Each of them gave a suggestion.

The first man said, 'Alright, let's draw a circle and throw up all the money. Whatever falls inside the circle is God's and whatever falls outside is ours.'

The second man said, 'No. I have a better idea. We will draw a really big circle and throw all the money up. Whatever falls inside is ours and whatever falls outside is God's.'

The third man said, 'Look, anyway God is above us. Let us throw all the money up. Whatever he wants, let him take. Whatever comes down is ours!'

As long as we want something, we bribe God for it. As soon as we get it, we drop him until the next want arises! This is how we are taught to function.

Anyhow, coming back to the topic of rituals, there is something definite about them. It is structured and you know when exactly it is going to start, when it is going to finish, where you are going to do it, why you are doing it, etc. With rituals, you go into them, and come out as the same person. There is so much security in the whole process. That is why it has spread so much. Anything that is definite spreads.

But what happens in meditation? First of all, meditation seems too simple to produce any benefits when compared to rituals. People always ask me why I do rituals at the ashram. I tell them, 'If I tell people to simply come to the ashram and sit under the banyan tree and meditate, which is actually enough, they will not listen.'

If I did not have the temple, if they did not see the deities there, probably only I would be sitting under the banyan tree and meditating!

To make people take the first step towards their inner journey, I have to show them some of the things that exist in their minds. I have to talk in their language.

They will be very happy to see the *Dakshinamurthy* deity under the banyan tree, although they will be blissfully unaware of the energy field that is actually there around the banyan tree even in the absence of the *Dakshinamurthy* deity. This banyan tree is live energy. Its silence is a vibrating silence. It is enough if you just sit under it in meditation. You don't have to do anything complicated. Every leaf and twig here talks.

See, when you continue to worship idols, you have to become more and more aware of the tremendous presence of Existence that you are trying to connect with through the idol. Then you will automatically start seeing God everywhere. You will understand that it is not just the idol but the whole of creation that is pregnant with the presence of God. Then you can start relating with the whole of Existence.

In the case of meditation, if you go into it with sincerity, the outcome is not definite. A personality change may happen. You may emerge as a different person and this is seen as a great risk! It is like taking a gamble. Transformation starts happening. It is this transformation that you are actually seeking, but when it happens you are afraid.

You feel comfortable in the security of rituals. Rituals become a part of your every-day routine.

When you meditate, your awareness increases and when this happens, the fence that you have imagined around yourself, which actually society has put around you, slowly dissolves and you feel rebellious, not against society but against your own unconscious and ignorant state. This rebellion causes you to probe more into the cause of it and it opens out further avenues for you.

This is how you move deeper and deeper into a space that you have never entered before; a space which society does not even know; a space that has all along been inside you but locked; a space for which you have been unknowingly searching for a key to unlock. When you have found this space, you have arrived!

It is like this:

A cow is tied to a rope and given a few meters of radius to move around.

It moves around and becomes aware and mature through its intelligence.

Then, the rope is loosened a little, giving it a few more meters of radius.

It goes further around and becomes more intelligent and then it is given still more length of rope to wander.

Depending on the cow's growing intelligence and consciousness, it can even be let free at some point in time!

## Guaranteed Solutions

The same thing happens in man. The more his consciousness grows, the greater freedom he enjoys and the cycle continues.

#### How does the master help

It is a question of how willing you are to allow the transformation of your energies.

 But when this happens, society will tell you that you are moving away. You only have to have courage and faith in Existence and yourself and move on.

Here is where, more than any books or lectures, a master can serve as a *yoga danda* to you, a stick of support to help you stand up for yourself. Every time you feel beaten by society in your path of spirituality, when you feel you are against the majority, the master will pull you up in his own way and tell you to move on.

This does not mean that you are dependent on the master. It is like this: You are trying to find your way to a particular place. If left by yourself, you will ask for directions at several places. Sometimes you may be guided wrongly and so you may have to retrace your steps. After spending considerable amount of time, you will reach your destination. It may take you a long time to do so, but you will reach it. But what if you have a map or a guide? You will reach your destination without loss of time! Does it mean that you are dependent on the map or guide? No. It was just a quicker way of doing things, that's all. In the same way, a master is a guide who knows the way, who has already been to the place you are searching for and is available to guide you there.

#### With courage and conviction, it happens

When you have dedication alone, you will no doubt work hard towards reaching your goal, but when you have dedication with courage, you will take a leap towards your goal. This courage will come if you stop looking at others and look only into yourself, if you stop comparing yourself with others and watch yourself with awareness and make the necessary changes in you.

You need to stand up with courage of conviction on your own path. Courage of conviction will happen in you only when you are strongly centered in yourself without comparing yourself with others.

Society is waiting to pull you into the familiar patterns that it knows, into the miseries that it is familiar with and can handle; into the well-trodden and worn-out path. It is very easy and does not require courage to fall into this path. But to tread the lessertrodden path of spirituality requires courage. When I say courage, I don't mean ordinary courage, I mean total courage.

To wear gypsy beads does not require courage, but to wear *rudraksh* beads requires courage! I give *rudraksh* beads to those who wish to wear them. The *rudraksh* beads are nothing but energy storehouses. They store the cosmic energy for you. They are like a battery house and recharge you when you get into a low. But society sees these beads as clear signs of *sannyas*! They see them as something worn by renunciates, without even understanding the meaning of renunciation.

They condemn people who stay in family life and wear *rudraksh*. But when they see the *rudraksh* beads on deities or *sannyasis*, they are happy and pray to them. So many of the younger ones come and tell me how their family reacts to them wearing the beads.

It is ironical. When people pray, they pray to the cosmic energy, but when the same energy is available to them in simpler forms, they are not ready to take it! They pray to it but run away from it!

If you deeply analyze this, it will seem so contradictory. They see themselves as so distinctly different from God; that is the problem. They are not ready to accept that they *are* God. Now I tell you: Whether you know it or not, whether you accept it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, you ARE God. This is the underlying basis of the *vishuddhi chakra* also – discovering your own unique self and infinite energy.

When your courage grows, society automatically fades into insignificance. When your courage is low, society automatically assumes power over you. It is all in your mind. How much power you give to society, that much power it will have over you. Never blame society for anything.

The choice has always been yours. Due to sheer lack of courage, you choose to go with what society says; you choose to pull and push by comparing and trying to beat one another, and then you blame society for it. It is not the right thing to do. Remember, the choice is always yours.

Just function with awareness, and infinity will simply open out. When it does, you will feel afraid because you are not used to seeing such open space. You are used to seeing boundaries all the time. Now you are not able to see the fence anywhere. You start getting apprehensive.

You immediately think that you have entered the wrong space. Reality seems too much to digest. You start feeling insecure. You feel like going back to the warmth of your past beliefs and illusions. You feel you have made a mistake by not listening to society when it told you that you were going on the wrong path. You start doubting and then doubting the doubt as well. You feel like a lonely child left in the middle of a desert.

It is in times like these that you need to remember that Existence is always with you and that your courage needs only to mature and go hand in hand with faith upon Existence and then everything will be alright. Faith is the prodding stick for courage.

Unless a revolution happens inside you, you can never rupture and grow into a tree. Most of us remain a seed and die, because of lack of courage. We always try to dissect the seed to find the fruits and flowers. Will it ever help? No! The seed has to rupture to grow into fruits and flowers. Similarly, when a radical change happens, when a revolution is created in man, he will rupture and grow. All meditations are nothing but techniques to make the seed rupture.

When you start rupturing, all your priorities start changing. What was important before becomes less important now. Only the things that nurture your being will seem important. Your whole attitude will change. Your whole presence will change.

Your presence will automatically lure people to you although they might not approve of it! The radiance felt in your inner core will attract them with deep curiosity. While society will criticize you for your changed attitude, it will start finding your presence distinctly different.

When the transformation is happening, just utterly ignore anything from the past. The past will again and again try to pull you into familiar patterns and deep bondage. When you listen to it, you are allowing yourself to be in bondage. Just decide to hold on to the ecstasy and conviction of the transformation happening in you. This is your greatest test, the test of your perseverance to transform completely. Hold on until the transformation is complete and mature.

There is a cosmic energy that fills this universe and there is an energy that fills you. Spirituality is all about establishing a live connection between the Cosmic energy and the energy in you. When your individual consciousness merges with the Universal Consciousness, you become enlightened.

