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11 febbraio You never die, not even once!All our fears are actually the fears of death but under various disguises, that’s all. Every single fear is related to the fear of death, but in a convoluted way. Because it is convoluted, we don’t see it as a fear of death.
So what is death?
If I ask you, you will tell me that death is something that happens at the end of our lives. If death is nothing more than that, that would be easy! But, it is something that happens every moment of our lives. Every act of ours is unconsciously related to our fear of death, the fear of dying. Our fear of death changes the very quality of our life. Death to us is not the end; it is the climax of our lives, towards which our whole life has been oriented.
Death is always looked upon as a discontinuity and that is why people suffer when they see death. The basic understanding of death eludes us. Death is never a discontinuity. Death is a continuity in some other form, or simply liberation, that’s all.
When we understand this, we will realize how foolish it is to suffer on this account. We are so attached to the physical form; that is why we suffer so much.
The body is a mere vehicle for the spirit. This has to be understood very clearly.
When we accept death as just continuity in another form, our capacity to enjoy life is transformed; our whole body relaxes; our consciousness expands; our living capacity increases. Whether we accept it or not, every moment of our life, the fear of death lingers in the subconscious mind.
By understanding death and facing the fear of death, our life will turn out to be rich; not wealthy maybe, but rich. Richness is what is important in life.
Unless death becomes a conscious experience, fear of death will never leave you. But you can do one thing: repeatedly read these words; develop a conviction about them; try to see how your minor and major fears are actually related to the fear of dying.
We must understand how the fear of death is really the fear of losing your identity. Understand how your true identity can never be lost. As the great Master says in the Bhagavad Gita, “You are the spirit and the spirit is immortal”!
- Paramahamsa Nithyananda Software of our mindNINE out of ten people, if asked where their mind is, will point to their head, where we think our brains are! Brains are not where our minds are. Mind is all over our body; within each cell, within the cell structure, embedded in the intelligence of the DNA and other building blocks of the mind body system that we are. There is as much mind in our little finger as there is in our head or our heart. Mind is not fixed and permanent; not our cells as well. Cells die and are recreated every second. Our entire mind body system undergoes renewal every so often. What we are now is not what we were a year ago, not what we will be a year from now. Our mind body hardware is constantly renewed. Yet, we behave the same way as we did a year ago or ten years ago, by and large. We are just as greedy, just as angry, just as depressed as we were a year or many years ago unless we have taken dramatic measures to change. We seem programmed in our behavior pattern. It is these memories that drive us in all our actions. Unfortunately, all these memories lie in our unconscious mind. We are driven by our unconscious, not by our rational mind as we wish to imagine. We call this software of emotion filled memories that lie buried deep in our unconscious, samskaras. Samskaras are the embedded memories of our past, sometimes of previous lives, that drive us into action in the future. Since samskaras are from the unconscious, we are unable to do anything to stop them, to control them or modify them. Unless, a big unless, we learn to penetrate the unconscious. We can indeed penetrate the unconscious and dissolve our samskaras, so meticulously built by our mind since childhood. All we need to do is to bring ourselves into the present moment. In the present moment, no samskaras exist, as these are products of our past. In the present moment, we have neither regrets nor anticipation. We just are. Meditation leads us into the present moment. Meditation leads us into awareness of our samskaras and from there into their dissolution. Meditation gives us control over our life, taking it away from the embedded software of our mind. - Paramahamsa Nithyananda 10 dicembre Be Blissful! (Part II)(Continued from Part I ...)
If you deeply analyze how we connect our thoughts instead of renouncing them, you will understand how we create suffering for ourselves. It is the mind that finds the connection. As such, there is no connection between our thoughts.
We have been trained to feed on words and thoughts. That is why we create these shafts. We feed on words because we operate our of fear or greed all the time. Out of fear or greed, we create connectivity in our thoughts. We are afraid to let go of this process because if we let go, there is nothing else to hold on to. We have never experienced an unclutched state of mind where there is no shaft, only bubble-like thoughts.
In the unclutched state, there is no scope for fear or greed. You will simply BE, thats all. But it becomes difficult to understand that we can exist without this shaft of thoughts.
A small story:
An eye specialist was treating a blind man. He assured him, "Once I operate your eye, you will have your vision back, and you can throw your stick away."
The blind man became afraid when he heard this. He asked the doctor, "I understand that I will get my vision, but how can I walk without my stick?"
The man was so used to walking with the stick that he could not understand that by getting his vision, he could throw away the stick! In the same way, when the truth is that we can live in an unclutched fashion blissfully, we wonder how. We see clutching thought shafts as inevitable!
We fail to see how mythical the whole thing is. Our mind is a myth. We have empowered it and become a slave to it, that's all. It nothing but mental slavery.
Another small story:
There was an old man in a family who could not be pleased at any cost. He remained stubborn and grumpy, no matter how much his family tried to keep him in good spirits. His children and grandchildren would visit and try to cheer him up, but in vain. Suddenly one day, he became very gentle and cheerful. His family was shocked by the sudden transformation. One of his granddaughters asked him courageously, "Grandpa, how come you have changed so suddenly?" The old man replied, "All my life, I tried my best to get a contented mind, but never succeeded in getting it. So I have decided to be contented with it now."
