Restlessness and its remedies

 

There are five types of restlessness. The first type of restlessness is caused by a particular place. When you move away from that place – the street or the house – you immediately feel better. Chanting, singing, laughing and children playing can change this atmospheric restlessness. If you chant and sing, the vibration in the place changes. 

The second type of restlessness is in the body. Eating the wrong food, eating vata-aggravating food, eating at odd times, not exercising and overworking can all cause physical restlessness. The remedy for this is exercise, moderation in work habits and going on a vegetable or juice diet for one or two days. 

The third type of restlessness is mental restlessness. It is caused by ambition, strong thoughts, likes or dislikes. Only knowledge can cure this restlessness – seeing life from a broader perspective, having knowledge of the Self and awareness of the impermanence of everything around you. If you achieve everything, so what? After your achievement, you will die. Knowledge of your death and life, confidence in the Self and confidence in the Divine all calm down mental restlessness. 

The fourth type is emotional restlessness. Any amount of knowledge cannot help here – only Kriya helps. With Kriya, all emotional restlessness vanishes. The presence of your guru, a wise person, or a saint will also help to calm your emotional restlessness. 

The final type of restlessness is rare. It is the restlessness of the soul. When everything feels empty and meaningless, know you are very fortunate. That longing is the restlessness of the soul. Do not try to get rid of it – embrace it, welcome it. People do all sorts of things to get rid of it. They change places, jobs, or partners, they do this, they do that. It seems to help for some time, but it does not last. 

Only this restlessness of the soul can bring authentic prayer in you. It brings perfection, siddhis and miracles in life. It is so precious to get that innermost longing for the Divine. Satsang and the presence of an enlightened one soothe the restlessness of the soul.

Life is eternal

 

Death brings you in touch with the reality of life. Death creates a vacuum, a void and this void is fertile ground for the spirit to manifest. All talents, inventions and creativity spring forth from the void, creation has a tendency to return to the void. All places of worship in all religions are connected with places of burial or cremation because only the awareness of death can bring dispassion and can ground you in knowledge.

According to Indian mythology, Shiva abides in both Mount Kailasa and in smashana. Kailasa means 'where there is only celebration' and smashana is the cremation ground - 'where there is only void'. Divinity dwells in the void as well as in celebration. In you there is void, in you there is celebration. 

The realisation that life is very short brings dynamism in your life. Unwanted things will fall off as well as distractions. When you have to act or put an effort, know that life is short. When you realize life is short, procrastination falls away. When you are expecting a result, know that life is eternal. The ignorant person does it the other way - he hurries for the result and is impatient and frustrated. 

Impatience goes away when you know that life is eternal. When you are looking for a return of a favour or a result from your good deed, you want it quickly. But when you know that there are many lifetimes, you realize that if you don’t get it sooner, you get it later.

Wake up and see your life is too short. Time is running out, so what are you doing with your life? Is it being useful to you and the world around you? Realise life is too short. Wake up and see life is eternal. When you want to enjoy the fruit of action, know that life is eternal. When it comes to hope, you should know that there are many lifetimes. 

When you are looking for results, know that time is eternal. If someone doesn't thank you or takes advantage of you, thank them because they will pay you back later with interest. No one needs to feel sorry that they are unappreciated or have been taken advantage of. Know that you will have to be paid back in the future with interest. 

When it comes to enjoying the fruit of your actions, good deeds or even blessings, know that life is eternal. Anytime that you are in a hurry, you cannot enjoy. So, know that life is eternal.

Dealing with jealousy

 

There is a verse by Kabir: “I went to find a bad person in the universe, and I found none.” All human beings are good! There are negative tendencies in people but that is not the basic human nature. That is only on the circumference.

Why do we behave negatively? Because we are hurt. A happy, joyful person will never do harm to anyone. 

Antidote to jealousy is the knowledge that everybody is going to die. You and the person, whom you are jealous of, are both going to die. It is better to compare yourself with your own self. How you were 10 years or five years ago and what you can be yet tomorrow. The fact that you are a sane human being is enough.

