Paramahamsa Nithyananda addresses some common questions.

Question: What is enlightenment?

Answer: This question was asked to me by an Oklahoma scientist: “Swamiji we have been working in this field for the last 30 years. Everyone says that it cannot be explained. Please give us a clear-cut answer.” I told them, “In a true sense, it cannot be explained, but I can mention a few qualities of enlightenment. First thing: thoughtlessness; there is no inner chattering. Second thing: boundarilessness; the idea that my body ends here and your body starts there is absent. Third thing: a tremendous ecstasy, a deep inner ecstasy. Fourth thing: The basic idea of whether I am male or female, is absent. These are the four things that I experience in my life as enlightenment. And according to their research, they say that all these four things are reflecting neurologically.

Question: Do you feel it is important for a seeker to have different Masters, in order not to get compartmentalized into one single philosophy or ideology?

Answer: Yes, it is important for a seeker to undergo at least 10 to 15 different traditions. Then he/she will be able to understand which exactly suits him/her. Even people who come to me I encourage them to go around. I never say, “Don’t go anywhere, stop here”. I say, “Go around, then you will really find who really suits you”.

However, once you find your Master don’t bother about anything else, go deeply into him. When you find the right Master, you will move beyond doubt, beyond your intellect, you will just fall in love with him. That is what I call finding the right Master. Even in my case, people come and ask me, “Swamiji, should I accept you as my Guru or not?” I tell them, “If you have that question please do not accept me. If you are supposed to be my disciple the very question will disappear. You will simply fall for me. If that is the case, I am your Master. If that is not, don’t bother; start searching. Go ahead, continue”.

Where your logic fails, where your doubt dies, is your Master. If you still have the question in your mind, “Should I accept you or not?”, never accept. People ask me, “Swamiji, should I remember you?” to which I say, “No, never do that. You will never be able to forget me if you are supposed to remember me; if that is the case, the intimacy or the relationship will be such that you will never be able to forget me. If I am really your Master you will see that you will not be able to forget me. I will be in your mind, I will be in your dream, I will be in your sleep. You will simply be thinking of me and dreaming of me. If really you are going to be helped by me there is no need for you to take any step. You will simply see, I’ll be there with you.

Have you sat with yourself, and deeply examined your innermost mechanisms? Of late I find myself doing that every quiet moment I get, and aided by where things are going in my life, I have found it to be a profoundly educational experience in uncovering old reactionary habit patterns which are often tightly bound with a strong emotional component. Often, while sitting in meditation I was slipping into an inner pattern of avoiding certain rising subtle impressions which created conflict and disturbance, instead of observing them with a pure attitude of detached witnessing.

When reflecting with eyes open, and facilitated by encounters in the outer world with people in my life, I was able to identify my inner drives and needs so starkly, honestly, and clearly, that the mere acknowledgment and recognition was enough to free me from the pain I was self-creating. You could try it too. Be patient and gentle and loving with yourself through the process. What is your fundamental drive? What are you seeking? Is it unconditional love? Or perhaps you value absolute freedom over everything else. If it is enlightenment, why so? What do you perceive to be “obstacles” to this liberating state? What can you unclutch from and accept in your life to be only the blessings of the Divine? We might not always get what we want, but we always get what we need. To be open to this amazing grace in every moment is to recognize that everything truly is perfect.

Shiva says:
Tayaapooryaashu moordhaantam bhanktvaa bhrookshepasetunaa;
Nirvikalpam manah kritvaa sarvordhve sarvagodgamah.

With attention between the eyebrows, let the mind be before thought. Then, the inner energy rises, fills awareness and omnipresence prevails.

“During my travels as a parivrajaka (wandering renunciant), I stayed with and had the opportunity to learn from a great Master, a Naga Baba, in the Himalayas. He had a unique method of teaching. Whenever people came to him to learn, he would stick his trishul, the trident which Shiva carries, in the ground, and he would ask them to look at all three tips simultaneously. I had seen, that sometimes his students would sit for three months staring at the trishul all day, trying to perfect themselves. It is much harder than it appears. One moment you can see one tip in your vision, and the next moment the next tip and the next moment the third tip. I first thought it was easy! But when I started practising, I was shocked, ‘Oh God, I can’t even see this small trishul, entirely, all at once!’ Only then did I understand, that without moving the eyeballs, without shifting the gaze, we cannot really see more than one point.

