was psychologically healed. I explained
to her how this was a common occurrence. Studies reveal that one
in four children is sexually abused, especially in America. Of course,
children don't open up; they don't tell us.

This lady was psychologically healed after I explained the nature
of such matters. You will be surprised to hear this, but the lady was

cured in just 10 days. The tumor simply disappeared! I had given her
a small meditation technique. I told her to meditate on that area while
expressing her anger towards the person who abused her. I told her
to weep, shout, cry, even hit the person in her visualization; to close
the doors of her room, take a pillow, imagine that pillow to be the
person, weep, cry, shout and hit the pillow! After that, sit silently and
feel that the particular body part was an integral part of her body.
You will be surprised: in just 10 days the tumor disappeared. It never
came back. It may be difficult to understand, but it is true.

Similar things happen in our lives due to psychological factors.
When we fall ill, it is not always a condition of physical ill health.
Sometimes we are psychologically disturbed. Most of the time, our
energy gets blocked because of guilt. We suffer psychological illness
because of our guilt. If we look deep, wherever we have fear,
wherever we are unable to move, wherever we are unable to make
decisions, there will be some guilt. And because of this, we fall ill.

There are three types of guilt: first, guilt created by immediate
family; second, guilt created by social laws; third, guilt created by one's
own self. These are the three major kinds of guilt which kill our
intelligence. Guilt about sex is generally the guilt created by our
immediate family. This is the first guilt. Guilt associated with greed
is also created by one's immediate family. Guilt based on fear is created
by social laws. The third guilt, which is the worst, is the one which
we create ourselves. When we internalize guilt based on greed and
fear, we create new types of guilt for ourselves. If we analyze
situations in which we find ourselves stuck, or with which we may
be struggling, we will find the three kinds of guilt present at the
root of the problem.

We must break free from the past. The past is dead. Not only is
it dead, it is a dead weight on our being. As long as we have guilt,
we will never be able to move forward in our lives blissfully; we can
never have deeply blissful lives. Be very clear: we can never be moral
based on guilt. If our behavior is based on guilt, our morality becomes
immature and superficial. It is time to be mature. We will not behave
immorally if we understand that rules are created for our own sake.
For instance, if we come to know that there is no punishment in this
country for committing murders, will we kill the next person? If one
wants to do such a thing, then it means that the person is immature,

not grown up. Then such a life is not worth living. He is like the
living dead.

For nine years prior to enlightenment, I walked the length and
breadth of India; from Tapovan in the north to Kanya Kumari in the
south; Ahmedabad in the west to Ganga Sagar in the east. I have
walked the length and breadth of India. I have always meditated in
graveyards because it was much easier; I didn't ever have to make
reservations! People always asked me, 'Weren't you afraid? Did you
encounter any ghosts?' I tell them, 'Dead people don't disturb others.
Only living people disturb others!' If one's moral principles are based
on greed and fear, then be clear that such a life is much worse than
being dead. It is not worth living.

Let our morality be based on our understanding, on consciousness,
not on conscience. As long as our principles are based on 'do's and
don'ts', we are just children. These rules, based on our lack of
understanding, form a block between enlightenment and us. As long
as these blocks exist we can never touch enlightenment. The moment
these blocks are removed, we experience total freedom, total bliss,
total ecstasy; then naturally enlightenment happens; we won't have
to reach out to enlightenment; enlightenment will reach out to us.
Understand that guilt is the sure killer of intelligence. May we kill
the guilt and experience the ultimate intelligence!

Our Upanishads say, 'prajnanam brahma' (Intelligence is Existence).
May you experience that Existence and experience the Eternal Bliss
... nithyananda!

We will spend a few minutes addressing questions. I will now try
to answer your questions.

Master, you said that it was unnecessary for someone to do extensive
periods of tapas (penance) in their search for enlightenment. How is that
possible for a practical man?

What I spoke of is for the practical man. Understand: when I
recommend one should do tapasya (penance), people say it is impractical.
When I say there is no need to do tapasya, people ask me to explain
in a practical manner why it is not needed. The very understanding
can lead you to express enlightenment. The right listening and
understanding can lead one to express their innate nature - which is
enlightenment!

