Words from the Master

We always think, If I get married, my life will be settled. So let me work towards getting married.
If I have two children, my life will be fulfilled.
Once I retire, I’ll be peaceful.

It is the attitude - Now I’ll be serious, later I’ll be happy!

In the end, you will be happy neither now nor then. You will lose your capacity to be happy at any time.

Just live with simplicity, with spontaneity, with innocence.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

When you are serious, you are being egoistic, because you fail to see that the whole thing is only a Cosmic drama. You feel too much as a separate entity, too much of ‘I’ and so you are serious. If you understand that the whole thing is only a drama, you can never be serious. When this understanding happens at a deep level, you will simply do things with the sheer joy of moving in tune with the Cosmic drama or Existence. And when you do it this way, you are not serious, you are just sincere in playing your part, that’s all.

You see, there are two things: chronological planning and psychological planning.

Chronological planning is planning on a timescale. You decide: You will get up at such and such a time, finish your morning routine by a particular time, reach office at a particular time, and get certain tasks done that day at the office. This is alright. It is a practical way to organize your work in a way that can give the best results. This kind of planning with sincere action will take you from happiness to more happiness!

Psychological planning on the other hand, is planning in your head with no relevance to time or space. It is just a constant serious planning going on in your head, over and above the chronological planning. It keeps you thinking that you are serious and dutiful. It is actually nothing but complex negativity being applied to the chronological planning that has already been done. You keep analyzing your plan, and getting into a dull state because all your energy is going in analyzing the plan again and again.

Psychological planning boosts your ego. It makes you feel great and worthy. It helps you to stay serious. It makes you feel that you are handling things of a great magnitude. It makes you feel that it is wholly in your hands to worry about it and make it happen. You keep hankering after every small thing that needs to get done and feel that your happiness lies in getting that done. This is psychological planning.

I tell you: This is actually a way of postponing happiness, postponing life, waiting for something particular to happen to start enjoying life.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

When you do something too seriously, when you are too concerned about the result, you are actually not allowing yourself to perform at the optimum level.

Of course, you need to make plans, you need to think ahead. But do it with sincerity, not with seriousness. Seriousness is not the same as sincerity. Sincerity is focusing on the task with enthusiasm and youthfulness. Sincerity is giving the task your best without worrying excessively about the result.

When you are serious, you don’t enjoy, you don’t laugh. How can you laugh when you are serious? They are mutually exclusive. Either you are serious or you are laughing; you can’t be both at the same time because the very definition of seriousness is such.

But when you are sincere, you can be laughing and playful. You can continue to do the job on hand in a playful and creative way and the job will get done in a joyful fashion, and because you have finished the job, you have been sincere.

With sincerity, there is no worry, there is only enthusiasm.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Science has proved that when you perform a task in a relaxed and light manner, your thinking and decision-making capacity is automatically enhanced. The same task when performed in a serious manner dulls your mind.

I tell you: All our seriousness is just sickness. When I say all, I mean ALL. And all our sickness originates from seriousness. Seriousness begets sickness and sickness begets seriousness.

One night, a man called me on the phone and started crying.
He said, “I fall at your feet, Swamiji! Please help me. I’m so depressed! I am going to end my life!” and so on.

I tried to calm him down, and finally said, “Why don’t you come to the ashram tomorrow morning and spend a few days with me? Let us see what can be done.”
He replied, “Tomorrow Swamiji? Oh… tomorrow I have to go to office… shall I come next weekend?”

Most of us are like this - getting unnecessarily tense about our so-called problems. Just one jolt is enough and our seriousness will drop. When we wake up to reality, we see how insignificant our problems really are.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

In a Zen monastery, there was a competition among disciples on who had the best garden.

One disciple was a very serious sort.
He took the competition also very seriously.
He kept his garden always neat and clean, and well-swept. All the grass was of the same height. All the bushes were neatly trimmed.
He was sure that he would get the first prize.

On the day of the competition, the Master went around all the gardens.
Then he came back and ranked the gardens.
This disciple’s garden got the lowest ranking.
Everyone was shocked.

The disciple went and questioned the Master about it.
He asked, “Master, what is wrong with my garden? Why did you rank me the lowest?”
The Master looked at him and asked, “Where are all the dead leaves?”

A garden maintained in such a way is no longer alive! It is dead.
Seriousness kills spontaneity. It destroys creativity.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

What is seriousness?
Seriousness is nothing but paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else. It stems from the inability to see that all of life is just a drama that is unfolding every minute. Seriousness is the result of over-expectation from life.

A small story:

Two boys were building sand castles on the beach.
They suddenly had a quarrel and one of the boys got angry and kicked the sand castle.
The other boy went and complained to the king about his serious problem.
The king began to laugh at him for making so much out of just sand castles.
But the king’s advisor, a Zen monk, started laughing at the king.
He asked, “When you can fight battles and lose your sleep over stone castles, why do you laugh at these boys for fighting over sand castles?”

All our seriousness is just about sandcastles! Understand that. For the child, at that young age, sand castles seem precious, whereas for us at our age, stone castles seem precious, that’s all. Whether it is a sand castle or stone castle, the seriousness behind it is the same; just the object of seriousness is different. So don’t laugh when children fight over sand castles.

Seriousness closes your mind to the openness and freedom of life. It makes you dull and dead. It curbs your thinking and makes you stick to the familiar patterns that you know all the time.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

There is an old saying, that if you die in Varanasi, a sacred city of India, you will automatically get liberated. Varanasi is not just the city as we know it. It is also the region where the vaarana that is the eyebrows meet the naasi, that is the nose, which is the exact location of the Ajna chakra. It symbolically represents the death of ego in the liberated or enlightened state.

The Ajna chakra is concerned with ego, with seriousness, with thinking too much about ourselves and therefore taking life too seriously.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

The next chakra is the Ajna chakra which is located between the eyebrows.

In Sanskrit, Ajna means ‘will’ or ‘order’. The Ajna chakra is known as the Master Chakra.

This chakra is locked by seriousness and ego and it can be made to flower by innocence, simplicity and intelligence, and by shedding all forms of ego.

(Meditation Technique: Divya Netra Meditation - a Zoroastrian meditation technique.)

The Ajna chakra is known as the Chakra Raj – the Master of all the chakras.

This is such a significant chakra that there is no religion that has not worked on activating it. When the Ajna opens, the whole Being enters into a different realm. A whole layer of faculties opens up. That is why all the oriental gods are represented with a third eye in their forehead. The third eye is a symbol for the awakened Ajna.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Is suffering necessary?

ONE of the most deeply hidden reasons for suffering is that you may be enjoying it. For example, falling ill can become a source of pleasure if it gets you the attention and care you have been craving.

In the same way as a seed has to rupture before a plant can grow and blossom, intense suffering can rupture your ego and leave you open and vulnerable to transformation. In Mahabharata, there is a beautiful quote by Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas. She prays to Krishna, the enlightened master, ‘Oh Krishna! Let pain and suffering come from all sides in my life. They will constantly remind me about You, my Lord.’

Suffering has tremendous potential to integrate and transform us. Start to witness your experiences without judgement. See with clarity where you are suffering at the gross and subtle levels. If you are just aware, the suffering itself can open your eyes to the unreality of suffering. It can teach you how unnecessary it is to suffer at all. This is what I call ‘necessary suffering’! Once you learn your lesson through necessary suffering, you will handle suffering in a more mature and beautiful way.

One important thing we need to understand is that while pain might be inevitable, the suffering that comes from the pain is not. For example, if you get hurt, there is definitely pain, but how much you choose to suffer from that pain is really your choice.

A small story:

Once a man was seriously injured with multiple fractures and injuries. His friend came to visit him at the hospital. He saw the state of his injured friend and didn’t know what to say. So he asked his friend, ‘How are you feeling my friend? I guess it must be painful with all those injuries. Do you suffer a lot?’ The man replied, ‘Not much — only when I laugh.’

It is a question of attitude! Pain is inevitable, but suffering is your choice. Suffering is not a state of life. It is a state of mind. It is not an event in your life. It is your response to an event. Never curse the pain or the person, inflicting the pain on you. Instead, take the opportunity to use it as a blessing, watch objectively, and cut the root of the pain.

