Recognise your true desires

FEAR and desire are the fundamental energies that drive our lives. We act either out of a desire to achieve something, or out of a fear of not wanting to experience something. Attraction and repulsion are not merely forces of molecules, but also essential to human behaviour.

One of the major driving forces in human life is desire. If you look into your life, you can see most of the time we are driven by either desire or fear. We have so many desires and many times we feel we don’t have the energy to fulfil them. According to the Jain tradition, the Divine sends us with enough energy and capacity to fulfil all our desires. But most of us don’t feel this way. Why?

There is a difference between our true desires and ‘borrowed’ desires. Our true desires are called our ‘needs’. Borrowed desires are called our ‘wants’. We have enough energy to fulfil our true desires or needs. What are our true desires?

During the Life Bliss Program Level 2 (Nithyananda Spurana Program), we have a session where people are asked to make a list of their desires, their needs and wants. Then they meditate on these desires. At the end of the meditation, I ask them to recollect from memory their list of desires.

What they can recollect is usually a fraction of what they have written! It is as if they started with a large tree full of leaves, meaning their desires, and during this meditation the tree sheds almost all its leaves, as if the leaves were dried and dead. What it retains glows like golden leaves.

If you can understand which desire is innate and which is borrowed, spiritual growth happens automatically. Whatever is left in the people’s memories, those desires glow like gold. These desires are their true desires. They are the ones that carry the energy for their fulfilment!

If the process is done with awareness, these desires are always selfless desires. They may benefit the individual, no doubt, but they always benefit humanity. Only such selfless desires carry the energy of the universe with them for fulfilment.

When our desires are our own true desires, when they reflect our real needs, when they express themselves in our inner energy, we don’t feel any desperation about trying to achieve them. The realisation comes that, as a matter of natural course of events, these desires will be fulfilled. We are not driven and we are not troubled by them. We accept that they will happen.

Be Blissful!

Be fully aware and get rid of addictions

ADDICTION to anything is an unconscious or mechanical process. It is not just addiction to drinks or tobacco. It is addiction to even religion. People, who pray unconsciously and mechanically, following a routine, will find it very hard if they miss even one day’s prayer. For them, it is an addiction and so it causes anxiety when missed.

If we analyse the habit of drinking, we will understand how self-contradictory we are in this habit. Let me try to explain. We drink to feel joyful, but we end up becoming miserable. We drink so that we can be called sociable, so that society will accept us, but we end up becoming argumentative! We drink so that we will look sophisticated, but we end up looking insufferable. We drink so that we can sleep, forgetting all our worries, but we wake up feeling more exhausted than ever! We drink to experience ecstasy and end up feeling depressed! We drink to feel confident, but end up becoming afraid of ourselves. We drink to maintain the conversation, but end up becoming incoherent. We drink to see our problems dissolve, but end up seeing them multiply!

This is the truth and you know it better than I do! Now tell me honestly, is it really worth drinking?
Every time you drink, drink with complete awareness. Every time you drink, drink consciously, slowly, watching every movement of yours, tasting every drop of the drink, and watching the reaction of your body to it.

I assure you, if you do this every time you decide to drink, very soon, you do not have to drop the habit, the habit will leave you forever. Understand, I am not giving you the licence to drink. I am only saying, if you are struggling to drop the addiction, start your next drink with total awareness of every moment of drinking, and the habit will leave you forever.

The key is to understand the difference between doing things with awareness and doing things mechanically and out of fear. Doing things with awareness will never bring you under any sort of binding. It will not bind you in space and time. You will be a master. Doing things mechanically will bind you and cause you misery. You will be a slave.

To drop an addiction, flood it with awareness. It will transform in the right way. Never think that you need to drop an addiction, because anything that you resist will persist. You simply need to transform it through deep awareness.

Be Blissful!

The pain of transformation

PAIN can become a very creative energy. It can become a remembrance of God. It can become prayer. It can become meditation. It can become awareness. It can cause tremendous transformation in you.

An important secret of life that you need to understand is that if you become aware of something, you can get rid of it very easily. If you are not aware of it, there is no question of getting rid of it. The pain is a pain because it exists in your unconscious, not in your awareness. Your fear of facing the pain allows it to exist and grow more and more — like a tumour. A master will simply remove this tumour through his ‘master surgery’! And when it leaves you, you transform into a new person.

What is the attitude needed to deal with the painful ‘surgeries’ of the master? Sometimes, just the awareness itself will dissolve the pain. Now, what is the correct attitude to deal with these painful ‘surgeries’? It is having complete trust that whatever ‘pain’ the master causes is only for your good and nothing else. The ‘surgery’ itself is because of his boundless love and compassion for you. If this is clearly understood, then even if it hurts, you will go through it with deep gratitude for what the master is doing to you.

One more thing: the pain is also because you start thinking it is a pain and labelling it so. The master can teach in just two or three seconds what will ordinarily take a lifetime or a few hundred years or a few births. The master is intense life. He will just remove the ‘tumour’ and throw it away. So, even if it is intense, it is better to go with the master than with life because the master does a very quick process. Also, if you understand what the master is doing to you, you can enjoy it as the ultimate happening in your life.

Further, the pain you will experience continuing life with the ‘tumours’ will be much worse than the pain you experience when the master removes them. Removing a ‘tumour’ will take hardly a few minutes; the master just removes it. Over. Once you understand this, you will no longer label the transformation as pain, you will welcome it.

This story may sound very strange, but this is the way of most Zen masters. Pain has a tremendous value in awakening you to reality. That is why it has been used by many masters to awaken the sleeping disciple.
In the moment of great pain, the mind stops, there is only pain. In that moment, the Truth is delivered!

Be Blissful!

Integrate & come out of the worry cycle

INTELLIGENCE is the only way to get freedom from anything that bothers you. If you are sweating about the small stuff, then there is something wrong somewhere. Be very clear that all miseries arise because of self-contradictions. You yourself are not fully clear about what you want to do and so you are unable to do it. For that clarity to happen, you need to nurture your own intelligence.

