10. Be Open and be Healed🔗

There is a misunderstanding among people that I heal physical ailments. Let me be very clear: I do not heal. My presence heals.

My presence is like the sun. When the sun rises, the lotus blooms naturally. The sun does not have to pry open each lotus petal. Similarly, in the presence of a realized master, healing happens. Healing is not 'done' like a task or a job. It simply happens. My presence heals as a natural process.

We need to open our mind to help it heal. That is why, in our Nithyananda Spurana Programs we start by opening our minds first. People write about their pains, desires, guilt, and pleasures. Of course, they are not going to show it to anyone else. When they open up their minds and write, they are cured amazingly.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, why should we write all this down? We are not going to show it to anyone. We already know all this. Why should we write all this over again? It seems such a waste of time.' But when they start writing, they surprise thmselves at how much emotional baggage they are unloading through writing.

We can experience God only if we open ourselves up. Writing about your emotions and experiences in the master's presence serves two purposes. First, when people write for themselves, their minds open up and an open mind can be healed. Second, when a mind is open, healing is spontaneous. Even as they are writing these experiences, healing is happening. In my presence, healing simply happens. Without our awareness, when we open our mind in the presence of the master, healing takes place. Energy heals all wounds.

When we meditate, we open up our energy layers one by one. All our pain, pleasure, guilt and desires are laid open and we can experience Oneness when everything in all these layers is open and exposed. We experience God when everything in all the layers has been completely opened, exposed, and examined.

God is an experience. We need not search for God. God is within us. God is pure mind. God is not a separate state but simply the experience of the collective consciousness. The whole universe is a reflection of this collective consciousness. Experience this God, this bliss, with a pure mind. This experience will make you whole and when you become whole, you are holy.

Open up the heart and mind to become ready to receive and experience the collective consciousness or God. It hurts, it heals, and it takes us beyond the plane of mundane existence.

11. Internalize your Experience

We attend discourses by realized masters and listen to everything they say. We nod, we agree or disagree, and then we go back home. Once home, we forget everything that was said in the discourse.

For a lasting change to take place, we must be able to internalize the key points in the discourse. We must remember, recall, and practice at least some of the key points of the discourse in our daily life.

We need other ways to internalize the words we hear. The question and answer session at the end of each discourse is a way to clarify doubts. Why, we may think, does the master talk about this, and in this fashion?

The question and answer session is like dining in a restaurant. Everything I have presented to you is like a series of choices. They are like the items on the menu card we hold in our hands. We have several choices in it. First, we have to decide if we are hungry. If yes, we must decide if there is anything interesting on the menu. Once we make our choice, we can order and eat the food that we desire.

Similarly, in a discourse, I touch on many topics. It is your choice to internalize it and select the best method. You can seek clarification for your doubts in the question and answer session. Again, the choice to implement and internalize it is completely up to each of you.

Although you might not agree, we have choice in everything we do. We have the choice to follow the truth or ditch it. We have the choice to cling to our lies or banish them. We can make the choice to follow the master or not. But we have to be honest about the choices we make for ourselves and accept the consequences.

A great truth supersedes all our choices. We need to recognize this truth. Of course, the truth does not care whether we believe in it or not. It simply exists.

This great truth is that we are all connected. We are connected at the physical, mental, and spiritual levels.

Another great truth is that it is the experience of enlightenment alone and not the multitude of choices at hand that can provide complete freedom.

How much of this great truth are we willing to allow to operate in our lives? That is a matter for each one of us to decide and answer for ourselves.

You are free to find the path that best suits you. Now work on it!

12. Laughter is Bliss

Being honest is an issue for many of us.

Many of us cannot express our feelings without an internal censor. We dare not be spontaneous. Instead, we mentally rehearse before speaking to our spouses, parents, friends, children, and colleagues. What we speak is not the same as what we think.

