Common Fears about Meditation🔗

Now, I will try to answer some of the FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions on this subject. There are some usual doubts, some usual difficulties that people face when they enter into meditation or when they even hear about meditation.

Many people think meditation is something like blindly believing in some thing. People are afraid because of this. They come and tell me, 'I am afraid that I might get too attached to meditation!'

Understand, meditation itself is nothing but removing your attachment! So you can't get too attached to it!

People are also afraid that their desires, their fears, and whatever else they think of as their life, will be taken away from them if they start meditating. I can say that this is true! Once you start meditating, whatever you think of as your life will not be any more an important part of your life, because once you start meditating, the real truths will start revealing themselves to you.

All the time, you are trying to protect yourself from the basic truths because you are afraid of them. You don't need to protect yourself because of your fears because these fears do not have a base at all.

The concept or the idea that you are a solid being, which is the root cause of all your fears, will simply be shaken by meditation. All that you thought you were, all your desires, all your fears, all your worries will be shaken and will start going through a big change.

There will be a big Psychological Revolution in you. You will have practically a new birth! Your inner software will have a new quality. I can say that it is like changing the inner software of your computer. Your hardware may be the same, but your inner software will go through a big change.

Understand, there is no scale, no proof to say if the state in which you are in is the authentic reality. There is no scale!

Meditation is all about changing the inner software.

Your body may be the same, your hardware may be the same, the things with which you are living may be same, the persons with whom you are living may be same, but the Being you are living will be totally different!

The Being will have a different quality. The inner software will be new.

The simple understanding of the four states of consciousness can initiate the psychological revolution in you. It is like a master key.

If you apply it every moment of your life, if you are aware of these four states constantly, you will see in every decision, the mechanism or the way in which your thought process goes towards meditation, and how every decision is influenced in the right way!

This is what I call the Cognitive Shift. It is receiving information, processing, and deciding in the best possible way.

If you understand these four states, if you become deeply conscious of these four states of existence, then when you come out of the deep sleep state, and enter the dreaming state, you will understand that the deep sleep state was illusory when compared to the dream state.

When you come out of the dreaming state into the waking state, you will understand that the dream state was illusory, that it was not real.

When you move from the waking state to the fourth state, that is turiya, you will realize that the waking state is also not reality! You will realize that the waking state is not what you thought it was.

There is a very beautiful story, a Zen story:

One day, early morning, a Zen Master came out of his bed and started crying. His disciples were surprised to see him crying. They gathered around him and said, 'You are an enlightened being. Why are you crying? It is really surprising to see that you are crying.'

The Master replied, 'Last night I dreamt that I became a butterfly.'

The surprised disciples asked, 'It was only a dream. Now you are yourself again. You are out of it. Why are you crying now?'

The Master says very beautifully, 'I do not know whether I was dreaming that I had become a butterfly, or that butterfly is now dreaming that it has become a Zen Master!'

But an important thing: again and again and again, you get a glimpse of this Truth every time you face a deep depression or low mood.

During deep depression, this understanding starts rising from within, but we manage in such a way that the psychological revolution does not happen inside us at that time, because too much is at stake! Too much of the life that we know, that we are clinging on to is at stake. We are afraid of the psychological revolution.

If we allow the psychological revolution to happen, the results are totally unknown to us. We don't know what will happen to all our cherished desires, cherished goals, cherished ideals and cherished ideas. We are afraid that we may have to let go of everything. So we manage not to allow the psychological revolution to happen in us.

Every instance of depression is actually an opportunity to allow the upheaval to happen, but we miss it.

When I started the session, I uttered the words athaato bramha jignyaasaa from the Vedas, wherein a great teacher says, let us enquire into the reality. It means that the guru and disciple are both deciding to have the courage to follow where reality leads them! It is not just an enquiry into the truth, but the courage to go wherever the enquiry or research leads, where the understanding leads.

Just the simple understanding of these four states of consciousness can transform the way in which we make decisions. The cognitive shift can happen. The psychological revolution can happen.