When intelligence surfaces, self-contradictions will disappear and you will start becoming integrated. When you start becoming integrated, your intelligence will further grow. This is the cycle you need to get into. This is the cycle that can clear your worries also. Understand that you have given a lot of power to your worries by simply talking about them more and more.

For example, when a housewife picks up the telephone, she will start by telling her friend that the maid did not turn up for the day. That is her depression for the day. If you are really depressed about the maid not coming and are really interested in coming out of it, then you should simply drop it and finish doing the work yourself! Doesn’t this sound more logical?

If you are really interested in dropping your inner chatter and worries, you could try a small exercise. Think of all the things that give you joy. Make up your mind that you will allow your mind to linger on only these things and nothing else. Anything else, you will give just enough energy to get it done and then forget about it. If you try this exercise, you will see that you conserve a lot of energy. All your worries simply disappear and you will acquire a new mental set-up altogether.

Do an honest check for yourself and find out if you are secretly nurturing your worries. When you stop going behind your worries, you will be able to see how others are helplessly caught up in that cycle. You will be able to see how they magnify their worries by endlessly talking about them to people. This talking about worry is what I call ‘worrying about the worry’! Only when you are able to watch this, will the worry cycle break. Until you become the watcher, you are caught up in the emotions, giving so much of power and control to them. Check yourself to find out if you are starting to feel comfortable with your worries. This is the scale to see if worries are controlling you or you are controlling your worries.

If you are feeling comfortable talking about them repeatedly without taking any action, then worries are controlling you. If you don’t linger on them and address them correctly, then you are controlling them! Be Blissful!

Karma connect

Whether it be eating, drinking, reading, talking, sleeping or meditating, our being yearns to completely experience every activity that we engage in and be fully involved in it. Are we fully conscious of every action we engage in? Are we aware every moment of our lives?

A small story:

A man was traveling by cab to the airport. The cabbie was driving very fast, zipping around corners and sharp turns. The passenger was getting terrified. Finally, the cab driver, seeing the terrified passenger, said, "Why don't you do what I do when I take turns? Just shut your eyes!"

When you are not completely aware and involved in the action you are engaged in, your being remains unfulfilled in that experience. The unfulfilled experience remains inside you and keeps pulling you to repeat the action with intensity to fulfill itself. This is karma. Karma is the collection of unfulfilled experiences that stay in us and constantly pull us to fulfill them.

Anything that we do and experience intensely and deeply will always leave our system. It will liberate us. Any experience that we did not go through completely, through which we did not have complete fulfillment, which did not get our full energy, attention and awareness, remains inside us as karma.

Even though we carry some karma, basically we are complete fulfillment, wholeness. So any karma that has not been fulfilled cannot rest inside us too long. It will try its best to fulfill itself. It will drive us again and again to go through the same activity so that it can be fulfilled. Any desire, any experience, which has not become complete in our system will remain as karma and push us again and again to go through the same experience.
Our own thoughts, words and deeds become our karma and drive us to reach fulfillment in some way. This is the essence of the karma theory: the totality of all your past is the present, and the totality of your present is your future.

In any given moment, the future is predestined — but conditionally. It will be a certain future according to all the totality of events till that time — this is the predestined future. But it is conditional. There is an important factor that can and will change it — your consciousness, your will. Destiny is not something written in stone. It very much depends on how you choose to respond to every situation life presents to you. Your awareness will give you the intelligence and the courage to change the flow of events in your life.

Crush the ego

According to the Upanishads, as long as you think that life has a purpose and you run behind that purpose, you are an egoistic person. When you realise the beauty of the purposelessness of life, you have dropped your ego. Whatever you think as being worthy now is not actually true and worthy.

A man with ego searches with purpose and misses reality.
Death clearly shows that whatever mind you lived with has no real existence. When you realise the purposelessness of life, a new consciousness starts blossoming in you. The moment you experience that there is nothing to be achieved, that the diamonds you are protecting are not diamonds but stones, and that all your great things in life are mere toys, you will understand the purposelessness of life.
The real purpose of life cannot be understood by the ego. When the ego is dropped, you will understand the divine purpose of life and you will enjoy the drama.

Life itself is the path and the goal. When you have a goal, you run. Your feet don't touch the ground and you miss the beauty of existence and nature. When you drop your goals, the emphasis will be on the path. When you understand the purposelessness of life, you understand the meaning of living. Until then, you are just a 'living dead' person. A person in a coma lying in the hospital bed and a normal person who has not realised the Truth, both live without proper consciousness. The master is the one who makes you realise this truth.

An enlightened master, Suzuki, lived in Japan. When his master passed away, he started weeping profusely. Someone asked him, "You are an enlightened person. Why are you crying on your master's passing away?" Suzuki replied, "My master was the most extraordinary man on earth." The person was puzzled and asked him, "What was so extraordinary about him?" Suzuki replied, "I have never seen such an extraordinary person who thought he was the most ordinary man!"

In ordinary life, every average person thinks he is extraordinary. When you feel that you have undergone the maximum suffering, your ego feels good that you have been able to handle a tough life. You measure life with the amount of your suffering. Unknowingly, you torture others as well as yourself. Suzuki's master was extraordinary because he thought he was the most ordinary, whereas in this world, every person thinks he is extraordinary.

We invite pain upon ourselves

ONE man was seen walking in great pain. Another man asked him, ‘What happened? Do you have any sort of stomach ache or leg pain or something?’ The man replied, ‘No. The shoes I am wearing are too small.’ The other man was surprised and asked, ‘Then why are you wearing them?’

The first man replied, ‘Yes, I am suffering now, but in the evening when I remove the shoes, it is such a relief and great joy. You don’t know how enjoyable it is to feel the relief when I remove them!’ This may look silly. But if we look into our lives, we are also doing exactly the same thing!

We invite pain upon ourselves. We may not be able to believe this, but every single pain we experience in life is invited by us. It is just like inviting guests to our house, calling them again and again, but when they finally arrive we say we were not expecting them! We invite pain and disease upon ourselves with our immoderate habits and stressful lifestyles, and then forget all about it and complain later when disease happens.

