Insight into Shiva Sutras

 

A sutra is a thread and Shiva means that which is auspicious. Among many negative things, take that one positive thing and hold on to it. If someone has fallen in a deep well, what do you do? You help them come up with a rope. That is what Shiv Sutras are meant to do. These are simple one-line sutras that make you aware that your true nature is “Swatmananda Praksha Vapushe”. Your true nature is bliss; your true nature is joy. Your nature is light.

That is why it is said: Namah śrī śambhave svātmānanda prakāśa vapuśe.

I bow down to the wealth that brings peace and fills the body with joy.

How does auspiciousness begin? It happens when the mind turns inwards. When the mind wanders outside, it is caught up in problems and confusion. Do you know what misery is? Misery is when the mind gets caught up in the world and forgets itself. Happiness can be described as remembering yourself.

Suppose a close relative or friend visits you after a long time. You prepare sweets, arrange everything to welcome them and go to the railway station to receive them. You feel thrilled when you finally meet them. The mind instantly blossoms. Where there is no eagerness and anticipation, there is less love.

The mind naturally flows towards that which you love. When you read the word ‘mana’ meaning mind, from the other direction, it becomes “nama.” What does it mean? When the mind turns inward it is namah, and an outward mind is manah. When you enter a temple, you say ‘namah’ and the mind automatically turns inwards.

What attracts the mind outward? It is prosperity, wealth, success and beauty. The sight of anything beautiful draws the mind towards it. The whole world revolves around only one thing, and that is ‘Srī’, which means prosperity. You yearn for knowledge, yearn for happiness, yearn for beauty, wealth, success, advancement – whatever you long for, it is only for one desire, and that is Srī. When we are in a state of namah, when we are introspective, we find Srī and true wealth is born.

‘Śambhave’ – Wealth and prosperity should bring peace. However, often one acquires wealth and problems follow it. While we do need money, along with wealth we also get diseases like stomach pains, ulcers, diabetes, heart attack, etc.

‘Svātmānanda’ – filled with bliss, having a cheerful state of mind. There are some people who do good acts, but do not have peace and joy. But look at children. They are not very serious. They are happy. What kind of happiness do they have? ‘Svātmānanda prakāśā vapuse’ – happiness overflows in them. One characteristic of life is that it should end where it began, and life is a cycle that starts with happiness.

‘Ānandena jātāni jīvanti’ – it is said in the Upanishads: “Life happens in joy and finds completion in joy.” The soul should be filled with happiness – that is the goal of the Shiva Sūtras: svātmānanda prakāśa vapuśe.

Bless with contentment

 

When we do not want anything for ourselves, a unique power awakens within us. We become capable of giving blessings. Only those who are themselves content are capable of giving blessings. If they say, ‘Let your will be done’, it will definitely happen. The blessings of an individual who is content, will manifest. This is the secret behind blessing.

Ideally, as we grow older, our contentment should also increase. The more content we are, the more mature we are. There are two kinds of joy: one of receiving and the other of giving. In our childhood we experienced the joy of receiving. If you give anything to children they are always ready to take it. But as we grow older, we experience the Joy in giving.

For example, in a home there is a mother or a grandmother; when the grandmother is alone in the house, she does not prepare five different kinds of vegetables and four different sweets for herself. But when children come to the house or guests come, she cooks many different kinds of dishes and serves them. So in giving there is joy and this is a mature joy and pleasure. But many times we lose sight of this and we keep looking to receive all our lives, and we remain dissatisfied and a kind of misery pervades.

For wealth to come, the mind should be content. The more satisfied we are, the more we progress. In order to receive blessings, one should be deserving. How will that happen? By keeping your mind pure and clean. How to keep the mind clean? First of all have faith – God is my very own, and I belong to Him and He loves me. To look after my happiness and sorrow is His job and He will do it.

Second, we need to perform seva (service) in society. As human beings, we all have some needs and some responsibilities. If our responsibilities are more, and our needs less, then in life we remain peaceful and content. If our responsibilities are few but our needs are many then we remain unhappy.

Third, for short periods of time, do pranayama, and meditation and a new wave of contentment, joy and bliss arises in our lives. If you practice these three things, you will see that whatever work you desire will begin to get done effortlessly. Stay in the present. Whatever is the past, drop it all. Put aside all the matters of the past, and sit and meditate.

Satsang

 

Satsang means the company of reality, being in touch with the truth. It is not just singing some complicated songs which you don’t understand. Music is one part of it. The second part is understanding the logic. The third part is reposing in deep meditation and being with yourself. 

So, which is the right company? That which makes you feel light, which makes you feel the problem is very trivial as compared to what you thought. If company makes you perceive the problem as being bigger than it is, that is not satsang. Satsang is where you can drop what people think about you and be authentic.

