The Waves within Us

Let me tell you an incident which Swamiji speaks about in one of the discourses.

'A young devotee came to Swamiji for some counseling. He was telling the Master about how much he likes a girl and the girl is not reciprocating. This has become the biggest problem in his life. He has not been able to do his work. He is constantly thinking about that girl etc. etc. The Master was just listening to the whole thing.

After a few minutes, someone called this person and informed him about some litigation problem with his house. For the next few hours, the devotee was making phone calls and busy resolving it and after he was done with it, he went to the Master. Swamiji told him, "Did you see what was happening within you? Few hours back, the biggest problem in your life was your love life and in the last four hours you did not even think about it." '

Swamiji says,
"All our emotions, our thoughts are just like waves. One thought or emotion comes like a wave, to be swept away or absorbed by a bigger wave."

If we look back into our lives, all our emotions or thoughts are so momentary. Be it worry, stress, guilt, pain or happiness, everything comes, stays in our inner space for a short while before being engulfed by a stronger emotion. Within a few minutes, we would have gone through a big rollercoaster of emotions. Every emotion seems big and important till it is escapes into another emotion.

It is amazing how we constantly want to hold on to these thoughts and emotions. Swamiji says, "By nature, we are actually renouncing every moment. We renounce thoughts and emotions every moment."

The problem is we choose to create, maintain and destroy thoughts. Instead of just watching them and letting them go, we go into the dustbin and pick the rags saying, 'Oh, this a good rag. Oh this is bad one.' We fail to see that every in the dustbin is still waste and of no use.

Swamiji's technique of unclutching is all about watching and witnessing our emotions and thoughts rather than connecting them to form a long convoluted chain.

Imagine the liberation one can have if we can just relax and watch those emotions/thoughts just like a movie. Enjoy these video:

Be Unclutched - 1

Be Unclutched - 2

Everything that goes on is auspicious

I am not from Mumbai. I had never been to Mumbai but I just love the city. The whole city of Mumbai is in floods now. And its not just this year, but every year when the monsoon hits India in the month of July, Mumbai is drowned. Whether it is a chaiwallah's (tea selling vendor's) shop on the road side or the posh bungalows of some of highest tax paying actors like Amitabh Bachchan, everything is flooded with rain water. Not just Mumbai, every place in India it is the same.

But life goes on in India... When I was going through some of these news articles, its just too amazing to see people having a cup of tea with their pants rolled up till their knees and sitting in a coffeeshop with rain water till their knees. Its just too amazing to see the spirit of people pulling bicycles with one hand and holding their sandals in the other; to see people hanging on to the holding rails of the crowded subarban railway trains of Mumbai and the train cutting through flooded railway tracks.

Whether it is rain or terrorism or earthquake, cities like Mumbai have shown that - life just goes on.

Yeah, many people might be cribbing about the poor infrastructure, hygiene etc. etc. but there are many more people who just take life as it comes. That is the beauty.

When we went for Varanasi trip with Swamiji, we were all waiting for train from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata at Bhubaneswar station. The train was delay by about two hours. We all (300 of us) sat down on the railway platform. Swamiji also happily settled down on platform with a turban on his head and asked us, "How many of you are irritated with delay and this waiting?" He paused for a while and said, "Even if you are irritated, nothing can be done. Just relax and enjoy."

Swamiji says, "We can always see things in two ways. One: we can see what is wrong, how things can go wrong and always be engulfed in fear and worry. Second: we can see everything that is happening as auspicious and just flow with whatever is there in this moment."

Our fears arise because of our expectations and fantasies about what is really there in this moment. Those people in Mumbai can feel terrible about the whole thing by seeing how their expectations and fantasies are not being met. Or, they can be just flowing with what they have right now.

Living life by the moment and strongly believing what is happening is auspicious is the best possible option that any of us has. In fact our fears due to our fantasies and expectations always creates a thread of negativity constantly running in us. If we see in our lives, even if something good (according to our definition) happens, the first thought that comes is that of fear as to how long will this happiness last. It is not about gratitude or pure joy; its about fear. That negativity in turn attracts negative events in our lives. This becomes a vicious cycle.

It need not be as big as our homes getting flooded. It can be as simple as some issue at office or home. We have the right to decide: do I want to get worried and scared, or shall I just see what really is there and work on it. The choice is ours. Enjoy this video

The Gift of Vedic Lifestyle

Swami Vivekananda in one of his speeches once said "I am one of the proudest men ever born , but let me tell you frankly .It is not for myself , but on account of my ancestry .The more I have studied the past , the more I have looked back , more and more this pride come to me , and it has given me the strength and courage of conviction ,raised me from the dust of the earth , and set me working out that great plan laid out by those great ancestors of ours."

The Vedic culture that many Indians take for granted sometimes is one of the most precious gifts we are born with, as Indians. We simply take for granted the spiritual atmosphere we are brought up with. The chants that reverberate in many Indian homes, traditional sarees worn by the elderly ladies in the house, the kolam on freshly watered frontyards (designs made with flour), the fresh mango leaves that are used for decorating the entrances, the prayer alters/rooms dedicated for prayers, the evening bhajans that are played during sunset.... we take all this for granted.

It's not just taking it for granted, many so-called "modern" youth even dislike all this, in the name of blind belief or "too traditional!". Probably it's because the modern minds do not understand the science behind all this or probably because the western comforts seem too luring in front of these traditional rituals.

It is however interesting that the west is now slowly openly acknowledging the ancient Vedic wisdom. When a bunch of US guys started selling bottles of energised water in the brand name H2OM (more about H2OM here), then the word is all awed by it, including media and impactful channels like Time. In the link above, you can even see a list of celebrities posing with the bottles of H2OM water. They even have different bottles for energising different "Chakras". This is based on the scientific studies by Dr. Masuro Emoto on the effect of chants and other emotions on samples of water.

Now, if we sit back and see - the Kumbha Melas (the largest gathering of humanity on Planet Earth that can be captured by satellite images) have been happening from thousads of years based on the same concept of water being energised by the vibrations and energy of many spiritual masters meeting on the banks of the holy rivers. Infact this is why rivers like Ganga, although polluted externally are still considered "holy" and daily prayers are offered to them.

Swamiji is restoring this lost spirit of the Vedic lifestyle back into the world. He says "Bharat (India) is not just a geographical piece of land, but a lifestyle. So all those leading this lifestyle are Indians". True to His words, He is giving an opportunity for people from various countries and backgrounds an opportunity to experience and live this beautiful Vedic lifestyle that is slipping away from our hands. In His recent stunning program Life Bliss Engineering (LBE), one can see young pariticpants from world over enthusiastically participating in a range of activities starting from Vedic rituals, Sanskrit chanting, Vedic Astrology, Yoga to learning how to wear the Vedic costume of saree/dhoti, making flower garlands for deities, putting kolam etc. They are taught not just the science behind each of them, but are made to experience these truths in the energy field of living enlightened master. They are not mere rituals but techniques for enligthenment.

When we visited the Bidadi Ashram for Guru Purnima, we could see the faces of the LBE participants glowing and radiant, soaked in bliss. If you get a chance to attend the next LBE, please don't miss it. More details about the LBE program here: http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/international_LBE_1.asp

Leela Dhyana - The sweetest meditation!

Last weekend, the Nithya Youth group in Singapore had it's first activity - 'bowling in bliss' by the beachside. After the bowling was done, the group sat down and each one started to share his/her experience with the master. It was such a treat to see each one narrate their stories with the master with a sparkle in their eyes and a smile of gratitude.

Nobody was ready to leave. After the experience sharing session, we sat talking about the master for hours and nobody was bothered about looking at the watch. This is our favorite meditation - to talk about the Master and His glories. When the divine lands on planet earth, that too with such energy, grace, majesty, innocence, compassion, mysticism, and much more.. that too all of these together.. who can resist talking about Him? I can't recall how many night outs we have done just talking/listening about our beloved Swamiji, especially when we have special visitors from the ashram.

I would like to share a very sweet incident that happened during the NSP program that we attended with Swamiji recently in Malaysia. One of Swamiji's senior disciples was sharing miraculous experiences with the master as experienced by the many devotees worldwide. It was so amazing to listen to each incident - how the divine has rescued so many lives in so many mysterious ways. Not only that, how the divine has showered out of compassion on so many souls... it was very touching to listen to the whole narration. Everyone in hall sat there melted, listening with awe.

All this was happening during the breaks as the main sessions were conducted personally by Swamiji. Now, it was time for Swamiji to arrive into the hall, but the intense narration of the Master's glories were going on inside. Swamiji sent word that He will be arriving soon, but the disciple whom He sent also sat in the hall enjoying the master's glories. Vat to do! Now, Swamiji had no choice but to open the door to enter the hall. He later jokingly shared with us how He had opened the door to enter, but then the Master Himself decided to quietly listen to the leela - the glories of the divine expressing though Him. :)

(This also goes to show how He Himself does not connect with the body, but to the cosmos which is expressing through the 6-feet frame of Nithyananda! When He said that, it reminded us of an incident in Ramana's life, when he used to join his own devotees singing the glories of Ramana. When asked, He used to reply 'Why are you reducing the infinite energy Ramana to this body? Just like my devotees are enjoying Ramana's glories, I am enjoying too!'. )

The Bhagavata is the beautiful narration of the glories of Krishna and about the incidents in Krishna's life. For those connected to the divine in Krishna's form, it can be the sweetest thing ever to just meditate on the divine stories - Krishna as a child, Krishna as a cowherd, Krishna as a beloved to the Gopis, Krishna as a friend to Arjuna, Krishna as the savior to Draupadi. One experiences the peak of the various bhavas, divine emotions when listening to the these incidents.

Just like that, we are all witnessing in our own eyes, the divine singing and dancing with all of us, expressing its full glory in multi-dimensions. We now understand the ecstacy that the Gopis used to experience just by the very thought of the master. Thank You Swamiji for being with us, We absolutely love you.

Compassion Personified

The last one week has been one of the best times that many of us here in Singapore had ever experienced in our lives. Two bus loads of people attended the second level meditation program - Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP) conducted by the Master in Malaysia. To say, "We were completely blown away in bliss", is an understatement. Each one of the 65 people and the rest of the 500 other people who had come to attend NSP, some of us second timers in NSP, were lost in ecstasy. Nithyananda's energy possessed us for those four days in the midst of beautiful tropical rain forests of Bukit Tinggi in Malaysia. The bliss is still ringing within us.

The meditations were like nuclear missiles thrown at each of us. Every session ended with deep silence in our inner core. Every statement made by the Master pierced through each one of us, such were the strength of His words. And these are not words. When I say there was silence, there was utter silence. After some specific meditations, it was as if everything has been churned within us, inside out. Every thing seemed new and fresh.

NSP is a program when the Master works on each one of us to erase our samskaras or engraved memories. He lets us see for ourselves how our samskaras are living our lives and how they ultimately take charge during our death also making it a painful process. This is the program where the Master helps us take charge not only of our lives but our death also. He gives us a new life.

Swamiji says, "Even if you don't attend any other program, it is ok. But attend one NSP. That will do its work. After that even if you don't remember me or meditation, you will leave peacefully. If you meditate, you will live and leave blissfully."

At the end of the program, there was only one thing that was on our minds - what compassion. What is the need for Him to do all this? Why should He spend His energy and time on our enlightenment, on our liberation? Why should He constantly remind us of our true nature?

It is His compassion. The all-compassionate Cosmic Mother is expressing through that six-feet frame called Nithyananda. She wants us to reach Her. She wants us to understand She is always with us and She is expressing through Nithyananda.

Swamiji made a beautiful statement during this NSP. He said, "I use this body to connect with you. You also use this body to connect with Me."

Our intellect of course will start its process - questioning, doubting, thinking, speculating. For once, if you drop it and look in, you will see for yourself: why millions of people who are with the Master are so blissfully dancing; why inner core of millions of people is unperturbed by the external roller coaster?

Just once...

The Ultimate Insurance

There is always some kind of fear associated with spirituality and meditation. Many people just don't talk about it; these words are tabooed just like the word - death. If I try to bring up this topic with some of my friends, they simply change the topic. They do not want to even speak about it, forget even thinking of trying some meditation.

Why is that so? Many of us have notions about spirituality and meditation. They have been associated with renunciation, people leaving homes and becoming wanderers and sanyasis.

Actually our fear is not about spirituality or enlightened masters. I know of many people, who enjoy reading spiritual books but when it comes to applying them to their own lives, they just back off. That means spiritual truths actually echo with us; they have to because they are meant to echo with everyone's being.

If that is the case, why the fear?

Our actual fear is that of our identity. Spirituality shakes the roots of our notions about our identity. All along our lives, we have been made to believe by society, parents, friends, school, teachers etc. that we are this, we are so and so, we should have this, we should do this ... Spirituality shakes this very belief. Our identity which was based on the external objects be it animate like our family, or inanimate like our possessions, is questioned by spirituality and enlightened masters.

The same is the case with enlightened masters. We resonate with the truths uttered by the masters but there is a deep sense of fear, especially with living Masters. History shows how people condemned masters when they were in their bodies. Buddha was stone pelted, Ramakrishna was called a mad man, Jesus was crucified ... But now, Buddhism is a religion, Ramakrishna Matt is one of the largest spiritual organization ... We fear loss of our identity especially with living masters as they can straightaway work on us.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'Spirituality is all about exploding in 360 degrees, in all your dimensions. It makes one tap all the energies present in oneself to enjoy both external and internal worlds. It takes away your false identities and lets you realize your true identity - bliss. An enlightened master is an instrument to show you that truth. The body language and the life of an enlightened master radiates that energy.'

From experiences of thousands of disciples of my Master, including my own, what Nithyananda says is the truth. Spirituality makes life a beautiful process every moment. Just remembering these spiritual truths and the face of the Master pulls us out of low mood (if any) and keep us alive and bubbling with energy. Our Master has given us a glimpse that we do not need these external entities to define us and our state of being. He has shown us that we are "bliss" irrespective. He has surely shaken the roots of our false identity and shown us our core.

What insurance company, which million-dollar job, which millionaire... can guarantee me this life-long bliss??? Think over it.

She waits till we call Her...

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa very beautifully quotes a story of a little child busily playing with its toys. The mother knows that even if she calls her child at this point, the child would not bother, because the toys are most dear at that point in time. The toys are the very life of the child. The mother gets busy in the kitchen and doesn't even see the child, because she knows the child does not need her attention. But she waits for her child to call her.

After a while the child gets bored with the toys, it starts to look here and there in search of the mother. Now the mother throws a glance at the child. After a while, the child gets very anxious that it can't find its mother and starts to wail and cry its heart out. Of course, this time the mother comes running and carries the child in her arms.

He goes on to say that this is exactly how our relationship with God is. When we are busy with our toys, we can't be bothered about God or enlightenment. Well, like Swamiji says, instead of small toy cars, we are busy with biggers ones, that's all! Money, bank balance, car, house, family... these are the toys we get immersed in, so much so, that we forget our Mother. We cry over these toys, get stressed up, worried and what not!

She knows that if she comes when we are busy playing, we will only treat Her as a disturbance. So She waits patiently for us to look at Her.

After many lives, when these toys no longer interest us.. when a sense of understanding dawns upon us that we have been playing with the same toys, life after life... a sudden awakening happens.. to search for Her, to search the divine. Because that is where we belong, that is whom we should be calling upon. But until we are ready, the Mother leaves us alone. She knows we don't need Her :)

Sometimes, the Mother out of Her compassion sends a wake up call because she knows that if she leaves us alone, we will take ages to realize that we have been caught up with the toys! She sends living enlightened Masters again and again to wake us up. This awakening or realization is the greatest gift one can ever have!