Every time we experience pain, it leaves behind some residual feeling that remains stuck in the body. This accumulated pain creates a negative energy field around us, which we call the ‘pain body’. The pain body not only stores, but also starts reproducing many different kinds of pains.

Again and again, we share what we create. That’s what I always tell people — if wealth is created out of a pain body, you will transfer the pain body along with the wealth to the next generation. Wealth should be created just out of a relaxed and blissful mood. Then the wealth can be enjoyed by the person you pass it on to.

The pain body constantly attracts the same kind of people and situations that make you feel hurt. By the very law of nature, you attract similar situations in your life. What you think, you create in your life as reality. So the more pain you harbour, the more pain you attract.

When you can maintain your centre, when you can be centred on your being while facing deep physical pain or mental suffering, you will see that you just go beyond it. When you go deeply, when you become more aware, more conscious, you suddenly realise that you are affected and disturbed more by the ‘internal reality’ within you, than by the real incident that caused the pain. Sometimes, if you just avoid the words that you constantly repeat like, ‘pain, pain,’ ‘suffering, suffering,’ you will escape from the pain that you might otherwise go through. Be Blissful!

Pain: A phenomenon of the mind

THERE is an interesting incident from my spiritual wandering days that I want to share with you. I was once with some tribal people in Madhya Pradesh. I was living in a small temple in the centre of the village.

Suddenly one day I noticed a pregnant lady entering a small hut. After about half an hour, she came out with a small baby in her hands! No pain, no doctor, no nurse, no medicine, no cries. I was shocked! Of course, I could not ask anything because I did not know their language. After a month, I saw another pregnant lady do the same thing. In half an hour she came out with a baby. I asked the local priest who came to the temple, ‘How does this happen? Don’t they have any pain?’ He asked, ‘Pain? Why pain?’

I was amazed. The very idea that women should have pain at the time of delivery did not exist in their society! Not only that, nobody suffered from gynaecological issues like menopause problems either. I started enquiring about their lifestyle. I understood that in their tradition, they respect women a lot. The moment a girl becomes physically mature, she is acknowledged with respect that she is now qualified to become a mother. People fall at her feet and she touches and heals them!

Just because of this different conditioning, the women don’t suffer the usual pains that women in other cultures do. When you are faced with physical pain, just observe the feeling of pain in that part of your body in a relaxed way. You will see that first, there might be a surge of pain, but soon the pain reduces to a spot and disappears. If we just understand this, we will not resist and suffer the pain — we will cooperate with the natural healing energy of the body.

Once somebody closed the door of the car on my finger. People around me got agitated and ran around to get first aid. I simply told them not to bother. As my finger swelled, I just watched clearly what was happening inside my body. I could feel the energy rushing from my navel centre to my finger. I could clearly see the body intelligence responding to the emergency on its own. It healed on its own.

Your own inner ambulance system is what you call pain! Actually, the body is intelligent enough to allow energy to flow to the part of the body that is asking for energy. But you resist that energy flow by labelling it as ‘pain’. Just allow the energy to flow by infusing full awareness into that part of the body. Just look at the energy flow with curiosity. You will see it heal. Be Blissful!

True leadership

Is leadership some quality you have to be born with or can it be cultivated? How can one develop leadership skills? Can a person truly lead an organisation if he or she is caught up in personal struggles and confusions?

Before we get into these details, let me first say that leadership skills can be cultivated. It is all about achieving the state of consciousness of a leader and not the status that is achieved by becoming a leader.

There was once a great war between two countries. The war had been going on for some time and the soldiers were starting to feel tired of the long battle. On a hot afternoon, a man in civilian clothes was riding past a small group of soldiers digging a pit. The group leader was shouting orders and threatening punishment if the work was not completed within the hour. The man riding the horse stopped and asked, "Sir, why are you only shouting orders? Why can't you help them yourself?" he asked. The group leader looked at him and replied, "What do you mean? I am the leader. The men do as I tell them." He then added, "If you feel so strongly about helping them, you are welcome to do so yourself!"

The man got down from his horse and started walking up to the soldiers at work. The group leader was simply shocked! The man took up the tools and started helping the soldiers and worked with them till the job was finished!

Before leaving the man congratulated the soldiers for their work, and approached the group leader. He said, "The next time your status prevents you from supporting your people, you should inform your higher authorities, and I will provide a more permanent solution." The group leader was now completely surprised. Only now did he look closely at the man, and realised that the man was the army general!

We need to ask ourselves how many so-called leaders in organisations exhibit the qualities of the group leader and how many people do you know who exhibit the qualities of the army general? Regardless of the status in an organisation, you will agree that the majority of the so-called leaders exhibit the qualities of the former. They achieve the status of the leader but not the state of the leader.
There are very few people who are ready to really help get the work done. The army general exhibited some of the key qualities that are important for a true leader.

Words from the Master

Swamiji, how should we relate with God?

God is not any separate entity for you to relate with Him. Understand that first. He is not sitting above your heads in a place called heaven and waiting for you to relate with Him. He is there in each and every thing in this Universe. Everything has been created by him.

He is the creator, creation and the created. He is the experiencer, the experienced and the experience. God is the name that we have given to Existence, that’s all. When you understand this, you have started experiencing God; then there is no question of relating with God.

People ask me if I feel close to God. I tell them that I am God! I tell them that they are also God! But of course they are not willing to accept it. They want to know how to get close to God. Close itself means there is some small distance separating you and God. I am telling you that you are God! Then where is the question of close?! Do you understand what I am trying to say? It is so simple! God is nothing but the name that you have given to Existence, and you are a part of Existence.

When you live in tune with Existence, when you have found your connection with Existence, you are God, that’s all. When you live with a feeling of intimacy with anything and anyone that comes your way, you become pure Consciousness. When you can feel the same love towards everyone around you irrespective of whether you know them or not, you are experiencing God in you. This is a simple scale to tell you how far away you are from God Consciousness.

When you start falling in tune with Existence, you will start hearing the inner voice in you. Then no other guide is needed. You don’t need people to tell you what to do and what not to do. You will simply know; your intelligence will keep guiding you. You will flow without feeling the heaviness of having to make decisions. A Master is one who can awaken that inner voice in you. He works on you to awaken your intelligence.