Usually, people who are in celebration don’t go into the depth, while people who experience silence, don’t usually celebrate. However, satsang is when we value both silence and celebration. The purpose of music is to create silence deep within you and the purpose of silence is to create dynamism in life.

Music is laya yoga; laya is dissolving. This is the highest form of samadhi (unity with the divine). Sound is a form of energy. Your whole body is made up of atoms. When you sing bhajans, the sound vibrations get absorbed into every particle of your body. Just like a microphone absorbs sound and converts it into electricity, the body absorbs the vibrations and transforms it into consciousness.

If you are sitting and listening to gossip or loud jarring music, then that gets absorbed by your body and does not give a nice feeling. When you hear knowledge, or chant with all your heart, that elevates your consciousness. Being with this truth kindles the energy in you and awakens the consciousness because the sound energy very easily penetrates into the mind.

The body is made up of five elements – earth, water, air, fire and ether. The ether element is associated with sound. And sound unites. Sound reverberates in your body. Our mind and consciousness are ancient. When you dive into different layers of consciousness, there are different languages that are present there. The most ancient layer of our consciousness can understand the most ancient language of the world – sanskrit.

When we are sitting, thinking or talking then every mind thinks differently, no one thinks alike. But when we sing or chant sanskrit bhajans, then the mind which is so ancient identifies the impressions of all these old bhajans, our consciousness begins to unite and somewhere deep inside sharing happens. And the bhajans or mantras make deep impressions in the mind where they remain for a long period. It is like a brush. Each bristle joined together can clear all the knots in mind.

That is why even though we don’t know the meaning of some of the words, we simply chant them because just chanting them has a positive effect. It is not the meaning that is important. So when we sing, we don’t have to see how well we sing, and where we are singing. Just close your eyes and be one with the music, the sound. You dissolve into the space that is, through bhajan.

We usually think bhajan is just singing songs. Bhajan means sharing. Divine is love and when you blossom in that love, you share the love. Divine is compassion, and when you are compassionate, you are in bhajan. When the mind is split into one hundred parts, there is misery. And the same minds when they all get together, becomes one unit, then there is joy.

Changing two tendencies of the mind

 

Have you noticed what keeps happening in the mind every moment? The mind keeps wondering what is going to happen next. Knowledge is being aware of this phenomenon of the mind; of what is happening right now in the mind.

All other information and education can be acquired by reading books. You can open a book on any subject, be it birth, death or dietary habits; there are volumes of books available on countless topics. But awareness of our own mind cannot be learnt by reading a book.

What does our mind do? It vacillates between the past and the future. Every moment, it is either angry about the past or anxious about the future. There is another tendency of the mind – clinging to the negative. If 10 positive instances or events are followed by one negative event, we cling to that one negative thing. We simply forget all the 10 positives.

To bring about a change in these two tendencies of the mind is the greatest help you can render yourself. Becoming aware of these two tendencies in the mind will make you very natural, very simple. These are very precious values and will enable you to blossom from within.

We are actually born with this innocence in us; but as we become more and more mature and intelligent, we tend to lose this innocence and end up becoming stiff. Drop the stiffness, and then see how much more rewarding, more enjoyable, more interesting life becomes. This is knowledge. And this is also worship.

Honoring the Guru Tattva

 

An acharya gives ‘shiksha’ (knowledge) but a guru gives ‘diksha’, which is the height of awareness. A guru simply does not stuff you with knowledge but kindles the life force in you. In guru’s presence you become more alive, every cell in your body becomes alive. That is called ‘diksha’. It is the height of intelligence and not information. An acharya gives you information and knowledge but a guru invokes intelligence and not just the intellect. The pinnacle of intellect is intelligence, awaken intelligence. So, a guru awakens intelligence, not information.

Mind is connected with the moon and the full moon is a symbol of completion and celebration. So, Guru Purnima is the day when the disciple wakes up in his fullness and wakefulness. In that wakefulness, he can’t be but grateful. And it is the gratitude of advaita, of oneness. It is not like a river moving from one place to another. It is an ocean moving within itself. Gratefulness and Guru Purnima symbolises the fullness of the student, of the disciple. And celebrates in gratitude.

Guru communicates in silence. And then all doubts simply disappear - Sri Nathadi Guru Thrayam. There are three levels of gurus and there are three different forms of gurus.

The first is the absolute form, which is all-permeating. He is everywhere. Another form of guru is knowledge. The third is the physical form. In such a way our being, our consciousness works. Our consciousness has three bodies: First is the physical body, next is the subtle body, emotions and thoughts and then the causal body which is pure consciousness.