Just a desire to get enlightened will not do. It needs to be a conscious decision. See, ordinary desires are nothing but greed that don't really propel you towards your specific goal. A conscious decision is what will make you work towards achieving.

People don't understand these things properly and simply talk at a superficial level. When you don't understand, you misunderstand. But you think you have understood and there starts the problem.

# Persist and it will happen

Spirituality is a science that gives a deep understanding of our body, mind and spirit. When you enter it with awareness, the outer world will slowly dissolve. When people see you from outside, they will think that you are renouncing. Only *you* will understand that you are not renouncing anything; the outer world things are simply dissolving on their own. The illusion disappears and you become de-hypnotized.

At one of our programs, I asked how many of the participants thought that I had hypnotized them. Out of a group of eighty, three of them lifted their hands. One of the ladies who was sitting next to the girl who had her hand raised laughed at her. I asked her why she was laughing. The girl was honest enough to lift her hand.

I am sure out of that group, many of them would have been tempted to lift their hands but didn't, fearing what I might say! Anyhow, three of them lifted their hands. I told them that I had not hypnotized them, but had actually de-hypnotized them.

They had started feeling the clearing of *maya* or illusion. But what happens is, you are so used to being in a state of illusion, that if it starts clearing, you think something has gone wrong! The problem is, when too much truth is told to people, a certain fear sets in. The comfort they were enjoying under the cover of ignorance suffers.

See, in whatever quantities your ignorance dissolves, in that much quantity you become possessed by God or Existence. Any effort that you put in your everyday life should be directed towards emptying yourself so that you may be filled with Existence. Any other effort is just incidental and trivial in life. Remember this.

Every breath of yours should be towards increasing your awareness and consciousness. Only then have you really made a conscious decision to experience Existence or God. If this firm resolve is not happening in you, then you are still pretending to seek, that's all. You are simply cheating yourself. Don't for a moment think that you are cheating others. You are cheating yourself.

To turn your steps from outwards to inwards is the first step. That moment of taking the U-turn is the most significant moment. You will know when you have taken the U-turn. Until then, your mind will have been giving excuses and more excuses, citing people and situations and outer world circumstances as reasons for not being able to integrate yourself. Once you take the U-turn, all these thoughts will fade into insignificance. They will slowly lose their prominence. They will be there no doubt, but you will be steadily progressing, taking them in your stride. They will help you become a more effective watcher as they play their parts meticulously.

Taking the first step or the U-turn is what is the most difficult thing. When you take the U-turn, half the job is done. You then become more malleable to the ways of Existence.

When you take the U-turn, everything becomes meditation. Whether it is walking or talking or singing or dancing or simply putting your clothes on or taking them off, everything becomes a meditation and is done with increasing awareness.

You will simply watch yourself doing these things and slowly understand that the whole world is an illusion. When you take your first step inwards, you have in effect taken a leap because the first step is the real leap. Until then, you only philosophize, convince yourself and others that you are seeking and get more confused with less determination day by day.

When you take the first step, you are ready to win yourself. To win others is very easy. Just take a few weapons or use your tongue and simply destroy them, that's all. But to win yourself takes real courage. This *vishuddhi chakra* is all about winning yourself.

When you look inwards, you are ready to win yourself. Of course, when you are on the path inwards, there might not be anything tangible to the people around you in what you are doing. Only *you* will know that everything is happening inside and not outside. Only *you* will be aware of the revolution that is happening inside you. Only *you* will be able to tell the growing intelligence inside you.

People around you will not be able to understand the experiences you are enjoying. I tell you: never try to convince anyone that you are evolving inside. You may share your experiences with your spiritual friends who will be able to match your wavelength of thinking, but if you try to share these experiences with other people who are blissfully oblivious to the inner journey, you will only land up in deep misery.

Just allow the experiences to happen in you; neither hold on to them nor run behind them. Allow them to work like steam on you so that you may fully ripen. If you hold on to them, you will stagnate at some point and miss the whole thing.

Remember that all these experiences are tell-tale signs that you are well on your journey inwards. They are like signboards that you see on the road. Do you cling onto the signboards and say that the destination has been reached? No. Don't cling onto them. Move on to your destination.

A total commitment and determination is needed and this will come automatically to you when you are ready; when you are ready to drop your mind, that is society, and live with your heart; when you are ready to stop pointing fingers at others and point to yourself, come what may; when you understand experientially that your mind is societal and your heart is natural.

Also, when people ask you for proof of your experiences, just understand that there is no need to prove to them. Your experience is so intimate and personal to you that you will not be able to effectively share it with the other person. In fact if you share it, you will be bringing down the whole experience. Also, the other person may not be willing to believe what you are saying. They may tell you that you are deluding yourself. They may want you to explain the whole thing logically.

Logic cannot explain these experiences. God is beyond logic. If logic can explain God, then logic has to be superior to God and that can never be the case! So just relax and allow the experiences to happen to you. When anyone questions you, have the maturity to smile and move on. A smile can convey more effectively what you can't in so many words.

Great enlightened masters have experienced such tremendous joy in communion with Existence. People ask me to narrate my experiences but I tell you, it is all so personal and intimate that I cannot explain it to you in words. I can guide you; I can show you the way - the path for you to experience. The moment I start explaining, it will become mundane.

But I can give you the highest assurance that you will experience it, if you have the fire within you. The promise given by a master is enough energy for you to achieve it.

I am telling you all these things now in reply to your question about meditation and spirituality. You may think that we are moving away from the main subject. No! This *chakra*, this *vishuddhi chakra* is all about expanding yourself; about discovering your own unique self, with total awareness and understanding of the fact that there is no scope for comparison and jealousy in life. Just take in whatever I have told you and allow the energy behind it to transform you. I tell you, miracles can happen inside you! It will change the whole quality of your being.

## *The three layers of energy*

Alright...Now, from all that we have discussed, you have understood that comparison and jealousy are non-entities and don't have any actual relevance to you at all. Now, let me try to explain some more on the *vishuddhi chakra* and the energy house that is in it.

We have three layers of energy in us. The first layer of energy is from our mind and it is this that we use for our day-to-day activities from morning till night. Once this energy expends, we start feeling tired and irritated if we are given more work to do.

The second layer energy is the emergency layer. It is the energy that arises from our emotions. At the time of emergency, this energy opens out. Let us say you are really tired and walking back from work to your home. You feel you have enough energy only to enter your house and crash on your bed. At that time, suddenly if a dog starts chasing you, what do you do? You start running much faster than you have ever run before. Even if you are dead tired, even if you were earlier unable to move even a limb, suddenly you run with a different kind of energy! This is the emergency energy that arises out of emotion.

The third layer of energy is the being level energy. This is an infinite source of energy within you, which you don't use at all. This energy layer can be opened and experienced by deep meditation. Whether you accept it or not, you are in connection with all these three layers of energies. This *vishuddhi chakra* holds in it the key to these higher energy levels.

Let me narrate to you an incident that actually happened during my days of wandering:

> In a beautiful place called Almora in the Himalayas, there is a small ashram with a few huts for those who wish to meditate.

The place is known to be frequented by tigers at night!

I was there for a short while during my days of wandering.

I used to meditate for long hours there.

They had a system wherein, when the head of the ashram senses the tigers coming, he would ring a bell and all the *sannyasis* would get into their respective huts and close the doors, until such time they were asked to come out.

On one occasion, at night time, while we were meditating, the bell rang and all of us got into our respective huts.

The next day, the head of the ashram came around to see if we were all alright.

He found that one of the huts was closed and the *sannyasi* inside was shouting through the window to open the door.

We all ran to the hut and tried opening the door but couldn't open it.

Finally, a few of us got in through the window and entered the hut.

To our surprise, we found that he had placed a big grinding stone against the door so that the tiger would not be able to push its way through.

We jointly moved the stone away to open the door.

It suddenly struck us how the man might have moved the stone single-handedly against the door in the first place! We asked him how he had moved it.

He replied, 'Moved it? I simply lifted it and placed it!'

When he heard the call of the tiger, he simply lifted the stone to place it against the door, that's all!

This is exactly what I mean by the emergency layer energy. Under normal circumstances, the same man would not have been able to lift that stone. Do you understand? Even after the incident, once the emergency was over, he himself was not able to lift it away from the door in the story!

Out of fear or greed, the second level energy opens. For example, if there is an important meeting, do you feel tired? No! You will be alive and fresh. The desire or greed to attend the meeting will keep you in an energized condition.