Imagine the freedom that results when you realize that you have been crying over something so vain, so petty! Suddenly all the so-called worries, sorrows drop, because we now know the space we came from. We now understand our true source, our true nature.

Thank you Master for bestowing this awakening on us. What compassion! Blessed are we....

Bliss: It's upto us to have it

Recently, I received an email from a friend of mine showing pictures of pollution of river Ganga. He was asking the question - "How can people go and take a dip in this and consider it holy when it is so polluted?"

Last year I was on a pilgrimage to North India with our Master. We went to Dakshineswar, Varanasi, Allahabad and other places which are on the banks of Ganga. We took a dip in Ganga and also collected a good few ml of Ganga water in a small plastic bottle (the normal 250 ml disposable water bottles). I got back home and placed that bottle in our meditation room and forgot about it.

This was a 15 day tour and after fifteen days when I got back to my office, I saw that before leaving for the trip, I had left some drinking water in my water bottle (Nalgene brand, considered one of the best water bottle makers) on my desk. And now it had caught green algae.

This year in April, when I was shifting home, I removed that small plastic bottle with Ganga water and saw that the water intact: no algae, nothing.

I remember seeing a similar thing in many places. Ganga water never gets affected, however long you keep it, in whatever container you keep it.

Science is still unable to understand how this is possible. It is still trying to find out, how despite being one of the most polluted river, the water seems to be unaffected even after keeping it for such long periods of time. How is it that thousands of people take bath and do what not in it, and yet nobody seems to be affected.

Some questions have no logical answers - river Ganga is a perfect example and testimony to this statement.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "You might have heard about Dr. Emoto's experiment where he used to emote some emotions to few ml of water everyday and at the end on crystallization, emotions like love and gratitude showed beautiful crystals but ugly emotions showed ugly crystals.

"Imagine, on the banks of these rivers, hundreds of thousands of masters, sages, seekers and devotees are constantly radiating positive emotions that of gratitude and love. Chanting is done on the banks of these rivers. These chants have positive vibrations. They are constantly being radiated in and around these rivers. If one person's thoughts for few minutes a day can affect few ml of ordinary water, imagine the effect of hundreds of thousands of peoples' thoughts 24x7, 365 days a year on these waters."

Such is the effect of our thoughts. They are the ones that decide how good or bad our outer world is. We come across people who are living with bare minimum things in their lives, yet living a contended life. But most people despite having everything and that too in excess are always in depression.

I remember of another incident in this regard. Two friends of mine attended the same program in India. One came back and said, "It was such a big pain. Everything was bad, the accommodation, the food... it was so hot, it was so smelly...." The other said, "Amazing... I can't comprehend the amazing organization of the event. Everything was perfect. For 3000 people, they did everything so perfectly.. food, accomodation .. everything."

The same external event but two different reactions. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "Your inner blueprint decides your outer world. If you are blissful inside, you will see everything as bliss. If you are struggling inside, if you are violent inside, everything outside looks violent and ugly."

Our awareness to look into ourselves decides the external world outside us. It could be blissful, ever compassionate and pure Ganga or dirty and polluted Ganga - it depends on us (our blueprint) how we see it.

The real vacation - within!

In the previous post, we wrote about the holiday our friend was going to embark on, full of uncertainties ahead. In this post, let us see why we like to take holidays in the first place. Nowadays, it's trendy to be planning out vacations to exotic places with family/friends and hence the number of travel fairs, budget airlines, newspaper ads etc etc. What is it that makes us feel drawn to the idea of a "vacation"?

The first sad truth is that we are looking at the slightest opportunity to run away from our life, our daily routine. We have become so mechanical with our lives, we literally treat our body as a machine and each day as just another day. No wonder it feels "the same old job", "same old house", "same old family" etc. We have lost the essence. We have become dead. We have stopped seeing each day as a fresh day, each moment as a new moment. This is why we have lost the spirit to live our lives and it's no wonder we want a break.

As our Master says, when we infuse "spirit", even a "ritual" comes to life, this is "spi-rit-uality". Without the spirit, even spirituality becomes just another ritual.

Secondly, our true nature is that of freedom, without any bondages, without any conditioning, without any limitations. We are limitless energy, boundless joy, infinite bliss. But because we are forcing ourselves to live in familiar thought patters and societal conditioning, we have gradually started to identify ourselves with that solid and bounded mind-body system. When we visualise a large beach or a vast valley amidst huge mountains, our heart jumps with joy because our inner core connects with that vastness. The bounds are broken.

Another important thing, in a vacation, nobody knows us, nobody recognises us, our societal labels have no meaning. That is why we look out for a vacation where we become "nobody", because deep down our true nature is that of emptiness. We are nobody.

Deep down, we want to be away from our labels, because that is not our true nature. But again and again, we are pulled to it because we think that is what defines us. This is the conflict we go through all the time. As as result, even when we are there lying at the beach, this conflict haunts us. We are there worrying out work, home etc. As Paramahamsa Nithyananda says "worrying at office is called work, worrying at home is called home-work and worrying at a beach is called vacation!".

The best part is that a true vacation is something we can take within us, not at an external beauty spot. Imagine being 24 hours in vacation in our inner space, unclutched by all the nagging thought patters, worries, fears etc. That is what Swamiji called living enlightenment. With the grace of a living enlightened master, this is very much possible. That is the only reason masters have descended, to remind us of our infinite possibilities. Let us all take a vacation in our inner space and relax into it. Happy holidays! A related video in Swamiji's own words below:

The Road Trip of Life

April 10-12 is a long weekend here in Singapore because of Good Friday and we generally don't spare such precious long weekends in Singapore :) People are busy packing their bags to go to nearby Malaysia or Thailand for a trek in the jungles. So a friend of mine was saying, 'Dude, I won't be here for the long weekend. I am gone for a long drive with a group of friends to West Malaysia.'

I asked him if there were any particular places that they were going. He replied, 'Nope! This time its more of no-planning trip. Just go wherever, eat wherever and stay wherever types!!' ... He paused and then said, 'it sounds fun to me...'

It surely is fun. I agree with him totally. No planning as to where to pit-stop, where to eat etc. Just go, enjoy the traveling part and take the trip as it comes.

I was wondering, if a two-day trip can be so fun, by offloading the baggage of planning, just imagine how much more enjoyable our 60-70 years of life can be if we just flow with life?

Why can't we have the same attitude towards life? Instead, we plan and plan and plan... continuously, we keep planning not just about our life but about one generation behind us and one generation ahead us.

The answer is simple! We are scared about the insecurities of life. We do not enjoy our life simply because of our fear and greed: fearing the insecurities and greedy about our own expectations from life. We do not enjoy the path - the process of life. We think we will enjoy the goal, when it is reached but before it is reached we have already exhausted all the energy to enjoy it by constantly psychologically worrying about our fears and expectations about the goal that we have set. And after that goal is reached, there is another goal that awaits us.

Nithyananda says, 'When we live in utter insecurities of life, we are a seeker. That is why my parivrajaka, wandering days were one of the best parts of my life.'

When we live in utter insecurities of life, we just flow with life. We plan but chronologically only. We will not have an opportunity to psychologically worry about it because we are too busy enjoying and celebrating the path; then the path itself becomes the goal. Our fears and expectations keep our joy away from us.

The main difference between the road trip of my friend and our life is that my friend is already prepared to take on whatever comes his way as auspicious (mangalatva); either a tent in a jungle or a posh luxury suite; either food or no food. And hence he is saying the trip is going to be fun. There are no expectations or fears whatsoever. If there is any trace of either of them, one would certainly back off.

When it comes to one's own life, it is too far fetched to accept that insecurity for 70-80 years. Actually, even for one or two days it becomes difficult to accept because we are conditioned about our lives. We are conditioned by society, parents, friends etc. as to how one should live.

The irony is, all those from whom we learn to live are themselves most of the time living a life of total internal chaos.

When we surrender to the Existence, the Existence takes care of us... and this the truth. There are enough number of testimonials from people who believe in this to testify this, myself being one.

And you know what! When we surrender, the Existence always gives a lot more, many a times what we wouldn't even have dreamt of, both in our outer world and our inner world. And It also gives us the intelligence to be completely unperturbed whether that outer world is there or not there ...

Thank you Swamiji for giving us this shakti (energy), buddhi (intelligence), yukti (understanding), bhakti (devotion) and mukti ... liberation

The Great Wall of Logic

During my piano class, I was discussing about one of the American Idol contestants with my music teacher. I was telling her about how this particular contestant, though visually impaired, so skillfully plays the piano while singing and is already in the Top 9.

To this my teacher replied, 'See, you don't need your eyes to see the notes and play beautifully. Though we think having eyes is gift for us to see and play, it actually is the biggest obstacle because when we have eyes, we only read the notes and play the notes, and not the song. We are so worried about the notes, the tempo, the notations etc. that we lose the beauty of the song, the emotion everything is lost because we are too busy reading everything with our eyes.'

This conversation reminded me of Swamiji's words, 'Our intelligence or logic is the greatest gift for human beings and it is also the biggest obstacle.'

As humans, we are different from other species because we have intelligence; we have mind; we have consciousness. We can do when we want to do something. When we are hungry we can choose to eat or not to eat. When we are sleepy, we can choose to sleep or stay awake. We can make conscious choice. We have that freewill.

Though I have written about this in our other posts, this is something which I come across everyday - how we make use of our freewill to decide things.

At a deeper level, as humans we have all the energy to go beyond this mind-body system, to merge with the Ultimate Consciousness, to realize we are one with the Ultimate Consciousness. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'I am telling you, 'You are enlightened', then why don't you believe it? An enlightened master's words are always true and I am telling you like every other enlightened master born planet earth that you are already enlightened. All you have to do is to believe that you are enlightened.'

We choose to not believe the truth that every enlightened master has been saying for ages and ages, in all those thousands of scriptures, from all over the world. We choose to use our freewill to be with our mind which is always pulling us from the Ultimate Truth.

Our intelligence which can be used to every outer world comfort has become the greatest impediment in our progress in the inner world...

Simply because we think we are the most intelligent by suspecting each one of those masters who try to show the Ultimate Truth. We think we are most intelligent. Even the greatest of the intelligent scientists, Einstein, says 'Where Science ends, Spirituality begins.' Are we more intelligent that Einstein?

An enlightened master only helps to pull us out of our ignorance, which we mistake to be our intelligence. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'Use your intelligence when required. That's all! Rest of the time, relax from it into your consciousness.'

Like He says, 'Its upto you whether you want to choose your mind/intelligence or choose Consciousness.'

Master - A bunch of paradoxes

A young face with timeless wisdom
Sometimes a child, sometimes a mother
Sometimes a friend, sometimes a father
And sometimes indeed a Zen Master

He puts us into utter insecurities
But immediately He assures us He's there
Utterly relaxed yet what a cutting gaze
He's ruthless out of pure compassion

When the Zen Master raises His stick
Just peep into His eyes and see the oozing love
Every word is a sword to cut the tumor
A sword filled with love and grace

He is fullness personified
He is emptiness personified
He is established in the present
He is established in eternity

He's a bunch of paradoxes
Cannot comprehend using logic
For He is beyond all of that
He is beyond the beyond!

In deepest gratitude to my Master...

An Instrument in the hands of the divine!

Yesterday, during a conversation, the word "instrumental" was casually used. Suddenly, a click happened to me and I thought "instrumental" is such a beautiful word. If we really contemplate on it, it has the whole essence of Karma Yoga in it - doing all the work we need to do in life, but with no ego of 'doership'; when this happens, we just become an instrument in the hands of the divine. The divine energy flows through us, guiding us at every step. There is no "I did this", "I did that.." simply because we are just a dummy instrument that He uses.

I remembered Swamiji's discourse on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3. Swamiji beautifully shared "Solid bamboo is used for carrying the dead... but if the bamboo is hollow, then it can even be used as a flute in the hands of Krishna! Our whole life then becomes a divine song that Krishna plays using the flute" How beautiful I thought. If only we allow Krishna to pick us up in His hands! If we constantly remind ourselves that we are hollow, we are pure emptiness, we are nobody, then indeed we allow that emptiness to happen inside us.

This is easier said than done because the notion that we are running our life has become too deep in us. As Swamiji says, although we think that things happen because of us, it is never the case. Because the truth is that things happen inspite of us! The reason why many of us suffer from shoulder pain after a day's work at office is simply this - we have taken the whole load of our life on us. It has become a strong conditioning that it is our hard work in life that is making us survive. (Enjoy a video below where Swamiji talks about the myth of hardwork!)

Many times, this is the case even when it comes to volunteering for the mission. In my own experience, I can see so much of that "burden" dropping from me as I become aware of who is bearing the weight. Swamiji always says the mission can mould us and that is really so true. He says if you all can put aside half an hour a day, not more, to just do any work without expecting ANY form of return, then we are indeed working towards our inner growth. We are indeed becoming instruments in the hands of the divine for that half an hour. Normally, there is a constant subtle current of "who will notice my work?" or "what will I get out of this?". For that half an hour, let us consciously park that thought aside and involve our whole being in doing something without any expectation.

If we slowly expand that half an hour into our whole day, then we stop being driven by fear or greed. We start to express a new dimension within us which we are never used to. It's a space where there is only fullfillment and hence no expectations. Our whole day then just becomes a beautiful expression of fulfillment.

Back to the cozy rut

Last week I happened to bump into one of my ex-colleagues who had previously attended our Life Bliss Program (LBP), but who had been out of touch since then. When I asked him how things were going, he expressed how stressful work has been. He went on to say how he has been so busy with work and family that he has had no time to meditate or keep in touch with our group, although he has been meaning to do so.

Then I recollected that during his LBP, he had been one of the most inspired. I remembered clearly his remarks to the acharya "Oh whatever you are saying resonates so much with me. Thank you so much. I suddenly see that there is more to life than what I had been living! Tell me how do I progress on this path" etc..

Not just with this colleague, but this is the case with many. Just soon after the program, they see a new dimension opening up within themselves. Suddenly they feel they have solutions with them for ALL problems in life. Suddenly they see a new flood of energy happening inside and they resolve to apply all that was taught during the program to their lives. But somehow, after a few days, they are back into the rut, back into the same old stressful life, the same old tensions, the same old ratrace, the same old lifestyle.

Why?

When we attend a powerful lifechanging program like LBP, various "clicks" are communicated. The feeling of "Yes, how true!" or "My God! So much that I was unaware of, now it's clear..." starts to work inside the system. This is what our Master calls as Initiation. Now, once we are initiated, once we have the sparks of clicks ignited inside us, we really do not need to do anything else. We just need to ALLOW those sparks to become into a flame, then into a fire till it burns away all that needs to be burnt inside. We have to only allow and nothing else. We just have to cooperate with the clicks, the rest will happen on its own. This is what Swamiji calls as "tapas" or penance.

Invariably, after programs like LBP the realization that there is something beyond happens to everyone. The divine energy makes Her way inside every participant through the various openings created through meditations or the powerful messages. Almost everyone realizes that the life they are leading is a fake one. But... we choose to go back and hold on to that artificial life of ours, inspite of knowing that that is not reality. Once we return to our routine life, we start to gradually feel that the problems, the stresses are more real than any spirituality. This happens when we descend to lower planes of energy, settle into our cozy comfort zones.. and choose not to apply the clicks. We literally stop the clicks from working on us by not remembering to apply them. If we really muster courage and decide that we will truly experiment with the clicks and allow them to work, then certainly nothing can stop us from going towards the Truth. The problem is we love our fake life. We are only constantly escaping from the Truth. That is why we put spirituality in a cozy compartment and choose not to look at it.