Pain can be a great teacher if you allow it to be. If you properly research the cause and effect of pain within you, it can turn out to be the biggest turning point in your life. The Master Bodhidharma says, ‘Every suffering is a Buddha-seed.’ Suffering can propel you to become a Buddha. He says, feel grateful to suffering and pain because they create the situation for you to search for the truth. Be Blissful!

Experience life every moment

TWO friends met in the street. One man looked sad. The other man asked, ‘What happened? It looks like your whole world has come to an end!’

The first man replied, ‘Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me a million dollars.’ The friend was surprised and said, ‘Sorry to hear about your uncle. But he left you a good sum of money.’ The man continued, ‘Two weeks ago, a cousin I never knew died and left me $90,000.’

The friend replied, ‘Then what is your problem!’ The man replied, ‘This week, I didn’t get anything!’

In this whole world there are only two kinds of people. One category of people experiences life once in a while and the other category of people experiences life continuously.

Whenever you think you are feeling joy, you are experiencing life in the world for those few moments. That is why you feel so alive. You feel as if everything is beautiful. You have a positive experience with the universe.

All your joy is positive experience with the universe, even if it is just eating a sweet. For those few moments you feel that life is great. You feel that life is really something you need, and you feel connected. You are in tune with that ‘ever living presence’.

Understand that ‘ever living presence’ is what we call as life, which is responsible for all activity. Either you experience that ever living presence at this moment or you hope you will experience it in the near future. That is why you are moving your body and still keeping yourself alive.

Understand, you get out of your bed early morning, either to have some good experience or you hope that at least in the near future you will have some good experience. The desire to experience that ‘ever living presence’ is what drives you to get up from your bed every morning.

Your whole life is a long chain of events performed towards the one goal, that is fulfilment. Whatever you may do, whether it is eating or drinking or having relationships, wealth or joy, it is all to experience fulfilment.

Every desire which drives you is nothing but the desire to experience that ‘ever living presence’. Whenever your mind stops wandering and comes back, it tastes that ‘ever living presence’. Any sweet, any joy, any ecstasy, any experience is important because it brings you back to that ‘ever living presence’. If you decide, you can experience that ever living presence this very moment and always.

Be Blissful!

Worries are our comfort zone

IF WE really want to come out of our worries, we can come out right now, without trying to justify any of our worries. Our very worries become our comfort zone. We hide in them. Hiding and merely talking about them helps us to remain lazy. Someone asks Mahavira, the enlightened Jain master,

‘Who is the one who has worries?’ He replies, ‘The person who is worried.’

They ask him, ‘What is the cause of worry?’ He replies, ‘Laziness.’ Then they ask him, ‘Who ends worries?’ He replies, ‘Man himself.’ They ask him, ‘How can worry be ended?’ He replies, ‘By dropping laziness.’

If you drop laziness, you fall into right action. And when you fall into right action, you drop worry. Your comfort with worry can be understood even from the way you react to other people’s worries. If you observe yourself keenly, you will realise that whenever a person talks to you about his worries, you never give him a solution straightaway and by allowing him to indulge in his worries, you are not only encouraging him, but you are also encouraging yourself to remain comfortably in the worry zone.

Worry can never have an external cause. Externally, events happen. They continue to happen. But your response to these worries is decided by your inner space. If you choose to respond with worry, be very clear, somewhere within yourself, you are giving into the laziness of your comfort zone where you can simply sit and worry without moving into action.

A man and his wife were hurrying to their seats after a movie intermission. In a very concerned way, the man asked the lady at the end of a row, ‘Did I step on your toes on the way out?’

‘Yes you did,’ the lady answered back angrily. The man said, ‘All right then, this is our row.’

Worry literally becomes ‘our row’! We are very comfortable with our worries although we claim that we suffer because of them. If we really want to come out of it, we will come out immediately! The question is whether we want to come out of it or remain in it.

If we want a solution to a problem, we should never dwell upon the problem even for a second. We should simply switch to the solution. For every worry there is an instant solution. Most of the time, we prefer to stay in the comfort zone of our worry. It keeps us settled. We choose to have it as our comfort zone and we reinforce it again and again. Trying to change your impression to beat worry is like trying to change the projector screen to see a different slide.

Be Blissful!

Words from the Master

The Vishuddhi chakra is the seat of higher creativity. When the energy of this chakra is unlocked, you will see that a tremendous flow of creativity becomes available to you.

When you change the quality of your being, naturally the quality of your doing also changes. Whatever you do, you do with greater efficiency, greater creativity. As a result, the quality of your having also changes. You will be happy with whatever comes your way and you will see that material wealth and success flow towards you naturally. So drop comparison and return to your Being and discover eternal bliss or Nithyananda.

Yes…Now let us enter into a meditation technique called the Shakti Sagar Meditation*. It will make you understand experientially how you can harness the tremendous Energy source that is available to you through your Vishuddhi chakra.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

* To learn and experience Shakti Sagar Meditation under a qualified instructor, kindly enroll for Ananda Spurana Program (ASP) at a center close to you.

Words from the Master

Swamiji, once we are able to be without jealousy, have we completely gotten freedom in at least one aspect of our shortcomings?

Of course, if you are able to see a space where love can exist without passion or jealousy, you have definitely moved forward, but continue moving with complete awareness because you can very easily slip back into your old unconscious ways and find yourself going through all the old emotions once again.

Hold on to the newly discovered awareness and move with it. It can open up many more beautiful avenues for you to explore. Don’t stagnate. The greatest danger is to cling on to a few experiences thinking that they are solid.

Masters never allow their disciples to stagnate in any experience. They always prod them on further so that the disciple may look deeper and deeper in his quest. People who have had visions of Gods and Goddesses most often tend to stagnate in their spiritual journey. They feel there is nothing more to be seen and therefore stay right there holding on to that experience. This should never be allowed to happen.

You see, until you have reached the state of eternal bliss, you can hit the rock bottom at any time. So remember that and nurture your awareness continuously to take you to realms of deeper and deeper understanding.

Understand one thing: The work of a Master is so delicate. He has to handle each and every one of you with utmost care and delicateness. He has to see in which way each of you will grow and make you flower in that way. Each of you has been through so many lives and have accumulated so much of ignorance. He has to work through all that and wake you up.

And remember one thing:
Life offers plenty of solutions, but there is always something that fits you the best. The intelligence lies in finding that out. When you apply your own intelligence and find it out, you will enjoy the benefits of it. Whereas, if you start looking at others and start applying their solutions to yourself, you will lose track of where you stand.

A small story:

An old woman was going about dusting her old house in a remote village.
Suddenly the door opened and a young sales man walked in. He spoke excitedly when he saw the woman dusting.
He told her that he had many gadgets that would help her clean her house.
The old woman said, “But…”
The man interrupted her and pulled out a lot of rubbish from a bag and put it on the floor.
The old woman tried again, “But…”
The man told her to stand by and watch. He pulled out a device and explained, “You see this machine? It will clean any amount of dust in no time. It is so light in weight and therefore very easy for you to handle at this age. Let me demonstrate.”
The old lady tried, “But…”
The man interrupted, “Just show me the plug point.”
The lady finally said, “But… electricity hasn’t yet reached our village!”

(Loud laughter!)

In life, we need to be able to figure out what suits us the best! If we are clear about this, we will grow without a worry. But most of the time, we covet and apply others’ solutions to ourselves, and then feel unhappy.

If we are clear about where we stand and what we need, we will grow steadily. Even setbacks in this way of living will only be ones that teach us how to function more intelligently. In this way, you function with your own intelligence and so it becomes an experiential understanding.

When you simply follow another’s solution, there is nothing happening inside you; you are simply operating from your periphery. When nothing happens inside you, you cannot grow; remember that. When I say that you cannot grow, I mean you don’t evolve from within. Material benefits may come, but you remain dead inside.

Remember one thing: Only when you grow from within, you are really growing. Don’t get dangerously caught in the outer world races. See them as mere play and play them well. Material benefits are needed for survival. But all these should remain in the periphery. Your inner core should steadily grow. It is this that will guide you in your play outside.

When you learn to tap your own intelligence, you will see how irrelevant it becomes to be looking at another’s progress or activities. You will see the absurdity of the whole thing. As your intelligence grows, you will understand that each one has to run his own race and not against each other! The real race is towards discovering your infinite intelligence. Where is the scope for comparison to come in?