Most of us can love only with a reason. This is how strong our ego is. When you are like this, be very clear, you are very far away from God! We claim that we shower love on our family and friends. Just look at all the Masters who have happened on planet Earth till now. What is the common quality that have drawn them to their mission? Pure Love, that’s all. If they experienced the ordinarily love that you feel in your day-to-day lives, do you think they would have been able to set up their mission?

Is it possible to set up a worldwide mission with just ordinary love? How much of drive would ordinary love give? It will in fact make you tired soon! If Masters have time and again reached people across the world transforming lives, it is because of the Divine Love and oneness that they feel with every single human being on planet Earth.

In fact, if you read their biographies, you will see that almost all of them have put their family aside, have incurred the wrath of their family and have gone about reaching out to people. Family always resists in these cases. Of course, once maturity and awareness come in, they start accepting and following like the rest of the world.

Anything that makes you feel separate from God is ego. When there is ego, you cannot love consistently and with the same deep feeling all the time; your love will be highly subjective. It will keep moving between extremes.

Watch the body language of Masters and you will know what resonating with Divine love is. The easiest way to fall in tune with Existence, is by watching the Master’s body language. A Master is in tune with Existence all the time. He exudes love all the time, irrespective of who is in front of him. When you watch his body language, you will imbibe the qualities behind it.

If you watch the Master over time, you will be able to perceive how he flows like a river, so beautifully, so poetically, so synchronously, in tune with Existence. Every action of his is in perfect synchronism with Existence. That is why it is so beautiful to watch him! Simply by watching the Master, you can understand and feel the beauty and flow of Existence.

Because a Master is ego-less, he flows without blockages. Because he does not have consciousness of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’, he flows. Because he radiates nothing but love, he heals. Healing is nothing but concentrated love. That is why time and again, we have heard of the miraculous healing powers of Masters. That is why Masters are looked upon as God. Be very clear: Masters are the only living God. They are the supreme manifestation of the Ultimate Energy.

So, stop worrying about how to relate with God. Start falling in tune with Existence, and become God.

Remember: You cannot conquer Existence. You can only be conquered by Existence. When you lose your entire ego, you are conquered, that’s all! When you become a conducive womb for God, He will reside in you. In the initial stages, you are a guest and he is a host. Ultimately, you have to become the host; you have to become a womb to receive Him. Becoming a womb means, melting and becoming vulnerable. Becoming vulnerable means, shedding your entire ego and dissolving - into God or Existence. Then, life becomes music and an eternal celebration!

Yes…We will now do a beautiful and very effective meditation technique called the Divya Netra Meditation*, for this Ajna chakra.

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

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

Words from the Master

Another small story:

A mother was leaving her child with her friend for a day.
She told her child to remember to thank the friend before coming away that evening.
The child returned home that evening and the mother asked her if she thanked the friend.
The child replied, “I didn’t because when the other girl thanked her, she said, ‘don’t mention it’.”

This is how children are! Of course, it is our duty to teach them basic things like gratitude etc., but I am trying to make you understand that we should not make children hypocrites. Let them understand the game and play it with awareness, with no ego, but only awareness. Give them the basic rules and intelligence to discriminate for themselves.

One thing: The innocence of the child is due to its ignorance. This innocence is bound to be there in the child because it is yet to be influenced by societal conditioning. But once the conditioning starts happening and knowledge is gained, the child loses its innocence. But the child can reconnect back with the innocence that it loses over the years through deep awareness. This innocence regained is the real innocence, because this innocence is not out of ignorance now, it is out of a deep understanding.

That is the difference between the innocence of children and innocence of Masters. Mundane knowledge squashes the innocence and nurtures ego. But intelligence and awareness can put knowledge aside and bring out the innocence once again. When this happens, you have found the way.
Yes…?

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

Words from the Master

Now listen to this:

A man took his city friend to his farm.
He showed him around and later asked him, “You must have found it amazing to see so many sheep! Did you attempt to count them?”
The friend replied, “Oh yes, there were 300.”
The man was surprised and asked, “How did you manage to count them?”
The friend replied, “Oh, it was simple. I counted the number of legs and divided them by four.”

This is not intelligence! This is a way to show how we complicate simple things in life.

Next, coming to innocence: Children are the best way to understand innocence. They just speak out without any editing. They don’t calculate; they are so total in their behavior, never cunning or hypocritical. This is innocence.

But what do we do to them? We try our best to teach them how to edit their words, how to manipulate. We teach them to move from their heart to their mind so that their pure innocence becomes contaminated by the mind.

A small story:

One boy was told that a wealthy aunt was coming to his home that day and that he had to be in his best behavior.
The aunt arrived and a grand dinner was served for her.
The boy was watching her continuously throughout the dinner and finally asked, “Auntie, when are you going to do your trick?”
The lady asked, “What trick my dear?”
The boy replied, “My dad said that you drink like a fish!”

(Laughter!)

Children simply talk what they feel like. They express so freely. That is why they are so joyful to watch. That is why we all enjoy them. Their innocence attracts us. But we don’t understand this and we teach them to become cunning, to become manipulative. This is what we do continuously.

A small boy went up to her grandfather and asked, “Grandpa, can you really imitate a frog?”
The grandfather was surprised and asked, “Why do you ask?”
The child relied, “I heard my parents saying that when you croak, we will have a small fortune left for ourselves.”

(Laughter!)

We are being hypocrites all the time. We never express ourselves freely. We are thinking something and talking something else. We have become so ugly because of this. We have simply lost our innocence. Children are not hypocrites. They are so natural. They are beautiful because they express themselves freely.

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

Words from the Master

A small story:

Three men were asked the same question, “What would you do if you were told that you had only 10 more days to live?”
The first man said, “I would put all my work in order, tie all ends up so that my family does not suffer after I am gone and then I will live peacefully.”
The second man said, “I would enjoy life to the maximum doing all the things I have never done before.”
The third man said, “I would consult another doctor!”