The truth is there is no scale to determine whether the state in which you are living is authentic reality. When you were dreaming, you thought your dream was real. But when you came out of the dream state and into the waking state, you concluded that your dream was illusory! It is only when you reach the fourth state you will realize that not only the dream state but even the so called waking state is also an illusion!

The moment you hear the word illusion, you are afraid. You feel you may renounce, you may leave everything, and life may change drastically. I tell you, you will leave only one thing, and that is your suffering; nothing else! The person who understands that what is in front of him is not complete reality, will renounce only one thing - his suffering.

You might have had a rare experience, where in the dream state itself you were aware, 'Yes, I am dreaming!' And because of that awareness, you would have been able to alter some of the thoughts as you wish to in your dream! You would be able to change some of the scenes as you wish to in your dream – for about two to three seconds.

Understand that in those few moments, you are aware that you are dreaming, and you will be able to move a few things around in your dream as you wish to. But if the awareness increases further that you are dreaming, suddenly you will be awakened!

In the same way, in this world too, in the waking state, if the awareness about you, the center, or the 'I' increases, you will have the experience that the whole world which is in front of you is a dream.

Not only will you have the awareness that this life is one more waking dream, but you will also be able to move around the incidents in your life as you wish to! That is what we call siddhis – mystical powers.

So understand, when the frequency of 'I' consciousness increases, you will suddenly start experiencing the waking state as a waking dream, and you will have the energy and freedom to change the incidents which are in front of you in your life.

When this starts happening, if you get caught in the changing of the incidents in your life, by and by, the awareness of the 'I' will come down, and you will fall back into the same waking state again, and these special powers will also disappear.

But if you are not too much attracted to changing these scenes, and you remain centered on raising the consciousness, you become enlightened!

Whether it is awakening from the dream state to the waking state or awakening from the waking state to the enlightenment state, the process is the same.

There is a beautiful technical term for this understanding. It is called avasthaa traya understanding the three different states in which you are living your every day life. This simple understanding can create psychological revolution in you and help you to go through the meditation techniques and get the right glimpse of meditation.

When the psychological revolution happens, inner healing happens. With the inner healing, if the techniques are practiced, then naturally, outer healing also happens. Without the psychological revolution, if the techniques are practiced, they are called kriya or

yoga - just physical movements.

With psychological revolution, if yoga is done, it will become a tremendous mediation. With psychological revolution, even ritual becomes meditation. Without psychological revolution, even meditation will become a ritual.

With clarity inside, if meditation is added to your inner space, you will see that every time you meditate, the clarity becomes deeper and deeper. Every time you make decisions in your life, it will add more and more understanding to you.

With psychological revolution, with every decision that you make every day, the aptapramaanaas - the experiences of the enlightened Masters, will become atmapramaanaas - your own experiences!

Without psychological revolution, everyday that you live, every moment that you add to your life, will only be pravritti - going outwards, and not inwards, and adding more and more suffering, low moods and difficulties.

With psychological revolution, it will become nivritti – towards reality. You will become more and more relaxed, more and more restful, more and more aware.

The essence of what I call psychological revolution is understanding these four states of consciousness clearly, and trying to raise yourself to the higher and higher frequencies.

I can say that on a relative scale, if you have the frequency of say a hundred, it is deep sleep. If you have the frequency of a thousand, it is the dream state. If it is two thousand, it is the waking state, and maybe one one hundred thousand, it is turiya or blissful state. With this proportion, you can know by how much your consciousness frequency has to be raised.

Sometimes you spend most of your life, most of your time, most of your energy between the dream state and the waking state – just moving listlessly between these two.

If you are aware, you will see that in your waking state also, in just a span of say half an hour, so many things happen around you, without even your awareness! You would have drifted to the day-dreaming state, wherein your dream state would have influenced your waking state with thoughts, thus causing you to drift off. When you come back to the waking state with awareness, you will realize that half an hour went past wherein nothing was really under your control! You would have been awake, your eyes open, and your body doing work, but you would not have been aware of what was happening.

I can say that this is what we call the state between the dream state and the waking state. Most of us spend eighty percent of our day in this state.