Let us not comparmentalize spirituality and our life and give lower/higher priority to either. Let us realize that spirituality and our life are not different. Our life is spiritual by its very nature, only we should understand it. Let us not give excuses and run away from reality. Let us have the courage to experiment. Let us not postpone experiencing the Truth. Let us not get caught by the illusion that our ratrace is more real than God. Let us celebrate that we have a living enlightened Master who can actually show us our true nature. Let us allow Him to work on us. Let us be open. Let us all embrace reality and open doors to eternal bliss. Let us have the courage to live the truth.

Enjoy a video below where Swamiji talks about the courage needed to experiment with the clicks and how they are vital for a seeker's growth.

Why search when you have found?

A few weeks ago, we visited the house of a devotee to perform the Sri Vidya Puja at his place. While we were setting up for the puja, he was showing us his 'spiritual' collection. A huge book shelf in the living room had books by all Masters one could think of. He also has a little corner where he does his meditation and daily prayers, where he had kept souvenirs from various ashrams, holy places. He was reading our selective passages from different books to us in the context of a few conversations we had.

It was an interesting experience for me as I was for the first time meeting someone whom Swamiji calls a 'professional seeker'. It was amazing how he was quickly referring to various sources and quoting lines. Later after the puja, this gentleman shared with us how he feels so touched by Swamiji after he met Him. But he expressed how he is undergoing a big confusion in his life as a seeker with so many masters, so many different methods, so many different ways of expressing the truth. Although he was now clear from within about that special connection he shares with Swamiji, he was going through a painful dilemma about whether he should choose to go with just Him or whether it is okay to have many Masters.

This reminded us of what Swamiji beautifully clarifies in one of His discourses on seeking (watch below), that at the initial level, when the seeking is first triggered in a person, a seeker is encouraged to explore. If every Master is a garden, then he should visit as many gardens, pluck those flowers he likes and make a garland or bouquet for himself. This is a good inspiration in the beginning because the spark of "seeking" that has just been triggered is fanned in the process of searching various sources.

However, once we have found the click with a particular Master, then there is no point in continuing to search. The Master warns that if we are really serious about finding out the truth, then it is the intensity that matters (Here are our previous posts on intensity of seeking). And for this intensity to happen, He says drop all else once the connection with a Master has happened. Just dive in with all heart and soul. There is no logical explanation to feeling connected with a Master. An intense connection with the Master is a gift of Existence. Something much deeper than our logical analysis guides us towards him.

And when this happens, and we drop all else and go to that one Master with all conviction and trust, the true miracles start to unfold. Otherwise we will just be wasting our time with analysing, criticizing other Master or passing our judgements/opinions about them. If we are smart enough we will realize that none of this analysis is actually going to help us progress spiritually.

An enlightened master's touch can do much more than what a thousand meditation sessions through one's own effort can do. Such is the compassion of the master. But to avail of this grace, one has to be open. When we trust the Master and are ready to receive, it's only then we are truly open. Master is like a river who has abundance. It is upto us whether we want to go to Him with an empty teaspoon or an empty mug or an empty bucket or an empty reservoir! If we are really smart, we would consider building a dam!

Here is a discourse where Swamiji clarifies this beautifully in His own words:

Are we really in control?

Currently, every country is talking about economic downturn. Everyday we keep hearing about retrenchments, people being shown pink slips etc. Many banks and companies are closing down. We are all on high-alert. Many of my friends have been having sleepless nights thinking about their jobs. There is a certain eery stillness around.

If we look back a few months ago, before the talks about economic downturn and subprime markets etc. started, we will see a totally different picture altogether. The spending power of a working individual was higher; he was happy to spend on holidays or buying a house. He was comfortable to get a new car and do up his house. Now over the last few months, the picture is no longer the same. There was time when the real estate market had more buyers than sellers; the housing price rocketed up. Now, the picture is totally different. In Singapore, landlords are willing to waive off large sums of money (called cash over valuation) so that they can sell their property, but even then they are finding it hard to get a buyer.

Till a few months back, we thought we were all powerful. We thought we had everything in control. We had planned for years in front of us - a nice house, a big car etc. etc. Each one of us thought we are the king. We have all the strings of our lives right in our hands.

Suddenly, we now feel everything is slipping away from our hands. We are holding on tight and expecting and praying everything will become safe for us. Many of us are praying, "let me not be the next in line..."

This post is not about highlighting the negativity that is already in abundance around us right now. This is not one of those hundreds of "Cope with the Downturn" kind of articles. It is about the truth which enlightened masters have always been talking about.

The greed that was before and the fear that is now, are because of our concept of reality and life. We are very strongly attached to our material possessions, our name, our fame, our life. It is our strong belief that we are all powerful and we are incharge, makes our entire world shake when the slightest of the breeze blows. We are very serious about all this which we call as reality. If the something wrong happens in our dream, we don't care about it once we wake up.

All enlightened masters have talked about one truth - what we perceive as reality is also another dream. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "Understand that every dream is made up of the same things as what you think is reality - the same materials, the same emotions, the same stuff. When we wake up, we don't care about what happened in the dream. Then why can't we do the same thing with what we see as reality? All we have to do is to internalize that what we think as reality is also another dream. All we have to do is wake up from this dream also. That is enlightenment."

Our greed and our fear are because of our attachment to our possessions - material, emotional and even spiritual. Our attachment is because we perceive something as real and something as dream. When we live in a complete unclutched state, as Paramahamsa Nithyananda puts it, we constantly imbibe the truth about reality and dream. All we have to do is constantly remind ourselves of the dream we are seeing. The non-attachment is a liberating feeling. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "When the non-attachment happens, then whatever happens around you, you will take it as auspicious. There cannot be any suffering, only bliss."

Difficult it may sound, but we surely can try right!! We certainly won't lose anything :)

Conflict-free clicks for Jeevanmukti!

Our beloved Master Paramahamsa Nithyananda uses the word 'click' often. He defines a click as a revelation that happens in our inner space; a sort of explosion of clarity on listening to certain truths, a feeling of "Ah Yes, How True!" from deep inside. He infact says the process of initiation happens through these clicks in a disciple. It is these clicks that are like sparks that eventually catch fire to burn the thick forest of ignorance that lies inside. Here is a video on clicks and initiation:




25th December was celebrated as Acharyas day as part of the 10 day Brahmotsavam celebrations culminating with Swamiji's Jayanthi on 1st. That day Swamiji addressed all His acharyas in a conference at the ashram. He said very beautifully that if we scan our inner space, we will see that there are 3 types of clicks.

The first category is those clicks which would have experientially created an impact in our lives and we know for certain that they work. Personally, I experienced many such clicks for the first time when I attended the Life Bliss Program. Starting from insight into our engraved memories and how we give power to them, understanding about being in the present moment and how it can help us improve our work efficiency etc etc. Those clicks which we have internalized experientially are like weapons that we readily use to raise ourselves out of low mood or depression or worry or fear... they are like instant solutions.

There is a second category of clicks which we know work, but we need to put in a certain effort each time we try it. Then there is a third category which consists of those clicks that the Master has given us but which really haven't clicked in us. Swamiji said that as Acharyas it is very easy to be talking about the clicks in the first category, but when it comes to the second or the thrid, it will be transparent to the audience that the experience is yet to happen.

He went on to say that if we constantly keep experimenting with the clicks, we suddenly see that many clicks would have moved from the second category to the first, and from the third to the second. We eventually reach a point where all clicks have become an experience in us. We reach a space where there are no conflicts in the clicks inside, here there is no inner chattering.

That is the point when we start to radiate Jeevanmukti, living enlightenment. To live all clicks in a conflict free manner and to radiate that experience of the Truth that has happened inside. So, let us all keep experimenting with all the clicks that have been gifted to us by the Master and allow the explosion of inner clarity to happen. The Master, out of His compassion and grace has blessed planet earth to enter a new cycle of divine consciousness (in His Jayanthi message). Let us be one amongst those radiating Nithyananda and living Jeevanmukti!

Jayanti 2009 - Jeevan Mukti

From 23 December to 1st January, there were celebrations in the Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam ashram in Bidadi, not that it is any different during the rest of the year :) This part of the year, one can tangibly feel the energy of the place with eternal celebrations (nithyotsava) happening every corner of the ashram. We were fortunate and blessed to attend some of these days. People from all over the world had come to attend the birthday celebrations of our Master.

It was such an amazing experience to meet people from across the world and the only thread that runs common in all of us is - Nithyananda. Each one, whether an Indian or American or Chinese, greets "Nithyanandam" with a blissful smile on the face really meaning the word "Nithyanandam", eternal bliss.

We got to meet some people whom we know only by name or email. When we got to meet them in person, it felt as if we have known each other all along; it is not the first time we are meeting. The reason, our Master, Nithyananda runs through all of us.

Durin the 10 days, the Master dedicates each day to each of the pillars of His Mission, one day for His ashramites, one day for His devotees, one day for His healers, one day for His acharyas and so on. Each day was special. Starting from welcoming Him from the entrance of the ashram, the procession all the way to Anandeswara-Anandeswari temple and Banyan Tree, the aarati at the temple, fire walking, the messages by Master, the cultural programs, the blessings and darshans, everything were special.

Each day, the Master showed a different bhava, a different energy. On the youth day, He was young like a child. It was hard to believe that He is the Master, 32 years old. He was like a child, innocently dancing to the tunes. He was like a friend, dressed beautifully in short white sherwani with a turban. On the contrary, on Acharyas day, He was dressed in saffron robes. He was the Master guiding us; He was intense.

Every day, to every one, His only message was - Living Enlightenment - Jeevan Mukti. He initiated everyone who came on His birthday to Jeevan Mukti. He ignited the spark to live enlightenment. In His message, He says, "It is high time to raise human consciousness; it is late in fact." All He wants is more and more enlightened beings, He wants each one of us to experience and express our enlightenment. He wants us to get ourselves out of miseries which we have created ourselves. Even living our desires, He wants to us to live them with fulfillment, otherwise the list of desires will grow to a never ending list.

He is on fire. In all His recent messages and programs, the core idea that He is initiating people into is - living enlightenment, living with fulfillment - jeevan mukti. From a few years back, when we used to see Him talk about getting rid of worries, getting over our mind, He is now taking us to a different level altogether - towards enlightenment. No more, He is giving sugar candy to people. Now He is seeking only seekers, only those who are seeking enlightenment. He is making it clear in public the real purpose why He has taken the six feet body that we fall in love with.

He has made it loud and clear - come and be a jeevan mukta. Now, it is upto us to either go for It or stay in our cozy comfort zones. The ball is in our court ...

Lastly, please do not miss the Jayanti message here:

My Master

Yesterday (23rd December) at Bidadi ashram, the 10-day celebrations leading to Swamiji's birthday started off with great energy and enthusiasm. Today morning when we opened the Dhyanapeetam website, the photos for the first day were put up. Just seeing the photos made me experience the bliss of Nithyananda :)

The Master's blissful smile, the joyous processions of Anandeswara-Anandaeswari, hundreds of people all dancing in bliss around the Master, the Master giving Aarati to the idols and the Banyan tree, the Master blessing each one present with His compassionate touch... everything, just seeing those photos brought a huge smile on my face.

It is hard to put down in words what many of us feel when we get a glimpse of the Master, be it in physical form or in just a photograph or sometimes even in a dream. It does not matter where we are but most of us feel connected directly to Him. There are no words, no emotions, no thoughts. We are. That's all!

I just wanted to pen down my thoughts ...

Even one glimpse of Yours,

whether you are here or there,

we crave to catch, my Master.

That one smile of Yours,

whether you see me or someone else,

we crave to catch, my Master.

One compassionate touch of Yours,

whether you give intentionally or not,

we always want from You, my Master.

Your every word, my Master,

Your every glimpse,

Your every touch, my Master,

Your every hug,

is a sword, my Master...

the only sword, I know

which can cut through my veil

and bring me out of my dream.

Master, whatever You want to do

You please do; I surrender.

But one request to you, my Master,

whatever You do,

merge me in Your dream.

Do we love our nightmares too much?

Every time we conduct the Life Bliss Program, we know for certain that it is the Master who talks, we are just instruments. In one such recent LBP, it was a powerful session about the four states of consciousness that Swamiji conveys very beautifully through a diagram. To listen to the Master explain in His own words, click the video below.



I do not want to dilute what the Master has said about the four states of conscioussness by adding more words. But would like to share with you an interesting conversation that transpired after this session with one of the LBP participants. I was conveying the following point: when we are dreaming, we have no idea that we are dreaming. Only when we wake up do we realise it. Similarly till we wake up to higher consciousness, we do not know that this so-called waking state is yet another slumber. The entire room was silent as each one was intensely listening. Suddenly, one of them said to me straight "What you say is all great, perfect, sounds good.. but tell me this, I am a working father leading a stressful life in office, with deadlines to meet, bosses to please, a family to take care of.. now how does all this philosophy help me? To me, the life that I am leading is reality. How does all this help?"

The same person had melted by the end of the day and was shedding tears of gratitude to the Master for having shown some perspective on many things that lay hidden all his life till then. Anyway, the point I want to make is that we feel spirituality is a philosophy. We feel that it is something told by some Master, limited to some scripture that we place in an altar, or limited to the priests in temples. If we for a moment, believe that there is some truth about it which we can imbibe into our own lives, then we start to see miracles happening. If we are having a nightmare and are suffering as a result of that (by sweating, crying, beating the bed etc) and if someone who is watching us wakes us up out of compassion, what do we do? Ofcourse we would wake up, thank that person for getting us out of the suffering and then maybe even laugh that it was all just a dream that we took so seriously. Is it not?

In the same way, techniques given my enlightened masters are just "wake-up calls" out of compassion, to make us see reality and stop suffering in our 'dreams'. An enlightened master is blissful all the time, because He is not caught in the dream of 'samsara'. He has woken up and watching us go through the nightmare patiently. He wakes up all those who allow Him to. Some people do not want to be woken up. They love their nightmares too much. Then what to do?

A simple 'click' that whatever we see around is just another dream is something that all Masters have said in many different ways. If we trust that there is truth in this statement and contemplate on it, the deeper truths emerge to the surface on their own and show light. In a recent talk that Swamiji delivered at the Life Positive Expo @ New Delhi a few months ago, this is the only solid and crisp message He put forth - "Just constantly remind yourself that whatever you see around is a dream". When Swamiji says that this is a practical technique, not a philopshy, He means it. And we have all seen the power behind each of the techniques that He gives as - powerful weapons that we can use in our lives - and NOT just a fancy theory.

Below is a clip taken from the discourse at Life Positive Expo where this click is conveyed by the Master Himself. Enjoy!

Spirit + Ritual = Spirituality

========================= THOUGHT PROCESS 1=========================

Lets go through this questionaire:

(1) What are our first thoughts when we wake up in the morning on a Monday morning?
(2) What are our first thoughts when we wake up in the morning on any weekday?
(3) How do we feel when it is Friday?


The answers are (for most of us...):

(1) Oh God! Its monday again...
(2) Let me sleep for some more time... or let me go a bit later.. or should I take the day off ...
(3) TGIF (thank God, its friday)


========================= THOUGHT PROCESS 2=========================


Each of us want to live happily. We work because we want to make money and we intend to live happily. We think that working hard or studying hard will give us the happiness that we are looking for. We think getting a promotion in job, getting a higher degree in university, getting a better post will help us live happily, will help us lead a successful life.


================================================================


Aren't the two thought processes that we go through totally contradictory? We want all the wealth in the world; we want to live happily; we want a big post, a big name in the society. We want everything but we are unwilling to put in what it needs to get those. Given an option, most of the times, we want to relax and enjoy but when we are given an option to relax, we are scared about our future, we get frightened to be left behind in the race to the top.


Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "As a human being, we are gifted with two things - freedom and will. We exercise our freedom in every possible way but we do not exercise our will. We use our freedom to postpone things and relax but we do not have the will to actually sit and work towards what we want."

This is so true. We procrastinate and postpone even our sources of enjoyment. We want everything and we have all the freedom in the world to work towards getting those. But what is missing is our will to actually for it.

