What do dreams mean?

ONE man, a Zen master, woke up and started weeping. Zen masters are unpredictable. Their ways of teaching are mysterious, untraditional. One disciple asked the master: why are you weeping? Master said last night I dreamt that I was a butterfly and flying in the garden. Disciple asked: it was just a dream, why are you crying? Master said: I do not know whether I dreamt that I became a butterfly or whether the butterfly is dreaming now that it is a master with so many disciples.

Both thoughts were transient, not permanent. But do we understand? We always think that whatever we are is permanent. We try to possess it, identify with it.

We have four states: waking, dreaming, deep sleep and one more. There are two states of thoughts and two states of consciousness, which overlap. In waking state we are with thoughts and ‘I consciousness’. In deep sleep we’ve neither thoughts nor ‘I consciousness’. In the dream state, we’ve only thoughts but no ‘I consciousness’. Once we think of I, we come out of the dream. There is a fourth state where there are no thoughts but we know who we are. This state is called turiya, and is unknown to western psychology.

Every student of spirituality needs to understand these states. These are different layers of our Being. In the waking state you use the physical body. In dream state you see your subtle body. The third body is karana sarira that is used in deep sleep. It is conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious states in these three states. Whatever is unfulfilled in conscious state, anything you suppress is brought back in your dream or sub-conscious state. If you fast while waking, you dream of feasting at night. If you are afraid of snakes, and suppress thoughts of them in the conscious state, you will dream of snakes.

If your boss mistreats you and you can not deal with him consciously you will seek revenge in your dreams. Your suppressed anger, hidden fears, violence or sexual desires will come out in dreams.

In the unconscious deep sleep or karana sarira state your mind processes all information you have collected. If you see hundred things you look at only two things, you observe and take in only two things consciously. The rest goes into your unconscious and the subconscious states and come back to you in your dreams.

Do not postpone living. Celebrate!

ONE man after having lost his wealth prayed to God and got a boon that from dawn to dusk on the following day, whatever land he covers by running, can be owned by him. The man started running at dawn and kept running even after he covered more than what he lost. He refused to heed his body’s pleas for rest and food. His mind was filled with thoughts of the land owned by his neighbours and relatives. By evening he felt dizzy and weak. In the distance, he saw a burial ground and a river flowing beyond it. He was very happy at the thought of owning a river and a place where he and his progeny could be buried and decided that he would stop after he reached the river. Just as the sun was about to set, he reached the river.

He bent down to sip some water. The moment his lips touched the water, he dropped dead of exhaustion. They buried him in the burial ground he had crossed!

This is how we all live our lives. We run the race without even stopping to think why we are running. We travel in the horizontal dimension of thinking ‘what next’ all the time. This is what causes us to run. As long as we are moving in this horizontal line, we will run till we drop dead in our grave. Travelling from more to more is only travelling towards our grave. It is just slow death! It can never be life.

It is possible to satisfy our needs, but it becomes impossible to satisfy our wants because, they are changing and unclear all the time. Every time one want is fulfilled, a hundred more come up.

Always, as long as we are chasing something, it seems that it is worth the whole world; but after we get it, somehow it is not important any longer! If we become aware of ourselves and understand what exactly we want, and try to do that alone, we will never find ourselves in this kind of a self-contradictory and fragmented situation.

Never think, let me work now, I can enjoy later! I tell you, it will never happen. Every tomorrow comes in the form of today only. Doing should lead to being every moment, only then we are on the right track. It is now or never. We all run throughout our lives thinking that we can enjoy later, but we land up running into the graveyard. So don’t postpone living. Celebrate! It is now or never.

Be Blissful!

The Message of Super Conscious Krishna

Nithyananda, Discourse on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10:

Scriptures, especially Hindu scriptures, are the outcome of the experience of enlightened Masters. They are never wrong. But it is not easy to understand them because you live in another time, another space. You need a dictionary. I am your dictionary!

--*--

Meditation is the art of listening to Existence with deep obedience, with such totality that between us and the song of the bird, there is no barrier. Then the song of the bird becomes the message of the Buddha. Then in every silence there is a scripture; then every moment of life is a contact with the Divine. Then on every leaf is God's signature, and in every stone a beautiful song is asleep, is hidden.

When we become silent, what is hidden starts becoming manifest. We start hearing things which are not heard ordinarily and we start seeing things which are not seen ordinarily, as if new eyes have grown in us, new ears have grown in us.

The definition of meditation is also the definition of the disciple: the art of listening to the Master.

--*--

When the Master says drop 'I and mine,' people are afraid that the Master may pick that up and take it. He may take it away. What to do? They think he is in need of it, which is why he asks them to drop it. They think, 'He is asking us to drop it, so he can take it.' People are suspicious. That's why Masters sometimes say, 'This is the way, do as you want.'

--*--

'One who has fixed his mind and intellect upon me,' says Krishna. It is difficult for the devotee and disciple to have this attitude of surrender to the Master or the universe. As long as things go the way the person wants, as long as the Master allows the devotee to do what he wishes, the Master is a great Master and worthy of celebration. But once the Master turns serious and takes up his responsibility of spiritual surgery on the disciple, the disciple wants to run.

I tell people, 'Decide well in advance whether I am your right Master.' A Master takes his responsibilities seriously. His major responsibility is surgery; it is the surgery of the cancer of ego. Once the disciple makes a commitment, Master makes his commitment, too. It is dangerous to run away from the operating table. One loses one's whole life by running away. One may have to wait many births before one gets another chance.

--*--

I tell my disciples: Do not sit in front of me, gazing at me in adoration. Your chasing me does not work. Work for my Mission, serve my Mission, and then I shall chase you. I shall be in your hearts. That is the message of the Super Conscious Krishna.

To Trust the Master

Nithyananda, Discourse on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 9:

Q: How can we create trust in the Master? How can we drop doubts about doing what we want to do with our hearts when our heads keep asking questions?

A: This is a wonderful question and very honest. Your problem is shared by many people.

First of all, you cannot create trust. Trust has to happen. Trust is not the same as faith. It is a higher level in understanding. Faith and belief are our conditioning. It is stuff we are fed from childhood. Children are suggestible. We know now that up until adolescence the brain wave patterns of children are in the alpha state and they can be easily influenced by opinion and guidance of older people. We are taught from a young age whom we should believe and whom we should distrust.