(Laughter!)

This is intelligence! When you can be spontaneous instead of getting caught in the solid and familiar tracks that you have built for yourself, you are fluid and intelligent.

Another small story:

In a hospital, the telephone rang and the nurse answered it.
A voice asked, “May I know how Chanda Basu of Room no. 10 is doing please?”
The nurse replied, “He is doing well and we are hoping to release him tomorrow evening. Who am I talking to?”
The voice replied, “This is Chanda Basu. You never tell patients anything in this place.”

(Loud laughter!)

This is intelligence! When you are not stuck at a point for long, when you don’t stay challenged for long, you are intelligent.

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

Words from the Master

Swamiji, you said that the Ajna chakra is associated with innocence and intelligence. How would you explain innocence and intelligence?

When you break free from the rigid mechanism of the mind, you become fluid, flowing, like a river; then you are intelligent. When you are able to think laterally, you are intelligent. When you are spontaneous, you are intelligent. When it is difficult to challenge you, you are intelligent.

When you know that Life is a drama, you are intelligent. When you understand that Existence is the ultimate Life Force, you are intelligent. When you are aware and conscious of your inner silence, you are intelligent.

When you can smile and laugh spontaneously without applying your mind to it, you are intelligent. When you radiate energy by your mere presence, you are intelligent. When you are not stuck anywhere for a long time, and not easily challenged, you are intelligent. When you can feel your ego consciously, you are intelligent. When you know that you are rich not because of your riches but because of your Being, you are intelligent.

When you recognize a Master, you are intelligent. When you are ready to let go your ego to the Master, you are intelligent. When you play the game of life enjoying every moment of it, you are intelligent!

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

Words from the Master

Swamiji, how should we go about destroying our ego?

First, understand clearly that you have ego in some form or the other – it may be active or passive. Then, understand the different ways in which ego manifests itself - the ways we have discussed till now. All your guilt, desires, fear, humbleness, self-importance etc. are all different forms of ego, which happen in you because you feel a solid ‘I’ and ‘mine’. Once you have understood this, become the watcher so that you understand that the whole of life is a drama. By doing this, you will be able to feel your solid self dissolve, your ego dissolve.

When this starts happening, you will automatically resonate with Existence and see how things re-arrange themselves and make life beautiful for you. Then, live with the only aim of killing your ego. Don’t guard it in any way. Be ever ready to kill your ego. When you are ready to kill your ego, you are ready to become liberated, that’s all.

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

Words from the Master

One more thing: Don’t exclude anything from your life and never think that you are missing something in your life. Spirituality is never excluding; it is always encompassing. When you exclude anything from your life, you are missing something. Instead, integrate and include everything. You will then become whole. When you become whole, you become holy!

Of course, if certain things don’t interest you, then it is a different matter. You need not bother about including them in your life. Just function with awareness and keep flowing.

Understand: A Scientist is a man who creates a formula to reproduce something that he has discovered in the outer world for others to experience.

A Master is a man who creates a formula to reproduce something that he experienced in the inner world for others to experience. He creates a formula to reproduce the bliss that he experienced in his own Consciousness, for others to experience.

I am now giving you a formula to realize the ultimate bliss or Nithyananda. Yes…?

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

Words from the Master

Swamiji, we are always looking to achieve something in life. Is this also a play of our ego?

Yes, of course! You have come to the point. When you think that life has got a purpose and run behind the purpose, you are being egoistic. When you realize the beauty of Existence and flow with it, and understand that Life itself is the purpose and all goals are just illusions, then you have acquired awareness; then you are no more egoistic.

A Master is the one who makes you understand the ‘purposelessness’ of life. When you search with a purpose, you miss reality, because when you run behind the purpose, you miss the present. You simply miss Existence.

When you realize the purposelessness of life, a new consciousness starts blossoming in you. You will then understand that the diamonds that you were protecting all along are mere stones. You will understand that the things that you thought were great, are mere toys. You will understand that money is not the real bliss that you are seeking. You are seeking beyond it.

You will start looking at life as a great divine play - of Existence. You will enjoy the drama and play your role with utmost enjoyment and perfection. You will not live for goals; you will live for the sake of living and enjoying the living.

See, understand that I am not saying that you should stop earning money. Without money, there is nothing you can do in life. I am only saying enjoy living every moment and make your goals just incidental in the whole process. You must understand that the whole thing is just a drama wherein you are a player. When you get attached to goals, you miss this whole idea.

In a drama, does it make any sense to get attached to your role or to another character or to anything? No! It will straightaway seem ridiculous is it not? In the same way, Life is also a great drama; so don’t get attached to it in any fashion. Just play your role and enjoy the whole show.

Understand that Life is not the goal, but the path itself. When you have a goal, you will run. When you run, your feet will not touch the ground. When you don’t touch the ground, you miss the beauty of Existence. When you run, you are literally missing the feel of Existence beneath you. When you drop the goal, the emphasis will automatically be on the path. The path is meant to be enjoyed; the goal will be taken care of automatically.

When you understand the purposelessness of life, you will understand the meaning of living. Until you understand this, you live your life in an unconscious fashion. You live without a proper Consciousness. You live with a solid ego that sees only goals, and not the beauty of life itself.

Sacrificing your whole life for the sake of the goal is not the way to live. If you live this way, once every goal is reached, you will only repent at having wasted your whole life on insignificant things. Drop the goals and enjoy the path. Meditate on this teaching again and again. The Truth will dawn on you some time.

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

Words from the Master

Swamiji, how does the transformation happen when one meditates? And can you tell us more about the role of the Master...

When a person meditates, all his base emotions like anger, lust, jealousy, over-attachment etc. get transformed into higher energy. This propels him into higher realms of consciousness and awareness. Then, he will not be restless like before. Transformation of energy can happen only through meditation.

When this transformation happens in every individual, the whole of society gets transformed. There will be lesser violence and more global harmony. The most practical way to global peace is through transformation of the individual.

With meditation and the Master’s guidance, the transformation is a process that you go through to destroy all that is not you. It is a painful process that you go through with a Master, because you have to let go of all the things that you held close to your heart; all the things that you thought was you.