Guru Purnima is the day when the person recognises the physical form. Knowledge belongs to the subtle because causally it is all-pervading and beyond the dimension of time. It is everywhere, at any time, all the time. All three are forms of one guru tattva (Guru principle). Therefore, we celebrate all the forms the guru appeared in. Those many forms help us at every step of our life.

Guru is not just the physical body. He is omnipresent, omnipotent and cannot be separated from life. He is light, knowledge, wisdom, and body. All things together. This entire universe is the body of the guru. Therefore, having a guru in one’s life means that you have everything in life – bliss, happiness, comfort and knowledge. Liberation is impossible without a guru.

The guru’s job is not to find you a job or relationships, those are extras things. The important aspect is inner freedom and the realisation that you are light and you are space. That is the main goal. And how we move towards the goal all other things come along the way. When the guru says: “We are one, that is knowledge. Therefore, you are not alone on this journey toward infinity. I’m with you, you’re not alone, there is no separation.”

Guru Purnima is the day when you honour the guru tattva which is present everywhere. When you dishonour this, the darkness dawns. Understand this wisdom that the giver is giving you everything that is needed in abundance, start utilising the gift. Use the intelligence that is given, it only sharpens when used. If you have a good voice, use it for others because it’s a gift.

You must love and serve others without wanting anything in return. This is important usually we think I gave so much love to that person what did he give me in return. In this way we try to make the other person feel that we have done them a great favour by loving them, this we must not do. Love is your nature; it is acting with dignity, naturalness, compassion and simplicity and we are born with these qualities.

Surrender all your qualities and become hollow and empty to come closer to the guru tattva, this is what you need to do, surrender all your positive and negative qualities and be happy.

The purpose of yoga

 

The definition of ‘asana’ is a posture that is stable and pleasant. You should feel comfortable when doing yoga asanas. What is the definition of comfort? When you don’t feel the body. If you are sitting in some odd positions then you feel those parts of the body, painfully. Your focus is more on the discomfort there. When you do any asana, what you feel first is discomfort. But if you take your mind through it, you will find that in just a few minutes the discomfort has disappeared, and you don’t feel the body. You feel an expansion or infinity in the postures.

How should a posture be done? Get into a position and let go of the effort. What happens then? Infinity abides in you. So each asana should be done keeping in mind that the goal of this is not just the correctness of the posture, but to feel an expansion within. This is the most important thing in yoga asanas. The purpose of yoga is not only to keep a good physical shape but also to experience infinity and timeless expansion within. And that starts happening to you with some practice.

The other definition of yoga is to get back from the scenery to the seer. Slowly take your attention from outside to inside. First, from the environment, bring your attention to the physical body. Then go one step further because even the body is the scenery and take your attention to the mind. Now when you witness the thoughts that are coming into the mind, even that becomes the scenery. Go deeper. So movement from the scenery to the seer, to the one who is seeing everything is another definition of yoga.

Whenever you experience joy, ecstasy, bliss and happiness in life, knowingly or unknowingly you are abiding like the seer. Otherwise, at other times, you are with different activities of the mind, and you are lost in them.

What are these different activities of the mind? The modulations of the mind are of five forms; some are problematic and some are not. These are:

• Pramana: when the mind is engaged in wanting proof
• Viparyaya: means wrong understanding
• Vikalpa: means an imaginary notion, not conforming to reality
• Nidra: which means sleep
• Smruti: living in memory

These five vrittis or modulations of the mind drain the potential of a human being. Having control over these modulations of the mind is what yoga is all about. They are like horses. If the reins of the horses are in your hands, then you can give them direction, but if you are at the mercy of the horse then it takes you wherever it goes. So it is said, ‘Yoga chitta vritti nirodaha’ – Yoga is that which arrests the modulations of the mind. When you practice an asana, the goal is to feel comfortable and then feel the expansion; not by wanting to feel, but by letting go; by not ‘doing’ something. So the first step in yoga is to let go, to relax and the last step in yoga is also to let go and relax.

You are the universe

 

Your body is a universe in itself. So is your mind, which is a part of the big mind called Brahman. Even realising, “I am not just somebody, I am just the whole, I am the Brahman,” immediately washes away all the impurities. You start shining, sparkling like the day in which the clouds have disappeared.

The brightness of the sun shines through. So even though many cells are being born and dying but you still exist. In the same way, the Brahman still exists even though so many people are born and so many people are dying.

With a gentle touch of that Brahman, extreme happiness and bliss wells up in you. Love is in that space and that is why when you feel love, you feel that person belongs to you. If they feel something you feel something. You feel they are not different from you. Your space and their space are merged. But one whose space is merged with the infinite space, sees everyone as part of himself.

