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Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
For internal and restricted use only
Acharya Manual for LBP (Life Bliss Program – Level One) 1
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
For internal and restricted use only
© Dhyanapeetam Version update 11 April 2005 Expanded September 2005 This manual is a living document that will be continuously updated whenever it remembers to breathe! Don’t take it too seriously. It is a map not the territory; use it the way you wish to develop your own teaching material. Sentences in bold can be used as bullet points for easy remembrance. Whenever you develop new perspectives, or new jokes and stories please do let us have your feedback so that we can enhance the content with your help. You can use this in conjunction with the short cut mind maps for easy reference.
Guidelines for use: 1. This manual in inclusive; not exclusive in the sense that all material that is considered relevant is included and will be added on as you all contribute. You can choose what you wish to use, to deliver after acceptance, understanding and internalization. 2. Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s instruction is that we deliver two hours of
each module, for introduction and the seven chakras. Of this, two hours, all chakra discourses will have about thirty minutes of meditation time. We estimate that you will use the remaining ninety minutes roughly as: -
45 minutes of discourse, 15 minutes in listing emotional issues in writing, 20 minutes of interactive discussion at least and 5 to 10 minutes to clarify issues arising out of meditation without getting into merits and demerits of experiences.
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Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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Within this time build in exercises described in the manual. Each chakra has one or two exercises other than the meditation that can be applied day to day effectively to handle the emotional states that affect that chakra. 3. Interactive discussion is crucial. We do not have Nithyananda’s powers
to understand what the participants want. We need them to express their doubts and wants. That in turns generates discussions. This in turn leads to our learning both of them and the subject. Otherwise the acharyas will lose the attention of participants.
4. The downside as well as the plus point of discussions and question answer sessions is that our ignorance is exposed. It is good for our ego to say we do not know when we do not know, without pretensions. It also leads to learning if we are wise, since we then start looking for the answers ourselves. 5. It is true that Nithyananda will guide us and it is true that we need to
go into our ananda gandha, and if possible stay there during our discourses so that we are in his energy filled in the nirvanic layer. However, this does not mean we go unprepared and later proclaim that Nithyananda spoke through us. We are then misusing the responsibility given to us. It is then our ego that is manifesting itself, not humility. Humility will be manifested when we do our best to internalize what is to be said, with complete concern for our audience, and leave the performance to our Master’s grace. We know the will Master speak through us if he said so himself when he ordained us.
6. The
way this manual is structured is without structure; it is encyclopedic. There is a lot of information out there that you can choose from. Do not look for logic or continuity. Make your own logic and continuity after internalizing the content. This manual is not for beginners. This is for those of us who have had some experience of listening to LBP Level 1, having conducted LBP Level 1 and are in need of more material. It is a mass of material that you can mix and match.
7.
Meditations are the essence of the LBP Level 1. The discourses only lead up to the meditations. Acharyas are just instruments. Please internalize and plan the meditation sessions. Lead the discourse up to the meditation session so that participants are clear what they are going to do, how they are going to do it, and why they are going to do it.
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Module 1: Energy and Meditation On behalf of the Life Bliss Foundation and Paramahamsa Nithyananda, I welcome you all with love and respect. You have all come here for a purpose. Your presence here is not accidental. Each one of you would have had many other important things to do, yet you are here in preference. We extend our deepest gratitude for your choosing to be here today. Let us start with a very simple process. Close your eyes for a few minutes. Breathe normally. Please visualize intensely any one of the happiest moments of your life; your marriage, your child’ birth, a job, a holiday, whatever that was joyful and full of happiness. Just pick one that comes to your mind; do not struggle to compare. Give participants about 3 to 5 minutes. Let them relax. Open your eyes. What did you think of? Participants share experiences briefly. All of them are external incidents that made them happy; meeting someone; getting money; achieving something… Every one of the incidents that you visualized as making you happy was based on an external experience. For a moment imagine that the incident had not happened. What happens to your happiness then? Would you have experienced happiness then? Participants say, ‘No, not likely’. 4
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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It is impossible. When an external event or subject has the power to give you happiness please be clear that it also has the power to take it away from you. Happiness and sorrow based on external events is just perception, not a genuine lasting feeling. A small story… A man was returning home with his wife and three children after a week’s stay in a nearby town. As he nears home he sees his house on fire. He breaks down sobbing, ‘Oh, my God! All my life savings was just this house. Now it is gone’. His wife comforts him, ‘Don’t worry, don’t you remember we sold the house just the day before we left town.’ Man beams with happiness, eyes dry. Eldest son interjects, ‘But Mom, we haven’t received full payment yet’. Father renews sobbing, ‘oh, my god, what will I do?’ Daughter consoles him, ‘dad, we just got the full payment yesterday, don’t worry.’ Finally he stops sobbing. The incident of the house on fire remains the same, but the perception of loss changes moment to moment. Who cares if it’s on fire, as long as I do not lose? Happiness and sorrow are very relative. In this program, the Life Bliss Program – Level 1, you go beyond perceptional happiness. Happiness is temporary, fleeting, subjective, transient, destroyed easily by that which creates it. ‘Ananda’ in Sanskrit means ‘Eternal Happiness’ or ‘Bliss’. ‘Nanda’ refers to anything that is limited in time and space. ‘Ananda’ is eternal, permanent in time and space. ‘Spurana’ means ‘gushing’ in Sanskrit, gushing out like a fountain, like a mountain stream; of ‘flowering’, the ecstatic blossoming of a thousand flowers all at once. This program is about experiencing a glimpse of that eternal bliss gushing out of you. Bliss is unchanging, everlasting happiness. It is our nature to experience bliss even though most often we don’ realize it. Children are in bliss and progressively lose it as they grow up. Bliss is continuously happening within ourselves – yet we do not experience it all. Why? We are constantly stopping the flow of energy that results in bliss. We do this through a bundle of negative emotions. We actively stop the flow of bliss. What we are about to do is stop the stopping. Ask the participants: If they understand? Bliss? What is the difference?
What in their view is happiness? Is it
What we are about to embark on is a journey of personal transformation. The transformation happens at three levels: physical, mental and spiritual. At the physical level you can find cures to your ailments. At the mental level catharsis to your emotional blocks; and at the highest level of the spirit you can find the path to further enlightenment. 5
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Ask: How many are looking for this eagerly and willing to put in effort? Let us discuss for a few minutes what each one of you is here for? What is it that you seek? List audience response in these 5 categories. o o o o o
Mental Wellbeing Physical Well being Material Wellbeing Relationship Wellbeing Spiritual Wellbeing
You will find that almost all our needs can be classified into five specific categories; physical wellbeing; mental well being, interpersonal relations; material well being, and spiritual well being. In order to achieve all these expectations that you have, your body, mind and spirit have to work synchronously. Only a person with good physical health can have a sound and healthy mind. Body and mind are intimately related. Combination of a healthy body and a healthy mind helps is effective interpersonal relationships, which in turn helps in whatever endeavors that we undertake. Financial success automatically follows. What we are about to share with you in this program is how to develop a healthy body and a healthy mind that leads to material success in life. Even when we enjoy all these positive effects, we still feel that something is missing in our lives. Quite often, what is missing in our lives is contentment, fulfillment and sustained joy. We keep searching everywhere for these elusive experiences. A small story… Nasrudin was a great Sufi saint who played the fool all the time. One day Nasrudin was searching at dusk for something below the street lamp across the street from his house. A friend passed by and curious asked him what he was doing. Nasrudin said he was looking for a gold coin that he had lost. The friend joined his search, and so did a few other passers by. After a while the friend asked: there seems to be no coin here. Where did you lose it? Said Nasrudin: I lost it inside my house. Angry, the friend shouted, ‘Don’t you have brains? Why are you then looking for it here, instead of searching inside the house?’ Nasrudin said calmly, ‘Because I have no light inside my house’. Why search for something outside while it’s still inside? This is what we do all our lives, searching for the bliss within everywhere but inside. Why, because we have not lit our inner self. What we hope to do during this program is to provide you the light that helps you find that what is always within you. 6
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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What we are about to embark upon is a process of personal transformation. In life without exception we expect others to change the way we wish them to, and try and force them to our points of view. This obviously rarely works, and works only in cases when the other party needs something from us. The only way to change others is by changing ourselves. Our own transformation in respecting others startlingly changes their perceptions of us and better relationships. The light that we provide you is in the form of techniques of meditation that help energize your system that transform you personally. Each one of you has come here with a definite purpose in mind. All of you have taken time off important tasks, possibly postponed other important schedules, and made time to be here with us. We are deeply grateful to you for this and would like to ensure that you get what you came for. All we seek of you in return is that you receive what we have to say openly and without blocks in your mind. A small Zen story…. There was a professor at Harvard, a very learned professor of philosophy. He was an authority of western religions, and like all such authority figures of intellect, full of his own knowledge. The professor felt he had to learn about Eastern religions as well, and located Sensei Nansen, the recluse Zen Master as the expert he wanted to meet. After a bit of trouble he managed to fix a meeting and traveled to Northern Japan to meet Sensei. Nansen’s disciples seated the professor in the Sensei’s room in front of a low table on which tea service was laid out. Nansen came in, bowed to the professor and sat down. Immediately the professor started telling him all about what he knew about Eastern philosophy. The Sensei made a sign as if to ask if he could pour some tea for the professor. Impatiently the professor nodded. Nansen started pouring and he continued to pour even as the cup overflowed. Aghast, the professor shouted at him to stop, ‘Can’t you see that the cup is already full? It’s overflowing! The Sensei said, ‘You seem to have understood my point, professor. When the cup is full it overflows. So is your mind. How can I tell you anything unless you empty your mind? The professor now truly understood and reached nithya state. Nithyananda’s tip: Visualize each step of this story. Key: Arrogance of professor, and calm wisdom of Nansen; Punch line: Cup overflowing. In many of our sessions we place a notice outside the door that says, ‘Please leave your footwear and minds at the door’. Some find it strange and wonder if we are trying to be funny, or alternatively at the other extreme whether we are trying to brainwash you. Neither really. 7
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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Many of you have attended many similar programs on self improvement and spiritual pursuits. Many would have benefited from such programs. However this content that is stored on your brain’s hard disk will come in the way of inputting additional data. Either you need to expand your hard disk capacity or get rid of some of your files. We need your total focus upon what we are about to embark on without any prejudgment. All we seek of you is an open and curious mind. Learning: Ask group how they think learning happens. As children and as adults. If any one has learnt creative arts? If any one has learnt scriptures? Any differences in how one learns? Learning in this program happens at three levels. At the first level you benefit intellectually. You gather new information and learn new techniques that your rational mind accepts. What you get from this learning is about 33% of what we say to you. Much of this information gets erased soon after you attend this program if left by alone. This is the kind of learning, communication that happens from head to head, that happens in our schools and colleges. At the next level you get emotionally involved with something that happens here. You are touched at some point emotionally by the course content, the practices and/or the people that you meet here. When you add the emotional with the intellectual learning your earning enhances to 66 % of what we say to you. This is what you do when you learn music or painting. You cannot be taught. You need to learn. Let us take for instance swimming. Any amount of book reading or lecturing cannot make you a swimmer. You need to get into the water and learn. This is still not enough for what you came for. At the third level something happens to you which makes you say to yourself when you go home, ‘Hey, something has changed within me’. Often, this transformation is noticed by others close to you. You have internalized this program and it has transformed you. For this to happen we need your total and unwavering involvement. We need it 100%. Not 99%. It’s like water transforming to steam only 100 degrees and not at 99 degrees. What you get is quantum change not incremental. Quality of your experience is of a different order. What we seek is also your active interaction. Partly to ensure that your listening is active, partly to ensure that you have no doubt, but mostly to learn from your experiences that we all can benefit from. Let us now talk about what we plan to cover today and tomorrow. Humans alone of all creatures possess consciousness; consciousness is awareness of one’s connectivity with the Universe; with the cosmic energy. We are all part of the cosmic energy.
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Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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When one starts the study of Vedas one usually starts with the Rig Veda. Similarly with Upanishads, one starts with the Isa Upanishad. Isa is the Divine, from the root ‘it’ that means to rule; one who is our ruler; one with infinite power. The very first verse of the Isopanishad states, iso vasyam idam sarvam. The translation is, ‘All that moves is ruled by him. Expanded this says, ‘All matter comes from the supreme energy’. Einstein said towards the end of his career after reading the Isopanishad, the last word in science is the first word in spirituality. What he meant was that his famous formula E=mc2 that redefined the boundaries of science then was the first statement of Isopanishad, if only we could grasp its meaning. The invocation verse of the Brihadaranya runs famously thus: purnamadah purnamidam purnad purnamudachyade purnasya purnamadaya purnameva vashishyate Literally translated, ‘This is infinite that is infinite; from infinite proceeds the infinite; if infinite is removed from infinite what remains is still infinite’. Without an underpinning of its relevance, this verse can leave you tearing your hair. However, properly explained this verse is the underpinning of all advaita theory. Saying this is probably as confusing as the verse itself. Advaita can only be understood if one explains what Dvaita is. Dvaita or duality is the principle which says that I, the World that I live in and the Supreme Power are three different entities, and that these shall remain separate always. The relation between I and the Supreme is that of a Master and Servant and there will never be a meeting point. Visishtadvaita or modified duality states, ‘Yes, I, the World and the Supreme are different entities; however with great effort, especially if devotion, I can merge into the Supreme in spirit. Advaita as propounded by Sankara says emphatically, ‘I, the World and the Supreme are all one and the same. What prevents one from realizing this non duality is maya (ya ma iti maya), that which prevents us from seeing Reality. Once this maya is removed we see the Truth that we too are divine. Individual divinity is termed the Self or Atman, while the ultimate cosmic divinity is termed Brahman. The sloka from Isopanishad can now be read as, ‘This is atman and that is brahman. This atman proceeds from that brahman. When this atman is removed from that brahman, that brahman still remains full, absolute, and infinite. The atman and brahman are the cosmic energy at different planes; one at the cosmic level and the other at the individual level; both are of infinite potential. 9
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We now need to understand how to access this cosmic energy, how this cosmic energy enhances our living and in what ways it enhances our living. Says the Taittreya Upanishad, ‘From the atman came akasha. From akasha came vayu. From vayu came agni. From agni came apa (water). From apa came prithvi. From prithvi aushada (herbs). From aushada came anna (food). From anna came the human. Man can access four out of the five elemental energies listed above directly. From the earth he gets food. From water he quenches thirst. From agni he derives warmth. Through vayu he breathes. However he has no means to abstract energy from akasa which is the subtlest, most expansive of the five elemental energies. The only way he can do this is through dhyana, meditation. Cosmic energy is not just power. Power or bala is animal strength. Energy or shakti is power with consciousness. Energy is intelligent. Humans are the only species on planet earth who have this potential for shakti, as they alone have consciousness. Astrophysicists now talk of a parallel universe. The Universe of which our solar system is a minuscule part has constant creation and constant deaths. The big bang creation of new solar and stellar systems as well as the black hole deaths of shrinking stars that grew too big to survive. Scientists now believe that each time there is a big bang in one part of the Universe there is a corresponding black hole elsewhere. One without the other is not possible. All energy is interlinked. This is cosmic karma. At the level of Planet Earth, chaos theory states that the flutter of a butterfly in China can create a tornado in Mexico. Not even one atom moves without moving another atom elsewhere. The Tsunamis of destruction are created by the destructive exploitation of Mother Earth for minerals and Oil. This is karma at our world level. Energy has to be in equilibrium. We all know that our actions beget reactions; Newton only hypothesized it. Even our words do. An angry shout begets another or a meek supplication that awaits the chance to avenge. This is karma at our personal level. The cosmic energy is reflected within our own mind body system as energy pathways. These are well known both in traditional healing systems of Chinese and Indians. In the Hindu scriptures reference is made to seven energy centers or chakras that control the energy flow in our body. The concept energy centers within the human system may have been dismissed out of hand even a few decades ago, for the simple reason there was no tangible proof of its existence. In recent times, Kirlian photography and similar techniques have demonstrated that we all have energy fields surrounding us; that even plants possess these energy fields popularly referred to as auric fields. These energy fields change depending on emotional and physical health states. 10
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When one feels happy the energy field expands. Conversely when one is sad the field shrinks. In the Chinese system of medicine this energy field is called chi and a number of exercises have been developed over thousands of years to enhance the chi energy. In the Indian system this energy, known as shakti, is usually considered to be within the human body in the seven major energy centers and twenty-four minor energy centers. These energy centers are called chakras, meaning ‘wheel’ in Sanskrit. Chakras get closed by negative emotions and open up with positive emotions. The heart chakra which can shrink to a coat button size through lack of attention can grow to a cartwheel size when giving out love. If a Kirlian photo had been taken of you all during the earlier exercise experience happiness, you would have seen yourself filling this room with your expanded chakras. Each chakra is associated with an emotional state and is blocked by the negative emotion in that state. For instance the muladhara chakra located at the base of the spine is linked to base emotions of survival such as lust, anger, greed and fantasy and is blocked by excesses in these emotions. Since 85% of our energy is located in this chakra a blocked muladhara saps one’s ability to live. Re energizing the muladhara can be done through a meditation technique that reduces these negative emotions. It is now well established that we use less than 10% of our brain power; the rest we call unconscious or sub conscious energy and its use is considered esoteric and strange. Biologists tell us that less than 5% of our biological system is ever used; the rest is stand by. We have within us 72,000 energy centers and pathways of which we use at best 14,000. The rest is never used! There is no greater misuse of available resources than the way we misuse the resources of the human system.
A small story… After World War II, departing soldiers from near a remote tribal area in Asia left an airplane behind as it was too difficult to move it out and fly. The villagers when they felt safe to scout the area where the soldiers had been were amazed to see this contraption as they had never seen anything like that before. They looked at the wings, the propeller, climbed up and went into the cabin. However they recognized one thing on this strange apparition, it had wheels and so did the bullock cart in the village. They said this was a very special bullock cart that God had sent them and celebrated and started using it as bullock cart.
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Sometime after a local boy who had gone to study in the nearest town went inside the cabin and started pulling at the various controls. Suddenly the engine roared into action and he had heard this sound before in a tractor. He managed to move the plane by engaging its gears and he explained to the amazed villagers what a tractor was. There was great celebration and now the plane started getting used as a tractor. A while later a war veteran passed by the village, by now prosperous what with the tractor. He saw the plane being used as a tractor; he was shocked and explained to them that this machine could fly. The villagers wouldn’t believe him. When he persisted they panicked and they did not want to fly. It was simply too dangerous. Finally he managed to convince them to let him fly the contraption with bated breath the villagers watched as he took the plane up circled the village and landed. There was uproar and celebration. We are all like the tribal people. We are all flying machines. We neither know our own potential nor possess the knowledge to activate that potential. Even when someone tells us of our potential we disbelieve him immediately. Often we chase him out. We panic. When someone dares offer us the know-how to make us fly we call him a madman. We seem happy using a flying machine as a bullock cart or quite often a pulling cart. What a waste! Most of us would rather crawl like a snail and be safe rather than soar free like a bird since we are scared we may risk breaking a wing. Discussion: Are you ready to realize your potential? Are you holding back? Meditation Meditation techniques that we teach you in LBP Level 1, are the know-how that the pilot has to have in order to fly the machine using the chakras which are the engine and the transmission system. Even if we do not wish to utilize the full potential of the powerful machine that we are, for even reasonable performance we need to keep the chakras in good order for our well being. Most of our ailments, physical and mental are as a result of blocked chakras. All it takes is a few minutes each day once you know how to energize your chakras through meditation. Sleep provides rest to our system by lowering the metabolic rate by 8%, which is enough to rejuvenate you for about 16 hours. In contrast, meditation lowers the metabolic rate by 24% (Dr. Howard Johnson). Effects of even simple meditation techniques overall body and mind health has been well established. In LBP Level 1, Nithyananda has developed from ancient practices of all great religions, an integrated set of techniques that are eclectic, fool proof and with no 12
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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side effects. These are active meditation techniques that are joy and fun to practice. Discussion on how to of meditation; avoid going into details of other meditation systems; do not be negative about any other system. Very Important: Following guidelines must be explained clearly and repeated the second day; 1. All meditation techniques are designed by Nithyananda and are to be observed very strictly. Do not use creativity to suit your convenience. 2. Those with heart ailments, other physical limitations, post surgery patients, pregnant women etc should not strain themselves during physically exhausting meditation techniques such as Manipuraka Shuddhi, Dukkha Harana, Visuddhi Kriya etc. 3. When participants open their eyes after each meditation, Acharyas should not stand in front of their vision, which is not good for Acharyas. Stay on one side and come in centre stage after a few minutes after they have settled down. 4. Do not use healing picture of Nithyananda. Place Nithyananda’s cut out that will be given to organizers/Acharyas behind Acharya seat. 5. Acharyas must sit cross legged as far as possible on a sofa like seat, and not make unnecessary physical distracting movements. Women should be particularly careful with body language. 6. As far as possible, separate relatives and friends in the audience. 7. Acharyas should not participate in dancing, which should be referred to as ananda kirtans. Co-Acharyas and volunteers may with discretion primarily to motivate audience. 8. Do not allow participants to prostrate to Acharyas. 9. Do not enter into unrelated discussions, gossip or comparison with other Acharyas. 10. Do remember that Nithyananda speaks from the tongues of ordained Acharyas. Ahat Acharyas say will happen. Do not ever use negative expressions that may harm listeners. 11. Muladhara is one chakra that should never be focused on. 13
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12.Advise to participants post LBP Level 1; -
As far as possible meditate at the same time, same location, same posture, wear loose clothing; will allow mind to be disciplined.
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Though morning is ideal, say 6:30am/pm to 7:00am/pm, one can meditate any time, any place, anyhow, once you are used to meditative practice and are comfortable; try not to meditate within 2 hours of a major meal, and within 2 hours before sleeping, and not to eat, shower etc for 30 minutes after meditation.
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If one wears a rudraksha or red sandal wood mala during meditation, it will help retain energy generated during meditation.
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Since meditation is awareness of the here and now, complete involvement is necessary; thoughts just need to be witnessed, they will drop off on their own; no need to try to stop thoughts; do not create thoughts or nourish them.
We shall now fully commit ourselves to our personal transformation that follows today and tomorrow. This is a commitment each of you makes to yourself, not to the Acharya. We call it a sthira sankalpa. Since many of you have attended a lot of other meditation programs, I request you to keep all that away just for the next 36 hours. If you bring all the old knowledge, you will either agree or disagree with me. Disagreeing will not allow you to do the meditation is lost. Agreeing will create a thought that you already know. The moment you create that mentality, you stop following the meditation, the enthusiasm is lost. Just be here like an innocent child so that you will have the curiosity to explore every inch. Enjoy yourself completely; even if you miss the joke, don’t miss the laughter. Even if you miss a couple of statements, don’t miss the meditation. Try to put in your whole effort to experience it. Be with me Now and Here, or you will end up being Nowhere! We will take a sankalpa, a commitment, to make an effort to commit to this course for the next 36 hrs. Close your eyes and make a commitment to yourself: Physically, mentally and emotionally, I will put my complete effort to experiencing meditation and to channelize all my efforts to experience the meditation. Relax. In Bhaja Govindam Sankara says; satsangatve nissangatvam nissangatve nirmohatvam nirmohatve nicchhalitatvam 14
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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nicchhalitatve jeevan muktihi ‘Company of people seeking Truth leads to non attachment; non attachment leads to no desire; no desire leads to no mind; no mind leads to enlightenment’. This is your first step. For the next two days you are all going to be together. It is important you get to know each other, by name and as to who you are. Please introduce yourself to everyone else here. Please choose a person who you do not know as a partner for the next two days. Please take care of that person’s needs for the next two days. Let that person eat before you do, for instance. Please refrain from talking unnecessarily the next two days. Talking reduces and wastes your energy of meditation. It also confuses you when you discuss your experiences with others who are also beginners. Share your experiences with me if you need clarifications. Please also refrain from eating meat, from smoking and from alcohol today, tonight and tomorrow. This will help your meditation. Questions 1. I am always in Bliss. What more can this course give me? It is good to hear that we have amidst us a person who is in happiness all the time. Happiness is the starting point of Bliss. You could probably deepen your happiness in this program You might share it with us as the program proceeds. 2. How is your meditation program different from others? They are not necessarily different. There are many ways to awareness, which is the goal of meditation. The techniques we present have their origin from many thousands of years ago, from realized Masters and practiced by generations after generations of wisdom seekers with fool proof results and with no side effects. 3. You talk about Bliss. I take Bliss by taking drugs (alcohol, cigarettes). What is the difference? Probe as to how long the bliss lasts; is it dependent on the ***. You need to keep increasing the dosage continuously to obtain constantly decreasing benefits. Your happiness here is dependent on a crutch. (or) If you love driving cars or playing sports, the bliss lasts as long as you indulge in the 15
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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activity. Bliss through internal meditation is not dependent on external factors. 4. If you say that the bliss you reach is eternal I would say you are bluffing. So would I have before learning and using these techniques? Some of these are experiential. The best way we can support the efficacy of the techniques is through testimonies of volunteers. 5. Why should I leave my shoes outside? For hygienic reasons. Not to bring dust from outside. 6. I am looking for enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a force process; it happens when the chase is abandoned; maturity to drop the chase/ acquisition happens when all chakras up to the Ajna are awakened and the ego also drops
Additional Reading Material to internalize
‘Meditation, What It Is Not’ (From Nithyananda’s Discourses) It is easier to explain what meditation is not, rather than defining what meditation is. When we ask - ‘What is meditation?’ all of us immediately imagine an old man with a long beard on the banks of a river, sitting cross-legged with eyes closed and moving his lips in recitation of mantras. Today, if we tell you to sit in silence and control you’re mind, if we tell you to calm down your mind and remain blissful, what will happen? People tell us ‘When we sit for meditation, so many thoughts gush out. We don’t know their source and don’t know how to control them. We feel we are mad’. Meditation is not sitting in a corner, alone, in a cross legged position, with back pain, knee pain, neck pain, complaints, saying, ‘I am not able to control my mind’, all these things! Meditation is all about making a shift in your Consciousness. The 16
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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moment you bring yourself to the present, you feel enthusiastic, alive, joyful and blissful. So the cognitive shift or shift in your Energy is what I call meditation The condition of a man who tries to calm his mind by mantras today is most likely to be like the person who was told to meditate not thinking about a monkey; all that he could see were monkeys whenever he sat down to meditate. During the age of Patanjali, man was able to calm his mind by meditating with mantras. At that time, Man was simple with no complex cerebral layers, hence these techniques worked. Today, methods adopting silence will not help. Man has become neurotic and complicated. Neurosis has become the normal state of man. With the growth of Science and Consumerism, all of us have become neurotic. Like how the bullock cart is outdated, so also are the bullock cart techniques. With those techniques, you will be able to travel at the speed of a bullock cart. This is the jet age. You should be able to travel at jet speed in your inner space with techniques designed by modern day masters and mystics. Spiritual practices or sadhanas in the Indian tradition usually follow one of three paths; the first, one of puja or rituals which require extensive preparation, and which is physical; the second is mantra japa, repetition of a word constantly; the third is dhyana, the silent contemplation. In puja or ritualistic sadhanas which may also include practices of yoga the process has the danger of becoming mechanical losing its original objective. How many times have we seen priests intoning slokas and sutras mechanically during a puja or a yagna, their mind far away focused on other mundane matters? Mothers and grandmothers chanting ashtotras and sahasranamas, more worried about what number they are on and keen to finish and get it over with. It requires great dedication, discipline and fixity of purpose to practice the ritualistic routes to progress spiritually. Moreover these practices are gross in nature, verbalized and full of physical interventions that continuously keep the mind occupied with thoughts and with forms. With mantra japa the physical grossness is reduced and the possibility to focus intensely is increased. However, the very fact that the mind is focused on a word, which is what a mantra is, means that there is constant verbalization and visualization following the word. The mind is engaged in the form and in thoughts. This limits the spiritual progress that can be made using this process. As long as we are in the form we are limited. All sages agree that in the final analysis Truth is formless. Whether it is Sankara who propounded Advaita, or Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who was constantly with the form of Mother Kali, or Ramana Maharishi with his self enquiry process for liberation, all these enlightened Masters unanimously agree that the Absolute Brahman is formless. The formless Truth is not possible to achieve with any process involving words and physical activity.