According to me, enlightenment means being in eternal bliss. When
you are in bliss, nothing in the outer world can disturb you. Your
outer world will never enter your inner world. That is what I call
enlightenment. Simply understand that your outer world is your outer
world. Your inner world is your inner world. Whatever you do in
the outer world, do it like housekeeping in a dream. What will happen
to all our housekeeping done in a dream when we wake up? It simply
disappears! That's all! But when you are in the dream, it is intense.
If you can maintain this understanding, not only will you do things
intensely, you will also not have any attachment to it! That is the way!

Now you may possibly have a few more questions like, 'How does
one lead life practically?'

When I refer to housekeeping in a dream, I don't mean, 'Don't do
this housekeeping.' Do it, but do it in a way that you are not disturbed
by the housekeeping; do it with the simple understanding that our
entire life is nothing but housekeeping in a dream! Continue to do
the same housekeeping with this clear understanding. It will be more
than enough to express enlightenment. You don't need to work to
suppress your greed or fear or any other quality. You need to work
only on this single idea: that your entire life is housekeeping in a
dream! You will then automatically be free from greed and fear and
other emotions.

You should feel that, 'I am doing my housekeeping because I enjoy
it.' When we were young, we played with toys. When we came to be
around 10 years old, we threw away the same toys; we outgrew those
toys. Just because we threw away our toys when we were young, it
doesn't mean that we will not give toys to our children. Would we

say to them, ‘I always played with toys when I was young and then
threw them away. So don’t play with toys?’ No! We don’t say that.
We allow them to play.

We feel a child should play with toys as long as it wants to, till the
child reaches maturity. When it becomes mature, it drops the toys
automatically. In the same way, we must understand and accept about
ourselves, ‘Let me play housekeeping in dreams until I really
understand.’ This very acceptance will lead you to enlightenment. If
you are unable to accept, just accept that you are unable to accept it,
that is enough! You are pulled towards the past or future only because
you don’t understand what is!

Recently, one of my close devotees asked me, ‘Master, you are so
casual; so innocent; so playful. But how is it possible that any word
you utter becomes true. How can so much intelligence and intuition
happen in you continuously? How can you be so playful and
paramount at the same time? Your words are clearly turning into
reality!’

We should understand something clearly: we are unable to experience
intuition because we are unable to fall into the present moment. We
are always pulled by either the past or the future. Either we work
and worry about the past or we work and worry about the future.
Something or the other is continuously going on. And so we miss
the present.

Time is like a shaft. Visualize this one thing and understand: time is
like a shaft. We are either pulled to this side of the shaft or to that
side of the shaft. We never feel relaxed; a deep craving exists within
us at all times, either to achieve something in the outer world or to
achieve something in the inner world. The craving to achieve
something in the inner world is also a craving for the future. Our
craving for enlightenment is also worry about the future. Because
of craving o some sort, we never fall into the present moment.
Remember: eternity penetrates only the present moment.

The first thing to do is to accept the existence of the outer world;
accept the existence of the inner world; whatever problems you have
in the outer world and whatever problems you have in the inner world,
accept them all. As long as you don’t accept them, there is a problem.

Just try this small experiment: relax completely for just three days;
not more than that; just three days. If you live a satisfied life for just
three days, will you lose all your wealth in your inner world or outer
world? Surely not! In three days you are not going to lose anything.
Why don't you give it a try? For just three days, sincerely, utterly,
one hundred percent, drop, accept. If you are unable to accept a
hundred percent, accept that you are unable to accept a hundred percent.

Even the acceptance that one is unable to accept themselves in the
inner world and outer world will make one drop from the rut of being
pulled between past and future. The moment we understand, 'I am
not able to accept my reality; there is nothing I can do!' even the
very push and pull will become our reality. If we accept everything
then we will fall into the present moment. The moment we fall into
the present moment, the time shaft will become our servant. As long
as we are below the time shaft, it rules us; we will be pulled or pushed
by the time shaft. The moment our consciousness is raised to the
present moment, we see that we are penetrating the time shaft. When
we penetrate the time shaft, the future and the past are clearly known
to us. We then come to the tremendous realization that the time shaft
exists only due to the projection of our mind!

Try this experiment for just three days; if you can fall into the present
moment, relaxing the headaches related to the outer world and the
inner world, in three days time, you will have a glimpse.