The trishul is a great weapon to to create awareness of the third eye; a great way to expand awareness. Right now, your field of vision is 120 degrees. If you start concentrating at one particular point, it will slowly become 30 degrees. The more you concentrate, the narrower the field of vision becomes, but if you center yourself on the third eye, slowly your awareness will expand beyond 120 degrees, and you will be able to first see 180 degrees, then 240 degrees and ultimately 360 degrees. To create awareness by centering yourself on the third eye means to awaken your consciousness.

The second line of the sutra is ‘Let the mind be before thought’. Being aware before thought arises is the greatest liberation! Try this simple experiment. Look at a rose without creating any words, without creating any words about it in your inner space. Do not think that it is a rose, that it is red, or that it is beautiful. Do not create any thoughts at all! Just look at it. Just try to relate with it without any words. Suddenly, you will see that you are in a different space! You are able to connect with the flower more deeply than you ever imagined. Please be very clear, you do not relate with the world as it is. If you look with the two physical eyes, it is equivalent to blindness. According to Tantra, either you use one eye or three eyes. According to me, either you use three eyes or no eyes at all. Even if you see with your eyes, you do not see what is, you just play with words. The moment you create a word, you are no more connected to the world. And once you create words, joy is lost; the moment you verbalize, all joy is lost.

The third eye, the ajna chakra, is the energy center for intuition. Once this third eye is opened, you will start awakening and living a life of freedom. You will be liberated from your inner chatter. You will live with what is. Your vision disturbed by your samskaras (embedded engrams) is what I call maya. If your third eye is awakened, your vision will be clear. With the third eye you can burn the false appearance of reality and be liberated from it. You will live like Shiva. You will live like Mahadeva!”

Our world and our lives in this present age predominantly express the qualities of vaata as described in Ayurveda. The essential nature of vaata is motion and aggravation of vaata leads to a sort of nervous, edgy energy which creates excitement in the superficial layers of Self, the annamaya kosha (the physical layer), pranamaya kosha (the pranic layer), and manomaya kosha (mental layer) but stirs up deep agitation in the mind-body-awareness connection and leaves us with a feeling of stress and burnout.

A holistic approach to our work on ourselves in the physical realm in order to start experiencing the deeper nature of the real Self or atman is necessary. The concept of dinacharya, or a daily routine praised in Ayurveda, is an excellent way to create a deep restfulness that is necessary to experience the bliss of our Being. Some key approaches I have found useful are outlined here.

Oil pulling: Squishing a small quantity of sesame oil in the mouth after waking up reduces vaata in the brain and mind.

Diet: A sattvic diet truly helps begin the process of restoring harmony to the bodily tissues and mental state. All vegetarian food, freshly cooked, lightly seasoned, with a touch of ghee are yogic in nature. Nuts, warm milk (with saffron) and lentil soups are also included in this category. Tea made from Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) and Brahmi (Gotu kola) also promote sattva, or purity, peace and a rested nervous system.

Abhyanga: A whole body massage with warm sesame oil before a shower has been praised by Charaka, the great Seer of Ayurveda as a means of promoting life and bliss.

Hatha Yoga: Most simple, gentle postures (surya namaskar is excellent) allow healthy functioning of naadis or subtle channels for flow of ojas, or the vital essence of the body. This results in feeling of exhilaration. Nithyananda has offered a simple idea to follow while performing any asana thus, “Imagine that your entire body is a bliss bag. Whenever you bend or move your body for any purpose, that memory, that idea, will be completely inserted and recorded in your body and mind. That intent or samskara will start expressing in your body.”

Meditating in the presence of a living Buddha: As recognized and extolled by the Vedic tradition, this is one simple, effortless, direct means of experiencing the profound awareness beyond time and space, of nirvikalpa samadhi, or bliss without form. I meditated on my own for years, but never had the sort of shift in awareness that meditating for a day in my Master’s presence had, leading to the no-mind zone. A quantum shift in intelligence is greatly accelerated through this process, which is as mysterious as it is thrilling.