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Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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Dhyana or Meditation is a non verbal technique that is subtle and is focused on awareness and the present. Dhyana is the path to shed maya, our illusions and fantasies and to reach enlightenment. Patanjali’s yoga sutras define various steps to enlightenment. The first step yama alone comprises five steps, all quite strenuous. Celibacy, truth, non violence, not stealing, not possessing. Only after you practice all these steps and master them are you qualified to move up to the next step in yogic accomplishment. In the present day world Patanjali’s techniques take a lot of time. To realize Truth through yoga of any form would probably take many births, and you will forget what you started in this birth, when you start your next! Dhyana or meditation is the answer to enlightenment in this age. It’s foolproof and without side effects. The only side effect is bliss and realization of your own Self. To start dhyana, all you need to be is a human being, nothing more. A Being with Consciousness is the only requirement to embark upon a spiritual path. The very desire that you wish to start on this path is a true indication that you are qualified. We are all part of the cosmic energy. Atman and brahman are cosmic energy at different planes; one at the cosmic level and the other at the individual level; both are of infinite potential. Says the Taittreya Upanishad: ‘From the Atman came Akasha; from Akasha came Vayu; from Vayu came Agni; from Agni came Apa (water); from Apa came Prithvi; from Prithvi Aushada (herbs); from Aushada came Anna (food); from Anna came the human, the man’. Man can access four out of the five elemental energies listed above directly; from the earth he gets food; from water he quenches thirst; from agni he derives warmth; through vayu he breathes; however he has no means to abstract energy from akasha which is the subtlest, and the most expansive of the five elemental energies. The only way he can do this is through dhyana, meditation. Cosmic energy is not just power. Power or bala is animal strength; energy or shakti is power with consciousness; energy is intelligent. Humans are the only species on planet earth who have this potential for Shakti, as they alone have consciousness. For them to be in this energy field, they need to meditate. . Meditation is the greatest art or science to make your Being beautiful and blissful. It is not a faith system or a religious belief. It is something that can directly touch your life and transform your Being. Meditation is a science to transform your life. A simple meditation technique that you can practice straight away is a Buddhist technique called vipassana. Vipassana is to look inwards as opposed to upassana which is looking outwards. Puja and mantra are all upassana techniques. You have to inhale and exhale is it not? Am I right? That is enough! Start witnessing 18
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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you breath, your inhalation and exhalation. Start observing that, it will lead you to bliss. Actually nothing more needs to be done to search for bliss. Just bring yourself more to the present. Whatever else you do, work, bathe, dance or sleep, you will surely have time to inhale or exhale? When you do the inhaling and exhaling, just add awareness also to it, it will put you straight away in the present moment. The present moment leads you to bliss. Living in the present, the power of NOW straight away leads you to bliss. This is vipassana, a very powerful meditation technique that all can use safely. See, when you start searching things from outside, you are searching for the impossible. It can never happen. It is like trying to do housekeeping in your dreams! You buy a big house in your dreams, try to keep it clean and neat and suddenly we wake up and everything is lost. Like that, we have so many fantasies about the future and the past and suddenly we wake up and there is nothing. On Planet Earth, whenever you hang behind the past and the future, you are wasting the present moment, the precious present moment in which you can live, which you can just enjoy, where you can just feel the Existence. Instead we make ourselves continuously dull. Whenever we are drowned in the past or in the future, we again and again miss the present - the life, the Life Force. If you bring yourself to the present, even your inhaling and exhaling quality will be different. The moment the Energy shift happens in your Being, that energy shift is what I call meditation. Meditation is not sitting in a corner, alone, in a cross legged position, with back pain, knee pain, neck pain, complaints, saying – ‘I am not able to control my mind’, all these things! Meditation is all about making a shift in your Consciousness. The moment you bring yourself to the present, you feel enthusiastic, alive, joyful and blissful. So the cognitive shift or shift in your Energy is what I call meditation. Just consciously inhale and exhale as long a possible, whenever you remember. The moment you consciously start breathing, you start witnessing your thoughts. No thought can escape from your Being. Usually, we continuously create negative inner chattering. We create negative thoughts about ourselves. We create guilt; we create negative patterns of thinking. Our thought structure is very powerful. Your life is nothing but your thinking structure. You can create or destroy anything just by your thoughts. So, the moment you are aware of your breathing, you will be aware of your thoughts. The moment you are aware of your thoughts, you simply alter it to a positive thinking structure. You don't have to waste time in correcting or altering it. The moment you are aware, automatically it gets corrected by itself. The power of awareness simply transforms your thinking structure into positive Energy. What we do not realize is that even our thoughts have power. Brihadaranya Upanishad says: ‘As our thoughts are so are our will; as our will is so is our action; as we act, we become. Our lives are driven by our thoughts. Thoughts are energy. 19
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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Cosmic energy is linked to individual energy. The separation we see is only our illusion. It is possible for us to tap into the inexhaustible cosmic energy, instead of which we choose to live in shackled compartments of depleted energy. There are a number of other meditation techniques that we teach in our courses; each will have a specific objective. In the LBP Level 1 we take you through meditation techniques to energize the chakras, the energy centers in the body. We take you through meditations that are joyous and fun; they are dynamic and easy to follow. These techniques are eclectic drawn from all major spiritual practices of the world. These have been practiced for thousands of years by generations of our ancestors; they are foolproof in execution and have no side effects. All you lose if you do not practice the meditation for a day is the loss of that day’s experience. Once you have picked up this magical fruit and tasted it, you never want to put it down. Meditation techniques that we teach you in LBP Level 1 are the know-how that the pilot has to have, to fly the machine of your mind body system, using the chakras which are the engine and the transmission system. Even if we do not wish to utilize the full potential of the powerful machine that we are, for even reasonable performance we need to keep the chakras in good order for our well being. Most of our ailments, physical and mental are as a result of blocked chakras. All it takes is a few minutes each day once you know how to energize your chakras through meditation. Sleep provides rest to our system by lowering the metabolic rate by 8%, which is enough to rejuvenate you for about 16 hours. In contrast, meditation lowers the metabolic rate by 24%. Effects of even simple meditation techniques overall body and mind health has been well established. These techniques make Bliss flower in you by throwing out cerebral layers. What exactly are these cerebral layers? They are the complications in the mind created by media that include the television, the radio, the newspapers and the billboards. Consumerist ideas are continuously being injected into your Being. You are hypnotized and mesmerized. You read and see the same things everywhere you go. In a half-dazed condition, you go to the shop and ask for the same thing as well. You need to unload these suppressions and desires in order to be able to sit calmly. Be very clear that I am trying to force out the insanity in you and not trying to force in sanity in you. You are already Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss). That is your natural state. We just need to cut the layers of emotional bocks covering this bliss, so that you realize the state that you are already in. From Swami’s Conscious talk in Seattle radio talk; You have to inhale and exhale is it not? Am I right? That is enough! Start witnessing it, start observing that, it will lead you to bliss. Actually nothing more needs to be 20
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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done to search for bliss. Just bring yourself more to the present. Whether you pay bills or your duty or whatever, you will surely have time to inhale or exhale? When you do the inhaling and exhaling, just add awareness also to it, it will put you straight away in the present moment. The present moment leads you to bliss. Living in the present, the power of NOW straight away leads you to bliss. Interveiwer: So the reason you are saying we are not in bliss is that because we are away from the present? Yes. We are stuck in the past or in the future. We act from the reactive mind instead of the active mind. Being active is different from being reactive. We are continuously reacting. Either from past memories or from the anxiety of the future, we respond to the present and destroy the present, the beauty of the present. According to me, if you can bring yourself to present, that is enough, simply you will be in bliss. When we are not able to digest the present, we always hang behind the past or behind the future. See also, to be in bliss, you do not need any separate time. Even your daily activity is OK. You don’t need to go away somewhere separately to a retreat or to a separate place. Just again and again, bring most of your energy to the present. Now, if you have 80% of your energy in the past and in the future, reduce it and bring about 50% to the present. Slowly bring maximum energy to the present. The more you bring it to the present, the more you are alive, joyful; blissful and exciting. Interviewer: I think especially in our culture, we feel that separation. We are searching in the wrong places, we are searching outside of ourselves and I think that is very true of our culture, wouldn’t you say? See when you start searching things from outside, you are searching for the impossible. It can never happen. It’s like trying to do housekeeping in your dreams! You buy a big house in your dreams, try to keep it clean and neat and suddenly we wake up and everything is lost. Like that, we have so many fantasies about the future and the past and suddenly we wake up and there is nothing. On Planet Earth, whenever you hang behind the past and the future, you are wasting the present moment, the precious present moment in which you can live, which you can just enjoy, where you can just feel the Existence. Instead we make ourselves continuously dull. Whenever we are drowned in the past or in the future, we again and again miss the present, the life; the Life Force. If you bring yourself to the present, even your inhaling and exhaling quality will be different. The moment the Energy shift happens in your Being, that energy shift is what I call meditation. Meditation is not sitting in a corner, alone, in a cross legged position, with back pain, knee pain, neck pain, complaints, saying – ‘I am not able to control my mind, all these things! Meditation is all about making a shift in your Consciousness. The moment you bring yourself to the present, you feel enthusiastic, alive, joyful and blissful. So the cognitive shift or shift in your Energy is what i call meditation. Interviewer: Our existence here - is it fate or is it our choice? 21
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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Hmm… a nice question! Your present moment is the totality of all your past decisions. Now you are here in this studio. You decided to wake up early, take the proper route, check in here, sit here and continue to sit. Like this, all your past decisions form the present. So your future is going to be all your present decisions. Why do we think that it is fate? It is because we make decisions unconsciously and don't expect some results. But when that result happens, we say it is fate. When we make decisions which bring results that we did not expect, we call it fate. When we make conscious decisions, we will be aware of the side effects and after effects. When we are not aware of the side effects and after effects, we call it fate. Actually, Life is your pure choice. It is we who make the decision, never somebody else for us. God is so gracious, even though the world is his, he allows us to have our choice! Interviewer: Swami, let me ask you this because we come up with this often people. We feel that even feeling blissful or peaceful is a choice? Yes, it is a pure choice. It is our choice to be blissful. There are only 2 kinds of life. If you look at the side where you have not got certain things, which life has not given you, you can make a big list which starts with the limousine and goes beyond limousine, longer than the limousine! The other side is where you make a list of what all life has given us. You can start with your spectacles. So much we have been showered with. Both the lists are endless, infinite. Even inhaling and exhaling is a gift to us, we have not earned it. Every singe day is a gift given to us. OK, now we have the two lists. It is up to us to decide which side of life we are going to see. Whether we are going to look at the things not given to us and make our live dull, dead, worrying and dragging and depressing or look at the things that have been showered on us and enjoy and make our lives beautiful, loving and blissful. It is purely your choice. Interviewer: Swami, do you really believe that the inhaling and exhaling technique is the key to bliss? Yes. Just consciously inhaling and exhaling as long a possible, whenever you remember. The moment you consciously start breathing, you start witnessing your thoughts. No thought can escape from your Being. Usually, we continuously create negative inner chattering. We create negative thoughts about ourselves. We create guilt, we create negative patterns of thinking. Our thought structure is very powerful. Your life is nothing but your thinking structure. You can create or destroy anything just by your thoughts. So, the moment you are aware of your breathing, you will be aware of your thoughts. The moment you are aware of your thoughts, you simply alter it to a positive thinking structure. You don't have to waste time in correcting or altering it. The moment you are aware, automatically it gets corrected by itself. The power of awareness simply transforms your thinking structure into live energy.
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Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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What we do not realize is that even our thoughts have power. Brihadaranya Upanishad says, ‘As our thoughts are so are our will; as our will is so is our action; as we act, we become’. Our lives are driven by our thoughts. Thoughts are energy. Cosmic energy is linked to individual energy. The separation we see is only our illusion. It is possible for us to tap into the inexhaustible cosmic energy, instead of which we choose to live in shackled compartments of depleted energy. Spiritual practices or sadhanas in the Indian tradition usually follow one of three paths. The first, one of puja or rituals which require extensive preparation, and which is physical; the second is mantra japa, repetition of a word constantly; the third is dhyana, the silent contemplation. In puja or ritualistic sadhanas which may also include practices of yoga etc the process is under danger of becoming mechanical losing its original objective. This also happens to a lesser extent with japa, unless the mantra is initiated by a living Master and is practiced with great awareness. Dhyana is the most powerful of the three techniques and the subtlest; dhyana is pure awareness, in the here and now. Dhyana is the path to shed maya, and to enlightenment.
Are We Qualified? Many people want to know if they are qualified for a spiritual awakening. We are constantly in doubt about our own potential. We are part of the divine. Problem is that we do not remember that we are. When someone does tell that we are, we think that such people are crazy. A man once asked Ramana Maharishi whether he was qualified enough to pursue the spiritual path and the Sage countered, ‘Are you alive?’ The person said, ‘Of course, yes’. Maharishi said with finality, ‘Then you are qualified enough’. Religious orders and their priests create this doubt in us, so that we may become dependent on them for our qualification. We may need to ask them as to what qualifications they themselves possess to ask us the question. A Master never would. Organized religions often counter spirituality. Spirituality is about discovering who we are? It is the search for the ultimate Truth about us and our relationship with our Creator. Religions once organized are more concerned about power and whatever leads to power, whether control, fear or money. It’s the confusion between religion and spirituality that also leads to this question in us. We are constantly told that we are sinners and as such incompetent to enter the doorway of our Creator. This is nonsense. If one keeps questioning one’s capability, even after decades of rigorous sadhanas one would feel unqualified. The concept of qualification, as with guilt, is brought in 23
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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to exploit and bind you mentally. As with guilt it needs to be dropped for us to move on successfully. A beautiful Zen story goes thus; a man asks a Master, ‘Master, am I qualified for spiritual progress? I feel there are many obstructions’. Replied the Master, ‘The word obstruction is the only obstruction, nothing else’. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra define various steps to enlightenment. The first step yama comprises five steps, all quite strenuous: celibacy, truth, non violence, not stealing, not possessing. Only after you practice all these steps and master them are you qualified to move up to the next step in yogic accomplishment. A man came and asked me, ‘Master, I am not qualified in these steps. I have never practiced yama and niyama. How can I learn yoga?’ I said to him, ‘If you are already qualified in these steps you do not need yoga!’ Maturity and meditation help each other and help us all. Maturity comes with knowledge and experience and gives us energy; and the energy reinforces maturity. Meditation helps us focus that energy in the right direction to make spiritual progress. In the present day world Patanjali’s techniques take a lot of time. To realize Truth through yoga of any form would probably take many births, and you will forget what you started in this birth, when you start your next! Dhyana or meditation is the answer to enlightenment in this age. It’s foolproof and without side effects. The only side effect is bliss and realization of your own Self. To start dhyana, all you need to be is a human being, nothing more. A Being with Consciousness is the only requirement to embark upon a spiritual path. The very desire that you wish to start on this path is a true indication that you are qualified. It is said in Tao, ‘A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step’. Once you are on the path, the path helps you on. It’s the first step that breaks the inertia and get you moving. That is enough for you to move towards the end goal. Take that step now!
From Nithyananda’s Discourses: Meditation is the greatest art or science to make your Being beautiful and blissful. It is not a faith system or a religious belief. It is something that can directly touch your life and transform your Being. Meditation is a science to transform your life. When we ask, ‘What is meditation?’ all of us immediately imagine an old man with a long beard on the banks of a river, sitting cross-legged with eyes closed and 24
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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moving his lips in recitation of mantras. Today, if we tell you to sit in silence and control you’re mind, if we tell you to calm down your mind and remain blissful, what will happen? People tell us, ‘When we sit for meditation, so many thoughts gush out. We don’t know their source and don’t know how to control them. We feel we are mad’. A small story… Once a man wanted to meditate and asked his Guru, ‘Give me a mantra to meditate with’. The Guru gave him a mantra and told him, ‘You will achieve your desires when you meditate with this but on one condition. You should not think of a monkey when you meditate. If you happen to think of a monkey, have a bath and sit down again for meditation’. The man was amused at this condition and wondered why he would ever think of a monkey while meditating. However he agreed and went back home. He sat for meditation. The first thing that came to his mind was the monkey. He promptly got up, had a bath and sat down again for meditation. No sooner did he close his eyes than the monkey came back to him. He got up, had a bath and sat down yet again for meditation. Every time he sat down for meditation, the monkey surfaced in his mind. The 10th time, the monkey came to him while he was in his bath itself. He became obsessed with the monkey. He fled to his Guru and begged him to take back the mantra and the monkey! This is most likely the condition of a man who tries to calm his mind by mantras today. During the age of Patanjali, man was able to calm his mind by meditating with mantras. At that time, Man was simple with no complex cerebral layers, hence these techniques worked. Today, methods adopting silence will not help. Man has become neurotic and complicated. Neurosis has become the normal state of man. With the growth of Science and Consumerism, all of us have become neurotic. Like how the bullock cart is outdated, so also are the bullock cart techniques. With those techniques, you will be able to travel at the speed of a bullock cart. This is the jet age. You should be able to travel at jet speed in your inner space with techniques designed by Modern day Masters and Mystics. The meditation techniques we are about to take you through are joyous and fun; they are dynamic and easy to follow. These techniques are eclectic drawn from all major spiritual practices of the world. These have been practiced for thousands of years by generations of our ancestors; they are foolproof in execution and have no side effects. All you lose if you do not practice the meditation for a day is the loss of that day’s experience. Once you have picked up this magical fruit and tasted it, you never want to put it down. These techniques make Bliss flower in you by throwing out cerebral layers. What exactly are these cerebral layers? They are the complications in the mind created by media that include the television, the radio, the newspapers and the billboards. Consumerist ideas are continuously being injected into your Being. You are 25
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
For internal and restricted use only
hypnotized and mesmerized. You read and see the same things everywhere you go. In a half-dazed condition, you go to the shop and ask for the same thing as well. You need to unload these suppressions and desires in order to be able to sit calmly. Be very clear that I am trying to force out the insanity in you and not trying to force in sanity in you. You are already Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss). That is your natural state. We just need to cut the layers of emotional bocks covering this bliss. Scientist is one who creates a formula to reproduce spontaneously and repetitively something that happens in the external world. Mystic is one who creates a formula to reproduce spontaneously and repetitively something that happens in the internal world, within his own self. Paramahamsa is one who is able to reproduce in others the same experiences that happened to him, spontaneously and repetitively through a formula.)
When addressing groups such as Corporate or Clubs etc … Maybe useful to stress on material success such as in career, interpersonal relationship, success in business etc. Awakened/ activated chakras will direct their energy with intelligence in the right manner to fulfill aspirations. Others respond to our awakened anahata with affection and liking. Activated chakras help in healing one self, emotionally and psychically. A write up is below… Seven Steps to Success: The human system is an energy centre. Flow of energy within this system is disrupted and dis-eased due to emotional blocks. Normally we use less than 5% of our potential energy. Removal of these blocks to restore high energy flow that leads to high level of performance is simple. In this program you will learn how easy, effective and joyful the process of restoring energy to yourself can be. Corporate and personal success has never been easier! Benefits: 1. Enhance Performance and Productivity: Increased energy levels and availability of techniques that focus this energy to productive purposes helps achieve much greater levels of performance than ever before. Causes of negative emotions of anxiety, worry, fears, anger etc are understood and dropped far more often, leading to far less stress. 2. Improving Interpersonal Relationships: As a child human beings give freely; consequently they also receive freely. Over time and with growing contact with the world outside we block our pathway to happiness by blocking our ability to give freely, and judging ourselves by others' perceptions. It is possible at any time to remove these blocks and rediscover our innate ability to give without reciprocity and experience joy. Performance in any field improves as a result. People enjoy your company. 26
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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3. Greater satisfaction with oneself and environment: The awakened energy within us is intelligent and keeps our expectations under control and our desires in balance. In a corporate environment this alone leads to significantly better job satisfaction leading to lowered attrition, without in any way compromising upon quantity and quality of performance. 4. Healing Yourself: It is well established that the mind has the power to heal the body. The human body is dis-eased when its energy pathways are disrupted due to physical, psychological and psychic blocks. Our emotions play a crucial part in creating illnesses. Resolution of emotional blocks lead to better health, psychological and physiological, leading to better performance. Effects on Stress 1. Stress is essential to living. It's the human system response to external and internal stimuli. Stress related responses such as 'fight or flight' govern survival by generating adrenaline. Problem is coping with excess stress, and learning how not to generate stress. 2. Techniques often recommended to cope with stress such as relaxation techniques, both physical e.g. massage and psychological e.g. total relaxation etc are symptomatic, only address the event temporarily. 3. Some meditation techniques e.g. TM go beyond and provide longer lasting benefits that are proven to reduce blood pressure, metabolic rate etc. Dr Howard Johnson of Harvard Medical School in his seminal book Relaxation Response on TM. However, even here is no attempt is made to seek out the source of stress to combat. 4. Techniques such as vipassana do seek out the first level source of stress which are external and internal stimuli, address these through anticipation by making the body more sensitive to these stimuli, therefore far more effective in anticipating and combating stress, but are quite difficult practices. Even these do not attack the ultimate emotional source of stress, they go only up to the body response. 5. For the first time we have techniques where the primal source of stress which are the emotional blocks/ negative emotional accumulations in the human system. these are sought to be understood and resolved; this is both a permanent cathartic process to be rid of accumulated stress baggage, and a continuing refresher process to fill one's system with positive energy that helps in combating the re accumulation of stressful emotions such as fear, greed, worry, jealousy etc.
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Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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6. One time de-cleansing of one's system to energize/activate the human system energy centres which in turn burn out negative emotions, coupled with regular daily practice of recommended techniques that generate positive energy are guaranteed to destress our body/ mind system and lead to a healthier, happier life. Effects on Intuition and intelligence 1. All humans are born with the power to go within ourselves to arrive at solutions to problems that face us day to day. This is intuition. Animals and infants use this. Human infants as they grow into adulthood replace this intuition by rationality. 2. The intuitive system wired into us is not a logical or sequential process . it is a holistic , quantum process. This process to some extent is governed by the right brain, and is more active when there is substantial interactivity between the two brain halves (this was considered to be far better with women, now doubted!) 3. Meditational activities that initiate alpha wave level brain activity activate the right brain and brain interactivity, and thus improve the intuitional response which is a powerful gut feel response which is beyond rationality and is custom fitted to each individual. 4. Techniques helps promote intuitive decision making in two ways. Firstly by removing all emotional baggage and blocks in the body energy centers i.e. all poisons that block intuition, and secondly by refilling these energy centers. 5. In addition specific exercises the seat of intuition and intelligence, open up our ability to go within and allow this facility which has always been present within us to flourish and be productive. IMPORTANT When doing independent ninety minutes introduction sessions with mahamantra initiation, Nithyananda recommends that we deal with the subject of ‘How the Mind Works’, about ‘Intuition’ etc which is covered in this document under ajna chakra. This is a talk I (compiler of this manual) have used with corporate groups: I have no script. What I speak to you, it is from my heart. All my corporate life I had been used to talking through audio visuals and power points, always from head. The listener neither reads what’s on the screen nor listens to you fully. He is in a state of confusion, which is where we want him most of the time, because we ourselves are so confused about what we say. 28
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Now, on the other hand, there is no screen. I am sitting. You are focused. To whatever extent possible in this given surroundings your senses are to some extent or other stilled. Let’s hope for the best. Like most of you I spent the best of my years in the corporate world. Like most of you I too believed my bosses when they said that the sky is the limit. That was the carrot dangling before the donkey. That was the motivation. That was the purpose. The higher I reached in the hierarchy the sky still seemed just that far. Perhaps not far in terms of the power, poison and pre-quisites, but certainly in terms of the freedom that the status promised. As my Guru says I had the status, not the state. It’s not without reason every one loves to lampoon the salary man, from Dilbert to Lakshman. We are the robot, and the puppet at various echelons of an organization pulled and pushed by others, doing rarely what one wished to do. We find reasons to do things on behalf of the corporation that as right thinking individuals we would rarely do. We develop a corporate brain that functions quite differently from our personal mind. The ethical and moral value systems of that corporate brain are very often quite different and socially inferior to those of our personal brain. The rare mavericks who persist in doing what they wish to do soon find themselves outside at some point or another. Simon Covey warns us to differentiate between efficiency and effectiveness. Climbing as fast as we can on a ladder which leads nowhere, may be a very efficient, but not very effective way of reaching the top. Yet, for many of us, that’s the reality of corporate culture. We climb with no specific aim in sight, except the proverbial promise of sky is the limit handed out by our corporate bosses. Each higher step we reach is another step in discontent. We reach depression of success. Acquisition becomes the aim, which once reached brings no enjoyment. After a while even the chase is mechanical, because we are programmed, not because we wish to. Three basic questions I have always been asked during my corporate career have been; 1. How can we take right decisions all the time? 2. How can we keep people happy? 3. How can we be happy? All three questions are of paramount importance because very rarely do mangers take right decisions, keep people happy and are themselves happy. As long as our decisions come from the intellect, the brain you can be sure they are wrong. The intellect processes facts of the past and no facts of the past can 29
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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predict the future, except totally accidentally. The only way you can take right decisions are to take them in the present, where you are, here and now. Such decisions come from your Being level, deeper than your heart and guts. They come from the core of your energy. Because they come from the core of your energy, and your own energy is no different from that of the Universe , and therefore of all around you, whatever decision you take will make all others happy and you happy. Such decisions never arise from greed, lust, fear, worry, need for attention, jealousy, ego or discontent. They come from a deep awareness of all that is around you, and a consciousness of all that is within you. This is not mumbo jumbo. This is a technique that can be practiced and will lead you to that state. Such decisions need not be altruistic and self sacrificing. They can and in all probability be hard, materialistic decisions that benefit you and your corporation. There is nothing fundamentally wrong in doing what we have to do to survive in this real world; even the Gita says that survival is the key for the individual. The issue is one of awareness of what we are doing. When we realize the full import of what we do and why we do what we do, and what it would lead to, we are no longer playing a game with life; we are living life as it should be. A Zen Master and a Samurai King were walking down the beach. The King saw kids playing building sand castles on the beach; laughing when the castles went up high, crying when some other kid broke the castle. The King laughed and said: what fools they are, don’t they realize it is just a game. The Zen Master looked the King and laughed at him: At least they are children. They know they are playing a game but get so involved that they get emotionally involved. You on the other hand do not even realize that you are playing a game when you fight for stone castles killing thousands of people. Who is the fool, you or the children? When we act without guilt, fear and jealousy, and with awareness and acceptance there is nothing wrong with whatever we do. One who without guilt enjoys wine, women and song stays healthy physically and mentally far better than a renunciate who lusts after these pleasures but stays out for fear he will be polluted. Suppression and non acceptance are far more damaging to our overall system health than acceptance, and letting go. Guilt is imposed upon us by society not by our Being. A teenager recently taught me wisdom. Talking to her at her parents’ house where I stayed before a course I jokingly asked how hard she had to try to be different. ‘Different’ she screamed out. ‘All I have to do all the time is to conform, conform to my peers. I can not exist if I am different.’ She had the awareness at 14 why she was doing what. As adults we find excuses to hide from that truth. We would like to believe that each of us ploughs a unique and different path, though all we do is to follow others in order to survive. We are all energy systems, as is the Universe. The cosmic energy variously called God, Universal consciousness, Brahman or whatever is the macrocosm of which we 30
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are a microcosmic part. We are indivisible from this whole, whether we believe it not, accept it or not, understand it or not. While a complete realization leads to a state of enlightenment or permanent bliss, even a partial understanding of this truth takes to far higher levels of awareness and happiness. Scientists now talk of multiverses and parallel universes when they talk of outer space. Whatever may be the word used one thing is certain. It is all one continuum. What happens at one point affects another in time and space. Creation of a solar system in one part of the Universe is a parallel to destruction of another elsewhere; a big bang equals a black hole; one can not happen without another. Despite the seeming chaos in Universe there is a definitive order. This cause and effect is not linear. Chaos theory suggests that a butterfly fluttering its wings in China can cause a tornado in Mexico; a bit far fetched but theoretically true. Tsunamis result from man’s rapacity in drilling for oil and other minerals. At another level all elements interact with us. In his book Messages from Water, Masaru Emoto describes how water responds to his words and thoughts. Its crystalline structure changes with the emotion with which the water sample is addressed and amazingly reproduced in an understandable format under a microscope. To summarize, Universe is an energy field of which we are part; this universe acts according to laws of cause and effect not all of which may be clear to us, nor all of which is linear. Elements of this universal energy can interact with us and respond to our thoughts and words. Internally we humans are an energy system comprising 72000 energy paths of which only 14000 are ever used. Of these seven are important energy centers called chakras. These chakras control our emotional, mental and physical well being. Chakras in good repair allow free flow of energy and we are at ease; blocked chakras cause dis-ease. The easiest way to unblock, energize or repair a blocked chakra is to direct cosmic energy into it. The only way to do this is through meditation, which is the only process that allows the human system to link with the akaasic, etheric or cosmic energy. What we are about to do now is a practice meditation on the heart or anahata chakra that opens it up. We choose the anahata because it’s the transition point between material desires and spiritual wants, and provides a good balance to most of us who wish to straddle both with giving up either. Anahata controls love and compassion. An open anahata allows us to freely give love, which in turn automatically without conscious effort receives love. This interactive process opens up innumerable possibilities physical, emotional, material and spiritual.
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All that you need to do is to follow instructions and plunge into this meditation with passion and awareness. Become the meditation I beseech you, and you will derive its full effect.
Module 2: Anahata A small story…. There were three monkeys that found a ripe mango. They fought over it and could not decide who has the right to eat it. ‘I found it’, said one. ‘I saw it first’, said a second. ‘I brought you on this path’, said the third. Unable to resolve the dispute by themselves they went to a wise old Acharya monkey. Acharya monkey told them, ‘Don’t fight over this. Share it amongst yourself, then plant the seed and it will grow into a big tree and you will get many more mangoes.
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Off the three went. They shared the fruit and buried the seed. One said it will water the spot every day. The second that it will provide fertilizer and the third said that it will watch over it. A month passed, and then another. No plant appeared as the Acharya monkey foretold. They went and complained to the Acharya monkey. ‘See, you made us share that one fruit. Now nothing has happened to the tree you promised us. Acharya monkey asked each one what it was doing. First monkey said every day it watered the spot religiously. Second monkey said it sprayed fertilizer every day. The third one said that it made sure the seed was alright. ‘How?’, asked the Acharya monkey. ‘Oh, I dug out the seed everyday to make sure that it was there!’ it said. Like this, monkey do not keep digging to see if what you learn is still in your mind and whether it is growing. That will make sure that you do not listen to me. You will only be worrying about whether you are learning, not listening. There is no need to take down notes. Just listen with awareness. That’s enough. We talked earlier about how we can benefit by meditating upon our chakras. We unlock the unlimited potential of our Being through these techniques. A quick recap, especially on sankalpa and open mind. -
We have seven subtle energy centers or chakras in our system. These are the muladhara at the base of the spine. Swadishthana below the navel, manipuraka at the navel, anahata in the heart region, vishuddhi at the throat, ajna between the eyebrows, and sahasrara on the crown of our head.
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We start our sessions with the anahata or the heart chakra. This was the chakra that you experienced when you thought about the happiest moment of your life.
Anahata Chakra The word anahata in Sanskrit is made of two words. Ahata means that which is created. Adding ‘a’ creates the antonym, the opposite. Anahata means that which cannot be created. When the anahata is opened completely, mystics heard the anahata dwani, the unstruck sound of creation, OM. There is no point in chanting OM. OM has to happen by itself. It happens when the anahata opens. Anahata is the center of love. Not the sentimental love that mankind feels is love, but unconditional love and compassion that enlightened Masters feel. An awakened anahata gives you the power to attract people. Specific substances have the power to help awakening chakras. Applying sandal wood to the anahata region helps awaken the anahata. Anahata is the transition point in the chakra energy system. The three chakras, manipuraka, swadishthana and muladhara which are below the anahata are concerned primarily with the individual and how the individual copes with issues of 33
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survival (lust, greed, anger in muladhara), establishment of the self (fears in swadishthana) and aggression and ambition (in the form of worries and stress in manipuraka). At the anahata we start relating to others in this world, and when anahata is energized develop the capability to treat the world as an extension of one’s own self. Beyond anahata we deal with issues arising out of our relationship with others in the world as with comparison with others (jealousy in vishuddhi), impressing upon others our personality (ego related issues in ajna) and the need to move beyond wordly issues (discontent in sahasrara). In our program, designed by Paramahamsa Nithyananda, we start with the anahata instead of the traditional muladhara point, so that we learn to establish ourselves in our relationship with others, which in turn depends on establishing ourselves firmly in self image and respect. What is Love? Love is energy. Love is not an emotion that human kind can create. It is the outpouring of a state of being that is pure giving, with no expectation of a return. The average human being is incapable of such unconditional love. By unconditional we mean unselfish love that has no expectations. What we consider love is not unconditional love; except perhaps a mother’s love for a new born infant. Naturally he or she seeks what he or she feels is love; be it liking, affection or attention. This desperate need for attention, begging and demanding attention or affection, and the constant expectation of attention without which we feel incomplete blocks the anahata chakra. Our anahata shrinks with this demand for attention. Conversely anahata chakra is energized by genuine love, both when we receive it and when we are capable of giving it. Such love can not be created. It has to come from within. Either it is there or not there. When you create, it can only be fake love, not real love. What we term as unconditional love does not exist in the lives of you and I. Our kind of love is always a deal, a bargain. Real rose cannot be created, only plastic roses can be created. You can create the atmosphere for the rose to happen. It cannot be done, it can only happen. You can create hatred, not love. A small story… Charu Kiran was walking to his house when he got bitten by a dog. The doctor took a look and announced an advanced case of rabies. Kiran was shocked. After a while, he took a piece of paper and started writing. The doctor told him, ‘It's not that bad, you need not hurry on writing out your will now’. ‘Oh no doctor! said Kiran, ‘I’m making out a list of people whom I can bite’. Most of what we feel is love is often a deal. Even between closely linked people; even parents and children. 34
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A small story… Ananda Pappaiah had stayed a bachelor with his mother for more than thirty years and didn’t want to get married, for fear of offending her. His friends however insisted and he got married without his mother’s knowledge. After keeping it away from her for a few months, he decided to let her into it. ‘Ma’, he said. ‘I have a confession to make. I got married six months back without your knowledge or blessings’. He hung his head in shame. His mother glared at him in disbelief. ‘What?’ she cried out. ‘You mean to say that you’ve been married six months and I am still waking up at five to pack your food!’ Love for most of us is more like a business deal. Estimating it at more than that might give disappointment. True love is that which gives everything and asks for nothing! A small story… At an old age home, the inmates were asked, ‘Why do you think God has allowed you to reach the age of ninety?’ Bhilai Mansoor responded, ‘To test the tolerance of our children and relatives’. Invite participative experiences: What are your experiences of what you term as love? What is love as we practice it? Love can be for 3 reasons; 1. Social comfort, money, joy, sensual pleasure and outwardly things. 2. Psychological support. 3. For a good certificate (Good father, good mother etc) At the conscious level we are able to understand in ourselves and others when we express the ‘love’ emotion for material benefits and/or emotional benefits. When people marry through arranged marriages without even knowing who the other partner is there is no question of love. The marriage is purely for security reasons or material benefit reasons. It may or may not mature into a genuine bond of love. At least in the case of a ‘love’ marriage, there is an expressed emotional bond to start with however temporary. What we do not usually recognize is the desperate need all of us have to be recognized, to be loved; our basic need for attention. Collecting Certificates and Labels Our life is nothing but a long signature campaign. Right from early childhood we learn the importance of doing things in a way that get us accepted positively. Doing what others want us to do gets us appreciated and is desirable. Doing what 35
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others do not want us to do gets us punished, and is undesirable. Our parents teach us what we should do and what we should not. Then follow our teachers. We follow based on experience of getting attention or not. We collect labels and certificates. Good son or good daughter from parents; good student from teachers; good boy or good girl from others, relatives, neighbors and friends. All our activities are nothing but efforts to get a good certificate. We stand with a book in front of people for their signature. We create a self image about yourself only based on others’ idea about you. Have you seen kids building castles with playing cards? You build your personality only with the certificates you receive from others. The more the certificates, you feel good, else you feel small. Why do we do this? Because we don’t have a right opinion about ourselves, we bother about others opinions about us. If somebody takes away your certificate, the castle falls down. Whenever you feel depressed, just observe, someone would have said something to you. Our happiness and unhappiness is under control of others.