What is life? What does it mean 'to live in the present moment'? You
will experience such ecstasy, such a different space, such a different life
when you live in the present moment. Three days! You must attempt
to not alter anybody in the outer world after this experience. After all
you have lived based on your own changing philosophies for the last
30 years. Give yourself just three days for a trial. You will see when
you experiment with these great techniques, how they work miracles
in your being, how they start working alchemy in your being.

A sincere three days trial; if you are unable to be sincere, accept that
you are not able to be sincere. Even that sincerity is enough. You
will start seeing a different space in you. That different space is what
I call nithya - eternity.

May you experience that nithya - eternity and nithyananda - eternal
bliss!

Many of us think that love is a choice. We feel that the
experience of love and expression of love are choices that
we can make. If we want, we can have it. If we don’t want, we can
leave it. But it is not so. As a human being, it is as basic a necessity
as it is to be alive.

Can we think of experiencing love and then expressing it to be a
choice? No! It is not a choice as we think. When we experience love,
there is no choice but to express it. If we don’t experience and express
love, we may inhale and exhale, but we can’t say we are alive. There
are so many animals which are breathing in and breathing out, so
many other lives which are there on this planet. In a sense one can’t
say all of them are living; even to feel that one is living, love is a
basic necessity.

Let us look a little deeper into the meaning of the word love.
The word love is too contaminated and too loaded with many different
meanings, interpretations, commentaries. Forget the idea of selfless,
unconditional, spiritual love. We don’t even need to bother about that
yet. Let us first consider normal, simple love with all its
possessiveness, jealousy and whatever other side effects it may cause!
Even that love does a lot for our body and mind. After that we can
look at selfless and spiritual love or mature love.

First, let us analyze love, the feeling of affection that we share
in our normal day-to-day lives, which has so many side effects and
after effects like possessiveness, jealousy and anger. All these are the
after effects of ordinary love. Even this love does a lot for our bodies,
does a lot of good for our minds.

I was reading a magazine the other day which contained a survey
report. I was amazed to see the report. The title was, Live Forever. It
gave eleven techniques, eleven important instructions to extend one’s
life by at least 20 years, supported by standard statistics and survey

reports. All the eleven were related to love. It said that even caring
for a pet animal releases a hormone which allows you to live at ease
with your body. If caring for your pet animal does so much, surely
caring for your husband or for your wife will do a lot more!

Another point it stated was about how people die early if they are
single or are widowers, and how life gets extended if we are caring
for, or being cared for by somebody. Also, in the second case, it is said
that there are lower chances of cancer and depression. Even what we
call ordinary love, simple infatuation, can do miracles for our body and
mind. It gives a deep feeling of healing, of well being. I am not
advocating infatuation. I am trying to explain what even ordinary love
can do to a person. Ultimately, all infatuation should end in pure love.

A small analysis from Tantra, a part of Hindu philosophy: Tantra
says that there are five types of restlessness that we all suffer
from which can be healed by ordinary love - ordinary, simple, human
love - the feeling of caring for each other; I am not speaking of high
spiritual love, what we call bhakti or devotion, selfless love – which is
seeing the whole world as God - this comes later.

Let us first talk of simple practical love which we may share for
some reason; either because that person supports us socially or that
person will stand up for us when we face difficult times, or because
we feel that the person supports us mentally or psychologically, or
maybe we want a good certificate or name from him. For any of these
reasons, we may show love. Even love expressed with a selfish reason
heals us from five different kinds of restlessness.

The first kind of restlessness happens due to the place. Sometimes
in a particular place or situation we feel restless. If we move from
that place or situation, we feel more settled. Even in such places or
such situations, an expression of love - even the body language of
love can make things better; it can heal.

Becoming comfortable with the space around us makes us less
tense, less restless. A house becomes a home when we live in it with
love and care. Similarly, any place can become home to us if we choose
to love and care for it. We should find simple things that we like about
a new location, things that we can relate to and things that can make
us smile. Once this is done, the rest is simple; love will break through
the rest.

The next type of restlessness is due to physical reasons. Physical
restlessness is a form of tension within our body. Any tension in our
bodies, any uneasiness can be released when we express our love to
somebody. You may ask: how love can take away physical restlessness.
We can see in our own lives - a mother who has a child to look after,
feels continuously rejuvenated; otherwise taking care of children is
not an easy job! She feels rejuvenated because of the love and care
she feels for the child.