The *vishuddhi chakra* is the door through which all these three layers of energy can be opened out, but you are not aware of it because you have not used these layers effectively in a long time.

It is like this: In all harbors, there is a place called a boat jetty where the boats are kept. It is commonly said that if the boat is kept in the jetty for long without sailing, it forgets that it can sail in the water!

In the same way, because you have not used the third layer of energy for a long time, you forget that you belong to it or it belongs to you. Meditation can open out this third level energy for you.

If you keep this *chakra* in a cleansed condition, you can scale great heights in the outer world and great depths in the inner world. When you have low self-esteem or jealousy, this *chakra* is locked. Low self-esteem is a passive manifestation of jealousy, that's all. Jealousy is active while low self-esteem is passive. Both are a result of comparison. With low self-esteem, you feel you are no good and resign yourself to it. In jealousy, you are unable to bear it and start reacting; that is the difference.

Understand that any self-esteem that you have that indicates to you that you are less than God is low self-esteem, because you ARE God. That is why I say there is no scope to compare yourself with anyone else.

You need to experience the second and third layers of energy hidden in this *chakra*, in order to understand the infinite potential that is lying hidden in you. This *chakra* is really the seat of energy for us. When we concentrate on it, we will be able to feel the energy radiating from it.

In the Himalayas, when I used to wander in my earlier days, so many miles I would cover by foot. I used to start walking at a slow pace, concentrating on my *vishuddhi chakra*. Slowly, I would pick up speed concentrating on the *chakra*. After a certain point, my body would start moving with a swinging pace and I would be just a watcher of it! I would cover many miles in this fashion.

All the food that you take or exercise that you do helps only the first layer of energy. Food is not the only source of energy. It is a common misconception that only food gives you energy. Food is one source of energy, that's all.

*Yogis* in Tibet do not eat at all. They simply drink water out of the shell of a *bilva* fruit. I lived like that for six months in the Himalayas. I got the energy from the sun, from the water while taking my bath, from the air while breathing. These are all *yogic* methods. *Tapasya* is the penance you do for enlightenment throughout your life. That alone vibrates in your being.

#### **G**uaranteed **S**olutions

When you start competing with others, you forget your own self. You forget to strengthen your own being, which is your actual untapped source of energy. If you have physical strength and intellectual strength without the strength of the soul, it is of no use. It is only when you discover the strength of your soul, that you have touched your life source and energy.

# **Q: Once we are able to be without jealousy, have we completely gotten freedom in at least one aspect of our shortcomings?**

Of course, if you are able to see a space where love can exist without passion or jealousy, you have definitely moved forward, but continue moving with complete awareness because you can very easily slip back into your old unconscious ways and find yourself going through all the old emotions once again.

Hold on to the newly discovered awareness and move with it. It can open up many more beautiful avenues for you to explore. Don't stagnate. The greatest danger is to cling on to a few experiences thinking that they are solid.

Masters never allow their disciples to stagnate in any experience. They always prod them on further so that the disciple may look deeper and deeper in his quest. People who have had visions of gods and goddesses most often tend to stagnate in their spiritual journey. They feel there is nothing more to be seen and therefore stay right there holding on to that experience. This should never be allowed to happen.

Until you have reached the state of eternal bliss, you can hit rock bottom at any time. So remember that and nurture your awareness continuously to take you to realms of deeper and deeper understanding.

Understand one thing: The work of a Master is so delicate. He has to handle each and every one of you with utmost care and delicateness. He has to see in which way each of you will grow and make you flower in that way. Each of you has been through so many lives and accumulated so much ignorance. He has to work through all that and wake you up.

Life offers plenty of solutions, but there is always something that fits you the best. The intelligence lies in finding that out. When you apply your own intelligence and find it out, you will enjoy the benefits of it. Whereas, if you start looking at others and start applying their solutions to yourself, you will lose track of where you stand.

A small story:

An old woman was going about dusting her old house in a remote village.

Suddenly the door opened and a young sales man walked in. He spoke excitedly when he saw the woman dusting.

He told her that he had many gadgets that would help her clean her house.

The old woman said, 'But…'

The man interrupted her and pulled out a lot of rubbish from a bag and put it on the floor.

The old woman tried again, 'But…'

The man told her to stand by and watch. He pulled out a device and explained, 'You see this machine? It will clean any amount of dust in no time. It is so light in weight and therefore very easy for you to handle at this age. Let me demonstrate.'

The old lady tried, 'But…'

The man interrupted, 'Just show me the plug point.'

The lady finally said, 'But… electricity hasn't yet reached our village!'

In life, we need to be able to figure out what suits us the best! If we are clear about this, we will grow without a worry. But most of the time, we covet and apply others' solutions to ourselves, and then feel unhappy.

If we are clear about where we stand and what we need, we will grow steadily. Even setbacks in this way of living will only be ones that teach us how to function more intelligently. In this way, we at least function with our own intelligence and so it becomes an experiential understanding.

When you simply follow another's solution, there is nothing happening inside you; you are operating from your periphery. When nothing happens inside you, you cannot grow; remember that. When I say that you cannot grow, I mean you don't evolve from within. Material benefits may come, but you remain dead inside.

Remember that only when you grow from within, you are really growing. Don't get dangerously caught in outer world races. See them as mere play and play them well. Material benefits are needed for survival but all these should remain in the periphery. Your inner core should steadily grow. It is this that will guide you in your play outside.

The process of discovering your infinite intelligence is what life is all about. That is why I always say, 'Life is the path and not any goal.' As your intelligence grows, you will become more joyful and you will be able to play the game of life more effectively. So stop comparing and start discovering – the source of your real growth.

The *vishuddhi chakra* is the seat of higher creativity. When the energy of this *chakra* is unlocked, you will see that a tremendous flow of creativity becomes available to you.

When you change the quality of your *being*, naturally the quality of your *doing* also changes. Whatever you do, you do with greater efficiency, greater creativity. As a result, the quality of your *having* also changes. You will be happy with whatever comes your way and you will see that material wealth and success flow towards you naturally. So drop comparison and return to your being and discover eternal bliss, *nithyananda*.

Now let us enter into a meditation technique called the *Shakti Sagar.* It will make you understand experientially how you can harness the tremendous energy source that is available to you through your *vishuddhi chakra*.

Emotion: Comparison and jealousy

*Chakra: Vishuddhi chakra*

Location: Throat region

In Sanskrit, *vishuddhi* means 'beyond purity and impurity'. The name therefore means that this chakra can never get impure and hence never needs to be cleansed. That is why comparison, which locks this *chakra*, is like a shadow without an object. There is no basis for the concept of comparison. It is purely a figment of our imagination.

This *chakra* is locked by comparison and jealousy and it can be made to flower when we exhibit our individuality without worrying about others, and express fully our capacity, uniqueness and creativity.

# Meditation Technique to realize one's uniqueness and energy reserve:

Shakti Sagar Meditation **-** a technique from Zen Buddhism.

#### The Shakti Sagar Meditation

*(Total duration: 30 minutes)*

The *Shakti Sagar* meditation is taken from Zen Buddhism. The key to this meditation is to keep the mind fixed on the *vishuddhi* while the body moves.

Stand with your eyes closed and focus on your *vishuddhi chakra*. Stand behind a chair or some support and hold it (if required) and start walking slowly, very slowly in the same spot where you are standing.

Now start increasing your pace very gradually. Keep walking faster and faster in the same spot. Push your limits only to the extent that you can, with no discomfort. Don't over exert yourself at any time. At all times focus on the *vishuddhi*. You will be able to feel the energy coming from it. The important thing is never to slow down at any point in time. Try to jog faster than what you are jogging but never slower. Stop after 20 minutes.

For the next 10 minutes, just sit down quietly wherever you are. Keep your eyes closed and focus on the *vishuddhi*. You will absorb the energy that is generated during the movement. When you do this, the cosmic energy enters through the *vishuddhi chakra* and becomes a tremendous source of energy to you. While doing this meditation, you may wear your *mala* around your neck. It will serve to store the energy that you create during the meditation.

Thank you. We will meet for the next session.

**Drop the ego**

Seriousness is nothing but paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else. It stems from the inability to see that all of life is just a drama that is unfolding every minute. Seriousness is the result of over-expectation from life.

A small story:

Two boys were building sand castles on the beach.

They suddenly had a quarrel and one of the boys got angry and kicked the sand castle.