Lord Krishna talks about the word that is coming from the big mind when He says, “He who sees me everywhere and sees all things in me does not lose sight of me nor do I of him”. The big mind says you feel the air. Do you know air also feels you? You look at the mountain. How about the mountain which also looks at you?

If the entire universe is prana and if one prana can feel the other prana, then the other prana can also feel. This is quantum physics. The subject has an impact on the object. When the yogi realises that this is the same space that is present in her, in him and feels the inner connectivity with that space and with every one, that is real prayer, real worship, real honouring.

That is when you know that the universe feels you, the big mind never loses sight of you and you are not alone. The whole world belongs to you.

True laughter in life

 

If you ever happen to meet God, do you know what you would tell him? “Oh, I have met you inside.” God will dance with you when the day dawns in laughter and love. True prayer is laughing in the morning. Don’t just be laughing outside but from deep inside. Laughter comes from the centre of our being, from the core of our heart. True laughter is true prayer.

When you laugh, the whole world laughs with you. It echoes and resounds and that is really the worth of life. When things go all right, everybody can laugh; but when everything falls apart, and then if you can laugh, that is evolution and growth. So, there is nothing in life that is more worthy than your laughter. Never lose it for anything, whatsoever. Events come and go. Some are a little pleasant, some are unpleasant; but there is some area deep in you that is left untouched. Hold on to that.

And anytime we don’t feel up to that untouched innocence, what do we do? You can attend to several layers of your own existence. First, the body – see if you have had good rest, proper food and some exercise. Then attend to the breath. Every mood of the mind has a definite rhythm in the breath. By attending to the rhythm in the breath, the mind and body can be elevated.

Observe the sensation and feeling in the body. Observing thoughts as thoughts, emotions as emotions, opens us to our true self, the godliness within us. The very observation changes it. When you do this, all that is negative falls away. 

The nature of positive emotions is to grow. If you observe your emotions (anger) when you are angry, anger will fall away. And if you observe if there is love, love grows.

That is the best and only way. Observe that thoughts come, and they pass. We need to be able to see things as they are, objectively or totally subjectively. That essence in life, when it blooms from within, allows true laughter in life.

Miracles are happening every moment

Nothing is permanent in this world, everything is changing. When you think you are right, often you think others are wrong and you feel angry. If you feel others are right, often you think you are wrong and you feel guilty, sad and miserable. In both cases, you lose balance. The mind vacillates between this duality. The whole purpose of life is to get out of this duality. That is moksha. So swallow these incidents as bitter pills in life. 

In Rudram (a hymn dedicated to Rudra from the Yajurveda), it is said that in this world, there are all types of people. There are people who betray, people who are not faithful, people who don’t keep to their word etc. Sometimes your own mind goes up and down. There could be a million reasons for you to feel down on the planet. Anything can pull you down, because things are not happening the way you want them to. Using knowledge, just sail over it all.

When your heart is filled with love, and compassion, you are so powerful. Never underestimate yourself. Miracles are in abundance! Everyone has had some miracle or the other in life. We don’t look for it, they just happen. Ask, and it shall be given. Ask and ask with faith. Every moment there is a miracle happening; every moment, there is grace. Even if something appears to be not so good for the moment, in the long run, something good comes out of it.

When Sri Rama was building the bridge to Sri Lanka, a lot of monkeys were helping him. The monkeys wrote “Sri Rama” on the stones and placed them in the ocean and the stones would float. When Sri Rama saw this, he wanted to try it himself. He wrote Sri Rama on a stone and put it in the water. The stone sank! Sri Rama was surprised. 

One monkey started laughing and said to Sri Rama, ‘Those who you throw away from your hands, how will they float? They will only sink!’ This has a spiritual significance. When the name of the Lord is with you, you will float through the ocean of misery; you won’t sink in the world of misery. And second, that devotees are so much more powerful than the Lord himself; devotees can do so much more than the Lord himself.

So you don’t need to get stuck in material belief only. Physical laws are there, but there is something higher than them. There is something higher than the obviously seen physical creation of names and forms. The understanding of consciousness – mind over matter, and consciousness over physical reality, is what we need to attend to. So don’t underestimate your love, your faith and your strength. All that we need to do is to keep our heart clean.

Becoming hollow and empty

 

The world would be free of trouble if there were no love! All the problems in the world are caused by love! If there were no love, you can’t be jealous. Jealousy is because of love. Greed comes because you love objects too much. Anger is because you love perfection; that is why you are angry at imperfections. You love yourself too much and that’s why pride and arrogance come to you. 

Every distortion of love causes problems, yet life will have no meaning without love. Suppose you are immensely successful and have all the riches at your command and but love is missing from your life. But life will not really be worthwhile; it would appear barren. Whatever angle you look from, all we long for in life is love; a divine love. The purpose in life is to blossom in that ideal love. 