The process of discovering your infinite intelligence is what life is all about. That is why I always say: Life is the path and not any goal. As your intelligence grows, you will become more joyful and you will be able to play the game of life more effectively. So stop comparing and start discovering – the source of your real growth.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

In the Himalayas, when I used to wander, so many miles I used to cover by foot. I used to start walking at a slow pace, concentrating on my Vishuddhi chakra. Slowly, I would pick up speed concentrating on the chakra and walk effortlessly. After a certain point, my body would start moving with a swinging pace and I would be just a watcher! I would cover many miles together in this fashion.

All the food that you take or exercise that you do helps only the first layer of Energy. Food alone does not give you energy. It is a common misconception that only food gives you Energy. Food is one source of energy, that’s all.

Yogis in Tibet do not eat at all. They simply drink water out of the shell of a bilva fruit. I lived like that for six months in the Himalayas. I got the Energy from the sun, from the water while taking my bath, from the air while breathing. These are all Yogic methods. Tapasya is the penance you do for enlightenment throughout your life. That alone vibrates in your Being.

When you start competing with others, you forget your own self. You forget to strengthen your own Being, which is your actual untapped source of Energy. If you have physical strength and intellectual strength without the strength of the soul, it is of no use. It is only when you discover the strength of your soul, have you touched your life source. Yes…

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Alright...Now, from all that we have discussed, you have understood that comparison and jealousy are non-entities and don’t have any actual relevance to you at all. Now, let me try to explain some more on the Vishuddhi chakra and the energy house that is in it.

You see: We have three layers of Energy in us. The first layer energy is from our mind and it is this that we use for our day-to-day activities from morning till night. Once this energy expends, you start feeling tired and irritated if you are given more work to do.

The second layer energy is the emergency layer. It is the energy that arises from your emotions. At the time of emergency, this energy opens out. Say you are walking on the road. If a dog starts chasing you, the fear emotion surfaces and what do you do? You run much faster than the fastest you can run under normal conditions, is it not? Even if you are dead tired, even if you are unable to move a limb, if suddenly a dog chases you, you will run with a different kind of energy. This is the emergency energy - that arises out of emotion.

The third layer Energy is the Being level Energy. This is an infinite source of energy within you, which you don’t use at all. This energy layer can be opened and experienced by deep meditation. Whether you accept it or not, you are in connection with all these three layers of Energies. This Vishuddhi chakra holds in it the key to these higher energy levels.

Let me narrate to you an incident that actually happened during my days of wandering:
In a beautiful place called Almora in the Himalayas, there is a small ashram with a few huts for those who wish to meditate.

The only thing with the place is, it is known to be frequented by tigers at night!

I was there for a short while during my days of wandering. I used to meditate for long hours there.

They had a system by which, when the head of the ashram senses the tigers coming, he would ring a bell and all the Sadhus would get into their respective huts and close the doors, until such time they were asked to come out.

On one occasion, at nighttime, while we were meditating, the bell rang and all of us got into our respective huts.

The next day, the head of the ashram came around to see if we were all alright.

He found that one of the huts was closed and the Sannyasi inside was shouting through the window to open the door.

We all ran to the hut and tried opening the door but couldn’t open it.

Finally, a few of us got in through the window and entered the hut.

To our surprise, we found that he had placed a big grinding stone against the door so that the tiger won’t be able to push its way through.

We jointly moved the stone away to open the door.

It suddenly struck us how the man might have moved the stone single-handedly against the door in the first place? We asked him how he had moved it.

He replied, “Moved it? I simply lifted it and placed it!”

When he heard the call of the tiger, he simply lifted the stone to place it against the door, that’s all!

This is exactly what I mean by the emergency layer energy. Under normal circumstances, the same man would not have been able to lift the same stone. Do you understand? Even after the incident, once the emergency was over, he himself was not able to lift it away from the door!

Out of fear or greed, the second level energy opens. For example, if there is an important meeting, do you feel tired? No! You will be alive and fresh. The desire or greed to attend the meeting will keep you in an energized condition.

The Vishuddhi chakra is the door through which all these three layers of energy can be opened out, but you are not aware of it because you have not used these layers effectively in a long time.

It is like this: In all harbors, there is a place called a boat jetty where the boats are kept. It is commonly said that if the boat is kept in the jetty for long without sailing, it forgets that it belongs to the water!

In the same way, because you have not used the third layer of Energy for a long time, you forget that you belong to it or it belongs to you. Meditation can open out this third level Energy for you.

If you keep this chakra in a cleansed condition, you can scale great heights in the outer world and great depths in the inner world. When you have low self-esteem or jealousy, this chakra is locked. Low self-esteem is a passive manifestation of jealousy, that’s all. Jealousy is active while low self-esteem is passive. Both are a result of comparison. With low self-esteem, you feel you are no good and resign yourself to it. In jealousy, you are unable to bear it and start reacting; that is the difference.

Understand one thing: Any self-esteem that you have about yourself that indicates to you that you are lesser than God is low self-esteem, because you ARE God. That is why I say there is no scope to compare yourself with anyone else.

You need to experience the second and third layers of energy hidden in this chakra, in order to understand the infinite potential that is lying hidden in you. This chakra is really the seat of energy for us. When we concentrate on it, we will be able to feel the energy radiating from it.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

A total commitment and determination is needed and this will come automatically to you when you are ready; when you are ready to drop your mind - that is society, and live with your heart; when you are ready to stop pointing fingers at others and point to yourself, come what may; when you understand experientially that your mind is societal and your heart is natural.

And one more thing: When people ask you for proof of your experiences, just understand that there is no need to prove to them. Your experiences are so intimate and personal to you that you will not be able to effectively share it with the other person. In fact if you share it, you will be bringing down the whole experience. Also, the other person may not be willing to believe what you are saying. They may tell you that you are deluding yourself. They may want you to explain the whole thing logically.

Logic cannot explain these experiences. God is beyond logic. If logic can explain God, then logic has to be superior to God but that is not the case; so just relax and allow the experiences to happen to you. When anyone questions you, have the maturity to smile and move on. A smile can convey more effectively what you can’t in so many words.

Great enlightened Masters have experienced such tremendous joy in communion with Existence. People ask me to narrate my experiences. But I tell you, it is all so personal and intimate that I cannot explain it to you in words. I can guide you, I can show you the way, the path for you to experience. The moment I start explaining, it will become mundane.

But one thing: I can give you the highest assurance that you will experience, if you have the fire within you. The promise given by a Master is enough energy for you to achieve.

Just understand that the joy you experience has no reason. People are bound to think that you are mad when they see you joyful without a reason. They know only cause and effect relationships even in the context of joy. According to them, only an outside cause can cause joy inside you.

I am telling you all these things now in reply to your question about meditation and spirituality. You may think that we are moving away from the main subject. No! This chakra, this Vishuddhi chakra is all about expanding yourself; about discovering your own unique Self, with total awareness and understanding of the fact that there is no scope for comparison and jealousy in life. Just take in whatever I have told you and allow the energy behind it to transform you. I tell you, miracles can happen inside you! It will change the whole quality of your Being.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

At one of our programs, I asked, how many of them thought that I had hypnotized them. Out of a group of eighty, three of them lifted their hands. One of the ladies who was sitting next to the girl who had her hand raised laughed at her. I asked her why was laughing. The girl was honest enough to lift her hand.

I am sure out of that group, many of them would have been tempted to lift their hands but didn’t, fearing what I might say! Anyhow, three of them lifted their hands. I told them that I had not hypnotized them, but had actually de-hypnotized them.

They have started feeling the clearing of maya or illusion. But what happens is, you are so used to being in a state of illusion, that if it starts clearing, you think something has gone amiss! The problem is, when too much truth is told to people and understanding dawns, a certain fear sets in. The comfort they were enjoying under the covers of ignorance suffers.

See, in whatever quantities your ignorance dissolves, in that much quantity you become possessed by God or Existence. Any effort that you put in your everyday life should be directed towards emptying yourself so that you may be filled with Existence. Everything else is just incidental and trivial in life. Remember this.

Every breath of yours should be towards increasing your awareness and consciousness. Only then have you really made a conscious decision to experience Existence or God. If this firm resolve is not happening in you, then you are still pretending to seek, that’s all. You are simply cheating yourself. Don’t for a moment think that you are cheating others. You are cheating yourself.