Understand one thing: Never think that just because you are out of your bed, you are in the waking state. No! Maybe you can't afford to spend your time in bed all the time, and it is necessary for your survival to be out of bed, so you are out of bed. But that does not mean that you are out of the dream state.

Bringing yourself out of the dream state, and also out of the waking state, is what I call meditation! Bringing you completely out of the waking, dream and deep sleep states, is what I call dhyaan, meditation.

When a person tries to raise his consciousness towards turiya, the fourth state, naturally his body and mind start getting healed. I always tell people, when they come and ask me what the essential quality for spiritual life is, three things are needed for a successful life. I don't even want to call it spiritual life. The term is loaded with too many different meanings. Three things are needed for a successful life. The first is intensity, second is intensity, and third is intensity, nothing else!

In anything that you do, if intensity is added, you will see that you are continuously raising the frequency of your consciousness, you are continuously elevating yourself to different states of consciousness. Then the entire day will have the quality of meditation and you will enjoy a different quality of life!

I have expressed a few basic and simple concepts with which we are going to work, which we are going to analyze. If you have any questions, I request you to write them down and hand over to the volunteers. I will now spend some time analyzing your questions because unless you question, you will not be able to internalize whatever has been spoken. You may have earlier heard or read these concepts that I have spoken just now. In Bharat, the problem is not 'not knowing' but 'too much of knowing' none of which has really become an experience! The knowledge gained has not become a part of your life. It has not become day-to-day life. There starts the problem.

You may have heard different ideas on this same subject earlier in your life. You may be having some conflict or misunderstanding in that context. I now welcome your questions so you may have more clarity and internalize what you have heard. Once you internalize these few ideas which I have expressed or proposed, you will be helped to enter into the meditation more successfully. So I will spend a few minutes answering your questions.

(Volunteers collect the questions from the participants.)

Q: Swamiji, you say there is no scale to find out whether the state in which we are is reality or not. But every day when I come back to the waking state, I see the same house, the same world. But every day when I go back to the dream state, I don't see the same world. So, can this be used as a scale? With this can we say that this world is real?

Very intelligent question! This is a wonderful question which we need to understand and internalize.

Let us analyze one night's dream. For example, let us say that you go to sleep on the 14th night and on 15th morning you wake up. You sleep for around 10 hours. I am sure many of you have had experiences of having lived around 10 to 20 years of your life in one night's dream, in just 10 hours time.

From your college days the dream will start and move slowly step by step and go up to your marriage, you having a son, your son's marriage etc. In this way, you live even 10 or 20 years of your life in just one night's dream, am I right? If you have experienced this at least once, you can follow very closely what I am going to present now.

One more thing: scientists are now saying that you don't continuously sleep at night time. You sleep for a maximum of 30 minutes in the deep sleep state. The rest of the time, you move between the dream state, the deep sleep state, and the waking state. In the East, the maximum deep sleep time is 30 minutes, but in the West they say that it is only 16 minutes.

You see, while sleeping, we go through the dream state and the deep sleep state. Maybe for half an hour, you fall into the deep sleep state. Then you go to the dream state and go through some dreams. Again you fall asleep, spend about half an hour in the deep sleep state; then again you come back to the dream state. In this way you keep moving from the dream state to the deep sleep state and back.

Understand: in one night, you dream as if you lived ten years of your life. It is like in the first episode, you see in your dream you are in college. In the second episode, when you come back to the dream state after your spell of deep sleep, you see you are getting married. In the third episode, again when you enter the dream state, you see you have a son. Maybe in the fourth episode, in the next spell of dream state, you see your son getting married.

An important thing you need to understand: when you fall asleep into the deep sleep state and then come back to the dream state and then repeat the same, in these different episodes, you do see the same world even in the dream state. Am I right? You do see the same world in the dream state.

Understand, it is a very subtle point, very subtle understanding; if you can catch this, it will really lead to a very big clarity, which can really revolutionize the way in which you think about your life, the way in which you try to solve the problems of your life.