The other boy went and complained to the king about it.

The king began to laugh at him for making so much out of just sand castles.

But the king's advisor, a Zen monk, started laughing at the king.

He asked, 'When you can fight battles and lose sleep over stone castles, why do you laugh at these boys for fighting over sand castles?'

If you really go to see, all our seriousness is just about sandcastles! For the child, at that young age, sand castles seem precious, whereas for us at our age, stone castles seem precious, that's all. Whether it is a sand castle or stone castle, the seriousness behind it is the same; just the object of seriousness is different. So don't laugh when children fight over sand castles.

Seriousness closes your mind to the openness and freedom of life. It makes you dull and dead. It curbs your thinking and makes you stick to the familiar patterns that you know all the time. It makes you egoistic.

> In a Zen monastery, there was a competition among disciples as to who had the best garden. One disciple was a very serious sort. He took the competition also very seriously. He kept his garden always neat and clean, and well-swept. All the grass was of the same height. All the bushes were neatly trimmed. He was sure that he would get the first prize. On the day of the competition, the master went around all the gardens. Then he came back and ranked the gardens. This disciple's garden got the lowest ranking. Everyone was shocked. The disciple went and questioned the master about it. He asked, 'Master, what is wrong with my garden? Why did you rank me the lowest?' The master looked at him and asked, 'Where are all the dead leaves?'

A garden maintained in such a way is no longer alive! It is dead.

Seriousness kills creativity. It destroys spontaneity.

Science has proved that when you perform a task in a relaxed and light manner, your thinking and decision-making capacity is automatically enhanced. The same task when performed in a serious manner dulls your mind.

All our seriousness is just sickness. When I say all, I mean ALL. And all our sickness originates from seriousness. Seriousness begets sickness and sickness begets seriousness.

One night, a man called me on the phone and started crying.

He said, 'I fall at your feet, Swamiji! Please help me. I'm so depressed! I am going to end my life!' and so on.

I tried to calm him down, and finally said, 'Why don't you come to the ashram tomorrow morning and spend a few days with me? Let us see what can be done.'

He replied, 'Tomorrow Swamiji? Oh… tomorrow I have to go to the office… shall I come next weekend?'

Most of us are like this: getting unnecessarily tense about our socalled problems. Just one jolt is enough and our seriousness will drop. When we wake up to reality, we see how insignificant our problems really are.

When you do something too seriously, when you are too concerned about the result, you are actually not allowing yourself to perform at the optimum level.

Of course, you need to make plans, you need to think ahead, but with sincerity, not with seriousness. Seriousness is not the same as sincerity. Sincerity is focusing on the task with enthusiasm and youthfulness. Sincerity is giving the task your best without worrying excessively about the result.

When you are serious, you don't enjoy; you don't laugh. How can you laugh when you are serious? Either you are serious or you are laughing. You can't be both at the same time because the very definition of seriousness is such.

But when you are sincere, you can be laughing and playful. You can continue to do in a playful and joyful way, and because you have finished the job, you have been sincere!

With sincerity, there is no worry, there is only enthusiasm.

When you are serious, you are egoistic, because you fail to see that the whole thing is only a cosmic drama. You feel that you are a separate entity… too much of 'I' and so you are serious. If you understand that the whole thing is only a drama, you can never be serious. When this understanding happens at a deep level, you will do things for the sheer joy of moving in tune with the cosmic drama or Existence.

# Chronological planning Vs. psychological planning

You see, there are two types of planning: chronological planning and psychological planning.

Chronological planning is planning on a timescale. You decide that you will get up at such and such a time, finish your morning routine by a particular time, reach the office at a particular time, and get certain tasks done that day at the office. This is alright. It is a practical way to organize your work in order to get the best results. This kind of planning with sincere action will take you from happiness to more happiness.

Psychological planning on the other hand, is planning in your head with no relevance to time or space. It is just constant serious planning going on in your head, over and above the chronological planning. It is actually nothing but complex negativity being applied to the chronological planning that has already been done. It keeps you thinking that you are serious and dutiful. But you get into a dull state because all your energy is going into analyzing the plan again and again.

Psychological planning boosts your ego. It makes you feel great and worthy. It makes you feel that you are handling things of a great magnitude. It makes you feel that it is wholly in your hands to worry about it and make it happen. This is psychological planning.

This is actually a way of postponing happiness, postponing life, waiting for something particular to happen to start enjoying life.

We always think, *If I get married, my life will be settled. So let me work towards getting married.*

*If I have two children, my life will be fulfilled.*

*Once I retire, I'll be peaceful.*

It is the attitude of: *now I'll be serious; later I'll be happy!*

In the end, you will be happy neither now nor then. You will lose your capacity to be happy at any time.

Just live with simplicity, with spontaneity and with innocence; that will itself do the job.

# Strive for totality not for perfection

Don't harp too much on perfectionism. I tell you: Perfectionism can make you neurotic. Whatever you do, do it wholly, totally. Then automatically, you will never worry about perfectionism.

Perfectionism is always something from your mind. It becomes a goal for you. You work towards it as a goal. And when you work towards it as a goal, it becomes dead and mundane. But when you are total, you are established in your heart, and it becomes a deep experience. The outcome then has to be beautiful and it will give you joy also. Then, whatever you do, you will be in tune with Existence.

Perfectionism never gives you joy; it only fulfills your ego. Even if you feel fulfilled at the end of it, it is only a fulfillment of your ego, never a fulfillment of your being. Be very clear that perfectionists are the biggest egoists. They miss the dimension of being total. Totality is possible when you enter into it deeply from your being. Perfectionism is never possible because it is in your mind and your mind keeps changing its definition of perfection.

Also, have the courage to make mistakes. Serious people are always afraid to make mistakes. They take themselves too seriously. They think too much about themselves. It is too much to make mistakes and have someone point it out to them. Actually I tell you, these people who are afraid of making small mistakes, end up making big blunders!

What is wrong in making mistakes? You will say, 'Swamiji, I can't afford to make mistakes in my work; that is why I am so serious.' What you say might be true; your work may not permit you to make mistakes, but that is not the point I am trying to make here. When you make a mistake, people will point it out and you will not be able to bear it. Your ego is bound to get hurt and you are very sensitive to this; you know this. So to avoid getting your ego hurt, you try your best not to make mistakes!

You plan so unconsciously and continuously to keep guarding your ego. But the reasons you give are all different. It is not that you are lying. It is just that you are not aware of the subtle way in which your system works. But if you deeply analyze and see, you will understand what I am saying.

There is nothing wrong in making mistakes. In fact, by making a few mistakes, you come to know clearly how to avoid making mistakes. The more you learn from mistakes, the more you know about how not to make mistakes.

Knowing how not to make mistakes is a very important thing. Only then you have seen both sides of it; only then you have explored the two sides experientially. Else, there is always the danger of falling into the unknown side at a critical time when you really can't afford to.

However, don't make the same mistakes again! Your mind always repeats patterns. Don't do it with mistakes also. Make new mistakes! And move on to better and better understanding!

I am not saying to deliberately make mistakes. That is foolishness again. I am only saying, do things to the best of your intelligence and enthusiasm but without worrying about whether it might be a mistake. The moment you are worried that it might be a mistake, you are worried about your ego getting hurt.

When you are not so concerned about your ego getting hurt, you will have the courage to take any jump. All your so-called worry is actually about your ego getting hurt. When you are free from it, you will act with more freedom and courage. You will be more willing to experiment.

A small story:

In a clubhouse, one man had finished his round of playing cards and was leaving.

He went to the coat stand and was putting on his coat, when suddenly a meek voice spoke behind him, 'Sir, are you Mr. Philippe?'

The man turned around and replied, 'No, I am not.'

The voice said, 'Thank God. I am Philippe and that coat is mine.'

We are so afraid that we might make a mistake and hurt our ego. So we move cautiously, with cordiality, just to be sure. These are nothing but passive forms of ego. You are so terrified of your ego getting hurt and so you behave in these ways. Drop all your guard of your ego and move about freely.

Move away from seriousness. Somehow, we always associate spirituality with seriousness. It is a big misconception. Seriousness can never be religion or spirituality.

Why do you think I keep telling you so many jokes and small stories? If I don't tell you all these things, you will start becoming very serious and when you become serious, you become dead and heavy. You will not be alive and light. I am not here to make you heavy.

I am here to unload you and make you light. I am here to show you that your seriousness is nothing but a form of your ego.