Just see the play of the mind! Your mind can make or break you. That is why we need to be free from it.
Just watch the thoughts rising in you. Clearly see how each thought rises and dies and the next thought comes up. Observe how you effortlessly connect these thoughts and create ideas and concepts. Watch the play of these concepts upon yourself; you will understand how you create the whole myth. I tell you: Connecting thoughts is the Original Sin.
Living in an unclutched fashion is the way to a blissful living. Just decide that you will not connect any two thoughts, that you will not pass any judgment on any thought or incident.
When you work in an unclutched fashion,you will find your capacity expanding; you will take on a lot more responsibility without getting stressed; you will not experience mood swings between pain and pleasure; you will be blissful all the time. We are so used to happiness that comes with a reason. This reason is again a shaft that we create with our thoughts. Once you stop creating these shafts, you will be blissful all the time.
- Paramahamsa Nithyananda
Be Blissful! (Part I)Man, by his very nature, is an unclutched and blissful being. What do we mean by the term unclutched? Let me explain.
Every thought that arises in us is like a bubble that forms, rises and dies. Every thought independently rises and dies before the next thought comes up. For example, if you are sitting in a chair and suddenly get up, the moment you have decided to get up, that moment the thought of sitting has left you. If you are working on your computer and decide to shut down the machine, that moment, the thought that you want to work has died. So every thought is unconnected nad happens in series, one after the other. One thought has to die before the next one comes up. This is our true nature.
Our true nature is to renounce thoughts every passing moment. By the word renounce, I mean simply allowing each thought to rise like a bubble and burst and allowing the next thought to rise. Our thoughts have only a vertical existence, like rising bubbles.
This process of allowing thoughts to rise and die without trying to connect themis what we mean by being unclutched. As long as this natural process is allowed to happen, things are all right.
But what we do is, we start connecting these thoughts randomly and form a shaft. By doing this, we convert the vertical and unclutched process into a horizontal one with linear connectivity. Here starts the whole problem. As long as each thought is allowed to rise and die, we can take on any amount of load at the physical and mental planes and our consciousness will remain light and blissful. Once we start connecting thoughts, our consciousness suffers and we start feeling burdened. It becomes damaging to our being.
All emotions like worry, lust, discontentment, jealousy, fear, ego and attention, are purely because we find a connection between independent incidents, between independent thoughts, and create a concept for ourselves and start relating with that concept. We create an imaginary shaft with our thoughts and we suffer because of this.
These emotions create all forms of violence, be they religious wars, social conflicts or political unrest. The basis or root of all forms of violence is our emotions and the basis of our emotions is our habit of creating imaginary shafts of our thoughts and empowering them to work on us. For example, the incident that caused worry in us 10 years ago, the incident that caused worry in us 1 year ago, the incident that caused worry in us 1 month ago and the incident that worried us today are all separate, unconnected incidents or thoughts. But we connect these separate, unclutched thoughts and create an imaginary shaft and label our life as worry-filled. We relate to this concept, and start suffering.
When creating these shafts, we choose the thoughts depending on whether we want pain or pleasure. We pick pleasant thoughts at random and connect them to form a shaft of pleasure or pick negative thoughts and connect them to form a shaft of pain. We create shafts of pain and pleasure alternately for ourselves, and oscillate between these two emotions. To unclutch from this tendency is the master key to a blissful life.
(To be continued...)
- Paramahamsa Nithyananda
02 novembre What is Religion and What is Spirituality?Religion and spirituality are the most misunderstood subjects today. When religion is set awash with logic, then much of what it retains will be washed away, and what remains will be pure spirituality.
Religion minus superstition is spirituality! Religion is nothing but a tool; spirituality is nothing but "Life Engineering".
Spirituality enables you to focus, not on material things, but on the sweetness of life, the miracles of existence. You are part of a macrocosmic orchestra that is being conducted by Existential Energy. This focus keeps you liberated within, enabling you to perform - in the outer world - intelligently and effortlessly. It also keeps you in tune with the Existential Energy.
Man has always been curious about creation and this beautiful universe surrounding him. He has asked questions about the creator. He concluded that there was a Life Force or Energy that made all this happen. He began to establish a connection with that Energy.
The first people to do this were the Rishis (sages). They found techniques for future generations to realize this Energy. These different techniques snowballed into different religions. What has to be understood is that even though the formula for each Rishi was different, they were all talking about the same experience of Existential Energy. But today we tend to cling to the formula and eventually forget the purpose. As a result, we never get a glimpse of the real experience!
Those who fight in the name of religion have never had any spiritual experience. They have never become "spiritual fruit". They have not understood the purpose of religion and tend to miss the point.