The above approaches can greatly enhance the state of being grounded and help propel the body and mind into bliss. As Nithyananda says, “When your shoe fits well, you lose awareness of the shoe. When the belt fits well, you lose awareness of the belt. And, when the body fits well, you lose awareness of the body!” This settling into the body ends in settling into bliss. Then the mind can enter the gap between thoughts, and the gap between breaths, which is the home of samadhi, or pure bliss.

Our world and our lives in this present age predominantly express the qualities of vaata as described in Ayurveda. The essential nature of vaata is motion and aggravation of vaata leads to a sort of nervous, edgy energy which creates excitement in the superficial layers of Self, the annamaya kosha (the physical layer), pranamaya kosha (the pranic layer), and manomaya kosha (mental layer) but stirs up deep agitation in the mind-body-awareness connection and leaves us with a feeling of stress and burnout.

A holistic approach to our work on ourselves in the physical realm in order to start experiencing the deeper nature of the real Self or atman is necessary. The concept of dinacharya, or a daily routine praised in Ayurveda, is an excellent way to create a deep restfulness that is necessary to experience the bliss of our Being. Some key approaches I have found useful are outlined here.

Oil pulling: Squishing a small quantity of sesame oil in the mouth after waking up reduces vaata in the brain and mind.

Diet: A sattvic diet truly helps begin the process of restoring harmony to the bodily tissues and mental state. All vegetarian food, freshly cooked, lightly seasoned, with a touch of ghee are yogic in nature. Nuts, warm milk (with saffron) and lentil soups are also included in this category. Tea made from Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) and Brahmi (Gotu kola) also promote sattva, or purity, peace and a rested nervous system.

Abhyanga: A whole body massage with warm sesame oil before a shower has been praised by Charaka, the great Seer of Ayurveda as a means of promoting life and bliss.

Hatha Yoga: Most simple, gentle postures (surya namaskar is excellent) allow healthy functioning of naadis or subtle channels for flow of ojas, or the vital essence of the body. This results in feeling of exhilaration. Nithyananda has offered a simple idea to follow while performing any asana thus, “Imagine that your entire body is a bliss bag. Whenever you bend or move your body for any purpose, that memory, that idea, will be completely inserted and recorded in your body and mind. That intent or samskara will start expressing in your body.”

Meditating in the presence of a living Buddha: As recognized and extolled by the Vedic tradition, this is one simple, effortless, direct means of experiencing the profound awareness beyond time and space, of nirvikalpa samadhi, or bliss without form. I meditated on my own for years, but never had the sort of shift in awareness that meditating for a day in my Master’s presence had, leading to the no-mind zone. A quantum shift in intelligence is greatly accelerated through this process, which is as mysterious as it is thrilling.

The above approaches can greatly enhance the state of being grounded and help propel the body and mind into bliss. As Nithyananda says, “When your shoe fits well, you lose awareness of the shoe. When the belt fits well, you lose awareness of the belt. And, when the body fits well, you lose awareness of the body!” This settling into the body ends in settling into bliss. Then the mind can enter the gap between thoughts, and the gap between breaths, which is the home of samadhi, or pure bliss.

Technorati Tags: patanjali, samadhi, vedic wisdom, yoga sutras

Why do we need Vedic renaissance? Let us first understand. For the first time in the history of the planet, human beings are enjoying so much luxury in the outer world. In the outer world, whether medicine, communications or technology, we have reached a peak. Just as we have reached a peak in the outer world luxury and comforts, we have reached a peak of suffering and misery in the inner world. Humanity has never suffered so much in the inner world. We are living in a world which is experiencing spiritual poverty. The Vedic tradition is a constant reminder, a constant inspiration to work on the inner world, to transform and to experience a different space, a different world. Only Vedic renaissance can do that, give you the experience of spiritual truth, the experience of the inner world, your own consciousness.

The first thing you need to do is become a seeker and understand the reason for living. When I use the word seeker, I mean a person who understands that the outer world is not everything; life is more than just the outer world. Whenever you feel that life is just more than what you experience through the senses you become a seeker. You start seeking the truth - in Sanskrit we call it mumukshutwa - seeking beyond he senses. Shankara, the great Master, spoke of the value of manushyatwa, mumukshutwa, Mahapurusha sangama, or having the human body, seeking the the Higher Self, and having the experience with an Enlightened being, having a touch or darshan of an Enlightened being. After having these three, if a person remains unenlightened, he is called… a fool!