To turn your steps from outwards to inwards is the first step. That moment of taking the U-turn is the most significant moment. And mind you, your awareness will tell you that you have taken the U-turn. Till then, your mind would have been giving excuses and more excuses, citing people and situations and outer world circumstances as reasons for not being able to integrate yourself.

Once you take the U-turn, all these will fade into insignificance. They will slowly lose their prominence. They will be there no doubt, but you will be steadily progressing, taking them in your stride. They will help you become a more effective watcher as they play their parts meticulously. Taking the first step or the U-turn is what is the most difficult thing. When you take the U-turn, half the job is done. You then become more malleable to the ways of Existence.

When you take the U-turn, everything becomes meditation. Whether it is walking or talking or singing or dancing or simply putting your clothes on or taking them off, everything becomes a meditation and is done with increasing awareness.

You will simply watch yourself doing these things and slowly understand that the whole world is an illusion. When you take your first step inwards, you have in effect taken a leap because the first step is the real leap. Until then, you only philosophize, convince yourself and others that you are seeking and get more confused with lesser determination day by day.

When you take the first step, you are ready to win yourself. To win others is very easy. Just take a few weapons or use your tongue and simply tear them apart, that’s all. But to win yourself takes real courage. This Vishuddhi chakra is all about winning yourself.

When you look inwards, you are ready to win yourself. Of course, when you are on the path inwards, there might not be anything tangible to the people around you in what you are doing. Only you will know that everything is happening inside and not outside. Only you will be aware of the revolution that is happening inside you. Only you will be able to tell the growing intelligence inside you.

People around you will not be able to understand the experiences you are enjoying. I tell you: Never try to convince anyone that you are evolving inside. You may share your experiences with your spiritual friends who will be able to match your wavelength of thinking, but if you try to share these experiences with other people who are blissfully oblivious to the inner journeys, you will only land up in deep misery.

Just let the experiences happen in you; neither hold on to them nor run behind them. Allow them to work like steam on you so that you may fully ripen. If you hold on to them, you will stagnate at some point and miss the whole thing.

Remember that all these experiences are tell tale signs that you are well on your journey inwards. They are like signboards that you see on the roads. Do you cling on to the signboards and say that the destination has been reached? No. Don’t cling on to them. Move on to your destination.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Just function with awareness, and infinity will simply open out. When it does, you will feel afraid because you are not used to seeing such open space before. You are used to seeing boundaries all the time. Now you are not able to see the fence anywhere. You start getting apprehensive.

You immediately think that you have entered the wrong space. Reality seems too much to digest. You start feeling insecure. You feel like going back to the warmth of your past beliefs and illusions. You feel you have made a mistake by not listening to society when it told you that you were going on the wrong path. You start doubting and then doubting the doubt as well.

Life suddenly seems shaky. You don’t know where you are heading. You feel like a lonely child left in the middle of a desert. It is in times like these that you need to remember that Existence is always with you and that your courage needs only to mature and go hand in hand with faith upon Existence and then everything will be alright. Faith is the prodding stick for courage.

Unless a revolution happens inside you, you can never rupture and grow into a tree. Most of us remain a seed and die, because of lack of courage. We always try to dissect the seed to find the fruits and flowers. Will it ever help? No! The seed has to rupture to grow. Similarly, when a radical change happens, when a revolution is created in man, he will rupture and grow. All meditations are nothing but techniques to make the seed rupture.

When you start rupturing, all your priorities start changing. What was important before becomes no more important. Only the things that nurture your Being will seem important. Your whole attitude will change. Your whole presence will change.

Your presence will automatically lure people to you although they might not approve of it! The radiance felt in your inner core will attract them with deep curiosity. While society will criticize you for your changed attitude, it will start finding your presence distinctly different.

When the transformation is happening, just utterly ignore anything from the past. The past will again and again try to pull you into familiar patterns and deep bondage. When you listen to the words of others, you are allowing yourself to be in bondage. Just decide and hold on to the ecstasy and conviction of the transformation happening in you. This is your greatest test - the test of your perseverance to transform completely. Hold on until the transformation is complete and mature.

Understand this one thing: There is a Cosmic Energy that fills this universe and there is an Energy that fills you. Spirituality is all about establishing a live connection between the Cosmic Energy and the energy in you. When your individual consciousness merges with the Universal Consciousness, you become enlightened.

Just a desire to get enlightened will not do. It needs to be a conscious decision. See, ordinary desires are nothing but greed that don’t really propel you towards your specific goal. A conscious decision is what will make you work towards achieving.

People don’t understand these things properly and simply talk at a superficial level. When you don’t understand, you misunderstand. But you think you have understood and there starts the problem.

Spirituality is a science that gives a deep understanding of our body, mind and spirit. When you enter it with awareness, the outer world will slowly dissolve. When people see you from outside, they will think that you are renouncing. Only you will understand that you are not renouncing anything, the outer world things are simply dissolving on their own. The illusion disappears and you become de-hypnotized.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Yes…you want to ask something?

Swamiji, while we are on the topic of rituals, can you please tell us something about the path of rituals and the path of meditation?

Yes...
See, with rituals, there is something definite about them. It is structured and you know when exactly it is going to start, when it is going to finish, where you are going to do it, what for you are doing it etc. With rituals, you go into them, and come out as the same person. There is so much of security in the whole process. That is why it has spread so much. Anything that is definite spreads.

But what happens in meditation? First of all, meditation seems too simple to produce any benefits when compared to rituals. People always ask me why I do rituals at the ashram. I tell them, if I tell people to simply come to the ashram and sit under the banyan tree and meditate, which is actually enough, will they listen?

If I did not have the Dakshinamurthy idol and the Nataraja idol, if they did not see these idols there, would they come to just see open space and a banyan tree? Probably only I will be sitting under the banyan tree and meditating!

To make people take the first steps towards their inner journey, I have to show them some of the complications that exist in their minds. Else I cannot lure them to it. I have to talk in their language.

They will be so happy to see the Dakshinamurthy idol under the banyan tree although they will be blissfully unaware of the Energy field that is actually there around the banyan tree even in the absence of the Dakshinamurthy idol. This banyan tree is live Energy. Its silence is a vibrating silence. It is enough if you just sit under it in a meditative mood. You don’t have to do anything complicated. Every leaf and twig here talks to me.

See, when you continue to worship idols, you have to become more and more aware of the tremendous Presence of Existence that you are trying to connect with through the idol. Then you will automatically start seeing God everywhere. You will understand that it is not just the idol but the whole of creation that is pregnant with the Presence of God. Then you can start relating with the whole of Existence.

With meditation, if you go into meditation with sincerity, the outcome is not definite. A personality change may happen. You may emerge as a different person. This is seen as a great risk! It is like taking a gamble. Transformation starts happening. It is this transformation that you are actually seeking, but when it happens you are afraid.

You feel comfortable in the security of your rituals. Rituals become a part of your every day routine; they become a part of the dead circuit that you are following. Somehow, they give you satisfaction and you remain where you are. With meditation, your ideology is shaken a bit and you start feeling scared. Your set of beliefs that have been built by years of conditioning suddenly seem shaky. You feel you are moving onto a less trodden path and that causes fear in you.

When you meditate, your awareness increases and when this happens, the fence that you have imagined around yourself, which actually society has put around you, slowly dissolves and you feel rebellious, not against society but against your own unconscious and ignorant state. This rebellion causes you to probe more into the cause of it and it opens out further avenues for you.

This is how you move deeper and deeper into a space that you have never entered before; a space which society does not even know; a space that society is wary of; a space that has all along been inside you but locked; a space for which you have been searching a key to unlock, but blissfully unaware of, not just in this life but in many lives before. When you have found this space, you have arrived!

It is like this:
A cow is tied to a rope and given a few meters of radius to move around.
It moves around and becomes aware and mature through its intelligence.
Then, the rope is loosened a little, giving it a few more meters of radius.
It goes further around and becomes more intelligent and then it is given still more length of rope to wander.

Depending on the cow’s growing intelligence and consciousness, it is let free at some point in time!

The same thing happens in man. The rope or fence around man is proportionate to his Consciousness. The more conscious he becomes, the greater freedom he enjoys and the more his consciousness grows.