The trust we are talking about is different from conditioned faith and trust. Those arise from our head, logic and so-called knowledge inputs. Yet, deep within us, from our being, there is a constant nagging of dissatisfaction with our conditioning. Many ignore this nagging and occupy themselves with the outer world.

However, some find it impossible to ignore this inner call. They listen and move in a direction that is in tune with this voice. They turn to religion, to scriptures and finally they turn to Masters when they find themselves deeply dissatisfied with whatever they have experienced in the outer world.

The doubts that we have of the outer world carry over into our search of the inner world too. For every answer we receive, we have a dozen new questions. That is natural and as it should be. Then there comes a point where logic is exhausted. It may happen through a sudden revelation, reading something, witnessing something, listening to someone, or for no reason at all. It is as if all questions have been answered and all doubts have been cleared. I term this experience a 'click'. This click initiates a churning inside us. It starts a psychological revolution in our system.

This is when trust begins, true trust, trust that leads us to surrendering our logic to a higher state of intelligence.

Many followers remember the exact point when this happened to them: as they listened to me, looked at me, read my books or watched a DVD. A chemical reaction within them says, 'wake up, your time is up, no more questions.' Your brain issues a command that overrides logic.

We cannot force this. This happens by itself. We must be ready. I should be your Master. It must be a convergence.

People ask, 'How do we remember you once we leave your presence?' I say, 'When I am your Master and you accept me as your Master, the problem will be trying to forget me. Your Master will occupy your entire inner space - head, heart and being.'

Let your head and logic exhaust themselves with questions. They will eventually get tired, because logic has an end and spirituality is endless.

Master-Disciple Relationship

Q: ‘Master, please explain the relationship between a master and disciple?’

A: ‘Both play a psycho drama. Whoever understands that he is playing a drama is God. Who doesn’t, is stuck. You are asking such a question as a disciple, because you think as a disciple. I understand the drama, so I am guru. There is no other difference.’

- Excerpt from the book Nithyopanishad.

--*--

When the Master guides you, you must be ready to let go and follow what he says completely, implicitly. Only if we have trust in the Master can the ultimate gain happen to us. We need to trust in order to experience the unknown space. At that moment, we have only the Master to hold onto. We must accept the new experience happening to us, and deeply trust that the energy to transcend our old personality is entering us. Feeling deeply connected with the Master is the basic need to understand this truth. That is why the East gave so much importance to the guru, the Master.

- Nithyananda, Discourse on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10.

Total Surrender

When you feel connected, you are open. You don't need to see the Master, the Cosmic Energy will guide you. There is no need for His physical nearness. But when you spoil the relationship, when you bring business into the relationship, nothing can be done. Nothing can be done because the bridge is broken.

I was watching CNN about the New Orleans Bridge that had disappeared in a natural disaster. Like biscuit pieces, the pieces of the bridge are missing. The bridge is not there. In the same way, the very bridge does not happen when you reach out to the Divine like you approach a business deal.

For the bridge to happen, we need the attitude of complete surrender or understanding, feeling deeply connected.

The big problem with the spiritual process is that you will have what you want when you drop the idea of having that. That is where the problem starts. You have to drop the fear and greed.

Deep, passive waiting without knowing what is going to happen is passive surrender. That is total surrender. The moment you decide 'I will wait forever', things happen.

As long as you are in a hurry, you are agitated. You stop things from happening in you. It is like trying to get the lotus to bloom. What do you do? You open the petals by hand. Will it be a flower? It will never be a lotus flower. The lotus flower blooms by itself when the sun's rays pierce it. Give a little space to yourself so that your being blossoms.

- Nithyananda, Gita discourse, Chapter 10

IN THE NEWS: 24 Jul 2008

Vedic Life Expo attracts devotees, holds informative classes
-- Over 250 newcomers and returning enthusiasts enjoyed the many programs, rituals and entertainment that went on throughout the day.

News-site: News Asia [link]

MONTCLAIR, CA: Humans are unique. So are their paths to inner transformation. The Vedic Masters created various scientific methods and have given us the freedom to choose what’s most inspiring and blissful for our growth. Paramahamsa Nithyananda has gifted us with the Vedic Temple so that we have many options to explore, enjoy and transform. The Vedic Life Expo event on Sunday was filled with these blissful and informative classes and rituals.

‘Amazing and powerful.’ ‘This is the first time I did any meditation and it was a divine experience.’ ‘The Vedic Temple is bliss!’ ‘Thanks for sharing the truths of the Vedic culture. I learned a lot that will help me day-to-day.’ These were just a few of the comments from visitors to the Temple and Vedic Life Expo. Over 250 newcomers and returning enthusiasts enjoyed the many programs, rituals and entertainment that went on throughout the day.

Swamis of the Nithyananda Order presented a panel presentation on Vedic wisdom and held a lively and informative Question and Answer session. They shared practical life solutions based upon the deeper truths on the science of enlightenment. Some of the other discussions during the day were Workplace Effectiveness, Blissful Relationships and Creating Wealth.

Brahmacharis trained directly by Paramahamsa explained and guided groups through the significance of puja(offering gratitude) and how puja can become a meditation with Nithya Dhyaan (Life Bliss Meditation) gifted to the world by Paramahamsa. (lifeblissmeditation.org)

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the individualized Vedic Astrology and Ayurvedic consultations, Henna Body Art applications and Sattvic Cooking class. Participants in the Nithya Yoga sessions were very surprised at what they were able to do when they brought blissful intention to every movement. (www.nithyayoga.org)

Knowledge is a gift from Existence and Dakshinamurti is the Lord of Knowledge and Enlightenment. In gratitude, a special Dakshinamurti Puja for graduation was sponsored in the temple for a recent master’s degree graduate. The pujacharya’s deep clarity and explanations truly made this puja and unforgettable experience for all present. You are welcome to visit the temple website at www.nithyanandavedictemple.org to learn more about ongoing events and all puja opportunities.

A wonderful group of 55 Jain devotees came to offer puja to Mahavir and the 24 enlightened Thirthankaras. Volunteer pujacharyas performed Abhishekam and Alankar for the presiding deities. Mantra initiates enjoyed an inspiring session of chanting and blissful instruction on living enlightenment.