Tension or restlessness in our body is removed when we care for
somebody, when we smile at somebody, when we express love in our
body language. In fact, you can try it out. At the time you feel tense
inside your body, just decide consciously and melt with love towards
somebody. That very moment, the tension will disappear! For example,
you may be lying down feeling unwell. If some friend visits you at
that time or when somebody you love visits, you immediately sit up
and talk to them and feel better, is it not? You feel instantly rejuvenated.
When you really love somebody, you express your energy. Even a
simple smile can cause this switch this to happen if that smile comes
from our heart. This is why they say, ‘When you meet someone
without a smile, give them yours!’

There are four things we need to understand: love, intelligence,
energy and bliss. All these four feelings are four sides of the same
pillar. When we express a feeling through our head, it is intelligence.
When we express through our heart, it is love. When we express
through our being, it is energy. When our being just relaxes without
any reason, it is bliss! All the four are the same phenomena, expressed
through four different names.

So whenever we express love, we express energy also. Love is
concentrated and caring energy. So naturally, whenever we express
love, we become a channel for energy, and when we are a channel for
energy, we not only help others, but are also helped ourselves.

Any mental restlessness can be healed by love. When we care for
pets or play with children, we can avoid heart attacks; these can
postpone any fatal disease. Pets release tension. They do not talk back
to us. They just listen and express love. Their energy heals us.

The next type of restlessness is the restlessness of emotion.
Mental restlessness is different; that is intellectual. Emotional

restlessness means the restlessness which cannot be controlled by a
few words, just by consoling oneself. It can be healed only when we
express love. When we start radiating love, it floods our being with
energy. Our being is opened to the higher energies. This heals our
emotional restlessness.

Ultimately we come to spiritual restlessness. Just the pure love
for your teacher or master can heal spiritual restlessness! Many people
come and tell me, ‘Master, just by being in your presence we are
able to meditate. Why are we not able to meditate at home?’ The
reason is, whenever we meet great people - swamis and saints - we
start relating with them, we start expressing our love towards them.
This heals our spiritual restlessness completely. What do I mean by
‘spiritual restlessness’? It is the inability to sit comfortably with oneself,
alone, in silence.

I see so many people; they can sit with others, with the television,
with the newspaper; but they can’t sit with themselves! This is what
I call spiritual restlessness. They know to spend time with everybody
but they do not know how to spend time with themselves.

If you observe me as I speak, you will notice long gaps between
successive words. In those gaps, my intention is to bring down the
feeling of spiritual restlessness in you. People who are not spiritually
inclined, who are not mature enough to listen to these great ideas,
can never sit and listen to spiritual discourses, at least with me. This
is because their mind continuously needs food; it is constantly jumping
from thought to thought. When I create gaps of silence in my talks,
immediately boredom shows up in these people! Their mind will say,
‘I must leave. There is nothing happening here.’ Only a man who can
sit with himself can listen to these great words. If he can’t even sit
with himself, how can he be helped even if he listens to my words?

The mind is such that it continuously demands information; it
waits impatiently for the next word. Why are we so comfortable in
front of the television or in a cinema theater? There is so much
material being pushed inside our being without a gap, that’s why. So
much information, so many ideas are sent inside our being to support
our restlessness. So we feel very comfortable. Why do we enjoy food
that is spicy? Again, too much is sent inside, that’s why. When you
feel like scratching an itch, you feel comfortable because again when

you scratch, you get busy! Spicy food is nothing but 'scratching' the
tongue. It is a sort of comfort when information is flooding our mind.

There is one thing you should understand about watching movies.
When you are traveling at 30 km per hour, you can read all the
signboards; see all the trees and the scenery around clearly. If you
are moving at a speed of 130 km per hour, will we be able to see
anything clearly? There are far too many frames per second for our
senses to grasp anything. If the number of frames is less than 6
per second, you can clearly read and understand the information on
display. If the number of frames is more than 6 per second, your
consciousness cannot relate through the eyes anymore. While
watching a movie or television, you are exposed to 12 to 16 frames
per second. So naturally your consciousness is just pushed aside! And
because we are disconnected from our consciousness, we simply fall
for the scene that we see. If the hero of the movie dies, although we
may be well aware of the fact that the actor is alive and making his
next movie, we cry for his death! We are educated, logical and
intellectual people; we are aware that what we are viewing is just a
movie, but still, we laugh with the scene, cry with the scene and
experience changing moods with it.