If we review our day, we will find that from the time we get out of bed, to the end of the day, we fill our time with avoidance, lies, and untruths. We are afraid to face the truth at any time because we fear that it will change us and our mind is afraid of change.

Truth is simple, very simple. Our lives are complicated by the lies that we build them on. To face the truth and demolish the wall of lies is difficult because of this fear of inviting the truth into our lives and accepting the changes that would happen.

In the same way, our smiles are false; they are mostly plastic smiles expressed by our lips alone. We are afraid that if we truly smile, if the smile extends to our eyes, then the other person will know what is on our mind. That is dangerous. It is simpler to avoid looking into each other's eyes. The reason we go to great lengths to avoid eye contact is that we are afraid the other person will be able to read our minds.

A smile that touches the lips is only cosmetic. A true smile is expressed in the eyes. Unless the eyes smile, the heart cannot smile. That's all.

Similarly, true laughter emerges from the depths of our belly. When we truly laugh aloud, with enjoyment, we will attract attention. It is rare to hear true laughter and it is infectious.

True laughter that gives enjoyment, arises from the pit of our stomach. When we laugh naturally, truthfully, people will sometimes stare at us as if we are guilty of misconduct! Because of this social stigma, we are always guilty of expressing our true feelings.

Laughter is a great meditation. It is said that if one really laughs in awareness for ten minutes, one will become enlightened. True laughter can only come from truth, honesty and transparency. That is why children find it so easy to laugh even without a reason. On the other hand, adults are forever concerned about what people will think of them if they laugh. They suppress laughter, the way they suppress truth.

It is wonderful that so-called 'Laughter Groups' are gaining popularity. Laughter is therapeutic in terms of relieving stress and anger. A person who can laugh without reservation and fear of being misunderstood is truly a spiritual person.

Laugh and be in eternal bliss, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM.

13. We are Not what We Think we Are!

We are not labels: doctor, husband, friend, son, etc. We are living beings inside the labels.

We are deeply attached to these labels. We proudly wear them. When people do not notice or appreciate our labels we feel slighted, neglected, and annoyed. Our labels such as 'I am a manager' or 'I am an important businessman' or 'I own many cars' or 'I have 5 children' are endless.

When we associate ourselves with these well used labels, it makes us feel like we are a part of the world. It makes us feel successful. We feel pride in the fact that we are somebody in the eyes of the world. The truth is otherwise. We are hiding under these labels, that's all.

We are continuously partying, shopping, or watching television. We read and re-read the same newspaper. We are constantly busy. Why? We are afraid to face ourselves. Our chief entertainment is running away from ourselves.

We believe that all this activity is the path to joy. We have always believed that we will be joyful at some point or other and we think it is only a matter of time.

By the time we are about forty we may have acquired all the material comforts we have ever wanted. But when we achieve everything, we start wondering, why we wanted all this! This question haunts us because we continue to be deeply unhappy even after achieving everything.

This is the 'depression of success:' - a peculiar disease of the rich and successful in developed Western countries. The more affluent we are, the greater the chance is of being afflicted with this kind of depression. Of course, if material wealth comes with the complete awareness of our true state, then it becomes an enjoyable thing.

But without the being level happiness, material success alone fails to make us happy, so we continue to be restless and keep experimenting and searching. Because we keep searching in the wrong direction, we tend regularly to change or acquire new possessions. We change cars every year, we change houses every second year, and we change wives every third year! Still, we remain deeply unhappy.

At some point in the journey, we have forgotten that we are not the labels. If a parcel is traveling from USA to Bharat, various stamps and identification marks will be placed on it in order to route and speed it on its way. The parcel may think that these external stamps are its true identity. The parcel is wrong. It is not what is outside. It is the stuff inside that makes the parcel what it is.

Dive within. Let go of the labels and seek the inner being. This is the way to bliss, eternal bliss, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM!

14. The Alchemy of Personal Transformation

Let me tell you about an incident that happened during my wandering days in the Himalayan mountains.

