Life After Life🔗

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THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

yānti devavratā devān pitṛān yānti pitṛ vratāḥ bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā yānti madyājino'pi mām

Those who worship the deities will take birth among the deities; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; those who worship ancestors go to the ancestors; those who worship Me will live with Me.

Once we are enlightened, we merge into universal consciousness.

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati tad ahaṁ bhaktyupahṛtam aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

Whoever offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept and consume what is offered by the pure-hearted

The Existence, the Divine is so alive that It responds to even simple things.'

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva madarpaṇam

O Kaunteya (son of Kuntī), all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, give them as an offering to Me.

Even though He is all-pervading, even though He is big, he accepts any small thing given with love and devotion.

śubhāśubha-phalair evaṁ mokṣyase karma-bandhanaiḥ sannyāsa-yogayuktātmā vimukto māmupaiṣyasi

You will be freed from all reactions to good and evil deeds by this renunciation, You will be liberated and come to Me.

The universe is intelligence. It responds to our thoughts, deeds, and consciousness

Krsna talks about the kind of life that we lead now. The last thought that we have at the time of death determines our next birth, next life. This is the truth. Actually we need not go to the extent of life and death. We see this in daily life itself. Our last thought affects our first thought. Every night we die and every morning we take birth. During the day, when we are in the waking state, we use our gross physical body or sthula sarira to carry on with our activities. When we sleep, if we have dreams, we use the subtle body or suksma sarira to travel to the places that we see in our dreams.

When we are in deep sleep, when we have no dreams, then we are in our causal body or karana sarira. When we sleep at night, we actually change bodies. We are not aware that this happens. In our dream, we have created a world in which we live. Our gross body is on the bed, while our subtle body is active in the dream. In the same way, the causal body is active during the deep sleep state.

We see that our last thought before sleeping affects our first thought upon waking. If we come back from the office with a frustrated mood about our boss, we wake up with the same mood in the morning. If we sleep with a blissful smile on our face, we will be happy the next morning.

One more thing you need to know is that whatever feeling we wake up with in the morning, that same feeling stays with us throughout the day. If you wake up dull in the morning, you will be dull throughout the day. If you wake up energized, you will be active and energetic throughout the day. When we are continuously aware of the

Existential energy, when we continuously meditate on It, we will have only the same thought when we leave the body, also. And It will ensure that our next birth takes us closer to this energy and liberates us from the cycle of birth and death.

Simplicity is the great quality of the Divine. He says, 'patram, puspam,phalam, toyam'. Just a leaf, a flower, a fruit, a little water... simple things are enough. I accept it. I am pleased. I respond to it.

'He says in the fourth verse of this chapter: maya tatam idam sarvam jagadvyaktamurtina' I am all-pervading, great, ultimate, divine.'

Now He says, even though He is all-pervading, even though He is big, He accepts any small thing given with love and devotion. Even if we know somebody is big or great, we can't relate with him unless he relates with us, unless he comes down to our level. Real greatness is not only being great. He must be able to relate with everybody.

Here, Krsna creates a way, even for ordinary people to relate with Him. On the one side He declares with authority His greatness. On the other side He shows us how to relate with Him. He says, 'Even if you offer a leaf, flower, fruit or water with love, I accept it. I relate with it.' That is why, from time immemorial, enlightened masters are requested to live by begging, so that people can relate with them. In Bharat, sanyasis live by begging. Even Buddha lived by begging, so that we can relate with Him. When we give food, we talk to Him and relate with him, we feel that He is like us. When we give cookies to our child and he opens it, we say, 'Give one to Mommy!' It is not that we don't have a cookie or we want it, but if the child gives it to us, how happy we feel! We feel connected. And we know he wants to connect to us: he wants to relate with us.

Similarly, when we offer something to the Divine, don't think that He does not have it and so you are offering. He is the one who gives everything to us in the first place! But when we offer, we show to the Divine: I want to connect to you. We show a green signal for the Divine to enter into our space.

We do not understand that by letting go, by surrendering to the Existential energy, we will be free. All our burdens will be gone. We do not realize this. All enlightened masters have spoken about surrender. It is the easiest way, however, we make it the most difficult due to our ego.

There are three levels in which we can surrender to the Existential energy. The first level is surrender of our actions. Whatever we do, good or bad, surrender them to the universal energy.

The second level of surrender is that of intellect and mind. Our mind continuously analyzes!

The third and the most difficult level of surrender is that of the senses. If the master says something, the disciple takes it as it is. That is the level of surrender. When we reach this level of surrender, we are one with the Divine. The Divine takes care of us

To help the child become more aware of Existential Energy.

• 1. What do you understand as Existential energy?
• 2. What is sthula sarira, suksma sarira and karana sarira?
• 3. What can one do to create a positive shift in their daily lives?