What to do if you are jealous of other people? 1. Know that the person has done some good karma in the past and they are now reaping the fruit. 2. Take it as an inspiration to gain merit now. 3. Create a sense of belongingness with them. See that they are a part of you. 4. Think of all you have that they don’t have and feel grateful. 5. Think of so many others who have much less than you have.

What to do if others are jealous of you? 1. Praise them in superlatives. 2. Create a sense of belongingness in them by your kind actions. 3. Know that their feelings are temporary. 4. The best is not to recognise their envy or jealousy at all. If you recognise a feeling as a reality, it only makes your ignorance grow. 5. Know all feelings and emotions are just like passing clouds.

In the Geeta, Krishna talks about all the good qualities. And then He adds that they are already in you. Just like in an atom, the core is positive and the negativity is peripheral. Don’t ever think deep inside you is all sorrow or anger or jealousy. Know that it’s not in the core.

Karma and reincarnation

 

Reincarnation is coming again into the body. Our mind is energy and, by the law of thermodynamics, energy cannot be destroyed. So, what happens to this energy when someone dies?

Death is almost like sleep. If you understand sleep, you’ll understand death also. While sleeping, the whole consciousness, attention, mind shrinks and one is shut off from outward experiences and moves inward into a void. When you wake up in the morning, the same energy, the same consciousness starts expanding and you wake up. If you carefully observe the mechanism, the last thought that you get just before falling asleep becomes the first thought when you wake up. This gives you a clue to reincarnation.

The mind that is full of different impressions leaves the body. But the impressions remain with the mind and wait for a proper situation for the same mind to come down. So it is the last thought that is more important. If you are happy the last moment before you leave the body, then you get a better body the next time. Karma is that which propels reincarnation. Stronger the impression, the nature of next life could be that, predicted by that.

You might have heard of a tradition in many countries where people would name their grandsons or great-grandsons the same name as that of the grandfather. And you will find in many cases that the grandchildren behave in the same way as the grandfather, even though they are born several decades apart.

This is because when someone dies, the strongest impression in their mind is of their children or grandchildren. This strong impression creates such a karma. So, often you become like the person you hate, and you also become like the person you love. This is because love and hate are the same, one standing upside down. Distortion of love is hate. And the way to get beyond love and hate is through knowledge, through awareness. That something, which is beyond hate, is true love.

5 Sacred secrets guarded by the subtle beings and angels in this creation

The purpose of technology is to comfort human beings. When spiritual values and human values are ignored and neglected, instead of bringing comfort, technology brings fear and destruction.

Technology without human values would see nature as a dead object. Science gives an insight into the life of nature and spirituality makes nature come alive. For example, in the eyes of children, there is nothing dead in the world. Animals, trees, the sun and the moon they all have life, emotions, feelings; but in the eyes of a stressed and ignorant person, even human beings are like robots, objects!

Technology without spirituality is destructive. Spirituality is the technology of consciousness, and the whole world is the play and display of consciousness. One who is not amazed by the magnificence of this creation, his eyes are not yet opened.

Tell me, what in this creation is not a mystery? Birth is a mystery; death is a mystery. Then, life is certainly a greater mystery. Your knowing or believing doesn’t really matter.

This creation is an unfathomable secret! A wise person makes no effort to conceal a secret. But he does not make an effort to reveal a secret either. For example, you do not talk about menstruation, death, etc. to a five-year-old, but as they grow older these things are not hidden from them any more. They become known as a matter of course.

There are five secrets that are sacred and are guarded by the subtle beings and angels in this creation. They are:

Janana Rahasya (the secret of birth): Birth is a secret. How a soul takes a body, the criteria for selecting the place of birth, time of birth, type of body, parents, etc are all a secret.

Marana Rahasya (the secret of death): Death is a highly guarded secret. Death remains a mystery. The process of separation of spirit from matter and its journey from then on is a secret.

Raj Rahasya (the royal secret, the secret of ruling): The principles of governing; the principles of maintaining the orderliness in creation are a secret.

Prakriti Rahasya (the secret of nature): Nature is a mystery. The more you know about nature, the mystery deepens. The more a scientist knows, the more he feels there is much more to know. Science, though appearing to resolve the mystery in creation, has deepened it. The knowledge of particles, wave functions, black holes, the vacuum state, etc have only deepened the mystery.