The energy in the temple shifted from the sacred to the sublime as celebrated Tabla artists Pt. Abhijit Banerjee and his students entertained the visitors with a musical performance. Inspired by Paramahamsa and the Nithyananda Mission, Pt Banerjee and his disciple Jyoti Prakas will begin Tabla Classes here beginning Monday, June 9th at 6:00 pm.

Nithya Spiritual Healing prayers were offered in the temple for all who requested the Master’s blessings for better health and life.

The events of the day were a fitting backdrop for the conclusion of the Life Bliss Teachers Training. This intensive course is not just about learning how to teach the Vedic Sciences but a powerful transformation tool for anyone who wants to become a hollow flute for Divine energy to express. The course was filled with dynamic trainings, visits, dancing, celebrations, and intense meditations. The next Life Bliss Program, dealing with the seven energy centers, will be held at the Vedic Temple on June 28 and 29th. Please call the temple to register for the workshop.

On June 15th, the Nithyananda Cultural Center offers a dynamic Kathak performance by a prominent disciple of Pt. Chitresh Das, Rina Mehta and Rachna Nivas, members of the Chitresh Das Dance Company. Enjoy learning the mystical designs of Henna (Mehendhi) at workshops next Saturday and Sunday. No need for any prior experience in this beautiful art! More information for both of these events is available by calling the Vedic Temple at (909) 625-1400.

Everyone celebrated and danced for Lord Venkateshwara, offering gratitude during His procession. Maha Aarthi brought a devotional conclusion to this amazing weekend of teaching and transformation. The temple complex and all who gathered were energized with bliss as they enjoyed Maha Prasad, watched Paramahamsa’s DVD discourses and shared their experiences from this blessed day!

By Swamiji's Grace many exciting and transformative events are happening at the Vedic Temple each day and we look forward to sharing them with you. Don’t miss the bliss!

Difference between God and Guru

Excerpts from the book: Nithyopanishad -- based on the discourses of Paramahamsa Nithyananda on The Master-Disciple Relationship at the Himalayan Yatra 2005

Someone asked: ‘Master, what is the difference between God and guru (master)?’

Without a moment’s hesitation and with characteristic authority came the response:

‘What do you know about God? All you know is a bunch of words and concepts. You have no clue of what you are talking about when you refer to God. To you he is just an idea, a visualization of what you believe to be the ultimate energy and universal consciousness, or whatever name you wish to give something you know nothing about.

A guru is real. He is the reality of the ultimate cosmic energy. He is here and now. He is in the present; He IS the present. He is the bridge between you and the concept of God. In that sense he is greater than God.

A small story:

A man went to court citing a suit for defamation of character as he was seriously insulted by a friend who called him a dinosaur a year earlier. The Judge asked why he waited so long. The man said, ‘I saw a dinosaur for the first time only last week and felt very insulted.’

When you begin to understand that you are living based on baseless concepts, your rationale simply drops; it disappears. Start living without concepts. Do not judge anybody by anything.

A disciple questioned Vivekananda, a great enlightened master, when the latter referred to his own master Ramakrishna as God. He asked him how he could call Ramakrishna God.

Vivekananda asked, ‘Tell me what you feel are the attributes of God?’

The disciple replied, ‘God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent…’

Vivekananda said, ‘Stop! Explain to me what you mean by omnipresent.’

The disciple said, ‘It means he is everywhere, he is in the sky, he is the air, he is here, and he is there…’

Vivekananda then asked, ‘Do you see him then?’

Sheepishly the disciple shook his head and said, ‘No.’

Vivekananda said, ‘You foolish man, all that you know are words and concepts that have no real meaning. Enlightened masters are God standing in front of us.’

Someone asked me, ‘Are you God?’

If you do not know what or who God is, how can you ask me whether I am God? Now I tell you: God cannot be defined. He can only be experienced.

I said to him: I am more than God. I am not here to prove that I am God. I am here to prove you are God. If any one calls me God, I should sue them for defamation of character because the knowledge they have of God is not correct.’

Master, the ultimate master surgeon

WHEN you see the Master, he says you are not what you think you are. He tells you that you are not a mere human being with spiritual experience, but a spiritual being having a human experience.

Not only are you not ready to believe him, you are acutely uncomfortable as well. You get frightened and run away.

After sometime, when the Master touches you in some way, you feel attracted to him, you stop resisting, you listen, but you are not yet convinced. After some time, the energy of the Master attracts you and you start remembering him even when he is not around; he becomes a part of your being. Still, you are not ready to give up your own value systems and beliefs; you play a game of hide and seek with the Master.

Once you start trusting him more, he forces you to experience your reality. This is initiation, or the first experience. But even after that experience, sometimes you deny it.

The Master is a person who removes the ultimate cancerous tumour that happens to our being, which is our ego. He does surgery directly on that tumour. He never allows you to be stuck or be comfortable with anything less than the enlightened state. Even as you start progressing spiritually, you may get stuck in some layer; you won’t even know you are stuck. In all these situations, the Master will push you again and again to move forward. He transforms your whole life.

Whenever a surgeon comes with a knife, you may think he is going to hurt you, but the knife of a surgeon is not for killing, it is for healing. The Master is the ultimate master surgeon to remove the ego at all levels, be it materialistic or spiritual. People have spiritual ego when they have the ‘holier than thou’ attitude. The more you allow his surgery to happen, the more you realise the truth. A few people run away from the operating table during surgery; that becomes dangerous. Before surrendering to the Master, do all the window-shopping, checking, verifying, and only then surrender; and once you surrender, allow him to work on you.

The Master has unconditional love for you. He seeks nothing from you. He is interested only in your liberation. To achieve this, he is willing to go to any lengths. The greatest gift to the human life is the gift of an enlightened master.

What do dreams mean?

ONE man, a Zen master, woke up and started weeping. Zen masters are unpredictable. Their ways of teaching are mysterious, untraditional. One disciple asked the master: why are you weeping? Master said last night I dreamt that I was a butterfly and flying in the garden. Disciple asked: it was just a dream, why are you crying? Master said: I do not know whether I dreamt that I became a butterfly or whether the butterfly is dreaming now that it is a master with so many disciples.

Both thoughts were transient, not permanent. But do we understand? We always think that whatever we are is permanent. We try to possess it, identify with it.