In this way, scratching, spicy food, movies are all things which
keep flooding our systems with information or sensations. This
creates a deep restlessness as a side effect. If we have this deep
restlessness, we cannot sit and listen to great spiritual ideas; and I
make sure that people with restlessness do not sit here because they
not only don't understand, but they also misunderstand!

Misunderstanding great truths is very dangerous; a half truth is
worse than a lie. So if one has the patience to sit and listen to these
words, one's spiritual restlessness comes down; also the probability
of our mind demanding constant information in the form of the next
thought also comes down. We become so passive that these thoughts
not only touch our heads, but directly touch our hearts as well. If
we are totally passive, our being opens up at the emotional level. If
we are totally relaxed, at ease with ourselves, without too many
thoughts crowding our minds, we will see that our being just absorbs
these great truths.

In Vedanta we say, 'shravana, manana and nididhyasam' to describe
this process of calming down. It is listening, meditating and
practicing. If our minds are calm, there is no need to meditate
separately. The very listening can create the same experience, can
become the experience; 'shravana' - listening, can lead to experience.
According to me, if our 'shravana' is not proper, even 'manana' -
meditating, cannot help; contemplating silently cannot help.

J.Krishnamurthi says that listening to God - deep, total listening
without restlessness, is divine. That itself is God.

If we look deeply into our being, the very presence of a master
heals the spiritual restlessness. Love towards the master heals spiritual
restlessness.

So our love, even if it is simple and normal love, heals all five
aspects of restlessness.

Now let us look into the higher type of love, the love that was
experienced by Meera, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, and Ramana
Maharishi, all the great saints. Ramakrishna said, 'My love for the
divine is a miser's love for his money, a chaste wife's love for her
husband, a mother's love for her child - all these three put together
and something more!' Of course, we will not be able to understand such
love through these definitions. Love for the divine is a feeling of being
one with the other; falling in tune with the other person in totality; it
is an ecstatic feeling, the highest expression of our being.

Just by the utterance of the word 'Krishna', Meera would
experience ecstasy. In the scriptures, it is said, 'If tears roll down as
you listen to God's name, be sure that it is your last janma
(birth)'. Ramakrishna also makes a similar comment in his 'Gospel of
Ramakrishna'.

If we listen to the devotional songs sung by Annamacharya on
Lord Balaji, we realize that the Divine is an actual experience for him.

In some of his verses, Ramana Maharishi laments
before Arunachala, the Lord of Tiruvannamalai. He says, 'You are
my house owner, my husband. How then can you stand by and watch
while thieves come in and take me away, O Arunachala?' What a
beautiful verse! The five senses are referred to as the thieves who

come into the house and take away the being that is him; Arunachala
is the soul, the divine self within.

Somebody asked Ramana Maharishi, 'Bhagwan, how can you say
these things to God?' Bhagwan replied, 'For you, God is just a faith,
just a belief; for me He is a living being.'

A devotee had been praying to Vishnu for ten years but never got a
darshan (vision) of Him. So he decided to stop worshipping Vishnu
and pray to Shiva instead. He set Vishnu's statue aside and placed one
of Shiva before him and started worshipping it.
One day, he lit incense sticks before the Shiva statue. The incense smoke
rose up towards the Vishnu statue. The man became very angry. He
had prayed to Vishnu for so many years and never got blessed with a
darshan. He reached out and held Vishnu's nose as he did not want
Vishnu to enjoy the lit incense sticks.
As he was pressing the nose, suddenly he felt like he was actually
pressing a live nose. He opened his eyes to see Vishnu in front of him;
Vishnu was giving him a darshan! His hand dropped from the Lord's
nose and he exclaimed, 'O Lord! For so many years you did not grant
me a darshan and now when I am denying you the perfume of these
incense sticks, why do you give me your darshan?'

Vishnu replied, 'When you prayed to me all these years , you did
not feel that I was alive in that statue; only now when you put your
hand to my nose in anger, did you have the intensity of feeling that
I was actually there in the statue. When you have such a deep feeling
of connection, I have to come down and give you a darshan!'