Mantra Rahasya (the secret of mantras): The mantras and their effect, influence, method and mode of working are all a mystery. Mantras are the impulses or rhythms of this consciousness, which itself is a mystery.

Usually in the West, a secret is shameful and dishonest. But in the East, it is honoured and regarded as sacred. Mysteries of the creation only deepen. Getting steeped in this mystery is devotion. Deepening the mystery of creation is science. Deepening the mystery of the self is spirituality. They are the two sides of the same coin. If neither science nor spirituality can create wonder and devotion in you, then you are in deep slumber.

Whenever you consider a symbol, place, time, person or act as sacred, your attention is undivided and whole. When things are the same, you tend to slip into unawareness and inertia. Then why does an act when performed repeatedly lose its sacredness? This happens when your memory overpowers your consciousness and you lose your sensitivity. For example, people living in Benares do not feel that it is a sacred place. Through living in the present moment and through sadhana we can preserve that feeling of sacredness in our acts.

There is a pleasure in rest and there is a pleasure in activity. The pleasure in activity is momentary and causes fatigue. The pleasure in rest is magnanimous and energising. So, to the one who has tasted pleasure in rest (samadhi), the pleasure in activity is insignificant. In order to have deep rest, one must be active. The proper balance of both is essential.

How do you console dear ones or explain the death of a close one

Why do you need to explain? You know, when you have to console, just be there quietly. Your simple presence will work. By words you cannot console anybody. Everybody has come for some time and they go like that. No logic can console emotions. Logic doesn’t work at all. And it is a wrong thing to pacify emotions through logical conclusions or understanding.


No doubt, the questions will come – why this happens? Those questions should never be answered. Simply be there in silence, in love, compassion, and the atmosphere changes.

Becoming dispassionate

Dispassion is not a happening; I would say dispassion is what you invoke in yourself. When you widen your awareness, when you see everything is going to disappear and death is imminent, we are all going to die and everything is changing; when this knowledge comes - then dispassion is spontaneous. You need to understand and see life from a broader perspective and then automatically dispassion comes within you; but there is some effort. A little effort from you and then it will happen.

What happens to the soul when we die

The impressions of the intellect and the cravings and aversions of the mind go with the subtle body. So when you die what happens is for sometime the soul is in confusion, it does not know. It has just come out of the body but it does not know what to do. It doesn’t want to get into the body because the body appears like very gray matter, very dark and completely unbearable. So it doesn’t want to get into it, it feels very bad and averse to its’ own body most of the time. Sometimes they go in. 

So the soul is out there and very peaceful, the soul is totally at peace. They see people crying, wailing. It tries to tell them, ‘Hey I am okay, don’t worry’, but they cannot communicate. There is a tradition to keep the light burning at the bedside of the body. It’s in Christian tradition as well, right? It’s in the Hindu tradition as well. 

Why do you keep a light burning near the head? So that when the soul suddenly looks at that light and knows that it is light. Let it be reminded that it is light, if it is still craving for something. Just to remind the soul that the nature of the soul or spirit is light, a lamp is kept or a candle is kept burning near the body. It’s not for us, it’s for the soul because the soul can still see, and smell. It has lost the sense of touch but smell and light are still there; smell, sight and sound all three will be there. 

So the ancient tradition is just before cremation the son or daughter; son usually, takes the head of the person into his lap and in the ear he says, ‘You are light, you are soul, you are not the body. Drop all your attachment to this body’, he tells them. And then the body is given a bath and then taken to cremation. These words are all in Sanskrit, and people simply repeat it in Sanskrit without knowing it because the priests tell them to say these things. To tell the departed in his ear that, ‘The five elements will go back to five elements. You are not just these five elements you are light, you are soul, you are spirit, you’re free and you move on now.’ This is what you say in the ear of the corpse, in case the soul is still hanging around and it does. 

