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...