When religion takes you to spirituality, you will understand that spirituality is nothing but Life itself. Religion is quantity, spirituality is quality. Because religion is quantity, we turn towards spirituality towards the end of life. But religion is a stepping stone to understanding one's spiritual nature and living in peace.
The Five Elements of the Cosmos
Existence or Cosmos is made up of the five elements which are - Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ehter. All these elements are different forms of the same Existential Energy, which we call God or Jesus Christ or Krishna or Allah and so on.
The basic thirst of man is to find a connection with this Existential Energy. All religions have been born with the idea of finding a connection with Existence through the five elements. Let me explain how this is achieved.
Take the first element - the Earth element. Idol worship is nothing but trying to find a connection with the Existential Energy through the Earth element. Idols are made up of earth or clay. Through the worship of idols, we are actually trying to find a connection through the Earth element.
This has to be clearly understood here: we are not worshipping the idols; we are worshipping through the idols. If this point is understood, there will not be so much of fight and fanaticism over forms and idols. The Energy that everyone is worshipping is one and the same. This has to be very clearly understood.
Next, we come to the water element. It is a spiritual practice to take bath in sacred rivers. This is actually a technique to try to realize the Existential Energy through the water element.
Next, we perform so many fire rituals at our homes and temples. This practice is to realize the Existential Energy through the fire element. The next element is the air element. Chanting mantras is nothing but trying to connect to the Cosmic Energy through the air element. When we chant, we are playing with our breath, which is nothing but the air element.
Finally, we come to the element which is the subtlest form of the Existential Energy - the Ether element. Meditation is nothing but trying to connect to Existence through the Ether element.
The earth element is the first plane of tuning ourselves to the Energy and ether is the final plane of tuning. We can start with the earth element - idol worship, but we tend to get stuck there and therein starts the problem. You can start your education at kindergarten, but you cannot complete it there. In the same way, you can start with idol worship so that you have something tangible when you try to connect to the Cosmic Energy, but you have to ultimately graduate from it and start meditation to fine tune yourself with Existence.
Once you start doing this and experience the joys of meditation, you will find yourself expanding and exploding in 360 degrees. Ritualistic worship always draws tight boundaries around you. It keeps you in a closed circle. But once you have had a taste of meditation, you will start becoming an expanse. Then, when you go back to rituals, you will look at them from a different dimension and enjoy them even more! When this happens, growth has happened in you.
If you understand the underlying concept of the five elements, you will be able to enjoy Existence continuously instead of getting stuck in different forms of worship.
So, just try to understand this and start resonating with Existence!
20 ottobre Verily, Guilt is the Gateway to Hell!We all have our own ideas about where we shall go after death. We all have our belief systems that define what we should do to go to what we believe are heaven and hell.
People worry constantly about heaven and hell and ask me again and again whether they will go to hell because of what they did. It is religions that tend to control us through fear of hell, through fear of a world that we are yet to reach! All we need to fear is the hell in this life itself, as a consequence of our actions, and not a hell in another life, not a hell after this life.
We are never punished for our sins; we are punished by them.
People believe that sins are punished after a time, since the wheels of God grind slowly but surely. They are therefore not overly concerned about immediate repercussions. "You never know: God may forget, He may have other more important things to do, and if He does remember, I can always bribe Him to let me off".
Sad to say, many sins attract immediate punishment; though the punishment may not seem either tangible or connected.
Guilt is often the punishment we inflict upon ourselves for our sins. Even for petty sins, we carry our guilt a long time. When we drop the guilt, we drop the sin as well. A person committing what may be socially termed 'unacceptable', with no feeling of guilt is not a sinner, nor suffers punishment.
There is no greater sin than refusing to let go of one's past. There is no greater sin than hanging onto one's feeling of guilt and constantly punishing oneself for it.
Once we learn the lesson from our past mistake and determine not to repeat it, we should drop the guilt. Worrying constantly about past mistakes that you have truly regretted only creates problems.
Confessing to a sin as a ritual without any real sense of regret or feeling cleansed, quite often makes one ready to repeat it with greater fervour. Doing this only enhances the coffers of religions institutions, does not in any way enhance your spiritual status.
To redress a sin, one must cleanse one's self internally, truly regret the sin and be aware not to repeat it.
Meditation brings that awareness to you and into you. Meditation liberates you from guilt and sin.
- From the Talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda Consciousness, not conscience mattersFrom our childhood we have been told to act out of our conscience. These were just social rules that were laid down by society for some justice and peace to prevail in society. But it is very important to understand the difference between conscience and consciousness.
A man, who has real consciousness, cannot hurt or kill others, because he feels others as an extension of himself. A person with conscience may not kill with a knife, but he will kill with words because his Being is violent. With conscience, we may be socially non-violent, but with consciousness, our Being will be non-violent.
Morality should be based on consciousness, not on conscience. When this happens, there will be no need for rules. Because our love for ourselves and society (which is only an extension of ourselves) will be so great that we will never think of disturbing or harming anybody.