The soul does hang around because it doesn’t know what to do. So it takes nearly ten days for the soul to get used to this other plane where it has gone. And once it reaches that plane of ancestors, one day there is one year for us. Our one year is just one day and one night for them in that realm. So there are three levels or lokas there also; one is Vasuloka, second is Rudra, and then Aditya. Three lokas are there and so they remain in this for some time. 

And there are three different Devas, they take them to those places. Someone who is a pious and died in a very good life they are taken direct to these lokas and three angels called Pururava, Ardrahva, and Vishvadeva. Three different Devas come and take the soul according to the level. It’s interesting! So in a yearly ceremony that is done, the day you remember the ancestors. First you invite these angels to bring them to you, for you want to honor them. These angels, they are the custodians. So you tell them ‘Vishvadeva you bring my father, my mother or my grandfather or grandmother for this ceremony. Bring them for I would like to honor them.’ Ancient people knew all these so well, they had access to those realms. Even today people do this, they do the ceremonies and they do all this.

We have not one but several bodies

The physical body is in the waking state. In the sleeping state physical body is at rest, the subtle body is active, in the dreaming state and that is why you get dreams. In deep sleep both of these go to sleep but the causal body is still there awake, aware. The causal body becomes cleansed in deep meditation. And, in enlightenment the causal body is completely free, yes.

So when one dies what happens, physical body separates, the subtle body remains with all its impressions. The subtle body and causal body they both go like a balloon and remain and look for a right opportunity, a right womb to get into. So when the soul finds that the couple is having union and depends on the energy level and harmony between the couple and the energy level of the soul, at that moment it comes into that, so that type of parents. 

Sometimes the soul brings two people together. A soul chooses I want this lady and this man as my father and mother. So they bring those two people together and they will have terrible attraction, unbearable attraction. So the moment the child is born, you’ll find suddenly the attraction between those two people is gone totally, completely gone. This happens, and after the first child many people divorce. When this happens, that intense feeling of separation comes and then you should know that the soul made this thing happen. 

It is so amazing; all these things are so interesting. On one hand it is amazing; on another if you are not so much in the present moment you’ll go crazy, seeing how many subtle worlds we live in simultaneously. Simultaneously how many things are happening in the universe, it’s very interesting.

So you come into the physical body to cleanse the subtle body. There is no way you can cleanse the subtle body hanging in space. So you come to human body so that you get rid of all those impressions. Once you have gotten rid of the subtle impressions in the subtle body, then the causal body with the divine grace also becomes free, that is called Nirvana. 

No more craving or aversions, nothing, totally hollow and empty. Wanting nothing and totally satisfied. Anytime you feel that I am total, I am complete, death can come this moment I welcome it. If you say that, if you feel that rather than saying it, then that completion is Nirvana. That has touched the causal body; the causal body gets relieved not by your effort but by just the Divine will and Divine grace. The universe decides whether the causal body should be there or should be removed, should be dissolved. It’s amazing, you can work on the physical, and you can work on the subtle, that’s all you can do. The rest you can only wait, but this itself is a great job, this itself is good enough.

People say married women should not chant Lalita Sahasranama

In our country people just say anything. Some say married women should not chant Lalita Sahasranama. Some say one should not keep a Shiva Ling at home. Some says women should not chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’.

This is all untrue, it is not mentioned anywhere in the scriptures like that. 

Good things should be read and chanted by everyone. One should not get caught up in such superstitions.

These days it is hard to get a Pundit or Priest who is authentic. Many times the Priest who comes for performing the wedding ceremony reads the mantras for a death ceremony and no one knows what he is saying and which mantra is for what. 

The Priest came and chanted the mantras and so the work is done. There is no authenticity in the ceremony or of what is being chanted.

And many times we are in such a hurry to finish the ceremony. We tell the priest, ‘Punditji, hurry up!’ We are lacking the devotion to even sit and listen to the mantras that are being chanted and know what the real meanings of these mantras are.

A Christian Priest gets so much respect but the Pundits in our country are not getting the respect that they should be getting. In our country the Pundits are not even getting proper training anymore.