The Master will continuously show you what all you are not and everything will start dropping. He will create situations for your suppressed feelings to surface. You just need to allow him to work on you so that he burns all the rubbish that you have accumulated over many lives.

I keep telling people: If you try to run away, you are missing me one more time. Don’t try to escape. I will place my hands exactly on the tumours that are hidden inside, the tumours that are your ego. Simply place your faith on me and have the courage to open up. I will then be able to heal all your tumours. Just by opening up to the Master, half your ego has left you. The rest, he will take care. You just need to put out your hand; he will lift you out, that’s all.

When you are a sincere seeker, when you are ready for a transformation, you will open up to the Master and things will happen automatically. If you are just a window shopper, then nothing much can happen; you will just move from one Master to another and not learn anything from any of them.

When you meditate, meditate intensely. When intensity is there along with meditation, the transformation is bound to happen; the Super Consciousness is bound to happen. Normally, we are either intense and miss the meditation or meditate without intensity. We catch one and miss the other. We need to catch both in order to really flower.

It doesn’t matter how long you meditate; how intensely you meditate is what matters. The quality of Consciousness is what matters. When you make a conscious decision to turn inward, that itself will give you the intensity of meditation.
Yes…?

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

Words from the Master

Swamiji, how would you describe your concern for us?

My only concern for you is to help you to flower. That is the greatest thing that I can do for you and you can do for me! I want people to realize their innate Bliss, their potential energy. Right now, man thinks that he is a human being looking for spiritual experience. He needs to understand clearly that he is a spiritual being looking for human experience. I am working on teaching him that.

And the only way he can learn it is by becoming aware of the forms of ego that are making him feel he is a human being instead of a spiritual being. When man moves from praying to becoming, he has found the key.
Yes...

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

Words from the Master

Swamiji, how is it that you are so beautiful always…!

(Swamiji laughs!)

Yes, this is an interesting question! How do I appear beautiful always!

You see: If it was only this form, my form that you find beautiful, that you are being pulled to, the pull will waver with time. It will waver with situations, attires and what not. Just think: You see me in the same attire, listen to the same songs, hear the same voice everyday and yet you are here with as much eagerness as ever. Do you think you would be able to continue like this with anyone else in your life? Understand: It is not the person, it is the presence that radiates the beauty that you feel, that pulls you.

As far as you are concerned, you are a person. As far as I am concerned, I am simply a presence, that’s all. The egoless presence is so powerful that it simply lures you. There are so many male models and actors who are so good looking with a much better personality, am I right? With all of them, you might be attracted, but not with a longing from deep within like with me.

Here, the longing is from your Being, because your Being sees the Divinity behind the form. It is the only concern of your Being. The egoless presence is so ecstatic for your Being. That is why you are again and again drawn towards me!

You see: The longing to feel God is in the depths of every Man, but it is not tangible to himself! When you see me, you feel a pull and wonder what that pull is. That pull is the call of your Being. But you immediately start thinking what it might be; you know only to apply your mind and reduce everything to logic. God is beyond logic. That is why you cannot explain with your logic why you feel a pull towards me.

All of you simply sit here gaping at me and wondering what it is that makes you gape so much, for hours together without batting an eyelid. When the longing within is deep, this will happen. The longing is the longing to reach home. For many lives you have tried to fulfill this longing but have been unsuccessful and so you come back again; you take another birth.

When you feel this longing, some of you pursue it and start your journey inwards while some of you get scared and escape! You linger in the outer circles and keep watching me so that if anything happens, you can easily run away! I have to then cheat you and teach you and show you that you have arrived and that there is nothing more to be done except letting go – of your ego!

You always operate from fear because you have been taught that way. Fear is a passive form of ego. You are so afraid that you might give in and so you maintain a distance under the guise of fear. Don’t think that fear is something humbling. Fear is a very deceptive form of ego. You are so afraid to let go. You are so afraid that you might dissolve.

Understand: Existence is love. It is only love and nothing else. Also, Existence knows you because you are a part of it. If Existence doesn’t know you then who does? So there is nothing to fear about.

You don’t have to put on any pretensions with Existence. You can just be your own ordinary self and Existence will continue to shower on you. Existence knows only to love and forgive. It does not know any other virtue. You judge Existence by your own egoistic and so-called moral standards; that is the problem; that is why you start doing things like these.

When you know you are part of Existence, you will feel liberated. When you think that you are separate from Existence, you will fall into misery. You know, it is such a great feeling being a part of Existence. Because of your ego, you feel you are different from Existence.

When you turn your journey inwards, you will become increasingly aware that you are a part of Existence. Awareness will slowly replace ego. When awareness takes over, ego has to dissolve. There is no other way. Until awareness takes over, you will feel you are solid entity and disconnect yourself completely from Existence.

Actually, the whole sky is there for you to see. But you see it through your window, just how much your ego allows you to see, and you think that the sky inside the frame is the real sky. All such games are nothing but games of ego. Being aware of this is the first step towards getting out of it. Awareness is the master key with which you can open any lock inside yourself. That is why again and again I say - bring in awareness. Yes…?

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

Words from the Master

Swamiji, when we are in deep dreamless sleep and when we are in real meditation, are we in the same no-mind state?

No. When you are in deep sleep, you go to the level of the seed and come back to the state you were in before going to sleep. No growth happens in you. When you are in real meditation, you go to the level of the seed, the seed ruptures and you move on to the next higher state. That is the difference. They are two extremes. Of course, when you look from outside, extremes always look alike. A madman looks like a mystic and a mystic looks like a madman! Both of them have lost their minds but in different directions. Yes…

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

Words from the Master

When you meditate, your intelligence grows. You start getting clarity on all issues. You no more need to ask people for alternatives. You simply know, that’s all. You know because you are so much in tune with your inner intelligence. You know that it cannot be wrong.

You will know from your Being that you are on the right track. There may be moments when the going gets tough, because you are against the majority, but you will know that the outcome is going to be beautiful and liberating! All you need to do is persevere and have deep faith in your own intelligence.