We are not intense in whatever we do, that is the problem. At work, which we believe brings us money, name and happiness, we are not intense. We are not enthused enough to really go and work. At the same time, when we are given an opportunity to take a break, we are not intense even to enjoy that. At work, when we go for coffee or tea, how many of us really enjoy that cup of tea and relax completely?

We do not have the will, the intensity and the enthusiasm for anything. Nithyananda says, "Your own lack of intensity and awareness is the main reason for all our stress, worry and all your emotional problems. We blame the external world for everything but the problem really lies inside us."

Nithyananda says beautifully,

"A ritual is a mechanical process till you add spirit to it; then it
becomes a meditation. Similarly, spirituality is all about adding spirit to
life. For most of us life is a mechanical process or a ritual. All we need to
add is spirit to life; then the ritual becomes spirituality."

The meditation and yoga programs like Life Bliss Program (LBP1) and Nithya Yoga, teach only this - adding intensity and awareness, just to enjoy every moment of life. They are not about some mystical stuff labeled as 'spirituality'. They are life solutions to explode in 360 degrees.

Come, enjoy life... enjoy spirituality...

Kalpataru Darshan - His Desire is Our Enlightenment

About 35 people from Singapore had gone to Malaysia to attend a program called the Kalpataru Darshan by the Master Himself. This one day has been the most beautiful day of our lives. Each one of 600 odd people who were present in that hall were touched in one way or the other by the sheer compassion of the Master.

This is a boon-giving day, which the Master started recently. He says:

"I give you shakti, the energy and power to change what needs to be changed in you and for you.

I give you buddhi, the intelligence to accept what cannot be and what need not be changed in you and for you.

I give you yukti, the clarity to know that whatever changes in you and for you it is still a dream, you need to awake.

I give you mukti, the awakening into that Truth, the fulfillment, the purnatva, which is what you really are. "

At the end of the day, we go to Him and ask Him whatever we want. He sits there patiently listening to each and every one and grants what needs to be granted.

Most of us, we had made a laundry list before going on to the stage but when He looked at us like our Mother and asked, "What do you want?", everything dropped. Most of us broke down in His lap and when He hugged us, it felt as if we are back home. The few moments when He hugged us, we experienced never ending joy, eternal bliss, nithyananda.

The experiences that people shared after the program are far too many to quote. Each one had his or her unique experience but the base was the same - experiencing that nithyananda.

One thought bothered many of us while returning back. He came all the way to Malaysia for one single day. He had to go back immediately after so that He conducts the same program on the weekend (20 Nov. was a thursday; He came on wednesday and left on friday). Every weekend since October this year till March next year, He is doing this program.

Why is He is doing that?

He says in the program, "Every desire of ours is leading to fulfillment in one
way or the other, either by having more money, or name and fame. Every desire
has the same goal - fulfillment. Now instead of praying for these small desires
to get fulfilled, desire intensely for the Ultimate Fulfillment itself."

More than us, He is working towards our enlightenment. He wants more and more people to realize themselves. He wants more and more Nithyanandas out there. For us, if we travel from office to home, we get tired. He is travelling every day trying to lift as many people as He can. Speaking to one person tires us, even though we are not listening to him or her attentively; He is really listening, speaking and healing to thousands of people very weekend.

He doesn't have to do that. He can sit happily and enjoy His enlightenment. It is His compassion to help us, to aid us in our enlightenment.

All He wants from us is to be open but many of us are still stuck with our intellect. We see the profit and loss; we do the cost analysis. If a program is charged, why is it charged? If a program is free, why is it free? (He explained that also with a beautiful joke... may be later on this)

For all of us who are on the fence looking at all this with doubts and questions, one thing is certain: we are the losers if we miss this opportunity. We are at loss not He because He neither gains or loses. He will continue with His work of touching people. It is upto us to extend our hand out so that He can lift us. If we hold ourselves back, there is nothing He can do. Like He says, "the dharma chakra, the wheel of dharma, moves on. If you want, you can hold it and you too will move. If you are standing outside, you will stay where you are."

If you have an opportunity, please attend the Kalpataru Darshan. The dates are available at http://dhyanapeetam.org/Web/kalpataru_darshan1.asp.

Its a once in a life time opportunity...

Boundless Joy!

This evening, in a few hours time, a group of 35 of us from Singapore will be traveling to Malaysia to attend a 1 day program tomorrow with Swamiji. The very thought of meeting the Master is something that floods the entire system with bliss, with energy, an unexplainable feeling. Not just for me, but for many people I know. Just talking about the Master is a favorite passtime for many of us and we can easily do night outs with no trace of sleep just talking about Him!

Enlightened Masters like Paramahamsa Nithyananda are embodiments of pure existential energy. When such is the case, talking about them or thinking about them becomes a meditation in itself. We see that our number of thoughts per second just drops and we are flooded with energy. Why does this happen? At the thought level, every word/thought is energy no doubt. And when we are bombarded with too many thoughts, we feel a drain in our energy. However, there is a difference when the thoughts are related to the Master.

This is because the Guru, who is established in existential energy, can straightaway take us to the deepest layer of our being. He is like a bridge between words and wordlessness, between thoughts and thoughtlessness. Especially if we are connected with the Master, then the very thought about the Guru just kills all other thoughts and this sudden drop of thoughts is what causes that flood of energy or bliss. Our deepest layers respond to the thoughts about the Guru, especially when we are connected.

This is the beautiful science behind the Guru Mantra initiation. Recently, Swamiji has started initiating people into Purascharana meditation, which involves repeated chanting of the Guru Mantra. When we constantly repeat the Guru's name, our whole being responds and we become alive. All the negative thought patterns are replaced by the sole thought of the Master. A total reprogramming of the inner chattering by thoughts related to the Master, bliss, energy etc, is like a preparation for the Master to do the ultimate surgery - when He takes us even beyond His name and form. Replacing our inner chattering with words of the Master reminds us more and more of our own core - of bliss.

This links me to what I started off saying - thoughts, words, form of the Master are all like instant energy boosters and those that flood one with boundless joy! That is the main trigger for books like Bhagavatam which sings the glory of Krishna through various incidents in His life. The Master's life is a leela, a drama which He plays so that He makes us connect with Him. And certainly in the whole process makes us have a lot of fun. Thank you Master!

Competition or Cutting Ourselves??

I was talking to a cousin who is just 10 years old. All along the conversation, he was talking about being ahead in his class, about competition in studies, sports and everything. This is not just with my cousin but we find this competition everywhere at every stage.

Right from our childhood, we are taught how to compete. The theory of "survival of the fittest" is engrained in us deeply right from when we start to walk. Sometimes, parents compare infants of same age as to who started walking first, who started talking first, who started crawling first. This comparison, this competition continues till the time we die. We compare and compete with our fellow students when we are young; then with our friends in college; then with our colleagues for position in the society and so and so forth.

What is interesting is that the idea of competition is actually not our true nature. If we leave children in a room, they actually make best of best friends. They play together. They share whatever they have. Only when they start getting condition either by parents or teachers or society, they start competing against each other.

In fact, biologically it has been proven by Dr. Bruce Lipton, an eminent biologist, that biological cells when put in a petridish, come closer and try to cooperate and collaborate to survive rather than competing against each other in isolation. The "survival of the fittest" theory is currently being verified if it still holds true.

When we compare and compete, we are detaching ourselves with the rest of the universe. We start living in a shell that we carve out for ourselves and shield it hard using our strong identity of name and status in the society. The very idea of competition makes us sepearte from the rest of the cosmos around us.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "we are not a wave. We are the ocean itself. Whether the wave is rising or staying up there or falling down, we are a part of the same ocean." Each wave thinks it is different from the others and each wave is competing to rise highest, to be on top of one another. Each wave wants to remain as a wave for as long as it can. But it has to fall back in to the ocean...

The whole point of all meditation techniques that Nithyananda advocates is to help us realise that we are not separate waves but the ocean itself. These meditations help us to shed our competition to stay on top; they help us cut across the shield that we have created because of our own perceptions and merge with the bliss of Oneness that all enlightened Masters constantly experience.

The Super Manager

A person next to me was reading an article - "The Best Manager" from some magazine, which talked about managers of top companies and how they manage people for high productivity.

I was wondering, an enlightened Master like Paramahamsa Nithyananda can certainly give some management tips. He manages each one of his disciples to lead them toward enlightenment.
Each of the disciples is unique, atleast initially. And hence the management job of the Master becomes so much more difficult. He has to design and devise techniques for each one of them, to lead them to the same common goal of enlightenment. Just imagine; managing people to get a balance sheet done in an office takes lot of work from the manager's side. That is the reason there are so many books on "how to manage people." Here, in the master's case, we are talking about enlightenment.

We see that very clearly in Paramahamsa Nithyananda. On each one of His disciples, He works in a unique manner. Each disciple of His is very unique and special to Him. He designs techniques for each one of us uniquely. To intellectuals, He teaches pure advaitha (non-dualism) based on pure intellect. To emotional disciples, He asks to just connect with idols. To being level disciples, He just asks them to be in His presence.

To each one of us, He gives a different technique; either based on gnana (knowledge and intellectual understanding) or dhyana (meditation) or yoga or devotion. The spiritual names He gives are direct indications of each one of our paths. They are techniques He is asking us to follow.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa devised various techniques for different disciples amongst His monastic disciples. He gets furious at Vivekananda once when Vivekananda meddles with another fellow disciple's path. Similarly, Shiva gives 112 techniques for enlightenment in Vignana Bhairava Tantra and each one of them is catered for different people.

When Master descends on planet earth again, He comes with this sole purpose - to get as many of us enlightened as He can. It is His pure compassion to tolerate our petty desires from hundreds of thousands of disciples. He still extends His hand expecting us to extend our hands and hold His' so that He can lift us. We on the other hand question and doubt the Master just because of our fears, greed and inhibhitions. All we have to do is to be open and extend our hand, and there, on the other side, there is a super Manager who will manage the rest of the process.

And finally, the Master resorts to different managements techniques to each of His disciples only in the beginning, till we fall in tune with Him. Once we reach that state, He doesn't manage with words and techniques. He just Is and we are with Him, experiencing Him, with or without the form.

No more Charlie Chaplins - Why??

Over the years, we have become more and more sophisticated, not just in what we use in the external world but also in our mental setup and thinking. Even things which used to give us sensory pleasures like TVs have become more and more sophisticated now. Now we want dolby stereo effects, home theater effects, high-blast sound systems etc. etc. to please us.

The themes of movies which used to be modes of entertainment have completely changed. There were times when violence was not an integral part of the movies or the sitcoms. They were purely meant for entertainment and nothing else. There were movies dedicated to humor only and nothing else. Now, where are the Laurel and Hardys'; where are the Charlie Chaplins? Now if we want to laugh, we will get an old DVD of these people.

Now, the movies are based on violence or horror or terrorism or some negativity. I was surprised to see one particular week, all the movies that were being screened were horror movies. Once in a while, some comedy or musical pops up but even they have some kind of violence. Very rarely do some movies come with pure entertainment and nothing else. Even cartoon movies, they are getting sophisticated. Tom and Jerry used to potray an innocence. Even their violence was innocence. The cartoon characters now are more humanly. The innocence is completely lost. In fact the newer version of Tom and Jerry itself shows the loss of innocence. We can clearly make out the difference between new version of Tom and Jerry and the old one.

What does all this show? They are not something that we watch and leave. We think they are just some movies or sitcoms. But they clearly show, we have lost our innocence completely. Our innocence, our state of happiness is covered with layers of negativity, fears and greed. And it is our negativities that enjoy the movies or sitcoms or whatever external paraphernalia that we have around us.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "We are embodiments of innocence and pure bliss and nothing else." And we see that in the Master Himself. Many of us have witnessed that child-like innocence in Him.

All we have to do is to hold on to that innocence. Our problems are because of our own sophistication of our mental setup. Our worries, tensions and depression are our own distancing away from our inner core - innocence. All we have to do it is express it and not suppress it in the name of growing up and societal conditioning.

Sanatana Dharma - Perpetual Truths for Peaceful Society

Arvind Adiga, an Indian journalist, is the 2008 Booker Prize winner for his book - The White Tiger. This book basically talks about a servant-master relationship and how this servant goes on to become a successful entrepreneur. The author, Arvind Adiga, in one of his interviews narrates an incident which inspired him to write this novel. He says, 'I was buying furniture in New Delhi five years ago and the storeowner said, `Don't give me cash, give me a deposit of Rs 1,000, and give the rest to the man when he delivers it.' So when the man came to my house -- and he was a very poor man -- he put down the furniture and then I paid him the money. Then he asked for a Rs 10 tip which I gave it him. I was amazed that this man who made a maximum of Rs 1,000 a month or perhaps even less, was taking a bundle of money to give to his master.'

Another point in his interview which caught my attention was, 'And this led to the question why there was so little crime in India compared to that in New York, South Africa and Latin America, where poverty is the leading cause of the high rates of crime. In India, even if there is a phenomenal disparity in wealth there is very little crime due to poverty. The novel began as a kind of an experiment.'

These sounded familiar to me because in one of His talks, Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "In the US, there is a police station at each every county. Every few miles, there is police check post. In India, forget few miles, sometimes a whole taluk (a block of villages) have one police check post. But statistics say that the crime rate in US is 100 times greater than in India."

That is true. According to statistics, even though there is no one watching each and every village of India, even though people are poorer than people in most developed countries, the crime rate is much lesser in India as compared to developed cities in countries like the US .

Nithyananda says, "The reason is our society is based on santana dharma. Our society is founded on these perpetual (santana) teachings (dharma). When we are internally conscious and aware, which is the basis of sanatana dharma, we do not need some external person or police to tell us what is right and wrong."

This explains why even if a person is in utter poverty in India, he does not take advantage of a situation as was seen by Arvind Adiga in the case of the poor labourer.

All enlightened masters of the Sanatana Dharma have taught one thing through meditation and yogic techniques - how to raise our consciousness. Masters like Patanjali and Buddha have talked about code of conduct, both personal and societal. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, "When Patanjali talked about yama (personal conduct) and niyama (conduct towards people around you), he talked about a much deeper topic. They were not rules to be followed. When He talked about ahimsa or non-violence, it was not a rule. It is an expression of the heightened awareness or consciousness. When we are conscious, we cannot be violent. We automatically become non-violent."

There are many villages in India where people live based on trust and nothing else. Whether it is money or food or whatever, they build the whole society around them with trust in each other. One person can trust the other only when both of them are ruled by something much deeper. And that string which connects people is Sanatana Dharma.

Nithyananda says, "Unlike police check posts every mile in the US, there is temple at very crossing in India villages and cities. Unlike a Mc Donald's or Burger King's tower at the entrace of every county in the west, there is a gopuram (temple entrance) that welcomes people in every village in India. These temples and ashrams (monasteries) have been the preservers and propagators of Sanatana Dharma, the perpetual truths, to the mankind."

Many people, and ironically mainly so-called modern Indians, either take these for granted or do not see the value behind these truths thinking them to be ancient and irrelevent to the modern world. The very fact that these truths are the basic foundation of a billion people in India shows their relevance in today's age. These truths are ageless, and certainly are not limited to the boundaries of India or Indian sub-continent. The Nithyananda Ashrams in the west are testimony to this where many Americans and Europeas are following and benefitting from these truths through personal transformation. The only pre-requisite is - being open. That's all!

Guru Puja - an Offering of Gratitude to Existence

Paramahamsa Nithyananda gifted Nithya Dhyaan (or Life Bliss Meditation) to the world a couple of years ago. This is a very powerful meditation that puts one in connection to our inner reservoir of bliss and energy. It generates tremendous healing energy apart from the general benefits of wellbeing at the physical, mental, emotional and being levels. There are too many testimonials from too many people if we want to put them down.