That is why we have started a school, ‘Ved Vigyan Mahavidyapeeth’, to train the Pundits to perform marriages and other ceremonies according to the Vedic Dharma Sansthan, so that people can understand the true meaning of marriage. Marriage is not just about wearing the mangal sutra, it is the saptapadi (the seven steps) that is marriage. Until you take the 7 steps together till then the marriage is not complete and it is very important to understand the meaning of the saptapadi. 

I would like to invite those of you who are interested to come for 2 month training. Then you also can become qualified to perform marriages, naming ceremonies, house warming ceremonies, thread ceremonies and the last rituals after death (antyeshti). 

The significance of the rituals performed after someone dies is so astounding. In the ceremony they offer sesame seeds with water to signify, all those desires that are still binding you after your departure are very small, let go of them and become free! We will fulfil these desires for you. That is why it is called tarpanam. 

A son or a daughter can perform this ceremony. That is why tarpanam is done to tell the departed, let go and become free, we will fulfil all that you have left behind. 

All of these rituals are so important, but we have forgotten all of them. But now at Art of Living we are reviving all of these and training people.

Coming back home

Let go! What are you holding on to? You are home! Wake up!

Wake up, it is your cravings, which is giving you an illusion that you are far away from your home. And what are the cravings – for pleasure, for recognition. And what did you get in all those pleasures? Five minutes or ten minutes of some sensations and some stimulation; other than that, what is it? NOTHING WHATSOEVER! Absolutely nothing! 

It left your hands burned down, your head and heart devastated. What else do you want? 

Come on! When you want to be back home, it does not take more than a wink of the eye. That means it doesn’t take more than a second. 

Wake up and shake up! Wake up and realize you are already there. The cobwebs around your mind are your own making. You know how the spider makes its own cobweb. Who has done it? Not somebody else. From its own saliva, it made the cobweb and it is all caught up in it and feels,’ I am dying!’

You blame it on the world; blame it on people, blame it on situations and blame it on your own mind. 

Stop blaming even your mind. You simply have to shake and wake up. Done!

Death can anytime rob you of all of it, in one minute. Not even a minute it takes. In one minute death will rob all of what you have. Before death robs you, let go I tell you. Then you are free and you will feel I am home. 

One day death is going to rob you of everything; your home, your kith and kin, your car, jewellery, your fridge, all will be gone. In fact, they will all be here, you will be gone. It is the other way around. 

Wake up and see nothing is yours. Can’t you say this – ‘Nothing is mine!’?

‘Nothing is mine’, and you are home. It is such a freedom I tell you, such a freedom! 

I don’t mean you should go and empty your bank balance and give it all away. Keep the money in the bank, but not in your head. Got it? 

You will not be greedy, you will not be angry, you will not be possessive or jealous. Just one remembrance of an inevitable truth that is going to happen in your life, you are going to die one day! You don’t need to read books to know this. It is such an obvious truth. You don’t need to quote from scriptures to know that you are going to die.

This one thing in sight is good enough to bring a transformation in life.  

That sense of courage, conviction and realization is what wisdom is. First realization, and then courage and conviction, brings so much freedom. Only then real meditation happens. Till then you sit with your eyes open and closed and again open and closed. Yes, there is some quietness in the mind, but nothing beyond.

What is Dispassion?

Dispassion is not a happening.

I would say dispassion is what you invoke in yourself. When you widen your awareness, when you see everything is going to disappear and death is imminent, we are all going to die and everything is changing; when this knowledge comes - then dispassion is spontaneous.

You need to understand and see life from a broader perspective and then automatically dispassion comes within you; but there is some effort. A little effort from you and then it will happen.

While we live, we should be happy and allow others to be happy

Every day we have to take some time off to make ourselves peaceful. For this, we need to become aware that all that is there today will not be there someday, like the bubbles in the water. We should know the impermanence.

While we live we should be happy and allow others to be happy. When we remember death, the questions about life become less. While we live we have to achieve two things - (i) how much love we have shared and (ii) how much wisdom we have gained. These are the only two things that remain with us even after we die. 

Every day we should sit for a few minutes and meditate - be free from all unnecessary things like what others think about us. We have to realize that God (Paramatma) is omnipresent. If He is not omnipresent, we cannot call Him, God. He is always there, everywhere and in everyone of us. We close our eyes and see Him and that is meditation. Guru, God and Atma (soul) are the same.