There are so many very intense incidents, which express the
power of love. Love can perform miracles in your being, not only at
the mental level, but even at the physical level. Ramakrishna used to
say that sometimes after performing puja to Mother Kali, he would
wonder whether Mother was alive in the idol, or whether he was
wasting his time worshipping a stone. So he used to place a small
thread in front of the idol's nose to check whether She was breathing
or not. He said the thread always moved with the flow of Her breath!

When we express our deep love, we will see that Existence never
misses in relating or responding to us! We can give life to the whole
of Existence with love. With just this feeling, it is possible to make
the whole world come alive. Whatever we see, feel and experience,
then becomes a joyful thing.

There is a story in the life of Sadashiva Brahmendra, one of the great
saints of South India. He always went around without any clothing.
He lived just like a child.
One day he was walking in deep ecstasy, when the Nawab - the Muslim
ruler of that territory - went riding by. The saint was in such deep
ecstasy that he did not notice or pay respect to the Nawab. The Nawab
turned wild with fury and cut off the saint's hand with his sword.
Sadashiva Brahmendra continued to walk, hardly noticing the absence
of his hand. But one of his devotees started weeping, 'O master! You
have lost your hand for not showing courtesy to the Nawab.'
The saint was surprised and asked her to bring the severed hand. He
then put it back on and it became whole again!
The devotee was dumbstruck when she saw this.
The saint explained, 'The Nawab's hatred destroyed my hand; your
love healed it!'

Ramana Maharishi always used to say, 'It is the love of devotees
which keeps me in the body.' Any master comes down and lives in
his body just because of the love of his devotees. Masters as such
have no karma (unfulfilled actions); they have nothing to achieve,
nothing to gain. They don't have anything to enjoy. Then why do
they remain in the body? Only because of the love of their devotees.

When we express normal love with all its expectations, it heals
five different kinds of restlessness. However, love without expectation
simply performs miracles! Ordinary love gives us life; selfless love
gives life to even the stone that we worship! Even stone can become
God, even an ordinary man can become a guru. Such is the power
of faith.

Rama, the hero of the epic had to go to Lanka with his entire army to
bring back his wife Sita. Sita was held in captivation by the villainous
Ravana. There is an ocean that he had to cross to reach Lanka. A
bridge had to be built across the ocean to accomplish the task.

Rama ordered one of his devotees, Jambavan - the great bear - to take
care of the construction of the bridge across the ocean.
He asked his best devotee, Hanuman, to fly across the sea to first locate
Sita. Hanuman said, 'Oh Lord, you are asking Jambavan to construct
the bridge and asking me to fly to Lanka. How can I do it?'
Rama replied, 'You just chant the name Rama and you will be able
to accomplish the mission. Chanting the name of Rama is more
powerful than my physical form.'
Hanuman obeyed him without an iota of doubt and accomplished
the task!

Love gives rise to faith and gives life even to stone. Selfish love,
when expressed, heals your five feelings of restlessness and gives
life to you. Selfless love gives life to everything around you. When
you express selfless love, it gives more life to other beings as well.

Therefore, love to survive and to give life. Whether the love is
selfish or selfless, start expressing love. Let that become your body
language. Let that become your lifestyle. Let that become your very
life itself. May you feel and experience eternal bliss - nithyananda.

Master, can you please explain what part divinity plays in a miracle? You
say miracles happen. Does divinity make them happen? What are you
referring to as divinity?

In any action, normally you understand three things: first, the person
who does it, second is the act and the third is the thing that is done;
the doer, the deed and the result. All these three things can be
understood as three separate things logically, in this normal plane.

In the ultimate plane of reality there are no three different things.
You ask what role divinity plays in a miracle. The very miracle itself
is divinity. When you ask this question, you are asking for cause, effect
and the act; you are asking whether divinity is the cause, the act or
the effect. In the language of divinity, these three different things do
not exist; they are all one.

Normally if I have to raise my hand, first the brain has to give the
order, the order has to be carried to the hand and the hand has to
act. In the language of normal human beings, these three things have
to occur. But in divinity all the three are one and the same, and do
not exist separately. So the very divinity is a miracle.

Many people come and ask me who created the world. There is no
creator. Please be very clear: Existence created itself. The universe
is a self-created entity. The very creation itself is a creator; it is
intelligence, continually created.