Laugh and let go your ego

Laughter is that which brings in a ray of energy from your being to your body. It totally rejuvenates your whole self. It can heal like nothing else can. It gives you such wonderful glimpses of the present, which you try to achieve through other difficult meditation techniques. Laughter is the most powerful meditation technique.

Laughter is the greatest spiritual quality. Sincerity and laughter always go together. As I said earlier, seriousness can never coexist with laughter. Either you are serious or you are laughing. When you are sincere, you can laugh and do your duty sincerely.

How many of us can laugh with all our heart? Even in laughter we manage restrain! The so-called social etiquette has taught us to laugh in a polite way. When kids laugh, we condition them. We are a spray of cold water on their laughter. We tell them, 'Now that is enough!' We try to condition even their laughter.

I have heard mothers telling their daughters, 'Don't laugh like a man; laugh like a lady.' How can you culture laughter? Laughter is something that comes from your being. I tell you, all the conditioning of your children is just to make replicas of your own dull and dead self. Until you replicate yourself completely, you will not rest.

I spent some time with a few children during my visit to America this year. I spent about an hour interacting with them. I was so shocked when I saw that they simply did not laugh however much I tried joking with them. Children these days take on pseudo maturity and manage to exclude laughter from their system. If they cannot laugh as kids, what will they do when they grow up? It was too much for me to see them.

People tell me that my laughter is infectious. With those kids, for the first time, my laughter seemed non-infectious! They were just looking at me with the same mature look on their faces. I left them afraid that they may make *me* serious!

You see, maturity does not have anything to do with how you laugh. But somehow, we feel that when we are mature, we should automatically laugh less.

Laughter is such strength because it brings in energy from your core to your periphery. If you sit through my sessions, most of the time there will only be laughter. Some joke will be cracked or some story told and everyone will be laughing. I never allow seriousness to set in. Even with people who live in the ashram, I never allow seriousness to set in.

A small story:

One very humorous speaker was invited to a town to deliver a speech.

He came to the program with a big group of people.

The organizers were surprised when they saw the number of people with the speaker.

The speaker saw their surprised look and explained, 'It is becoming difficult to get people to laugh these days, so I carry my own audience.'

In the so-called elite circles, people will be laughing, but in a very cultured and well-mannered way! This is not real laughter; this is dead laughter. Laughter can never be conditioned. If it is conditioned, it is not laughter; it is not the meditative laughter that we are talking about. It is simply an expression of the ego inside, that's all.

If you analyze why you laugh when a joke is cracked, you will understand: A set of logically connected statements is first told to you. When you are clinging on to that built-up logic, the punch line is delivered and your logic is shattered! At the moment your logic is shattered, your mind is also shattered and you are in a state of no-mind or *satori*. You are Buddha!

When you are in no-mind, you are in the present. When you laugh, you are in the present because when you laugh you are in no-mind. When you are thoughtless, you are in the present. When you are with thoughts, you are either in the past or in the future.

Laughter is *total* and it can simply heal and transform you. It is the best and most easily available medicine for humanity.

Life is so precious that it is not worth spending it on dull and lethargic moments. Laugh and infuse your life with energy and bliss. Just decide to enjoy continuously, whatever the job may be that you are doing. Be sincere, not serious.

When you laugh, you radiate energy around you; it is infectious; you radiate a therapeutic bliss around you. This is also why, when a person in a bad mood walks in, he radiates the same mood around him and there is every chance that the people around him will be affected by it. I always tell doctors to do some kind of cleansing meditation because they are continuously in touch with patients who come to them with a lot of negative thoughts and diseases.

# Q: But we need a reason to laugh. How can we simply decide to be humorous when we don't find anything humorous?

We always think that we need a comedian or a joke to make us laugh. When you start living in the present moment, your very existence will be beautiful and light. Your inhalation and exhalation of breath, the process of bread getting converted to blood in your body, the synchronous happenings of events in Existence; everything will be so beautiful. You will feel so much bliss and you will be ever smiling and laughing. Your whole being will exude laughter and bliss.

Laughing at a joke is alright, but when you fall in tune with Existence, you simply enjoy the big cosmic drama that is happening and you laugh at everything. Then there is no place for seriousness, no place for ego. You are no more solid. You are porous and playful. You develop a deep understanding of the Existential game and so you laugh.

You are able to see that everyone is only a player who has become so serious with their role, and you laugh at that. You laugh at how each one is deceiving the other when playing the game. You laugh at the thought that you are playing a game! When you are able to laugh, you have become the watcher, and when you have become the watcher, you are separate from the 'I' and 'mine' - the ego.

A small story:

Once there was a conference of Buddhist monks on the meaning of true spirituality. Each monk went onto the stage and gave a long speech. Finally, it was the turn of a Zen monk to speak. He went onto the stage and simply started laughing! He laughed and laughed…from his being.

The laughter just rose from his belly. He started shaking uncontrollably with laughter.

His laughter was so infectious that soon all the others in the room started laughing, without even knowing why!

The laughter of all the monks produced a huge wave of positive energy in the room.

The monks reached a state of tremendous elevation.

Their thinking was shattered and their being was filled with bliss.

The Zen monk finally spoke, 'This is true spirituality.'

Laughter is the highest spiritual quality. It can lead you to enlightenment! Laughing is a great healing energy. If you laugh at your sickness, you will become healthy. Laughter is a beautiful way of connecting with the energy of Existence, which is pure healing energy.

In our meditation programs, we always include laughter and dance. They are the easiest ways to becoming a Buddha! Dance can make you simple and light. Dance, like laughter, is another easy and enjoyable meditation. When you can dance without a care, you become the dance itself. Energy will then gush from you.

You can dance without a care only if you are free from all your pseudo identities. As long as you think you are someone, you can't dance in joy. Dance is an outward expression of inner joy. And I am not talking about programmed dance where you know which step is going to come next. I am talking about letting go of your so-called identities and feeling the oneness with Existence and dancing with that joy.

The self-conscious ones are the egoistic ones. They are so bothered about what others will say about their dance and so they sit quietly. Again, they are guarding their ego and they are missing the joy of life like anything.

Once in a while at least, in your home, play some music and dance. Simply decide to let go. It can become an intense meditation that can take you beyond your mind and transform you in a way that words cannot. Be natural. Be original. The people who comment on your dance are simply missing out on the joy of dance. Don't bother about them. Just dissolve and become the dance itself. Laughter and dance are the easiest techniques to shed your ego and merge with Existence.

#### Q: When do we know that our ego is no more?

Simply put, when you no longer feel yourself as a separate entity, ego has dissolved. When you become enlightened, your ego has ripened and ruptured. When your ego drops, the resistance you posed earlier will disappear and Existence will simply flow through you.

Whether you know it or not, accept it or not, like it or not, Existence is trying to flow through you every minute, but you are so full of ego that you are unable to allow it. You miss the miracles of Existence because of your ego. You are unable to connect to Existence and so you continue to live in ego, ignorance and misery.

You are so full of ego that you are living far away from your own being. There is so much of accumulated stuff inside you that you need to get rid of, the stuff that you have accumulated over many lives; not just this one life. There is no space for even yourself inside yourself! And because of this, you are operating from your periphery all the time instead of from your inner being.

When your ego dissolves, you cease to exist separately, and you simply merge with Existence! This is the state of enlightened masters. I often tell people, 'Destroy what you are not.' People look at me with shock. When I say this, what I mean is, you are your inner being. That being is now contaminated with all that it is not - the various active and passive forms of ego. These are what you need to destroy and that is what I mean when I say, 'Destroy what you are not and you have arrived!'

You are a part of Existence, and whatever causes you to think otherwise, is ego. A fish, whether it likes it or not, whether it accepts it or not, whether it believes it or not, is a part of the ocean. It has two choices. It either lives happily in the ocean, or fights with the ocean and still continues to live in it, making its life miserable.

If you flow with Existence, you will enjoy every moment of your life. You will become, sensitive, creative and fluid.

A small story:

A teacher took her students out for a picnic. They played games, ate their snack and enjoyed themselves. Suddenly, the teacher drew their attention to a beautiful rainbow that had formed in the sky. The children looked up at it with awe. The teacher watched them and said, 'Alright now, let us give a clap to the artist behind it!' The students were for a moment confused, but quickly understood and broke into applause!