A small story… Durg Chander went out shopping with his wife. After hours of window shopping, he asked her, ‘Are you at least sure of what you came to buy?’ She replied, ‘Of course! I am here to buy a flat-out handbag’. ‘And what’s that?’ he asked. She explained, ‘When the neighbors see it, they will be flat out!’ Our self-image is built with others’ opinions of us. We therefore spend our whole lives maintaining others opinions of us! Isn’t it time we nurtured our own intelligence to be our steadfast guide? We accumulate labels as if we are a parcel being posted from one place to another. Good father, good son etc. When we are in a western country we are considered black; when we are in an African country we are probably considered whiter; but we are not the labels. We are the matter inside the parcel. Our personality should not be decided by the needs of others not by their certification, but by the force of or own inner personality, what is within us A small story… Latur Singh was an actor and specialized in playing a woman. He used to walk in and out of the house in various feminine costumes and wigs. The old man who lived next door watched him regularly. One day, he was weeding the garden when 36
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the old man came up to him and asked, ‘How do you manage so many women without your wife knowing?’ Latur laughed and later told his wife about it. She asked him, ‘Didn’t you tell him the truth?’ He replied, ‘Why forego my reputation!’ Our self esteem and self confidence are both built on others opinion of us, never on our own. That is why we need to work hard on maintaining them. If any of you feel you don’t require certification from others, you really need to be certified into an asylum. (This can be a point of discussion). Peer Pressure This problem is most acute with adolescents and most dangerous. Peer pressure is the single most critical factor that shapes the future of our young. The young succumb to peer pressure and do what others tell them to do, because they do not have a solid foundation that is built at home. They do not have the trust to turn to parents for advice and guidance. Examples parents provide are so unreliable they would rather trust some one their own age who has similar problems. It is just our illusion that teenagers are free to do whatever they want. If you ask a teenager they will tell you that they have no freedom, they need to part of their group, their peers, for them to be accepted. Otherwise they are cast out. On one hand they are under pressure from more self confident peers, and on the other hand they are under pressure from parents who do not even try to understand the pressures their children are going through as they grow up. As parents it is our cardinal responsibility to build the self image of our children so that they can feel confident about taking their own decisions. We need to be their friends instead of turning into enemies. Though this problem has persisted for thousands of years, in our times cyber pollution through media has made this issue far more important. Discuss: Peer pressure and certification and how it is the biggest problem for adolescents/young adults. We are like centipedes. We need 100 legs to walk. We depend on these 100 legs to walk. Politicians need thousands to exist. We all need words of comfort to feel good. One word is enough to put us into depression. Our whole Being collapses. We are like children building a tower with playing cards; if one card at the bottom collapses the tower collapses. If one certificate is withdrawn we collapse. This is psychological slavery. Physical slavery is better than psychological slavery. When physically enslaved we know we are slaves in the case of psychological slavery we believe we are free, we don’t even realize we are slaves. Not only mentally, even physically you are affected by this slavery. Experiment about Effect of Attention 37
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In Chicago University they experimented on eleven different people to determine how positive and negative attention affected people. The experiment says: A young healthy intelligent man wakes up and gets ready to go to work. His wife says, ‘You are looking tired, rest’. He tells her that he is fine. He picks up the car key and goes out. He bumps into his neighbor; neighbor exclaims, ‘What is wrong with you? You look ill, why don’t you go to the Doctor?’ The young man ignores the comment and tells him he is fine and drives to office. As he walks in, the receptionist looks at him with concern and says, ‘My God, look at you, you really look ill!’ A colleague who walks past says the same thing. Our young man now wonders what is wrong. Why is everybody telling him that he looks unwell, when he seems to be feeling fine. Just then his boss calls him. Boss takes one look and says, ‘You look really unwell, are you sure you can carry on today? Why don’t you go see the Doctor?’ The young man has had enough! He feels ill now and says he would like to go home. When he reaches home he is running a temperature and his wife has to drive him to the Doctor. Sometimes this attention may even be subconscious. A small story… Birbal, an Enlightened Master, and Akbar his King were walking together on the streets. They saw a sandalwood dealer and Akbar said to Birbal, ‘I don’t know why but I feel like hanging this man’. A month later, they walked past the same sandalwood dealer and Akbar this time said, ‘It’s strange but I feel like giving this man some endowment now!’ Birbal replied, ‘O King! A month back, the sandalwood dealer’s business was suffering and when he saw you walking past, he thought to himself that if you die, the courtiers would come to buy a lot of sandalwood from him for your funeral pyre. He sent out these negative vibrations which prompted you to feel animosity towards him. I immediately purchased a lot of sandalwood from him to make tables and chairs for our kingdom. Today, he feels very grateful towards you and you have been struck by these positive vibrations from him and therefore you feel like giving him some endowment!’ When people say something about us, or even feel something about us strongly, many people say the same thing to us, we can not ignore what they day. We start internalizing what they say and start experiencing what they say about us; about our body, mind or Being. Internalizing the negative things that others express is the reason for getting depressed. When what others say about us is god we feel good. 38
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A small story… Nithya Kanthi sat while her youngest daughter was putting on her walking shoes for her. Kanthi was always depressed about her wrinkled feet and sat looking at them. The daughter suddenly commented, ‘Ma, you have such nice olden days feet!’ Kanthi felt suddenly relieved. Like how the monkey dances to the tunes of the monkey trainer, our emotions sway according to others opinions of us. When are we going to solidify with our own inner strength? As long as you dance according to their tune, they will give you certificates. When you start dancing according to your tune, they will withdraw their certificates. Our need for attention is primal. We can survive without food but not attention. It has been established that premature babies survive better with tactile handling than inside a cold machine. When handled negatively we lapse into manipulation and bargaining. So we seek attention by forcing ourselves upon others, literally begging, or demanding; some suck attention passively; they de energize you through their desperate need for attention. When others give you energy, naturally, they will guide you. They won’t give energy if they cannot guide you. They give their energy and ideology, as long as you listen and obey. As long as you are dependent on others energy, you can never live life completely. Your life is under somebody else’s control. You will be unhappy. First, integrate your life, Being. Make the source of your Energy as your own Being. Invite discussion: Unconditional love, does it exist? A small story… Veda Vyasa wrote the book titled brahmasutram. If there be a book in this world which will tire you at just a glance of it, it is this. If there be a book on the ultimate philosophy, it is this. An enlightened Master gave his daughter in marriage to his disciple called Vachaspati Mishra and also told him to write the complete translation for the book. The disciple started writing and days became months and months became years. For Mishra this was meditation. The entire outer world disappeared for him and what he could see was only the book. It was only after he finished writing the book after a few decades le looked up for the first time in years to see around him. All that was left was the title of the book. He finished writing and only the title of the book remained to be given. He looked up and saw an old lady lighting a lamp near him. He asked her who she was and 39
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she told him not to bother and to concentrate on completing the book. He replied that he had finished and asked who she was again. She replied, ‘I am your wife’. The man was shocked and overcome by grief. He had started writing soon after their marriage and the girl never wanted to disturb him. He asked her why she had not attempted even once to intervene, for which she replied that she was quite happy serving him while he was at his job and never felt the need to intervene. He had written the book for 30 years. He titled it ‘Bamati’, the name of his wife. You may think that Bamati has lost her youth at the end of it all. No! She has actually used the full energy of the anahata chakra and hence never experienced attention need. Because of her, a priceless book that is a ready-reckoner for the great saints of today has been gifted to the world of philosophy. She lives even after she has died. We all die as we are living. It doesn’t take much to expose the true nature of our love. True love is feeling happiness in risking everything, and asking for nothing in return. Not looking for validation or approval and going about one’s duty enhances one’s ability to radiate energy as love. This is what Krishna meant in Gita when he said: Do your duty without expectation of the fruits of action. Absence of expectation and certification is very important in raising one’s level of joy. Today, can you read the newspaper without disturbance for just 10 minutes in the morning? The wife feels that the newspaper is being given more attention than she is. Can the wife watch her favorite television serials in peace? The husband immediately feels that the television is becoming a nuisance in the house. Invite serious discussion: Feminist point of view etc If you expect love when giving love, you are looking at a business transaction. Or somewhat better we look at as a duty. Why should be loving your mother or child be duty. It is a cause for celebration. How to Develop Self Image (Day to Day - Technique 1) The reason we seek others opinion of us even in small things is because we have no opinion of ourselves. There are some simple ways to develop a good opinion about ourselves, to ground ourselves and to center ourselves. This is a simple Sufi exercise. Every morning when you awake, and still in bed, run your body over each part of you body saying that you love that part of your body. ‘I love my face’ I love my feet’ etc. Do this with deep awareness and genuine respect for your body. When you are out of bed, may be when you are in the shower, look at your body with great affection, love and respect. Identify each part and appreciate it. Express gratitude to existence to having given you such a wonderful body. 40
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An incident from Nithyananda’s life… A lady came to Paramahamsa Nithyananda suffering from an acute case of psoriasis, a serious skin affliction. She had had it for twenty years. She came to Nithyananda for healing. While healing her, Nithyananda realized that she had had serious childhood trauma that resulted in a deep subconscious anger against herself that she suppressed. This suppression had erupted as psoriasis. Nithyananda advised her to stand in front of a mirror every day for 21 days and rave and rant against herself so that all the buries emotions are released. The lady was very reluctant to do this. Nithyananda said, ‘Try this for 21 days. After all you have suffered this ailment for 20 years’. She went home and practiced this. By the 15th day she was fully cured. Appreciation of one’s own self, body and mind, as well as release of negative emotions about our body and mind will very quickly establish our self image and heal us both physically and emotionally. Responding from the Anahata (Day to Day - Technique 2) There is a psychological process called transactional analysis. You may have read or heard about a book called, ‘I am OK. You are OK’. This process helps us to identify what we say in three levels: child, parent or adult. As a child we react to a parent figure, tentative, timid, fearful, and rebellious. As an adult, we come across as domineering, critical, threatening and telling others what to do. These are the two levels at which most of us interact most of the time. Occasionally we interact as adults, which is an objective, factual, non threatening manner of communication. We are most effective in relating to others when we respond as adults. There is an even more powerful way. Irrespective of how else another person reacts, whether out of anger, envy, fear etc…respond from your anahata, out of pure love. What you may think is impractical becomes practical after you do the anahata meditation regularly. When you do this consistently and continuously two things happen. The first is others dissolve their negative emotions in the face of your love projected on to them; they love you in return and you attract people. Another thing happens, the continuous awareness of anahata enhances your own self image. You become more confident, more positive and more of a leader. To do this effectively, you need to be aware and be in the present. You have to be a good and active listener fully focused on the other person you are communicating with so that the communication and conversation escalates into a communion. Then and only then you will find true receptivity to your open anahata from the other person. Zealots of all kinds, be they fundamental mullahs or Hindu VHP wallahs, or any linguistic, communal, any other chauvinistic zealot of any kind, block our anahata. 41
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By imposing their beliefs on us and trying to destroy the self image we grew up with up. With the destruction of our self image and identity, be it religious, communal or linguistic, they rob us of our ability to relate to others with love. Such zealots are the real terrorists, they are the weapons of mass destruction. Sometimes whatever you do you don’t win! All you can do is to respond with your energized anahata. A small story… Nithya Pathni and Ananda Pathi were celebrating their fifty years of marriage. Pathni presented the latter with two shirts for the occasion. Pathi was very touched and declared that they would go out for dinner instead of cooking at home. It was a very tender moment for the two. Pathi freshened up and to make his wife happy, wore one of the gift shirts and appeared from his room. Pathni looked up and smiled, paused and snarled, ‘So the other shirt's no good?’ This is a wonderful situation to try out responding from your anahata. If you were Ananda Pathi how would you respond? The greatest challenge is to make another person totally happy, because happiness can never be achieved from outside, it is something that happens inside oneself. It can happen only when one is blossoming from within! Once our anahata chakra is unlocked the continuous energy release in the form of love allows you to give love with out preconditions and no expectations of reciprocity. The joy of giving overcomes all other factors, and becomes the main consideration. That is the reason we asked you to choose a partner to look after for 2 days, you will learn the meaning of love. Concepts that you can build on (Especially for discussions) Anahata is about unselfish love (love without expectations). Except in the case of the bond between an infant and its mother, where nature has devised the emotional bond in such a way that the infant’s survival is taken care of unconditionally, all other forms of love are with expectations. A mother expects a child to behave according to her value systems, as soon as the child is old enough to understand what her value systems are. Human love is possessive. As soon as our love ready to be expressed we need to possess and control the person on whom the love is to be expressed. Husband wants to possess the wife, wife wants to possess husband; both wish to possess the children.
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There are cultures that consider women to be mere possessions. How can such cultures ever have a concept of love? The possessed may have fear in return, at best respect, never love that they can return. In most of our cultures men respond from their muladhara chakra, out of anger, lust and greed. This is hardwired into them for survival reasons. Women, on the other hand respond from their swadishthana, out of fear and concern. Both will move to love as their anahata is opened. Man’s lust becomes love, through a process of alchemy, and the woman’s fear dissolves into love as well. At this level there are longer expectations in terms of behavior and control as well as possessiveness. Anahata liberates you. The master’s love is beyond anahata. It is love with no expectations; just giving, no expectation of receiving. There is no attachment in a master’s love. True love is with total detachment, vairagya. Yet, it is firm love, tough love. There is no soppiness as there is no desire to please. Just a desire to enhance, to liberate. Master’s love can have anger, never irritation. It can have care and concern, never a trace of envy. True love is also aloneness. You go beyond ordinary definitions of physical and emotional love into a state of bliss when the anahata opens. You radiate bliss and love by yourself, for all to receive. There is no need of a partner to share the love. Love is. True love is beyond ego. It is our ego, the fear of losing one’s ego, the fear that some one may take advantage of us is what prevents us from sharing love. When we realize that what each one of us has to offer to another is mostly suffering and not joy, this perspective changes. Suffering reduces on sharing. Even if it is joy, joy increases on sharing. Both ways we gain. Anahata is the transition point in our chakras. Chakras below the anahata are related to emotions that are concerned about our own selves, our own survival. Those above the anahata relate to others. At the anahata we make the transition of opening ourselves to others. We learn to appreciate others; we learn to pay attention to others, we learn to love others; without worrying about whether they appreciate us, attend to us or love us. Once we open ourselves up, others open themselves to us. This is what Krishna referred to when he talked about ‘vasudeva kutumbaha’, the world is my family or universal love. Once you are open you can not stop, you can not withhold. That’s why Nithyananda says, ‘Do not think of changing the world. You can not change anything in the external world, make it more peaceful, more loving, more happy. You need to change yourself first. When you make yourself more happy, more loving and more peaceful, you will become a transformation agent for others. 43
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With your lamp of transformation, you will light the lamp of transformation in others. Reference Material (Steve Jobs’ Speech at Stanford) I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard and in 10 years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation, ‘The Macintosh’, a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down and that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did! The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named ‘NeXT’, another company named ‘Pixar’, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, ‘Toy Story’, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits 44
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle. Thymus Gland The heart chakra, anahata, is related to love, equilibrium, and well-being. It is related to the thymus, located in the chest. This organ is part of the immune system, as well as being part of the endocrine system. It produces T cells responsible for fighting off disease, and is adversely affected by stress. In human anatomy, the thymus is a ductless gland located in the upper anterior portion of the chest cavity. It is most active during puberty, after which it shrinks in size and activity in most individuals and is replaced with fat. The thymus plays an important role in the development of the immune system in early life, and its cells form a part of the body's normal immune system. Mahamantra Meditation Mahamantra makes your mind sthira. Sthira means firm. The mind is always oscillating with thoughts. This meditation makes your mind still by making it enter into the zone of no-mind. It is like a jumping board to enter into Infinity. It is an ancient Tibetan – Buddhist technique. This meditation should be done on an empty stomach, either alone or as a group. Total duration is 30 minutes. The audiocassette will guide you through the meditation. Stress total involvement and awareness of mediation, in this case humming. Meditator should become the humming. Meditator may feel vibration in various body parts, tell them to expect it, not to worry and focus on humming. The energy may cause coughing, hiccupping etc. This is normal. Let them cough and go back to humming. (Acharyas Please Note) Successful mahamantra meditation is crucial as this sets up the base for other techniques. Spend as much time as needed to make participants understand the technique, do not hurry. First part: Wear eye band and close your eyes. Sit cross-legged in a comfortable position on the floor. Your head, neck and spine should be in a straight line. Those of you who 45
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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are not able to sit on the floor may sit on a chair. Feel relaxed and close your eyes. Even after we close our eyes, we see forms and images from behind the eyelids. To tackle this, imagine that your eyes have become stones, lock them mentally, without physical effort, then the images will die. Harden your eye balls with mental effort. Place your tongue on the upper palate locked. This will stop verbalization. The hardened eyeballs and locked tongue will help still the mind. The locked eye ball and tongue is only to still the mind to start up, and only for a maximum of one minute. Drop both after a minute. Relax. Keep your lips together and produce the sound ‘Mmmm…’ from inside. If you were to put your face inside an empty aluminum vessel and make a humming sound, the sound generated will be like this. Note that this is not ‘Hum…’ or ‘Om…’, it is simply keeping your lips together and producing ‘Mmmm…’. The humming should be as lengthy as possible. As you hum you will exhale. At the end of humming let your body inhale naturally as is necessary. Humming should start from the navel and should be as deep as possible. It should be as loud as possible, and as long as you can keep it while exhaling. Don’t make an effort to take in deep breaths, the body itself will take breaths when needed. Don’t become tense, just do it in a playful mood. Put in your whole being and energy into creating this vibration. Imagine you are a 5 year old child; you will then do the humming realistically. Try to minimize the gap between the humming sounds. After some time, you will feel that the humming continues without your effort and that you have become simply a listener! You are aware only of the humming, nothing else! You become the humming! Be completely relaxed. Do not strain yourself. Hum as well as breathe in through the nose; mouth should be closed at all times. At the end of 20 minutes, stop the humming (if you are playing the cassette, you will hear ‘Stop!’, and you stop as you are, abruptly). Second part: After stopping the humming, remain silent, focused on the anahata, and stay inactive for 10 minutes with a smiling face and blissful mood. (The cassette will play music for these 10 minutes). During this time, the Energy created by the 20 minutes of humming will enter all the corners of your being and cleanse it in totally. If any thought comes, let it come. Simply watch your mind and don’t resist any thought. Thoughts will definitely rise. Just watch them, witness them and ignore them. Do not follow them and create more thoughts. Do not try to suppress them; it will not work. Thoughts are like ripples created in a pool of water. You can not stop the ripples by putting your hand on the water; it will only create more ripples. All you need to do is to stop throwing more stones in the water and just watch. Tip: Best to practice this meditation early morning; highly energizing do not do close to sleep; do on empty stomach or two hours after a meal. 46
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Acharyas Please Note) Please keep reminding participants that the mahamantra is the default meditation that they should practice at least for 21 days. You must ensure that they get this meditation right. If necessary repeat instructions on second day, and demonstrate. Questions 1. I am an orphan and never experienced love. How can I give love? This is not a limitation. Even those who are brought up with all comforts can not express love. Once the anahata is opened you will experience the capacity to love. You need to practice the meditation regularly for effect.
Module 3: Manipuraka Chakra What is Manipuraka The manipuraka chakra lies just above the navel. This word has a Pali origin and its nearest Sanskrit meaning is City of Jewels. Manipuraka is the seat of words. Our thoughts which arise from the swadishthana and the mind are expressed in word form from this chakra. Since words lead to decisions, and therefore actions, this chakra is also responsible in a sense for all our actions. Manipuraka is locked by worry, and leads to depression. When clarity and positive ness in thought prevails, it unlocks. An awakened manipuraka makes your words come true. Application of mud from snake pits helps in awakening the manipuraka. What is Worry? A small story… Once, in a kingdom ruled by a benevolent king, many people came to the king and reported that they were all deeply worried. None of them could cope with their 47
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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worries and they suffered from depression. Each one however felt that the next person had no worries and was happy. The King was disturbed by this plight of his subjects and he thought, ‘If everybody says that he alone is worried and not his neighbor, and all of them are in fact full of worries, why not have an exchange offer? All of them will then be happy. Let us open a worry exchange!’ He told his ministers to open the ‘Worry Exchange’. Who ever was fed up with his worries could simply walk into the exchange, deposit it and pick up another worry in exchange. A grand opening function was organized. After all it is not everyday that one gets to exchange ones worries! In the center of a big open ground, a big pot was placed, a ‘worry pot’ as it were. Into this pot, each participating person could throw his worries, tied up in a bag. But he had to pick up some other bag. After all it was an exchange offer. They were free to throw in their worry bag and pick up any other bag. The whole kingdom gathered and there was a festive air, an air of expectancy. Who would start first? They saw each other and started talking to each other, and when they shared their worries with each other, shared each other’s problems, the king saw that at the end of the allotted time, nobody was ready to throw in their worries! Nobody had come forward to put his worry into the pot! The king asked, ‘What happened?’ Everybody said in one voice, ‘The worry that we already have is enough. If we get some new worries, we do not know how to face them! At least we are acquainted with our existing worries. We are comfortable with it. We can pull or push and drag our life along with the known worries. But if we are to get new worries, we will have more worries and newer worries, just thinking about how to deal with the new worries! After all, a known devil is better than an unknown angel! We will have to get settled with the unknown devil. Because surely the new worry will not be an angel. Who knows whether we will be able to get settled at all? No, we don’t know! We will live with our worries!’ So, nobody wanted to exchange their worries. There are a few aspects that we have to look into. Many of us find many reasons for our worries. All of you here come from a different backgrounds, different situations, different walks of life, different economical backgrounds, different health, different wealth and different cultures. If the outer reason can be the real cause for worry, how can that come for all of you?! Each one of you says that you have worries. If I were to enquire individually, one person may say, I don’t have children; because of that I worry. The person sitting next to you will say, I have children and that is the great worry for me! One man may say, I don’t have money and that is the worry for me. But the very next person will say, I have too much money; I don’t know how to keep it secure, how to preserve it. All my relatives, all my people are waiting to see me die, so that they can snatch away this money. That is my worry! The reasons vary from man to man. We ourselves create many reasons. In case we don’t have any reason, somebody will say, ‘I’m worried because I don’t have any reason to worry!’ There are many people who worry because they don’t have anything to worry about! Many retired couples often 48
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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come here to the ashram, and they have nothing to worry about. They come to me and say, ‘Master, we have nobody, we have nothing to bother us and that is the great worry for us!’ All through your life, you have worried about something or the other; it has become a continuous practice. If you don’t worry about anything, you feel that you are nobody; your being is not centered. You don’t feel the ‘weight’, you don’t feel that you are living, because you know only one dimension of life and that is worry, dukkha, depression. You don’t know the other dimension, ecstasy, or bliss, ananda. In that dimension you must become ‘nobody’. You should lose your ego, which you are not ready to. You are ready to have everything, ready to worry about everything, but you want your ego. Many of us are not even ready to lose our worries. We just say that it is a worry. But I say, if it is a worry, why don’t you give it up? Why don’t you be happy? What binds you? Invariably the answer is, ‘No, No. We can’t give it up. If we give it away, then what will happen? What will we keep doing?’ Many people come to Nithyananda and say, ‘Master, in my business there is no profit. Month after month, I make a loss. I can very clearly see that I can make only a loss in my business. The next month also it is going to be the same story. But how does one stop it? I am just continuously worrying about it! What can I do Master?’ Swami tells them, ‘If you can very clearly see that it is going to be a loss next month also, why don’t you stop your business this month itself?’ The answer is, ‘No, No. Then what will I do?’ What does this mean? You want to worry about something. When you don’t get anything, you create something. Or else, you create one more thing, that others are not worrying, only you are worrying. You start the other kind of game, ‘Others are not worrying, only I’m worrying. All my friends are happy, all my relatives are happy, all my brothers are happy, only I’m not happy’. Everybody says, ‘All my brothers are happy. I’m not happy’. But, is this really true? It can never be. As we saw earlier with the King’s Worry Exchange, we all have worries and we still believe only we have worries. When push comes to shove we are quite happy to retain our own worries rather than trade them for some one else’s unknown worries. Only from outside, we think that others are not worrying. When you come near, share with others, when you share your life with others, when you share your worry with each other, you will have a very clear understanding that your worries are much better than other’s worries. What then is Worry? Get participants to respond; most will describe what happens when they worry.