See, it is a question of how willing you are to allow the transformation of your Energy. This is the only way it can happen.

But when this happens, society will tell you that you are moving away. It will tell you that you are moving away from what is right. The confusion then starts. When this happens, you only have to have courage and faith in yourself and Existence and move on.

Here is where, more than any books or lectures, a Master can serve you as a Yoga danda - a stick of support, to help you stand up for yourself. Every time you feel beaten by society in your path of spirituality, when you feel you are against the majority, the Master will pull you up in his own way and tell you to move on.

You need to be prodded at weak moments and the Master is the stick that prods you on and supports you till you walk again with your head high up. At every moment of faltering, the stick emerges to your help.

With the support of the Master, you can stand up as an individual, as an independent person, discovering your uniqueness. It does not mean that you are dependent on the Master; not at all. This is another common misconception. People think that you are being dependent on another human being for life.

It is like this: You are trying to find your way to a particular place. If left by yourself, you will ask for directions at several places. Sometimes you will be guided wrongly and may have to retrace, and in this fashion, you will reach your destination somehow. It may take you a long time to do so, but you will reach. But what if you have a map or a guide? You will be able to directly reach your destination without loss of time, is it not? Does it mean that you are dependent on the map or guide? No. It was just a quicker way of doing things, that’s all. In the same way, a Master is a guide who knows the way, who has already been to the place you are searching for and is available to guide you there.

When you have dedication alone, you will no doubt work hard towards reaching your goal, but when you have dedication with courage, you will take a leap towards your goal. This courage will come if you stop looking at others and look only into yourself, if you stop comparing yourself with others and watch yourself with awareness, at the subtle changes happening inside your system.

You need to stand up with courage of conviction in your own path. Courage of conviction will happen in you only when you are strongly centered in yourself without comparing with others.

Society is waiting to pull you into the familiar patterns that it knows, into the miseries that it is familiar with and can handle; into the well trodden and worn out path. It is very easy and does not require courage to fall into this path. But to tread the lesser-trodden path of spirituality requires courage. When I say courage, I don’t mean ordinary courage, I mean total courage.

To wear gypsy beads, does not require courage, but to wear rudraksh beads, requires courage. I give rudraksh beads to devotees who wish to wear them. The rudraksh beads are nothing but energy storehouses. They store the Cosmic Energy for you. They are like a battery house and recharge you when you get into a low. But society sees these beads as clear signs of sannyas! They see them as something worn by renunciates, without even understanding the meaning of renunciation.

They condemn people who stay in family life and wear rudraksh. But when they see the rudraksh beads on idols or sadhus, they are happy and pray to them. So many of my young devotees come and tell me how their family reacts to them wearing the beads. All these gossipmongers will talk endlessly about it and spread stories about them. Is it not absurd? When they pray, they are praying to the Cosmic Energy, but when the same Energy is available to them in simpler forms, they are not ready to take it! They pray to it but run away from it!

If you deeply analyze this, it will seem so absurd and nonsensical. They see themselves as so distinctly different from God; that is the problem. They are not ready to accept that they are God. Now I tell you: Whether you know it or not, whether you accept it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, you ARE God. This is the underlying basis of the Vishuddhi chakra also – discovering your own unique self and infinite energy.

When your courage grows, society automatically fades into insignificance. When your courage is low, society assumes power over you. It is all in your mind. How much power you give to society, that much power it will have over you. Never blame society for anything.

The choice has always been yours. Due to sheer lack of courage, you choose to go with what society says, you choose to pull and push by comparing and trying to beat one another, and then you blame society for it. It is the most absurd thing you can ever do. Remember, the choice is always yours.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

The problem is, people are contented with just following rituals. There is a certain security they enjoy in doing this. The science behind the rituals is no more known to people but the rituals are ego-fulfilling to them. Rituals are complex and we always find it a challenge to keep pace with complex things.

People come to me with their problems and ask me for a solution. I tell them that I will take care and suggest to them to sit for a while under the banyan tree while they are in the ashram. The banyan tree in the ashram is an Energy field. But they are not happy with that answer. They ask me what rituals they should do to make things better.

If I tell them that they should go 108 times around the banyan tree in the ashram, they will be very happy doing it! You see, when you go 108 times around the banyan tree, it becomes ego-fulfilling for you. You then feel that you have worked hard and that you will get the benefit out of it. This is how we have trained our minds with respect to religion.

Even in religion and rituals, I have seen – people compete with each other! If your neighbour has done a particular offering in a particular temple, next you go and do the same offering in that temple. What is the focus on? The deity or the neighbour?! You have missed the whole thing by doing these things!

People feel proud in saying that they have visited so many important holy shrines all over the world. They list out the groups of temples that they have visited. Immediately, the people who listen to these stories make an effort in surpassing these achievements.

After visiting all these holy shrines, your ego is still solid and your Vishuddhi chakra is still locked! Have you ever thought about that? All these things are done only to progress in the inner world, to be free from comparison and jealousy and similar things, but here also you miss the point and again and again, you do things for the sake of the outer world.

I have seen people reading recitations in front of the deity. They will read a few lines and then call out to the maid to find out if she’s finished the job she was asked to do. Or, they will read a few lines and see how many more pages there are to finish! This is how they relate with God and they feel satisfied at having read the recitation at the end of the day.

And on top of it, they will repeat such recitations for 21 days because they have taken a vow to do so! Then they will proudly go and tell their neighbor or relative that they fulfilled such an arduous vow!

Everything that we do is mostly just to tell to people that we did it and sow a seed of comparison in them. You see, if you decide to follow rituals, do it with utmost sincerity, with a feeling of deep connection with Existence. When you do it this way, you won’t even talk about it.

When you decide to follow the ritualistic path, commitment and sincerity must become your master keys. So do it with utmost sincerity. Today, there are hundreds of ways of ritualistic worship. You don’t have to get confused as to which to follow. Just decide to follow any one way and do it with commitment. It is the commitment that gets you the benefit, not the ritual itself.

And one more thing: Don’t look for instant results. Today, everyone wants instant results like instant tea and instant coffee! Most of us feel that others’ prayers are getting answered quicker than ours and so we should shift from our type of worship to others’ type of worship. All this is nonsense. So much of comparison even in worship! Do what you are doing with commitment and faith, and leave the rest open. Things will happen automatically.

Also, try to understand the science behind rituals when you follow them so that your mind will be tuned in the proper way instead of getting caught in the rituals themselves. The ultimate goal of any religion or ritual is to tune in with Existence. This has to be understood in no uncertain terms.

Rituals are not a transaction to bribe the Gods. They are not any bank balances that you create to protect yourself. They are not any race that you are having with anybody to see who is doing more. So stop comparing and start feeling the intensity of what you are trying to do.

I am reminded of a story:

Three men started a business together.
They decided to include God as a partner in their business.
They agreed that whatever profit they would get, they would give away one percent of it to God.
They started their business and they made unexpectedly high profits.
Then came the problem: How to give away so much to God?
They each gave a suggestion.
The first man said, “Alright, let’s draw a circle and throw up all the money. Whatever falls inside the circle is God’s and whatever falls outside is ours.”
The second man said, “No. I will give you a better idea. We will draw a really big circle and throw up all the money. Whatever falls inside is ours and whatever falls outside is God’s.”
The third man said, “Look, listen to me. Anyway God is above us. Let us throw up all the money. Whatever he wants, let him take, whatever comes down is ours!”

(Loud laughter!)

As long as we want something, we bribe God for it. As soon as we get it, we drop him until the next want arises. This is how we are taught to function.

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

People ask me, “Swamiji, if we should stop comparing and everything, then does it mean we should renounce everything and become a spiritualist?”

Most people think that the moment I say you should stop comparing, stop running etc., I am asking them to escape from all the worldly matters and become a spiritualist. Especially while talking about this Vishuddhi chakra, they start feeling this way.

You see, Spirituality, or for that matter Sannyas, is not about renouncing at all. It is about having the deep awareness, which will automatically shrink your mad desires to basic needs and which will give you the Energy to fulfill them and turn inwards.

Whatever needs to be done in the outer world needs to be done, no doubt. You have to earn your living; you have to look into related matters; you have to keep the body alive. All I am saying is, bring in awareness into all this so that all unnecessary occupations in the outer world, automatically disappear and you live with a clear understanding of the purpose of your very birth and life.

