Ability to Replace a Thought Vs Ability to Bring a Thought Back
Be very clear, your power to bring a new thought itself proves you have the power to drop the old thought. Instead of looking at the ability to replace, you look at the ability to bring it back. But you have both of these abilities.
If you are constantly looking at the ability to bring the old thought back, you will create suffering.
You think, 'Oh, it comes back, it comes back, it comes back…' If you are constantly looking at the ability to remove, you will feel liberation.
Understand, what you mother, that you hatch.
The hen mothers the egg and gets the chicken out. Just a chicken comes out. If you are mothering the thought that you can replace any suffering, you will bring that into reality. If you are mothering the thought, 'No, no, whatever I replace will come back', you will bring that in your experience.
If you are mothering the thought that it is going to come back, it will come back. If you are mothering the thought that it is going to go out, it will go out.
Where you put your awareness, where you put your attention is the important thing. Understand, your very ability to get a new thought shows your ability to discard the old thought. Any thought can be discarded by any simple thought. This simple understanding is more than enough to un-clutch and to rest.
One important thing: whenever any fear, any unsolvable problem comes, all you need to do from today on is, have a cup of water, that's all! And just say, 'Ey! (You are just a thought.)' That's all. Your mind will get a little perturbed and shaken.
Understand: your suffering can rule you, just because you are afraid of it. Have you seen when these underworld dons (godfathers) get created? They too will have the deep fear; but just your fear towards them will empower them. In the same way, your mind too has fear about you; but your fear towards your mind just empowers your mind.
This is the initiation.
All you need to understand is: even once, if you can replace the depression from your inner space, you will have the confidence. 'I have replaced once, I can do it again'… that's all. If it comes back ten times, let me do it ten times… that's all.
There is a very beautiful story in Buddha's life:
Buddha says, 'Whenever I said in meditation, 'I am going to get up after a few hours', I never became enlightened. Once I decided, 'If I am not going to become enlightened, I am not going to get up from this seat. Let this body dry up in this very place (idam āsanam śuṣyate śarīram in Sanskrit). Till I become enlightened, I am not going to move.'
Buddha says, the moment he created that strong clarity, the authentic sankalpa (vow), the next second he became enlightened!
When you replace your suffering, if you are thinking, 'No, no, today I can replace ten times. If it comes back the eleventh time, I can only try tomorrow', then nothing will happen. Decide very clearly, 'Till it stops coming, I am going to replace.' That is what I call courage, dhīra. And once you have replaced it, you can start laughing at it, 'I was afraid of you for so many years, I was getting shaken by you for so many years! All it takes to push you out is a glass of water, cup of coffee, nothing else!'
A thought to have a cup of coffee, a thought to stand up is more than enough to remove the worst suffering from your inner space. The problem is it looks too simple! People come and tell me, 'No, no, Swamiji, it cannot be so simple; I think you missed somewhere…!' People really think, I am too young; that maybe I know only a few things and that is what I am teaching.
Understand, the Truth is simple.
There is a beautiful traditional song, 'O, so difficult to be a devotee of Shiva!' Ramana Maharishi sang a very beautiful song, 'O, so easy is enlightenment!'
Un-clutching – Your Very Nature
I tell you, it is neither difficult nor easy; even if I say 'easy,' there is a little difficulty. It is not even easy. It is constantly happening in you! Don't you understand? Every moment, a new thought is replacing the old thought.
Why are you afraid that you will bring your old thought back? It is like trashing your e-mails and bringing them back from a trash can. You just deleted it and it is gone; now you are again going to the trash can and trying to bring that e-mail back! Relax.
Constantly your thoughts are getting replaced. This itself shows, nothing can possess your inner space. Nothing can overpower you, nothing can overrule you.
You have independence, and the intelligence to replace any suffering; you have freedom to replace any fear, you have freedom to replace any negativity.
Understand, it is a very simple truth.
If you can understand this one truth of un-clutching and connect with this, if this one Truth clicks, this can destroy the root of ignorance, the root of the mind. Nothing else is needed.
One more important thing, nothing else can work.
Please understand, nothing else can work! People come and tell me, 'Swamiji, I want to escape from my suffering. Should I chant some mantra?' I tell them, it will become one more suffering. I have seen people chanting 'Rama,' 'Krishna,' 'Rama,' 'Krishna,' and in between, they will say, 'Hey, have you purchased some vegetables? What happened in the market? Did you bring those accounts?'... 'Rama,' 'Krishna,' 'Rama', 'Krishna,' 'Rama,' 'Krishna'...
Understand: many times, when you try to repeat something, you create a new shaft. People feel offended, 'How can you say mantra japa does not help?' I am not saying it does not help... Of course, let me tell you openly… It does not help! Let me be open instead of trying to be socially polite. The satya is much better, much more important than being socially polite.
Understand: I tested it in my life. For ten years, not with one mala, I had two malas each of 108 beads. If I finish one round of a mala, I would push one bead of the second mala. By the time I finished through the second mala, I would have chanted ten thousand times. From my experience, I tell you, that only creates one more guilt that you are not able to do the mantra continuously. Because by the time you move to the next bead, already one thought has come!
If somebody records what happens in your system when you do japa, it will be something like, 'Rama Krishna', move the next bead, 'Rama Krishna', move the next bead, 'Rama Krishna', move the next bead... that's what is going on inside, 'Oh… I think I chanted too many times, let me count...' I know very well because I have done it. Not only that, I have always seen people: with closed eyes they will start counting their beads; after some time slowly they will touch with their other hand and see how long it is going to take... is it going to take five more minutes or three more minutes? Let me tell you, I am saying this from my experience.
Understand an important Truth. Do not try to create one more shaft. Just realize that the shaft which you believe exists, does not exist. That's all you need to do. That's all you need to understand, and then rest in that un-clutched awareness, nirvikalpa satya.
Witness and Un-clutch
Let me explain exactly what un-clutching is. When you sit for meditation, when you sit silently, you will see so many thoughts coming up. Do not connect all of them, and give a meaning to it. The moment you give meaning to the words, either you will try to suppress or you will try to execute. Either you will try to go beyond them, or you will try to suppress them.
Understand, creating a thought is Brahma's work, maintaining a thought by going behind it is Vishnu's work, destroying a thought is Rudra's work. If you stop doing all these three, you will become Parabrahma, that's all. Relax from all the three - creation, maintenance and destruction. Relaxing from all the three is what I call 'un-clutching'.
Let me give you one more detail, a very strong truth.
When a thought arises in you, instead of giving meaning to it, just un-clutch, just relax into the source.
When a thought arises, if you start giving meaning to it, what will you do? Either you will try to do what the thought says, or you will try to suppress it, 'Don't come, wait. I am going to meditate'. Don't do either; instead of paying attention to the meaning of the sound, just see the source of the sound, that's all.
Then your mind will say, 'No, I am feeling bored.' 'I am feeling bored' is one more thought. Why are you clutching? You see, why will you have the idea that you are feeling bored? The boredom which you experienced 10 years ago, the boredom which you experienced 9 years ago, and the boredom which you experienced yesterday are independent experiences. Why are you connecting all of them and giving the idea of boredom? Only when you connect all of them and give the idea, 'This is what is boredom', you will think, 'Yes, I am having the same experience, I am having boredom.' Do not connect. Un-clutch and see.
Just see, if your mind says, 'I am feeling bored', just say, 'What is boredom? Let me not give some meaning out of my past clutching. Let me see what you mean by the word 'boredom', let me see what it feels like.'