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If you look deeply into your worry or depression, as to what it means or what it does, you will see that it is sort of a shrinking feeling. It is playing words in your mind, the words that reduce you by again and again playing the same words in your mind. Worry need not have any logic to it. A small story… Ananda Pathi said to his friend, ‘I decided to put an end to my wife’s worries and so I stopped drinking, smoking and gambling!’ The friend exclaimed, ‘She must be so happy now!’ Pathi continued, ‘Well actually not, because now she’s at a loss as to what to worry about’. Mind is Inner Chatter, Inner Chatter is Worry This brings us to the next issue, what is mind? Mind is nothing but an inner chattering going on in your being without your control. It is a continuous inner chattering, which happens within your being. If you speak aloud, with sound, and you are speaking to others, you call it speech. If you speak without any sound, with yourself, it is inner chattering. You are chatting with yourself, chatting internally, engaged in inner chatter. A continuous inner chatter is always going on within you, which you are not able to stop. You are not the master. Inner chattering is your Master. Manipuraka chakra deals with this inner chatter. Manipuraka chakra opens when you go beyond worrying, when you transcend the worry. If you don’t worry about the worries, the worry will start worrying how to make you worry! This chakra gets locked because of worries. Let us have a deep look, a vision, a third dimensional view of what happens here. An Experiment: Say something to one person, and ask him to repeat that to the next in a chain. Form a chain of 20 people and get the last person repeat the statement to you. That repetition will have nothing to do with what you had originally said. The mind is like that. It starts with one thought and ends up with another totally different. If at 40 you worry, think of how you managed all the 40 years. You have enough experience to tackle any problem that may arise now. Why worry then? An Exercise: Try this…close your eyes and sit silently with yourself. Whatever thoughts come to your mind, jot it down on a paper. Do this honestly, just jot down all the thoughts that arise within your mind. This is nothing but your inner chatter. Do this for five minutes. If you read what you have written after the five minutes, you will be 50
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terribly shocked. Thoughts that have no connection, thoughts that cannot be connected even in your wildest dreams, are simply flowing, streaming, continuously coming out from your being! Thought that have no connection, thoughts that are radically opposite, are pushing you from all the sides. If you do this practice, trying to jot down your thoughts, your inner chatter, on a piece of paper, just for five minutes, you will very clearly be able to see what a great lunatic asylum you are running inside your mind! You are nothing less than a mad house. Your thoughts and worries live you! Your life is a collection of all these type of thoughts. You are living this type of life, with all these thoughts put together, all your inner chatter put together. This is what is you call your life! If you live this type of life that is completely uncontrolled, mad, lunatic, do you think you will feel that you have lived your life fruitfully? Do you think that you can have the deepest possible satisfaction in your life? Do you think that you are really living your life? No! You are not ‘living’ as you think. You are being lived! You are not eating. You are eaten by your inner chatter! A small story… Nitti Mudaliar bought a new car and went out on his first drive. He drove on and on, and when we wanted to stop he was not able to stop. He did not know how to stop the vehicle. He managed to collide with a tree and the vehicle stopped. By God’s grace, he escaped safely. Somebody who was nearby, asked him, Don’t you know how to drive?’ Nitti Mudaliar replied, ‘No, No, I know how to start, to drive, but I don’t know how to apply the brakes, how to stop the vehicle!’ It means, you are not driving the vehicle, but the vehicle is driving you. If you know driving, you should be able to get into the car, start, change the gears, and go wherever you want. When you come back to your house, you must be able to apply the brakes when the vehicle enters your courtyard and stop your vehicle safely and get down. If you are able to do all these things, then you are driving the vehicle. If something is missing, if you don’t know how to do any one of these aspects, any one of these processes, it means you are not driving the vehicle, the vehicle is driving you. Think about it, the vehicle is driving you! Now you are all in a vehicle, sitting in a vehicle that you are not able to stop, you are not able to put the brakes on. The brake that you are trying to apply is not working on the vehicle. Just try for a moment to stop your inner chattering. Is it possible? No! When you try to stop the thoughts, the speed of gushing thoughts doubles! It becomes uncontrollable to manage. Just imagine that you are sitting in a vehicle that you are not able to control, which you are not able to stop! You are not able to direct it; instead it is just directing you! It is guiding you! You are locked, you are fastened with a seat belt and vehicle is going in its own speed, in its own way, in its own direction. And the greatest horror is that even now the driver still thinks 51
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that he is the person who is driving the vehicle! He is not even ready to understand that he is not the person who is driving the vehicle, but vehicle is driving him. You are in the same position. You are not even ready to understand that you are not driving; on the contrary the vehicle is driving you! Understand that you are driving on your mind, your inner chatter, which is lunatic, which is mad, which is going to land you in a worst possible accident. Even if you are involved in a real accident, you may lose one limb or at the most, one body, one life. But when you get into the inner chatter and end up with accidents, you don’t lose only one life or one body; life after life, you are taken for a ride! You are driven, just like a mad person, for no reason. What for you are running, where you are going, what you are going to get at the end of it, nothing is known. Nothing is clear. You just ride along. Where? You don’t know! You just search. What? Where? When? No! You don’t know; because, you are driven. The worst thing about this whole scenario is that you don’t know that you are being driven. A small story… One evening Nitti Mudaliar came out of his house and started searching very seriously for something in front of his house. He was searching continuously for a long time. His wife came out and asked him, ‘What are you searching for?’ He replied, ‘I am searching for a gold coin’. So she also started searching, and after some time, his neighbor came out and asked him, ‘What are you searching for?’ This elicited the same response from Nitti, ‘A gold coin’. Neighbor too started searching. After some time, the resident living opposite his house came and asked him, ‘What are you searching for?’ The same reply, ‘Gold coin’. Everybody started searching. In half an hour, the whole street was in search of Nitti’s gold coin. Suddenly one fellow, who was slightly more intelligent than the rest asked Nitti Mudaliar where he had lost the coin. He asked, ‘For half an hour we all have been searching for the gold coin. Where have you lost it?’ Nitti said in an exasperated tone, ‘Don’t ask all these questions! Just search!’ This person insisted, ‘Please tell us where you have lost it. Only then can we succeed in finding it’. Nitti said, ‘It is lost inside the house!’ Every one turned around in bewilderment and asked Nitti, ‘Then why did you come to search outside the house?’ Nitti replied weakly, ‘You see, inside the house there is no light. Outside the house, the street lamps provide the light. I want to search in the light. Only then will I be able to find the gold coin!’ All of us are in the same position. What we are searching for, we don’t know! What we are running for, we don’t know. Yet we are in search! What is worry? The inner chatter which is continuously giving you a shrinking feeling, the negative feeling, is what is called worry. A man has failed in his business. He starts thinking, he starts telling himself with a feeling of inferiority, ‘Whatever I touch cannot ever flourish. Whatever I touch goes to the drain’. He starts putting himself down repeatedly to console himself and develops an inferiority complex. These words that he repeats again and again 52
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become a sort of a record and playback system, because mind is nothing but memory. Mind is nothing but a recording system that plays back on its own. It starts on its own, sometimes, to repeat the same thing, to repeat the same idea. Mind will learn whatever you teach it, and repeat it and question you again. Mind is just like a child. If you teach something positive, it will do the right thing. If you teach something negative, it will do the wrong thing. Mind is what you teach it. Outer Chatter that is Worry The inner chatter becomes outer chatter. There are two kinds of speeches; speaking out and speaking in. Speaking out is chatting with others, the outer chatter that is continuously happening all round the world. It is to get some relief just to forget the inner chatter that you start chatting with others! It is a sort of addiction, like alcohol. To escape from your own being, to escape from your own inner chatter, you start chatting with others. That is why so much of talking goes on all around the world all the time. No other activity is happens as commonly as talking, because by talking you want to escape from your inner chatter! You want to avoid, have some peace, have a gap from your inner chatter, but you cannot. You go mad with this chatter within you. Therefore you talk. When you talk you use words. Each word that you use conjures up an image in your mind. When you repeat these words unconsciously, these words will be a weight upon you, a hangover. These words will be continuously disturb and haunt you, without your knowledge, without your consciousness. From the unconscious it will be a terrible disturbance to you. Only such words form ‘worry’. These words, when they are repeated again and again, without your consciousness, without you awareness, without your knowledge and notice, they create a feeling, which is called ‘worry’. If they are solidified, if they become solid in your being, that state is what is called ‘depression’. You are completely in low mood. A poll was conducted in USA at great cost to determine what the most prevalent disease of today’s modern age was. The result was astounding! It was not AIDS, Cancer, TB or Cardiac ailments as one would have thought. It was Depression! Depression was found to be the most common disease prevalent today. It is the disease with which the whole humanity is challenged in the developed countries. How is depression caused? Depression results from constant worrying. The burden of worries is so much that one becomes dysfunctional and unable to cope with day to day life. Your depression is because of the words that you use on others. Those words spoken by you will not take 10 years to come back to you, they will come immediately! Is there anyone here who says “When I talk, I talk in English but 53
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when I chatter inside, it is in French” No! In the same way, whatever language you use outside is used inside also. We tend not to understand the power of words and thoughts. Dr. Masuro Emoto, a Japanese Scientist, in his classic book, Messages From water, explains his research work that shows how our thoughts and spoken words affect water molecules. Dr. Emoto bottled tap water in many bottles and labeled them as love, hate, passion, pain, terror, holy, Koran etc. To each bottle he spoke in line with its label and projected thoughts in line with the labels. To the bottle labeled love he spoke of love, and to that labeled pain he spoke in pain, and projected similar thoughts. At the end of about 30 days, he froze the water in the bottles and analyzed the frozen water crystals under a microscope. To his amazement he found that the crystals of the water to which he spoke on love shone like diamonds, while that of the bottle he addressed with negative emotions of hate, pain etc were misshapen and ghostly. The crystals of the bottle labeled Koran, to which he spoke verses from the Koran had the picture of the Holy Kaaba! Dr. Emoto’s findings are now accepted as scientific truth! Human body is 85% water. You can imagine the power of our thoughts and words upon our own mind body system and those of others. No wonder worry distresses us. What is distress? We use wrong words for wrong emotions. We use wrong masks for wrong occasions. If you meditate on your tongue, with a chilly on one end and a candy on the other, you will find that the experience is the same, once you do not allow the mind to interfere. A small story… A middle aged lady was trying out a new fur coat. Her young daughter said: Just imagine how much the poor animal must have suffered to produce this coat. Mother responds angrily: How dare you speak of your poor dad like this? You interpret someone’s words in your own way, you rearrange them in different ways, you do not understand, you create distress. When you have something that is uncomfortable within the body that you do not understand you call it pain. Pain is just energy being supplied to a part of the body to heal. When energy is being supplied to a part that needs healing, other parts nearby are deprived of energy and they feel numb. When you react against the pain, you stop the energy flow and delay healing. Instead focus your consciousness on the pain to activate the energy and healing and you will not feel the pain. All you need is to change the label. At the mental level, the gap between reality and your imagination creates tension. To fulfill your template of imagination you keep running, running to change everything around you. Someone said to me, give me peace so that I can study well and get a gold medal. Working to achieve the gold medal is fine, but worrying 54
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to achieve is harmful. In Ramayana, Vali takes away the power of anyone who stands in front of him. The moment you struggle with your imagination you invest it with power. You create tension. You are like the donkey with a carrot being dangled from a stick that is fastened to its head. Sagar Pillai went to visit his friend and he heard a terrible argument going on inside while he was standing at the latter’s doorstep. He knocked and went in to find his friend all alone. He enquired about the argument. His friend laughed and replied, ‘I have this habit of talking to myself’. Sagar was puzzled. ‘How come you were arguing then?’ he asked. The latter replied, ‘Oh! I always argue with people who don’t conform to logic!’ Sometimes you need to be at the receiving end of your own words to understand matters, especially about yourself! How to Make Your Words Positive Not even a single ray of hope, a single ray of light is in your being. How to come out of it? Just use the same key! The same key can be used either to lock a door or to unlock it. Now you have understood the basis of your inner chatter; talking to you yourself, the inner talking is the main problem. That is what creates worry. You can really change the inner chatter. You can really change the words that are continuously being displayed in your being. Whenever you are conscious, whenever you are aware, just start changing the words! Just start putting the right words into your chatter! A way to control worry is to watch the words that you speak inside yourself. Whenever the same words don’t seem appropriate enough to be spoken outside, simply break them and throw them apart. Words are very powerful. When I utter the word ‘cow’, immediately, a figure with 4 legs, 2 horns and one tail appears in your mind. A simple 3-letter word can bring to your mind a whole image. Words are that powerful. When we don’t respect words and use them wrongly, the manipuraka chakra gets locked. When we learn to use words properly, this chakra opens; the inner chatter starts from this chakra. If you keep breaking the words, the words will stop rising after 10-15 days and a new system will get recorded inside; that’s all! Inside you, you should use only that language which you will use outside with others, that’s why the saying goes, ‘Love thy neighbor as you love yourself”. It is important to love your neighbor. If you have 2 minds, then you can use one to deal with yourself and one to deal with others. But we all have only one mind. When you start to scream at a servant with fierce words, break them immediately and speak kinder words. Whatever words you use outside will be used inside also. Words are like a knife. They will pierce either outwards or inwards. However, this is a process that takes some time. You need to work on this process. However, without effort, nothing big, nothing great can be achieved! You need to 55
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work a little bit on your manipuraka chakra, to handle your inner chatter. However, when you have worked on it, when you have cleared it, you will see that you are in heaven. The suffering just disappears at once! This very understanding will clear your manipuraka chakra. The key, the mantra, to open your manipuraka chakra is this, have positive thinking, positive words, continuously. When you utter positive words, the mind which is trained already in negativity is not going to agree. It is not going to allow you to be in peace. Don’t bother. Don’t worry. In one corner of your mind, your mind will be telling you, ‘Just by uttering a few positive words, do you think that I will become silent?!’ When an elephant, after having bath in a river, comes out and starts to go back to its place, you will see some street dogs barking at the elephant. When the elephant takes one step forward, towards the dogs, they will take ten steps backward. The dogs will be in flight; but they will still bark and run away barking. The elephant needs to do nothing. All it has to do is take one step forward towards the dogs. The dogs will take ten steps backward. They may bark, but nevertheless, they will run back. In the same way, when you put positivism in your mind, when you try to alter your inner chattering, when you try to do new programming to your mind (after all, the mind is nothing but a computer, a bio computer) these dogs which were ruling the street once, will start barking at you. Take a step towards the dogs and look at them majestically, royally, like the elephant, and you will see that the dogs are simply put to flight. They will not merely run back, but they will also disappear. It is possible to alter your mental program, because after all, you have programmed it, nobody else. It is your own programming. You know how to alter it! Do it! That is the way to unlock the manipuraka chakra. (Acharya) Discuss how to instill positive ness in your words as a day to day exercise. We Invent Worries A small story… A mad man had his ear pressed to the wall of his room all day. He called the attendant in and whispered, ‘Listen!’ The attendant pressed his ear to the wall and listened hard. He finally declared, ‘I don’t hear a thing’. The man gravely replied, ‘I know, It’s been like that all day’. A mad man invents worries after being pronounced mad. The rest of us invent worries and never doubt our sanity! Worries are our dearest friends without which we cannot live! Worry seems to give us a purpose and direction in life. We have only ourselves to be blamed for any disturbance felt from outside. If our inner state is solid and peaceful, no amount of outer noise can disturb us. 56
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A small story… Nithya Manu sat down to meditate one day. He had barely closed his eyes when the maid walked in with noisy anklets. He screamed at her for it. The next day, he sat down to meditate again and the maid tip toed in with her anklets. All the same, he opened his eyes and screamed at her for it. The third day, he sat down to meditate and waited to hear the anklets! The human mind invents worries because worry is nothing but an axis for it to revolve. Without worries, it would feel insecure and without support. It is a comfort, a crutch, a companion, a shadow that we can not live with. A small story… Little Ananda heard his grandmother constantly complaining about how she may be left destitute as she grew older. He did some calculations and determined that she could love comfortably till she was 105. He went to his grandma and consoled her, ‘Don’t worry grandma you have no problems till you’re 105, you are only 65 now’, sighed the grandma what will I do when I am 110! Although we outwardly seem distressed at worries, in reality, worry is the food for our ego. That is why we nurture worries secretly! A small story… Worry Ananda was all alone in his apartment when his friend walked in. They started talking when his friend asked him, ‘Worry, you seem upset about something, what is the matter?’ Worry replied, ‘I am just wondering what might replace automation’. Fact is that most of our worries do not come through. It is just that all our negative thoughts are recorded by our mind and played back all the time. Constant worry kills creativity. A First Person Story (Appeared in Reader’s Digest) A man had a flat tire as he was driving on a lonely road, quite late at night. He had no jack in the car to change the tire. At a distance he saw some lights, and thought that it may be a farm house where he could borrow a jack. He started walking towards the lights. On the way he started thinking: It is already late. The farmer would have gone to bed. If he had not gone to bed, he would be quite tired. When I knock on the door, he would be quite irritated. He is going to tell me that I am inconsiderate waking him up at this hour. He is very definitely going to refuse to lend me a jack.
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By the time he reached the house the driver had built himself into a high pitch of anger, upon the imagined scenario of the farmer refusing to lend him a jack. He knocks on the door. He hears footsteps and a man opens the door with a questioning look. The driver shouts at him: you and your stupid jack. I wouldn’t wanna borrow your jack even if it was the last jack in the world. He then stomps off, back to the car. With worry we set ourselves up for trouble. Worry becomes a vicious cycle. You get fired by our office by the boss who has had a tough time with his wife. You take it out on your wife when you get back home; your wife takes it on the kid; the kid kicks the dog, the dog bites you, and if you turn your anger on the boss you will get fired! This is Karma Chakra! (Acharya) Ask for experiences Chronological Planning Vs Worrying Chronological planning is different from psychological worry. Planning is essential for our efficient and effective daily functioning. Chronological planning helps in realize your goals; psychological worry does no good in realizing your goals but creates tension and harm. J Krishnamurthy says: 99% of our worries do not come true; the 1% that does come true is good for you. Your mind keeps chattering throughout your waking hours of about 18 hours. Only a fraction of that chatter is need for productive planning; rest is worrying. Chronological planning is time based and detailed. Psychological worry is a process of constant second guessing that has no useful function except to create stress and tension within you that is totally non productive. When we plan chronologically we are relaxed; when we are in psychological planning mode we are tense. Chronological time is the one you use for your daily activities, and you all know it very well. Let us analyze the psychological time which is the gap between two thoughts. Have you ever noticed that when you are with a friend you really like, you don’t realize how quickly time passes? On the other hand, if you are sitting with someone who is boring, you will check your watch every 10 minutes and feel like time isn’t moving fast enough! The more the number of thoughts, the more slowly time seems to move; the less the number of thoughts, the more relaxed you are and time flies. The more you think of time, more your stress level, less your efficiency, less likely you are to meet your target, resulting in more stress. Thus we travel in a vicious circle, reducing our intelligence, skills and capacity, because we remember time again and again. Stress not only affects your mind, it also affects your body. For instance, if you sit in your office, don’t do any work, and just worry, you will feel 58
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shoulder pain! How many of you have experienced it? Stress is not just a mental problem; it becomes a physical problem too. People often tell us – ‘I know its wrong, but I get stressed all the time’. The main reason for that is the large number of thoughts that continuously remind you of time, and create stress. If your thoughts are less, you won’t notice the time moving and you will be less stressed. At the psychological level, again and again remembering time will stress you out and disturb your whole being. The more thoughts, the more it reminds you that time is ticking and you have less time. That’s why we call hell as eternal hell. There’s a wonderful Zen saying, ‘If you want to delay anything, do it as fast as possible’, because then you won’t make small mistakes, but commit big blunders! When you have too many thoughts, you won’t have the satisfaction that you lived your life. Whatever products you deliver, even if you do it on time, will be of much higher quality if you are less stressed. If the concept of chronological time is not internalized, your potential unleashed will be much higher. Similarly, all your ideas about the future, your worries, fears, insecurities are all your perceptions, not your real future. I have seen many people who worry continuously. Initially, you worry because of some reason, after some time you master the art of worrying, you don’t need a special reason. After some more time, even if you don’t find any reason you start worrying because you become habituated to do that. Nithyananda did a small study with a group of 50 people. He asked them to write whatever worries, fears and insecurities they have about the next 6 months of their life. Even according to psychologists, you can’t visualize more than six months of your life. That’s reducing now because the social, political, and economic changes are happening at a faster rate these days. He collected their list of worries. After six months he met all of them again. He asked them to mark all their worries that have become a reality. You will be surprised that a maximum of only 3% of their worries came true! The remaining 97% of their worries never came true! Can you imagine how much of your mental energy is wasted in worries? The more you worry, the less you create, the more you are stressed, the less you are expressing. All your concepts about future is only your concept, it is not really your future. Do the Exercise of the Writing Down Their Worries Only the present moment is a reality which is in your hands, all else is only your perception. The moment you relax into the present moment, your body and mind will have a new energy. Try this small exercise for a few minutes: in a room close the door, sit down and say, ‘I accept my life as it is, my life, my relationships, my body and mind, and come to the present moment’. The moment you take a conscious decision, a sankalpa, and start relaxing, you will be amazed to see the energy that happens to your being. As long as you are bothered about the future or thinking about the past, you will be away from the source of energy, your inner being. 59
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Physically, the concept of time makes you old, sick, uneasy. Mentally, the concept of time gives you stress and boredom. Boredom is another important problem due to the notion of time. A Zen story – a great Zen master had some stomach problem. His physician advised him to eat a certain food with herbs everyday. He ate it for 10 years. One day, the disciple who cooks for him asked – master are you not bored? I’m bored of cooking the same food everyday, aren’t you bored of eating the same food everyday? The master was surprised. He replied beautifully– it’s not the same food, once I eat it’s over, it’s new food everyday, I’m not eating the same food everyday! When you have a concept of time, you think same office, same house, same wife, and same life! Questions & Answers with Paramahamsa Nithyananda 1. We all have to work with deadlines and time pressure. When you say don’t think of time please explain how we can manage our tasks? When you have time consciousness, are you able to manage? [Questioner answers ‘yes’] With time consciousness either you can manage your deadlines, or not. If you can manage with time consciousness and stress then you can definitely manage your tasks and goals without the stress of time consciousness. You will be more creative without stress. A person who is stressed cannot create anything new, instead he will work in a programmed way. If you scan your life you will see that in your own house you won’t use many rooms. When you leave work and go home, you will go and sit on the same couch in the same room everyday, eat dinner in the same place, go to the same spot on your bed and so on! Even your vacations are clearly programmed. Worrying at home is called homework, worrying at office is called office work, worrying on the beach is called vacation! Only the place changes, the mental setup of worrying remains wherever you go. There are two kinds of people, those who can manage with time pressures and deadlines, and those who cannot. If you’re in the first group, if you can manage your activities with stress, you can surely manage without stress. Next, if you belong to the other group who are unable to manage deadlines, can you really manage better with stress? Then why have stress? Either way, whether you manage or not, stress will not help you. We sometimes think that stress can make us handle things better. That’s not true, only creativity and unleashing your potential can help you do that. If you drop your stress and manage without it, you will be more creative and produce much better results. Stress can only make you less efficient. Becoming more efficient can happen only by clarity, creativity, and dropping stress. You may say – ‘this stress management is all just theory, I have tried it a lot, I have read a lot about it. I don’t think it really works. I remember all the concepts for two days, its nice; after that I’m back to the same routine 60
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and lifestyle’. If it fails again and again, it means your understanding is not deep enough. Someone told me, ‘Master in the last one year alone eleven times I stopped smoking!’ It means eleven times he started again! That means his decision to stop smoking was not strong, his understanding was not deep enough. It is your own mind after all! If you can understand, penetrate your being and decide consciously to drop the stress, it will work for you. Make it very clear to yourself by telling yourself: I hereby decide to live the way I want. Understand that stress cannot help you become more efficient, it can only make you inefficient. Again and again you are taught to remember about time pressure. See your life – the moment you think about people who put pressure, when you remember their faces or words, your energy is drained. Then how can you be successful based on stress? If you can come down to the present moment, reducing worries, minimizing number of thoughts, reducing your frequency of thinking, it can unleash your potential energy, and you will see a different dimension of your life. It needs some courage to experiment. Try this. For the next eleven days, tell your self: “I will not bother about my past or future’. One more thing, when you remember your past you will remember only your failures. It is like measuring the strength of a chain by its weakest link. If you consider your life as a chain of incidents, you are not a weak link, but you generalize your ability and capacity based on the weakest incident or failure. At least be a little loving toward yourself, and take an average, but you never do that. Anyone will have valleys and peak. If you have to measure yourself, take the average, not valley. But our mental setup is such that we measure ourselves only with the valleys. Remembering the past again and again will make you dull and drain your energy. Neither remembering past nor worrying about future will transform you, come to present and become one with your energy. The Gita says – you have the authority to work, but don’t bother about the results. Krishna doesn’t mean don’t take your salary, have it, but he says continuously don’t visualize about it. Continuously visualizing about the fruits or results, the goals, you will be paralyzed, you won’t be able to walk in the path. When you chose the right road, just walk the path and you will reach the goal. A nice story; One guy sat in a ferry to cross a river. Once the boatman started rowing he started walking up and down. Boatman said to the man please be seated, I can’t row if you walk around. The man replied– I have no time to sit, I have to reach the other side urgently. All your stress is like walking inside the boat. It can never help you; at most it can disturb you, and hinder the growth. Look into it and be more intelligent. All our perceptions about our self based on past and future are wrong, and I mean EVERYTHING, because we measure our self based on the valley. You never respect yourself. 2. How do you unlearn the past? 61
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Make a conscious decision for eleven days to live in the present moment. Surely in eleven days you wont lose your life, although your mind will say, ‘I have this project or that, I will do it after that’. But for next eleven days make this commitment to yourself, ‘Whenever I remember, I will decide to drop the stress, drop the faces and words that create stress in me. I accept myself completely as I am, whatever comes out of it I will face it’. Only side effect will be efficiency increase, achieving your goals and bliss. When I say this, I take the responsibility of these words. In last two years, I have met 250,000 people individually; we have 2000 trained healers spreading meditation, working in 400 centers in 20 countries, touching 10,000 people everyday. From my experience of directly touching people from all walks of life and backgrounds, I can say your decision to live in the present moment can transform your life. Constant worry that affects this chakra leads acidity, depression, chronic fatigue, and skin disease. It also makes you hungry without reason and makes you obese! Renounce what you don’t have. We worry about problems we do not have. It’s the imaginary problems that cause trouble. No need to renounce what you have. Just enjoy what you have. Mind creates trouble, and also convinces you that without what it does to you will not have peace. Ramakrishna says: there is a brahma rakshasa who enters whatever you try to drive him with. The same way our mind uses whatever technique we use to control it to enter it. Accept yourself. If you are not able to accept yourself, accept that you are not able to accept yourself. This will drop your fighting between you and you. Gita says, ‘You are the person who is supposed to elevate yourself by yourself. If you can not, you will the worst enemy of yourself; if you can you will be the best friend you have’. In life you run from responsibilities. People talk always about weather because you can not do anything about it. Loving the whole world is easy, loving your wife is difficult. You need to do something for the latter. You will always find reasons why you can not change yourself. Nithyanadna says, ‘The best way to escape from a Master is to start worshipping him. Jews were too simple; they killed Jesus because they did not want to listen to him. Hindus are more cunning; they started worshipping Krishna so that they do not have to follow him. Hanging Jesus on the cross and hanging a Master’s photo on the wall are the same; both kill. It’s the best way to avoid following his teachings.
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Devotees imbibe teachings and live by them; they do good. The other group of fans focuses on rituals not teachings. If you focus on the person you forget the principle’. A small story… A Rishi got enlightened. Devas celebrated. In Hell the asuras had a meeting. Why are you letting people get enlightened? We won’t get any one in Hell. Says President of Asuras: I have sent disciples to worship the Masters so that no one follows their teachings. Don’t worry, we shall get many of them here too. How to Stop Worrying Day to Day (Exercise 1) For just 3 days drop all your cravings. Drop all your imagination of people, events, objects, locations etc. In 3 days you will not lose anything. Decide that you will not worry about your future, your imagination. You will find yourself far more energetic. You will save 15 hours out of the 18 hours of chatter. You will have time to implement your planning. Day to Day (Exercise 2) Imagine a normal day in your life. You have an appointment or some important work at 9 am, which is an hour earlier than your normal schedule of being out of home. You plan to get up at least half an hour earlier to manage, but sad to say the alarm does not go off. You get up as usual, late for the appointment. You are in afoul mood. You rush through your shaving, cut yourself, which makes your mood worse. You rush through breakfast, dumping food into your mouth the same way as you would dump rubbish in a garbage bin. You rush out, and you arte caught in a traffic jam. You reach the place of appointment at 930 am. You find that the other guy has not turned. He comes in at 10 am, breezily, with a huge smile, says: you know Bangalore traffic, I am so sorry to keep you waiting. Who is the idiot? There certainly are some do or die situations where you must be on time but not always, and not every where. If you must be on time your planning must allow for that. You should respect other people’s time. But does it make sense killing yourself worrying? Does it make sense cutting yourself? Does it make sense dumping food as if it is garbage? Be in the present; if you are late accept you are late; accept the consequences; have the wisdom to know what you can control and what you must accept; and the courage to accept what you must accept with out worrying and without feeling guilty. 63
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If you operate from the present, you can never worry. You will as the singer said, realize the state of, ‘Don’t worry, be happy!’ Pancreas The solar plexus chakra, manipuraka, is related to energy, assimilation and digestion, and is said to correspond to the roles played by the pancreas and the outer adrenal glands, the adrenal cortex. These play a valuable role in digestion, the conversion of food matter into energy for the body Meditation Technique: Manipuraka Shuddhi Kriya We can get over our worries by opening the manipuraka chakra. You can enjoy the inner treasures of this chakra by changing the inner chatter into positive inner chatter; by changing the negative inner chatter into positive inner chatter. You can transform, you can reprogram yourself continuously, consciously. That is one way. There is an effective meditation technique to take us beyond this inner chatter. As we all saw, we are sitting in a car which doesn’t have brakes, which is not acting according to our instructions, and acts according to its own whims and fancies, its own instructions. How to escape from it? How to get down from it? How to stop it? How to control it? Here is a simple meditation technique. You can use it to stop and to throw out your inner chatter. Then you will be able to have a few moments which do not have the inner chatter. You can be alive without inner chatter at least for a few moments. You can have awareness without inner chatter for a few moments. When you are able to understand that you can be alive for a few moments at least without the inner chatter, you will then be able to shape your inner chatter. This technique has two roots: ancient Christianity, where it was called ‘glassalolia’ and later adapted into Sufism, both used to stop your inner chattering. It will help you have a few moments of awareness without inner chattering, and to transform your inner chattering, to transform your inner verbalizations. The Sufi version is called ‘Gibberish’. This name ‘Gibberish’ is associated with a Sufi mystic, Jaabar. This mystic Jaabar never spoke any language that people could understand. He used to speak the language that nobody would understand! This is actually a beautiful way of teaching. Even if you listen in the language that I am speaking, you are not going to understand. You are only going to misunderstand. But the unfortunate part is that you do not know that you misunderstand. With Jaabar, you will not have that confusion. At least you know that you do not understand! When you know that you don’t know, you at least know that you don’t know. When you don’t know that you don’t know, you don’t even know that you don’t know! With Jaabar, you will be able to understand that you don’t know. With me, you will not even be able to understand that you don’t know.
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Now let us enter into the meditation technique. This can be done either alone, or in a group, either sitting or standing. Close your eyes. Start beginning to say nonsensical sounds. In other words, speak in a language that you don’t know! You can scream, shout, laugh, create sounds of animals, birds, anything. If you know English, don’t speak in English. Only one thing, you should not be able to understand what you are saying! You can shake your head; you can move your body as you feel. One more instruction; you should continuously shout and utter the words that have no meaning, without any gap or pause. Just vomit out all your inner chatter. Your mind is nothing but nonsense, nothing but dust, nothing but a garbage bin. Put it aside and you will have a deep taste of the bliss which is continuously oozing in you! Go consciously mad, with absolute awareness! Throw out all the poison, all the dirt that you have accumulated inside. For twenty minutes, continuously throw out everything. This technique will help you break up your continuous pattern of verbalization. You are continuously thinking, thinking. All your thinking is nothing but the language that you know. What is after all this inner chatter? It is nothing but you speaking to yourself in your mother tongue, or in the language that you use the most, or in nay of the languages that you know. Mind always thinks in terms of words. When you speak in the language that you don’t know, by creating some sounds, you are creating some new pattern, which is not a pattern at all. Then the regular pattern in your being, your inner chattering, will be completely broken up. Using nonsensical words helps you to break up the pattern of continuous verbalization. Without suppressing your thoughts, without repressing your emotions, you can throw them out. You can cry, laugh, whatever you want, but you must be continuously shouting the words that you don’t understand. You should throw out all the poisons that you have accumulated, all the worries and depressions that you have accumulated in your navel center, in your manipuraka chakra. If you have noticed that the world over, if something untoward happens, people normally say, ‘I can’t digest it!’ This expression exists in all the languages. ‘I can’t stomach it!’ How are stomach and worry connected? Both are deeply connected. So, when you throw out your worries, your stomach will be completely relaxed. You will enter into a new world. Your sufferings, worries, depressions, everything will be simply thrown out. You will not be worried about worries. This is the beautiful way, the beautiful structure to make you not to worry about the worries. The meditation technique that we use helps empty out our stomach. For this, you will have to be on an empty stomach else you might throw up. The words in us have to be spilt out. It’s like opening a Pandora’s box. It’s also like opening the cover of a septic tank. What are these words? They are the languages that you know. Your mind is nothing but the languages that you know. This technique is nothing but talking in the language that you don’t know. This will then break the depression and thoughts in you. Imagine there is a pond with moss floating on top beneath which there is clear water. All you have to do is to move the moss and the water sparkles beneath it. You will be able to see your face sparkling in the water! 65
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The meditation technique we use is taken from Christian (glassalolia) tradition and is called manipuraka shuddhi kriya. It should be done on an empty stomach, at least 2 hours after a major meal, otherwise meditator will become sick and throw up. Wear eye bands, and stand with eyes closed. Feel how heavy your stomach manipuraka area feels. It is filled with all your worries and feels heavy. Focus on your manipuraka chakra for a minute. Imagine yourself in a situation of conflict, and that you are fighting with someone. Use a language that you do not know and shout at him. Wave your hands, shout, scream. Let tears flow. Do it with all your might to vomit out all our negative feelings from your guts. Become completely immersed in the fighting, aware of nothing else. After twenty minutes of this meditation, just sit quietly and relax for ten minutes. This meditation will help you tremendously to cleanse and open your manipuraka chakra. When the manipuraka chakra opens, you transcend your worries, you transcend the depression and enter into the path of ecstasy. You become an ananda yogi. May you enter into the ecstasy; may you enter into the path of bliss. Your life will be transformed into a celebration. The dull, dead, dragging, worried inner chatter will be dropped. A new ecstatic, flying feeling will start rising in you. (Acharya) Participant feedback after a very satisfactory mahamantra meditation was that they could not get angry and think of fighting with someone during this manipuraka meditation! While instructing, make them understand they do not have to become angry or be in a fighting mood if they do not wish to or can not; but they still have to shout out in an unknown language, rave, rant to get the garbage out. Warn them that if they do not, garbage from others will get into their manipuraka!