A serial killer has no consciousness, which is why he does what he does. The fact that he does not abide by societal rules, what religion and moral studies would term as conscience, is only a secondary issue arising out of the first. If he has consciousness of his existence, he would be aware that he is the same as every other being and would not harm another Being.
Conscience is a poor substitute for consciousness. In the meditation program called NSP (Nithyananda Spurana Program - the Flowering of Eternal Consciousness), I help people experience at least one glimpse of consciousness, so they can start living with consciousness instead of conscience.
Anything based on conscience is skin-deep; its not eternal. But, anything based on consciousness is eternal. We should work for a conscious experience. Just because we dont have a conscious experience, we should not compromise with conscience. Our morality, understanding, lifestyle - everything should be based on consciousness.
When its based on conscience, its based on fear and greed. If the idea that we should not speed on the highway is based on fear, when we dont see a cop's car, we will speed up. We are obeying the laws only out of the fear of being caught. Once the fear is removed, we stop obeying. It becomes tempting to break laws, and we feel courageous. Whenever anything is followed because of fear and greed, we will be waiting for a chance to break the rule. Thats also why kids say no to parents; it makes them feel that they've proved themselves.
If morality is based on conscience, we will always do something to violate it, directly or indirectly. When we operate out of fear or greed, we will always carry a vestige of guilt in us.
With consciousness, we are free, we are enjoying in the present moment, so we dont carry any guilt in our Being.
- From the Talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda 06 ottobre You dont have to pay the billA man went to a restaurant and ordered one each of everything on the menu. He ate everything. He ordered some dessert and coffee. He was soon ready to leave. Then the waiter stopped him with a bill. The man said in exasperation: "I never ordered this bill. Why have you brought it to me?"
Most of us live and behave like this man. We have no recollection of asking for the bill as we go about acquiring things, and building on our expectations of acquisitions.
When we finally get the bill, we are startled and upset as we had not expected it. There is a saying; be careful what you wish for, for it may come true.
We are driven all our life by our vasanas and samskaras. These are unfulfilled desires that are deeply embedded in the unconscious. Most of the time, we are not even aware of the existence of these samskaras. But they shape our future decisions. They drive us into illogical and irrational decisions, even decisions that harm us.
You enjoy a drink or a smoke once in a while. But you enjoy them so long as you have the freedom to give them up. When you get addicted to "them", they enjoy you.
Addiction happens when you do not enjoy the habit but cannot do without it. You can get addicted to food, TV, newspapers, gossip, so many things. When you are addicted, food "eats you", cigarettes "smoke you", and liquor "drinks you". When you do not have the freedom, you are "used"; you are not in control; your desires control you.
Vasana is the hangover of desire or desires not fully lived; samskaras are desires that are lived but those which leave a thread for continuous enjoyment of those desires. Karma is fulfilment.
Vasana is the seed, samskara nourishment and karma the tree.
Nirvana also means moksha, liberation. When all the vasanas, samskaras and karmas are finished, you reach liberation through their extinction.
At this stage, you will experience a new kind of space, a new kind of understanding, and a new life.
Meditation is the path for dissolving and burning your samskaras. Meditation leads you into a "no-mind state" where samskaras do not exist. Meditation brings you into the present, the here and now, where you are aware of what is buried in your unconscious, and you have the energy to destroy your samskaras.
You become liberated!
We can live in joy without ever feeling afraid of having to pay the bill.
29 settembre Happiness without reasonTwo friends met after a long time. They decided to have lunch out. One was an actor, the other a psychiatrist. They were talking about what they had been doing after they had left college.
The actor was a very happy man. He said, "I have never been worried about anything. By God's grace, I am happily settled in life."
The psychiatrist was listening. He asked, "How long have you been like this??"
Happiness is categorised with other emotions. We try to frame it in space and time. We cannot understand the emotion when someone says that he is happy! It is difficult for us to believe him.
Great happiness and joy is ours. Enlightened masters are in this state all the time.
Happiness is the core of existence, of nature that surrounds us. But man somehow needs a reason to be happy.
If we are successful in say, business today, we are happy. Then again if someone says something nice about us, we are happy. If we visit new places, we are happy.
But the moment you need a reason to be happy, it means that you do not know what real happiness is.
We choose to suffer because our ego is solid. When we are happy, our ego is threatened.
When we are happy without a reason, when there is no suffering, the ego is under threat. So we go back to our suffering. The ego revives. We believe there is a reason to live when we suffer.
Of course, each one of us has problems. But if you deal with them happily, in a grateful and prayerful mood, you will find that the problem simply disappearing in front of your eyes. But if you allow the problem to make you dull and depressed, you will remain in this mood.
Real happiness is the result of overflowing gratitude in oneself towards nothing in particular. You may be grateful towards the Whole, towards Existence. This is real happiness; this is bliss.
This kind of happiness is happiness without choice.
The moment you are allowed to choose, you will choose between happiness and sorrow.
But to have no choice is Bliss. To choose is to suffer.
Real happiness can never be taken away from you because it came without reason. If there is a reason behind happiness then something can happen, and can be taken away from you. But because it has no reason, bliss can never be taken away from you.