So, how do you get to that point of love where it is free from the distortions and you are at ease with yourself? You have to see that what is really obstructing you from that innocent love is your ego. What is ego?  Ego is like a dream. A dream exists until it doesn’t exist. You can’t call a dream real, but you can’t call it unreal either because you have the experience. Ego is simply being unnatural. 

The ego is not a substance; it is a non-substance like darkness. Darkness is only a lack of light. There is no substance called ego. You could say it is just a lack of maturity or the lack of pure knowledge. Knowledge is an aid to develop the innermost state of you, which is love. Love is not an act; it is a state of being rather than an act. We are all made up of love. When the mind is in the present moment, we are in a state of love. Train the mind a little to live in the present moment. 

If everything is God and all is love, then where is life heading to? Life is heading towards perfection. You look for perfection; that is why you are angry at imperfections. There are three kinds of perfection: perfection in action (kriya), perfection in speech (vachan) and perfection in feelings (bhaav). Suppose someone makes a mistake and when you see that mistake you get angry. 

Then you are no better than the person who has made the mistake. Your feelings have become imperfect because of someone’s imperfection in action. Any action will have some flaw. But when the feeling becomes imperfect, then it stays for a longer period. The innermost perfection is lost. 

Spiritual practices help you maintain your centeredness and not be shaken by small events. Every individual is bestowed with all the virtues in the world. They simply get covered by lack of understanding and stress. All that is needed is to just to uncover the virtues that are already there. 

Breathing techniques and meditation are very effective in calming the mind. Learning something about our breath is very important. Our breath has a great lesson to teach us, which we have forgotten. For every rhythm in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath and for every rhythm in the breath there is a corresponding emotion. So, when you cannot handle your mind directly, through breath you can handle it better. 

Our mind is like a pot that is turned upside down. When we were born, the pot came first with the neck upright. The whole purpose of life is to stand up, turn the pot upside down and empty it. But the pot is filled with something very sticky; though it is standing upside down, it doesn’t get empty. No animal has its neck upright. Only human beings have the opportunity to empty their heads. Becoming hollow and empty is the whole purpose of life.

The Power of "Now"

 

Have you noticed what keeps happening in the mind every moment? The mind keeps wondering what is going to happen next. Knowledge is being aware of this phenomenon of the mind; of what is happening right now in the mind. All other information and education can be acquired by reading books. You can open a book on any subject, be it birth, death or dietary habits; there are volumes of books available on countless topics. But awareness of our own mind cannot be learnt by reading a book.

What does our mind do? It vacillates between the past and the future. Every moment, it is either angry about the past or anxious about the future. There is another tendency of the mind – clinging to the negative. If ten positive instances or events are followed by one negative event, we cling to that one negative thing. We simply forget all the ten positives.

To bring about a change in these two tendencies of the mind is the greatest help you can render to yourself. Becoming aware of these two tendencies in the mind will make you very natural, very simple. These are very precious values and will enable you to blossom from within. We are actually born with this innocence in us; but as we become more and more mature and intelligent, we tend to lose this innocence and end up becoming stiff. Drop the stiffness, and then see how much more rewarding, more enjoyable, more interesting life becomes. This is knowledge. And this is also worship.

As a child, you had no problems; you fought one day and made up the next day. But as you grow, you get tangled, entangled. You get into a mess. The whole society gets into a mess. Then you need the comb of knowledge. When you have an effective comb, it helps keeps your hair tangle-free and orderly. The same thing happens in society. Without knowledge and wisdom, we get entangled with each other; our minds are filled with hatred, aversions and cravings. Look into anybody’s mind; there is feverishness about somebody, a craving for the future or an aversion for the past. With the comb of wisdom and knowledge, we can promote order in society.

We have to study our own mind, our own Self. We spent so much time learning all things for living but very little about our life itself. The first thing we did when we came to the world was to take a deep breath in and the last thing we will be doing in the world is breathing out. In between the first inhalation and the last exhalation is what we call life. We never attended to our breath. Breath is the connection between the body and mind and through it you can really bring the mind to the present moment. 

Service or seva is another tool to attend to the mind. When you make service your sole purpose of life, it eliminates fear, brings focus in your mind, purposefulness in action, and long-term joy.

If everybody in the society lives in the present moment and if we are able to accept people as they are, there will be no problems, no strife. We have to have wisdom and knowledge; we have to have awareness. It is very essential.

Certainties of the changing world

 

Uncertainty causes craving for stability. The most stable thing in the world is the Self. The world is of change and the self is of non-change. You have to rely on the non-changing and accept the change. Uncertainty with awareness brings higher state of consciousness with a smile.