Children need to be taught to appreciate the Existential beauty surrounding them or else they will lose the connection with Existence very quickly and become egoistic. They should not be allowed to become mechanical and egoistic. They should be brought up to be porous and sensitive.

When you can appreciate Existence, you have come closer to it. The whole of Existence is creativity. A creative person is closer to his heart than his mind. When you create, you are close to God. God is the creator, the created and the creation. When you create, you express your being, the quality of Existence. When you create, you are showing your love and appreciation towards Existence; you are adding a little more beauty to Existence.

When you are full of wonder for Existence, you can create. On the other hand, when you are full of ego, you cannot create; and even if you create, your creation will be a dead creation. It will be like a plastic rose, which looks perfect but lacks the fragrance and life. When an artist creates out of love, he can give a special quality to the creation. If he creates out of ego, the creation is dead in a way.

When you are not in tune with Existence, you will miss the fragrance of Existence. It is as if, when a beautiful fragrance surrounds you, you are closing your nose with stinking fingers. This is ego. When you experience the fragrance of Existence, you will start experiencing the synchronicity in it also.

You will be able to resonate with the whole of Existence. You will be able to see that every single leaf and twig are orchestrations of Existence or God. When you are in this state, whatever you seek, you will find, because you are moving in tune with Existence. Life then becomes a miracle! This is what we call the synchronicity of Existence.

And understand one thing: When you are resonating with Existence, you will not seek greedily. Simply, Existence will keep giving you what you need for the moment – even before you seek it. This is what I mean when I say, 'Whatever you seek, you will find.'

The problem is, we have distanced ourselves very much from Existence, from our source, which lies deep within us. So we need constant reminders about it. You can start shedding your ego by first admiring and appreciating the beauty surrounding you. That itself will start sowing the seed of transformation in you. It will cause you to understand that there is a life force mightier than your ego, which is conducting this universe.

The more you lose yourself to Existence, the more egoless you become. The more egoless you become, the more you lose yourself to Existence!

# Q: Although we know at the intellectual level, that we need to surrender our ego, we are unable to. Why?

You see, man never wants to let go in totality. He wants to cling on to something all the time and that something is his ego. Your ego is your very strength. You have guarded it so well over the years. It is the basis of your very existence.

You don't know that there is a world beyond your ego which is much more blissful than what you are feeling now. Your ego is a life-sustaining element for you. But the simple truth is – you have to let go of it!

It is like this: Imagine that there is a seed that is sown. The seed *has* to rupture for the tree to grow, is it not? If the seed thinks that it will wait for the tree to grow and then rupture, is it possible? No! Like this, man's ego *has* to rupture for him to blossom. The longer he guards his ego, the more he is postponing his own flowering.

Until man meets his master, he might not even know where his blockages are, where his ego is hindering. But once he meets his master, he will know! He can transform. The master's sole purpose is to remove the ego of each of his disciples.

The words and actions of a master will seem abrupt and inappropriate when you see it from your logic. But it is pregnant with the truth; it is pregnant with the single intention of destroying your ego. A master himself descends out of sheer compassion for mankind. He has no vested interest in anything or anybody. He is beyond the treacherous ocean of desire. He is here simply to lift you to the state he is in; the state of eternal bliss; the state where only consciousness exists without the 'I'.

In the *Chandi* recitation, which is a recitation of 700 Sanskrit verses on Devi, the female energy principle, it talks about how Chandi Devi kills the various evil demons. It is not that She killed real humans. If She had killed real humans, we would not be worshipping Her through the recital!

The demons symbolically represent the various kinds of evils or ego inside man and it is this ego that is slain by Devi to liberate man from them. We have to understand that. One of the demons is a buffalo-headed demon! This is to make us understand that some of us are so thick skinned that no matter how many times the master awakens us to his path, we firmly stick to our path! We are not sensitive to the master's call. Understand, arguing with the master is the greatest punishment that you give to yourself. I tell you honestly, when you are caught in arguing with the master, no one can do anything more to harm you. You harm yourself enough.

Anyway, the master knows how to make each one flower in his or her own way and the least that one can do is open up to him with faith and courage.

## Q: Although I know that You are my master, I feel hesitant and scared in your presence.

The very fact that you have come out with this statement means that you want to overcome your fear. You have decided to take the leap.

Let me explain. Your being has clearly identified me; but your mind is fighting. If your being has not identified me, you would not keep coming to me again and again. You face a lot of trouble at home for coming here, do you not? The easiest thing for you to do is stay at home and do your work. That would have made your family happy.

Why is it that you again and again want to come to the ashram and see me? Why do you want to again and again face the arguments at home for coming here? Is it not easier to just stay at home and make the others happy? The reason is, the pull that you feel is at the being level. It will not allow you to go back, once it has recognized me. Try as you might, you can't escape!

Your being now knows me. But your mind seems to be the hindrance. Remember to always follow your heart. That is exactly what you need to do here. When you follow your heart, you will reach me. When you follow your mind, you will keep missing me.

You are so afraid of losing yourself to me. That is your problem. Your ego comes under threat. You feel insecure about losing your identity. You start wondering where you are heading without an identity for yourself. Your ego faces a grave crisis when you come near me.

The ego immediately demands its food and the only way to provide it, is by running away from me. Your mind sways like the elephant's trunk, from one side of intense love for me to the other side of intense fear.

Remember, love is from your heart while fear is from your mind. Always, always, follow your heart. Love is natural; fear is societal. Fear and doubt are deeply related and are mere conditionings that have gone into you.

Understand very clearly that there is nothing wrong in doubting either. Doubt is your torch to enlightenment. It is very difficult for your mind to proceed without doubts. But your doubts should be ultimately transformed to trust. Only then you are progressing. As you move inwards, this will happen.

#### Q: What do we need to do THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM?

Just fall totally in love, that's all! Falling totally in love is falling totally into the egoless state. That is why a master who is in the egoless state is capable of only love and compassion. All other emotions like anger, irritation etc. are pseudo manifestations of his infinite love. He pretends to be angry and irritated. He comes down to your level, emotes at your level, and takes you through one more phase of understanding, that's all. He talks in your language until you understand his language - the language of Existence!

## Q: But how do we start falling in love totally? It seems like it is easier said than done!

The first thing is to flood awareness into every action of yours. Become the watcher. You will start feeling that the whole thing is a drama and you are only watching it while playing a role yourself incidentally. The second thing is to stop being judgmental about everything that you see. When you stop being judgmental, you will simply love everyone and everything with total innocence.

When you are judgmental, you don't see what IS, you see what you want to see. Most of us have already formed our judgments in advance. They are the foundation stones for us. Then, we simply act using them as a base. Anything we see, the first thing we do is, view it through these judgments.

If we act in this fashion, how will we see things as they are? How will we ever fall in love? You can fall in love only if you welcome everything with freshness, with innocence. But what do you do? You start analyzing the pros and cons for even loving. When you start analyzing, you miss it. When you finally decide to do it, it may be too late.

See, the master-disciple relationship is there only for you to lose your ego. When you are alone, you cannot lose your ego. The master becomes the device, the support, for you to lose your ego. The more you dissolve into him, the more you will be ready to open up and lose your ego. When do you know that your ego is dissolving? When you start experiencing a certain joy that you have not experienced before.

You will start feeling joy for no reason at all. Just existing will make you happy. Of course, with the master, you are always undergoing a surgery of your ego and there will be moments of suffering as your ego is getting slashed. But when you emerge out of those moments, you would have taken many steps forward in your growth and you will feel boundless joy for no reason at all. Just look at young children. They are so enthusiastic towards life. They are so loving. Have you ever wondered why you are not as enthusiastic as them? You were like them once upon a time, were you not? Then, where have we lost this enthusiasm and innocence?

*(one participant ventures) We have grown up and become more mature* THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM*. We are more experienced than them.*

Experienced at what? Boredom? Be very clear: We all think that we are more mature than children and that we have the right attitude towards life while children need to go through life and acquire this maturity.

The truth is, we have become so intellectual, that we have lost our connection with our heart. We operate purely from our minds. Even our emotions are dictated by our minds. We have stopped emoting from our being. We have lost touch with our core.

When we arrived in this world, we were in a state of celebration and spontaneity. Over years, society conditioned us and created the mind for us. The mind then solidified itself and started dictating terms to us. The spontaneity in us got lost.

Let me tell you, in this whole process of shedding our ego, we are trying to rediscover the child in us. When we were young, we were closer to realizing God. As we grew and became so-called mature, our social conditionings marred the child in us.