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Module 4: Muladhara Chakra The muladhara chakra is at the base of the spinal cord. Its very name muladhara it which in Sanskrit means ‘The support for the root’ means that it is the basis for our life. Greed and fantasies lock this chakra. When you drop fantasies, it unlocks. Muladhara is the origin of not only our lives, but of the entire Universe. The Shiva Linga is the representation of the merging of the muladhara of the primal male and female powers. It is as such the most potent representation of the creation of the Universe. The Linga is not just Shiva, the destroyer; it is the entire trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva as well as Shakti. We are born from the muladhara chakras of a man and a woman, our parents. A man is 51% male and 49% female and a woman is 51% female and 49% male. From this arises the concept of Ardhanareeshwara (The Lord whose form is half man and half woman). Today there is the possibility of developing a human life form with no male sperm only with the female eggs, and also from stem cells without either a sperm or an egg. This does not negate the fact that these fundamental cells, and their DNAs, and their chromosomes are a combination of male and female life forms. 67
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Search for the Lost Gender From the day we are born, we suppress all aspects of the lesser half in us. Society teaches us the qualities of the 51% part in us. By societal rules, Man is not meant to possess qualities of compassion, care and motherhood and similarly a woman is not meant to possess qualities like bravery and strength. What happens to this suppressed half in us? A man searches for this suppressed part outside of him because man came from fulfillment and his inherent nature is also attaining fulfillment. This search becomes lust towards women. Till seven, most children are prepared to accept being in both sexes if allowed to. It is parental and societal norms that bind them to their explicit visible gender. During this stage the mind and spirit are open. It is critical that we allow children to roam free at this stage. No restriction in clothing, eating, doing what they want, even taking reasonable risks since they still have powers of intuition and instinct to guide them if un corrupted.. Let them have freedom in clothing; if at all let them wear one-piece clothing. Two piece clothing separates our body into two; that’s why when we visualize our name only the upper body comes into mind. Let them be free in using their limbs; let them use both hands. Let them be free in thinking; do not force feed your value system upon them; let them learn from what you do, not what you say. A small story… Ananda had a miserly wife. One day he took his son to his friend’s house. The friend asked, ‘Son, how old are you?’ The boy replied, ‘I’m normally eight, but when I am with my mother on the bus, I am five!’ Children are so pure and sure; it takes societal conditioning to spoil them. By dressing boys in blue and girls in pink, and segregating their toys we as parents channelize them into their gender roles without giving them an adequate opportunity to explore the issue on their own. In ancient India children were sent at a tender age of 4 to a Master in a gurukul; the Master became their father and mother; he evaluated their capabilities; he did not rank them; he guided them to what each was good at; this is the process that has degenerated into today’s hereditary varanshrama dharma; which is adharma. Between 7 and 14 children turns outwards, mostly to their parents and near and dear. Their early models are their parents. In their search for the lost ‘self’ the boy child turns to the mother and the girl child to father. They also develop a love / hate relationship with the other sex. If this umbilical connection is severed there is trauma. If you send your child to a boarding school at this age, what you are asking for is an Old Age Home later. In the gurukul environment all children, of all varnas and both genders, were taught the gayatri at 7. If by 14 they had a spiritual experience of some kind they were taught the brahma sutra. Those who did not 68
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were taught the Kama sutra to become good grihastas. If before 21 they were enlightened they were initiated as sanyasins. If not, they were taught the yoga sastras. At the age of 14, a boy starts collecting images of the women outside and when he is 21, these images take a proper shape and serve as a base for him to search for his life partner. In olden days, these images were collected from primarily one’s parents. A boy naturally attracted towards the mother used to collect images from her and a girl naturally attracted towards the father used to collect images from him. A boy expects care from his wife, like the care he received from his mother and likewise a girl from her husband. Their benchmarks were simple; father and mother. Today, the scene is different. We start our fantasy collection seriously. We collect images form media and build expectations on them. A lady brought her daughter to the ashram. The daughter was looking at a picture of Hrithik Roshan, a cinema actor. She told the mother, ‘Mom, when Grandpa dies, you somehow buy Hrithik and make him my grandfather, he is so good looking’. One man asked Master, ‘Why has the concept of single man for single woman that was exhibited in Ramayana failed?’ Master told him jokingly ‘In the Ramayana, Sita did not see Hrithik and Shah Rukh!’ Sita was not under the load of any images. The only image she had was of Janaka her father and there was not much disparity between Janaka’s image and Rama’s image. We collect features – eyes, nose, lips and what not from different images and make an image out of them and search for this image outside! When the gap between reality and imagination increases, the tension starts. When this gap is reduced, the tension reduces. When tension mounts the chain breaks. Today, even as early as 7 years of age, the images start getting loaded. Advertisement hoardings, Television, Radio and other media know your weaknesses well. They touch these weak points and sell their products. There is rarely a hoarding without a female model. Take a toothpaste advertisement. Do men never brush their teeth? Take a car advertisement. 90% of drivers are men and yet the advertisement shows a female driver. Even a simple ‘Pure magic cookies’ advertisement shows only females. Media people are actually dream sellers. We collect all these images and try to consume them through dreams. Is it possible? Can your thirst for water be quenched by consuming salt? Your thirst will only increase! In this fashion we are buying and eating these images and the load on the muladhara chakra increases. A small story… Sagar Pillai decided to get married and started looking out for a girl for himself. No matter which girl he brought home, his mother disapproved. Finally, he found a girl who resembled his mother in looks, attitude, habit and dress sense. He brought her home and his mother fell for her. Unfortunately for him, his father hated her! We continuously collect images from all that we see around us. We constantly 69
Life Bliss Program - Level 1 (Acharya Manual)
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compare reality with these images and feel disappointed. Unless we throw out these images, we will not be able to enjoy the real beauty around us! In olden days in the gurukul tradition the term brahmacharyam went far beyond the meaning of celibacy that we attribute to the word today. This word has nothing to do with being married or unmarried, having sex or not having sex. It means walking the path of the Brahman, the ultimate reality. It actually means throwing out the fantasy female that is inside you, that’s all. Once you have thrown out the female inside you, you can live with or without the female in the outside world. If you don’t throw out the female inside you, even if you get married, there will not be complete peace in your mind. Whereas, if you throw out the female inside you, whether you get married or not, there will be peace in your mind. Lord Shiva says in Shiva Tantra, ‘The woman outside you does not disturb you. It is the woman inside that disturbs you’. All that is being said applies to both man and woman alike. Soul mate = Fool mate At 21, we start searching to find reality that might match the image inside us. When we meet a person, we compare him or her with the image inside us and invariably find that there is no match. At some point in time, what we see outside seems like matching what is inside. What is inside is green and what is outside also appears to be green from the distance we are looking at. We spend ½ an hour everyday with the person and the green outside seems unchanged. We come closer by 10 feet and start spending more time and feel that it is not really green but actually yellowish green. We come still closer and feel that it is really yellow and progressively feel that it might be just cream. Finally we come together for 24 hours and realize that it is actually white. What is inside is green and what is outside is actually white. A small story… Ram Gopal was a painter by profession. He was recalling to his friend, ‘You know, this girl walked in with a blue-black chip and wanted me to paint a model house with the same color. I thought I would give up my profession in trying to match it. Nothing seemed to satisfy her’. The friend asked, ‘Did you match it?’ Gopal continued, ‘Well, lucky for me, she got a call on her mobile and I quickly painted the chip while she was talking!’ In life, we are constantly trying to match the images inside us with reality outside. We will never find a perfect match. We need to drop these images inside us and we will find endless possibilities! When we see some one from a distance and some dimension of that person with a part of the fantasy template we have of our dream partner, we see our fantasy 70
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coming to life; this is what we call falling in love. It is funny that we never call it ‘rising’ in love. A small story… A man fell three floors and was lying on the road writhing in pain. A friend walked up, ‘Did you get badly hurt falling down?’ Said the victim, ‘No, I was not hurt because I fell down. I was hurt because I stopped!’ As long as we float in love, flirt in love, keep distances, and keep time short, we are fine, fine in a fantasy world. It’s only when the floating stops, the relationship firms up, distances reduce and time increases that the pain starts; in this case the pain of marriage. The image inside and reality outside are different. The other person too has an image inside him or her, which he or her is trying to constantly find outside. We try finding a soul mate and end up fining a fool mate. A small story… One 90-year old man used to sit every day in the beach from morning to evening watching the people in the beach. Another man who noticed this went to him and asked what the old man was actually doing sitting there. The old man replied that he was searching for a woman to be his wife. The man was shocked at this reply and asked him why he had never searched in his youth. The old man replied that he has been searching from when he was 30 years of age. The man was astonished and asked him what sort of a woman he was searching for and he replied, ‘I am searching for a perfect woman. I found one woman who matched what I had in mind but it didn’t work out well with her’. The man asked why, for which the old man replied ‘Well, she was searching for a perfect man!’ Perils of Marriage A small story… One man got married. His friend presented him with a puppy dog as a gift for the wedding. Two months later the friend visited him and enquired about his married life. The man replied, ‘When I got married, the pup used to bark and my wife used to fetch the newspaper, but now my wife barks and the pup fetches the newspaper. Just a small difference, that’s all’. The barking starts when you realize that the outside is white and not green. Fantasy will not allow you to enjoy sex. Attraction to an image reduces reality to irrelevance. Too much fantasizing and too little attention to reality is what creates problems in our relationships. The images of wife, father, mother, child and friend suppress the reality of their Being and we are no longer aware of them. 71
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In the west, when people realize that the outside is actually white, they simply leave it at that. They do not try repair jobs. They switch partners. In the East, it is then that the sculpting work starts. The training starts, man on woman and woman on man. Sculpting is good on wood to make furniture and on stones to make idols. What will happen when you sculpt humans? Only flesh and blood will flow. That is why most of the homes today are not Dharmakshetras (abodes of Justice) but Kurukshetras (Abodes of war). People say ‘I love my wife and that is why I am trying to change her’. Be very clear, you have a mould and you have a wife. If you really love your wife, you will change the mould to suit your wife, but if you love your mould then you will try to change your wife to fit the mould. Most of us love our moulds. This is the beginning of unrest in our homes. An intimate war begins. In Tantra, Lord Shiva says, ‘When 2 people live together, there will be peace, when 3 people live together there will be a village-like atmosphere, when 4 people live together, there will be a city-like atmosphere’. What does this really mean? When the husband and wife drop their images inside them and live together, they are only 2 people co-existing and hence there will peace. When only one of them drops the image, there will be in effect 3 people coexisting and the atmosphere will still be relatively calm like in a village. When neither of them drops their image, there will be in effect 4 people trying to co-exist and the atmosphere become chaotic like in a city. Both the husband and the wife need to drop their images so that there are only 2 people in the house and not 4. This problem is not only between lovers and couples but in all relationships, wherever we have a fantasy template that w try to fit the person into, be it parents, children, friends, boss or worker. Those who accept reality are always fine. Those who live with fantasy only suffer themselves. It is only those who mix reality with fantasy cause damage by trying to carve others to their fantasy image. Fantasies can also be about ourselves; our body; intellect; etc. These too cause serious damage to relationships. Fantasies, obsessions and other desires become addictive; what starts off as something joyful when we indulge in them, take us over and it is as if we live for them. There is no joy in addiction, only unhappiness when you do not have it. Cigarettes smoke you, liquor drink you; it is easier to drop addictions/\ through logic rather than phobias / fears that we shall address later. One needs to understand the utility that the addiction provides and replace it with something more positive. (Discussion) How do you respond when people disagree? Say that actually over time relationship improves not degenerates? 72
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Why we Differentiate? In any society, the moment it grows, a pattern of differentiation sets in. You become xenophobic; you are afraid on anyone who is different. An Indian is afraid and therefore intolerant of a Chinese; a North Indian is intolerant of a South Indian; someone from Tamilnadu is intolerant of some one from Kerala; a nadir in Tamilnadu hates a Brahmin from Tamilnadu; An Iyer Brahmin dislikes an Iyengar Brahmin; the sequence is endless. Rich and poor; Hindu and Muslim; old and young; male and female; the divide and differentiation is continuous. All such dislikes based on differentiation arise out of insecurity; they arise out a fight for survival of identity. All these differentiation are based on tapes played into us from childhood, by adults around us, who in turn have had the tapes played into their ears. All you need to do is to refuse to listen to them anymore, to conform to these templates, to observe these nightmarish fantasies where human hates human. Generation gaps, gender gaps, religious divides, economic divides are all capable of resolution once we let go the need for this primal struggle to survive. A true understanding of the reality that we are all one, our beings are one, is enough to break the pattern of divide. Women are open to the divine energy during their menstrual periods. This was the reason why it was recommended that they stay alone and meditate during this period. Over time, men who envied women for this gift turned them into outcastes during this period, calling them unclean. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In a similar manner anything that we envy about another group is a good enough reason for it to be used against them, to control them. We envy the young for their energy, for the freedom that they seek; so we control them and create the generation gap that we ourselves struggled against when we were children. We call it the wisdom of adults, where as it should be called the jealousy of the adults. We wish to live our lives through our children and victimize them, instead of letting them go. Seeing as is and seeing as we want to In Sanskrit there are two phrases that teach us reality: Dhrishti Shrishti and Shrishti Dhrishti. Dhrishti Shrishti means seeing the world as it is, taking it as it comes; to accept what is, as reality. Shrishti Dhrishti means to see the world as we would like it to be, through colored lenses, through our fantasies. Dhrishti Shrishti leads to a happy life; Shrishti Dhrishti leads to suffering. 73
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In most of us, our minds are conditioned to look at things as we want them to be. Our greed, lust and jealousy constantly provoke us into changing reality to suit our images. We do not always have the wisdom to see where we can stop, because there is no stopping to desires. If we watch a popular serial and see a beautiful girl, we immediately want a girl like that in our lives. In the serial, they are simply acting and we start clinging on to the characters portrayed by them and start wanting that type of care and behavior from the people around us. What folly! Today, we are all buying dreams from dreams, not from reality. In yester years, people bought dreams from reality. If you truly got the mould in your mind from only your Mother, you will definitely accept your wife immediately. You have got the mould from television serials and other types of media and there starts the problem. To use Depending on Participant Maturity and Profile… What is lust? We only know how to reproduce, we do not know lust. When animals couple, they experience pure lust. They enjoy themselves. Our lust is taken from imagination, from movies, from books, it is not natural. From early on we form ideas about how our ‘would be’ should be. This contaminates the relationship. We relate to a person in our imagination, not the person next to us. The real husband or wife becomes a poor substitute to what is in your mind, your cerebral layer, which leaves you with a feeling of being cheated. Males feel they are deprived. Females feel exploited, used, disrespected. Your lust and sex are contaminated with the dirt of imagination. You relate with them only mentally. Shiva Sutra says: In bed you are four, not two. In ancient days, at 40 lust and sex left the householder, because they had enjoyed these fully before. Do you know the mantras chanted at marriage? Only Purohits get married these days. In saptapati, the most important part of Hindu marriage rites when husband and wife go around the fire 7 times, wife says to husband, ‘Become my eleventh son’, and husband responds, ‘become my eleventh daughter’. In the eleventh year their intimacy is so great they become each other’s child. There is a deep intimacy, there is a wonderful relationship. These words were not poems to read, they were living guidelines. Now marital relationship is a business, for security or material benefits. You may live in the same home, not in a homely way. Remove the imagination and dreams from your lust; both about your partner’s body and yours. Many of us are shamed of our body, we hate it. All body pains and chronic skin diseases arise out of low self esteem and disrespect to your own body. We would like to be someone else. We would like to shape our body and dress like someone else. You stop staying in your boundary. Whenever you hear your name you think of your face, not your whole body, because you are not comfortable. When you copy someone else 74
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artificially and not accept yourself fully, you can at best be beautiful but never graceful. Grace comes from within. For the next few days watch your body after your bath with love; feel comfortable. Your body oozes bliss all the time. Yet we feel only the pain. If you are relaxed with your own body your mind will not wander. When you are at home, your mind is in the office, and when you are working you wish you were at a party. Tulsidas says about Sita in Tulsi Ramayana, when Sita enters Janaka’s court all the rishis including Vashishta and her own father stood up to pay their respect to this young princess, such was her overwhelming grace. In Tantra meditation you touch your body first thing in the morning after you wake up at every point with deep love to allow their subtle body to settle into their gross physical body. You love someone as long as that person does what you say, obeys you. A mother says, ‘I loved my daughter so deeply till she married some one not of my choice’. Is this love? It is slavery to your ego. As long as the daughter was an extension of mother’s personality she felt love. Add friendliness to love. As of now your lust is violence, deep rooted violence; to own another person, to conquer another person while she resists. It’s war. Add friendliness to your relationship. Welcome, not just accept, the partner as she is. Welcome and accept your own mind, body and Being as it is. Are we not friendly? No, you are not. If you watch carefully, you disrespect and abuse your body. You stay up and watch TV even if your body cries out for sleep. You gorge yourself with food even if your stomach is full. You smoke even if your lungs cry out. You drink yourself to unconsciousness. Your body is a garbage dump. You are like a pig which shoves its nose into filth and can no longer smell the filth. You torture your body for what you feel is your enjoyment. We are so bothered about the terrorism that happens outside. We ignore violence at home and violence against our own body. Sadism and masochism do not bother us, terrorism does. We are torturing ourselves with guilt; we torture others through our perfectionism. Man told Master, ‘My wife is a lawyer. He asked, ‘Does she go to the courts?’ Man replied, ‘Master, she argues at home’. Drop your imagination and dreams. Add friendliness towards yourself and others, towards their body, mind and Being. Carry with you words that heal others. Carry your body in a way that heals others. Carry friendliness with you always. This is a spiritual process. Carry the grace and goodwill of Lakshmi with you instead of undergoing fasts and puja. First time around when you approach others with your friendliness they may not receive you openly because of your past behavior. Persist and persevere. Don’t stop even if others do not reciprocate. Carry on till others believe you and reciprocate. 75
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Drop imagination about your body, mind and Being and others; add friendliness towards yourself and others; persevere. Lust will turn to Love. Your Being will be in eternal Bliss. Don’t give undue importance to the world outside; instead give all the importance to the world inside. If the muladhara gets disturbed due to psychological reasons, there are chances of children being born physically handicapped. In yester years, Rishis gave birth to children who were much more intelligent than the ones today. This is because the Rishis’ muladhara chakra was light and not loaded. Our muladhara chakras are heavily loaded and therefore the child’s brain power is low. Purely by the Energy levels or Shakthi, there is a difference between the babies born then and now. Pregnant women should practice meditation and spirituality. When children are born, we should be clear on what they wish to become and then dream on that, else they will be a projection of our own unfulfilled dreams. Most of us are actually wrongly placed in our lives; we are misplaced. There is complete confusion prevalent because of this. Doctors have landed up becoming Engineers and so on. The truth is, our mothers are trying to realize their unfulfilled dreams through us. The right way would be for the mothers to find out what their child wishes to become and then dream about it. Anger and its Management Anger is a positive energy, and a very powerful one. Anger arises out of our inability to accept what we see as a wrong doing, either externally or within ourselves. If we are aware we can perceive how often we get angry at ourselves. We are conditioned by society and our parent figures to get angry at thoughts and behavior not in conformity with what they have laid down as right or wrong. This makes no sense because our own value systems need not be the same as some one else’s, even our parents. Society gets angry with those who break its moral codes. These moral codes are laid down by those in power, either religious power or institutional power. At the existence level there is no moral right or wrong. Conscience is man made. Consciousness comes from our awareness of our existence. We need to abide by our consciousness not our conscience. When we become aware of reality, having dropped our fantasies in relationships and behavioral expectations, our anger will only rise when at the Being kevel when we ourselves and others doing damage to their own Being, and by extension to other Beings. Such anger arises out of compassion, not out of irritation to our ego. Such anger is transient, passes almost before it appears, and has no hangover. When on a day to day basis we get angry, it is because we are denied something; we feel hurt about something; our ego is affected; we are denied control; our desires are thwarted and so on. The underlying emotion is totally selfish arising out 76
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of ego, lust, greed, fear, worry, irritation, non acceptance, envy, and discontent. Such anger has no reason to exist, and can not exist if we are aware, and live in the present. Understanding this truth and accepting this truth will help us control anger. We will soon discover that there is no need to be angry, and there is no point in being angry. People do things for you willingly when they like you. They may do things for you because they fear you, but only till you have some control over them. They will wait for the opportunity to pay you back, to shame you, to destroy you. Controlling people through fear is a self destructive behavior that only cowards deploy. Anger should not be suppressed. Suppression of anger will lead to chronic and fatal diseases including high blood pressure, strokes, and cancer. Venting anger is also not a permanent solution. It dissipates anger temporarily. Understanding and accepting anger dissolves it permanently. There was an interesting experiment that was carried out in a US varsity on anger management. Over a dozen women volunteers were requested to bring in their spouses, who they had complained had uncontrollable tempers. The husbands agreed to be treated. They underwent treatment for a few weeks and were sent home. Within a week the wives came back protesting. The researchers asked whether they were dissatisfied with the treatment. The wives said: no, the treatment has been very effective; but with the loss of their anger they no longer pay any attention to us. Give us our old angry husbands back! Vegetables and inanimate beings do not get angry; however, we may not wish to live with vegetables or as vegetables. A Day to Day Tip to Control Anger After this course once you practice the mahamantra meditation regularly you will gradually find, especially after 21 days, that your awareness of what happen inside your mind body increases. You become far more sensitive. When you get angry your body reacts first. The adrenalin flows out and the sensation is unmistakable. With your new found awareness you would be able to feel this sensation microseconds before it erupts. That’s enough. With determination, with consciousness, with awareness, decide that you will respond from your anahata with love, and not with anger. When you are familiar with meditation, you can at will bring your self into a meditative mood anywhere. You need not hum the Mahamantra; all you have to do is to turn inwards. You will be in the present acutely aware of what happens within you, within your mind body system at that moment; not seconds before, not seconds after; but at that time. Use this awareness to act; you have that power. This may seem impractical and fanciful, just try and see how beautifully it works. Each time you succeed in your effort your next effort becomes easier. Very soon 77
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you will realize that even as the anger is about to rise it succeeds with a new found understanding of its futility. Managing Greed Greed is as old as creation. Greed is unending desire. Whatever we have , however much we have, we want more, irrespective of whether we need it or not. When we understand how generous the Universe is in giving us what we need we can shed greed. There is no need to accumulate food when you know that your next days’ meal will be taken care of. To the person who has renounced his home, the sanyasin, the whole world is his home. Wherever he is, existence will provide him his next meal. If he is not, he moves, knowing for certain that he does not need that meal. Awakening the muladhara is by dropping greed, fantasies, lust and anger, not by controlling them. Adrenal Glands The root chakra, muludhara, is related to survival, excretion, and also to basic human potentiality. It is said the kundalini lies coiled here, ready to uncoil and bring man to his highest spiritual potential in the crown chakra. This centre is located in the region between the genitals and the anus. Although no endocrine organ is placed here, it is said to relate to the inner adrenal glands, the adrenal medulla, responsible for the fight and flight response when survival is under threat. In this region is located a muscle that controls ejaculation in the sexual act. A parallel is drawn between the sperm cell and the ovum, where the genetic code lies coiled, and the legendary kundalini, ready to express itself as a fully developed human being. Dukkaharana Meditation (from Shiva’s Kularnava Tantra) Muladhara chakra has a reserve of energy in itself. This chakra is the storehouse of 85% of our energy. In the tantric system muladhara is where the primal cosmic energy rests in the form of a coiled serpent. It is not like the other chakras where we have to create energy in them. With this chakra, we only need to cleanse the energy in it and take the energy upwards. Most of us live our lives only in this chakra. We .live only on survival needs, and emotions linked to survival needs; without expressing our consciousness. Without meaning to demean animals, it would be true to say that we live like animals, since most animals live only through their muladhara, engaged only in hunting, eating and procreating. If this chakra is in a healthy condition, clarity will set in automatically in you and good health will prevail. Chronic or fatal diseases like cancer, stroke etc. have their root in this chakra. 78
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If we understand this chakra completely we can maximize our Biological, Psychological and Spiritual energies. 80% of our problems lie in this chakra. When unmarried people train themselves to drop their imagination, they will be able to follow reality instead of following images. They will be able to analyze clearly, calmly and fully while selecting their life partner. Else, hormonal torture will make them select wrongly and they will struggle all through their lives. Unmarried people should try to keep this chakra clean to be able to bring in clarity while selecting your life partner. Married people should keep this chakra clean in order to fully welcome the partner into your lives by dropping your images. Lord Shiva says, ‘A man can become Lord Shiva himself when he drops his images and a woman can become Goddess Parvati (Lord Shiva’s consort) by dropping her images. One who is filled with love and thoughts of Lord Shiva lives in tapas (penance) and one who has burnt imagination becomes Shiva himself”. When you lose your imagination, you acquire the quality of looking at others’ lives and problems. Old people can easily drop their imagination and live a peaceful life without expectation. Not only between husband and wife, but also between siblings, expectations arise out of muladhara. Hormones control the mind. However much you try to control the mind, the hormones take it with them. A technique to keep our mind under control is given by Shiva in Kularnava Tantra and is called Dukkaharana. This meditation technique is called dukkhaharana. It will bring out all the suppressed emotions in you. Many Masters have employed this technique before. It takes totally 30 minutes. Breathing is the bridge to the Universe. It is the system with which you are living your mind. If your thinking is calm, your breath will be relaxed. If your thinking is aggressive, your breathing will also be aggressive. You first need to control your breathing in order to control your mind Presently, in our repressed state, most of us are half-alive and half-dead. In the first part of this meditation, chaotic breathing is carried out in order to create chaos in your repressed system. Your mental system is made fully alive by the increased intake of oxygen; it becomes more vital. Your cells will get more energy and will create more bioelectricity or bio-energy. This energy will melt all the repressed emotions like melting ice. Step 1: Wear eye bands, stand with eyes closed. Breathe deeply and chaotically from the depths of your body. Extend your arms outwards, and plan your feet firmly about 18 inches apart. Gently lower yourself down till your knees are bent, simultaneously keeping your arms extended outwards at your shoulder level. This 79
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is the moving down motion. Then move back up to a normal standing position with rams extended. Repeat this motion gently, slowly, without exerting yourself unduly. Continue to breathe deeply and in rhythm with the movement. Breathe from the nostrils, with mouth closed. If you have a heart problem, do only what you can. Similarly pregnant women and others with physical ailments do only what you can. Do this for 10 minutes. Step 2: The next 10 minutes, tense and relax your limbs. Start with your feet; tense them for 40 seconds, and then completely relax for 20 seconds. Next step; keep your feet relaxed; tense your legs and thighs for 40 seconds, then relax 20 seconds. Like this after relaxing the previous set of limbs, tense the next set for 40 seconds and relax for 20. Move upwards in order: Hips, Stomach, Back, Chest, Both arms up to shoulder; neck and shoulder; face; finally Head. On each limb or body part tense as much as possible for 40 seconds. Then relax for 20 seconds; then move on to next body part. (While doing this, two things happen. All the 72,000 energy points in the body get activated and energized, many of them perhaps for the first time in our lives. In addition all the emotional hangovers will disappear. In your office, your boss may scold you but you will not be able to scold him back. Your mind and body will be angry and aggressive and this causes your body to release an acid. When you are unable to react to this acid, it gets suppressed in your body. Imagine, when you are on a 2-wheeler at the traffic signal on the road, a car pulls up next to you. You feel a sudden desire to possess it. This desire gets suppressed due to non-fulfillment. So many such desires and emotions are suppressed in you. How then can you enjoy bliss? ) At the end of these 10 minutes, you will become vacant inside and become cool, calm and composed. When you hear the tape saying ‘Stop’, just stop as you are. For a moment, you will experience the state of ‘No Mind’. Step 3: For the next 10 minutes, sit and chant ‘hoo’ the hoo kara sound (no need to make it deep, long and loud as in mahamantra). At the end of the ‘hoo’ sound do not close your mouth to make it ‘hoom’ or ‘ooom’; it is just ‘hoo’. Simply witness whatever happens inside or outside your Being. The first two parts of this technique are actually a preparation for this third part that is meditation. You will see that the mind becomes silent effortlessly by itself. Silence cannot be forced upon, it can only happen. Remain in this relaxed state with a smiling face and blissful mood. During this time, there may be many experiences, just watch them as you would watch the television. Watch your mind thought by thought. DO NOT FOCUS ON THE MULADHARA AT ANY POINT DURING THE MEDITATION, as this will create fantasies which you are trying to remove. 80
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After 10 minutes of ‘hoo kara’ sit silently for about a minute, and then open your eyes. You may practice this technique on an empty stomach preferably in the morning. Wear loose fitting white clothing and keep to the music in the audiocassette. 21 days of dukkhaharana will transform your Being. This is like taking a psychological bath. You will be able to experience the Silence in you. When you kill dukkha (sorrow), ananda (Bliss) flowers and sends forth a beautiful perfume from you.
A Story You Can Use (Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford) I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: ‘We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?’ They said, ‘Of course’. My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
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It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. (Reference) Swami’s Discourse on Cognitive Shift We see what we wish to see. Dhrishti Shrishti is seeing things as want them to be. Shrishti Dhrishti is seeing them as they are. When we see things as we want them to be, we produce supporting facts for our judgment. We judge first, and then we collect arguments to support our judgment. This leads to suffering. When we operate from what-we- want- to- see mode we forget the consequences. Nitti Mudaliar goes into a restaurant and orders his fill. As he gets up to leave he is presented with a bill. Startled he says: but I didn’t order the bill. Like the unordered bill consequences of our actions follow without asking us. This is karma, our mental set up, that drives us to our unfulfilled desires, which if they are to be experienced now will no longer be desirable. 82
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When we feel we have mastered some skill and are proud of it, we become solid; we become dull, stop enjoying. Children on the other hand are always liquid, always full of joy; they are intelligent. A story: 40 year old father is dying his graying hair. Child asks why his hair is white. He says if you tell a lie one hair turns white each time. Child looks at grandfather whose hair is all white and wonders aloud what a liar he is! Intelligent is simplicity, it’s also innocence; being intellectual forces one to be complex. Intellect is like left over food, tamasic, whereas Intelligence is fresh, satvic. In the gurukul system in ancient India there were many child sages as there was no linkage seen between age and wisdom. Rich people have money but not happiness; they are constantly afraid of losing their wealth, and their wealth losing them when they die. Poor people have no such problems. They are happy to be alive. Their perspective of life is very basic and much larger than money. A Zen master had to choose his successor. He drew a small black dot on a white board and asked his disciples to tell him what they saw. Almost all saw only the black dot. One disciple alone told him: what I see is a huge expanse of white, in which there is an insignificant black dot. He was chosen as the successor. All of us forget all good things that happen to us, we take them for granted, and only remember the negative incidents. Problems become status symbols. We would like to boast that we are on sleeping pills or anti depressants or whatever, as these are symbols of our apparent prosperity. Children learn these from us; it is neuro linguistic programming (NLP). We do not realize how powerful our words are. If you listen to good words you find peace. That’s how satsangs work; even if you are not aware, they bring peace to you. Doctors particularly should be careful, they should meditate; they have so much negativity being poured into them. The way they are particular about washing their hands they should also wash their minds. “What you think you become” Our eye vision extends only 120 degrees. Life though is 360 degrees. By confining ourselves to this 120 degree vision we become solid, dull, without joy; people see us being serious, they think we are ok; if we laugh without reason they think we are crazy. By being serious, we make our life our graveyard. When we look at ourselves and others we tend to look down, not up. By looking up towards high standards we grow. By focusing on negatives we drag ourselves down.
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We form groups and sling mud at each other. Just let go. You go to heaven. Only those who are rigid, can not forget and forgive are those who suffer. That’s why good people suffer, they get cancer. They find it difficult to forgive themselves and therefore others. This anger settles within themselves and corrodes them. Bad people take life as it comes; they let go including what we think are ‘principles’. They are happy. God is one who remembers one good thing we did and forgives and forgets millions of bad things we do. Man is one who remembers the one bad thing of others and forgets million other good things. Don’t judge people. Don’t worry about what people think of you. Drop preconceived notions about time and place: office is hell, beach is fun; mornings are tough; evenings are cool. Then you will be happy wherever you are, whenever it is. Live and enjoy life as it is. Drop all your prejudices of people including yourself, events, time and places. Every 11 days your emotions go through a cycle; that’s why the ekadasi vrata of fasting was introduced. For the next eleven days think only good things about your body and see how it changes your perception. Just be aware of all its greatness. A couple got fed up of their home and called a realtor to sell it. The realtor worked hard and placed an ad to sell the house. The next day the couple called to say that they do not wish to sell, they are happy with the house. Realtor, puzzled asked why. The couple said: when we read your ad, we realized this was our dream house. Why would we want to sell it? In Tibet there are communities where a man of 130 considers himself young. People live to 300 years in that community. A 200 year old man considers himself only middle aged! Their perceptions change their expectations; their expectations make their life. Let us move from the ephemeral to eternal. All we need to do is to deal with things as they are, as we find them, and not try changing them. We need to change ourselves, not others. What we need is an internal cognitive shift: from seeing things as we want them to be to seeing things as they are, and enjoying life as it is.
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Module 4: Swadisthana Swadishthana chakra is located about 2 inches below the navel, above the genital area and is generally known as the spleen Chakra. In Sanskrit the word Swadishthana is the conjunction of two words swa meaning ‘Self’ and adishthana meaning ‘Establishment’ meaning that this chakra is the point where the life force resides. The Japanese samurai custom of Hara Kiri refers to death of honor by the samurais, when they kill themselves by driving their swords through their swadishthana. Hara refers to the region of swadishthana and kiri meaning action. In the Indian kalaripayathu system of healing and martial arts, this is one of the marma points which when pierced will cause instantaneous death. Fears and Fear Strokes Swadishthana chakra is the centre of our fears; it is blocked by fears and fear strokes and is energized through acceptance of these fears. Fears serve the serious purpose of our survival. It is the instinct of fear at the swadishthana that pumps adrenalin in our body whenever it senses danger. Psychologists refer to this as the fight or flight response. It served humankind well when the cave man was accosted by a lion or tiger, and had to instinctively decide whether to fight or flee. In modern times there is little likelihood of our facing such danger on a day to day basis unless we are in urban jungles where human predators roam. However, we face situations when the body mind system senses danger by some past association when actually there is none. Adrenalin still pumps into the blood stream. Fear strokes which strike one without even experiencing factors that cause fear are a major block of this chakra. Our phone ringing at midnight startles us for no logical reason; one automatically expects and fears bad news. So too when a lift stops between floors; foreigners have a fear stroke looking at the traffic in India. Even the dream of a stock market crash is enough to drench some in sweat. After a watching a horror movie, even a light tap on one’s shoulder may be enough to set one off on a scream. Preachers of Vedanta always talk about mistaking a coil of rope for a snake, and term this as maya or illusion. For those who has experienced the fear of seeing a coil of rope and mistaking it for a snake, it certainly is no illusion. It can cause a heart attack. (Acharyas) Ask for Experiences Some of us live in constant fear of one thing or another and can not think straight whenever we are confronted with even a slightly worrisome situation. 85
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A disciple kept bothering his Sufi Master to give him initiation. Finally the Master told him that he would initiate him on condition that he went into the nearest town and kissed a woman in burkha and proceeded to the forest beyond to beat a tiger with is stick. Other disciples protested that his was too simple. Master just smiled. A week later the disciple returned wounded and bloodied. He said that he tried to beat the woman and kiss the tiger! Fear strokes are even more dangerous than fears. Because the adrenalin pumped into the body has no outlet, either in terms of flight or fight, it stays within the body. It weakens the immunity system, releases depression inducing chemicals and accelerates our ageing process. It can even cause a heart attack or make our hair turn white. On an average every one has about 6 fear strokes a day consciously or unconsciously. Facing fear strokes head on is the only way to get rid of them or at least reduce the intensity and frequency. These are like shadows that follow us, which disappear one we turn around to face them. Some fears in fact enhance the process of enjoyment as with roller coasters and adventure sports where the dimension of risk adds a challenge and pleasure to the participant, when he decides to face them. A small story… Latur Singh’s village had a bull chasing festival. Latur and his friends decided to get drunk before facing the bulls. Latur was hesitant to leave the bar and kept on drinking. His friends asked him to hurry up. You have had enough they said, you are now brave enough to face the bulls. Said Latur rather sadly, that ‘s precisely what I’m afraid of. (Acharyas) Ask participants to share their worst moments of fear. All our fears can by and large be classified into 5 categories: 1. Loss of wealth and other material comforts 2. Loss of body parts in sickness or accident 3. Loss of mental health 4. Loss of loved ones or their love 5.Fear of the unknown including Death Losing material wealth is the fear of the rich. For one who does not have anything, losing what he has is of little consequence. For someone who has millions, losing even half of it is not really of material consequence. What is left will probably be enough for him and future generations. It is the mere thought of losing what one has and some one else taking possession of it that bothers us. It is the fear of an ego loss, that we are not as good as some one else, that affects us deeply.