When you have found this kind of happiness, you have found the way to permanent happiness.
- Paramahamsa Nithyananda 15 settembre Do not postpone living. Celebrate!A man after having lost his wealth, prayed to God and got a boon that from dawn to disk on the following day, whatever land he covers by running can be owned by him.
The man started running at dawn and kept running even after he covered more than what he lost. He refused to heed his body's pleas for rest and food. His mind was filled with thoughts of the land owned by his neighbors and relatives. By evening, he felt dizzy and weak. In the distance, he saw a burial ground and a river flowing beyond it. He was very happy at the thought of owning a river and a place where he and his progeny could be buried and decided that he would stop after he reached the river. Just as the sun was about to set, he reached the river.
He bent down to sip some water. The moment his lips touched the water, he dropped dead of exhaustion. They buried him in the burial ground that he had crossed!
This is how we all live our lives. We run the race without even stopping to think why we are running. We travel in the horizontal dimension of thinking "what next?" all the time. This is what causes us to run. As long as we are moving in this horizontal line, we will run till we drop dead in our grave. Travelling from more to more is only travelling towards our grave. It is just slow death! It can never be life.
It is possible to satisfy our needs, but it becomes impossible to satisfy our wants because, they are changing and unclear all the time. Every time one want is fulfilled, a hundred more come up.
Always, as long as we are chasing something, it seems that it is worth the whole world; but after we get it, somehow it is not important any longer! If we become aware of ourselves and understand what exactly we want, and try to do that alone, we will never find ourselves in this kind of self-contradictory and fragmented situation.
Never think, let me work now, I can enjoy later! I tell you, it will never happen. Every tomorrow comes in the form of today only. Doing should lead to being every moment: only then we are on the right track. It is now or never. We all run throughout our lives thinking we can enjoy later, but we land up running into the graveyard.
So don't postpone living. Celebrate! It is now or never!
Be blissful!
- Paramahamsa Nithyananda 18 agosto Awareness is the way out of painA man used to complain bitterly about the lunch he brought to work every day. He would open his lunch box and look at its contents and complain. His friends one day finally asked him why he didnt ask his wife to cook something he liked to eat, rather than suffering this way.
He replied: "What wife? I am not married. I cook my own lunch."
We all live our lives much the same way. Through lack of awareness, we invite pain upon ourselves, complain about it and resort it to painkillers. We fail to identify ourselves as the cause of the problem. Responsibility for the pain is always some one else's, never our own.
Pain is caused by absence of attention. It can be relieved by our attention. Pain is a negative energy; it does not exist by itself; it is the absence of positive energy.
How to get over pain?
Next time you have some pain, just try this small exercise. Lie in a dark room with eyes closed and focus upon the area of pain to the exclusion of everything else. As you experience the area of pain, drop the notion of "Pain" from your mind. Focus all your attention on this spot; soon you will find it shrinking. Concentrate further and you will find that the pain disappears and in its place, you will experience pleasure. Pain and pleasure are the same sensation with different tags. Your awareness of pain causes it to disappear and bring in positive energy of pleasure.
When you feel hurt and angry through other people's actions, you need to watch these emotions without judgement of who is right or wrong. Suppressing these emotions can cause harm to you. Enter the feeling of hurt or anger; just watch it; dont feel sorry for yourself; do not direct the anger against another person. This awareness itself will simply transform the negative emotion to a positive one.
You have no control over when, how and why things happen. All you can do is to choose whether to suffer from or learn from it. If you use the opportunity of that pain experience to look inside you, you will discover that you are the cause, and that only you can be the solution.
Awareness is the way out of pain and suffering. Suffering is important in life for growth. But when you understand suffering, you will realize how unnecessary it is, and you grow!
Be Blissful!
- From the talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda 26 luglio Responsibility is the way to goWhen you live with the attitude that you are responsible for everything, your whole life will change. When you take up responsibility for everything that happens around you, you will start expanding.
Expansion is the only growth; contraction is death. The more responsibility you take up, the more you will expand and grow. You will become a leader. Most of us wait for the status to descend on us and then take up the responsibility. Be very clear. Only if we take up responsibility, the status will come! People who wait for the status will not take up responsibility even after they get it. They will simply find another reason or excuse, that's all. The person who passes the buck and relaxes will never progress in life.
Responsibility is consciousness. The moment you feel responsible for what is happening around you, that moment the divine energy will rush into you! These are all basic secrets of life that I am giving you.
As long as you are self-centered, you will be nothing more than a blocked bamboo stick that serves only to carry the corpse. When you shed your ego and stand up with responsibility, you will become the hollow bamboo that serves as a flute! Like how the air that enters the flute leaves it as music, the air that enters you will flow as energy! When you work with no feelings of responsibility, you will work and feel like a slave. When you work with responsibility, your capacity will expand and you will flower and radiate energy. Your worries and sorrows will dissolve and all unfinished work will get finished. Umpteen excuses can be given for dodging responsibility, but they will remain poor excuses.