There is a beautiful story:

A person was dreaming. In the dream he saw a tiger chasing him and he was shouting, 'Oh, a tiger is chasing me! Save me, save me!' His friend was sleeping next to him. He woke up and he saw that his friend was shouting, 'A tiger is chasing me, save me, save me!' The friend was confused, 'What am I supposed to do?' The friend just needed to tell him, 'Hey, wake up!' Instead of that, if he tried to supply some weapon to kill the tiger in the dream, what will happen? He may kill himself or he may kill his friend!

If you understand these basic things, suddenly you will see the decision-making will be revolutionized. The cognitive shift will happen in you. The way in which you think and the way in which you make decisions, the way in which you try to find out solutions for your problems will be different. You will start working towards the right solutions.

In the case of the man having a nightmare of a tiger chasing him, the right solution at that moment is just to tell him, 'Wake up!' That's the right solution; instead, if you try to find any other solution it will only lead to more and more problems, more and more difficulties.

Here, all I want to tell you is: when you are dreaming, in a span of ten hours, you live ten years. You fall into deep sleep and come back to the dream state many times. Whenever you come back to the dream state from the state of deep sleep, even though there was a break from the last dream, you see the same world. Just seeing the same world after the break in the dream state cannot be the quality to define it as reality.

Please understand: after a break, if you see the same world, it cannot be the scale to define or say that world is reality. This happens even in the dream state. Even in the dream state, after the break, when you come back you see the same world. Just you coming back from the deep sleep state and seeing the same world cannot be the reason to say that it is a reality.

Only when you wake up from sleep, you realize you have dreamt ten years of your life in just ten hours. In the same way, only when you wake up from this dream in which you are living now, suddenly you realize you have dreamt maybe 90 years of your life in a few hours! Who knows, this life in the waking state can be another long dream!

Realizing and understanding that there is a possibility this can be one more long dream will turn much of your attention and awareness to the center, to the consciousness.

I can say, that is the first step in spirituality. That is the first step for psychological revolution.

Again and again, our sufferings are giving a clear statement: we are holding on to emptiness. Our suffering is nothing else but a clear statement from reality: you are not living with the reality.

The first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is called Arjuna Vishaada Yoga, the depression or confusion of Arjuna. We also face the depression and confusion in our lives. I call this 'depression of success'. This depression induced by success comes from achieving what we want to achieve, but realizing that what for we want to achieve has not happened. There are very few, rare, intelligent people who understand, 'I am facing this suffering or depression because I am not living with reality.'

Here, all I am trying to say is that just because you are seeing, do not think you are living with reality.

Usually I face another one question on the same lines: 'Swamiji, not only am I seeing this world, even the people who are living around me are seeing this world in the same way. How can you say it is a dream?'

Understand: in a dream if you are seeing a particular city, if you are dreaming that you are going to that city with your whole family, not only you, the family which is with you inside your dream also will see the same city because they are also projections of your mind.

So, just because the people who are around you see the same scene does not mean the scene is reality. Even the people around you whom you are seeing can be the projection of the same scene.

The ultimate truth is: the stuff out of which your dream world is made, is the same as the stuff out of which this waking world is also made.

If your attention is centered on the stuff, naturally the inner healing cannot happen. If your attention is equally distributed on the consciousness and the stuff, that is what I call healthy life, balanced life. You will have physical health, mental health, and a vibrant life.

If your attention is totally centered on the consciousness, not on the stuff with which these worlds are made, that is what I call 'Living Enlightenment' or jeevan mukti.

Whether you want jeevanmukti or not, whether you want enlightenment or not, is secondary. But if you can turn a little bit of your attention towards the 'I' consciousness, towards the truth, towards the center, suddenly you will see that a tremendous inner healing happens.

I always tell people, realizing this whole world is one more dream brings a tremendous healing effect in you. Understand, for example, if you are facing some very big difficulty or depression, if you realize very clearly, consciously that this whole thing is a dream, you will experience such a relaxed feeling or the inner healing happening in you. That inner healing is what I call meditation. That restful awareness which happens in you is what I call satori, the first glimpse of samadhi.