When you nurture yourself with meditation, your capacity will expand and you will be able to do so many things in the outer world. There will be no limit to what you can do and express. You will find yourself growing in different dimensions.

Anything will come easily to you when you are functioning with your inner intelligence and not with your ego. When anything becomes tough for you, it is only because your ego is making you alienate yourself from that thing. When you lose yourself and start merging with Existence, nothing will be complicated; you will simply flow. Your intelligence will automatically work for you to harness the Existential energy in you.

You will start seeing yourself as a miracle person! Things which seemed beyond you will suddenly become seamless. You will move from ignorance to deep awareness.

Yes…?

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

Words from the Master

Coming back to meditation, simply put, meditation is allowing your mind to relax, that’s all. Meditation is not concentration as people make it out to be. When you concentrate, you actually try to exclude everything from your mind, which is an impossible task.

Just sit for two minutes and try to exclude everything from your mind; you will go mad! Every single thing that you try to exclude will come back and torture you. So concentration is not meditation. Meditation is simply including everything and relaxing. When you are not concentrating on excluding anything, you can relax.

Whenever you find time, just relax and be aware of everything around you. Listen with your heart to all the sounds happening around you. It may be the sounds of birds, the sound of the calendar in the breeze, the sound of the fan above you, the sound of people around you, or whatever. Just listen with an open heart. Mind you, they are all not distractions. You are flowing with them and so they are not distractions. When you flow with them, they cease to be distractions.

As you do this, you will realize that there is a certain silence, a composite core inside that is actually witnessing all this and you will become more and more aware of that silence inside you. You will get glimpses of that silence in you.

Slowly, you will lose consciousness of your body also. You will only have awareness. You will feel yourself only through your awareness, not through your body or through your mind. Your body will not be numb but you will not be able to feel it, that’s all; only your awareness will remain. This can take you beyond your mind if done intensely.

Meditation will help you realize that you are only a watcher in life. It will help you center yourself well inside your Being and carry on with your outer world tasks much more efficiently and blissfully because you will be carrying an inner silence in you that does not allow you to get distracted or perturbed by anything. If you continue doing this, you start leaving the ‘I’ and ‘mine’. Your ego dissolves. Your ego is nothing but the strong feeling and identity that you have, about your mind and body.

Why do you think we are trying to create a worldwide movement for meditation? Meditation is the only key to global peace. When you start looking inward, you are no more distracted by the outer world distractions like power, money, vengeance etc. All your base energies will get transformed into higher spiritual energies. The collective Consciousness will undergo a shift and automatically peace will prevail.

That is why I am focusing on transformation of individuals. When a set of individuals get transformed with an experiential understanding, they will in turn inspire others from their own experience and this will continue to create a positive new mental set-up in society.

Unless your understanding becomes an experience, transformation is not possible. Meditation can make your understanding an experience. Meditation is the only hope for transformation of the individual and transformation of the society.

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

Words from the Master

Swamiji, can you please tell us more about meditation and how it can help in losing our ego.

Yes…Let me first tell you, how and why meditation techniques came into being.

Man, ever since his creation has wondered and researched on what it is that created this beautiful universe; what it is that created this beautiful earth and rolled it into space and what it is that makes the rivers flow and the mountains grow. He concluded that there is a Force or Energy that is conducting all this. He concluded that there was some tremendous Existential Energy that is running the whole show. He then started wondering about how to establish a connection with that Energy.

The first people to make this conclusion, research on it and establish a connection with this Energy were the Rishis or Realised Souls or Enlightened Masters. Once they attained, they created many ways for future generations also to realize this Energy. The ways that each of them gave, are the various meditation techniques and religions.

Each of them realized God through a different way, through a different technique, and recorded their way independently. This is just like how scientists create research reports on their discoveries and inventions. Each Rishi gave a report on his enlightenment and this became a religion or a meditation technique.

These early realized souls, formed different religions to establish these ideas on the Life Force that is conducting this world. We call this Life Force Jesus, Allah, Shiva and so on. You don’t even have to believe in any God. Atheists don’t believe in any God. But they have to believe in their existence? If we believe in our own existence and search for an answer to the question ‘Who am I?’ that becomes a meditation technique, and we can realize God. Anyhow, these different ways or meditation techniques became different religions over time.

But what has happened later? People have left this basic idea behind all the religions and have started fighting in the name of religion.

A small story:

A Tamilian, an Englishman, a North Indian and a Bengali were traveling together.
They saw a lake from a distance.
The Tamilian saw it from the South and called it Thanneer, which is the Tamil word for water.
The Englishman saw it from the West and called it ‘Water’.
The North Indian saw it from the North and called it ‘Paani’.
The Bengali saw it from the East and called it ‘Jal’.
All four of them were referring to the same thing that is ‘water’.
But they started fighting over it saying that what each of them was saying is the correct thing.

None of the four people attempted to get into the lake and see for themselves what it exactly is. The Tamilian is holding on to what his grandfather told him; the Englishman claims that his grandfather told him it is ‘Water’; the North Indian and the Bengali are also clinging onto what their respective grandfathers told them.

This is exactly what we are doing also. People who fight over religion are doing the same thing. They have to understand that from which angle the early-realized souls saw, from that angle they named it; but everything is one – Existence or God. Krishna and Christ mean the same. People have seen them from different angles; that’s all.

These four people, without getting into the lake, are arguing about what their forefathers told them! What will happen? They will only fight because each of them thinks that what their forefathers said was right. If they decided to put aside what their grandfathers have said and get into the lake and see for themselves, they will understand that all their grandfathers meant the same thing! Then there will be no fight.

Today, only those who have not got into the lake and had a mouthful of water are fighting. Those who are spreading terrorism in the name of religion and caste are those who have not got into the lake called Spirituality and had a taste of the Truth. The four people who are fighting are simply standing on the shore and fighting! So understand that the Truth is expressed in various forms, that’s all.