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Loss of physical health and loss of mental health are fears that grow in intensity over age. Pertly these fears arise from a fear of being dependent on others and partly from a situation of loss to one’s ego. A small story… Latur Singh was alone in the house when the doorbell rang and a saleswoman stood selling dinner sets. She took out the knife set to show to him but accidentally cut her finger and caused profuse bleeding. Latur gave her first aid and sent her away. A few minutes another lady came in selling the same things. Latur told her, “Just now there was someone here selling these items. In fact, this is her blood here at the doorstep.” The lady beat a hasty retreat. No one wishes willingly to submit to a situation that results in diminished mental and physical faculties. However, when asked whether they would rather lose their lives than lose a limb or a faculty, their responses may be different. (Acharyas) Ask participants whether if mugged they will resist knowing that they may be killed? What will they sacrifice and why? Loss of love and loved ones is a deep fear. This fear obviously is related to the relationship. A small story… Latur Singh was a lion-tamer and his wife hated him coming back home late in the night. Latur was terrified of listening to her endless chiding. One night after working late at the circus, he was terrified at the thought of going back home late. He got into the lions’ cage and slept with them. The next day morning he woke up to find his wife standing outside the cage. She glared at him and snarled, ‘You coward!’ The fear of losing a loved one is usually more to do with one’s own discomfort in losing the support of that person than any deep emotional withdrawal. In such cases the process of grieving or mourning starts with intense anger at the departed person for having deserted us. It takes time before the acceptance happens. Mature societies accept death as natural and celebrate rather than mourn a loved one’s death. Fears of the unknown can be from the very minor of wandering spirits to the most major fear of one’s own Death. A small story… Latur Singh and Sikar Shareef were catching up with old times. They spent the night together in the latter’s house. Suddenly, they heard a noise beneath them downstairs. Latur froze while Sikar got out of bed and walked towards the door. Latur whispered, “Be careful, what are you going to do?’ Sikar whispered back, 87
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‘Lock the bedroom door’. Often we would rather not know about what frightens us. Surveys again and again reveal that our fear of our own death is the greatest of all fears. The second most common fear is that of public speaking. The third is the fear of failure. Discuss why? If we look deeply all these three common fears have their basis in our fear of losing our ego, our identity, our self respect. In the case of failure and public speaking it is easy to see the connection. In the case of death this fear is sub conscious. We do not know what will happen to us when we die? What happens to our identity? More than the fear of dying it’s the fear of not having lived our life well enough that makes this terrifying. People resist death due to unfulfilled wants and slip into coma and linger. It ‘s only a handful of people who have had a conscious or unconscious death experience like Ramana Maharishi who welcome death and have conquered it. During the NSP course Nithyananda takes the participants through a process of death so that they understand what happens. To experience death is to experience life better. In the great epic Mahabharata, Yudhishtra, the Pandava prince is grilled by a semi divine being, a yaksha. The yaksha asks Yudhishtra: what do you see to be the most amazing thing on this earth? Responds Yudhishtra: day after day we see people dying. We know there is no one immortal. Yet, every one acts as if he is never going to die. That is what I find most amazing. Most of do not know anything beyond birth and death. On the grave is usually written born on and died on. Someone asked why. It was said these are the only two things that one does clearly. Life is one big dream, one dream drifting into another, from muladhara to swadishthana, from sex to death. We do not look for anything else. Life is a bridge between birth and death. Unless you live your death you can not live your life. An intelligent man lives his death. Unconscious man dies again and again even in his life. If you really want to live should be prepared to die. How can life be afraid of death. Death is the culmination of life. We never look into death, real death. What is death? We never give ourselves time to ponder death. We want to forget everything about death. That’s why we stay far from graveyards, which are usually out of our way. There are two issues: The incident of death that happens at the end of our lives, and psychological death. Real death happens only once, but 88
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psychological death the fear of death permeates our life. The idea and fear of death decides our entire life structure; It’s controlled by death. Western religions such as Christianity and Islam believe in only one birth and one death, one life. Death is final. That’s why the western culture is so materialistic. Whatever you have to enjoy, you need to enjoy now. The western world is so intense, so time conscious. Value of time arises from this concept of one life. Who knows whether there is anything beyond this life. Science is the by product of the idea of only one life. All Eastern religions say there is a life after life; there is no need to hurry; let’s look deeply into the cycle of birth and death. Inner science was born out of this concept; whereas outer science was born in the West. Death is not a simple incident; not just something physical. It’s something far more, if it guides your whole life psychologically. Your entire life will be transformed if you experience consciously. You will become fully awake, enlightened. It will be an orgasm of existence. You reach your peak, not your end, at the time of death. Why are we then so afraid of death? Why do we feel frightened of this word? We are not ready to look directly at ourselves. A small story… Nitti Mudaliar started from Arcot to Bangalore by train. Near Bangalore officials came to check tickets. Nitti started searching through all his pockets, all his belongings except one upper coat pocket. The official asked ‘Why don’t you check this upper pocket?’ Nitti, ‘Don’t ask me to check there now. My only hope is that the ticket may be there’. Like this we never would like to look in for fear we may not find what we want, or we may be shocked at what we find there. Either you will look in or the official will look there. The God of Death will not allow you the luxury of not looking. Why are we afraid of Death? One reason, we have not lived completely. If we had we will not be afraid. One who has lived fully will have deep satisfaction, fulfillment. We just carry on where our parents left off, carry our desires and their desires, and others’ desires through our lives. We have lived others’ lives. So we do not have the satisfaction. I have seen great Masters die. They die in such peace. Swami Sundananda, a master from Ramakrishna order, died in such a way. He lived a maverick life. He had a number of clocks each showing different times. He said I am not a slave of time. I will take whatever time I choose. Before he died he announced when he will die. Some one asked, ‘Are you not afraid’. He said ‘Why? I have lived my life fully. I am ready to leave. Death is such another incident of my life’. He left life with the same authority with which he lived his life.
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The day before he died he requested to be brought back to the ashram. His disciples were chanting hari om Ramakrishna. Early in the morning, an hour before he was to go, he reminded his disciples to arrange food for some orphan boys in the ashram. He commented on a good singer and then lifted his hands blessing people around him and left his body. How did he do this? Because he lived his life so fully he could face death with no fear and with full control. When Socrates was about to be poisoned to death, he was asked are you not afraid. He said: why? Either I live after death in another form if there is something called another life, in which case I shall live on in another form and name, or I will be erased completely, and I am not going to be around in any form. Either way what ii there for me to worry? Fear of death is just the fear of continuity or discontinuity. We are afraid of what next. That’s why we live not in houses, but in graves, full of security. Complete security is only death. Life is never secure. In a grave yard you have to worry about nothing, nothing to pay, no one to bother you. What worse can happen? If we think about continuity no one dies; all lives continue to exist. Once in six months your body is completely changed; not one cell remains the same. When you are forty you are not what you were when you were 10 or when you were 20 or when you were 30. But you do not feel you died, though you are completely different; you are different physically, mentally, emotionally, materially because you feel you are continuing. If you intelligent, even a little bit, understand that everything in existence continues in one form or another. Leaves become manure and become trees again. Understand and you will lose this fear. Nothing dies, noting discontinues; everything continues in a manner that nature dictates. Your idea about death will change if you understand this. That you are going to continue, perhaps in a different form, different way. Once you understand this Swadishthana blossoms. When you get the courage to live your life as you want, with complete insecurity, you will transcend your fear. You will look into your fear deeply and you will be transformed; you will transcend death; death can not touch you. If you die physically its meaning will change. Katopanishad talks about death. The young boy Nachiketa wants to die and goes to meet death. For 3 days he waits for death to come to him. Death was not there when he goes to meet death. Death is a frightening experience when it comes to you, not when you go to death without fear, voluntarily, consciously. This is not committing suicide. We are talking about facing the psychological fear of death. Nachiketa, the young lad, was finally received as a guest by Yama, God of death, and given boons and the knowledge of Death. Great masters like Ramana Maharishi experienced death when still young and lost the fear of death. Many ordinary people who have had Near Death Experiences 90
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NDEs, have no fear of death happening again, and in fact welcome it as they now see it as a passage not an ending. When you get the knowledge that you are never going to die, bliss blooms, you are in ecstasy. Your life is transformed from fear to fearlessness, from death to deathlessness. Asatoma satyamayaha, tamasoma jytogirgayamayaha, mrityorma amritamayaha. Sins and Guilt Many religions compound our fear of death through concepts of hell and heaven. These religions say that if we do good in this world we shall go to heaven; if we do bad we go to hell. They also offer us solutions if the do bad or commit sins. You pay the priest some money and he will intervene on your behalf with the almighty and save you from a certain hell. There are cults that collect money and issue receipts guaranteeing you a place in heaven. There are religions who promise heaven if a follower dies while supporting the cause of that religion. Heaven and hell exist only in our minds. References to heaven and hell in all scriptures are metaphorical and are used to drive home a point the same way as parables are used to explain concepts. The guilt that we suffer from as a response to some of our actions is indeed hell; the sheer pleasure of doing good to others is heaven. We are never punished for our sins; we are punished by them. People believe that sins are punished after a time, since the wheels of God grind surely but slowly. They are therefore not overly concerned about immediate repercussions. You never know: God may forget, He has so many more important things to do, and if He does remember I can always bribe Him to let me off. Sad to say, many sins attract immediate punishment; though the punishment may not seem either tangible or connected. When we are angry or jealous we are committing a sin against our own nature and our Being. Our inner state turns awry, our peace is ruined. Even a few minutes of a negative emotion such as anger poisons our entire system, and we can take days to recover to normalcy. This is our sin and its punishment. Guilt is often the punishment we inflict upon ourselves for our sins. Even for petty sins, we carry our guilt a long time. When we drop the guilt we drop the sin as well. A person committing what may be socially termed unacceptable with no feeling of guilt is not a sinner, nor suffers punishment. People worry constantly about Heaven and Hell and ask me again and again whether they will go to Hell because of what they did. Heaven and Hell are what we create in our mind. Worry and guilt lead us into Hell. It is religions that tend to control us through fear of hell in a world that we are yet to reach. All you to fear is 91
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the hell in this life as a consequence of your actions and not hell in another life or after this life. There is a beautiful story in Mahabharata. A young sanyasin lives across the road from a beautiful courtesan. Many men come and go into her house as the Sanyasin tries to meditate. Try as he might his attention is more on the young woman and he keeps cursing her for the kind of immoral life that she leads. The courtesan is not even aware of the sanyasin. Despite her life style of offering pleasure to men, she is immersed in her love for Krishna and spends as much time as she gets in praying to him and playing with his image. The sanyasin and the courtesan die on the same day and reach the gates of Yama. Chitragupta, Yama’s book keeper, sends the young woman to heaven and the sanyasin to hell. The sanyasin raves and rants about the unfairness of the whole justice of Yama. Yama appears in front of the angry sanyasin and tells him: All your life, under the guise of meditating, all you did was to lust after the courtesan who lived across your house. She, on the other hand, despite whatever she had to do in contravention of the societal codes of morality, was totally focused on the reality of God. Both of you selected the place that you are now going to, based on your intentions, not your superficial actions. Morality, especially as society and religions define it having to do with spirituality. Religions, organized religions, are not concerned about your spiritual welfare. They have become commercial institutions. In order to be commercially successful, and politically powerful, they need to control people. This control is always through greed and fear. They work upon the greed and fear of individuals by either promising them unlimited pleasures in heaven after they die if they behave according to what they are told are moral rules or instilling fear by threatening them with untold sufferings if they don’t. These moral and social rules are created, propagated and implemented solely for the purpose of control. They have no scriptural sanction. Religions exist not for your spiritual evolution, but for the sustenance of whose hold power. Three beautiful women die at the same time and reach the gates of Yama. Yama asks the first lady what sins have you committed in your life? ‘Have you ever desired a man other than your lawfully wedded husband?’ Never, said the lady assertively. Yama gave her the golden keys to first class villas in heaven. Then came the second and Yama repeated his question. ‘Oh, my Lord’, she said demurely. ‘I did on occasion desire another man, but nothing came of it’. ‘Well’, said Yama. ‘Here then is the silver key to second class apartments’. Came in the third lady and most attractive of them all. Yama asked her the same question. The lady answered brightly, ‘Lord, first of all I am not wedded and second of all I am an actress. I have done every thing you can imagine and a lot more that you can not imagine. Yama looked around and quietly handed her the key to his apartment. Confessing to a sin as a ritual without any real sense of regret and feeling cleansed as a result of a meaningless ritual quite often makes one ready to repeat it with 92
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greater fervor. Doing this only enhances the coffers of religious institutions, does not in any way enhance your spiritual status. The Christian religion was split vertically in the middle ages on this issue of sale of indulgences. You see this reflected in the attitude of the priests in many of our Hindu temples, where their interest is only in how big your wallet is, and not what spiritual intent you have. To redress a sin one must cleanse one’s own self internally, truly regret the sin and be aware not to repeat it. Two Zen monks were on a long journey to a distant monastery. On the way they came to a river in spate. As they rolled up their robes and readied themselves to wade through the floods, a young woman approached them and asked to be helped across the river. The older of the two monks lifted her in his arms without hesitation and carried her safely across the river. The monks carried on with their journey and reached the monastery by nightfall. As they were about to sleep, the younger monk asked the older: How could you do such a thing? We monks are not allowed to look at a woman, let alone touch and carry her. You are a sinner. Responded the older and wiser one calmly: I put her down hours ago. Why are you still carrying her in your mind? Let her go. For those of us not as wise as the monk guilt is good in a limited way. Guilt helps us to stay away from the mistake a second time. We are rarely intelligent enough to learn mistakes to commit each time, so we just keep repeating old mistakes. Once we learn the lesson from our past mistake and determine not to repeat it, we should drop the guilt. Worrying constantly about past mistakes that you have truly regretted only creates problems. There is no greater sin than refusing to let go of one’s past. (Acharyas) Discuss Heaven, Hell, Sins and Morality etc. Nithyananda Spurana Program Paramahamsa Nithyananda covers the passage that is death in great detail in the NSP that he conducts over 4 days in India and 2 overseas. One has to do an ASP before doing the NSP. In NSP Swami takes participants through the 7 layers that surround the body, and through which the spirit needs to pass as it travels from the physical gross body to the final layer of Nirvana. During this process and the meditation that is part of the process one becomes aware of many things: that what we thought were our desires are mostly desires that we import from others through envy, greed, lust, fear etc; that heaven and hell are spaces that we go through as we traverse these 7 layers; that all our sensory experiences pale into insignificance during this passage and beyond, while the few moments of spiritual experience such as meditation and time spent with the Master stand out in glorious color and detail. Reference Material 93
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Steve Jobs, creator of Apple Computers talks of his own encounter with death thus. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now. This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. 94
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Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much. Living each day as if it were to be your last, and living life to the full are the best ways to extract the maximum juice out of life and living. To understand the process and meaning of death is to live. Reproductive Glands The sacral chakra, swadhisthana, is located in the groin, and is related to sexuality and emotion. This chakra is said to correspond to the testes or the ovaries, that produce the various sex hormones involved in the reproductive cycle, which can cause dramatic mood swings. Darkness Meditation One’s quality of life changes when the swadishthana chakra opens. There is no longer fear, just acceptance. It is as difficult for a person without the swadishthana open to understand as it is for a blind person to think that he can move around without his cane when his eye sight is restored. Absence of various fears which gives rise to confidence boosts one’s success in all endeavors; just as fear was the cause of failure before. As we discussed before, almost all our fears including death are in one way or another, a transference of our fear of losing our identity, our ego. It is the threat of separation of body mind from the spirit, and the consequent loss of identity that 95
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instills terror in us. The meditation that we are about to do, if done with awareness, can reproduce that feeling and help us face the eventual certainty squarely now. This meditation is called Darkness meditation. In Sanskrit the word ratri that stands for darkness also means intensity. Tantric followers meditate upon darkness to feel the intensity of Mother Kali, the primal power, Shakti. Darkness is the mother’s womb, where we originate. It is also death, where we return. Darkness is the start, the passage and the end. By meditating upon this darkness you will feel liberated. During the meditation become awareness of the darkness around you as intensely as possible. You may feel as if you are separating from your body. If that happens let it. This meditation is for 21 minutes. This can also be done by you at night before sleeping. It helps you sleep well. Please sit comfortably, with your back, spine, and head in a straight line. Close your eyes. Exhale deeply a few times. Let inhalation happen naturally. Visualize that you are walking into a very dark space, a cave. It is so dark, so intensely dark, that you can not see anything around you. Feel the darkness. You can not see your own body. You can not see anything. Only through touch can you feel your presence in this darkness. Gap You are in darkness as you were when you were in your mother’s womb. Gap Breathe in the darkness deeply. Let each cell breathe the darkness in. Merge into the darkness. Slowly, very slowly, experience your body merging with the darkness around you. Feel your body losing its boundaries into that darkness. Gap Repeat every 3 minutes: Let every cell in your body and mind breathe in the darkness. Become one with the darkness. Merge into the darkness. After 20 minutes: Become aware of yourself now. With your awareness start experiencing your entire body.
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Gently, slowly, move your body from the dark space, the cave. Slowly return to your presence in the meditation hall. Om shanti shanti shantihi…. Open your eyes” This meditation should be done when it is dark outside and with no lights inside. After the meditation, advise participants to go home and sleep.
Module 6: Vishuddhi Chakra Vishuddhi chakra is located in the throat region. In Sanskrit vishuddhi means that which is beyond purity and impurity. It is beyond comparing with pure and impure objects and events. Comparison and jealousy lock this chakra. When we exhibit our individuality without worrying about others, and express fully our shakthi (capacity), uniqueness and creativity, this chakra opens. Vishuddhi is the seat of our energy. When the vishuddhi chakra is open we tap into the cosmic energy continuously. The smell of jasmine helps awaken the vishuddhi chakra. When we are not able to bear others’ excellence, we get jealous. Comparison is the seed and jealousy is the fruit. Comparison and jealousy are actually non-existent. We create them ourselves and talk endlessly on how to overcome them. This concept can be clearly understood by looking into the very name of this chakra that is vishuddhi. Shuddhi means pure. Ashuddhi means impure. Vishuddhi means beyond both pure and impure. The name therefore suggests that chakra can never get impure and hence never needs to be cleansed. Comparison is like a shadow without an object. There is no basis for the concept of comparison. 97
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A small story… Chanda Basu was part of a music group and sang on stage. He sported a black and a red wig alternatively for each of his songs. During the intermission, the show director told him, ‘Sir, you would have to wear only the red wig for the remaining part of the show’. Chanda asked him why. He replied, ‘The people like the red haired one’s voice a lot better than the black one’s’. We need to drop the comparing attitude to be able to see things as they are. Our mind is so caught up in comparison that it misses the actual quality of what it sees. All points of comparison can be brought under the major heads of money, status, beauty and knowledge. In Zen Buddhism, there is a meditation technique wherein any problem is looked into clearly and steadily. The problem then is said to dissolve automatically. Buddha went to his routine lecture session one day with a kerchief in his hand. The kerchief had a knot in it. He asked his students if any of them would come forward to untie the knot. Many tried and failed. One student came forward studied how the knot was tied and untied it easily. The technique is this – you first have to look at how the knot is tied and then it will become obvious how to untie it. So it is with jealousy. Most of us get envious of others who are more materially affluent than us. When our neighbor gets a new refrigerator the temperature in our house goes up. When a colleague buys a more expensive car, our own car till then perfectly usable suddenly becomes a junkable heap. Material possessions lead to greed to possess more, and more greed, and ultimately to great suffering. Two men on a forest road met a sadhu running away from them, yelling yama is there, Yama is there. They asked him to show them Yama as they were curious. He took them to a spot which had a massive chest full of gold and jewels. The two men shooed the sadhu away and went through the treasure chest, happiness increasing each moment. Time passed and both were desperately thirsty. Though neither trusted the other one finally agreed to go a stream nearby and bring water. On the way back after quenching his own thirst he decided to poison the water. His friend who was waiting for him had decided to stab him to death on return. Both died. The sadhu who happened to pass by again went away crying: yama was here. A sanyasin who has no home has the whole world as his home. More possessions we have less enjoyment we have from them. A poor man works hard for his living and enjoys his simple meal. People far richer are not even aware of what they eat. It makes no difference to them what they eat. They only eat the affluence the place, eat to be seen, not to savor the food that they eat. 98
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More you have more problems you have in deciding what to do with what you have. Listen to this story of Buddha’s One man was doing rigorous penance in a jungle for God to appear. God condescended and appeared before him. He told him to ask for what he wanted. The man replied that he was a landlord and had lost all his wealth and that he wished to become wealthy again. God said that the following day, if the man ran from dawn to dusk, all the area covered by him would be his. The Man was happy. The next day the man started running even before dawn. He ran as fast as he could. Close to noon, hunger beckoned but he didn’t pay heed and kept running. Early in the evening, thirst and fatigue gripped him but he was goaded on by the thought of the neighboring landlord who owned many acres of land. A little before sunset, he felt giddy and weak but managed a few more steps by merely thinking of the neighboring landlord, but faltered and fell dead. This is how we all live our lives. We run the race without feeling any true satisfaction, without even stopping to think why we are running! Shankaracharya describes this behavior as ‘thatha kim, thatha kim’ meaning ‘what next, what next.’ Ramana Maharishi says, ‘The mind is like a kabalam’ (brahma kapala that Lord Shiva holds in his hand). It absorbs everything fed to it and says, what next?’ Existence is bountiful and there is no reason for us to envy another and grudge him or her good fortune. Ramana says: the universe can fulfill the needs of the entire world but not the wants of one man. Our wants never cease. Acquisition is the goal for most of us not enjoyment. Mahavira says, ‘When we come into this world, we bring with us all the shakti (energy) needed for our lifetime. God does not send us empty-handed.” We have no time to stop and enjoy what we have. Acquisition becomes the goal, not enjoyment of what is acquired. Ramana says too, ‘Till you get it even a mustard seed looks like a mountain. Once we get it even a mountain feels like a mustard seed. And if the mustard seed belongs to your neighbor it feels like a mountain range’. This attitude leads to a piquant situation. We keep moving like rats on a treadmill not quite knowing where we are going. Performing well has nothing to do with how good you are and how joyfully you do your job. Sadly, it is measured by much better you are than the next person. You are ranked. The moment you are ranked only one person can be number one; the rest are idiots. This is so true in schools and colleges. When learning needs to be joyful, ranking damages the very core of learning and makes it drudgery. Far more perniciously it robs us of our self respect by comparing us with others. 99
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In countries like India, Korea and Japan hundreds of young students commit suicide because they can not cope with the rigors of examinations. Examinations are shameful; they do not measure intelligence. They destroy intelligence. They are used as a knife in the hands of a butcher to separate pieces of flesh. As we graduate from learning centers which debase us, devalue us we graduate into even worse environments, our work places. The ranking and evaluations continue. We are again stood against others taller and shorter than us and compared. In this rat race we are told that the sky is the limit; sadly in a rat race even if you win you still are a rat! When we blindly emulate others we land in trouble. A small story… Nitti Mudaliar was driving along a dark village road. He decided to follow the car in front of him to play it safe. Suddenly the lead car stopped and he crashed into it. ‘Why didn't you signal that you were going to stop?’ he screamed out. ‘Inside my own garage?’, yelled back the driver! It helps to know that each one's path is different. To follow another on his path and to blame him at the end of it is mere folly! If we analyze our own behavior we will soon find that we always envy our neighbor, friend or colleague. Rarely anyone in his right mind becomes envious of Bill Gates! He is far too removed from you to be real. But if a neighbor wins a lottery ticket, or heaven forbid, a close relative does, our heart burns even as our mouth smiles. Just look at your friends closely next time you see them congratulating you in something that you unexpectedly won; watch where they are smiling from. 90% will smile from their mouth, very strained. The 10% who smile with their eyes are your real friends. Jealousy has negative existence. This microphone here has a positive existence and therefore I can remove it from this room and place it in the next room. Now imagine that there is darkness in this room. Can I remove it if I want to? Can I take it to another room? No! The reason is that darkness has a negative existence. It does not really exist. If I bring light into the room, the darkness will automatically cease to exist. In the same way, thoughts in you such as ‘I am ugly’, ‘I am rich’ etc all have a negative existence. If you queue up all the people in the world in ascending order of money, power or skills, where would you be? Odds are that you will be somewhere in the middle! You will not even able to count the number of people on either side of you in the queue. Now, with your thoughts, you have to decide if you are going to look at the 100
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queue in front of you and feel jealous or look at the queue behind you and feel relaxed and grateful to Existence! It is in your hands. Never in history has a jealous person truly succeeded. A man was leading in a 1000-meter race. After running 200 meters, he looked back and saw that the rest are after him and he ran on. After 500 meters, he looked back again and was happy that he was still leading and ran on. Every few meters, he did the same thing and finally lost the race. If the man had not looked back and concentrated only on running faster, he would have won the race in a much shorter span of time. In life too, our concentration is always on others and not fully on our progress. We spend this energy on watching others’ activities and others’ desires. When you are at home your mind will say ‘It is enough if I have a home and a car for myself.” Your mind will be relaxed at this thought. When you step out in your car and stop by at a traffic light, the Mercedes Benz that pulls up alongside your car with a jolt will jolt the relaxed state of your mind. You again start working out others’ desires. Jealousy Can Kill Pride and jealousy go hand in hand. Where there is hubris there is envy. Latur Singh and Chanda Basu were discussing the finer points of their respective backgrounds. No matter what points Latur brought up, Chanda would say that his background offered the same thing, only better. Finally Chanda said, "Alright Latur, tell me at least one thing that your background offers that my background has lesser of." Chanda said, "Modesty perhaps?" When Shakespeare talked of the green eyed monster envy he unveiled a great truth. When we claim we love some one what we wish to do is to possess that person and be proud of that ownership. Getting married to the most beautiful woman on earth and locking her in a harem may make you an Arabian Sheik but not a normal human being. Most would want to display the trophy wife or trophy husband. The main purpose would be to make others jealous of our possessions. Making some one jealous of what you have is an explicit acknowledgement of your superiority. When we get jealous of some one trying to woo our partner, who we assume we possess, this jealousy springs out of fear of losing a possession and the consequential loss of ego, and becomes doubly dangerous. That’s when jealousy can truly kill! Live your own Desires Albert Einstein, a famous scientist belonging to the last century was in his deathbed. His junior scientists asked him what he would like to be born as if he had a re-birth. They expected him to come out with desires of being born as a greater 101
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scientist in a field other than atomic theory or something to that effect. Einstein replied, ‘I would like to be born as a plumber. Initially, I wanted to be a plumber, but I was deceived by the fame and status of the scientists and hence chose to become a scientist. Today, I have everything except satisfaction of having lived. I gave many truths to man but deceived my own life’. This is a classic example of how we should start living our own desires and lives instead of our neighbors’. When you want something, think whether it is for your own sake or because your neighbor has it. Drop the so-called prestige problems. Live in your own way and die peacefully with full satisfaction even if it were in a platform; it is better than dying a prolonged death in a marble house in an airconditioned room on a six-inch high bed. Unfortunately we can rarely tolerate some one else’ success without trying to replicate it. This has its funny sides. A rabbi and a Priest were good friends. Their parishes were similar, quite middle class, and they too led a middle class life. The rabbi however was always keen to be on par with the Priest. The rabbi went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and when he returned found that the Priest was now driving a brand new BMW instead of his earlier run down Ford which was a model older than his own. Rabbi asked the Priest with more than a trace of envy, what happened, how come you could buy a BMW? The priest said it’s a long story. One day during the sermon I was mechanically moving my rosary beads. I noticed that the congregation had their eyes fixed on the moving beads. As a part of that sermon I said to them to be generous and give all they had to the Lord. To my immense surprise all of them emptied their wallets into my collection box and the women took their jewelry off and put them in. Since then each week at sermon I move my beads, get them hypnotized and tell them to give all that they have to the Lord. The rabbi went home excited and waited impatiently for the Sunday to come. A few weeks later the two met again. The rabbi was driving his old jalopy and the priest asked, did you not tray what I told you. The Rabbi said, yes, I did, the very next Sunday. As I was moving the beads the rosary slipped and I just shouted oh, shit! I am still cleaning the mess inside my prayer hall after three weeks! You cannot deal with jealousy directly. Even if you tell yourself repeatedly not to feel jealous, you cannot overcome it. I can tell myself not to feel inferior because I am less wealthy than a neighbor, less handsome than a colleague, less intelligent than an acquaintance, and yet I do. Jealousy is a very powerful emotion. The problem is that we never fully live our own lives. We live through other people’s desires. Lock yourself in a room and analyze how much of time and energy you waste in comparison with others; more than 60% I am sure. We talk of conserving petrol, water and electricity. What about conserving our own Energy? 102
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We are forever in comparison because our own self worth is low and we do not trust ourselves. Who would we compare ourselves if you and I are the only people on earth. We need to realize that each one of us is unique. God is an artist not a machinist. He sculpts each one of us with his own hands lovingly, uniquely. Therefore each one of us is different; shorter, taller, bigger, smaller, good at one thing or another. Howard Gardner and others have written tomes on multiple intelligence. Being good with mathematical problems is not the only intelligence that counts. A painter has intelligence in her creativity that is far more soul satisfying than that of an accountant’s skills. We now no longer talk about Intelligence quotients; we refer to emotional quotients and spiritual quotients and so on. These are far more important in life than mete intellectual capabilities. Yet, we judge most people by how they perform in our schools, which still use primitive methods of intelligence measurement. We are Unique We all need to realize that as God’s handiwork each one of us is unique. We need to accept reality and our uniqueness. A King came to Buddha and asked, ‘Please explain to me what gyana (true knowledge) is. Buddha replied ‘Go to my garden and see the Cyprus plant in my garden. It is a gyani (enlightened with true knowledge)’. The king went and took a look at the plant but could not understand the message. Buddha explained that the Cyprus plant was next to a rose plant but never aspired even for one day to become a rose plant. Similarly, the rose plant never ever aspired to become the Cyprus plant. They just attended to their own duties of growing and blossoming everyday. If Man had been the Cyprus plant, he would have compared himself with the rose and felt jealous at the attention that the latter was getting from people. Similarly, if he were the rose, he would have looked at the Cyprus enviously thinking how peaceful the latter was without the torture of getting plucked by people all day! When we realize our uniqueness we land in the present moment. We realize what we are good at. We no longer worry about what others may say if our children become disc jockeys instead of hot shot investment bankers. A hot shot investment banker was getting burnt out and took the week end off. He caught the flight from New York far north to Maine and drove another couple of hours that some one had told him was a great fishing spot. He unloaded his branded equipment and set himself up; and waited. Soon an old unkempt local sat a hundred meters downstream from him, pulled out his well worn fishing tackle and whistling soundlessly threw his line into water. Soon he was pulling in fish every five minutes, bigger and bigger. He looked at each one carefully and threw it 103
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back into the river. The young banker was getting incensed. Here he was spending valuable time with thousand dollar equipment and designer bait with nary a fish to bite, while the yokel was raking it in. yet, he could not but admire the man. You should be in New York, he shouted across to the older man. What for, the local responded. You can teach guys like me to fish and make a lot of money. Why, sad the local. Oh, you can take holidays! And, prompted the local. You can go and fish! But that is what I am doing now, can’t you see, said the local. In trying to realize the American dream, the Indian dream or whatever dream, we have forgotten how to live. We have forgotten how to be joyful. An Exercise for Day to Day Living In career, the only way to be joyful is to do what makes you joyful. Not what you think makes money. Doing something joyful will make you so unique that you will make money, without doubt; you will become the best that there is. As a corollary, do whatever you do joyfully; give your 200% to what you do; you will become joyful. Become aware of what you do, be it banking, be it HR, be it software; focus and be joyful. Be grateful that existence gave you this opportunity to work; be thankful and joyful. You will realize your own uniqueness that brought you into this job. Switching jobs merely because you do not lie your boss, or you believe you do not like what you do, without having given it all that you have to give, will land you something worse than before. You need to change your attitude, not work. If after giving it all that you are capable of you are still dissatisfied, by all means search for something else that truly makes you happy. Be clear, goals will not make you happy. It is the path that you traverse that will make you joyful and successful. Once you learn to love the path you walk on, success will automatically follow joy. We will never meet failure if we live our lives by competing with ourselves. Win yourself with yourself, never with others. Every minute of comparison with others is a waste of time in your own progress. (Acharyas) Discuss experiences Unveiling the Energy of Vishuddhi All of us have three layers of energy. What we normally operate from is the lowest physical, mind body level. At the next level we uncover our reservoir of emergency energy that we call upon in fight or flight situations. A real story from our Master’s experience to elucidate this point: In a beautiful place called Almora in the Himalayas, there is a small ashram with a few huts for those who wish to meditate. This place is surrounded by ice-capped mountains and is known to be frequented by tigers at night. I was there for a short while during 104
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my days of wandering. When the head of the ashram senses the tigers, he would ring a bell and the Sanyasis would get into their respective huts and close the doors behind them. On one occasion, the bell rang and all of us got into our respective huts. The next day, the head came around to see if we were all OK and found that one of the huts was closed and the Sanyasi inside was shouting through the window that he couldn’t open the door. Four of us got in through the window and found that he had placed a grinding stone against the door which he now couldnt move. We jointly nudged and 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? He was more surprised than us and he replied “Moved it? I simply lifted it and placed it!” When he had heard the call of the tiger, he simply lifted the stone to place against the door that’s all. (Acharyas) Ask for Experiences There is yet again a third layer of energy that we can draw upon directly from the Being level energy or Atma Shakti, which is a tremendous source of energy. This energy comes directly from the cosmic power. The key to open it is this meditation technique that we are going to practice now. Pathanjali says, “If you can bend 6 inches today, try bending 6 ½ inches tomorrow”. Thyroid Gland The throat chakra, vishuddhi, is said to be related to communication and growth, growth being a form of expression. This chakra is paralleled to the thyroid, a gland that is also in the throat, and which produces thyroid hormone, responsible for growth and maturation. Shakti Sagar Meditation - Zen Buddhist Tradition (To open 3rd layer of energy) 1. Wear eye band; Stand with eyes closed, in silence, focused on the vishuddhi chakra. Hold on to a chair or a wall for stability and to define where you are. 2. Slowly begin to move your legs; slowly very slowly; move your legs one at a time; slowly very slowly. 3. You may increase the speed of your movement; however, do it without losing your grip on the chair or wall. If you increase speed make sure that you do not slow down. While your legs are moving keep your mind focused on the Vishuddhi chakra. Stop after 20 minutes…when music stops. 4. For next ten minutes just sit down quietly wherever you are; keep your eyes closed, focus on vishuddhi. You will absorb the energy generated during the jogging. Just witness thoughts as they float by. Do not suppress thoughts, do not follow them. Participants can wear gold or rudraksha mala during this exercise as they store energy. Do not at any time interfere with participant movement; stand as a barrier 105
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if needed; segregate women and men; advise persons with ailments and pregnant women not to strain themselves. Tell participants that the Shakti Sagar meditation can be done once in a while, especially when they are engaged in a project involving long hours and physical and mental effort. This meditation generates tremendous energy and there needs to be an outlet. On normal occasions through their regular mahamantra meditation they will generate energy. All they have to, when they feel tired, is to focus on the vishuddhi area, and/or to touch it. They will get renewed energy. Reference - An article on ‘Detachment’ Possession leads to Jealousy. When we let go the desire to possess, when we get detached, relationships bloom. This can also be used with reference to anahata in relationships. Detached Relationships In detachment is freedom. Freedom from the bonds of deluding and unrealistic expectations in relationships. To be detached is to let go, not of the person or of the relationship, but of an anxiety-driven desperation to hang on, which eventually demolishes what it frantically wants to preserve. If you cannot rid yourself of the need to cling to someone or something you cannot hold on to it. It is to be able to enjoy the beauty of a lovely relationship without being caught in its possessive grasp. Possessiveness is a poisoned barb and it vitiates the atmosphere, which a relationship needs to evolve fully. To possess is to be possessed; whereas detachment lets you stand on the sidelines as a spectator while you are still an integral part of a relationship and view it objectively, with love, without the crippling effects of psychological baggage. Jealousy is another impediment to detachment, which is all about choosing an unfettered ambience wherein two people can live joyously and see their love flourish. There is no ownership in a detached relationship. It is about giving space and finding your own to explore, experience and grow from that experience without judgmental constraints. Whether it is a child/ parent, teacher/student, husband/wife or friend/friend relationship the time invariably comes to let go, to release and be released from emotional insecurities. To be detached is to break out of the gilded cage that at best gives one a false sense of protection. A detached relationship offers one the limitless sky and space to fly in. It entails watching with pride as the object of your affection spreads her wings and takes flight even as you are airborne on your own trajectory. We are all constantly yearning to fly, chart new vistas, explore new horizons and find our own path. We 106
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cannot snip someone else's wings and hope to fly freely ourselves. Detachment is not to be confused with separation or an uncaring attitude. Two half people, who cling to each other, who are dependent emotionally and psychologically, who have come together from wants and needs, from negative commonalities, cannot build a wholesome relationship. It is synonymous with building a house from material one would use to simply prop up a crumbling structure, rather than with solid building blocks. They are constructing on shaky foundations, augmenting a dilapidated edifice that is bound to come crumbling down. Such a decayed relationship begs for separation. Detachment on the other hand requires immense love, courage and faith. It is to choose to be whole and complete within yourself and to love another from that totality. A detached involvement in a relationship brings its own reward - a togetherness that only truly free spirits can enjoy. It is to give another the confidence and the courage to stand alone, making leaning unnecessary for any one. Let go of your clutching, clawing power over another. Emotional control and resultant blackmail are the death knells of a relationship. When one holds the strings and wants the other to respond to the pulls on it, it is puppetry, a sick relationship at the most. A rich, truly fulfilling relationship is one in which each person pulls his own strings. Detachment is to untie the strings by which you unfairly secure another to you and let him attain his full potential as an individual. Let him dance to his tune as you gyrate to yours. If you must dance to the same tune let it be out of choice, not compulsion. On a different level, detachment is the dance of an exuberant soul. A soul that can shout fearlessly: I met the buddha on the way and left him behind.