Often people think that certainty is freedom. If you feel that freedom when you are not certain, then that is the real freedom. Being certain about the uncertainty of the relative makes you certain about the existence of the absolute and also brings a certain faith in the absolute.

When you feel time is too short, you are either restless or in a state of expanded awareness. When you feel time is too long you are either miserable or keen-minded. When you are happy and love what you are doing you lose the track of time. When you are ahead of time, it is dragging and boring. When time is ahead of you, then you are surprised and shocked. You are unable to understand the play of events.

In deep meditation, you are time and everything is happening in you. When you are time, you are wise and at peace. Just as the mind experiences time, this moment has a mind of its own, a big Mind, which has an enormous and infinite organizing power. Thought is nothing but a ripple in this moment, and thus a few moments of samadhi infuses the mind with energy. Just before you fall asleep, or as soon as you wake up, the consciousness experiences timelessness.

Life is a combination of form and formless. Feelings have no form, but their expressions have form. The Self has no form, but its abode has form. Similarly, wisdom and grace have no form but are expressed through form. Discarding the formless, you become inert, materialistic and paranoid. Discarding the form, you become a dreamer, a lost ascetic, or emotionally unbalanced.

Events come and go, they perish like flowers. But every event and every person contains some honey. Like a bee, just take the honey out of every event and every moment and move on. Be like a busy bee and be in the being.

Mind is like space

 

The mind is like space. Thoughts come and go. Emotions come and go. When you go beyond them, there’s only space. That’s our true nature. 

When we identify ourselves too much with thoughts, with feelings and emotions, that’s when we feel stuck, we feel small. But the real, magnanimous You, is that space inside where you feel totally at peace. 

Those moments when you are totally at peace, or fully in love, you feel an expansion right? You feel boundless, you feel limitless. That is our true nature. That is what beauty is! We are all one in that. There is no two!

Developing a good relationship

 

Let love be. Don’t give it a name. Ask yourself why do you love someone? Is it because of some of their qualities or is it because of a sense of kinship or intimacy? You can love someone for their qualities and not feel a sense of kinship. This type of love gives rise to competition and jealousy. Such is not the case when love arises out of kinship.

If you love someone for their qualities, then, when the quality changes or you get used to the quality, love also changes. The relationship can either act as a strength or as a weakness depending on the mind. If the mind is strong then relationships can be a gift to us but if it is weak and not in control, then relationships can feel like bondage.

How would you like to see yourself? Happy and bubbling with enthusiasm or dull and difficult to please? Often you like to be pleased, appeased and cajoled. So, you put up a tough, upset face and act difficult to please. If a person has to appease and please ten people all the time, it will be so tiring. People who keep a long face and expect others to cajole and appease them make others run away.

Lovers often do this. They expend a lot of energy in cajoling and this brings down the joy and celebration of the moment. It is okay for you to show your upset mood or tendency once in a while, but doing it over and over again is taxing for you and people you love.

Relationships develop naturally. If you try to build a relationship that is when you become a little artificial. Then your behaviour becomes artificial which is not natural. You like someone to be very honest, open, natural, unassuming with you. That is exactly what others also want from you. Don’t try hard to impress your boss, or impress your girl friend or boy friend. Then everything goes bad. Best is to be yourself, to be natural, to be forgiving and to be in the present moment. It makes a big difference. Be very subtle.

Mind-space

 

The mind is like space. Thoughts come and go. Emotions come and go. When you go beyond them, there’s only space. That’s our true nature. 

When we identify ourselves too much with thoughts, with feelings and emotions, that’s when we feel stuck, we feel small. But the real, magnanimous You is that space inside where you feel totally at peace. 

Those moments when you are totally at peace, or fully in love, you feel an expansion right? You feel boundless, you feel limitless. That is our true nature. That is what beauty is! We are all one in that. There is no two!

Only the heart can understand Jesus

 

Love has neither name nor form, but manifests in all names and in all forms. This is the mystery of the creation. You can see love everywhere in this creation only if you have an eye to see it. Just see how a bird comes and feeds the young one in the nest. The young bird waits for the mother to come. There is love in that. There is love among fish. There is love in the sky. There is love underneath the water. There is love on the ground. And there is love in the outer space. Love goes with courage.

Look at the courage of Jesus. He completely overthrows the common concepts of people such as, ‘The strong will inherit the earth’. He turns it around, “The meek shall inherit the earth. The meek shall inherit heaven.” For love makes you meek. However strong you are, when you are in love, you are the weakest. Love is the strongest force in this universe and yet, it makes you meek. 