So many people ask me, '*THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM*, how is it that although you speak about the ultimate truth, you appear to be so childlike?' Now you tell me, am I childlike because I have not grown up and become mature? No! You simply interpret things in your own convenient ways, in your own philosophical ways; that is the problem.

*But* for societal conditioning, we have the ability to swim and fly without any training. It may sound absurd to you, but it is true. We have these abilities in us. We can swim and fly, until people start telling us that we are not capable of swimming and flying. If you place a new-born baby in a swimming pool, it will stay afloat without drowning.

The ego manifests itself in so many ways and we live according to it every minute of our lives. We all actually use masks in our day-to-day lives. We use one mask when we deal with our mother; we use a different mask when we deal with our father; we use a different one for our boss and so on. As long as we use the right masks with the right people, it is alright. The moment we use the wrong mask with a person, it means the ego has stepped in. All you have to do is switch masks efficiently and enjoy the show. Then you are a watcher and not involved in the game as a solid entity.

You can enjoy only when you know that you are something beyond the mask. Otherwise, you will get carried away by the mask and lose the whole charm of living. When you know that you are only using masks, your desires will drop.

It is like this: When you grow up, you automatically drop your toys. The toys don't interest you any more. In the same way, when you look at these masks intelligently, you don't have any desire for them; you simply use them and keep moving.

The ego manifests itself in many cunning ways. That is why all these explanations are needed about it. All these will help you see where you are standing as a blockage in your own journey inwards.

The fewer blockages you have inside you, the more fluid and flowing you become. When you have fewer blocks, you are more porous and vulnerable. When you have many blocks, you are solid and difficult to penetrate. Your ego poses such a solid barrier to everything.

For example, whenever someone says something to you, what is your first reaction to it? Your first reaction is a certain resistance, a 'No'. When you say 'No', it is so ego fulfilling. You feel solid and firm inside yourself. When you say 'Yes', you feel liquid and vulnerable. Your ego feels submissive. So you say 'No'.

This is also why you feel good when you break rules at home or school or workplace or anywhere. Actually, the moment you defy a rule, you will have a great feeling about yourself. School and college students feel good when they cut classes. Why? Because they feel good in breaking the rule. With small children, the moment you say they are not meant to have certain things, they will ask only for that. Grown ups also enjoy defying each other in so many ways.

Husband and wife rarely concur in the first instance about any suggestion! Take for example our own devotees. If the husband gets attached to me first, the wife's first reaction will be only resistance to me. She might even read my books secretly and like them, but in front of the husband, she will not be willing to embrace me. The same holds good for the wives who get attached to me first. Their husbands will do all that they can to make it difficult for them, before finally falling in tune with me.

Such is the play of ego. Saying 'Yes' keeps you flowing naturally in a liquid state with no blocks. This does not mean that you should blindly say 'Yes' to everything. No! It means, make a decision trusting your spontaneity without the influence of your ego, that's all. Automatically, you will fall in tune with the right things.

Understand that saying 'No' is not a cautious move or any protective force that is going to be your guardian angel. Just be open without resistance and preconceptions; that is enough.

*Comment: But* THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM*, I was thinking until now that claiming self-importance is the only manifestation of ego!*

No! Ego comes in various forms: active and passive, which we have been discussing until now. That is why it is such a tricky element to discern.

## *Active ego and passive ego*

The active ego is easy to recognize. People with active ego will behave in a highhanded fashion; they will claim self-importance openly; they will not bend down to people; they will be haughty. This ego is actually easy to deal with, for a master. He just needs to bang on it a few times and it will break!

A small story:

A man lost all his wealth in gambling and got reduced to almost a pauper.

One day, he went to a roadside hotel and sat at the table for breakfast.

The waiter came to take orders.

The man was surprised. The waiter was his old friend who had been as rich as he had been earlier.

He looked at him and said, 'You serve as a waiter in this sort of a hotel!'

The man replied, 'I'm only a waiter. I don't eat here.'

Active ego is very easy to recognize! A person with an active ego will not be willing to let go of it even if all his other defenses like money, wealth etc. are taken away from him. Active ego can be easily pruned.

But passive ego is very subtle and cunning. People who have passive ego will pose to be very humble, lacking courage to face people, shying away from taking credit etc. The worst part of this is, they think they are like this because they are not egoistic! The truth is, they are more egoistic than the other lot! They are so carefully guarding their ego from getting hurt by doing all these humble things.

When you are in deep awareness and understanding, you will be a mere watcher of your ego and in this state, you will automatically be neither humble nor egoistic; you will neither take credit nor shy away from it. And you will not even think or claim that you are

neither of these; you simply will *be*, that's all. When anyone appreciates you or gives you credit, you will simply resonate with Existence and leave it at that, that's all. And there will be no need for any comparison or claim.

So be very clear: Most often, people think that active ego is the only kind of ego ever present. No. There is something called passive ego, which is more difficult to deal with.

People with active ego are like a dried and hard twig. If you bang, they will break. People with passive ego are like a fresh and green twig. Each time their ego is hit, they will bend but they will not break! Their ego is so well safeguarded that it becomes difficult to deal with it. Actually, they work very hard to safeguard it, but in a sweet and passive way. Passive ego is more dangerous than active ego.


Your inherent nature is actually 'being alone'. When you were in your mother's womb, you were alone. You are actually enough unto yourself. This is your individuality. Over time, this individuality is taken over by what you call personality. Individuality is natural; personality is societal.

It is like this: A parcel moves from one place to another and at every place, it starts getting stamped with various details. The parcel is actually not these stamps but the stuff inside it, is it not? In the same way, you are not the stamps that people put on you; you are the stuff inside yourself.

With time, your ego is built on these stamps and you need more and more people to feed it. That is why you will observe that you are totally unable to be alone, with yourself. When you are with yourself, you don't hear the voices of the others feeding your ego. Your ego goes unfed. So what do you do? You at least turn on the television and watch!

A small story:

A man belonging to a long-standing political party was dying.

His friends came to know that he had switched his loyalties to the opposition party at the time of his impending death. They were astonished and asked him why he did that. The man replied, 'Oh! I'd rather one of *them* die!'

So strong is our pseudo-identification! It has become such a solid reality to us that it blinds us from seeing anything else. Even at the time of death, we find it difficult to drop our prestige! We live *and* die unconsciously.

The fear of losing your personality, which is your only anchor point, causes you to behave in the ways that you behave. That is why we say *your ego is playing up*. The whole of spirituality is all about losing this personality, this pseudo identification.

This can happen when you start watching. When you start watching, you will understand that you are the stuff inside the parcel and not the labels on it. When this awareness happens, you need no lecture, no sermon, no teaching or preaching.

## Q: If we surrender to you, our master, will our ego be taken care of?

First of all, if you really surrender, you will become enlightened. There is no question of 'when I surrender' etc. But for argument sake, if you decide to allow me to work on you, I will prune your ego and keep it like a bonsai tree until such time you totally lose it and become enlightened.

You will have enough ego to run your business, and do your daily activities, not to hurt other people and yourself. Your ego will be like roasted seeds that do not grow any more.

Understand that a man who is not yet enlightened has ego in him in some form or the other. But whether you have active ego or passive ego, the more you start being the observer, the more your ego will dissolve. That's enough understanding for now.

With ordinary people, you can easily shield your ego and get away with it. With a master, you can never deceive him. You can only deceive yourself into thinking that you have deceived him. However deeply hidden and well covered you keep your ego and cunningness, they will be simply bare under the master's gaze. While you struggle to shield it, the master tries to heal it. Only he knows what a cancerous disease ego is.

Let me tell you a few things from the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita was Lord Krishna's teaching to the world.

When the Bhagavad Gita starts, Arjuna is confused.

He says, 'Oh Lord! I don't know what to do in life. Please guide me.'

Krishna explains to him the *Sankhya Yoga* – the way to reach the soul.

He then explains the *Karma Yoga*, then the *Bhakti Yoga*, then the *Karma Sannyasa Yoga*, then the *Gnana Karma Sannyasa Yoga*, then the *Raja Vidya Yoga* and so on.

He explains different meditation techniques through 700 verses in 18 chapters.

At the end of it Arjuna says, 'Krishna, I am more confused than what I was when you started explaining. Which technique do I follow? Which is the technique that is best and the quickest? Which is the shortcut method, the ultimate technique?'