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

Words from the Master

A small story:

A man decided that he was going to surrender but did not know whom to surrender to.
He decided that he would go to the forest and surrender to the first person who comes his way.
He went and waited in the forest.
The first person to appear was a burglar who was escaping from policemen who were chasing him.
The man caught his feet and declared that the burglar was his Guru and that he had surrendered to him.
The burglar was perplexed and did not know what to do.
He replied hastily, “Alright, if it is so, then close your eyes and remain here till I come back, and he ran away.”
The man was a very committed person and remained there without food or sleep for a very long time.
Just by seeing his commitment, the Lord appeared before him and embraced him and gave him liberation.

It is not important to whom you surrender; it is the thought of total surrender that has the power to change your life into a blissful one. When you surrender, you become a possessor of the inexhaustible energy that is Existence, and you can carry on with anything that comes your way.

You become strong and unshakeable, come what may. People around you will find you to be a pillar of strength. They will be able to feel the invisible hand of Existence through you. If you have not surrendered, it means that your ego is still holding you back from merging into the Infinite and you automatically become finite in your resources and energy.

A Master is a device to help you surrender. Surrender does not mean that you are dependent on someone. It simply means that you are taking their help in dissolving your own ego.

Yes…?

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

Words from the Master

Surrender will keep you thinking of Existence all the time. You will slowly lose your own identity, your ego. In the Bhagavatham, there is a verse wherein a Gopi says of himself, “I am not able to think of anything other than Krishna. I have surrendered my mind to Him. If I have to think of anything else, I will have to take back my mind from Him; How can I?”

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa suffered from cancer during his last days.
He has healed many people of many diseases.

Someone asked him, “Why can’t you keep your mind on your own disease for a moment and heal it?”

He replied, “I have surrendered my mind to The Infinite Energy, how can I take it back to keep it on my disease!”

This is true surrender.

The Cosmic Energy will take care of us. You might ask, “Will this Cosmic Energy take care of all my problems if I surrender?” In the Bhagwad Gita, Krishna beautifully answers or rather promises, “Without any other thought, when a man thinks only of Me, I will take care of his gifts as well as retention or enjoying of them. For those who surrender with commitment to Me, I will take care of their income as well as their prosperity. Their problems will dissolve.”

Commitment and maturity of mind are needed for real surrender to happen. You need not surrender to God or any Master. You can surrender to anything. Surrender itself is a virtue and has a great power in itself. When you surrender, you are acknowledging that there is a Life Force greater than your ego, that’s all.

Actually, God is only an excuse for you to surrender. The act of surrendering is what is important. God is not the goal; surrender is the real goal. When you surrender or when you lose your ego, you are no longer a separate entity from Existence; you merge with Existence or God. You will then understand that there is no God sitting above. There is only Existence that fills everything in this Universe of which you are a part.

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

Words from the Master

Another beautiful story about Krishna and Arjuna:
One evening, Lord Krishna and Arjuna were spending time together.

Krishna suddenly pointed out to a crow and said, “Arjuna, look at that green crow!”
Arjuna saw in that direction and said, “Yes Krishna, I see it!”

A few minutes later, Krishna exclaimed, “Arjuna, see that black crow!”
Arjuna said, “Yes Krishna, I see it!”

Krishna asked just to test Arjuna, “Arjuna, how idiotic you are! There is no green crow ever. How could you have seen it in the first place?”
Arjuna replied, “Krishna, when you said it was a green crow, I saw it as a green crow.”

Arjuna’s very senses had surrendered to Krishna. Surrendering the senses to the Master is the most difficult surrender ever. The Master is Existence itself; he is the formless in form. When your senses perceive only what the Master says, you have reached the highest point in surrender.

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

Words from the Master

Let me tell you a few things from the Bhagwad Gita. The Bhagwad Gita was Lord Krishna’s teaching to the world.

When the Bhagwad Gita starts, Arjuna is confused.
He says, “Oh Lord! I don’t know what to do in life, please guide me.”
Krishna explains to him the Sankhya Yoga – the way to reach the Soul.
He then explains the Karma Yoga, then the Bhakthi Yoga, then the Karma Sanyasa Yoga, then the Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga, then the Raja Vidya Yoga and so on.
He explains different meditation techniques through 700 verses in 18 chapters.

At the end of it Arjuna says, “Krishna, I am more confused than what I was when you started explaining. Which technique do I follow? Which is the technique that is better and quicker? Which is the shortcut method - the ultimate technique?”
Krishna replies to this in the concluding 18th chapter.

With any Master, the words that he concludes with, are the final, firm and ultimate Truth.

Krishna says, Sarva dharman parithyajya mamekam sharanam vraja, aham thva sarvapapebhyo mokshayishyami ma suchaha.

This line that he has said is such that if we imagine all the religions, philosophies and spiritual books to be a pot of milk, this is the butter extracted from it all.

He says, “I have explained all the forms of Justice to you. Simply surrender everything to Me. Surrender to Me and I will take care of you. I will free you from all your sins and lift you to Liberation.”

Krishna is actually making a beautiful promise in this stanza.

Through this stanza, Krishna shows the world that Surrender, is the final, firm and ultimate technique – the shortcut to the egoless state, to liberation.

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

Words from the Master

Yes…?

Swamiji, if we surrender to you our Master, will our ego be taken care of?

First of all, if you really surrender, you will become enlightened. There is no question of ‘when I surrender’ etc. But anyhow for argument sake, if you decide to allow me to penetrate you, I will prune your ego and keep it like a bonsai tree until such time you totally lose it and become enlightened.

You will have enough ego to run your business, and do your daily activities, not to hurt other people and yourself. Your ego will be like roasted seeds that do not grow any more.

Understand one thing: A man who is not yet enlightened has ego in him in some form or the other. Whether you have active ego or passive ego, the more you start being the observer, the more your ego will dissolve. That’s enough understanding for now.

With ordinary people, you can easily shield your ego and get away with it. With a Master, you can never deceive him. You can only deceive yourself into thinking that you have deceived him. However deeply hidden and well covered you keep your ego and cunningness, they will be simply bare under the Master’s gaze. While you struggle to shield it, the Master tries to heal it. Only he knows what a cancerous disease Ego is.

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