All forms of illusion, all borrowed desires, all instilled fears, all forms of jealousy and comparison, passion and lust will then undergo a complete transformation and become Blissful Energy to you.

A small story:

A Master was walking with his disciple when they came to a river.
The disciple was surprised and asked, “Master, are we going to cross this river now?”
The Master calmly replied, “Yes, we are. You have to be careful not to get your feet wet!”

The disciple could not understand what the Master was saying! The Master was trying to tell him that spirituality is all about crossing the ocean of life without getting your feet wet. It is all about being like a lotus in a pond – untouched by the waters although deep inside it. Spirituality is not about running away from worldly things. Be very clear about this.

Spirituality is actually Life Engineering. In colleges, they teach you different types of engineering. They are all merely certificates you get in return for selling your brains. Life Engineering is what needs to be taught to each of us. Spirituality teaches you to live like a Paramahamsa or a Realised One, in the material world, neck deep in water, yet untouched by it.

It teaches you to live an intense and fulfilling life without violating any person or property. It teaches you to disconnect yourself from your intellect and see with wide-eyed innocence, the wonders of Existence, without any illusions like comparison, jealousy, lust etc. It teaches you how to move synchronously with Existence and experience the power of coincidence, wherein you find that things happen automatically in response to your inner joy.

It teaches you to be in an ever prayerful and grateful mood and be receptive to the ways of Existence. It teaches you to enjoy every moment from your inner core, instead of being swayed by your outer periphery and the emotions associated with it. It teaches you to celebrate life every moment instead of looking for reasons to celebrate.

It kindles your inner intelligence and accelerates your performance in the outer world. It awakens your awareness and takes you to deeper Consciousness. It takes you from lust to love, from worrying to wondering, from false to truth, from pain to bliss, from jealousy to celebration.

And one more thing: People think that they need to allot a separate time for spirituality; not at all. You will know from what I have just said that this is not required. The people who claim that you need to allot separate time, are not spiritual people; they are religious people.

Religion needs time because of rites and rituals. Spirituality has nothing to do with quantity or time. It is to do with the quality of your life. If you have the sincerity to seek the Truth, it is enough. You can then devote all your time to doing everything as an earnest meditation and you will attain your goal. You will automatically shine at work, at home, in interpersonal relationships, without energy blockages like jealousy and comparison.

You will adapt yourself to any kind of surroundings easily. You will feel at home at any place and with any type of people. Home will not be just the place you live in but the whole of Existence. You will break free from mental and physical conditionings and rise to merge and become one with Existence.

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

One man asked me, “Swamiji, What is God?”

I slowly changed the subject and enquired about his family and his business.
We spoke for nearly two hours. In those two hours, never once did he get back to his initial question.

At the end of it I told him, “Ayyah, you asked me a question as soon as you came in. I did not answer it because it was not a question from deep inside you.”

If the question arises from deep inside us, we will never forget it or rest until we are satisfied with the answer. Some people ask questions, give the answer themselves and then ask me for an answer! They are merely looking to collect supporting words from me, that all.

Questions are really a scramble for gathering words and collecting within us. We get a great feeling about ourselves when we gather these words. But we miss the great Truth in doing so! We give more importance to the words than the Truth. This is how we miss the Master; this is how we miss the understanding behind the Master’s words.

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

In most of the teashops in remote villages in India, you can see a familiar scene: There will be some standard visitors for the shop everyday who discuss all the great philosophies of the world. The heads of all the great Gods, Masters and Politicians will be properly chewed and digested by these people.

All the atrocities being committed in town will be discussed without an exception. The whole world will be brought under scrutiny for lack of order and discipline. Finally, the man who spoke all this will finish his tea and leave saying that he will pay for his tea the following day!

The man who could not even pay for his tea will sit on the teashop bench and read the newspaper from the first page to the last and pass judgment on everything that he has read. Even the editor would not have read the paper so thoroughly!

The amount of time that these people spend on the teashop benches would probably even cause depressions on the benches! They spend all their time in this fashion. They don’t spend one moment in trying to achieve anything.

So, the least you can do is, internalize what I am saying and start feeling the Truth behind it. Patanjali says: If you can bend 5 inches today, try to bend a half-inch more tomorrow. Like this, you should work steadily towards experiencing the Truth that I am giving you. Else, you will be no more than the people in the teashops. They cause depressions in the benches there while you cause holes in the mats here, that’s all!

The problem is, most often, when we hear words of wisdom spoken, we always feel that it is exactly applicable to our friend or relative who is also listening to the lecture! We apply it to them and secretly hope that they got the message. In doing this, you have missed the message, that’s all! I tell you, when I talk, I talk to you. Even if there are a thousand people in the hall, I am talking to you. Please try to understand this.

Every word of mine is pregnant with the Energy that is meant for you. So please don’t listen with such ideas in your mind. Especially when husbands and wives come to listen to the lectures, when I say a few things pertaining to their practical lives, the husband will think, she should hear this and the wife will think to herself that the husband should hear it! At the end, both will miss it.

Man’s inherent nature is to accumulate money and material things. At some point in time, he realizes that there are things that money can’t get him. His pace in gathering wealth automatically decreases. He then starts gathering words or intellectual knowledge. This process somehow never stops. He becomes greedy for more and more words.

One who has stopped gathering wealth and words will start searching for True Knowledge. Often, we ask questions not because we really want to know the answer but simply because we are greedy for more words or because we want to show that we know something.

If you look deep inside, only one question will arise and that is the only original question for yourself. If that question is answered, you will become enlightened!

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

All knowledge gained should be applied to your inner growth. Else, you are no more than a walking library. I have seen people – they read voraciously and listen to different people’s lectures on philosophy and talk extensively about it. When it comes to application, they are totally lacking. They simply become books for other people’s reference. They read, they don’t digest it fully, they simply vomit it on others. What is the use?

Only when you yourself grow with awareness, you can help yourself as well as others. You need an experiential understanding. The key here is not even applying what you hear for the sake of outer world benefits; it is applying what you hear to bring in more awareness into yourself to understand that the outer world is an illusion and that everything that needs to be achieved is inside you. The milestones reached in the outer world will then become just incidental in the whole process.

When you listen to Masters talk, just absorb and imbibe. Masters talk only the Truth.
It is like this: There is a vast dense forest and you are trying to explore it with a small lamp - that is your mind.

With the light of the small lamp, you see a few feet ahead and put down what you see as the truth.

This is what scientists do.
They see a few feet ahead and come out with one theory today.
After some time, they go a few feet further ahead with that light and see a few feet further now and see something more.
They then discard the truth they declared yesterday and bring in a new truth.

Be very clear: What was truth yesterday but untruth today could not have been truth even yesterday.

Anyhow, this is how they are trying to explore a dense forest with their mind.

But imagine now that there is a flash of lightning and the whole forest becomes visible in that single flash!

Then you know the whole forest and you can go about explaining things as and when needed.

This is what Enlightenment is all about! It is seeing the whole forest in a single flash of lightning.

Once this happens, you simply know.

That is why, what was Truth to one Master is Truth to another Master also. Their expressions may vary but their ultimate experience is one. Either by experience you know, or you don’t know. When you try to answer with your intellect, you create only philosophies. So don’t philosophize; work on turning your understanding into an experience.

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

Swamiji…Masters time and again try to inspire in us traits like love free from jealousy, better understanding and non-judgmental attitudes. Why is the understanding not happening in us?

You see, there are two things in this.

When we catch the principles of the Masters and make a sincere effort in transforming ourselves, we have caught the right thread and we will enter into bliss! But what happens is, we start giving importance to the Master’s personality instead. You have to give importance to the Master’s principles and philosophy. If you give importance to his personality, you completely miss him; you completely miss his message.

See understand: If you follow his teachings, you will become a spiritual fruit; if you cling on to his personality, you will remain a religious nut. Religious nuts are the ones who create confusion and conflict and remain where they are.

Whether it is Krishna’s message in the Bhagwad Gita or Mohammed’s message in the Holy Koran or Christ’s message in the Holy Bible, the message remains the same; just the expressions vary. Whichever Master you have the fortune of following, follow. But when you start following the personalities instead of their teachings, when Krishna becomes more significant to you than the Bhagwad Gita, you start creating trouble for yourself and for others.

