Tuesday, May 19, 2009

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.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

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....

Monday, May 4, 2009

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.