You cannot understand the sayings of Jesus if you are not alive with prana, with life force. The knowledge will all be just a concept in the head. Only the heart can feel that heart. Otherwise, in the name of Jesus, in the name of God, in the name of religion, people kill each other. Many wars have happened. For centuries, men have fought on this planet in the name of God. They had no clue about Jesus’s message. Of course, this was predicted by Jesus. 

He said, “I treat you like my friends, not as servants. For servants don’t know what the Lord does. I tell you, I share with you all that I have heard about my Father.” This is the best way to bring out the teaching. It is the best way to share love. With the Lord you have respect, but not a personal love. With a friend, you share your most intimate feelings, thoughts, ideas, and secrets. Jesus said, “I am your friend.”

When there is authority there cannot be love, and where there is love there is no authority. Jesus opens His arms and says, “Come, you are my friend, don’t be afraid, don’t put me on the altar. Give me a seat in your heart. See me in everyone you see around you. Love everyone as much as I love you, Or as much as you love me. Share that with everyone around.” 

What more do you want to see in that embodiment of love? But people still wanted proof. If Jesus came today, He would still be asked, “Prove to me you are the son of God.” In those days too, He was asked to prove how He was the son of God, even after turning water into wine. This is because the mind dwells on proof. The mind cannot understand Jesus, only the heart can feel the presence of Jesus. 

Spirit is eternal and beyond birth or death. Spirit is love beyond name and form. When you are truly in love with Jesus, you will see Jesus in every name, in every form, in every nook and corner of the planet and beyond.

Wishing all Merry Christmas!

Sarvajna - the Yogic Consciousness

Our consciousness is like a library. In a library, there are millions of books. The librarian holds all the books, but it is not necessary that he knows every book by heart. But he knows where what is and when it is needed, he can pick it up and use it. In the same way, though our consciousness is the abode of all the knowledge, it is not necessary to know everything all the time.

It is not possible to be in a physical body and to know everything. But when you are still, when your mind is in absolute stillness, and there is no craving and aversions, it is just free. Then you are like the librarian, who possesses all knowledge of the library and can access it when it is needed if it is needed.

A lawyer has all the books, but he doesn’t learn every word in all the books all the time. But when a particular case comes up, he knows which book to pick up and what to use. In the same way, our consciousness is an abode of all knowledge.

When you are so still and free from mental modulations, that is when you are a yogi. Then you can know the answer. That is why the still consciousness, yogic consciousness is called sarvajna. In that state of samadhi, the seed of all-knowingness is present in that consciousness.

Meditation is the art of doing nothing

 

To be more dynamic, we must first be free from all activity - whether we do those actions as per our wish while awake or while we are still asleep while sleeping. Meditation is the state of doing nothing. Meditation is a state of complete relaxation, free from the remembrance of the past, the plans for the future. We all want a deep relaxation that refreshes us, so that we can be useful when we wake up. But when can you rest? Only when you have stopped all other activities.

When you stop all voluntary activities like moving around, working, thinking, talking, seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting etc., then only you get rest or sleep. In sleep, only involuntary activities remain with you, such as breathing, heart beating, digestion and blood circulation etc. But this is also not complete relaxation. Complete relaxation occurs only in meditation. And meditation happens only when the mind becomes still. 

How to stabilize this mind? By understanding the purpose of life and being clearly focused. To be centered means to be content in every moment, to be neutral. Even if you get what you want, you remain anxious and even if you do not get it, you remain anxious! Every desire generates fever in the mind. In this situation there may be no attention.

True liberation is to be free from the past and the future. If you go to sleep with some desire, mental agitation or disturbance, you cannot sleep deeply. The more you are restless, the more difficult it becomes for you to sleep. If you drop everything before sleeping, then only you will be able to rest. Similarly, when you want to sit for meditation, drop everything. Whatever joy you experience in life comes from the depths of your innermost self. It comes only when you let go of all your hold and become stable. That is meditation. Actually meditation is not an action; It is the art of doing nothing.

The relaxation of meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep, because in meditation you become free from all desires. When you come out of deep meditation, then you are very moving and can do better. The deeper your relaxation, the more dynamic your actions will be.

Meditation is to get rid of all the anger or tension of past and past events and to give up all future plans and desires. Planning prevents you from taking a deep dive inside yourself. Meditation is to fully accept the moment and live each moment to the fullest. Only an understanding of this and a few days of continuous meditation practice can change the quality of your life.

Prakriti is the best example of the three states of life consciousness – waking, sleeping and dreaming. Nature sleeps, wakes up and dreams! In existence it is happening on a fantastic level and in the human body on a different level. Awakening and sleeping are like sunrise and darkness. The dream state is like a dusk between them and meditation is like a flight into space, where there is no sunrise, no sunset, nothing. Meditation is the means to be free from all desires, and thus the way to approach God.