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Module 7: Ajna Chakra Ajna chakra is located between the eye brows, commonly referred to as the Third Eye. Ajna refers to command and will in Sanskrit. It is locked by seriousness and ego, and is unlocked by simplicity and innocence. Ajna is the command center of all energy centers, the chakra raja. It is the seat of intuition and higher intelligence. Awakening the ajna gives you the power to achieve whatever you wish. Wearing the kumkum in the ajna region helps waken the ajna. Kumkum contains turmeric and this activates the Ajna. On the other hand wearing a synthetic bindhi blocks the Ajna with its chemicals. All major religious leaders have worked on awakening the third eye. When reference is made to Varnasi being the holy spot that transports those who die there to salvation, the real reference may be to ego dying between varana (eyebrows) and nasi (nose) which is the location of this chakra. Ego is our shadow. There is a beautiful saying in Tamil that when we move towards the divine our ego always falls behind just like our shadow as we face the Sun. 108
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When we walk away from the divine, our ego precedes us the same way as when we walk away from the sun. It is only when we prostrate in midday sun lying flat on he ground do we see no shadow. Likewise when we surrender totally to the blazing divine our ego disappears. Our ego deceives us in many ways: through striving for perfection, through arrogance, through jumping to conclusions, through complicating matters… Striving for Perfection The Universe seems at first glance chaotic. Movement in an atom and movement of the atom are chaotic. The Uncertainty principle makes us understand that even the parameters of a particle can not be predefined. The theory of Chaos tells us that there is no linearity in nature; small causes can give rise to catastrophic effects. A butterfly fluttering its wings in China can produce a tornado in Mexico! If the Universe were to be totally orderly it would be dull and without energy. Yet, despite its seeming chaos everything in nature works to an order, whether we understand it fully or not. It is only when this order is disrupted by man, as in drilling for oil that nature reacts with disorder as with quakes and tsunamis. The chaos of nature with its in built order is its nature of cosmic intelligence. This cosmic intelligence coupled with its power gives rise to cosmic energy. Man on the other hand loves to be in order. Order is the nature of ego. It is the opposite of intelligence. Those who strive for order want to rule others and themselves. They have no spirituality. They like to see what they want, not what there is in this world. They become solid and dull. This causes suffering. Children on the other hand are liquid. They never say no to anything; everything is possible for them. This attitude fills them with energy. Energy leads to joy. Don’t seek perfection, no one can be perfect. A small story… A Zen master arranged a competition to judge the best garden maintained by his disciples. His senior disciple was keen to win the competition, and prepared a well manicured and neat garden that was perfect in all respects. The Master passed by this garden without a word and awarded the prize to another disciple. The senior disciple remonstrated. The master took him to the garden. On the way he picked up some dead leaves and spread them in the garden. He said, ‘What is a garden without dead leaves?’ Desire for perfection builds ego. Discuss on the needs of people to try and be perfect, be they housewives or corporate executives Arrogance of Intellect 109
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We take life too seriously in our arrogance, and often make our judgments based on ego prejudices that have already rendered judgment after which we collect evidence to support the judgment. A small story… A king walks on the beach side watching children build sand castles. One child bigger than the others knocks down the castle built by a younger child; the younger child weeps; but soon he recovers and joyfully goes back to building another castle. The King starts laughing at what he perceives as the foolishness of these children. A Zen Master walking by looks at what the King is doing and laughs at him. The King highly upset asks him why. Says the Master: At least these children know they are playing with sand castles. You on the other hand kill thousands of people when you fight over stone castles. Who is more to be laughed at, you or the Children? As adults we rely on our intellect. Intellect is far from intelligent. It’s just a storehouse of memories that get played back, often distorted with passage of time. Treat Life as a Joke and Yourself as a Bigger Joke A small story… A group of villagers were taking Shiva idol on procession at the back of a donkey. People came and bowed before the donkey and fed him goodies. The donkey was in ecstasy. When this happened street after street the donkey started to believe that he had some great power that attracted people to come to him for favors. He was upset now that he had to carry an unnecessary burden on his back. He shook the idol of his back, trampled upon the decorations the devotees had placed on the idol and looked around expectantly for the people around to bow to him even lower. Instead they thrashed him. Don’t take yourself too seriously, or you may get hurt. When a Zen master was asked to talk on spirituality, he started laughing, and kept laughing as all other monks joined him. He said: this is spirituality, this is meditation. Buddha says 45 minutes of pure laughter will lead to enlightenment. Prejudging Events and People Our ego walks before us. We do not even need to verify data before we jump to conclusions, often to our own disadvantage. A small story… Haughty Ananda walked into the dispatch section of his sprawling office and found a boy idling. He asked him, ‘How much is your monthly salary?’ The boy replied, ‘1000 rupees, Sir’. Haughty thrust 1000 rupees into his hand and told him to get 110
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out. He then asked the manager why he did not take action against the idling boy. The manager replied, ‘Sir, I cannot take any action against him. He is the delivery boy of our vendor and was awaiting his cheque for the goods delivered’. Especially in the haughtiest of moments, we need to bring a little intelligence and a thoughtful pause into ourselves. Ego is the last defense. Losing it is painful. As we saw earlier in our discussion on swadishthana almost all our fears are based on loss of ego. It is the last to be let go. A small story… Haughty Ananda lost all his wealth in gambling and got reduced to a pauper. One day, he went to a roadside hotel and sat at the table for breakfast. The waiter came to take orders and to Haughty’s surprise, it was his old friend who had been as rich as Haughty was. He exclaimed, ‘You serve as a waiter in this sort of a hotel!’ The man replied, ‘I’m only a waiter, I don’t eat here’. A foolish man doesn’t let go of his ego even when all his other defenses are taken away. Complicated Thinking Intellectuals can not think straight. They need to complicate matters to make themselves feel important. Sometimes, we miss the most obvious of things and go in search of the remote ones. This is how we waste our precious time! A small story… Ananda Pappaiah was enthusiastically explaining to a group of people how very identical his twin daughters were. ‘How do you tell them apart?’ he was asked. ‘Oh! The blonde one always wears her hair well!’ he replied. The great scientist Newton had a pet dog which had a pup. He called in a carpenter and told him to make two holes on the back door, one small for the pup and another large for the dog to come in, without his having to open the door! (Acharyas) Discuss Ego as a Mask The Latin word persona which is used to define our ego as an identity means a mask.
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We wear many masks in our interactions to present our identity in different forms to different recipients; one for our boss one for our subordinates; one for our wife; another for our mother. When we use these masks inappropriately for the wrong person what surfaces is our Ego. Only an awakened ajna enables us to use these masks rightly. Just being humble does not eliminate our ego. Ramana called the translator of one of his books who asked not to have his name on the book, as a person with humble ego. Living in a place where no one knows you helps shed ego since there is unlikely to be a need for many masks. Ego is needed for day to day living. We need to be aware of our needs for survival. Even the Gita says that survival is our first dharma. However this ego has to be tempered with the realization that we are part of the universe and not an island by oneself. When the ‘I’ disappears there is till the awareness of the ego, but in combination with the awareness of compassion for fellow beings. Controlling one’s Ego forcibly in terms of trying to shed one’s identity is highly risky and can cause cancer. Swami remarks that only good people get cancer: because they suffer from guilt and try suppressing desires and ego. People who we consider bad because they do not follow our moral codes, do what they wish and enjoy what they do. They have no fear of cancer! Discuss Instinct Intelligence Intuition Let us see how our mind works, and how we work from three different levels of instinct, intelligence and intuition. As long as all your decisions are conscious and you are aware why and how you are doing something, why you are thinking this way, you are in the intelligence level. If you are not and feel guilty you are at instinct level. If you are doing or not and you are continuously at blissful level you are at intuition level. How do we process information? When we see something through our eyes, called chaksu, which is a digital signal processor, the digital file goes to memory our chitta, and then to our mind manas, and then takes a leap into our ego. Chitta decides what the information is not, to arrive at what it is. For instance this is not a plant, not an animal etc, na iti, na iti, to decide what it is. The mind says this is a man who is conducting a class, it identifies the object as a man. Then it leaps into the ego, which based on past experiences decides whether to sit in the class or to go out. Ego decides and you express and act on that decision. This zone of ego is not under your control. There are impressions, past memories, or samskaras. These samskaras force you to take illogical, unconscious decisions. You decide to smoke knowing logically fully well that it is bad for health. You still go ahead. You 112
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have no control. Samskaras come up and confuse you, depress you, disturb you, stress you; they can change the whole course of your life. They can create conflicts and suffering.
Conscious (T p) Processing time
“This is it” Identification
“This is not” Elimination
(T q) Quantum Leap
Unconscious
Mind
Memory
DSP*
“Manas”
“Chitta”
“Chakshu”
Ego “Do This” Decision
Eye
Tp > Tq : Instinct level (Animal) Tp = Tq : Intellect (Human) Tp < Tq : Instinct level(Super Conscious) * : Digital Signal Processor
Let us say that the time taken from eye to mind is Tp. Till here the process is logical and clear. Time taken for unconscious process, mind to ego, through samskaras, which distort your file, twist your decisions is Tq. As long as Tq is more than Tp you will be more aware of your unconscious. If not you are unaware and act on instinct. You are restless. You decide without knowing what you are doing. When the samskaras are more, and they move faster without your knowledge, you are in trouble. If time taken for conscious process is more than the time taken for the unconscious, that is if Tq is less than Tp, you act instinctively. If Tq equals Tp, you are in Intelligence level. You will live your life without guilt. When Tq is greater than Tp, you are in super conscious level; your unconscious is infused with silence and intuition. Simply put we need to shine the torch of awareness on our unconscious decision making process, which is controlled by samskaras, so that our decisions may be of higher intelligence and intuition. In Patanjali’s Yoga system pratyahara is taking your mind from all outward objects. This ahara is not only taken in from your mouth but food from all 5 senses energizing your memory. Pratyahara is moving away from ahara. If you stop this memory is given a rest. Dharana is focusing on one subject only. Then mind rests. Dharana is flow, mind’s flow towards one object. Dhyana (being witness) is infusing consciousness, spirit into your unconscious zone; this is spirituality; then this unconscious zone also rests. These three give rest to memory, mind and unconscious zone. All your samskaras disappear. They are burnt away. Your third 113
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eye opens when you start witnessing and your awareness happens, and you realize everything is a dream, and you are out of the dream. This is what the puranas talk about when they talk about Shiva burning Manmata with his third eye. He burnt all his samskaras. When you infuse consciousness and silence into this unconscious zone you burn all your samskaras, you become Shiva, you reach super conscious level. When Tq is less than Tp you are an animal; if equal you are human; if Tq is greater you are divine. It is not so much the time as the awareness of the unconscious that is the key. Time is only the reference point. We need to be aware of our unconscious, the tricks it can play, in order to live our life fully.
How to awaken this intuition? Give your conscious mind a rest. You may ask, how? We have two levels of I consciousness and two levels of thoughts. In the waking or ego state you have I consciousness and thoughts (in Sanskrit called jagrat). In dreams or subconscious state you have thoughts but no I consciousness (called swapna). In deep sleep or unconscious state you have neither I consciousness or thoughts (called sushupti). There is a fourth state where you have no thought but I consciousness remains (called turiya). Modern psychology has no word for this state as it is not even aware of this state! This state is the state of meditation or intuition or thoughtless awareness. In Sanskrit we also call it samadhi. If you can experience this fourth state you can experience creativity, courage, confidence; you can take spontaneous decisions; you take responsibility; you decide based on very limited data; with no precedence; you get the power and courage to do anything. Your relationships can change. Often in relationships you make a judgment and then collect arguments to support it through your unconscious, reactive, instinct mind level. How do you differentiate between intuition and instinct? When you instinctively act you will feel drained, for instance when we react in anger; we then feel guilt. When we act intuitively we feel energized. 114
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What happens in the turiya state is that thoughts become zero; mind becomes no mind. In the diagram above the vertical axis refers to thoughts per second. The horizontal axis refers to passage of time, future on right moving all the time into the left towards past. Where the two axes intersect is the present moment or what Swami calls the Time Shaft. When your thoughts become zero through meditation done with awareness you reach the present moment and enter the Time Shaft. When you are in the time shaft you are out of the boundaries of time, you are intensely aware, aware of past, present and future. You can be aware eating, sleeping or brushing your teeth. When you eat normally you do everything else except focus on what you eat. You talk, you read, you watch TV, you play games; anything except eat. No wonder that the food that you shovel into your mouth is treated by your body as garbage. Focus on what you eat. Savor the taste, the flavor, the texture of the food you eat, each morsel you eat. It will enhance the quality of your life and health. When you are intensely aware of what you are doing, you are not unaware of where you are or what others are doing; in fact you are more aware of your surroundings. The silence of the mind that you are in sharpens your senses. That’s why martial art experts whose training in mind is as important as that of their body are able to detect people behind them and deal with them, merely through body awareness; through the awareness of energy. Let the energy at your unconscious level emerge. When this opens up whatever we suppress will come out, then pure energy will emerge. This process of thoughtless awareness will activate your intuition. This higher level energy heals you physically, emotionally and mentally. It helps you to decide spontaneously as to 115
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how to process the data in front of your intellect. This process is called meditation. It tunes your intellect into this higher energy. Whenever you find time, give appointment to yourself; some part of your being wants to express itself more. We never give our Being time. We depend so much on our intellect. In any momentous discovery you find it’s only intuition that plays a role not intellect. Every one sees an apple fall, only Newton theorized the law of gravity. It takes only two or three days to tune into this energy to tune into this higher energy of intuition and creativity. Most of us tend to work with out intellect. Intellect is only the accumulated knowledge, much of it irrelevant and bookish. It is the application of consciousness to intellect that converts it to Intelligence. Awakening of the Ajna helps us drop the filter of ego and bring us in synchronicity with cosmic intelligence. Nithyananda says, ‘We are continuously trying to live with intellect - trying to collect data and facts and coming to conclusions, but we forget something called intelligence - the spontaneity. In the course of our training, we lost something called intelligence. In all the universities and schools, they are training us only to sharpen our intellect, not our intelligence. Intelligence is all about how to be spontaneous, how to be in the present moment. The ability to respond spontaneously is what I call responsibility. You can't be responsible purely by just intellect. You need something more than intellect to be responsible. You need something beyond intellect to be responsible and that is what I call intelligence. Enter into the realms of intelligence in your reality. Intelligence can not be taught from books. It is a skill that needs to be learnt by application. There are many types of intelligence. Howard Gardner talks about 7 types of intelligence, each of us being good at one or the other; sometimes more than one. What we commonly refer to intelligence as IQ measures only a few of these, not all. What we refer to as Intelligence here includes as well EQ, which is Emotional Quotient, which is our ability to relate people, and Spiritual Quotient which helps us to distinguish between right and wrong. Intelligence and intuition combined helps develop extraordinary powers of creativity, memory and performance’. Physiology of the Brain as Relevant to Ajna The Ajna Chakra, or third eye, is linked to the pineal gland. Ajna is the chakra of time and awareness and of light. The pineal gland is a light sensitive gland, that produces the hormone melatonin, which regulates the instincts of going to sleep and awakening. It also produces trace amounts of the psychedelic chemical dimethyltryptamine. Day to Day Tips As our thoughts reduce we move into the present. Swami calls this the Time Shaft. When we are in the present, in the time shaft, past and future become the present 116
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as well. Thoughts are nothing but the connector between past and future, and when thoughts cease past and future merge into the present. When you are in meditation and you bring your awareness totally to the present, you are then in a no mind zone. Your Ajna is awakened. You are able to see past and future as well. You become intuitive. Your decisions take care of the future. Divya Netra Meditation: from Zoroastrian tradition Ajna is signified by two petalled lotus. Shakti that helps convert dreams to reality, and the other buddhi which enables us to realize that all reality is a dream. This is considered the King of chakras. Ajna is related to eye as well as I. In one sense most our perceptions, almost 80%, is through the eyes, and these perceptions lead to ego. An unlocked ajna heals eye related problems. It also clarifies our thinking and kindles our Intelligence, Intuition and Creativity. An awakened ajna is a boon to students and executives. Truly extraordinary people consider themselves quite ordinary. That is the effect of the energized ajna Chakra. When the ajna is open whatever we will, will happen. Ajna is also the centre of intuition which is a high level mental faculty, one step short of intelligence. Dropping the ego is the last step to this intelligence. If comfortable refer to Shankara’s Atma Shatakam where he denies his ‘I’, na punyam na papam na saukyam na dukkam na mantram na tirtam na vedo na yagna; aham bhojanam naiva,bhojyam na bhokta chittananda roopaha shivoham shivoham. Ajna meditation consists of two parts one to cleanse and another to energize Ajna. Place a lit prayer lamp (kuthu vilakku) with cow milk ghee (alternate sesame oil) in front of participants at a height that can be seen and not uncomfortable to look at without straining necks. Acharyas to stand out of the way. Use two lamps or more if more participants. It is preferable to use eye bands since without them participants tend to open their eyes during steps where eyes should be closed. Step 1: Put on eye band, and with eyes closed, focus on your ajna chakra as if to penetrate the chakra. (5 minutes) Step 2: Remove eye band, open eyes and look at lamp through your third eye. (5 minutes). Your eyes may blink, burn, or have tears…let them. Step 3: Put on eye band, close eyes and repeat step 1 (5 minutes) Step 4: Open eye band, repeat step 2 (5 minutes) 117
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Step 5: Put on eye band, close eyes, do not focus on third eye, just relax, and witness thoughts. Now open your eyes slowly relax. The third eye is known as maya harana and kama harana (destroyer of illusion and lust). It helps open the super conscious. When you look at the candle with your eyes open sometimes you may see nothing. If during intense meditation you experience your own body as empty you will find that there no candle before you. (Laughter Exercise to be done after Divya Netra for not more than 3minutes). Stand with eyes closed. Start laughing. Initially you have to create the laughter. Soon it flows from you in never ending bursts. Laughter destroys your ego. Reference: Nithyananda’s discourse on ‘Chaos is Order & Order is Chaos’. The Universe, what we call the Brahmanda, the macrocosm is apparent Chaos. On the other hand the Individual body, what we call Pindanda, the microcosm, is all in apparent order. Energy in the universe is chaotic. Energy in each atom is chaotic. In that chaos there is order. Chaos is energetic always; orderliness is dull. When you break an order you are thrilled; you radiate joy; you exude energy. Dancing without rules is joyful; regulated dancing may be pleasing to those who watch, but not joyful to those who perform. Saying no, makes one solid and assertive; saying yes, makes us liquid, yielding, blissful. Rules are no, they are solid. When some one smokes, most often it’s for the joy of breaking the rules, rather than any benefit derived from smoking. Chaos with order is the Cosmic Intelligence. The stars and planets move in order seemingly, with no regulatory authority. Science is yet to find the source of this order. Universe is just not power; it is power plus Intelligence which is Energy. This Intelligence responds to our prayers. Says Buddha: Universe creates Universe. Mystics say we come from God; Scientists say we come from monkeys. If evolution was that straight forward all monkeys should by now have become humans, and humans should have become something more. Evolution has stopped with humans because we are the only ones with Consciousness. Our next step is to Universal consciousness. Believing that Universe is just matter is what causes power struggles, terrorism and violence of all kind. When we realize Universe is Intelligent Energy, seeds of 118
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peace are sown. World is divided into those who are spiritual who believe in its Intelligence and those who live for power and control over others. Cosmic energy continues to prove that it responds to us. In a book ‘Message from water’ Masaru Emoto describes the amazing results of his experiments with ordinary water. He bottled water in different containers and labeled them; love, hate, greed, compassion, terror, Bible, Koran etc. To each bottle of water he spoke everyday for 10 minutes in line with its label; to water labeled love he spoke on love with love; to the one labeled terror he spoke on terror with terror; he read the Koran to the bottle labeled like wise. At the end of a month he froze the water in these bottles separately and studied the frozen crystals of each under a microscope. To his amazement he found that the crystals of water labeled love shone brilliantly like diamonds; those labeled terror seemed misshapen, ghostly and somehow fear inducing; most amazingly the crystals from the water labeled Koran had the imprint of the Holy Kaaba on them! Water responds to our thoughts and words. So does the rest of the Universe energy. Water constitutes more than 80% of our body system; you can imagine the power of words, our own and those of others upon our body system. British soldiers in their early days in India found that when they carried water from England in their ships to India, the water spoilt even while on ship. However when they carried water back from India the water not only stayed fresh through the voyage, but was still potable till they consumed all of it back in England. When scientists studied this surprising phenomenon, they found that this water which was from the Ganga in Calcutta had properties of killing harmful bacteria and rejuvenating itself. It’s no wonder that the millions who have prayed to Ganga over thousands of years have left their thought imprints that have made this water so energy giving. The river Nile has been studied by the Egyptians over thousands of years by measuring its flow, level, turbulence etc. They have found that these parameters of one of the greatest rivers of this World reflect often times catastrophic incidents in distant parts of the world, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis etc. Universe responds to the state of your Being. State of Being and therefore State of Mind bring you status. Status without State of Mind only brings you grief. If you wish to see atheists go and see temple priests. They take God so much for granted that they treat God as a stone. God is a dust bin for most of us. What ever we do well we take credit for it. Anything that goes wrong we blame God for it. God is great if he answers our prayers. Please remember God is even greater when he does not make your prayers come true; because he only knows how dangerous your prayers are to you.
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When we keep getting whatever we want we end up with depression of success. Your status overcomes your state. Status without State of Mind, power without wisdom, Shakti without Buddhi is a killer. Said a Zen Master when a disciple asked him: What have you attained? When I started a mountain was a mountain and a river a river; when I traveled, mountain was not a mountain and a river not a river; when I reached mountain was again a mountain and a river again a river. Before achieving you are ordinary. Half way you feel extraordinary though you are still ordinary. When you have reached you feel ordinary even though you may be extraordinary. We as part of this Universe are part of its potential and part of its chaos and Order. When we try and be in control of us and others, when we try to be perfect, we violate this cosmic order. Perfectionism is a disease; it leads to madness. Orderly people tend to order inflate their ego and suffer. We try to maintain order because we believe we have boundaries. Let go your boundaries, your need for order will disappear; joy will appear. When you realize the Cosmic Consciousness within yourself, you will discover the order that is inherent in you, without doing yourself harm. You will accept yourself as you are and others as they are. When you experience the order in cosmic chaos you experience bliss; when you realize the chaos within you as order you exude compassion; that compassion surely leads you to enlightenment. Reference: From Swami’s Conscious Talk radio talk in Seattle Questions 1. So where does humor fit into this?’ See, man who is in the present will always be humorous. People who are serious about the past and future will be loaded with suffering. A man who is sincere will be always humorous. Sincerity and humour always go together. According to me laughter is one of the highest spiritual qualities. When you are present, you just start laughing because the whole thing is so light, ecstatic and blissful. Nothing matters. See after all, we are going to be here on planet earth for 80 to 90 years. Life is too precious. We can't afford to waste our lives in serious moments. We can't afford to waste out lives in suffering and dullness. It is so precious that we have to enjoy continuously by being in bliss or in a humorous mood. 2. So being humorous too is a conscious choice? 120
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Yes, it is a pure choice. Someone might say Swami to you, OK, at this moment, I decide to be humorous. But there is nothing around that is humorous. So how does that choice really relate at the feeling level? When you really come to the present moment, even your very existence is very beautiful. We are continuously inhaling and exhaling, our body is moving, it is continuously converting bread into blood. All these things that are happening continuously in our system are enough to feel the bliss and lightness. You dont' need a separate actor or comedian to stand and make you laugh. Just coming to the present moment is so blissful. You start laughing for no reason. Humour is something when you start smiling or laughing for no reason, you are in a humorous mood! And it’s very catchy! There’s someone there with a big smile and this whole energy. You can’t help it. Yes infectious. 3. And when people come in with a bad mood? Again that is infectious. That is why doctors again and again fall sick. They catch the sickness or the mood of sickness from their patients. Doctors should meditate. It is a basic thing for doctors. Those who are in the healing profession - doctors, nurses, pharmacists - should meditate because they are continuously seeing people who are sick. Unless they meditate, there is every possibility or danger that they may catch the sickness.