When Krishna and Christ meet, they will surely embrace each other. But when Krishna’s cows and Christ’s sheep meet, there is bound to be a fight!

Each one from a different following tries to spread peace claiming that his Master’s philosophy is the best. What happens then? Instead of spreading peace, we become pieces ourselves! When you try to force your so-called peace on others, the problem starts. This is how we complicate matters and miss the message not only in one birth, but in several births.

Masters keep happening on planet Earth out of sheer compassion towards humanity. Man somehow manages to survive them!

The second thing: Instead of pointing fingers at others or instead of waiting for a good time to start practicing, if each of us starts practicing what we hear from the very moment of hearing, things will automatically start happening around us.

For example, I tell you to start loving plants, animals, trees and humans alike. Instead of waiting for an auspicious time to start practicing it and eventually forgetting all about it, you can start immediately internalizing what I said and start practicing it.

The simplest way to start might be to avoid abusing nature while you are walking on the road or inside your own home. When walking, some of us have the habit of breaking twigs off trees and plucking flowers. You could consciously stop doing these things and look at these things with more awareness and love. You could embrace nature to start with. This is a sure way of starting to enjoy and appreciate, instead of feeling jealous.

These are the ways not to miss the Masters’ teachings.

But what do you do? You come here and listen to me talking, or buy and read some of my books, and praise me as a great orator and forget about it. Or, you advise some friends to listen to my speeches, and you simply go back to your old ways of doing things. What can be done then? Please understand: I don’t want you to preach my teachings to others, I want you to practice them.

Listen to this small story:

One man went to Africa for a holiday.
He was walking in his backyard one day when he was confronted by a lion that leapt at him.
He quickly ducked and the lion landed in the bush nearby.
The next day, the man went walking again and the lion appeared and attacked him once more, but again he ducked and it landed further away in the bush nearby.
The next day, the man stood inside his house and looked outside to see if the lion could be seen anywhere.
He spotted the lion behind a bush.
To his amazement, he saw the lion practicing low jumps!

See, when you apply the knowledge that you gain, you can grow in life. When you simply want to collect knowledge, it is of no use. If you are going to simply collect knowledge, only your memory will grow, not your Being.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Coming soon... NithyaMatrimony.com

Why Nithyamatrimony:

Nithyamatrimony.com is a unique matrimonial site setup with an intention to create awareness about vedic system of living designed & lived by our rishis 10,000 years ago, thus helping modern man in achieving the depth & fulfillment in relationship, which they had achieved

Paramahamsa Nithyananda, a revolutionary enlightened Master of our millennium is giving life to that system of living through this educative site. Through His talks on Vedic Marriage, SAPTAPADIs and following them sincerely, He explains how one can move towards Spiritual awakening in togetherness

This site is thus an educative site, giving information about the Vedic system of living & Saptapadis, thus creating awareness to those married & as a sufficient preparatory ground to those who are to marry.

Who is this site for:

Apart from above value addition, the primary service of this site is to create a platform for Nithyananda devotees or any spiritually inclined person who wishes to marry, to know each other and discuss on marriage possibilities

a. Nithyananda devotees - Anyone who has done the first level meditation program

b. Spiritually inclined - Anyone who is already interested in Meditation, Yoga etc,.

c. Others - Anyone who may be a new bee to spirituality, but feels connected to Swamiji/His talks and wishes to know more

Introduction to Vedic Marriage and SAPTAPADIs(VIDEO):

Interested to know more…

Wish to be informed, once the website is up? then send an email to: info@nithyamatrimony.com NOW !

Meanwhile Join our groups: orkut community, facebook & know more about: Nithyamatrimony, Vedic System of Marriage & many more!

For any other queries, Contact: 98451 21049, 94433 70552

Words from the Master

Swamiji, your face appears to be changing every time to me. Is it my imagination or is it true?
(Swamiji laughs!)

See understand: My Being is liquid without any ego. I just flow with Existence and whatever I express flows like liquid and you perceive it in my face. That is the reason why my face appears to be changing all the time! You will understand how an egoless state expresses, when we talk about the next chakra, the Ajna chakra.
Yes…

Swamiji, how do we get over possessiveness and jealousy?

Yes, how do we get over it. The fact that you have asked this question shows that you are ready for better understanding.

Understand one thing: Human beings can never be possessed. When you try to possess a person, you actually reduce him or her to an object. You make the person as a dead thing. Only dead things can be possessed. Understand this very clearly, then you will be free from possessiveness and the jealousy that arises out of it.

Just see every human being as a river that is flowing, and simply enjoy what he or she brings along. Can you try to possess a river? If you try to grasp the water in your hand, you will be doing a foolish thing, is it not? In the same way, don’t try to possess people; just enjoy them for what they are and you will be free from the grips of jealousy.

You will then understand that possessiveness is something that is created out of your own deep, complicated mind to which you have given so much power.

When you try to possess a person, it becomes difficult for that person also. You will start projecting all your ideas on him. He will have to act so as to gel with your projected ideas. He will feel caged. He becomes divided in his personality. He cannot be his natural self with you. And this cannot be called a relationship!

If you really love a person, liberate him! Don’t try to possess him; only then a real relationship can blossom; only then, a relationship not dependent on anything except deep love and trust can blossom. The moment you try to hang on to something, you have missed it. Just love him with no strings attached.

I am reminded of a story:

In a remote village in South India, where people did not know that civilization existed, there was an old couple.
One day, for the first time ever, there was a fair in the village.
The man went to the fair and saw all the items on show.
He picked up a mirror and was awestruck by what he saw!
He had never seen a mirror in all his life before.
He took it home with him.
Now and then he would take out the mirror, glance at it and put it back before his wife could see it.
The wife however noticed it and when he was out one day, she picked it up and looked into it.
She exclaimed, “Another woman! Just as I had thought!”

(Laughter!)

There is no end to our imagination because of our possessiveness and jealousy! Almost always, our imagination is not in tune with reality. If we just stop and look deeply into our jealousy, we will understand that it is baseless and needless.

Of course, you might say, “Swamiji, how can I keep quiet if my husband or wife is eyeing someone else.” If your husband or wife is really eyeing another person, just look into the matter consciously and with full awareness, instead of getting into an unconscious mode of action.

When you look into possessiveness and jealousy with awareness, you will not be gripped by undue imagination or emotions. You will be able to see things in the right light and behave appropriately and take the right decisions.

By telling yourself not to feel jealous, you can never come out of it. Only if you bring awareness into the whole thing and understand deeply, it will help.

To overcome jealousy, just see how the jealousy came into your system, just analyze the sequence of thoughts and emotions in your system and then undo it by reasoning out the whole process with your intelligence.

Once you understand that jealousy is like a shadow without an object, you will realize how absurd it is and how much it has tormented you. Getting liberation from jealousy is a great liberation in one’s life.

Also, don’t condemn the object of your jealousy. Just by condemning the object of jealousy, you will not be liberated from jealousy itself, because the moment you start condemning, it means that there is a wound inside, which you are trying to cover up.

By condemning the object of jealousy, you might be liberated from that particular object of jealousy, but you will simply get fixed onto another object of jealousy, that’s all! It is like saying ‘sour grapes’ and moving on to another vineyard! So, trying to overcome the object of jealousy is not the solution. You need to work on the subject that is you.

Always remember: If you feel that you are holding an emotion that you wish to get rid of, something that you feel is not conducive to your growth, don’t resist that emotion. When you resist it, you will only be empowering it more. When you say, “I should not get jealous,” you will be giving the same power to the word ‘jealous’ as you give to the words ‘I should not’.

Therefore don’t say things like this. Instead, say to yourself, “Let me be always compassionate towards everyone.” Don’t use the word ‘jealous’ at all. By negating the emotion, you will not achieve what you want. Say something totally positive in the same context, that’s all.

Also, instead of avoiding or running away from jealousy, live it through with total awareness. When you try to avoid it, it will confront you at some other time with more intensity than before. Remember one thing with deep awareness: Jealousy is not your true nature. Society taught you to be jealous.

Just believe that jealousy is not you, that is enough. Then automatically, you will laugh at it instead of being involved in it. When you are able to laugh at it, it means you have started witnessing it instead of being a part of it. The moment you become a witness, it becomes easy to go beyond anything.