God is felt in the depth of your heart

 

What is God? What is not God? What is the definition of God, if there is one? The moment you define by a word, you already have a concept about it. What do you think is God?

You describe it as that which is everywhere; which is all-powerful; which is responsible for this creation, for its maintenance, and for its dissolution; which is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.

You say “I want to see God” and when you want to see God as something, as an object, then it’s not everywhere. The moment you see God, there is a distance between you and God; then you are not God. You want to see God, and this wanting to see God as separate from you is again an illusion; and if you are seeing God, then God is not omnipresent!

Like love is felt in the heart, so is God’s presence. You cannot see air, but you simply feel the air. You cannot see heat or cold, but you just feel it. So in the same way God cannot be seen.

If you see God, then He is outside there, He is away from you and isolated. God is never an object of isolation. God is the sum total. When you dissolve, God remains. When you are there, there is no God. Either you can be there, or God can be there, not both. So when you meditate, you become one with God. You are God. That is why, it is said, tat tvam asi, meaning, “Thou art that”.

So, God is to be felt in the depth of your heart. In deep meditation when your mind is still, calm, hollow and empty, you suddenly feel, “I am not there. There is only one big existence.” So, don’t worry about God. First know yourself then you also know what is God, almost simultaneously.

Who are you? Do you know about yourself? Just find out about yourself first. If you think you are just the body, it is not possible, because body has its limitations. If you think you are the mind, that’s also not possible because mind has its limitations. If you think you are the mind, that’s also not possible because mind has its limitation, it’s another layer.

If you know that you are silence or you are space, then it is possible; God is also space. Space is God. Can you see space separately? There are three types of space: bhootha aakash — outer space in which all this universe is hanging; chitta aakash — in your mind, there is a world with impressions, thoughts, dreams; you live in that world, all the visions come in your mind; and chida aakash — it’s the sky of consciousness that is all permeating, the basis of all creation, that is divine, that knows all.

Lord Rama himself had asked a question once. He was curious to see so much love, devotion and dedication in Hanuman that he wondered and asked Hanuman what it felt like being Hanuman? Hanuman told Rama — “When I am in body consciousness, I am your servant; when I think I am an individual — I am in soul consciousness, I am a part of you; and when I am in my being consciousness, when I am in myself then I am you; there is no difference between me and you.” It’s the same when somebody blames your child; you take the blame don’t you? There is so much oneness; in fact, there is really nothing other than God. God is that which is present everywhere, all the time.

Don’t worry too much about philosophy or descriptions of atma (self) — parmatma (God). Let’s forget about God and observe this moment; this moment has a mind of its own. The whole existence has a mind of its own. Like you have a mind and it has such intelligence, that’s why it keeps everything orderly. Similarly, this moment is seen by this mind. This mind you can call it God and that is what you are. Yesterday is not here right now, tomorrow is not here but the present is here, now!

Respect this moment, adore this moment. See, this moment is not flat; it’s very deep. When you accept from the head, you can have the horizontal idea; from the heart you experience the depth; and both together bring true wisdom and knowledge.

What is the purpose of life?

 

Certain questions indicate the maturity of our mind. They are: What is life? What is the purpose of my life? Why am I here? What do I want?

These questions are vital. Where am I? Are you aware you are on this planet Earth? Have you ever thought “I am on planet Earth and this planet is in the solar system”? So, I am in the solar system. The solar system is just a dot in the Milky Way. So, I am in the Milky Way. This expansion of awareness to the macrocosm and being aware of where you are in this body is important. Just sit with your eyes closed and ask yourself “where am I in this body”? Am I in the head, in the nose, in the heart? Where am I in the body?

Then the sharpness of the mind happens, awareness happens. You are able to perceive that you are nowhere and you are everywhere in the body. A shift in the quality of awareness happens instantaneously. And it is this awareness that can eliminate stresses and sorrows from life. This awareness is called wisdom.

When we raise our consciousness, we become more aware of the sensation that is happening in the body and we see that the sensations change. An intense sensation that is pain and an intense sensation that is pleasure, both become pleasurable. Love and pain, they are very closely related. The symbol of Jesus on the cross means that the cross is pain and Jesus is love. One is with the other. The transformation of this pain into bliss, the love into bliss is what happens with awareness.

Without awareness the mind shrinks. When the mind shrinks, the joy diminishes. Whenever we are happy, we feel that something in us is expanding and the expression of sadness is the contraction of mind. Meditation is a technique using which the mind expands and relaxes. And whenever we are relaxed, we are expanding automatically.

It is worth knowing this expansion because then nothing can disturb us or take our smile away. Otherwise, small things can throw us off balance. It is not worth letting your mind or your life undergo such suffering and misery.