It is a little difficult to understand. It is just 'creating'. The process
is continuously going on because of its own intelligence. There aren't
three separate things: creator, creation and created. There is just
'creating'; a self expression of intelligence. So in any miracle, the
miracle itself is divine. The cause for the miracle is divinity, the
happening is divinity and the result is also divinity.

If a person does not even have the desire to seek a guru, is there anything
wrong with that person?

Something is seriously wrong! When you know that you don't know,
you at least know that you don't know. When you don't know that
you don't know, you don't even know that you don't know! When
we don't know that we don't know, we don't search for a master.
Only when we know that we don't know, we can start to know and
when we start to know, the master happens in our lives.

Einstein became enlightened in the process of intensely studying
Physics. Ouspensky became enlightened because of Logic and
Mathematics. If we go deeply into any subject, we can become
enlightened because all paths lead to the same goal. There is no need
to do only puja or meditation to become enlightened.

Even if one does scientific research deeply to the very end, one can
reach enlightenment. I always say, 'If one is logically logical, one goes
beyond logic.' Ouspensky met his master, George Gurdjieff, in a casual
way. At that time, Ouspensky was a mathematician of world repute
and Gurdjieff was just a simple man. Some energy in Gurdjieff
prompted Ouspensky to go up to him. He said, 'I feel that you know
something that I do not know; can you teach me?'

Gurdjieff replied, 'You are the author of the wonderful book Pentium
Organ; what can I teach you?' Ouspensky maintained that Gurdjieff
had something that he could teach him.

Gurdjieff asked him to go to the next room and make a list of all
the things he knew and did not know so that he, Gurdjieff, could teach
him the things he did not know. With a pen in hand, Ouspensky tried
to make a list of the things he knew, but could not make the list no
matter how long or how hard he tried. He then realized that all his
knowledge was only superficial and that he needed to search for a
master.

As long as you believe the illusion that you know everything, you
are in great danger. That is the reason you do not search for a master
or spiritual teachings. If a man does not have a quest for even spiritual
teachings, you can be sure that he does not even know that he does
not know. That shows that he is in darkness without even knowing
that he is in darkness. If you have had a glimpse of light at least
once, then you will know that you are in darkness. If you have not
had even this glimpse, you will not even know that you are in darkness.

A man who was born blind went to a doctor and asked him if he
could help him gain vision. The doctor examined him and said he
would do an operation to give him vision and that he would be able
to walk without his stick.
The blind man replied, 'Doctor, I understand two things. I
understand that you will perform an operation. I understand that I
will be able to see. But I do not understand how I will be able to
walk without a stick!'
All his life he had used a stick to walk; he thought that the stick was
related to walking itself and he could not understand how he would
be able to walk without a stick. The doctor said, 'When you get your
vision, you will understand.'

Similarly, only when you get a glimpse of light will you understand
what type of darkness you are in. You will then start searching for
a master or spiritual teachings.

When all the great masters are divine manifestations, why is it that you
get attracted to a particular master?

Ramakrishna gives a beautiful example. The mother cooks the same
fish in ten different ways for ten children. One she makes sweet,
another is hot and spicy, yet another is fried. She cooks it in ten
different ways to satisfy the taste and expectations of all her children.
Actually, we each have our own mind set, our own expectations. The
divine fulfills you in the way you want it. If you are well read, if you
are intellectual, Shankara will appeal to you! If you have a passion
for music and dance, Meera or Chaitanya who expressed through
music and dance will appeal to you! The intellectual type may find
singing and dancing foolish. Similarly, a man who is attracted to the
ecstatic love of Meera and Chaitanya will think that it is a waste of
time to sit and analyze intellectually all the time!

The person whose head is more dominant will be attracted towards
intellectual avenues; the person who is heart oriented will be attracted
towards devotional avenues and the one who is being oriented will

be attracted towards meditation. There are so many paths and so
many masters; each person is centered on a different energy. The
person who constantly thinks is on the path of gnana yoga - the path
of knowledge; the person who is centered on emotions is a bhakti
yogi - following the path of devotion; for the person who is being
oriented, who is silent and introverted, meditation is the path. So a
person is attracted to the philosophy and the master based on his or
her individual energy or mind set.