With responsibility, a new kind of joy will engulf you. You will become a natural leader and life will become a celebration. There is a beautiful story on Buddha: It is said that when Buddha goes to beg, he would appear as a King and the kings who gave him alms would appear as beggars! Seeming like a beggar or a king is not in the wealth that you hold but in the state that is within you. When you take up responsibility for the entire cosmos, you will expand and look like a leader.
Feeling that you are responsible is the greatest quality you can possess. When you stand up with a new sense of responsibility, a new intelligence will awaken in you!
Be Blissful!
- From the talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda 08 luglio Himalayan Trip 2006 with Swamiji - Part 2
On May 25, the group started from Khardifal to Uttarakasi . In the afternoon, we had darshan at the Kasi Vishwanathar temple in Uttarakasi. Swamiji explained that wherever the river Ganga flows towards the North (towards the Himalayas where she originates from), that place is called Kasi.
That evening, Swamiji started talking about his birth in his discourse. The discourse on this birth continued the next morning.
May 26: The Yatra group sets off to Gangotri. We stop on the way at Harsil, one of the most beautiful valleys of the world, for lunch. Swamiji is in a very playful mood, almost like a child. He flings water and is throwing pebbles at everybody, and causes a flurry amongst the group. The whole group gets into the moment, and we were all engaged in fun and frolic amidst the mountains.
Gangotri, one of the Char Dams, is a glacier formed by the river Ganges. If one travels further uphill beyond the Gangotri, one can reach Gomukh, the physical source of the river Ganges. In Gangotri, there is a temple dedicated to Goddess Ganga. We went in a procession carrying the idols of Malayappa Swami (Lord Venkateswara), Sridevi and Boodevi, to the temple. The procession continued later to the banks of the Ganges, where Swamiji performed Arthi to the Ganges and to the Malayappa Swami idols.
May 27: Swamiji energised the Malayappa Swami idol on the banks of the sacred river Ganges. This Malayappa Swami idol will soon be brought to the altar at the Los Angeles Ashram. We took a walk with Swamiji to the Pandava caves stopping on the way at a picturesque spot for a question and answer session. In the evening, Swamiji talked about his childhood, mainly covering his experiences with Raghupathi Yogi, how he taught him the mysteries of Yoga and bestowed upon him his first dheeksha.
- Ma Nithya Girijananda
More pictures from the trip can be found at http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/him06_3.asp
Be Unclutched, Become FreeYour entire belief in rationality and logic is based on the premise that your thinking is sequential and it follows a pattern. This is a lie.
Buddhists say mind is a monkey. That's very true. Your thoughts are not sequential. Your thoughts are independent of each other. They are not connected. They are illogical and irrational. They are like the bubbles in a fish tank which appear connected; but there is no connection between one bubble and another. They are all independent.
Just try this. For a few minutes, truthfully, write down all your thoughts as they occur to you. When you read what you have written again, it will appear to you that what you have written is a madman's diary. Nothing will be connected, nothing will seem logical. You would have jumped from past to present, from future to past, all with no logical connection whatsoever.
It is only when you link thoughts to one another, when you try and provide a logical and rational sequence to thoughts with the help of your mind, you invite suffering. The pleasurable experiences or painful experiences that you have 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 2 years ago and yesterday and today are all independent of each other. They are unconnected. Yet you try and fit them in a pattern and then expect that pattern to repeat. This expectation leads to disappointment and all suffering.
Each thought that you have comes after another only when you have renounced the first one. Unless you renounce the thought of sitting, you cannot stand up. Unless you renounce the thought of standing, you cannot walk. This tendency to link thoughts and form a pattern is what creates your value systems and beliefs, your samskaras, the root cause of all your problems.
It is this pattern woven by the mind and not the ground reality that you experience, which drives your life. Connected thoughts are the foundation of all illusions and suffering. Once you drop the connection between thoughts, you can go to the source of thoughts, the truth of who you are, where you come from.
When you drop the connection between thoughts, you will then realize the futility of that connection except in causing you suffering. When you realize that thoughts arise in you at random and not in any sequence and are always unconnected, you then drop into the present. You become unclutched, you become free. You then regain your Self.
- From the talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda
24 giugno Eat when you EatA Zen disciple asked his master: How did you change when you became enlightened?
The master replied: I now eat when I eat; I sleep when I sleep.
How many of us eat when we eat? We watch TV, read books and newspapers; if nothing else we gossip. We disrespect the food and it sits on our waist.
To be in the present is an impossible task for us; our mind flits from past to future, back and forth. Being in the ‘here and now’ helps transcend barriers of time and space so that one can be every where at all times. This is also the state of enlightenment, as the ego or mind breaks down at this point.
People leading a material life wish to be ascetics, sanyasins. They feel that they can realize happiness, peace of mind and calmness only by donning saffron robes.