The last step of this meditation ends with an offering of gratitude to existence and to the Master, who is an embodiment of the existential energy - Guru Puja. It's a beautiful ritual which one can perform or one can choose to just sit closed eyes listening to the chants in a prayerful mood. To many, this step is the favorite and to many this is what repels them from coming close. This may specially not appeal to the intellectuals as the rationale of this is not apparent at the surface. This post is to throw some light on the science of the Guru Puja.

Unfortunately, although we are exposed to rituals since childhood (especially those of us brought up in traditional Indian families), the lack of awareness or understanding or depth usually is a put off, especially to the young questioning minds. Swamiji says beautifully:

When we infuse spirit to a ritual, it becomes spirit-uality. Without the spirit, even spirituality becomes just a ritual!

What this means to say is that every act of ours can become spirituality when we infuse the intensity and enthusiasm. It could be a small thing like having a cup of tea, if the spirit is there then it becomes a blissful act. Otherwise it becomes another ritual, another chore. Our life becomes monotonous and mechanical.

So, coming back to Guru Puja. What does this ritual do? It's to offer our gratitude to existence for all that we have. We are taught only societal "thank you"s, but when true gratitude oozes out from inside, its a natural expression of the being. This ritual creates the ambience and triggers that expression from within - ONLY if we are open to allow this to happen.

Let me explain to you briefly the meaning of the chants that accompany the Guru Puja. It basically says that we offer our entire mind-body system, part-by-part to existence in gratitude. Since Guru symbolises existences, we invite Him to our core, just like we would invite a guest and offer ourselves to Him. We make the Guru comfortable in the home of our inner space by offering Him water to drink, rinse His mouth, fresh clothes to wear, sandal perfume to adorn Him, food to eat etc.

Inviting the Guru to our inner space is equivalent to invoking the divinity/existential energy/God/cosmic energy that is within us.

Now, you may ask, 'if I have the feeling of gratitude, it's enough; why should I perform the ritual?'. Very valid question. But the problem is that our mind and inner space is so polluted that it easily wanders away here and there not allowing us to even feel the emotion of gratitude intensely. By doing the external ritual, it integrates our actions with our thoughts and emotions. It only adds intensity. This is the reason, we physically offer flowers, fruits, incense etc.

How beautiful! When we are connected to the external Guru, then the Guru Puja can becomes even more beautiful! We can literally experience the Master sitting in front of us accepting the puja. Guru Puja can become an intimate rendesvouz with the Master!

Nithyanandam!

P.S: If you are interested to learn how to perform the Guru Puja in Singapore, do mail in to lifebliss.singapore@gmail.com

Our mind - the true culprit

"Everything in Nature is in perfect harmony with each other, except we humans...", I came across this statement and I thought how true this statement is. It is because of us humans that the Nature has entered in an inequilibrium. Everywhere, people are talking about global warming, ice-sheets melting, sea-levels rising, glaciers receding etc. etc.

If there is anyone who is responsible for these things, it is us - humans. For over billions of years till the human being happened on planet earth, everything had a natural rate. If there was an ice-age, there was melt-down too. Even when man happened, he lived peacefully with the Nature and everything was green and rosy.

But the problem started when we humans started interfering with the natural state of stability. It is said that the rate of rise in global temperature over the last few decades has been higher than all the thousands of years put together before that.

Our greed and fear has led to this sad state. The Nature has always blessed us with whatever we wanted but the problem is our list of wants is so loooooooooooooooong that She has no answer now. Our greed has taken over so much that once we get something, we immediately look for the next thing and we call this modernization.

Earlier, man killed animals but for his livlihood only. He cut trees only to get enough space for him to grow crops and survive. He made machines and looked for comforts but only those that would ease his physical strain at the end of a hard day out.

Now, we are cutting trees to build resorts, casinos and shopping malls. Most of the times, a shopping mall is totally unwarranted given there are hundreds of malls around but still we are building them.

I have nothing against modernization. It is because of that I am writing this post. But what we are doing is not fulfilling our needs. All we are doing is pleasing our senses. It is a mental problem that we have. It is the negativity that we are constantly building which causes us that irritation, which make us live on greed and fear. Paramahamsa Nithyananda repeatedly says, "Fear and greed drive the modern man."

That is true. Our greed to get more and more, if not others will take it and our fear to hold on to what we have is the real problem. We are simply exploiting the Nature to fulfill our mental pleasures only. And the most important thing we miss in this whole process is, how much ever we try to fulfill our mental pleasures, they can never be fulfilled because they are non-existent in the first place.

Time and again, enlightened masters have said our mind is an illusion. Intellectual science also is slowly converging to this conclusion. When the mind itself is an illusion, our so-called problems created by our mind should also be a mirage.

We are constantly torturing Mother Nature in an attempt catch the mirage but is the mirage there?

The only solution to this question is for us to ask ourselves what we really want. All this running around is because of our belief in the quest for eternal joy in the outside world. All this running is doing is to stamp Mother Nature again and again. Once we realize that eternal bliss within us, our running stops, we fall in tune with Mother Nature; we fall in total harmony like everything else in Nature. Meditation is a way to realize that eternal bliss, that nithyananda.

The Ego-Cutter and Shortcut to Bliss

Each and every person involved in any of the 1300 Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam or Life Bliss Foundation mission centers across the world is working for the mission as a volunteer. Whether it is an acharya or meditation program teacher, or ananda sevaks - people who come to serve food or set up the meditation hall and attend to the needs of the participants, or transcribers transcribing words of Nithyananda, or anyone else directly or indirectly related to Nithyananda Mission is a volunteer.

The sangha or the mission brings us all together and our Master says 33% of Me is in the Sangha or Mission. He quotes the famous lines from Buddha -

Buddham sharanam gachchaami!
Dhammam sharanam gachchaami!
Sangham sharanam gachchaami!

He says, "physically being with the Master's form (Buddha) is not always possible. But you can always hold on to the Truths (Dhamma) and the Mission (Sangha). The form is only 33%, rest of the 66% is in the Dhamma and the Sangha."

Of the Dhamma and Sangha, the Master says, Sangha directly works on each one of us.

This post just highlights how the Sangha or the Mission has changed my life and I am sure many of the Nithyananda volunteers would resonate with what I am writing here.

Firstly, the Sangha brings the best out of the people. Constantly the Master puts us on our toes so that we can give the best of our abilities. Outsiders think, why we are so stressed up? Actually, it is the other way round. When we work for the Mission, we are high on energy as if we have taken some steroids. Thats the beauty. We are all charged up, roaring to go and give the best.

If not for the Master's constant push, our mind will automatically relax into its comfort zone. Many a times, our mind plays a foul game and keeps us stick to whatever we know and we are comfortable with. The Sangha makes us push one step ahead. It constantly keeps us pushing and pushing till a point the mind drops. And that exactly is how the Master works...

Same thing when we are loaded with different things. Many of the volunteers work on multiple things at the same time for the Mission - writing books, organizing events, teaching etc. etc. etc. Again, the Master is working through the Sangha.

Our mind makes us believe that we can do only this much or this one or two things. But only we take up more that what we believe we can do, the energy flows through us and the mind again takes a back seat. The Master working on us again ...

The Sangha keeps us connected to the Truth or Dhamma. When we are in the company of like minded people, our thoughts and inner chattering is also about the Truth. The truths of the Master resonate in us and we are pulled into the low thoughts per second zone. Again, the Master ...

The most important thing that the Sangha does is to mould us continuously. The Master says, "The Sangha moulds you continuously. It chisels you." Our ego constantly takes a beating. There are many times we think, 'this should be the way; this is how one should teach; this is how the course should be; this is food that should be given to participants; this should be the course fees etc. etc. etc.' We come to our own conclusions, judgements and comments about how things should be.

Most of the times, these arise out of our ego and when someone in the Sangha says - do this and not that, our ego takes a beating. Our ego which projects out these questions and conclusions are shattered when the people around us don't give it the attention it craves for. The Sangha does exactly that - not give any attention at all to each individual's ego. The Sangha puts its finger right where the puss is.

In those situations, there are two things that we can do - either hold not to our ego and start complaining even more or understand that it is our ego that is playing the game and drop it. The latter is obviously the result the Master is making us work towards through the Sangha. That is what He means by - the Sangha moulds you.

The Sangha directly leads to our inner transformation. No wonder the Master gives so much importance to it. When we are connected to it, we are connected to the Master Himself. What a shortcut to be in eternal Bliss - Nithyananda ...

Conditionings or Crutches

During my piano class this week, I had an interesting discussion with my teacher. A brief history of my piano skills: I started a couple of years back and I find it reeeeeal hard to coordinate my left and right hand when it comes to some complicated compositions :)

Anyway, this week, I was trying one such composition. I was struggling hard to sustain certain notes on my left hand using one finger and then using the other fingers on the same hand, I had to play different notes. And then I had to play another set of notes with my right hand simultaneously. Don't bother if you did not understand it. All I can say is it was really difficult. I spent some 10 ten minutes trying to figure out how to move my hands and fingers to play just one bar; one bar basically has a set of notes, in this case just 8 notes :)

On seeing my struggle, my teacher told me, 'I can understand the problem you are facing. As adults we cannot play both hands together. Children can do that very easily. Our right brain and left brain find it real hard to coordinate with each other. The same is the case with reading notes in a increasing order and decreasing order. We can play increasing notes fluently but decreasing notes, our pace is reduced because our mind takes longer time to process the next note. Same is the case with telling the alphabet in the reverse order. For children this coordination is not a problem at all."

This sounds familiar, isn't it? Very scientifically, she applied the concept of conditioning to music. This is so true. We are conditioned so much from childhood that we cannot do many things which we were able to do before. I have seen some people who cannot hold a tumbler of water using their left hand because they are conditioned to be right handed.

Every little thing, we have been conditioned in one way or the other by parents, teachers, elders and society. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says 'these conditionings are the major obstacles in the path to realize your true potential.'

Many a time, we do not do things because we are conditioned to believe we are not capable of doing them. Volunteers from Nithyananda mission take up variety of jobs like transcriptions, editing, program management, website development, teaching etc. etc. Each one is loaded with different things, sometimes one needs skills that are diametrically opposite the other. But still we do; sometimes we make mistakes but we learn and move on.

This is possible because we all follow Paramahamsa Nithyananda's message, "Not to sit cozily in the comforts of our conditioning." We do not explode and explore our potential because we like to hold on to our conditionings. We do not want to break open from them. That is the reason why we keep on doing the same things again and again.

Our very belief that we are good at one or some specific things is a conditioning in itself. When the Master sees that we are holding on to something and sitting and relaxing in our comfort zones, He blasts us with a new challenge to break our conditioning and get us out of our crutches. That is the job of the Master and Paramahamsa Nithyananda is tooooo good at it :)

Stubborn frog in a well

What is your immediate reaction if you were to watch a documentary showing what happens in the distant space out there, far far away from Planet Earth? Galaxies dissolving into each other, the stars born as nebulae, expanding to become red giants and finally dimming and dying as black dwarfs, the multiverses spanning across infinite space, the big bangs and black holes, the light from the stars we see today are emitted by them thousands of years ago...

For most of us, it a sense of awe, wonder! at how much that goes on and we are not even aware of them. Or it could be a sense of feeling insignificant, again which makes us wonder. Today, scientists cannot barely point out where the Universe ends, simply because there is no end! In this massive infinite space, our earth looks tinier than a microbe. On that microbe-sized planet, we are one tinier than a speck, so you can imagine! We are practically nothing in the macro-cosmos.

Have we ever wondered why we feel that awe or another dimension open up inside us when we listen to these things? Simply because at that point in time, our ego drops. We suddenly realize we are part of that vast energy around us which is operating the entire Universe. The millions of planets, stars are moving in harmony without any traffic policeman. They know what to do, without us having to tell them.

The irony is we think we are the most important of all! Our problems, our worries are of the highest priority. Where did that feeling of awe disappear? We return to our solid identity that we have built for ourselves which makes us close our eyes to seeing the bigger picture of things.

The same holds with the microcosm. When we hear of scientists performing experiments using proton chambers, particle accelerators, theories that at the particle level we are energy, again we feel 'wow!'. Today science has clearly proven that matter is energy at the atomic level. And we are nothing but a big bunch of atoms together. So we are nothing but energy then! But why aren't we fluid then? Why are we rigid in the way we think, behave, expect others to behave etc? Once again, the same answer: the rigid shell we have build around ourselves called the 'ego' stops us from seeing things in perspective.

Now, what makes an enlightened Master different? Whatever awe, wonder we felt during those moments when we are exposed to truths about the microcosm and the macrocosm, the Master feels it all the time. He sees things the way they are. He knows that His body is nothing but an instrument which that vast energy uses to express itself. He knows that He is energy. He knows that His entire life is temporary, which is going to dissolve into that same energy one day. He has nothing to hold on to. He has nothing to fear. He has nothing to lose, because everything is His. He knows He is a wave in that ocean of energy, which will one day dissolve into itself. He has no barrier stopping Him from seeing the reality. He has no ego.

2 weeks ago, during our Life Bliss Program here, one of the participants told me 'Don't tell me about the cosmic intelligence, it has no relevance to me today. What is real to me is my family, my worries, my salary, my job'. Fair enough, we feel that way because we are seeing the narrow perspective. It's like a frog saying 'I know there is vast ocean out there, but to me my well is real. I don't want to jump out and explore that ocean because I am very comfortable inside my well. I have problems, worries in this well and you tell me that once I see the ocean the problems will disappear, but I am too used to my well, so I dare not venture out'.

Once we gather the courage to jump out and explore that ocean, it's a different game altogether. What is there to fear, the Master who has seen the ocean is calling us, giving us reassurance. Let us not waste this chance. Let us not waste our time in doubting the Master, because He doesn't lose anything. Only we lose out on the golden chance. Let us come out of our wells and experience the ocean. After all, the ocean is that of bliss.

Exploring the Scientist in Us

Today, 10 September 2008, is going to be major day in the history of planet Earth for Science. At about 12.30 pm (IST), the historic 'Big Bang' experiment is going to be conducted at Geneva based CERN lab in a 27 km deep tunnel beneat the French-Swiss border. CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) is the advanced lab in the world for nuclear physics which boasts of having the fastest and longest particle accelerator where matter smaller than protons and neutrons are made to collide with each other at speeds equal to light (the fastes possible speed that can be achieved).

What is the purpose of this experiment and why is it so special that the whole scientific community is talking about it? Because, top nuclear physicists for 80 countries all around the world have joined hands together to find out what actually happened after the Big Bang (the collision that happened billions of years ago, which is believed to have created the Universe as we see it today). The scientific community spent billions of dollars (6.4 billion euros more specifically) to develop the equipment required for the experiement today.

What they are going to do today is to simulate exactly the same thing (in a controlled manner) that happened billions of years ago. They want to find out what are the matter and energies that are generated in this process that eventually resulted in the Universe today. This experiment is going to last for years as atleast 100000 DVDs of results will be generated every year and scientists have to wait for atleast 5 to 10 years to see anything significant. It is believed that if this experiement fails, the scientific community has to change its understanding of matter and energy completely.

Why am I talking about all this? What I am going to say now is an objective understanding of science and intellect as I see it. This experiment shows that people around the world, top-notch scientists from different corners of the world are still trying to find the very basis of existence. They are experimenting now to find why and how this Universe came to into existence. The theories about matter and energy, which have been published in hundreds and thousands of books, which we intellectuals believe is the truth and nothing else is true, is still questionable.

Top scientists agree that science has its limitations and that they are expanding the reach of science into the unknown realms. The irony is that the 'unknown realms' are basic, fundamental questions of existence - how did the Universe start, who are we, what is mind etc. etc. If we see the basic research which gets published in top scientific journals is all about theories and hypothesis about these basic questions.