We have four states: waking, dreaming, deep sleep and one more. There are two states of thoughts and two states of consciousness, which overlap. In waking state we are with thoughts and ‘I consciousness’. In deep sleep we’ve neither thoughts nor ‘I consciousness’. In the dream state, we’ve only thoughts but no ‘I consciousness’. Once we think of I, we come out of the dream. There is a fourth state where there are no thoughts but we know who we are. This state is called turiya, and is unknown to western psychology.

Every student of spirituality needs to understand these states. These are different layers of our Being. In the waking state you use the physical body. In dream state you see your subtle body. The third body is karana sarira that is used in deep sleep. It is conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious states in these three states. Whatever is unfulfilled in conscious state, anything you suppress is brought back in your dream or sub-conscious state. If you fast while waking, you dream of feasting at night. If you are afraid of snakes, and suppress thoughts of them in the conscious state, you will dream of snakes.

If your boss mistreats you and you can not deal with him consciously you will seek revenge in your dreams. Your suppressed anger, hidden fears, violence or sexual desires will come out in dreams.

In the unconscious deep sleep or karana sarira state your mind processes all information you have collected. If you see hundred things you look at only two things, you observe and take in only two things consciously. The rest goes into your unconscious and the subconscious states and come back to you in your dreams.

Responsibility is the way to go!

WHEN you live with the attitude that you are responsible for everything, your whole life will change. When you take up responsibility for everything that happens around you, you will start expanding.

Expansion is the only growth; contraction is death. The more responsibility you take up, the more you will expand and grow. You will become a leader. Most of us wait for the status to descend on us and then take up the responsibility. Be very clear: Only if we take up responsibility, the status will come! People who wait for the status will not take up responsibility even after they get it. They will simply find another reason or excuse, that’s all. The person who passes the buck and relaxes will never progress in life.

Responsibility is consciousness. The moment you feel responsible for what is happening around you, that moment the divine energy will rush into you! These are all basic secrets of life that I am giving you.

As long as you are self-centered, you will be nothing more than a blocked bamboo stick that serves only to carry the corpse. When you shed your ego and stand up with responsibility, you will become the hollow bamboo that serves as a flute! Like how the air that enters the flute leaves it as music, the air that enters you will flow as energy! When you work with no feelings of responsibility, you will work and feel like a slave. When you work with responsibility, your capacity will expand and you will flower and radiate energy. Your worries and sorrows will dissolve and all unfinished work will get finished. Umpteen excuses can be given for dodging responsibility, but they will remain poor excuses.

With responsibility, a new kind of joy will engulf you. You will become a natural leader and life will become a celebration! There is a beautiful story on Buddha: It is said that when Buddha goes to beg, he would appear as a King and the kings who gave him alms would appear as beggars! Seeming like a beggar or a king is not in the wealth that you hold but in the state that is within you. When you take up responsibility for the entire cosmos, you will expand and look like a leader!

Feeling that you are responsible is the greatest quality you can possess. When you stand up with a sense of responsibility, a new intelligence will awaken in you!

Be Blissful!

Intuition, the key to effective decisions

THREE nuns were returning to their monastery in the evening through a lonely path. They heard footsteps behind them and a man’s voice shouting at them to stop. The nuns were sure that the person following them had bad intent. The nuns whispered to each other, and one nun veered off to the left, and another turned off to the right, leaving only one in the path. Later at night, the three met up at the gate of the monastery.

The two who had arrived first anxiously asked the third who had just reached, running and panting, whether she was all right. In response to their anxious query, she replied: “when the man was close to me, I said to him to take his pants down, while I lifted my skirt up.”

“Oh, my God!, then...” screamed the other two.

“It’s simple”, she continued, “a woman can run a lot faster with her skirt up than a man can with his pants down, so I escaped!”

To make effective decisions, all we have to do is to out-think our opponent. Our decision needs to be better than his, that’s all. There is no need for it to be perfect.

The mistake we make is to think through our intellect. If we ask any successful business leader or CEO these days about what has made them so successful, again and again they say that their success came from something beyond their intellect; something beyond logic and facts, something that gave them the intelligence and guts to take effective decisions. It is simply the intuitive power within them that has helped them make these effective decisions.

We can tune into intuition as part of our regular life. The question therefore is not whether we can all be intuitive, but merely how we can we make ourselves intuitive.

When we step into the Present we step out of time-bound awareness. We step beyond tension. Our body stops producing adrenaline. Timebound awareness is mass, which is solid. Non time-bound awareness is pure energy, liquid, dynamic, bubbling and creative. We step out of our boundaries. We become free. We become intuitive.

When our thoughts stop, our present vision extends into the past and future. We become free of time and space constraints. When we meditate deeply, we become intuitive, and can reach cosmic intelligence or enlightenment.

How to live well in spirituality

TILL quantum physics said so, matter and energy were considered separate. Now they are integrated. Material life and spiritual life are considered separate. Not so. You think you need to make a choice. In thinking of making a choice you create a dilemma, you create constraints.

Wearing a saffron robe or a white habit does not help you renounce lust, greed and anger. If the mind does not shed these emotions, does not renounce these negativities, renouncing family and wealth superficially makes no difference. Your unfulfilled desires will follow you wherever you are. In the Mahabharata there is a beautiful story.

A passing crane shed its droppings on a young monk who was meditating. The monk looked up angrily at the crane which was immediately burnt. The monk felt a momentary pang of regret but also felt proud of the power that he possessed. He got up and went begging for food to a nearby household where the housewife was busy serving her husband. When she came with the food for him he glared at her. The housewife told him: Do you think I am a crane that you can burn? Startled the monk apologised and asked her how she knew. She directed him to a person in the nearby town for an explanation. The monk reached the address and found a butcher who enquired if he was the person sent by the lady in the next town. Once again startled, the monk asked him how he and the lady had these powers that even he did not possess. The teachings of the butcher to the monk, on how leading one’s material life correctly leads one to enlightenment, forms the Vyadha Gita part of Mahabharata.

Spirituality is not donning special clothes, sitting in discomfort and becoming unaware of what goes on around you. Spirituality is living in awareness of oneself and others, living in physical and mental health, with good relationship with all, with love and compassion for all, and with a natural spontaneity that results from the awareness and provides us with the responsibility to be of service to others.