When you find the right master, something will suddenly happen
between you and Him: a synchronicity; almost like falling in love!
Actually, something more than that which cannot be expressed in
words. It is not even falling in love, it is rising in love! With ordinary
people, it is falling in love, but with the master, it can only be rising
in love! You will find that he is expressing what you think, what you
always wanted to hear. You will find that your heart falls in tune with
him. So until this happens, continue the search. That is the right way
and the only way of seeking.

Ramana Maharishi answers this question beautifully by asking, Are
you alive?' (Questioner responds, 'yes') That itself is the qualification!
That is the qualification because life itself has been bestowed on you
by the Divine. So that is more than enough to receive divine grace.
Nothing more is required; the rest will be taken care of by the Divine.

Here is a question mentioning the names of two masters in India.
What is the difference between them and what is the similarity?

Our mind is such that we always analyze for differences, similarities
and what not. Masters are beyond our minds. When we try to analyze
them, we always fail and fall. We can compare two objects. We can
see what the similarities and the differences between two objects are,
for example, these two vases. You can see the size, shape, front view,
back view - everything about them. But in the case of masters, they
are infinity; they are in an infinite dimension! How is it possible to

see what the similarities and differences are between two infinities?
The similarities and differences between two masters are the same
as that between two infinities, that's all!

Yesterday you said that the difference between a disincarnate guru and a
live guru was that a live guru can point you upwards. But nowadays
there are so many gurus with such a large following that you can hardly
have any contact with them. But a disincarnate guru may be able to
guide you through dreams. Could you talk about this?

Yes, this is a major problem that modern day seekers face. Before I
answer, I have to confess: here at least you get a chance to question
me. You can find out from devotees in India how many people attend
my programs there; forty or fifty thousand! I am myself not able to
give them the opportunity to pose questions or even to come close!
But let me explain it to you.

With live masters, whether they have a big following or a small
following, whether you have close proximity to them or not, people
have experienced that whatever thought or doubt they have in their
mind is cleared by the master in some way or the other. Whenever
the question is sincere, whenever it is a quest, you will find that the
living master answers it in some way that will surprise you! The living
master will guide you. This is more of a possibility with a living
master than with a disincarnate master.

It is not impossible with a disincarnate master; it is possible; but we
have forgotten the language in which they speak! Their language is
too subtle. We need to drop our inner chattering in order to hear
them. With a live master like me, you have a loudspeaker! So even if
you have inner chatter, I can be louder than that! But disincarnate
masters talk through a very subtle language. Be very clear, they are
all the time talking to us. We can even call it communion. The problem
is that it has become one-sided. We have forgotten how to listen to
them; we have forgotten the language in which they speak. They speak
in the language of silence. And we do not know that language.

You may know many other languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu,
but not the language of Silence. Even when I say the word silence,
you refer to the Oxford dictionary! The meaning given there is

soundlessness. But that is not the meaning I want to convey. What I
mean is a vibrant, live energy that is silent! You are not able to relate
in that language. With a living master, you can understand what he
has to say because he uses the language that you know. So the
possibility of a living master being able to guide you is more than
that of a disincarnate master.

Another problem is that with disincarnate masters you can always
project your own ego and satisfy yourself. With a living master this
is not possible as he continuously knocks your ego and destroys it.

How do you explain the phenomenon of individuals conveying God’s
words?

‘Telepathy’, ‘I get the command’: all these are an expression of our
ego most of the time. Our own ego plays a double role. You speak
for yourself and for Him also! You stand in front of the statue and
pray to God, ‘O God, give me your blessings!’ And then you stand
behind the statue and say, ‘My son, I bless you!’

Most of the time, it is your intellect that plays both the roles.
Sometimes, when you are too intense, you can even become
schizophrenic! In India, this is what happens when some people start
acting like God. They even start showing some special powers. They
get into a hysterical state and start predicting the future. It seems
as though God has descended on them. They are even worshipped.
If God descends on a person, you will see only joy and bliss on their
face. But these intuitive fortune tellers always appear to be tense and
suffering. They are restless, agitated and keep shouting and creating
strange noises. Such expressions can never be God.

When God descends, it is so beautiful, so ecstatic and blissful, because
God is filled with love and energy. He radiates this love and energy.
He radiates compassion, never restlessness. So don’t cheat yourself;
that is the only warning. Otherwise you can continue in any path that
you choose.