The problem is those of us who believe science is the Ultimate are fooling ourselves because the top scientists themselves are still questioning it. Most of the top scientists, if not all, atleast agree the limitation of science because they truly know about science. They are searching newer possiblities in their own way through science. But we, sitting in our house or office, only think we know everything about science and use that as a excuse not to extend ourselves to newer possibilities.

To us who can't be at CERN or any such lab, enlightened Masters have created various laboratories and experiments. Ashrams or monastaries are the laboratories; meditation techniques are the experiments. Let us not close the door to possibilities which are in our reach to seek the truth of our very existence. These laboratories and techniques are available to each one of us, a youtube click away, as Paramahamsa Nithyananda says :) Scientists are doing their bit to answer the same questions which have been answered by enlightened masters thousands of years ago. The Advaithic literature is pure science and this has been attested by Einstein, one of the greatest scientists the world has ever seen. He says, 'where science ends, spirituality begins.'

Nithyananda says, 'science eventually will tend to the great truths expounded by enlightened masters.' We can be the same scientists as those at CERN. They are daring enough to go behind what they have in hand. Let us also have to courage to experiment and see the truth for ourselves, especially when Masters are delivering the experiments at our doorsteps.

(More on CERN experiment: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/359517.html)

Intensity + Awareness + Enthusiasm = Beauty + Grace

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'Beauty and grace happens in us because of three things - intensity, enthusiasm and awareness.'

And we can clearly see that in His body language. One thought that 99% of the people get when we see Him (either we are seeing Him for the first time or we have seen Him hundreds of times) is, 'What a beauty and grace?' Not just with Paramahamsa Nithyananda, the same happens with Masters like Ramana Maharshi, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda, Paramahamsa Yogananda, Sharada Devi, Lahiri Mahashaya. If you see the videos of Ramana Maharashi in youtube, you just fall in love with His silent grace. The pictures of Ramakrishna show that beauty of devotion; the pictures and words of Vivekananda show His strength; the potraits of Sharada Devi show that simplicity and the smile of Lahiri Mahashaya and Yogananda are worth thousands. In every movement of Paramahamsa Nithyananda who walks and talks to us in flesh and blood, we see that beauty and grace pouring out.

Why is that so? Simply because they are/were aware of every single movement, every single thought and every single breath that they used to take. We on the other hand are hardly aware of what we are doing. We move our hands, legs and body every where without even being aware of them. We would have done thousands of things in a day but in the darkness of unawareness (most of the times).

We do things, we speak, we move or rather we live not with intensity and enthusiasm but in the shackles of our engrave memories (engrams) or samskaras or past experiences and emotions. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'We keep doing the same things over and over again. We keep making the same mistakes again and again. In fact, we have the same thought patterns at specific times of the day even when the situations are different on different days.' This is simply because most of the times we operate mechanically.

Everything that we do is either because of our fears or because of our greed for wanting more and more. These two just take the beauty away from what we are doing. That awareness brings that beauty to our movements, thoughts and actions. If we see Paramahamsa Nithyananda in His discourses, every movement of His is hand is graceful. There is a sheer beauty that radiates from every movement of His. There is no unnecessary or violent movement or word.

He is blissful inside and hence the beauty, grace and bliss on the outside. The blissful smile of Lahiri Mahasaya and Yogananda is an expression of their bliss inside. The thousand watt gaze of Vivekananda is a manifestation of His strength of bliss inside. Meditation techniques and Nithya Yoga that Paramahamsa Nithyanada keeps talking about in all His discourses are meant for us to build that intensity, awareness and enthusiasm so as to realize and radiate our true nature - bliss.

Ganesha Chaturthi: Towards the formless & eternal!

Yesterday was Ganesha Chaturthi - the birthday of the famous elephant God, Ganesha. Just for this day, hundreds of thousands of idols of Ganesha idols are made with clay, metal etc every year and worshipped with all grandeur. Apart from the Ganeshas in every home, huge Ganeshas would grace almost every street of India during this period for about a week. Ganesha, being the God of beginnings, is worshipped by all segments of the Indian society - starting from businessmen to farmers to householders; starting from the followers of Shiva to Vishnu, practically every home has a celebration for Ganesha Chaturthi.

There is a very interesting way in which this festival is celebrated. At the start of the festival, Ganesha is welcomed in a grand manner, taken very good care of, fed well, protected with utmost care, entertained with dances, shows and what not. After building this beautiful relationship with Ganesha for that period, on the last day, He is bid farewell and immersed into the neighborhood pond, lake, wells etc.

This may make us wonder for two reasons. One: about how deep idol worship has penetrated the masses of India, and two: what is the point of building that relationship for those days only to say good bye to the idol, that too by immersing it in water once and for all.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda very beautifully unveils the significance of idol worship. We, as humans have started associating our identities to our body-mind entities, so much so that we have forgotten that we are actually the vast universal existential energy. The solid identities we have carved for ourselves about ourselves, the world around us makes it difficult to connect to this energy directly.

Once a man goes to Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and asks him how to get enlightened. Bhagavan says "just see the source of I, you will realise who you are". The man came back after a few days saying "that is too difficult for me, can I meditate instead?". Bhagavan said "sure". Again the man is back after a few days saying "this is also too difficult for me, can I chant the name of the Lord instead?". Bhagavan said "sure". Again he is back saying "this is also difficult for me, can I do puja/rituals instead?" Bhagavan said "sure"...

So, directly connecting with existence as energy is something that does not happen very easily. That is why the inner world scientists have hence created a system of idol worship where we first start by giving a form to that energy, a form that we relate to. Ganesha, whose very nature is that of bliss, joy, dance, prosperity is a form that is lovable and easy for most to connect to.

Now, as Swamiji says, when we intensely pray to a form that we feel deeply connected to, the form itself will take us beyond the form. The reason Ganapathy is put into the water is exactly for this reason. He shows that point of transition from the form to the formless. When Ganesha dissolves into the water, He becomes the formless. After building that beautiful relationship with Ganesha, if we able to still continue that relationship without the form, then we have grown.

Ganesha also reminds us that everything in this world is temporary. We came from the five elements (panchabhootas) and have to return to it some day or the other. He reminds us of the impermanence of everything in life. Our possessions, our so called career, family, friends.. everything has to go one day. This very remembrance can make us let go of our transient identity and merge with the permanent and eternal.

I would like to end this post by sharing a video in which Swamiji speaks about the significance of the form of Ganesha, including each of the weapons he holds in his hands. This was delivered on Ganesha Chaturthi 2007. EnjoY!

Kolkata - the City with Intensity

Continuing on our Varanasi Trip series, let me talk about one of the oldest cities of India - Calcutta or Kolkata. This place was the capital city of British India before New Delhi. This is the place where our Master spent a long period meditating on the banks of Ganga. This is the place where He is used to connect with Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Sharada Devi at Dakshineswar. This is the place where He was first initiated.

Now, Calcutta is certainly one of the dirtiest places on this planet :) The very first day when we landed at the huge Howrah Railway station, it took us two hours to travel a 15-minute walk by bus from the station to our hotels. That place is so very crowded with both people and traffic. If it rains, like it did the day we landed, you can imagine. We see hoards of people moving everywhere busily. The red colored buses, yellow colored taxis, the old-British ages sub-way system, everything is filled with people. Not one house in the downtown area looks whitewashed. Everything looks age old. The streets still remind one of British age, with pavements made by Britishers still rocking. The traffic is so mad that it takes a good couple of hours to go from the city center to the outskirts.

The very first day the Master jovially said, "How many of you are irritated with crowd and traffic of this city? ... Even if you are irritated, nothing can be done. You can't do anything about the traffic and the crowd. There are only two things you can do - complain, complain, and keep on complaining or just flow with it and be happy."

All this said and done, we still found this place very beautiful. There was some charm to this city.
The Master then said immediately,

"This is an intense and a beautiful city. I spent a large part of my parivrajaka (wandering days) in this city. This is one city where I lived and which I love."

That is very true. Though there was so much of chaos, so much of hustle-bustle, there was still a layer of beauty and serenity to this city. From outside, this city may look dirty but it carries with it intensity of life. Just imagine, with millions of people living in those narrow streets, walking those crowded roads, there is not one person complaining about anything. They are happily carrying on with their work and daily life accepting whatever it is. That acceptance is genuine and not with a frown. Everyone is intensely leading their life in the midst of that chaos.

This city produced many enlightened Masters and highly elevated souls. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Sharada Devi, Ramakrishna's monastic disciples, Rabindranath Tagore etc. are just few names I can think of. For a long time, this city has been the seat of Indian art, poetry, theater and literature. Many schools of drama and theater can still be seen and people are more inclined towards them, which have an artistic touch and reality rather than going for fantasy filled movies.

In such city, people live like kings. They could have complained for what the city looks from outside but they are blissfully leading their lives. That is the intensity that we are talking about. Whatever happens outside, the core is still strong and standing blissfully. That is the beauty of this place and its people.

We stayed the maximum number of days (4 out of 12 days) in Kolkata visiting various places of enlightened Masters. We visited Ramakrishna and Sharada Devi's birth places, Dakshineswar where Ramakrishna did His sadhana, Vivekananda's birth place and Belur Math (samadhis of Ramakrishna, Sharada Devi and Vivekananda). More about these in the following posts ...

Photo courtesy: http://www.theage.com.au/news/south-asia/a-diamond-in-the-rough/2007/10/11/1191696064144.html

The path of selfless service

Recently, Ayya, one of the first disciples of Swamiji was in Singapore and shared some beautiful truths about how working for the mission makes us grow in our own path. The previous post spoke about how when we set unreasonable targets and work, our mind-body entity has to drop. As Paramahamsa Nithyananda says "Don't think that depending on your energy you should take up responsibilities. I tell you, just take up more and more responsibilities; the energy to carry them forward will just gush through you".

This post throws light further about how seva or selfless service towards the master/mission is only for us to evolve spiritually. The Master understands the modern human mind only too well. In olden days, simple techniques like watching the breath or just witnessing thoughts could lead one to enlightenment. Today, life is so fast paced and filled with activity. A whole new layer has formed in the brain called the 'cerebral layer' to cope up with this fast lifestyle. The thousands of ad hoardings, TV commercials, magazines, newspapers etc are filled with junk information that the brain cannot even handle.

By and by, our whole mental set up has become that of 'restlessness'. Swamiji quotes Ramakrishna's simile about modern human mind as a drunk monkey which has been bitten by a thousand scorpions. This was hundred years ago that Ramakrishna uttered those words, you can imagine now! We need to add more qualifiers to that simile :)

Now for such a mental setup filled with 'rajas' (restlessness), if one prescribes meditation alone, then the restlessness takes over after some time. Or once the meditation is done, we revert to our usual stressful lifestyle. The same goes with Yoga or devotion or any other traditional path of silence/going inward. Working for the mission is a means to channelise that energy that is otherwise getting dissipated.

By working for the mission, there is an undercurrent intention of working towards enlightenment. Any action done with a strong intention only strengthens that intention further, there by adding intensity to the whole process. The best part is that with Paramahamsa Nithyananda, there are infinite options to choose from so that we do what we love doing and still can get the satisfaction of working for Him. Starting from transcribing, editing and writing books to organising/managing events to volunteering to composing/singing songs or painting to teaching...

When we do mission work with a deep feeling of connection with the Master, then that work is not work anymore. It's just a blissful expression from within. It becomes a celebration!

What a beautiful opportunity the Master is giving all of us to connect to Him even when His form is absent and to intensity our penance in a fun-way by doing what we love doing. That is the specialty about doing mission work - the master doesn't need us, we do not help anybody but ourselves in the process. His energy will do it's work anyway, with or without us being involved. It is for us to understand that when we immerse ourselves in seva or selfless service towards the master/mission, only we expand and connect more and more deeply to our core.

Breaking the limits ...

We could not update our blog during the last two weeks, the reason being one of the most anticipated events for Singapore - Paramahamsa Nithyananda's visit to Singapore. To say that a group of about twenty volunteers were super busy is an understatement. For the last two weeks, and more specifically during Swamiji's stay in Singapore from 8th to 11th August, each one of us were on our toes, running around publicizing the events, setting up Galleria stalls, registration desks, selling books, talking to people etc. etc. etc.

The most interesting part is not one of us felt exhausted or tiered at the end of the four days. Every day after every event, by the time we wound up the place, it used to be 11pm at the very least. And the next morning we were back at the next venue for setting up early in the morning by 7am. The days leading to the four days also had something similar - walking along streets of Singapore selling tickets, postering etc.

But one should see the energy of the volunteers to believe it. Each one of us seemed to have been fitted with a un-dischargable battery. None of us cared about any of us physical or mental limits. They simply did not exist.

What was happening to us? A senior ashramite of Paramahamsa Nithyananda talked to us about Karma Yoga just before the event and those words are so true. He says, 'The reason why Swamiji sets unthinkable goals or milestones for individuals is because He wants to take you beyond the two levels of energy that you know - the physical and mental energies. He wants you to look beyond the so-called physical and mental limits that you have set for yourself. Only when such an ambitious goal is set, you will see that you are operating not from body and not from your mind but from your being or the spirit. This is Karma Yoga - a selfless way of working to expand one's own horizons.'

We are strongly conditioned about our capabilities, both physical and mental. We believe that we can do only this much or we can take in only this much. That is the biggest conspiracy done to us by everyone around us. As a result, we never look beyond those limits. In fact we don't even consider them our limits. We think that is it. That is the end.

One should see the disciples in the monastery. They work on 100 different things. They sleep for hardly three-four hours but not one of them has a tiered face. They enjoy. They radiate energy to everyone around.

These few days, we experienced the third level of energy. If one looked at the amount of work that was done during the last few weeks, it is simply impossible for us to have worked with our physical or mental energies. We could clearly see breaking the limits and barriers that we had previously set for ourselves. And we could very well see that by breaking those boundaries, we were flooded with unfathomable energy in us, an inexhaustible energy that was always overflowing.

The Master works in mysterious ways to make us realize of our own true potential. He does not care whether there are 100 people or 200 people attending His discourse or how good or bad the venue is set and arranged. He sets the goal for us to go beyond our body and mind. That is His compassion!!

We express our sincere and heartfelt gratitude to our Master - Paramahamsa Nithyananda for His compassion and to have given us this wonderful opportunity.

Everything is Auspicious

Today when I opened the blog, I thought I will write something else but just before writing this post, I came across a beautiful article about a boy from a small village with illiterate parents, going to IIT (one of the most reputed engineering colleges around the world) and then joining Google. I immediately started writing this post on this guy. The above description of the boy does not seem very different from many of the IIT aspirants in India. But this boy, Naga Naresh Karuturi, is special because he does not have both his legs and moves in an electric wheel chair. What is so amazing about this guy is his spirit to live an amazing and high-energy life. He met with a freak accident when he was 7 years old and his legs were amputated till his hips.

What caught my attention was his statement, 'God has planned things for me and takes care of me at every step.' He says, 'I feel he plans everything for you. If not for the accident, we would not have moved from the village to Tanuku, a town. There I joined a missionary school, and my father built a house next to the school. Till the tenth standard, I studied in that school. If I had continued in Teeparu (the village), I may not have studied after the 10th. I may have started working as a farmer or someone like that after my studies. I am sure God had other plans for me.'

Even for little things going wrong or not going according to what we wanted/expected, many us get so worried and tensed up. But this dude saw everything that was happening to him as auspicious. Instead of attaching any kind of negativity, this guy took everything as a gift of God, even his physical ____ (the dash because I do not want to use any demeaning word for this guy. He is more physically and mentally fit than many of us).

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'Everything is magalatva, auspicious. When we see everything as auspicious, we start looking at life in a completely different way. When we see everything, whether good or bad, as auspicious, we just flow.'