True spirituality happens when you are aware, and when you are in the present moment. In the present moment no choices need to be made as there are no dilemmas when you are focused on the present. Do not renounce what you have; enjoy what you have. Renounce what you do not have; renounce your fantasies. Bliss will follow.

To love is to be non-violent

PATANJALI in his Yoga sutras has laid out an 8- fold path for enlightenment. The first step is Yama: loosely translated as discipline. This means tuning yourself to the ultimate; it is not a set of dos and don’ts. It is a set of instructions to tune yourself to your Self. Within this Yama the first step is Ahimsa. Ahimsa means non-violence with understanding; it is not a moral condition but a technique.

If you are established in non-violence, even wild animals, when they face you, will turn peaceful. You will radiate love and compassion. Patanjali says: if a man is established in non-violence, in his presence, enemies and animals will drop their animosity and radiate love.

Sankara, the great enlightened master, walked all over India on foot, village to village, begged door to door for food, and lived with the common man, to update himself on what was happening around him. This was required of him as a teacher, as a master. As he went, he learnt from various masters, universities, and temples, which are spiritual universities. He wanted to create his own university to spread his message of advaita (non-dualism), where the energy of love will speak. In a forest on a full moon night as it drizzled he saw a frog about to hatch its babies and a cobra spreading its hood to protect the frog from the rain. Frogs and cobras are born enemies; when Sankara saw this he decided to set up his university there, where animals lose their enmity, and pure oneness and love starts happening. Once you experience this love you will never be violent; non-violence, ahimsa, will happen to you.

When we are established in love nothing touches us. We do not need to defend ourselves against anything. Defending is what creates the thought of offending. All countries say that they have armies only to defend themselves. Who then is offending? The more you try to defend, the more you enter into offence. This is what Jesus meant when he said to turn the other cheek when someone slaps you. What he said is not impractical. What have we achieved by protecting ourselves, except suffering? On the other hand, if you radiate love, you will be a God on planet Earth. Can you defend yourself against death? By defending yourself you may add some years to your life; by trusting, by loving you will add life to your years. What would you like to do, add years to your life or add life to your years?

Live the truth to live out your desires

PATANJALI, in his Yoga Sutras, talks about an eightfold path to achieve Yoga, union of the Self and the Divine. Satya is one path. He says live your life truthfully. Satya is just not truth of the words we utter. That’s only one dimension. Thinking the truth and living the truth are the other two dimensions. Vedanta says that you create what you want; you are the creator of the whole world. It is you, who create suffering and bliss. We may ask: if we are the creator of the world, why would we create suffering? The reason is that either consciously or unconsciously we are not being true to our Being; we are not living, acting, or speaking the truth.

Continuously we create self contradicting desires. At a deep level, whether we accept it or not, believe it or not, understand it or not, we are God. Therefore, we create trouble when we contradict ourselves and give power to self-contradicting thoughts.

When you think of wanting to get rid of a disease, when you say to yourselves that you must not have this pain, you are already meditating upon that disease. Instead if you say, let me be healthy, and if you bring the concept of health to your mind and being, the ache and pain will disappear. Self-contradicting thoughts such as trying to get rid of pain by thinking of pain are called samskaras and these get power and become real. These samskaras suck your energy and make you powerless. The word you repeat within yourself should be true. You give power to disease by just saying disease. Being truthful is something more than being factual. First you need to straighten your inner chatter. Try and spend half an hour a day to straighten your thinking, the same way as you spend in straightening your body and dress. Spend time in straightening out your samskaras.

Satya is what gives peace and bliss to all. You cannot speak arrogantly; arrogance creates anger, disturbance, and violence. If you say people are disturbed when you speak the truth, the truth that you express is your ego and arrogance, not the truth.

You can always express truth politely, acceptably without hurting someone; only then is it truth. Pure truth can never be violent, can never hurt someone. It makes your dreams come true.

Stop your mind and get off!

Our mind is a minefield; it is a madhouse; it is a monkey.

The only thing certain about our mind is its absolute uncertainty. The only thing factual about our mind is that it is totally and absolutely illogical, irrational, random and unconnected.

If we were to sit down and pen our thoughts over even five minutes with no editing, we would think that these belong to a madman. There would be no logical sequence, as one would assume in our mind’s working.

Thoughts flit through our mind, past to future, future to past, back and forth. At one level, it is thoughts, ideas, and concepts. At another level it is memories of past experiences leading to anticipation of future possibilities. Then there are dialogues and rehearsals about how we could have done things better and how we should do things better. Imaginations, fantasies, and dreams follow. Then follow a spate of emotions from lust, greed and anger through fears and jealousy to discontent.

There is always in the background a constant chattering noise of worries.

We have no control over any of these activities of our mind. The more we try and control the more vigorously the thoughts that we try to control break out.

Just imagine a situation if someone tells you not to think of a monkey. The only certainty then would be that you would think of nothing but monkeys!

Suppression of thoughts is impossible. It only ensures creation of more such thoughts. That is why people trying to follow the path of renunciation and celibacy as monks and priests erupt into behavior patterns that they so desperately try to suppress.

All that you can do to stop your mind is to refuse to get involved in its shenanigans. Watch your thoughts as if you are an observer, without getting involved, without being an actor in the drama. Watch your thoughts as you would watch clouds in the sky with no involvement. Your mind loses interest, your thoughts will slow down and you will move towards a no mind zone. You need to say, stop; I want to get off.

Meditation leads you into the awareness to stay uninvolved with your thought process. It helps you stay in the present moment, without being tossed to and fro into the past and future. Meditation alone can still your mind.

Nithyananda
www.nithyananda.org

Time stands still when mind stops

HINDU mythology of creation talks about how the universe is created each time the Creator Brahma blinks! Millions of human years, called yuga, pass by between each blink of the Creator.

Sages of ancient India measured time through the concept of kshana. Kshana is not chronological time. It was not measured as the amplitude of a pendulum or the frequency of an electronic chip. Kshana was not generic time, but individual time. Kshana is the time between two thoughts. My kshana and your kshana are different.

In the case of the average person, in whom the mind is constantly active, desires and thoughts pour out without a stop, the time between two thoughts is very small, very very small. In the case of an enlightened being, who is in a no mind state, in whom there are no thoughts, kshana is infinite.