In the Mahabharata, Vyasa tells us this beautiful story. A crow dirties a Sanyasin who is on his morning bhiksha (begging for alms). The Sanyasin looks up in anger and the crow burns to death. He then walks up with his bowl and stands in front of a nearby house. The lady of the house is serving her husband, and when she is finished comes out to attend the Sanyasin. The sanyasin looks at her in anger, and she asks: do you think I am a crow? Startled the Sanyasin asks her how she knows. He tells: I have no time to explain, please go to this man in the nearby town. The Sanyasin searches out this person in the town and finds out that he is the local butcher. When he goes to meet him, the butcher greets him cordially and enquires about the housewife. The Sanyasin is again surprised, and asks this butcher how two such ordinary people have this great power of divination. The butcher says simply: all we do is to do our duty well; that’s all we know.
Doing one’s duty, one’s dharma, well is the key to spiritual progress. That duty, that responsibility, can be your material life as well. It does not need to be the life of an ascetic that you force fit upon yourself. You need to be aware in what ever you do; you need to be 100% involved in whatever you do, for you to do your dharma well.
Stay in the present with whatever you do; when you take the next step; when you brush your teeth; when you smile at some one; just focus on what you are doing at that point in time. That’s true enlightenment. - From the talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda
23 giugno Himalayan Trip 2006 with Swamiji - Part 1Late in May, Swamiji led a group of about 200 devotees from all over the world on a trip to the Himalayan ranges. This is the third consecutive year that Swamiji is leading this trip.
We visited umpteen places during the 15 day visit. These are mostly in the Uttaranchal State of North India and include: Rishikesh, Yamunotri, Uttarakashi, Gangotri, Joshimath, Srinagar , Kedarnath, Badrinath and Haridwar. Of these, the four places - Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath - are collectively called the Char Dham (the four hallowed shrines) of the Himalayas.
We began the trip in Delhi on the evening of May 21, by offering holy water to the Maha Meru. The Maha Meru is a mystical representation of the Cosmos. It has subtle-energies polarized and embedded in it and represents both the Universal Energy as the whole, as well in every separate animate and inanimate object. It transmits the Divine Energy when sanctified in the proper way (which of course Swamiji did :)) It is capable of removing any disharmony in any part of the human body, environment and family life, if its potency is properly utilized.
Swamiji blessed each of us individually and gave us the Yagnopavitha (Sacred thread). The entire group wore the Yagnopavitha all through the trip.
He led all of us, the paticipants, to take the oaths of:
- Ahimsa (not hurting anyone),
- Satya (truth),
- Asteya (not coveting),
- Aparigraha (possessing as little as possible),
- Brahmacharya (living free from Fantasies).
On May 22, the group started out for Rishikesh. In the evening, a Homa (an offering with the fire element) was performed after taking a dip in the Ganges. Swamiji blessed and gave the Kaavi (saffron cloth) to each one to wear for the rest of the Himalayan trip. The Saffron cloth is traditionally worn by Sadhus (renunciants).
Our next halt was at Khardifal from where the group started to Hanuman Chatti. Enroute to Yamunotri, this is the place, where Lord Hanuman (according to Ramayana, the ancient Hindu Epic) uprooted the Sanjeevini Hill with its medicinal herbs and flew with it to Sri Lanka to save the lives of Rama and Lakshmana. The place from where the hill was uprooted can be seen as a flat area amongst all the other hills.
Yamunotri (one in the Char Dham), the origin of the sacred river Yamuna is at a cool elevation of 11,000 feet. Famous for its thermal springs and glaciers, it also houses a temple dedicated to Goddess Yamuna. The trek to the temple is 7 km over 6000 feet. Tracks are barely 4 to 5 feet wide, steep and lined with rubble, and no guard rails of any kind. A few opt for the dholies (a dholi is a bamboo stretcher with a chair in the middle), while most others ride the ponies. Few of them walked all the way up.
Swamiji performed an Aarthi (waving lamps) to the River Yamuna. 15 giugno Living life in realityIn his Yogasutra, Patanjali, the great sage, the greatest writer of them all, talks about eight ways to reach enlightenment. The second element in the first way ( yama) of Patanjali is brahmacharya. Normally this word is translated as celibacy. This is wrong; totally wrong. Celibacy is suppression; it leads to perversion. Brahma means existence, reality; chariya is to walk in it, to live with it; brahmacharya is living with reality.
People ask: to become enlightened, do I need to leave my wife and children? I tell them: renounce only what you do not have; do not renounce what you already have. Live comfortably, intensely, happily with what you have. If you have a wife, live fully with her; not with the fantasy of some other woman. Brahmacharya is the renunciation, the dropping your fantasies. Brahmacharya is accepting reality as it is. When you drop your fantasies and accept your beloved for what she is, your life becomes heaven.
The idea of beauty is just an idea. As long as distance is maintained, things look beautiful. Close-ups are always ugly and flat. Even if you marry the Miss Universe, the idea of beauty will not last more than 15 days. The moment you start living together, reality comes in; glamour wanes and fades. That's why you call the first few days honeymoon, not honey sun.