Krishna replies to this in the concluding 18th chapter.

With any master, the words that he concludes with, are the final, firm and ultimate truth.

### Guaranteed Solutions

Krishna says, *Sarva dharman parithyajya mamekam sharanam vraja, aham thva sarvapapebhyo mokshayishyami ma suchaha*.

This line that he says is such that if we imagine all the religions, philosophies and spiritual books to be a pot of milk, this is the butter extracted from it all.

He says, 'I have explained all the forms of justice to you. Simply surrender everything to Me. Surrender to Me and I will take care of you. I will free you from all your sins and lift you to liberation.'

Krishna is actually making a beautiful promise in this stanza.

Through this stanza, Krishna shows the world that *surrender*, is the final, firm and ultimate technique – the shortcut to the egoless state, to liberation.

Another beautiful story about Krishna and Arjuna:

One evening, Krishna and Arjuna were spending time together.

Krishna suddenly pointed out to a crow and said, 'Arjuna, look at that green crow!'

Arjuna looked in that direction and said, 'Yes Krishna, I see it!'

A few minutes later, Krishna exclaimed, 'Arjuna, see that black crow!'

Arjuna said, 'Yes Krishna, I see it!'

Krishna asked just to test Arjuna, 'Arjuna, how idiotic you are! There is no green crow ever. How could you have seen it in the first place?'

Arjuna replied, 'Krishna, when you said it was a green crow, I *saw* it as a green crow.'

Arjuna's very *senses* had surrendered to Krishna. Surrendering the senses to the master is the most difficult surrender ever. The master is Existence itself; he is the formless in form. When your senses perceive only what the master says, you have reached the highest point in surrender.

What is surrender? The word surrender has a very deep meaning. If we don't understand it correctly, we will misunderstand it! We will be committing a grave mistake. We will be misunderstanding deep truths.

A small story:

One night, 2 drunkards were walking down a street past a halogen lamp.

One of them saw it and exclaimed, 'Look, the sun has come out for us!'

The other replied, 'No, it is nighttime; it is the moon.'

The first one continued, 'It is yellow in colour and therefore it is the sun.'

A third man who was drunk, walked past them.

They asked him, 'Sir, please tell us whether this is the sun or the moon.'

The man replied, 'I am new to this neighborhood; I do not know.'

So, when you ask someone who does not know, you will either not get an answer or you will get the wrong answer.

Only those who have experienced can explain clearly. If you ask the meaning of surrender to a person who has not experienced it, he will say, 'Just give everything to God, that's all.'

That is not surrender.

One man came to me and asked, 'If I surrender everything to God, will everything be alright?'

I replied, 'Yes, if you truly surrender everything to God, everything will be alright.'

He returned after 3 days and told me, '*Swamiji*, I have surrendered everything to God.'

I was happy and asked him, 'Where are you going now?'

He replied, 'To the bar.'

He continued, 'Whatever I do, God is only responsible from now on.'

This is actually a method of fooling oneself. If he has really surrendered, he would have surrendered the drinking habit also. He would not have even been able to drink any further.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the enlightened master from Bharat beautifully says, 'When real surrender comes from your heart, God will guide you in every step of your life and you can never do wrong.' When surrender does not blossom from inside you and is only at the lip level, you will fool yourself and others.

Surrender will keep you thinking of Existence all the time. You will slowly lose your own identity, your own ego. In the Bhagavatam, an ancient Hindu epic, there is a verse wherein a *Gopi* (name given to a group of ardent female devotees of Krishna) says, 'I am not able to think of anything other than Krishna. I have surrendered my mind to Him. If I have to think of anything else, I will have to take back my mind from Him. How can I?'

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa suffered from cancer during his last days.

He had healed many people of many diseases.

Someone asked him, 'Why can't you keep your mind on your own disease for a moment and heal it?'

He replied, 'I have surrendered my mind to the infinite energy. How can I take it back to keep it on my disease!'

This is true surrender.

The cosmic energy will take care of us. You might ask, 'Will this cosmic energy take care of all my problems if I surrender?' In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna beautifully answers or rather promises, 'Without any other thought, when a man thinks only of Me, I will take care of his gifts as well as retention or enjoying of them. For those who surrender with commitment to Me, I will take care of their income as well as their prosperity. Their problems will dissolve.'

Commitment and maturity of mind are needed for real surrender to happen. You need not surrender to God or any master. You can surrender to anything. Surrender *itself* is a virtue and has a great power in itself. When you surrender, you are acknowledging that there is a life force greater than your ego, that's all.

Actually, God is only an excuse for you to surrender. The *act* of surrendering is what is important. God is not the goal; surrender is the real goal. When you surrender or when you lose your ego, you are no longer a separate entity from Existence; you merge with Existence or God. You will then understand that there is no God sitting above. There is only Existence that fills everything in this universe including you!

A small story:

A man decided that he was going to surrender but did not know to whom to surrender.

He decided that he would go to the forest and surrender to the first person who came his way.

He went and waited in the forest.

The first person to appear was a burglar who was escaping from policemen.

The man caught his feet and declared that the burglar was his guru and that he had surrendered to him.

The burglar was perplexed and did not know what to do.

He replied hastily, 'Alright, if it is so, then close your eyes and remain here until I come back,' and he ran away.

The man was a very committed person and remained there without food or sleep for a very long time.

The story goes that just by seeing his commitment, the Lord appeared before him and gave him liberation!

It is not important to whom you surrender; it is the thought of total surrender that has the power to change your life into a blissful one. When you surrender, you become a possessor of the inexhaustible energy that is Existence, and you handle anything that comes your way.

You become strong and unshakeable, come what may. People around you will find you to be a pillar of strength. They will be able to feel the invisible hand of Existence through you.

If you have not surrendered, it means that your ego is still holding you back from merging into the infinite and you automatically become finite in your resources and energy.

A master is a device to help you surrender. Surrender does not mean that you are dependent on someone. It simply means that you are taking that person's help in dissolving your own ego, that's all.

# Q: Can you please tell us more about meditation and how it can help in losing our ego.

Yes, but let me first tell you how and why meditation techniques came into being.

Man, ever since his creation, has wondered about and researched what it is that has created this beautiful universe; what it is that has created this beautiful earth and rolled it into space; what it is that makes the rivers flow and the mountains grow. He concluded that there is a force or energy that is conducting all this. He concluded that there was some tremendous energy that is running the whole show. He then started wondering about how to establish a connection with that energy.

The first people to come to this conclusion, and do research and establish a connection with this energy, were the *rishis* or realised souls or enlightened masters. Once they attained enlightenment, they created many ways for future generations also to realize this energy. The ways that each of them gave are the various meditation techniques and religions.

Each of them realized God through a different way, through a different technique, and recorded their way independently. This is just like how scientists create research reports on their discoveries and inventions. Each *rishi* gave a report on his enlightenment and this became a religion or a meditation technique.

These early realized souls formed different religions to establish these ideas on the life force that is conducting this world. We call this life force Jesus, Allah, Shiva and so on. You don't even have to believe in any God. Atheists don't believe in any God, but they have to believe in their own existence, is it not? If we believe in our own existence and search for an answer to the question 'Who am I?' that becomes a meditation technique, and we can realize God. Anyhow, these different ways or meditation techniques became different religions over time.

But what happened after that? People left this basic idea behind all the religions and started fighting in the name of religion.

A small story:

A Tamilian, an Englishman, a North Hindu and a Bengali were traveling together.

They saw a lake from a distance.

The Tamilian saw it from the south and called it *thanneer*, which is the Tamil word for water.

The Englishman saw it from the west and called it 'water'. The North Hindu saw it from the north and called it '*paani'.*

The Bengali saw it from the east and called it '*jal'*.

All four of them were referring to the same thing, 'water'. But they started fighting over it saying that what each of them was saying was the correct thing.

None of the four people attempted to get into the lake and see for themselves what water exactly is. The Tamilian was holding on to what his grandfather told him; the Englishman claimed that his grandfather told him it was 'water'; the North Hindu and the Bengali were also clinging onto what their respective grandfathers had told them.

They landed up fighting without even attempting to drink a mouthful and see.

This is exactly what we are doing also. People who fight over religion are doing the same thing. They have to understand that from whatever angle the early-realized souls saw, from that angle they named it; but everything is one – Existence or God. Krishna and Christ mean the same. People have seen them from different angles, that's all.