Kshana is the time between two thoughts. It is the space between two thoughts. This is the time and space that Buddha referred to as sunya, and that which Sankara referred to as purna. It is the no-mind zone, the mindful zone, in which you touch base with yourself. It is that present moment in which you come face to face with the divinity within yourself, recognise the cosmic energy that you are part of.

When you are in that kshana, you are truly aware; you are energised and refreshed. Meditation takes you into that awareness.

When you are in front of an enlightened Master who is in a nomind state without thoughts your own thought level comes down, and kshana becomes longer. Without even trying you become calmer, more peaceful, and more aware.

When the mind stops, time too stops; it stands still.

Contrary to what western philosophers say the idle mind is not the devil’s workshop. If it silent, it is God’s workshop! It is the busy mind that is truly the devil’s workshop.

Descartes said, ‘I think, therefore I am’. That is a mere fact; an irrelevant one. You cannot reach the state of awareness of who you are through thinking. You need to transcend the mind, you need to drop the mind to be aware of who you are.

Hindu scriptures say, ‘When you stop thinking, you are.’ This is truth; the cosmic truth.

Be still and you will be God.

Be careful what you wish for

HARI goes to a bar and orders drinks for everyone around. He has a great time with everyone backslapping him and telling him what a great guy he is. As he is about to leave, the bartender gives him the bill. Rattled, Hari says, I only ordered the drinks. I didn’t order the bill.

Most of us live our life like Hari, just as foolishly, just as brainlessly. We have no recollection of asking for the bill as we go about acquisitions and expectations of acquisitions. When the bill does finally arrive we are startled, and depressed as this is not part of our expectation. There is a saying: be careful what you wish for, for it may come true.

We are driven all our lives by our samskara. These are our unfulfilled desires that are deeply embedded in our unconscious mind. Most of the time, we are not even aware that these samskara exist. However, they are what determine what our decisions will be. They become our will. They drive us into illogical and irrational decisions, even decisions that are harmful to us.

When you drink or smoke once in a while you enjoy them. As long as you have the freedom to drop them you enjoy them. When you get addicted to them they enjoy you. Addiction is when you do not enjoy the habit but cannot do without it. You can get addicted to food, TV, newspaper, gossiping, so many things. When you are addicted, food eats you, cigarettes smoke you, and liquor drinks you. When you do not have the freedom you are used; you are not in control however much you believe you are; your desires control you and lead you into a vicious cycle of suffering.

Often people tell me that they have good samskara. These memories help them improve their lives. As long as you live in the past you cannot improve your life. You cannot drive forward by looking backwards.

Meditation is the path to dissolve and burn your samskaras. Meditation leads you into a nomind state where samskaras cannot exist.

Meditation brings you into the present, the here and now, where you are aware of what is buried in your unconscious and have the energy to destroy your samskaras. You become liberated. We can live our life in joy, without the fear of having to pay the bill.

Don’t grow old, age gracefully

AT AN old-age home, the inmates were asked: “Why do you think God has let you to reach the age of 90?” Ramu responded, “To test the tolerance of our relatives.”

Ageing is not pleasant for any one; not for the person ageing; not for the people around; especially if the family, that is otherwise occupied, has to take care of the aged.

Our body starts degenerating from the time we are born. Cells die every second even in an infant’s body, even as new cells grow. Medical science says that the entire body has a new set of cells every year or so. Not even one cell is as it was. Some parts of the body start rejuvenating; like our teeth for instance; it is rare that a third set of teeth grow if you start losing your second set. Muscles grow weaker and memories get shorter. Immunity levels decrease making people more prone to diseases. Ageing is inbuilt into the human DNA.

There is no antidote to ageing. There is no kaya kalpa that reverses the ageing process and makes you young again. However, with intelligence we can retard the process of ageing.

We age disgracefully because we abuse our body. We eat unhealthy food, we smoke, we drink, and we dump all kinds of toxins into our body which kill living organisms and yet expect that we can stay young.

We cannot prevent ourselves getting old but we can delay the degeneration process and we can age gracefully if we learn how to respect our body. Paying attention to body needs with great awareness is the first and most important step in graceful ageing. Listen to your body in the present moment. When it tells you that the cigarette smoke burns your throat, stop smoking; when it tells you that alcohol makes the body lose coordination, stop drinking; when it says it is tired, go to sleep; eat only when it says it is really hungry.

At the first indication of pain we swallow pills. If an alien were to see our commercials on TV he would think that our food is just pills. Instead of popping a pill next time you invite pain upon yourself, lie in a dark room and focus on the pain. Focus all your attention at this spot and soon you will find it shrinking. Pain turns into pleasure.

You can heal the body just by paying attention to it.

Live the truth to live out your desires

PATANJALI, in his Yoga Sutras, talks about an eightfold path to achieve Yoga, union of the Self and the Divine. Satya is one path. He says live your life truthfully.

Satya is just not truth of the words we utter. That’s only one dimension. Thinking the truth and living the truth are the other two dimensions. Vedanta says that you create what you want; you are the creator of the whole world. It is you, who create suffering and bliss. We may ask: if we are the creator of the world, why would we create suffering? The reason is that either consciously or unconsciously we are not being true to our Being; we are not living, acting, or speaking the truth.

Continuously we create selfcontradicting desires. At a deep level, whether we accept it or not, believe it or not, understand it or not, we are God. Therefore, we create trouble when we contradict ourselves and give power to self-contradicting thoughts.

When you think of wanting to get rid of a disease, when you say to yourselves that you must not have this pain, you are already meditating upon that disease. Instead if you say, let me be healthy, and if you bring the concept of health to your mind and being, the ache and pain will disappear. Self-contradicting thoughts such as trying to get rid of pain by thinking of pain are called samskaras and these get power and become real. These samskaras suck your energy and make you powerless. The word you repeat within yourself should be true. You give power to disease by just saying disease. Being truthful is something more than being factual. First you need to straighten your inner chatter. Try and spend half an hour a day to straighten your thinking, the same way as you spend in straightening your body and dress. Spend time in straightening out your samskaras.

Satya is what gives peace and bliss to all. You cannot speak arrogantly; arrogance creates anger, disturbance, and violence. If you say people are disturbed when you speak the truth, the truth that you express is your ego and arrogance, not the truth.

You can always express truth politely, acceptably without hurting someone; only then is it truth. Pure truth can never be violent, can never hurt someone. It makes your dreams come true.