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Module 8: Sahasrara. Sahasrara or the crown chakra is located in the crown of the head. Sahasrara means a thousand petalled lotus in Sanskrit which refers to the ecstatic feeling that mystics felt upon enlightenment, when this chakra is opened. Discontentment closes this chakra. Gratitude and contentment open it. Discontent Becomes an Addiction A small story… Neetu Patel went to a shoe store and tried on 10 pairs of shoes and concluded that none of them was the right fit. Finally, the salesman got her the eleventh pair and watched with bated breath as she tried them on. Neetu tried them on and said, ‘This fits too well, I wonder if this is the right size’. Even the best eludes one who is determined not to be content with it. Another small story… One day, Mullah Nasrudeen was crying at his doorstep. A man came up and asked why he was crying. Mullah replied, ‘My Grandfather has died leaving behind a wealth of fortune for me’. The Man was puzzled and said that the Grandfather was a very old man and had lived a full life and asked why Mullah should cry so much at inheriting all the wealth. Mullah continued, ‘My Uncle passed away a few weeks back leaving all his wealth to me. My paternal Grandmother died a month back and she too left all her wealth for me’. The man was very confused by now and asked, ‘Why are you crying if they all left their wealth to you and departed in their old age?’ Mullah replied, ‘Alas, I have no more relatives who will die leaving their wealth to me’. Most of the time, we do not even recognize what we are looking for. Obviously when we find it we are not happy. A small story… 122
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Nithya Madhu went to a nursery looking for a tree for her backyard. She told the girl, ‘I want a tree that will not spread too much, that will give shade, that will not shed its leaves and that will allow the sun to filter through it’. The girl at the nursery thought for a while and said, ‘Ma’am, what you want is an umbrella’. We don’t even know what it is that we are really searching for! How then will we find it? In Sufism, gratitude to God is the only way of worship. One Sufi Saint and his disciples, in their wanderings, went without food in an unfamiliar town where Sufis were not respected. They had no food for 3 days and on the 4th day were even chased away by people without being given a place to stay. They slept in a graveyard. The next day morning, the Saint as usual started to say the prayer of Thanksgiving to God. His disciples however refused to follow suit. They asked why they should thank the Lord when they were refused food for 3 days and a place to stay as well. The Saint replied, ‘You have been fed for 30 years and given a place to stay for 30 years, what about thanking him for that? There is still life in us; we need to thank him for that, least of all!’ Very few religions are gratitude based like Buddhism and Sufism. Most others are prayer based. Prayer based religions work through concepts of hell and heaven; primary effort of religious leaders is to make people afraid and through fear control them; becomes good business for religious leaders. Most of us bargain with the Existence: give me a million dollars and I shall give you 10%; you can take your commission first and give me the balance. Man prayed hard in a church, ‘Lord give me 1000 rupees for 15 days, I am desperate, shall return you the money on the 16th day’. The priest heard him and being compassionate gave him whatever he had which was only 500, saying God had asked him to give the money to this man. When this man sees that it is only 500 and not 1000 he prays to God again. ‘God, please don’t send it thru the priest next time he took half of it’. Life itself is a gift to us from God. Did we work for God day and night and earn this Life? No! We tell God that we want a diamond ring, but don’t thank him for giving us a finger to wear it. While asking, we ask in a very detailed fashion, but while thanking, we thank very superfluously. We need to adopt a life of nothing but gratitude. Ramana Maharishi says, ‘We always feel that something that we don’t have is as big as a mountain without which we cannot survive, but when we actually get it, somehow it becomes too small a thing to thank God for’. He tells God, I am so very intelligent. I gave you all I had, my life full of suffering. You in your compassion gave me your presence of Bliss. 123
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Tagore says so beautifully in Gitanjali: Aamaar je shob dite hobe sheyi to aami jaani? ‘I know what I have to give’. Tagore says to God and then lists everything, ‘From my wealth, my speech to my dawn my dusk, ending with, whatever I give to you, only then does it become mine’. A small story… Sheikh Govinda stopped by at a pump and explained that he was penniless, but badly needed fuel to get to his house. The manager took pity on him and agreed to fill in a few liters. Govinda asked, ‘Can you give me the money instead? The pump across the road is cheaper’. We simply take it for granted. After every gift that we receive, the mind says ‘What next?’ We feel no base or root in ourselves. We are like people lost in a crowd and filled with insecurity. This is because we have no faith in or gratitude towards the Cosmic Energy or Prapancha Shakti that is actually taking care of us every minute. A small story… Bhilai Mansoor took the school children out to see the sunset. They watched spell bound as the sky changed from one color to another like a painting in progress. At the end of it, Bhilai told them, ‘Now, let us give a clap to the artist behind the whole thing’. The children thought for a moment and then joyfully clapped! The least we can do is hail the glory of Existence! (Acharyas) Discuss We all take things for granted. If you were to make a list of the things that you have got, the list would never end and it will take you unawares. Imagine if you lost your eyesight for 24 hours from the time you woke up one day. Your entire day’s routine which was so seamless till then becomes suddenly unimaginable. You would then probably thank God for your eyes! The Geography teacher asked her students to write down the seen wonders of the world. All the kids listed such great wonders as the Great wall of China, the Pyramids and so on, except one child. She kept writing, shaking her head and continued to write. The teacher came to her and asked: what happened, you forgot what you learnt? The little girl said, no, I am a bit confused, because there are many more than seven. The teacher took her sheet and read out aloud: for me the seven wonders of the world are, ‘I can see; I can touch; I can smell; I can hear; I can taste; I can laugh; I can love’. The class was incredibly quiet. 124
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Our gratitude to existence is a business deal. A lawyer, a doctor and an engineer came together to start a business. They decided to include God as a partner. They fixed a small percentage of the expected profit as God’s share. The business grew and yielded unexpectedly high profit. God’s share suddenly seemed too high to be given away. One of them suggested that they would place a small vessel and throw up all the money. Whatever fell inside the vessel would be God’s and the rest would be theirs. The second man suggested that they place a big vessel and throw up all the coins and whatever fell inside would be theirs and the rest God’s. The lawyer finally said, ‘No, lets do it this way. Anyway God is sitting above us. We will throw up all the money. Whatever he wishes to take let him take, whatever falls down, we will take’. You say Kali (as in Kaliyuga, the fourth quarter of time) has ripened. No! Faith has disappeared, that’s all. Feel gratitude towards God. Feel him as your Mother and as your Father. Stop asking and start thanking, only then a relationship with the Existence can be established. A Sufi Saint once went to meet a wealthy King for endowment. He saw the King praying to God. He smiled to himself and went away. The King later called for him and asked him the purpose of his visit and why he had gone away without meeting him. The Saint replied, ‘I came to ask for alms but saw you begging’. In Sufism, there is no concept of asking God for something. The only way of worship is gratitude. A small story… A boy once visited a King’s palace. He requested to allow him to stay for a night in the palace. The King agreed and the boy stayed. The next day morning, he came up to the King and complained endlessly about the shortcomings of the accommodation provided to him. The King ordered the boy to be taken out saying that even a day’s accommodation was too much for a person such as him. The boy went to a Sufi Saint and narrated to him the happenings. The Saint asked him to become his disciple. A few months later, the Saint accompanied by the boy went to the King’s palace and asked to be allowed to stay for a few days in the palace. The next day morning, the Saint expressed heart-felt gratitude towards the King for the comforts made for them. The King immediately ordered his men to pay more attention to the arrangements made for the Saint. This is what happens when you thank Existence instead of finding fault with what has been given to you. By feeling gratitude, you are sending out positive vibrations that will automatically bring back more than you can imagine for yourself. Discontent and Karma
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Our discontent mostly arises from unfulfilled desires. Our desires are unfulfilled for two reasons. Firstly, because these are mostly borrowed desires from others and they keep growing; secondly, because we focus on acquisition and enjoying what we acquire, which alone leads to fulfillment. Fulfillment is a quality of the present awareness. Unfulfilled desires are called vasanas, when they remain as traces in our unconscious mind. When the mind starts working on the vasanas they become full fledged monsters called samskaras, which drive us into suffering with their insatiability. Our actions trying to satisfy our samskaras are our karmas. Vasanas are the seed, samskaras the plant, and karmas the full grown tree. The irony of all this is that karmas breed more vasanas, vasanas breed more samskaras, and samskaras breed more karmas. This is the endless vicious cycle of suffering arising out of desire that Buddha spoke about. To end this suffering, to break this cycle, we must fulfill our desires, and remain content with desires that are our own. To reach liberation through extinction of samskaras and vasanas we need to stay in the present; we need to meditate to awareness. When we die it is not our karmas that follow us as we mistakenly believe, but the essence behind the karmas, the vasanas, that ride on the spirit, as a subtle mental attitude. It is in our hands to extinguish our vasanas, and thereby liberate ourselves from the karmic cycle. That is the free will that we possess. God’s Workshop I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an Angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with Angels. My Angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, ‘This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received’. I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many Angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world. Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section. The Angel then said to me, ‘This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them’. I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many Angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth. Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one Angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. ‘This is the Acknowledgment Section’, my Angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed. ‘How is it that? There's no work going on here?’ I asked. ‘So sad’, the Angel sighed. ‘After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments’. ‘How does one acknowledge God's 126
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blessings?’ I asked. ‘Simple’, the Angel answered. ‘Just say, ‘Thank you, Lord’. ‘What blessings should they acknowledge?’ I asked. ‘If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity Also if you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day. If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ...you are ahead of 700 million people in the world. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world. If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare. If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you are unique to all those in doubt and despair. OK, what now? How can I start? If you can read or listen to this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all. Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are. Attn: Acknowledge Department. ‘Thank You Lord! Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people to share it with’. Why God Does not Give us What we Ask For Often we complain that God dose not listen to us and grant us our prayers. We are lucky. If only God were to grant all our prayers we will be in deep trouble. In his infinite wisdom and compassion he decides what would do us good. I asked for STRENGTH...... and I was given difficulties to make me strong I asked for WISDOM..... and I was given problems to solve I asked for PROSPERITY...... and I was given a brain and brawn to work I asked for COURAGE...... and I was given obstacles to overcome I asked for LOVE.......and I was given troubled people to help I asked for a FAVOR....... and I was given opportunities I received nothing I wanted.......but I received everything I needed! 127
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Live life without fear, confront all obstacles and know that you can overcome them. If you feel only gratitude towards the Lord, there will be only happiness in your life. When there is true happiness in your life, good fortune will prevail. This is a maha vakya (great declaration). True Happiness or ananda has the property of attracting good fortune. Surrender From gratitude to surrender is but a tiny step. Gratitude unblocks ego, you start to acknowledge the power of some one else over you. It is the gate way to surrender, and surrender is the gateway to enlightenment. Surrender is the unbearable lightness of being; it takes the load of you and transfers it to the one you surrender to. A small story… A Sufi master lived in the middle of a desert in a small hut. One day, a young boy came by his hut and requested to allow him one night’s sleep and food. The man agreed and the boy stayed. The next day morning, the Master found out from the boy that he is a burglar by profession. The boy left part of his loot with the Master in gratitude for his hospitality. The master cried out loud for having given food and accommodation to a burglar and sought forgiveness from the almighty. He suddenly heard an even louder cry from the heavens. He asked, ‘Who is it? Why are you crying so loudly?’ The voice said, ‘I am your God. You are crying for giving this boy shelter for one day, imagine my plight who has been giving him all this for his lifetime, and many others like him for many life times! Who will take care of my sins?’ Our ego like the Master’s fails to understand that it is the Cosmic Energy that is taking care of us every minute, and that we are just instruments. In ancient mythology there is a story of a fight between Brahma, the Creator and Vishnu the Sustainer, as to who was greater. There was no one to solve the fight except Shiva, the third member of the Divine Trinity. Shiva appeared before them in his vishwa rupa, in such a huge form, as a shaft of light, that its ends, his head and feet could not be seen. He said who ever finds either of my ends is the greater. Brahma went up towards the head in the form of a flying swan. Vishnu went as a boar digging the ground to find Shiva’s feet. They searched for ages, yugas. Vishnu realized that he could not find what he sought, decided to surrender his ego, and told Shiva to forgive his arrogance in trying to seek his feet. Shiva blessed him for his honesty. Brahma could not accept his failure. He saw a flower as he flew up and asked the flower where it was coming from, it said it had fallen from Shiva’s ears. Brahma asked how long have you been traveling? Flower said four ages of Brahma. Brahma was shocked and realized he had no hopes of finding Shiva’s head, but he did not want to accept his failure. He asked the flower can you be the witness that I brought you down from Shiva’s head, in any case he won’t know. Flower said ok. Both went down and Brahma told Shiva I saw your head and brought this flower as my witness. Shiva was angry at this lie and punished him. You will be never be worshipped and punished the flower: No flower will ever be used in my puja. 128
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One thing is true whether this story is true or not. Whenever a metaphysical truth is explained as a physical story it is mythology. An enlightened Master says from his experience that the sahasrara chakra opening is an experience like a thousand petal lotus; a disciple who has not had the experience takes it as a fact and thinks the sahasrara is a lotus with thousand petals. Mythology always conveys truths, but in a different language. Let us analyze this story. Vishnu is the authority of wealth through his wife Lakshmi. Brahma represents knowledge as his wife Saraswati embodies knowledge. Knowledge searches through the head and for the head. Wealth tries it through pleasures. Neither pleasure nor knowledge can reveal God, however much deep you go into knowledge or pleasures. Creator goes up in an aggressive, rajasic attitude of continuous activity and Sustainer goes down in a tamasic, inert mood. Neither can find God. If you try to reach the ultimate, the eternal bliss, at some point you will understand you have not achieved. This is what Vishnu realized. You will realize that pleasure and wealth can not lead to Truth. Vishnu surrenders. If you travel through wealth at least you understand sometime that you are unable and you can surrender. While traveling through life with knowledge and intellect you can delude yourself like Brahma and your ego can grow so much that you deny Truth. You can no longer accept reality and you lie to yourself and others. You do not wish to accept you can not see reality, you have missed it; this is far more dangerous. Intellect is addictive. You don’t even realize that you are addicted. It makes you feel great gathering information and having others listen to you. The only problem in realizing God is intellect, nothing else. You become a library and feel you are enlightened. A library or an encyclopedia can not be enlightened. Processing information or even delivering it as lectures can not make you enlightened. Ego based on wealth is simpler to control and remove than ego based on knowledge; more knowledge the heavier the head. Then it starts aching. To stop it from aching you have to prove somehow that you have found God. Such intellect addicted people bring their discourses as their false witnesses like Brahma’s flower. If you are a little intelligent you can realize from start the futility of these two approaches. Pleasures dull your senses and you can see that the more you follow your senses the less you are satisfied. You can also realize that no logic is logically logical in this universe; knowledge is limited in its correctness. If intellect would have reached Him, you would already have bought and sold Him; you would have done a deal on Him too. How then to achieve Him? How to purchase Him? How to achieve Him? Only when you sell yourself you can purchase Him. 129
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Bhagavatam says, ‘When you give what you have, your ‘I’ and your ‘mine’, He will give you his ‘I’ and his ‘mine’. Your ‘I’ is your ego. Surrender to a master is greater than surrender to God. You can see the Mater, you can hear him, whereas God is a mere concept to all those who have not experienced God. Vivekananda referred to Ramakrishna as God in one of his discussions with fellow disciples of Ramakrishna. Another disciple objected, ‘Surely that is extreme. I agree that the Master is enlightened, but God? How can that be?’ Vivekananda asked his fellow disciple, ‘What do you know of God?’ The fellow disciple said, ‘Oh, God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent’. Vivekananda asked, ‘What do you mean by saying that God is omnipresent?’ The disciple said, ‘God is everywhere’. Asked Vivekananda, ‘Surely then you must be able to see him now in that case’. The disciple was confused and did not know what to say further. Vivekananda told him, ‘To you God is a concept that you can not see, a notion that you do not even know and understand. Here is the Master in front of you who is n reality God. You are too blind to see that’. Our Master says, ‘I am not here to prove that I am God. I am here to prove that you are God’. Surrender to the Master is essential for spiritual progress. Surrender has three levels. Initial surrender is that of the intellect, leading to understanding and acceptance of what the Master stands for and says. This is not too difficult for most seekers, who become the Master’s disciples. At the next level is devotion, surrender of emotions; the Master moves you in many ways; for instance you can not bear to be without him; focusing on his form becomes essential. At this level surrender to the form needs to be given up in favor of surrender to the formless. This is the block most devotees face. At the highest level is surrender of one’s senses to the Master. A small story… Krishna once tells Arjuna, as they walk, ‘Arjuna, look, there is a green crow near that tree! Says Arjuna, ‘Yes, Krishna, I see that green crow’. A little later Krishna says, ‘Arjuna, look, look at that black crow’! Responds Arjuna, ‘Yes, Krishna, I see the black crow’. Krishna exclaims, ‘Arjuna, you are an idiot, how can there be a green crow? Why did you say you saw a green crow?’ Says Arjuna without hesitation, ‘Krishna, when you told me to look at that green crow, all I saw was that the crow was green!’
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This is surrender of senses, the most difficult to do. Your eyes see, your ears hear, your senses feel what the Master says, not what they experience. Truth is the Master, not the maya that one’s senses see externally. When one reaches this level of surrender of senses to the Master, enlightenment follows naturally. As you move beyond Ajna the form becomes formless. It is to that formless form of the master and existence that we need to surrender ourselves. guru charanambuja nirbara bhaktaha samsarat achirat Bhava muktaha sendriya manasa niyamat evam drikshyasi nija hridayatvam devam When the disciple surrenders at his master’s lotus feet, his senses in firm control. Freed from wordly bonds, he sees God in his own heart (Acharyas) Discuss Pituitary Gland The highest crown chakra is said to be the chakra of consciousness, the master chakra that controls all the others. Its role would be very similar to that of the pituitary gland, which secretes hormones to control the rest of the endocrine system, and also connects to the central nervous system via the hypothalamus. The thalamus is thought to have a key role in the physical basis of consciousness. Sahasrara Dhyana: Based on Sufi Tradition This meditation technique is all about gratitude to Existence. Thanking God does not mean visualizing empty space and thanking it in a jiffy! People, plants and animals are all a part of God. You need to start from thanking the people who built the hospital in which you were delivered from your mother’s womb! Give each participant flowers to hold in their hands. Spread a white cloth in front of the participants, but not in front of Swami’s picture. Participants to wear eye band and close eyes. Concentrate on sahasrara chakra. Forget all other parts of your body. Concentrate only on crown centre and relax there. With your whole Being, give your gratitude to your mother for giving you this body. Remember and give your gratitude to her with your full Being. Give your gratitude to your father for giving you this life. Give your gratitude to all the doctors and nurses who received you when you came to planet earth. Give your gratitude to all the people who took care of you when you were an infant. Give your gratitude to all the those who worked for your food, clothes and accommodation when you were young. Give your gratitude to all the teachers who gave you primary education. Give your gratitude to all your young age friends who made your life happy and blissful. Give your gratitude to your 131
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brothers and sisters as well as other relatives for the nurturing and learning they provided you. Seek their forgiveness for any hurt that you may have caused them intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously. Give your gratitude to all the people who gave you professional education, who helped you to stand in your profession. Give your gratitude to all the people who helped you economically, whenever you needed it. Give your gratitude to all the doctors who took care of your health who gave you medical assistance whenever you needed it. Give your gratitude to your wife or husband for giving you love and security in your life. Give your gratitude to all the people who encouraged you and gave you inspiration for your spiritual life. Give your gratitude to all those who have served you in one way or another all through your life: the milk man who delivers milk, the grocer, the laundry man, the garbage collector, your servants, your driver, all these people who you take for granted. Seek every one’s forgiveness for any hurt that you may have caused intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously. Give your gratitude to your enemies and those who have hurt you for they helped you learn. Seek their forgiveness for any hurt that you may have caused them. Give your gratitude to all the Masters and spiritual persons who inspired you to live this spiritual life. Give your gratitude to all those helped you physically, mentally, socially, economically and spiritually. Remember each one of them and give gratitude taking your own time. Last but not least give your gratitude to the Divine, to the Whole, to God for making all these things possible in your life. Give your gratitude to the Master who is the embodiment of Energy, the Divine. Before that I offer my gratitude to all of you for coming here and sharing this Bliss with me. (Allow participants to add their own expressions by giving them time and asking them to include others you would have missed out) Total time 21 minutes. Keep talk time to about 4 minutes and let participants visualize. After this gratitude meditation, participants offer flowers on the white cloth, and Acharya prostrates to the participants and participants open their eyes while the Acharya is still prostrating to them. Play ‘Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu’ tape continuously at this time, till all participants offer flowers and prostrate to the Existence (not Swami’s picture).
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Other Important Things to Remember Each Session: Is two hours (Review of previous session and feedback, except for introduction 15 minutes, discourse 45 minutes, Q & A 15 minutes, meditation instructions 10 minutes and mediation 21 to 31 minutes. Breaks: 30 minutes and lunch one hour. Sequence: Anahata, Manipunaka, Muladhara, Swadishthana, Vishuddhi, Ajna, Sahasrara Manipuraka must follow anahata. Sahasrara must follow ajna. Swadishthana, muladhara and visuddhi can be in any order. Important to Volunteers: During all meditation sessions avoid touching participants or telling them to do the meditation ‘correctly’. Let them do what they have understood. Therefore be clear when you first explain each meditation technique. The techniques are cast in stone and can only be modified with Nithyananda’s permission, while you may use your creativity in modifying the discourse. At best you can hum louder or shout louder to motivate them. Please desist from going any further. During vishuddhi or dukhaharana or manipuraka meditation, do not physically interfere even if they bump into each other. Segregate men and women to start with, and stand between potential bumpers with arms spread out if you deem it necessary. Intervene only if they fall down or seem to require urgent personal attention. Very Important: -
When participants open their eyes after each meditation do not stand in front of their vision, which is not good for Acharyas. Stay on one side and come in centre stage after a few minutes after they have settled down. Do not use healing picture of Swami. Place Swami’s cut out that will be given to Organizers/Acharyas behind Acharya seat.
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Acharyas must sit cross legged as far as possible on a sofa like seat, and not make unnecessary physical distracting movements. Women should be particularly be careful with body language. As far as possible segregate men and women in audience (not required in most Western countries).
This paragraph has been repeated deliberately in view of its importance. Tip: In every one of the eight sessions build in interactive sessions other than Q&A and discussions. You can ask them to write down their certification needs in anahata, worries in manipuraka, fears in swadishthana, fantasies in muladhara, jealousy/desires in vishuddhi, ego factors in ajna and discontent factors in sahasrara. After the meditation ask them about their current feeling with regard to these list of emotions. Where possible you can pair people to share these. You can start the second day with a review of these emotions after they have slept through the night. More Tips: While narrating jokes and stories, present images to the audience so that they can visualize what you can see in the joke and story; each important detail must be explained in appropriate words; for jokes the punch line formation is critical. Q&A: While you must fully respect the audience and answer all questions seriously, if you find that some one is engaging you in an argument for purely ego reasons and not for knowledge, move on politely but firmly. Last Session: Gratitude and surrender should be followed by celebration. Motivate participants to dance to kirtans (bomma bomma etc) as long as possible. At least 45 minutes. Dancing to kirtans is meditation. If any energy darshan is planned it will be at this stage. After the dance session have an experience sharing period as feedback. Tape this session if possible, transcribe and send to Dhyanapeetam.
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References: Chakra From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/ See also chakram, a disc-like weapon wielded by the Hindu god Vishnu. In Hinduism and its spiritual systems of yoga and in some related eastern cultures, as well as in some segments of the New Age movement, a chakra is thought to be an energy node in the human body. The word comes from the Sanskrit cakra चक meaning "wheel, circle", and sometimes also referring to the "wheel of life". The pronunciation of this word can be approximated in English by chuhkruh, with ch as in chart and both instances of a as in yoga (the commonly found pronunciation shockrah is incorrect).
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The seven main chakras are described as being aligned in an ascending column from the base of the spine to the top of the head. Each chakra is associated with a certain color, multiple specific functions, an aspect of consciousness, a classical element, and other distinguishing characteristics. The chakras are thought to vitalise the physical body and to be associated with interactions of both a physical and mental nature. They are considered loci of life energy, or prana, which is thought to flow among them along pathways called nadis. Traditional Chinese medicine also relies on a similar model of the human body as an energy system. The New Age movement has led to an increased interest in the West regarding chakras. Many in this movement point to a correspondence between the position and role of the Chakras, and those of the glands in the endocrine system. Some people in New Age also claim that other chakras, besides the above, exist — for instance, ear chakras. The Danish author and musician Peter Kjaerulff in his book, The Ringbearers Diary, describes the chakras in great detail, including the reasons for their appearance and their exact functions. Shortly put, the seven chakras are said to reflect how the unified consciousness of man (the immortal human being or the soul), is divided to manage different aspects of earthly life (body/instinct/vital energy/deeper emotions/communication/having an overview of life/contact to God). The chakras are placed on an intermediate layer which lies between the spirit and the earthly body.
Contents [hide]
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Scientific basis The 7 basic chakras Origins and Development Chakras and the endocrine system Various models o 5.1 The Tantric Chakras o 5.2 Hesychastic centres of prayer 6 Reference Material and Books 7 See also
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8 External links
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[edit] Scientific basis The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please view the article's talk page. The Western scientific, medical and self-governing communities employ a system of empirical generalizations by which they explain the general functioning of human beings. This system does not include chakras or any similar concepts, since there is so far no scientifically acceptable evidence of their existence.
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Supporters of the notion of chakras explain the lack of confirmation of their existence in Western medical science by noting that current technology is not capable of measuring life energy or chakras. Some point out that arguments offered so far against the possibility of the existence of chakras are arguments from ignorance. Skeptics rejoin that if chakras exist then there ought to be evidence of their existence that would be acceptable to the scientific community, i.e., they argue that they find no reason to accept claims about them since there is no empirical evidence to support their existence, which is exactly what the supporters of the notion of chakras have also affirmed. There is, however, a marked similarity between the positions and roles described for chakras, and the positions and roles of the glands in the endocrine system, opening the possibility that two vastly different systems of conceptualization have been brought to bear to systemize insights about the same phenomenon. By some, chakras are thought of as having their physical manifestation in the body as these glands, and their subjective manifestation as the associated psychological and spiritual experiences. Different systems of conceptualization, Indian and Western scientific, make only a partial convergence in this case since Western science deals only with phenomena that are judged intersubjective. Indeed, the various hormones secreted by these glands do have a dramatic effect on human psychology, and an imbalance in one can cause a psychological or physical imbalance in a person. Whether these changes in body state have a bearing on spiritual matters is a subject of dissent even among the Indian thought community. Perhaps the most psychologically dramatic and potent secretion of these glands is the psychedelic drug DMT (which is synthesized by the pineal gland), corresponding to the brow chakra. At least in the West, some individuals have sought spiritual breakthroughs through the use of such chemical aids. (See for example: Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, a classic of new-age spirituality.) [edit] The 7 basic chakras The following table sets forth some of the concepts associated with each chakra: Ch Co P As ak lor ri so ra m cia ar te y d Fu El nc e tio m ns en t Ro re ot d mū lād hā
i ea nst rth inc t, sur
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viv al
ााध ाार Sa or cru an m ge (H ar a) sv ād hiṣ ṭh ān a, सवाध िाष ाान
em wa oti ter on, se xu al en er gy, sel fac ce pt an ce
S y me fire ola ell nt r ow al ple fun xu cti s oni ma ng, ṇip po ūr we a, r, co मण ntr िापू ol, fre र ed om to be on es elf, car ee r He em de air art er vot /Lu ald ion
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ng gr , an ee lov āh n e, ataor co , pin mp अन k as sio ााह n, he त ali ng T b sp et hrolue ee he at ch, r viś sel ud fdh ex a, pr es िव sio शुद n T i i ti hir ndi nt me d go uiti ey on, e Ext ājñ raā, se ns आ ory जा pe rce pti on Cr v co sp ow iol nn ac n et; ect e (ju ma ion st y to ab as th ov su e e me div th col ine e or he of ad do ) mi sa na ha nt
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srā ch ra, akr सह a सार For a discussion on chakra petals see Petal (chakra) [edit] Origins and Development The earliest known mention of chakras is found in the later Upanishads, including specifically the Brahma Upanishad and the Yogatattva Upanishad. These vedic models were adapted in Tibetan Buddhism as Vajrayana theory, and in the Tantric Shakta theory of chakras. It is the shakta theory of 7 main chakras that most people in the West adhere to, either knowingly or unknowingly, largely thanks to a translation of two indian texts, the SatCakra-Nirupana, and the Padaka-Pancaka, by Sir John Woodroffe, alias Arthur Avalon, in a book entitled The Serpent Power. This book is extremely detailed and complex, and later the ideas were developed into what is predominant western view of the Chakras by the Theosophists, and largely the controversial (in theosophical circles) C. W. Leadbeater in his book The Chakras, which are in large part his own meditations and insights on the matter. That said, many present-day Indian gurus that incorporate chakras within their systems of philosophy do not seem to radically disagree with the western view of chakras, at least on the key points, and both these eastern and western views have developed from the Shakta Tantra school. There are various other models of chakras in other traditions, notably in Chinese medicine, and also in Tibetan Buddhism. Even in Jewish kabbalah, the different Sephiroth are sometimes associated with parts of the body. In Islamic Sufism , Lataif-e-Sitta ( Six Subtleties ) are considered as psychospiritual "organs" or faculties of sensory and suprasensory perception , activation of which makes a man complete . Attempts are made to try and reconcile the systems with each other, and notably there are some successes, even between such diverged traditions as Shakta Tantra , Sufism and Kabbalism, where chakras , lataif and Sephiroth can seemingly represent the same archetypal spiritual concepts. In Surat Shabda Yoga, initiation by an Outer Living Satguru (Sat - true, Guru teacher) is required and involves reconnecting soul to the Shabda and stationing the Inner Shabda Master (the Radiant Form of the Master) at the third eye chakra. Twelve Major Chakras of the human energy system, Dan teins, Kundalini energy and pranayama Twelve Major Chakras [edit] Chakras and the endocrine system
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Parallels have often been drawn, by supporters of the existence of chakras, between the positions and functions of the chakras, and of the various organs of the endocrine system. The highest crown chakra is said to be the chakra of consciousness, the master chakra that controls all the others. Its role would be very similar to that of the pituitary gland, which secretes hormones to control the rest of the endocrine system, and also connects to the central nervous system via the hypothalamus. The thalamus is thought to have a key role in the physical basis of consciousness. The Ajna Chakra, or third eye, is linked to the pineal gland. Ajna is the chakra of time and awareness and of light. The pineal gland is a light sensitive gland, that produces the hormone melatonin, which regulates the instincts of going to sleep and awakening. It also produces trace amounts of the psychedelic chemical dimethyltryptamine. (Note: some argue that the pineal and pituitary glands should be exchanged in their relationship to the Crown and Brow chakras, based on the description in Arthur Avalon's book on kundalini called Serpent Power) The throat chakra, Vishuddha, is said to be related to communication and growth, growth being a form of expression. This chakra is paralleled to the thyroid, a gland that is also in the throat, and which produces thyroid hormone, responsible for growth and maturation. The heart chakra, Anahata, is related to love, equilibrium, and well-being. It is related to the thymus, located in the chest. This organ is part of the immune system, as well as being part of the endocrine system. It produces T cells responsible for fighting off disease, and is adversely affected by stress. The solar plexus chakra, Manipura, is related to energy, assimilation and digestion, and is said to correspond to the roles played by the pancreas and the outer adrenal glands, the adrenal cortex. These play a valuable role in digestion, the conversion of food matter into energy for the body. The sacral chakra, Swadhisthanna, is located in the groin, and is related to sexuality and emotion. This chakra is said to correspond to the testes or the ovaries, that produce the various sex hormones involved in the reproductive cycle, which can cause dramatic mood swings. The base chakra, Muludhara, is related to survival, excretion, and also to basic human potentiality. It is said the kundalini lies coiled here, ready to uncoil and bring man to his highest spiritual potential in the crown chakra. This centre is located in the region between the genitals and the anus. Although no endocrine organ is placed here, it is said to relate to the inner adrenal glands, the adrenal medulla, responsible for the fight and flight response when survival is under threat. In this region is located a muscle that controls ejaculation in the sexual act. A parallel is drawn between the sperm cell and the ovum, where the genetic code lies coiled, and the legendary kundalini, ready to express itself as a fully developed human being. [edit] Various models
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Chakrology is a neologism sometimes employed by Alternative Medicine practitioners or esoteric philosophers for the study of chakras. There are many different chakrologies, some of them based on ancient Indian Hindu Tantric esoteric traditions, New Age interpretations, or Western occult analyses, as well as ancient Greek and Christian references. Croatian esoteric philosopher and physicist Arvan Harvat notes that it would be very difficult to develop a unified coherent chakra science that would integrate all the elements of the various present chakrologies. [edit] The Tantric Chakras Tantra (Shakta or Shaktism) describes eight primary inner chakras:
1. Sahasrara (Sanskrit: सहसार) 2. Ajna (Sanskrit: आजा) 3. Vishuddha (Sanskrit: िवशुद) 4. Anahata (Sanskrit: अनाहत) 5. Manipura (Sanskrit: मिणपूर) 6. Swadhisthana (Sanskrit: सवािधषान)
7. Muladhara (Sanskrit: मूलाधार) 8. Bindu (Sanskrit: ििनद ु) [edit] Hesychastic centres of prayer Hesychasm specifies four centres:
1. Cerebrofrontal centre: Positioned between the eyebrows (compare with Ajna). 2. Buccolaryngeal centre. 3. Pectoral centre: Positioned in the upper and median region of the chest. 4. Cardiac centre: Positioned near the upper part of the heart (compare with Anahata). This compares notably with Tibetan Buddhism, in which the sequence of centres is very similar, beginning with the eyebrows and going down to the heart, which symbolizes the highest consciousness. It is alleged by modern mystics that in Hesychasm, the centres of prayer were points of concentration or meditation on the body to be used during the hesychastic prayer. This
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terminology, however, is not used in Orthodox Christianity and is not and has not been part of hesychastic prayer as practiced within the Orthodox Churches. [edit] Reference Material and Books •
Morgen, Robert (2005) "Personal Mastery: Develop Your True Inner Power by Awakening Your Kundalini" ISBN:1411635884 1st Edition Windhaven Press
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Wheel Acupuncture Aura Kirlian photography Kundalini Qi Qigong Chi Tree of life (Kabbalah)
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Aligning Your Chakras Chakra resources at About Holistic Healing Chakracises Actions you can take to help get your chakras functioning optimally Kundalini Awakening with Robert Morgen Introduction to Chakras The Brofman Foundation for the Advancement of Healing Uses the chakras as a map for consciousness and physical illnesses The difficulty of a unified chakra science Early chakrologies Boost your Chakras
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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The Hesychastic centres of prayer Human Subtle System Update on research on Apparatus for Meridian Identification at California Institute for Human Science [1] Simple method to open, clear and heal the chakras Tantric Chakras Newly emerging chakras
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra"
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