Again and again, life reminds you of the truth, that life is beyond your control; especially when some near and dear ones die, or there is some accident, or you lose your job. Then, you are completely shaken, and don’t know how to handle it. Either you fall into depression or you suffer. You have to then start seeking when you feel that your life is no longer in your control. The seeking should be a deep understanding, not just an emotional reaction. When understanding is added to the seeking, you will see that you will be transformed. Use only once scale to judge whether whatever you have been taught is the truth: Does it add more sat, honesty to you? Does it add more chit, consciousness to you? Does it add more ananda, bliss to you? If so, then you are traveling on the right path and, naturally, you will start experiencing enlightenment.

Once you create real sincere seeking, you will see that you are attracted to a spiritual community, and you attract a spiritual community around you. When a seeker attracts the same kind of people around him, it will create such a beautiful, peaceful community - no rules and regulations are necessary. All will live in Dharma, in the natural law of life. Each one will take charge of some work naturally. I call this Dharmic administration, administration through the natural law of life.

In the ancient Vedic Gurukulam, there was no community based on birth. It was purely based on activity. A person who doesn’t have anything to share except his time is called a worker. A person who can share and create some products is called a vaishya, a merchant or businessman. A person who who inspires people in an ideology, who keeps things alive, is called kshatriya, or a warrior, an inspirer. A person who shares enlightenment, knowledge, is called a Brahmana, an Enlightened one. An important understanding you should have, is that you need to know when in your life to play these roles, of Brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and worker. This will bring about Vedic renaissance in your own family. Your whole life will then become beautiful.

The truth is, life itself is a psychodrama. If you understand clearly that you are playing this drama again and again and again, you will realize that being a Brahmana is nothing great. If you do the job of the Brahmana, you will realize that it’s just another job. Because you are sitting there, I am sitting here! Because disciples are there, the Guru is here. It is purely your choice. It is just a matter of who chooses to play what role.

I am not joyful not because I am playing the role of the Guru, but because I have understood that all roles are a drama. Joy is supposed to come from your own Being, not from any role. A person who can play all roles, and who has understood he is beyond all roles, who is not attached to any one role, is called a Paramahamsa, an Enlightened being. If you understand the utility and futility of all roles, you will really live life.

So, first, try to bring seeking into your life; then, realize the utility and futility of the roles you play. You will bring about Vedic renaissance in yourself, the whole community, and the whole world.

Technorati Tags: Awakening, awareness, patanjali, spiritual yoga, yoga sutras

There are no miracles!

CELL phones seem to be a necessary part of our lives today. Everything we need to do, we can do, and we will do is known to our cell phones! It has become a friend, an enemy, or a lover. Despite these, does a cell phone seem like a miracle to us? If the entire world population is to be destroyed except for a handful, and two of them had cell phones and others had never seen them before, these two cell phone users would become Gods! There are no miracles in life. When objects are materialised people say it’s miraculous. It is not a miracle. It is a method.

Teleportation is another tool, just like our cell phones. Sound waves move between the cell phones enabling us to talk to each other. Similarly in teleportation we switch energy and matter. When I teleport an object from the room, I do just that. I convert the matter into energy, teleport it, and reconvert energy into matter. In fact, with techniques such as Kirlian photography, I can prove to you that it is no miracle, nor sleight of hand, but pure science that scientists do not understand yet.

We need no special intelligence to understand the cause and effect linkages. We should begin to appreciate the mysteries of our universe. Miracles aren’t one of them. But our mind clings to miracles. Unlike in the case of the cell phones, the novelty and convenience never wears off. If all cell phones in this world except two are destroyed, the two owners will become Gods.

When we do not understand the cause of something that happens we call it a miracle. Personal transformation is the ultimate miracle that we can get from a Master. It is greater than any seemingly miraculous deed of producing an object out of thin air. The alchemy of one’s inner transformation is far more difficult and far more valuable than the material alchemy of converting base metal into gold.

Human mind has limited capacity. We seek to understand everything with crippled resources. The psychologists say that our minds operates at only 10% of their capacity consciously. As a matter of fact, our conscious mind can only grasp about 2% of what our senses perceive.