Experience your inner space

WE ARE all the time running after material objects of the external world. Most of us are not even aware that such a thing as inner space exists. Deep within each of us, there is a silence. It is the source from which we came. We can never experience this silence by going behind the objects of the outer world. We can experience it only by going inward.

To go inward, we need to be aware of our mind and its workings. Mind is nothing but our thoughts. These thoughts by themselves are all right. But when you identify with these thoughts, it corrupts this inner space. Constantly by replaying the past and connecting independent incidents, your mind creates shafts, connections.

Supposing you have a pain in your shoulder, immediately the shaft of pain will come up. Be very clear: The pain you had nine years ago is different from the pain you had four years ago and it is different from the pain you have now. All are unconnected, one-time, independent incidents and have no connection. It is your mind that makes the connection, which in reality does not exist. This series of connections is what I call a shaft.

You will see that these shafts create thought patterns, which are sets of thoughts that keep repeating themselves. For example, you may have a set of ideas about a person, a situation or a thing. Every time you interact with that person, these ideas surface and bias your decisionmaking. By judging in this manner, you simply miss the totality of that person or the situation and take wrong decisions about them.

Drop your ideas about everything and everybody. Just be friendly with everyone without having any past memories or ideas about them. Just behave the way you would when you meet the person the first time. Life will then be joyful. Your inner space will simply expand. You will be able to actualise your entire potential. Most often you are afraid to drop these shafts because these shafts give you your identity. Just understand that you are an un-clutched, independent being. Don’t try to clutch into these shafts.

Keep your inner space pure. Whenever thoughts arise, whatever they may be, just watch and be a witness to them. You will see that your awareness increases and slowly the number of thoughts in you decreases. You will become aware of the inner space within, which is pure bliss.

Be Blissful!

You are what you think!

We become what we think. Yad bhaavam tat bhavati, is what our scriptures say.

What ever we think and feel again and again is what we become. What we think we verbalize, what we verbalize we visualize and what we visualize happens.

Wisconsin University carried out an interesting research. There are societies and cultures in our world where the language spoken is very refined and without negativities. For instance, if you notice, people from the Lucknow area, whether Hindu or Muslim, would use the respectful term for ‘you’, even to their children. Politeness and etiquette is bred into them.

On such communities Wisconsin University carried out research and found that people in such communities rarely suffered from depression and such similar ailments. They found that if the words people use are refined and without negativity, mind is not adversely affected. They do not get stressed, they do not get worried and they do not get depressed. They lead a relatively happier life.

Worry is nothing but the constant inner chatter with in us, the constant negative inner chatter. I am asked again and gain, ‘To what extent are we responsible for our thoughts?’

If we are not responsible for our thoughts, who else can then be responsible for them? Our thoughts arise from within us, not from or through someone else! Is it possible for some one to come between us and our minds? Certainly not!

Brahma havit brahmaiva bhavati, say our scriptures. He who focuses on the Brahman, the Ultimate, becomes the Brahman, the Ultimate himself. What we focus our mind on, what we think, what we feel is what we become. There is no doubt about this.

How can we stop worrying? How can we streamline our thoughts without negativity? This is what everyone wants to know.

The solution is simple. You need to be aware of what you think. Constantly be aware of what your thoughts are and straighten them out. You need not stop doing anything you are engaged in to do this. You can be driving, you can be in conversation, you can be cooking and still you are thinking. Constantly thoughts arise. Most of the time, you do not even watch your thoughts. You let your thoughts guide you into fantasies.

For a change, watch your thoughts. As soon as there is a negative thought change it into a more positive thought. You may say it is too simple. Yes, it is that simple.

Nithyananda
www. nithyananda.org

Create your children in a better mould!

Till the age of 7, a child is like a sponge. Anything that the child is exposed to, the child absorbs. Its mind body grows at an amazing rate.

In this phase, the child is in visualization phase. Whatever the child sees is imprinted and embedded into its unconscious. The embedded memories start replaying as the child grows into adult. These embedded memories drive adult decisions.

Between the age of 8 and 14, the growing child is in verbalization mode. The child starts learning languages and verbal imprints, not merely visual images, start getting embedded. Using words like happiness, suffering etc instantly evoke appropriate pictures and therefore emotions.

During this entire period, the child is controlled by its parents or parent substitutes. Most of what is embedded in their unconscious comes from the elders close to them, mainly parents. So, children imitate their parents.

People ask, do we inherit the sins of our parents? Do their karma become ours? No, don’t worry; you do not inherit the sins and karma of your parents. But, unfortunately you do inherit something that is equally powerful; something that can either be very positive or very negative.

You do inherit the mindset of your parents. You inherit the way they think and act. You inherit their values and beliefs. You get conditioned by them. You inherit the mindset to commit the same sins, to inherit the same karma.

So, I say again and again, be careful as parents in how you bring your children up.

If the mother always complains, whether of a headache or the husband or the neighbor, the child learns the words and the behavior. If the father coming home flops down on the sofa at seven in the evening saying he is tired, the connection between seven in the evening and tiredness becomes hardwired in the child’s mind. If a father comes home and displays keen interest in playing with the child that behavior too is imprinted.

Why is it that you rarely see an ugly child? Why is it that you rarely see a beautiful adult? If a child is being natural and playfully rowdy, we cannot tolerate such behavior as an adult and we must control. We have to make the child as insipid as we are, as ugly as we are. Let them be natural. Let them grow into beautiful adults. It is in your hands to do that.

Nithyananda
www.nithyananda.org

Mind over Pain

During my days of parivrajaka, wandering as a sanyasi, I was traveling in Amarkand in Madhya Pradesh, doing a parikrama, circumambulation of the sacred river Narmada.

For a while I lived with the tribal people in that area. They were very simple, honest and sweet people, extremely hospitable. One day in front of the hut I was staying in, across their temple, they erected a new hut. When I enquired they said that this was for a festival.

Later that day, a pregnant woman walked into that hut. Ten minutes later, she walked out smiling, a baby in her arms. No one went in with her. There was not a squeal when she was in that hut. Soon after, they dismantled the hut.

I asked a village elder about the festival that was to take place. He simply said that the birth of that child was the festival. Next week the same exercise was repeated. Another hut, another pregnant lady, another child and another festival!