The problem is we resist what is happening. We complain and crib because we resist what Existence is constantly giving us. It is our expectations that make us see things that happen to us as good or bad. If something goes according to what we wanted, it is good and God is great. When it happens otherwise, it is bad and we ask, 'Where is God?' This is what leads us to go on a roller coaster ride of happiness and sorrow. It is simply because we constantly resist the hand of Existence.

It is like a twig stuck partly on the river bank and dipped partly in a flowing river. It constantly feels the pain because the river is just flowing and trying to take the twig along but the twig holds on to the bank thinking it is safe. Only when the twig leaves the bank and flows with the river, the pain stops.

Our expectations are the bank we are holding on to and the Existence is the river that is constantly flowing. Existence is all-showering and gifting us every single moment. It is upto us to see the auspiciousness of everything that Existence is presenting to us. When we see that, we stop resisting and let go of the ground, we become one with the River Itself and flow along with It.

Once again, hats off to you Naresh. You are a dude.

I leave you with the following video by Paramahamsa Nithyananda on this subject.

(You can read the article about Naresh here.)

It's not about miracles!

At Dakshineshwar, the Master conveyed a beautiful and powerful message to the group traveling with Him on the 14 day parivrajaka. It's about miracles.. or rather not about miracles. Normally one would like to associate miracles, mysticism and out of the earth labels to God. They do the same with Masters also. It's our ego that stops us from accepting the fact that enlightened masters can also assume a human form like us, eat like us, walk like us and yet be in a space of higher consciousness. We cannot accept that because we want an "extra-ordinary" tag to be associated, something that our logic cannot comprehend. Only then we say "Yes, He is God!" It is almost like only miracles can prove to us about their divinity.

The Master warned us that by giving importance to miracles, the only thing we do is to create a gap between us and the Master. We create a distance by putting Him on a pedestal. He emphasized that the feeling of being deeply connected with the Master is what matters - building a connection that is based on simplicity and innocence. It should be that of love, not that of respect. The connection with the master He said is like a 'bridge' between us and the divine. And we don't have to do anything, just maintain, nourish and enjoy the deep connection, He will take care of the rest using that bridge!

He quoted two beautiful examples from the Mahabharata to illustrate this point. When the Bhagavat Geeta was being delivered to Arjuna by his best friend, Krishna, Arjuna was loaded with questions and skepticism. When Krishna declared "I am the Supreme, All Pervading, Indestructible etc", Arjuna only had more questions. There was a point when Krishna had to reveal His cosmic form, 'Vishwaroopa' to Arjuna in order to convince him. But immediately after that, Arjuna shuddered, he could not digest that his childhood friend standing in front on him was an embodiment of a vast energy that he couldn't comprehend. All along, he had only related with Krishna as his buddy, his close friend. When he saw His cosmic form, he collapsed. He begged Krishna to get back to His old jovial self, the friend he always knew. For Arjuna, it was only his simple, deep connection with Krishna as his best friend that eventually mattered for his spiritual growth.

Another example: There was once a sage who had attained all the possible spiritual knowledge and mastered all the deep spiritual techniques. But he still felt a void. He wanted to experience a loving relationship with God. He prayed to Vishnu and finally Vishnu blessed him saying that He will be born as his son in his next life. That sage was none other than Yashoda who take care of little Krishna as His mother. She enjoyed every little action as Krishna's mother, bathing Him, feeding Him, teasing Him, chasing Him and playing with Him blissfully.

Once, suddenly she thought "This child is like any other child. He throws tantrums, cries when he is hungry, giggles when you play with him... Is this really Vishnu or have I been fooled?" Krishna immediately understood Yashoda and wanted to reassure her. He showed her the cosmos in His mouth when Yashoda was feeding him. But the minute this happened, she was reminded of her past life and remembered the boon she was granted. She pleaded to Him to be back as that naughty little child of hers. Immediately Krishna covered the veil of Maya over her and she was back as the mother of Krishna.

The Master also told us that just like Krishna, the job of an enlightened master is to draw the veil of Maya on us. He just shrugs away the miracles by not attaching too much importance to them. This He does simply to make sure we do not get diverted to the miracles instead of the Truth. It is no doubt miracles happen with living enlightened masters every minute. But these are miracles to us because our tiny puny intellect cannot comprehend the mysteries of the macro and micro cosmos. Miracles can become an obstacle to our spiritual growth as our energy is dissipated and diverted away from the Truth.

Instead, if we just feel deeply connected with the Master, the very connection can take us to deeper and deeper realms of our own being. A deep connection with the master can be the most beautiful thing that can ever happen to anyone! It is a relationship that transcends all other relationship, a culmination of all our emotions. For all those of us who feel that deep connection with our Masters, let us cherish it and for the rest, taste it and see for yourself the sweetness of this relationship!

In Nithyananda!

The "City" of devotion

Jagannath Puri or just Puri was the first of the places we visited with the Master on our 14 day parivrajaka (wandering). Puri literally means - the City, which goes to say that at the time when this city existed, this was the only city the people knew. This City finds place in all great Masters' biographies like the Great Master (Ramakrishna Paramahamsa), Autobiography of a Yogi (Paramahamsa Yogananda), Lives of Sri Sarada Devi, Sri Chaitanya and Shankaracharya. This is the place of Krishna and the temple is world renowned for its Rath Yatra (the Chariot Festival) when three huge chariots carrying Krishna, His brother - Balarama and His sister - Subhadra, pass through the streets of this City.

This post is not about the city. It is about the beauty of the city which sings and dances like Sri Chaitanya did, in the name of Krishna. The Jagannath Temple that is the center of attraction of this city is a testifies what all masters have always been propagating - intense devotion leads to the Ultimate Truth. Whether it is devotional Masters like Sri Chaitanya and Ramakrishna or intellectual Masters like Shankara, all say - bhakti (devotion) and true love towards the Divine is the simplest way to connect to the Divine.

If you see the main deities of the temple (as shown in the picture), there are no features, i.e. no palms, no feet, no eyes, lips etc. They are just blocks of earth and the all the features have been painted on them. There is a beautiful story related to this. Let me narrate it followed by a very powerful message that the Master spoke about:

There was a king who made a beautiful temple and he wanted to installed the most beautifully sculpted deity of Krishna, Balaram and Subhadra in the temple. He announced it to the public and put a warning that if he is not pleased with the idols, the sculptor will be beheaded. Hearing this not many were willing to come forward. Once an old man came and took the job but he too had a condition, 'I will lock my self up in the sanctum sanctorum for next one month and no one should open the doors, whatever the case may be.' The kind agreed and the work started. People noticed that there were all kinds of loud sounds of rocks falling apart coming from the main room. The ministers patiently waited for 20 days but then they went and told the king that the old man might be destroying the temple. The king opened the door and saw that the old man stopped the sculpting work. He turned to the king and told him, you broke your promise and now I leave the idols in whatever state they are. Saying this the old man merged into the Krishna idol. It was then that the king realized that it was Krishna Himself who came down to break his ego.

The Master commented, 'Lets see the truth from this story. It was the king's ego to build the most beautiful temple with the most beautiful idols. It was not out of devotion or love that he was doing it. It was purely out of his ego, to show to the world; that's all. Later he understood his mistake and become a Krishna devotee himself. This temple stands now purely on true devotion. It is not the external beauty that matters but it is the intensity of devotion that is important. The three idols in the sanctum sanctorum are unfinished and they may not be as "beautiful" as other Krishna idols in other temples but this temple gets thousands of devotees. It is based on pure devotion and love to God, not the external looks. That is what we have to assimilate from this place.'

Forgiveness - a Golden Quality

Today it is July 11 or 7/11, as it is called in India. On this fateful day, the bustling city of Mumbai was attacked with seven bombs and hundreds of people died. I was reading an article related to the aftermaths of these bombings and the last few statements of the article moved me. This article tells the story of a son who went searching for his father's body after the bombings. After some investigations, he found that a poor construction laborer had falsely claimed the body hoping that he will get the compensation. The laborer even cremated the body according to Hindu rites. The son was heartbroken that he couldn't see his father's body but he was happy that he atleast got to perform the last rites with his father's ashes. What was most touching was, when police wanted to arrest the laborer for false claims, the son refused to lodge any complaint and forgave the poor laborer.

Forgiveness is beautiful quality, which is rarely found. We are not talking about forgiveness with ego; we are talking about forgiving completely without any ego at all. Most of the times, if somebody does something, we do forgive but with ego. We put ourselves at a higher pedestal and look down upon the other person as a wrong-doer and then forgive him. And why do we do that? Just to instill guilt in the other person and hence, boost our ego.

Here we are talking about forgiving completely and freeing the other person of any guilt. When something happens to us, the first thing we do is to either accuse others around us or blame the situation. We constantly build negativity inside us about other people who have hurt us. Forgiving wholeheartedly only relieves us from that negativity. It just removes any kind of negative energy blocks that we may have accumulated in us.

Another important point is whenever such incident happens where we think we are hurt, we think the person is at fault for our suffering. Most of the times, it is not the person who has hurt but it our own expectations as to how the other person should have acted or behaved, bring us that suffering. So who are we to throw our anger on others or spew out negative words and blame others? We see people keep that anger and negativity towards the other person for years together, sometimes even till their death.

During the first level meditation courses, Life Bliss Program 1, our Master takes us through a beautiful gratitude meditation where we offer gratitude to everyone, even our enemies and forgive if anyone has done any thing to us. I have seen people breaking down during this meditation. People find it the most relieving meditation. All the built-in negativities towards others which we have suppressed overtime just evaporate with these two - forgiveness and gratitude.

When we forgive whole heartedly and replace that it with love and gratitude, we are transforming and our transformation transform people around us. That is Paramahamsa Nithyananda's message - transformation of humanity through personal transformation.

(You can read the article here.)

Acceptance - that is the key.

Warning: This post could be a spoiler for those who haven't yet watched the movie - Kungfu Panda :)

Last week, we watched the latest cartoon movie in town - Kungfu Panda after hearing some good reviews about. This is not a review of the movie :) but let me just narrate the gist of the movie so that I can get to my point ... So there is this panda, Poh, who wants to become a Kungfu warrior but he is burly, fat etc. etc. Around the same time, a selection is going for the Dragon warrior who will be given a Dragon Scroll. This is supposed to contain the most powerful thing a fighter can have and one who possesses the Scroll and reads whats in it, he becomes the most powerful Kungfu Warrior to defeat the bad guys. This Panda, who does not know ABCs of Kungfu is selected instead of his own Kungfu idols Tiger, Monkey, Serpent etc.

And when Poh, the Panda reads the scroll, theres nothing in there to read; its blank. After an interesting twist in the story (which you must see), he opens the scroll again and sees something - his own reflection.

What the movie tried to convey was that one need not have anything special to become powerful. All we have to realize that we are special in our own way and we are powerful. All we need is the strong intention of what we want to do and trust in us. Thats all! The Panda used to compare itself with the Tiger, Monkey etc. for his Kungfu skills but when he realized that he is unique in his own way, there was no stopping.

Its a simple but powerful message that is put in a beautiful way in this movie. Every moment we compare ourselves with others in terms of what we don't have. This creates a gap in us which are trying to fill constantly. We forget our strengths; we forget that we are unique in our own way and we don't need anything other than our own trust in ourselves and the strong intention to do and get what we want. We live in fantasies created by us.

This applies for the case of enlightenment also. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'Even for enlightenment, you look at enlightened masters and create you own comparisons and fantasies as to what and how it should be. All you have to realize is that you are already enlightened. When I say this, you don't accept it because you have created your own mental picture and idea about enlightenment. Drop them, accept yourself completely and you will see the Ultimate.'

We are constantly looking for something, either a mantra or meditation technique or whatever, on the Scroll that will take us to the Ultimate but we do not see ourselves in it. Nithyananda says, 'all you have to do is relax completely and you will see You.'

Intense Yearning: The basic Ingredient

What makes a Parivrajaka different from just another conducted trip? The mystics and sages who wander in the quest for truth certainly don't treat their journey as just a sight-seeing pleasure trip. So, what's the necessary ingredient that makes a Parivrajaka what it is?

Intense yearning or seeking for the Truth This was one of the main messages, or should I say, the message of the Varanasi Trip - intense yearning for the Ultimate.

At each and every place, the Master kept drilling this single point into us. He said, 'The two things that are important during parivrajaka (wandering) are intense yearning for the Truth and intense excitement.'

All the enlightened masters, whether they wandered or not, had the intense yearning to find out the Ultimate Truth. That is what makes them so different from any other person. They would do anything to find the Truth. The Master gave various examples of how all enlightened masters had this single emotion in common before they got enlightened.

At Bodh Gaya, the Master narrated the story of Buddha's life which showed the intensity with which He was yearning for enlightenment. Buddha was weak and feeble and was almost dying without food for many years in His pursuit for the Truth. One day, while He was lying down almost dead, a lady offers Him a handful of food. After eating that, with whatever energy He got from that food, He sat up with no other thought but knowing the Truth. With burning determination to seek the truth, He made a vow to Himself, 'Idam aasanam sushyate shareeram', which means 'Let my body dry up and wither away but I will not get up from this position till I get enlightened.' That was the intention which came out with such force, intensity and strength that He got enlightened immediately.

In Dakshineswar, the Master narrated similar incidents from Ramakrishna's life. He used to rub His face on the ground, hurt Himself and cry to Goddess Kali, if at the end of the day, He found that He hadn't yet realized the Divine. Ramakrishna used to say, we cry for so many things in life. But one day, just one day, 24 hours if we genuinely cry to see Her (the Divine Mother), she will appear!

The Master also talked about His own experiences; how He was immersed in one single thought - enlightenment; how He was unperturbed by whatever people said, whatever society thought; how only one thing mattered to Him - enlightenment.

At one point towards the end of the trip, with regards to enlightenment, the Master said, 'Even if you meditate for 24 hours, without the intensity of yearning for the Ultimate, you will go nowhere. But if the intensity is so strong that even a tornado cannot push you away if you were sitting in the middle with the resolve of seeking the truth, then even if you do not meditate, you will see the Truth.'

He also gave us another analogy: If a person's head is on fire, will he be thinking of anything else but to ran to a nearby pond and cool it? His FULL attention and intensity is to put off that fire first. He would do anything for that! Just like that, the sole focus of our lives should be that of seeking the Truth.

His concluding beautiful words of the trip were: This trip need not end here. All you need to do is to maintain that intensity even after the trip and you will see that this trip never ends! He also reminded us that the very intensity will show us the path. So, whenever we a low or a dip in the intensity for the truth, let us remember these great inspiring words and pull ourselves back. Let the fire of seeking be alive in each of us, guiding us forward...

Parivrajaka - What is it??!!

In the previous few posts Sri Arpana mentioned about Parivrajaka. This post is to further elaborate on it based on inputs from Swamiji during the Varanasi yatra. Our very first halt at Puri, during the opening discourse, Swamiji spoke about our deep rooted identity and how our reluctance and inability to let go of it causes problems. When we are staying in the same house, with the same people, interacting with the same colleagues, friends about the same topics, reading the same kind of news daily, gradually our identity solidifies.

We start to identify ourselves with the objects/people/situations around rather than our real core and drift away from our REAL identity. Sometimes, through meditations or by the grace of the Master, we start to transform. But then again, our surroundings pull us back. Society constantly reminds us - you are son of so-and-so, you are employed at so-and-so, you are a friend of so-and-so... and because of this our identity based on our possessions is constantly reinforced in us.