We further reduce the capability of our puny mind by incessant inner chatter arising from the past and future, neither of which have relevance to our existence. When we ground ourselves in the present we begin to exist. We get transformed. That is the miracle. Work towards personal transformation. That is the ultimate miracle that any master can work for you.

Technorati Tags: be liberated, science of un-clutching, straight way to liberation, Unclutch

Don’t worry, be blissful!

THERE was a wise and compassionate king. All his subjects came to him for advice. Once a woman came and complained to him that her husband was ill-treating her because she could not bear a child. Another man came to him and grumbled that his children were greedy. They were after his wealth and illtreating him. A poor man petitioned him for money and lamented saying how wretched he was to be poor. A rich man came to the king and complained that he had no real friends. Every one he knew was nice to him only because of his wealth.

The king, after talking to many people, found that the same things — children, money, and health — repeatedly induced people to worry and be sad. Money was needed by one, but was causing sorrow to another. The king hit upon a novel idea, he called his ministers and said: what if we open a Worry Exchange (WE), can’t people come and exchange their worries? A person who was unhappy without children could exchange his or her worry with another who was unhappy because he or she had children? A rich man who was unhappy could trade his worry with a poor man who needs money.

His ministers thought it was a brilliant idea. So the WE was inaugurated. On the appointed day all the king’s subjects arrived at the WE, long before it was to open. They stood around and talked, talked and talked. WE stayed open until dusk. Not a single trade materialised. Not one person came forward to barter or swap his own worry with another’s worry.

The king was disappointed. However, instead of being angry, he enquired from his subjects why no one came forward to trade worries, though they had all said the WE was a brilliant idea.

The subjects replied in one voice: we prefer to live with the worries we know, rather than exchange them for something that we do not know! Worries become, over time, our crutches, our companions. We feel lost without them. We need them to justify our behaviour and depend on them to lead our daily life.

Our worries have no meaning or purpose. I tell people to write down their worries in our Life Bliss Courses. I tell them to look at this list after three or six months. They then tell me that 90% of the worries never materialised. The 10% that did were good for them!

If we allow ourselves to release our grip from worries and relax in the present, then we can begin an intimate, spiritual journey. The purpose of our life is to journey inwards and experience bliss, not to indulge in wasteful worries.

Technorati Tags: Learning through Experience, Learning through Intelligence, liberation, Unclutch

Flow with nature and attain bliss

WE WANT to cling to the idea that we’re somebody. This identity seems to keep us alive. As long as we feel we’re a separate entity, a unique individual, we’ll want to hold on to that distinction. We’ll want to find a distinct place. We believe that we’ve an identity. But let us be very clear here. It’s here that you’ll run into resistance. You will be resisting yourself.

This happens all the time. There is no exception to this rule. It’ll happen wherever we begin to cling to the idea that we’re somebody. It can happen at home or office or workplace or office or industry. It’s sure to happen. If we disappear into the Collective Consciousness, we’ll be protected again and again. We’ll be taken care of. We’ll attain complete success in all spheres. We’ll attain success beyond the social and economic spheres. We’ll experience it as fulfilment. This feeling is inexplicable. The moment we start resisting, we’ll make a hellish experience out of it.

A small story:

A man was told that his wife had fallen into the river. He immediately jumps into the water to save her. To the astonishment of onlookers, he starts swimming against the current. One person asked him, ‘Hey, why are you swimming against the current?’ The man replied, ‘You guys don’t know my wife. Even if she falls in the river, she’ll float against the current. She resists everything so much. I’m sure that she’ll try to resist the current.’
So long as we resist, as long as we don’t disappear into the Collective Consciousness, we’ll be endlessly creating hell, not only for ourselves, but also for those around us. This is the truth. This truth operates whether it is our workplace or our house or our company or any other place.

This same teaching is contained in Taoism, the ancient Chinese philosophy. It’s about flowing with nature. Water’s the greatest illustration of such natural flow. It just flows about the landline, around obstacles, in a smooth and energetic fashion. Tao talks about the reeds in water that bend with strong water flow and straighten up when the flow is weaker. That can only happen when we don’t imagine ourselves to be different from our environment.

When we merge with our environment without resisting we are no longer at odds with nature. We no longer feel the heat, the cold, and the other seemingly uncomfortable natural phenomena.