This time I could not contain my curiosity. I asked the elder, ‘I am amazed at the simplicity with which the ladies deliver their babies; no doctors, no midwife even and no pain. How is this possible?’ In my experience I had never seen something like this. Mothers have so many examinations, check in to hospitals, and scream in pain at delivery; but here it is so different.

The old man said,’ pain, what pain? Why should there be pain while delivering a child? Yes, there is pain if an animal attacks and hurts you or you break an arm or leg; but, at child birth, why?’

In their language there was no word for pain. They had no concept of pain during child birth. They asked, ‘animals deliver their off springs naturally and do not cry, why should humans?’ I had no answer. I could not comprehend what I was seeing.

It was only after meditating upon these incidents I understood that pain is a result of our verbalization. These words such as pain, hurt, and suffering create the feeling of pain in us.

Our mind drives our body. Our mind creates thoughts and concepts and embeds them as verbalized and visualized realities within us. Pain has no reality outside of our mind. The neuro sensors that evoke the pain response cannot create the pain unless our mind accepts the fact that there can be pain. Pain is a matter of conditioning; and you can decondition your mind away from pain.


Nithyananda
www.nithyananda.org

Middle-aged at 136!

This incident happened when I was in Lhasa, in Tibet.

I had heard that there were people in this area who lived long, some who were over 300 years of age. I wanted to meet some of them and talk to them. One of the lamas in the Potala Palace directed me to another lama working on a nearby filed.

I asked this lama who looked fairly old, ‘sir, I am told you are very old. I would like to understand how you live.’ He was very active at work pulling of weeds and repairing the field when I went to him.

He laughed. ‘I am only middle aged! I am just 136! There are many here who are far older than I am! You should go and meet them if you wish to see old people, not me’

I saw a medical report testifying he was over 136 years old! I asked him how it was possible for him to work so hard at this age. He simply said that for us lamas 300 is a normal life span. That is what we believe and that is what we see. There is nothing surprising in some one working hard physically at 150 or 200 years of age.

I asked him again, ‘how did this belief come about?’ He said, ‘in all our ancestral burial places it is written when they were born and when they died. They all lived to about 300. to die at 200 would be an early death.’

What your mind believes, it makes happen.

Medical science now understands that every part of our body gets renewed once ever so often. Millions of cells out of the estimated 60 trillion cells in our body die every day and get created again. Limbs are recreated. Our entire body becomes totally new once every 18 months or so. Not one cell in your body now was there some two years ago. Not one cell that is present in your body now will exist as it is now two years from now.

As long as you do not disturb our mind body system and allow it to function the way the Tibetan lamas do, you too can live to 300! These lamas understand the science of how the body recreates, renews, and regenerates itself and have established both the concept and the process to make this happen. So can you!


Nithyananda
www.nithyananda.org

Losing Fear and Conquering Greed

I have talked about spirituality and religion earlier. Spirituality is about liberation, whereas religion, as it is understood and practiced, is about control.

At the lowest level religions tend to control through ignorance and blind belief. They do not wish to be questioned, because they have no answers. The Vedic culture is very clear on this. What they laid out as scriptures are the eternal immutable truth, called sruti. They are not regulation. You can take these or leave them. They are meant to be guidelines for evolution, for the flowering of your consciousness.

When they laid down regulation for day to living, they made it clear that these regulations, the smruti, are changeable. These regulations need to evolve with time and space. There is no rigidity, there is no compulsion, and there is no pronouncement that these are God given and therefore cannot be questioned.

Vedic culture and religions which sprang from the Vedic culture stood for individual freedom; only such freedom can lead to awareness and liberation. Religions that tend to control through ignorance graduate into control through fear and greed. These are the next two steps, which work as the basis of a number of such religions.

Spirituality is about losing your fear and conquering greed. Krishna advises us in the Gita to drop aversion and attachment, in order to reach Him. Unfortunately, some religions foster fear and greed through regulations that they impose on you. They will tell you that if you do this or that, you will be a sinner and will go to hell; and if you stay away from all such evil actions, you will be redeemed and will go to heaven.

There is no heaven and hell. They exist only in our minds. You commit sins because you are in hell; you do not go to hell because you commit sins. Redemption is liberation and heaven, when you reach that inner awareness that you are one with all. The bliss that overpowers you is that heaven that our sages talked about. It is not some place where wine, women and song keep you occupied 24 hours a day. Such a place would in fact be hell, as it will lead to infinite boredom.

Drop all notions of sin and merit, and of hell and heaven and live with awareness. You will reach Nithyananda, eternal bliss.

Nithyananda
www.nithyananda.org

Ego or Surrender, which happens first!

How are you going to surrender the ego, when it does not exist?

Suppose you are sitting in a dark room. You want the darkness to disappear. But can you push it out? Can you fight darkness and force it to leave the room? No! No matter how long you keep trying, you are ultimately going to be defeated - and that too by something which does not exist!

Ego is all about the illusory identity we build about ourselves, around ourselves, so that we can feel secure. A child has no ego. It is free to explore. As we grow, our education and conditioning helps us build this barrier around ourselves. It is an ‘unreal’, non existent barrier that separates us from our true Self. It is a barrier that keeps us in bondage.

The ego is like darkness, it has no positive existence. Just like darkness is simply the absence of light, the ego is nothing but the absence of awareness. To struggle to kill the ego is like struggling to push the darkness out of the room.

To really expel the darkness, what you need to do is to forget all about dealing with the darkness. Focus your energy on light instead. Just bring a small lamp into the room, and you will find that the darkness has fled on its own! So, I tell you to forget all about the ego. Instead, focus on bringing a lamp of awareness into your being.

When your entire consciousness has become a flame, you will find that the ego is no more.

The ego is an illusion. You cannot surrender it when you are unaware - because you don't know how. Of course, you cannot surrender it when you become aware either - because then you realize that there is nothing left to surrender! What you have heard, read, been taught - 'Surrender the ego in order to attain Self-realization' - this is unworkable. It can happen only the other way round. Self-realization dawns, and suddenly you cannot find the ego anymore. The surrender has already happened, just like that.

I am glad if the question has arisen in your being. The ego is the root cause for all your anxieties, sorrows, and tensions. It is your doorway to hell. To actively feel that you want to drop the ego, to feel the need to be rid of this burden is itself a step towards awareness. It shows that you are stirring from your sleep!


Nithyananda
www.nithyananda.org