During my wandering, I met an old naga sadhu belonging to a reclusive sect, which renounces everything material, including clothes. I had been forewarned that they were fierce and violent. Indeed, the sadhu I met looked fierce with his matted hair and wild eyes.

He was sitting on the banks of the holy river Ganga. I approached him and started a conversation. He was intent on smoking his pipe, filling it with a form of opium. I felt that he wasn't ready for company and decided to walk off.

Then, he did something astonishing. He placed two copper coins inside his pipe and started to smoke. When he finished smoking, he knocked the pipe on the floor and two gold coins fell out!

I followed the sadhu to the market. He sold the gold coins, bought more opium and repeated the process. He did it about 10 times over the next two days. Finally, the sadhu offered to teach me the technique.

I said, 'I have no use for gold coins. Please teach me meditation instead.' I was speaking in broken Hindi.

The sadhu wordlessly offered me his pipe.

I said, 'No sir.'

I asked him how he did it. He replied to me in Tamil, my mother tongue (I had not even told him who I was or where I was from): 'Angam pazhuthal thangam pazhukkum'. If your being is ripe, gold can happen.

Then, he playfully blew smoke rings onto my face. For the next three days I was in deep bliss.

The process of changing a lower level metal such as copper or iron into gold is called Alchemy. The greatest alchemy is the inner alchemy. Let us open our being to the change that collective consciousness can bring. Let it ripen. When our being is ripe everything changes.

And what a profound transformation this state brings about! When our being is ripe, lust changes to love. Our thoughts, our inner chattering disappears. Our emotions, all our basic feelings, transform into the peak emotion humans are capable of: Love.

Our personal alchemy springs from within. Our inner transformation is directed from within. Our spiritual growth is an inner calling. When our being is ready, willing, waiting, and ripe, we are filled with Love. This powerful force will certainly lead us to the ultimate state: THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM- eternal bliss.

15. There are No Miracles in Life

What we label as a miracle is normal in another plane of existence. There are no 'miracles' in life.

In this incident from the life of Ramana Maharishi, an enlightened master of recent times, he used an ordinary incident to teach valuable lessons to his disciples.

A bank manager came to see Ramana and asked, 'Please give me the power to perform miracles.'

Ramana said, 'You can't handle the powers you have now. Why do you ask for more?'

The manager asked, 'What do I have now? Nothing!'

Ramana said, 'You are a manager. You hire some people and dismiss others. Are you handling these powers well? If you were performing these duties properly, you would not have stress in your life. You would be at peace. What you need in life is intelligence, not power.'

Listen to the ringing truth in the words of the master. The need of the hour is intelligence. Every one of us needs intelligence to handle routines, events and duties in our daily life, and to transform all our obstacles into opportunities. The greatest need is for inner transformation - the ultimate alchemy.

People repeatedly ask me to materialize objects. They seem to think they have come to watch a magic show rather than a discourse or workshop to learn meditation.

A discourse or a meditation workshop is the place for transformation. It is the place and time when deeper, inner miracles take place - miracles important for our spiritual progress. We need to use these experiences as guiding lights in our darkest hour. The transformation occurring in the presence of an enlightened master is the true miracle of our life. When we are looking for 'magic show' miracles, we fail to recognize this.

There are no miracles in life. In our mind, we classify everything we cannot comprehend as a miracle. Any incident which seems to defy scientific knowledge, causes us to ask, 'Could this be a miracle?'

We should understand that this universe supports laws that go beyond scientific laws. Scientific laws are strictly human discoveries. When we discover the connections that link seemingly inexplicable, unconnected objects or events, we begin to appreciate the mysteries of our Universe. We need intelligence to solve a mystery. We do not need miracles.

We are the are ultimate miracle. Our bodies are the ultimate miracle. are Existence is the ultimate miracle! is

Bliss Bytes - Vol 2