When you come to the ashram, leave your worries here - don't take them back with you. When you do seva, your needs will be taken care of. Our work is to spread wisdom. So you spread wisdom and whatever you need, will happen anyway.

There is no point in spending the whole of our earnings on ourselves. We have to keep two-three percent for social service, for dharma jagruti (awakening of truth) – so corruption can be minimized. We should all get together and inspire the people of our country.

When you have a question, ask yourself several times, and when you don't get the answers, then only ask the Guru. Other things you will get by your prarabdha (past karma) and all good things will happen. 

Music, Meditation and Wisdom - all these three things should be there in life - gaan, dhyan aur gyaan (music, meditation and wisdom).

How to overcome suffering?

If you know that your pain is just momentary, you don’t mind the pain. 

You go to doctor and he gives you a prick. You don’t mind the pain. You are doing exercise with dumbbells and it pains. You enjoy that pain.

Why you don’t like suffering is because in suffering you feel, “Oh! This is death." You associate death with suffering. That is why there is fear. Just simple pain doesn’t give you suffering. You willingly undergo many pains.

By understanding this, layer by layer, going scientifically you can observe that you pay more attention to your mind than to the senses, to your intellect more than the mind and to the ego more than your mind. 

For example someone saying some words to somebody else doesn’t bother you. But if they said that to you then you get upset. If you go beyond that and see, it is just their opinion. If someone passes a derogatory remark on you, how do you see it beyond the ego? With compassion, “Ok, they are saying something because they are upset.” Then you don’t get hurt. When someone calls the person next to you stupid, you see it as a witness but when he does the same to you, there is a difference. Do you see the difference? If you can see that also from the same angle, as though they are fighting with somebody else, then you see it beyond ego. Then you say, “He must be tired, stressed out” , instead of taking it as a personal attack on you, you will see the state of mind, intention or consciousness behind the action.

Suffering has a purpose, which is to connect you to your self. Suffering indicates that you got too involved and carried away by all the relative and transient things around you. That is what suffering is all about.

Once you understand that suffering is only transient, your eyes get lifted to something that is eternal. That is when real joy dawns in life.

Karma and Reincarnation

The most commonly used word that is misunderstood is “Karma“. The literal meaning of Karma is action. Action could be latent, could be in the form of a tendency, and it could be something that happens in the future. These are the three forms of Karma.

So Karma means:

1. The impression of the past that will draw similar actions in the future (this is future Karma)
2. The present action you are doing that is creating an impression in your mind. That is again called Karma

Every habit is a sort of Karma. Suppose you have been drinking coffee every morning, and one day you don't drink it, you end up with a headache. This is coffee Karma. Now how to eliminate coffee Karma?

• By drinking coffee
• By not drinking coffee but just observing the sensations in your body
• By doing some breathing exercises, or meditation

Being aware of a tendency in you will help you overcome the tendency. Here comes the play of knowledge (awareness). Knowledge does not mean informative knowledge; it means awareness – the sense of knowingness.

When you increase your sense of knowingness, your Karma stands reduced. For example, you feel like throttling somebody, but because you are aware, you don't do it. If you are not aware, then when the tendency comes up to throttle somebody, you just go and throttle them. You act on it.

Every impression is Karma, but there is nothing to worry about because Karma is not like an engraving on a rock – it is fluid. And Karma is always bound by time, because every action has only a limited reaction – it is not infinite.

All animals have only Prarabdha Karma, which is the Karma over which they do not have any control. Mother Nature runs them, so they don't accumulate any future Karma. If you are totally like an animal, you don't get any Karma. But as a human being, this is impossible because the mind stores impressions and accumulates future Karma. And Karma is that which propels reincarnation.

However, there is one thing that can erase Karma and that is knowledge and self-awareness. If you are aware of yourself and if you are in total love, then you are free from Karma. Then you are not bound by any impressions – you are free. What gives you freedom is your awareness.