When you drop your fantasies, you can live with reality for ever. That's why in Sanskrit there is no word for divorce. If you feed your fantasies you can change your partner any number of times and still be unhappy. Only in fairy tales do people live happily ever after. All legendary lovers, Romeo and Juliet, Laila and Majnu, were never married; had they married, their stories would have had different endings.
People forcing themselves into celibacy are sitting on a volcano. They cannot look into your eyes for fear that you will see their suffering. If you meditate and practice celibacy, Hindu mythology says that the Gods above will send celestial beauties to disturb and bring you out of your meditation. The truth is that nobody sends women to disturb you; if that was the case, everyone will start meditating. These meditators of forced celibacy start hallucinating because of their suppressions, suppressed fantasies. Brahmacharya cannot be practiced as morality, but as an understanding. When you accept your partner as he is or as she is, your fantasies drop, and you start accepting yourself as you are. Your partner then becomes your beloved.
- From the talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda
http://seattle.lifeblissprogram.org 21 aprile Paramahamsa Nithyananda visits SeattleParamahamsa Nithyananda (Swamiji) is visiting Seattle from April 26-30. He is giving free discouses at Bothell Hindu Temple, East-West bookshop, Unity of Bellevue and Seattle Unity. There is an amazing weekend Meditation workshop at Seattle Center Pavilion. His message for this Spring tour is "Be Un-clutched".
Registration, schedule and more information at: http://Seattle.LifeBlissProgram.org
Come, Experience the Bliss!!!
19 aprile Drop what hurts and transform yourselfA Zen master was sentenced to death by his king, He was sitting unconcerned. His disciple asked him, “Are you not bothered you are going to die tomorrow? He said, “How can I worry about a day later, when even the next moment is a new miracle for me”.
When you live in the present, all your fantasies drop, all your fears drop. If someone complains that he cannot change, I say change is your nature. I am surprised you are holding on to the same character. Let go and you will change. When they don’t listen and insist, I give them advice to confuse them.
You say give me a technique. It’s so difficult without technique, a tool. The word difficulty is the greatest difficulty. When you know fire burns, drop the fire. Where is the difficulty? Be a little more intelligent. Drop what hurts. When you understand that the mental setup causes you trouble, drop it. You will then transform your being.
You ask, how will I survive if I drop? The seed always wonders what will happen to me if I break. Unless it breaks the plant cannot grow. Trust and open, trust and break, you will grow. If you make mistakes, it’s worth making mistakes. Perfectionism is madness. The more you are far from the perfect the more God has grace for you.
Search for perfection is search for madness. Graveyard is perfectly secure place. But it’s not the place to live; it is only for the dead. A ship is secure in the harbor, but it has to move out to function.
As you move from ego to spontaneity you will undergo pain, transition, that’s your penance. That is the price you pay for a better life. Everything will be a miracle. When you take life for granted, what results is boredom and depression. You seek to acquire, not to enjoy. You can increase the height of your bed not the depth of your sleep.
Meditation is the key to spontaneity. Do not keep track of what you have done in the past. It’s better to let go and grow without worrying about what happened in the past and also what will happen in the future.
Enlightenment is not a step by step growth process, it is a quantum phenomenon. Living moment to moment, in the present, without worrying about past and present is meditation. It’s a quality to be added to your life, not a quantity to be added to your life.
- From the talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda
07 aprile Drop your past and move onYour thoughts bridge your past to the future. Your mind is constantly in motion, without a purpose. Its purported purpose is to provide a rational link between your past and your future. However there is no rational link. Neither the past nor the future exists.
Your past is dead, it is gone, and it is finished. As the poet Omar Khayyam said in Rubaiyat ”The Moving Finger writes; and having written, moves on: neither all your piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line; nor all your tears wash out a word of it". No regret, no penance will recreate your past differently. Reliving the past is an exercise in futility and foolishness.
The future does not exist yet. To create the future is speculative. You do not know whether you will breathe your next breath. What arrogance, therefore, to think of creating your future.
Worst is to flash back into the past so as to create the future. If you think you will learn from your past mistakes to create a faultless future you need to think again.
You do not have the intelligence to learn from the past and make new mistakes: you will keep making the same mistakes again and again.
What exists in reality is your present. The present is all that there is. Once you suspend thoughts you are grounded in the present, the state of truth and the state of awareness. When you are in the present truly, in deep awareness, you become aware of your past and present as well. You become a Trikala Jnani, an enlightened master who is in all three time zones past, present and future, all at once.
A great zen master was asked what is the difference you found when you became enlightened? He said simply: I eat when I eat and I sleep when I sleep. When you become aware and mindful, you live in the present all the time. You focus on what you do at that moment. Your mind is where your body is.
Normally, when you are at work, your mind wonders and takes vacation: and when you are on vacation at a beach, your mind worries about your work that you should have done, but did not. Once you learn to be in the present, dilemma disappears; your mind becomes clear.
Drop your thoughts now, you will be at peace.
- From the talks of Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda
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