Also, if you see that the whole of Existence is nothing but a Divine play, you will be able to see that this so-called jealous feeling is also a divine play and has no reality in itself. Just see jealousy objectively instead of being caught in it. It will automatically lose its power over you.

If you understand that you are unique and there is no one in this world like you, the comparing nature in you will become meaningless and you will automatically stop feeling jealous. Just try to understand that Existence loves everyone and everything equally.

Yes…

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

It is very important that you learn to live with your own body. The moment you think that another’s body or another’s dimensions are more attractive, you create a gap between yourself and your body.

I have seen people who have photographs of male or female models in the walls of their rooms and do physical exercises to attain the body structure of the model. Be very clear: When you think that another’s body is more beautiful, you create a distance between you and you.

All these unconscious ways of looking at another’s body creates undesirable side effects in your Being. None of us deeply love our body. We carry it like a load that’s all. It is like a boarding and lodging concept to us. We are never inside our body because we hate it. We are everywhere else except in our bodies. We therefore have a continuous uneasiness in us and are ready to burst at any time.

For example: If your driver does something minor, you explode effortlessly. At work, you are continuously in an irritable mood. Don’t think the reasons for these lie with the people around you. People tell me, “Swamiji, all my workers are so inefficient and that is why I get irritated.” Please understand: This is not the reason for your irritability. You are not at ease with your body and that is what causes the uneasiness and irritation in your system. It is a very subtle reason and that is why it is difficult to perceive it.

You continuously want to change your measurement or your dimensions. Understand that your body is a gift from God. Thinking that you are not enough unto yourself is the first damage you do to yourself.

Yes…any questions?

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Guru Poornima -- Offer Gratitude to the Master!

OFFER YOUR GRATITUDE TO THE MASTER!

What is Bhiksha? Why do we offer Bhiksha to the Master?

Bhiksha is a disciples offering to the Guru. It may be anything - flowers, fruits, money, rice, sponsoring for ashram activities, offering puja, precious items, or anything else. The material gifts one gives are symbolic of the 'ahamkara' (ego) of the disciple; which is the only thing the guru asks for - the limited identity of the disciple, so he may leave it behind and grow into the limitlessness of the Supreme.

But how many know the way?

In the external act of placing what one considers important to oneself at the guru's feet, one gives a bit of oneself to a Higher Source. In giving one feels lighter within, less limited. Those whose identities center around their wealth, keep money before him. Those who identify with their emotional selves give him their tears, those who identify themselves as being ritualistic perform the rites as in the shastras. Everyone gives a bit of themselves in the external act of Guru Bhiksha.

This is the only day the Master accepts anything that's given to him!

This simple act of giving is said to burn many lives of accumulated karma. Just like sunlight can burn a piece of paper if we place a magnifying glass in front of it, ones karmas can get burnt away in the presence of an enlightened master who is the bridge between you and the universal consciousness that we all call God!

Online facility for offering bhiksha will be made available from today onwards, so we have the time to acquire the items to be offered to Swamiji on Guru Purnima
CLICK HERE TO OFFER.

Words from the Master

Alright, now…let us talk some more on jealousy! Jealousy as you all know, arises out of comparison. When we are unable to bear the excellence of others in any aspect, we start feeling jealous. There are ever so many reasons why we get jealous.

For example, the moment you see that another person is more beautiful than you, you are unable to bear it. You start feeling terrible inside yourself. And you feel that it is natural that you must feel jealous because that person is more beautiful than you.

First of all understand: God is an artist, not an engineer. If he was an engineer, he would have made every woman or every man with the same mould. He would have probably made every woman with the mould of Aishwarya Rai, former Miss World! She is considered to be a very beautiful woman, is it not? And he would have made every man in the mould of Hrithik Roshan or Shah Rukh Khan!

But God is not an engineer. He is an artist. He has made everyone in a unique way.
You are beautiful enough unto yourself. Every Being is beautiful. With what scale are you measuring beauty? There is no scale. It is all your own ideas and concepts. And just think: Even if your so-called cinema idol is beautiful, can you enjoy a single cup of tea through his or her form?

Please understand that you are beautiful enough. When you start longing for other people’s bodies, you create a wedge inside yourself. You create a split personality inside yourself. You start hating yourself.

Do you know, the eyes that don’t linger on another’s body have a certain beauty and innocence in them? Have faith in what God has done to you. It is only when you don’t have that faith, you try to update yourself by indulging in all sorts of nonsensical methods. When you accept yourself completely, a certain grace comes to you. This grace is far more superior to your so-called beauty.

See, physical beauty is one thing while grace is another. Physical beauty can be achieved by any means. These days, you have ever so many methods of achieving physical beauty - beauty packs, plastic surgeries, and various other surgical methods. But grace is something that comes when there is tremendous confidence and calmness in you; when there is no craving in you; when you are completely at ease with your body.

When you enjoy yourself totally, a certain grace happens in you and you will appear more beautiful than some of the most so-called beautiful people around you. You will then become a trendsetter.

When I went to America for the first time, the officers at the airport asked me how people would listen to me if I spoke wearing this saffron robe! I told them, “Give me one week and I will make this a fashion in America!” A leader is one who has totally accepted himself. When you accept yourself, you become a unique flower, and tremendous freedom and confidence will happen in you. All your guilt and hate about your body will be replaced by pure confidence and grace.

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

How many successful businessmen today are facing what is known as Depression of Success? They have achieved everything they wanted; they have realized their own dreams, borrowed dreams, everything. But they don’t feel fulfilled; there is a void in them.

They start wondering what for they ran so much. The desires and strong feelings that goaded them on in their rat race are no longer there. They are confused about themselves. The grip they had on themselves in their days of business suddenly seems to weaken.

This is because they ran without awareness, without stopping to give an appointment to themselves, without any self-inquiry. As a result, when they stop running or when suddenly they can’t run anymore, they fall back into themselves and suddenly find that they are out of synch or dis-eased with their own Being, and this is what becomes ‘depression’ or ‘disease’.

When you fall into depression of success, you can resort to three ways. One is, resorting to drugs – addiction that will lead to further depression. The second way out is suicide – which is escapism. The third way out is meditation – looking inward for the solution. The intelligent ones take the third way out.

A self-enquiry can be the way to bail you out of this depression. The problem is inside, while you search for a solution outside. You have neglected your Being for such a long time and the depression that you feel is actually the call of your Being. That is why again and again, Masters have given ever so many techniques to center yourself in your inner core and merely function in your periphery.

When this same thing is told to you when you are at the peak of your career, you will not be willing to pay attention, because you have enough energy, all the energy that you have come with, to face the downsides of off-centric behaviors. Once your energy starts waning, you will feel that something is wrong somewhere. That something is what Masters try to tell you again and again.

Albert Einstein, the great Physicist was on his deathbed.
There were some close people sitting around him.
One of them asked him what he would like to be reborn as if ever he was reborn.
Everyone expected him to say that he would like to be reborn as an even greater scientist or something like that.
Einstein replied, “If ever I would be reborn, I would like to be reborn as a plumber.”

He felt that he had achieved all that was to be achieved, but what for he achieved, he had not achieved. He gave the world great truths but felt that his whole life had become a great lie. During his last days, he felt that all through his life, he was caught up in the outer world incidents and he had missed the deep connection with Existence.

This is why he says that he wishes to be reborn as a plumber and not as a scientist once again. Even when you are caught in the peak of activity in the outer world, don’t allow yourself to slip into becoming a machine. This is an easy task for a spiritual person and a difficult task for a materialistic person.

You see, in this whole process of comparing and running, you actually become a machine. Much of your daily activities becomes unconscious. You are able to drive a car without even being aware that you are driving it. You become a machine just like the car.

Right from brushing your teeth early in the morning to going to bed, you work like a programmed robot, with absolutely no awareness of your Self. You become efficient in all that you do no doubt, but you have lost the humanness in you! You have gone so far away from the purpose of taking birth on planet Earth. You are so disconnected from your Being!

When you are in continuous awareness, you will not only be able to do things efficiently but you will also do things with totality, with a sense of fulfillment because you – the microcosm, will be in tune with the macrocosm or Existence; you will fly with roots on planet Earth. When you fly without this, you are forever in the fear of falling down any moment. So understand, working with awareness not only increases your efficiency but also ensures that you don’t stray from the purpose of your Being.

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.