Be one with the nature. Merge with it completely. Lose your identity. Then you will gain bliss.

Technorati Tags: enlightenment, inner way, spiritual health, Unclutch

Live this moment here and now

SOME of us may think that we have no bad habits because we do not smoke or drink. We may think that we do everything perfectly right. Let me tell you, you all have a secret mental addiction! That addiction leads you into doing all kinds of things. In fact, it prevents you from doing many things. No, you will tell me. No, Master, I have nothing like that.

Listen to me. You are addicted to postponing every action. You have acquired the taste of postponing every task. You have created a mindset that allows you to put off everything. Yes, that is your secret addiction.

Listen to the chatter of your mind. It is always busy collecting arguments, or listing reasons about why you should postpone some tasks. It has such power over us that we will never enter into the act itself. There are many things, which we say we shall do that tomorrow. The tomorrow becomes another tomorrow and tomorrow continues to grow. Today never comes. You can accomplish a task if you do what you have to today.

The present moment is not a reality to many of us. The speculative future seems to be our reality. We prefer to while away our time in the fantasies of the future rather than focusing on the reality of the present moment. A small Zen story: A man went to the Master and asked: When will I become enlightened? The Master said: Now

The disciple could not understand: Now, how can I become enlightened now? I need a lot of practice. It needs lot of methods. It needs lot of meditation. How can it be now? Then the Master says: Never, go away. Do you get the meaning of this story? It is the story of how mind works or tricks us. Remember this story whenever your mind says: You are not good enough unto yourself. You are not complete by yourself. You are not full by yourself.

It will always be telling you the same thing. It has been telling you the same thing. Today your mind will say: I have to do that meditation or this meditation, this practice or that practice to be enlightened. Only then I can become enlightened; only then I can realise my self. Only then I can achieve the goals of my life.

Tomorrow also it will be telling you the same thing. It will never let you feel that you have reached somewhere or that you have achieved something. Couple this with the idea of postponing. It is a disaster. You know, this addiction has a simple cure. Live this moment now. Live in the here and now. Your future is in this present moment. What you cannot do now you shall never be able to do anytime. Go on. Try it.

Technorati Tags: inner power, intelligence, spirituality, swami ji, Unclutch

Changing the world we live in!

OUR true nature is bliss. However, negativity fills much of our lives. This leads to suffering. We then wonder why we are unhappy.

We can control anger and depression by meditation. Just by analysing the seven chakras that are in our body, and the individual consciousness, we can remove negativity and control the mind. We are like an onion. A human body is made of many energy layers. Just like we peel an onion layer by layer, we need to explore the emotional and energy layers of our body. Let us peel away all the layers of the onion. What do we find inside? Emptiness. The onion, which looks solid and feels solid, when opened layer-bylayer, reveals its emptiness. It is just empty within.

Similarly, we each think that we are our mind and body. But when we begin to peel the layers of individual identity, we find nothing inside. What we’ll find therein is the Collective Consciousness. We term this Divine, God or whatever name we wish to give something that is beyond us and which we do not understand. Remember always that we are much more than our body mind. We are all interconnected and connected to a vast energy source. We are not individual islands but a collective ocean. This truth will help us to prevent the anger or depression.

The Collective Consciousness is an experience. It can be taught. This science is unfortunately no longer taught. The education system designed and developed by the ancient sages of the East, called the gurukulam system, is now extinct. It has been replaced by a mindless system of competitive race for selfdestruction termed as education.

That’s why we suffer despite being educated. We suffer through our life. In childhood when we are taught that we’re separate from others. In school, we’re taught that we should be better than others. Then, as adults, we’re taught to compete and destroy others. This is totally wrong. This is completely foolish. The truth is that we are all one. We each mirror the Collective Consciousness. We have lost touch with this truth. That’s why I conduct Life Bliss Programs every week all over the world.

If we re-educate ourselves and change the way we educate our children, different from the way we have educated ourselves, without judgment, without comparison, without competition, with our focus only on learning about the truth, and experiencing the truth, we can learn to live without suffering. We can transform ourselves as well as the world we live in.

We can be in bliss, Nithyanandam.

Technorati Tags: enlightenment, Meditation Technique, true seeker, Unclutch, Unclutch from Your Mind