Our mind is energy, and by the law of thermodynamics, you know that energy cannot be destroyed. If mind is energy, then what happens to this energy when someone dies? 

Death is almost like sleep. What happens when you sleep? While sleeping, your consciousness and your attention shrinks and you shut out from your outer experiences and move inward into a void. And when you wake up in the morning, the same consciousness that had shrunk starts expanding and opens up, and you wake up.

If you carefully observe the mechanism, the last thought that you get just before falling asleep becomes the first thought when you wake up. This gives you a clue of your re-incarnation. That is why it is said that the last thought is most important. Whatever you do throughout your life, at least in the last moment of your life, you should be free and happy. If you are happy in the last moment, before you leave the body, then you get a better body the next time around.

What can i do when am unable to forgive or forget?

Then just think about your death, that you are going to die.

Even if you hold on (to the situation), still you will be finished; you will go away from this world. Now, do you want to carry that impression? Come on, wake up!

Life is so short and everybody is like a rag doll. They don’t have a mind of their own. Everyone is like a rag doll, and there is a particular force and energy that is working through everybody.

That one Paramakaranakarana is the cause of all causes. The Shiva Tattva is playing, putting different things in different people’s minds. Understand this Advaita knowledge; feel it.

We are all made up of the same substance. All these little minds are there, but the mind is also influenced by a big mind, and according to karma. So, different people act in different ways.

Have you noticed that sometimes, you haven’t done anything wrong to anyone, and still they became your enemies? How many of you have had this experience? Especially people to whom you have done a lot of good to, they become your enemies. You wonder, this person is my best friend, I did so much for him, and this person became my enemy! Isn’t it?

In the same way, there are some people to whom you have not done any special favors, yet they have become your friends, hasn’t this happened? You met someone in the train and then they came out and helped you so much.

So both, friendship and enmity happens with some strange law of karma. That is why friends or enemies are all same, because another power is working through them. Knowing this, relax.

Similarly, when you do good work, there are people who criticize you. There are people who do horrible work, and there are some people praising them as well. You find it so strange.

So, drop them all and relax.

The One Truth - Realise it and nothing can shake you

The divine consciousness is present everywhere, expressing itself in various different forms. It is just like the light that projects at the cinema, where one light passes through different films, and different imprinted characters are being projected onto the screen from it. Without the light, there is no film. There is no hero, no heroine, no villain, nothing! They are all just figures projected on a film  with a single light. The same light is the hero and heroine, and many different characters on the screen.The same light can be a mouse and a lion. Behind all these characters is only one beam of white light. The brave one is one who can see, that if this person is that way, and that person is that way, it is all just play and display of one consciousness.

Recognize, that the one consciousness which appears to be perfect somewhere is really not perfect, and that which appears imperfect somewhere is not really imperfect. It is all made up of one being, one field of energy. One who focuses on this and understands this deep within, crosses over this world of death to immortality. Nothing whatsoever can shake him or her. The ephemeral happenings do not touch the one who is connected with the universal energy.

So, from you projecting your mind onto everybody, you see everybody as the projection of that one consciousness. This is the journey of life, from ignorance to enlightenment. In ignorance you project your emotions on others, you are angry at everyone, you say and you think everyone is angry at you. You have an ego, you think everyone else has an ego too. You are negative, you think others are negative.You do not respect people, and you think that others do not respect you. You do not love others, and you think others do not love you. You are projecting your mind on to others, and this is ignorance.

See the whole universe as the projection of consciousness. It is not an individual who is doing this or that. It is all a play and display of a universal phenomenon, everyone is like a rag doll. Knowing this, is enlightenment. This is something to be done right here.

When you die, you will carry all your memory, cravings, aversions and hatred with you. This is a great loss to you, as the mind is meant to experience infinity. Instead of ingraining infinity in the finite mind, you drag the mind through the mud. You criticize and complain, and this is not worth carrying. Let others form their own ideas, let them seem imperfect. But you should not carry that and spoil yourself.

What can i do when am unable to forgive or forget?

Then just think about your death, that you are going to die.

Even if you hold on (to the situation), still you will be finished; you will go away from this world. Now, do you want to carry that impression? Come on, wake up!