This reminds me of a beautiful video discourse by Swamiji (attached to the post in the end) where He gives us deeper truths about "I" and "mine". Personally for me, it has been one of the most powerful discourses that shook me. He says that we all think we came first and then gradually started acquiring our possessions. In other words, we think that the "I" came before the "mine". But shockingly, it's the other way around! We start to build our very identity on our possessions! Till the age of 7, we associate ourselves with our physical possessions - mother, toys. After that, the mental layer starts to get choked with our other kinds of possessions. This includes our desires, fears, worries etc and our identity is built on top of all this.

What does this mean? If we take away our possessions, we feel we are nobody. How true! A true parivrajaka journey means breaking away from our solid possessions (not just physically, but mentally as well) and becoming more fluid. When we keep moving from one place to another, meeting new people, there is freshness every moment. The unexpected is always in store, which means the courage/spontaneity to face up to anything starts to flow inside.

During Swamiji's Parivrajaka, He used to take whichever train came first to the platform, not knowing where He was headed. He never touched money throughout His wandering, so you can imagine the inner strength!

Another important message Swamiji says a Parivrajaka conveys: It makes us feel the loving hand of existence if we are open to it. Swamiji recalls that wherever He used to be, He would invariably be given food and shelter. He never thought about it, nor carried the necessary money, but Existence used to make sure He was well taken care of. He says, not one day did He starve. Amazing isn't it?

We are so used to planning that we cannot accept this logically. We not only plan, but have back-up plans, insurances and what not. When the deep trust with existence happens, we suddenly relax. Also, when we relax, the trust is further strengthened.

Most importantly, a parivrajaka helps to relax from our solid identity. When we are constantly on the move, before we start to get settled and comfortable in one place; before we start to identify ourselves with that place and people, we have moved to another. So, there is no scope for that societal identity to solidify. With awareness, we learn to use that identity only when we absolutely need it. The rest of the times, we just relax from our societal identity and enjoy being with our core - our true nature - that of bliss!

Enjoy this video that I mentioned above on "I" and"mine":

The journey continues

The yatris are back from the parivrajaka. Yes, the theme of the Varanasi trip was 'parivrajaka', which means wandering. To put our experiences with the Master during the entire trip in just one single post is simply impossible and more importantly, some experiences are hard to be described in words; they have to be experienced. We will try our best to put our experiences with the Master during the trip in the next few posts that come up in our blog.

For now, let me give you all a brief write up on the entire trip, where we went, what happened etc. in a summary form.

Like I said in the beginning, we were on parivrajaka. In our previous post - 'Off we go ...', we talked about a seeker being a person who lives in utter insecurity. The trip started off with the Master's words, 'In the next two weeks, we are going to cut ourselves off from our identity. When we are located on single place, we start making ourselves comfortable because of the familiarity we start associating with that place. When we wander, every place is new, every moment is fresh and uncertain. That is when our identity is shaken. We cannot associate our identity with any one place during parivrajaka because we are not stationed at one place for long. We are on the move ...'

That is how we started on our parivrajaka with the Master. Every moment during the trip, the Master was continuously working on us. We went to places where He had visited during His parivrajaka. Konark, Puri, Bhubaneswar, Dakshineswar, Kamarpukur, Joyaram Bhatti, Bodh Gaya, Vishnu Gaya, Varanasi and Allahabad, we went from place to place with the Master. Each place was an energy hub, related to an enlightened master. Every place, we had a beautiful discourse and an intense meditation by the Master to help us connect to the energy of the place.

This was not a simple sight-seeing tour and the Master was not our tour guide. Each one of us in the trip had intense spiritual experiences during the course of the tour. He worked on each one of us. And we could clearly see the change in energies as we progressed from place to the other. The Master expressed the energy of the place and made us experience it.

During our stay in Puri, we were dancing and singing kirtans all the time. In Dakshineswar, He talked about devotion towards God or the Ultimate Cosmic Consciousness and put us through intense meditation to connect with It. In Bodh Gaya, we were immersed in meditation for 2 to 3 hours under the Bodhi tree where Buddha got enlightened. In Varanasi, He made us connect with Shiva and Ganga. While I am writing this now, I can feel the surge of energy that we all experienced at each and every place.

We had many light moments; if I list them down here, the post can go on for ever. The Master took care of each one of us; We had 3 hour long boat rides on Ganga with the Master cracking jokes, telling stories... and many more like these.

We saw how the Master lives in closer quarters during these two weeks. We had goose bumps, tears when we saw some aspects of the Master. We were taken to a completely different plane. One thing is certain:

what we see as Nithyananda is nothing; the six foot body that we see as Nithyananda is nothing. There is much bigger, unexplainable and unfathomable energy behind that six-foot frame. He coming down to our frequency to interact with us is His compassion.

On the last day, the Master said, 'the trip will never come to an end if you take the intensity of the trip - the intensity of seeking the truth - to wherever you are going back.'

And so, the journey continues....



More photos at http://www.nithyananda.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=393&Itemid=380

Off we go ...

For the next two and half weeks, you will not see any new post on this blog. The reason is we both are going for a Varanasi travel study tour with our Master to all high energy, enlightenment places of various enlightened masters like Buddha, Mahavira, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and others. And I don't have to say it, we are extremely excited about the tour. We not only will be visiting these places but our Master will also be giving discourses at some of these places.

Now what is the purpose of these tours? There are two important points.

Firstly, Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'Each of these places is an energy hub. All you have to be is open and available at these places and there is every possibility for the psychological revolution to happen in you that can lead you to the Ultimate.' He fondly remembers His own days in Tiruvannamalai, a temple town in South India which boasts of a lineage of enlightened masters like Ramana Maharshi, Annamalai Swamigal etc. He says He was fortunate to be born in such a place where He was exposed to the deeper truths of the Self from a very young age. He says it was His openness to the Existential energy that radiated in that temple town, which sowed the seeds of inner exploration in Him.

Generally, people prefer holidaying is some picturesque places with beautiful landscapes etc. Nothing wrong with it; even in those places, if we are totally open we can experience the deep inner peace. But these places have an added advantage. Enlightened masters walked on the soil of these places. Though they have left their bodies, their energies still resonate in those places. The Ramana Ashram in Tiruvannamalai is one such example to feel Bhagvan Ramana's energy even now. When we are in these energy fields completely open, we are letting Existence to work on us. Ramana Maharshi, who was staying in Madurai, came to Tiruvannamalai at 16 years of age to experience and be in the energy field.

And this trip, we are going with an enlightened Master to the energy hubs; what else can we ask for?

Now coming to the second purpose of this trip... Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'one of the best times in my life has been my wandering days or parivrajaka before my enlightenment. I had no money, no fixed place to stay, no assurance at all that I will get my next meal. I was just moving and flowing with Existence.'

This organized tour that we are going with Him does not come any close to what He did during His parivrajaka. In fact we can't even compare the two. But the point is there are going to be some uncertainties. The accommodation, food, transport etc. may or may not suit everyone on the tour and there are in fact many people who back out of the trip seeing some of the facilities.

Nithyananda says, 'a seeker is a person who lives in utter insecurity of life.' When we try to live in known patterns and known conditions, we suffer the moment something unknown to our knowledge takes place. We are happy and cozy as along as everything goes according to our expectations but if we even have the slightest feeling that something is not going our way, we create hell for ourselves.

The point is we do not flow with Existence, with what is happening at that point in time. That is why our Master says that living in utter insecurity of life but totally centered and flowing with whatever Existence has in store for us is the sign of a true seeker of Truth.

So it is going to be a test for us to see how best we cope the summer of North India and everything that time has in store for us. But well we are not too bothered about them. We are off to experience the cool breeze under the shadow of our Master's Energy and sun bathe under the energy of these energy hubs...

So cya sooon... Do check in two weeks time to get an update of our tour :)


Other upcoming travel tours from Life Bliss Foundation:
Himalayan Tour with Master (Fundraising event)
Monsoon Mantra with Nithya Yoga Acharyas (a tour to architectural places in South Indian state of Karnataka during the Indian monsoon)
Tiruvannamalai Tour with Nithya Yoga Acharyas as a part of Nithya Yoga Teachers' Training

Silent encounter with silence!

As most of our daily routines go, we would be interacting with friends, colleagues, clients, boss, family etc and for this we ofcourse use words. Otherwise, we are either hooked onto a book or a television or the internet, again a source of more words. We are so accustomed to feeding on words that we cannot even for a minute sit silently.

What prompted me to write this post is that the whole of today I have been alone with myself at home. And what normally is perceived as boring or lonely can be really a beautiful experience, a great opportunity to dive within and experience the silence within. Thanks to our Master, this is possible for me today.

If we see carefully, every word we utter is like a drain of energy. Mind you, even every word we listen to is a drain of energy. This is because, each of these words that are fed into us trigger long thought chains inside our system. These thoughts are usually external, towards the outer world and hence drain us. Now, imagine you were to just turn this entire energy inward, how energizing it would be!

In fact, Swamiji puts people into silence in ashram, sometimes for weeks. He once narrated this incident where one of His disciples was talking a lot, being overly jumpy about things, shouting and fighting with fellow disciples in the monastery. Swamiji asked him not to engage in any conversations henceforth with anyone. The dedicated disciple, without questioning a word to the master went into silence unconditionally. He didn't even question how long he had to practice this vow. After 18 months, the master says, this disciple had flowered into a new being and from then on was blessed by the master to carry the master's vak (energy behind speech/words).

Forget about being silent for 18 months! Let us at least consciously make use of the wonderful opportunities we get when we happen to be alone. If we are left by ourselves even for an hour, our mind would race all over the world and come up with ways to avoid this silence. We either switch on the TV, read some novel or find some friend to catch up with. Why? Because we are afraid of facing this silence.. because facing the silence means facing ourselves.

So how do we actually make use of these moments of being alone to experience the vibrant silence inside? First of all, let us not avoid these moments of silence. Let us treat the times when we are alone as an opportunity to introspect, contemplate and go within. Here's a beautiful technique that Paramahamsa Nithyananda gives:

When we sit alone and there is a thought or a stream of words that pops up. Our first reaction would be to give meaning to these words. We take the words too seriously and go after the meaning. Instead, if we just watch them in a relaxed and detached manner without bothering about what they mean, we would gradually be transported to the space from where words arise. Ironically words arise from silence!

As Swamiji says, words are a call from consciousness. They happen in us simply to remind ourselves to look into the source. They are just calling us to that space. Let us take the call seriously and not the words itself!

I leave you with a related video by Swamiji. N!joy!

Let us do our bit...

In the last couple of months, there have been two major natural disasters - a cyclone in Myanmar and an earthquake in China. Thousands of people perished, thousands were left homeless and thousands are still missing or unaccounted for in these disasters.

When such events or things like wars etc. occur, we who are sitting at home question - why this suffering? We don't stop at that question. We go on. We hold different people and even nature responsible for all the suffering. We curse the nature, we curse different people. We continuously abuse them.

We blame everyone and everything else for all these events in Universe. We sit in one corner of the world and comment on Existence. But we must understand one thing -

We are a part of the same Existence. Each of our thoughts, each of our words adds to the collective positivity or negativity.

All these natural disasters are nothing but the collective negativity of our own selves. All our negative thoughts, all our negativities come out as such natural disasters.

There have been experiments conducted in various places in the world where the crime rates decreased when people started group meditations. In U.S, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi's group performed group transcendental meditation (TM) and there are records which showed the crime rates decreased during those months. Recently, Vedic rituals called Mahasaptyagam were performed by disciples of Paramahamsa Nithyananda in various cities in India. This ritual involves 1008 people performing a fire ritual in a meditative state. It was found that again the crime rate reduced during those months in places like Chennai.

In one of our earlier post we discussed about Dr. Emoto's messages from water where thoughts like love and gratitude created wonderful crystals and thoughts like hatred generated ugly crystals. In our previous post on world peace, we also talked about a Hawaiin therapist who just with his thoughts filled with love cured criminally insane patients. That is the power of our own thoughts.

We think someone else is responsible for these natural disasters. We keep questioning, 'why God why? Why did you bring such calamity?' We simply don't realize that we are ones who are responsible for these events. We have been abusing the Nature not only with our actions but our thoughts also and now we blame someone else.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says beautifully, 'We think each one of us is an island. We think we are individuals. Once we realize that all of us related to each other in the Universal Consciousness, all our negativities drop.'

Now that is the powerful statement... Why do we have negativities? Our negative thoughts are a result of our ego, our belief that each one of us is at a superior position than others. Each one of us thinks that we are a separate entity from others. An enlightened master or being sees things in a different perspective. He sees everything, all living and non-living as one Universal Consciousness or Existential Energy. He sees everyone around as a part of Him. Our Master keeps telling us, 'try to see the other person in front of you as a part of your own self.' When we do that, we see that we cannot have anything negativity towards the other person because the other is also a part of us.

It is high time that we cleanse our inner space to cleanse our outer place. Constantly purifying and watching our own thoughts through meditation or other means can actually prevent a natural calamity that is waiting to happen. Let us do our bit... after all every drop makes an ocean...

Let me leave you with a video of our Master giving the significance of Kumbha Mela which is an event to create collective positivity at one place.

The Fig Tree

Over the last few days I have been watching a fig tree in our University campus. It is a huge 'sea fig' tree with a huge trunk and long, bulky branches; with its roots criss-crossing the near-by area like snakes crawling all over :) It has a thick canopy with beautiful long, flat, green leaves. All these branches and the trunk are filled with figs (some biological specialty, I heard). During afternoons, I have to take my internal shuttle bus and the bus stop is right below this tree. Thanks to its thick canopy, it is amazingly cool standing below it though our dear Sun in Singapore has been pretty harsh to people over the last few weeks. Not only humans, other species of fauna like birds and squirrels also spend quite a bit of time under the cool shade of the tree. They have figs also to feed on, you see.

Anyways, over the last one week, I saw that more sun rays were hitting me and the ground below the tree was filled with more leaves. And to my surprise, last weekend, I saw the tree completely bald. I mean there were no leaves at all on the tree; no leaves, no figs, nothing!! And so no birds, no squirrels and no humans also...

But today morning, I saw a beautiful sight. There were tender, light green leaves smiling like small babies filling all the branches of the fig tree. It was awesome; just seeing the tree covered in a light green carpet was breathtaking. I saw that the birds and squirrels were returning back to the tree, slowly but steadily.

Now, why I am telling all this... firstly it was beautiful to see that almost dead looking tree turn into a lovely and lively model and I wanted to share it. Secondly, I wanted to share something which I observed while this whole episode was going on. Whatever was happening to the leaves, the figs etc. etc., the trunk of the tree was still and steady. Whether the outer periphery of the branches was active and alive with action from animals and birds or whether it was completely deserted, the trunk was least affected. It enjoyed the presence of the leaves, the animals, the birds, the nests etc. but it also enjoyed the silence when they were gone.

Now imagine happening this to us. We are in an amazing job, have an amazing family. Everything is going great for us. We are all happy. In anyone of these is taken away from us that's it, we enter in a depression. In fact nobody has to take anything away, the very fear of losing what we hold keeps us in a state of continuous depression even if nothing has really happened.

All this is because our state of being is governed by the outer periphery. Unlike the fig tree, we get upset if the outer periphery is deserted. We enter into such a state that it takes a long time to fully recover from it and sometimes we can't even come back out of it. The trunk of the fig tree is not affected because it is happy unto itself. Its happiness is not because of them but despite of them. It is rock solid.

However, in our case, our trunk or our core is not centered at all in the first place. If someone says something positive today, we feel happy; if something good according to our ideas happens today, we feel happy and God forbid, if something, even one thing goes against our plan, that's all our whole foundation of happiness is shaken.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'Meditation makes your core strong and steady. It teaches you to be blissful irrespective of what is happen around you and that is spirituality.' When the core is blissful, nothing, not even death can affect us (please watch this video by a professor from Carnegie Melon University who spoke about himself in Oprah).

That fig tree is living its life, it is living true spirituality and what about you...