Life is so short and everybody is like a rag doll. They don’t have a mind of their own. Everyone is like a rag doll, and there is a particular force and energy that is working through everybody. That one Paramakaranakarana is the cause of all causes. The Shiva Tattva is playing, putting different things in different people’s minds. Understand this Advaita knowledge; feel it.

We are all made up of the same substance. All these little minds are there, but the mind is also influenced by a big mind, and according to karma. So, different people act in different ways.

Have you noticed that sometimes, you haven’t done anything wrong to anyone, and still they became your enemies? How many of you have had this experience? Especially people to whom you have done a lot of good to, they become your enemies. You wonder, this person is my best friend, I did so much for him, and this person became my enemy! Isn’t it?

In the same way, there are some people to whom you have not done any special favors, yet they have become your friends, hasn’t this happened? You met someone in the train and then they came out and helped you so much.

So both, friendship and enmity happens with some strange law of karma. That is why friends or enemies are all same, because another power is working through them. Knowing this, relax.

Similarly, when you do good work, there are people who criticize you. There are people who do horrible work, and there are some people praising them as well. You find it so strange.

So, drop them all and relax.

If you had only 10 days left on this planet, what would you be doing?

We have lived today’s life. Be happy today. And tomorrow’s life will begin with the next sunrise. And the next day’s with the next sunrise...

If you only had ten days to live on this planet, what would you want to do? Sit and think what your priorities are. Are you worried about your relationship? In ten days you are going to go away, kick the bucket. Are you worried about your property? Are you worried about your friends and foes? Are you worried about what you are going to eat, your eating preferences? What are your preferences? Ten days to live of your life, and what are you going to do? We keep living as though we will live forever.

We hang onto things as though they will be there forever. We forget the sense of time and life –the flow of life. Isn’t that our only problem?

You are so concerned about your relationship. A girl didn’t smile at you or a boy went with somebody else. What are you worried about? Where will they be? People are burned down with this sense of relationship. People are burned down with things about friends, wasting precious life and time. A friend of yours behaved badly with you and hurt you.

What actually hurts you is your foolishness. Let them behave the way they want! But you want everybody to be on your railway tracks. You have set railway tracks for people, and you want everybody to walk on those tracks. The moment they give you a surprise, you say you never wanted that in your life. How can you get over it? What do you want to get over? Just wake up and look. Neither of you are going to be there long. You will both be under the earth in no time.

You won’t even be able to recognize this body. And if you continue to live like that, nobody will even take your name. Nobody will even know you existed on this planet. Anyway, even if they do, it has no meaning for you, does it? Where are you to begin? You feel that one person did this to you and another person did that. That they did not smile at you, or that they smiled at you. That they said something good. They did this… Where is your freedom? We carry such stupid things with us wherever we go! A doormat can remove the mud from your feet, but if you carry mud in your head, what can remove it?

Contentment is what you need. If people have behaved well with you and been friendly to you, thank them for what they have done for you. Don’t become a burden on them. The whole world needs to understand this; the entire world is burning out for nothing. Every moment put yourself into knowledge. Everybody should be immersed in two or three hours of sevā (service).

If we look for what we do not have, there will be no contentment.  I would like you to be contented  in your mind, in your heart. Don’t have feverishness or craving for it.

Your origin (and your death) is a Secret

In the whole creation, the origin is never seen. A seed sprouts, but what is happening inside the seed is not known. Similarly a baby is getting formed in the womb, but it is not visible outside. A river is born somewhere, but you can never really go to the source of the river. So the origin remains a secret.

Similarly, death is also a secret. Your origin is a secret and what happens after death is also a secret. From the subtle to the gross and to the subtle again. And from the subtle how again it comes to the gross is again another secret.

So when you look at the secret, there is amazement and amusement in the mind. A 'wow'! This amusement is the basis for yoga. When you are amused by the creation, that means the preface of yoga has started.

Children are amazed by everything. They look at their fingers with amazement. They look at flowers and butterflies with amazement. They look at the stars in amusement. So, when amazement or amusement dawns in life, then yoga (synonymous of union) has also started.