A basic cognitive shift or a basic psychological revolution with the simple understanding that what you are seeing may not be reality as you think, can bring tremendous inner healing inside you, a great restful awareness inside you.

More and more restful awareness being added to you is what I call inner healing, or health, or raising the quality of consciousness.

Instead of the dream state penetrating the waking state while you are, for instance, driving, the blissful state can penetrate your waking state during the driving. Even when you are out of your bed and seemingly in the waking state, so much of your time is occupied by your dream state because of your low awareness.

People come and tell me, 'If I start meditating, I will not have time to do my business.' No! Meditation has nothing to do with a separate time; it is something to do with inner understanding.

As of now, so much of your time and energy is being spent in the dream state which possesses you. Instead of that, you can allow the turiya state, the blissful state to possess you.

You can just change the attitude; you can just shift the energy; you can just simply go through a big transformation. That is what I call 'psychological revolution.'

Here is one more question.

Q. How can we select our god and goddess?

The person is confused because we have more than one deity in our tradition. I always tell people, you will suddenly feel a very deep connection towards some God, some technique. That is what I call 'falling in tune', 'feeling connected'.

If you don't feel connected to any one particularly, do not choose anything, continue your seeking. Continue your seeking and let the seeking become your god. Seeking can become your god. Let the seeking become your ishta devata (desired god). No need for a particular devata.

One more question:

Q: I have a longing for chanting sahasranamas, but my concentration is scattered. How can I concentrate on all the slokas?

This is another big problem. Sometimes, you will enjoy some stotras and chanting. Then you decide, 'Oh, such ecstasy and bliss and joy! I should have this always. Let me start chanting every day.' No! You missed the whole thing. The moment you decided, 'Let me chant every day', you created a routine.

Understand: bliss happens to you when you are in choicelessness. The moment you choose bliss, you have chosen suffering. All choice, including choosing bliss, is choosing suffering.

Choice is suffering, choicelessness is bliss.

The moment you choose, 'Now I am going to do this every day', you made it as a routine.

I have seen people chanting sahasranama. They would start in full speed. After just two pages, the speed of chanting would increase. After few pages, they would just see the page numbers continuously, 'Oh, there are 400 more verses to go…' I always tell people, 'Do not bother about completing the thousand names at all. Take up the book; God is not sitting there and counting like a bank balance, asking whether you have done all the thousand names.

Just sit in the beautiful mood, in a very loving way. If you can chant even five or six names, it is perfectly alright. That is enough. The moment you feel bored, close the book and stop. Do not do chanting or puja when you don't feel connected, when you don't feel that joy. If you are doing it without feeling the joy, you are abusing it.

Chanting some mantra, chanting some sloka without feeling joyful, without being in ecstasy is abusive. When you chant, if your concentration is scattered, it means you are not enjoying it. The moment you feel you don't enjoy, relax and stop.

Q: Could you please explain what exactly is intensity? What does it mean? How do we develop intensity?

A: When people ask me about intensity I tell them: feel intensely that you are not having intensity, that's all. You see, usually we feel a terrible restlessness towards the outer world, 'I have not done this, I have not done that…' The same restlessness, if it is directed to the inner world is called intensity.

You do not know what is happening, you do not know what should be done, but the deep dissatisfaction about what is there in the inner space is what I call intensity.

You may be thinking, I am supposed to teach satisfaction; why am I teaching dissatisfaction? I tell you, your dissatisfaction directed now towards the outer world has to turn towards the inner world, then it will lead to satisfaction.

First thing which needs to happen is not satisfaction but the turning of direction, the psychological revolution.

Restlessness should become intensity.

If it is towards the outer world, if your consciousness is constantly moving towards the outer world, it is called restlessness. If it is moving towards the inner world, it is called intensity.

The meaning of intensity is feeling that something needs to be done immediately, to break free from the clutches, or to break free, in the inner world.

You ask what your intensity should be about. Do not bother about what. It should become a quality.

Anything you do, whether you touch something or somebody or some object, let the intensity be there, even in that touch. If you are talking, let the intensity be there. In everything; in your relationships, in your decisions, in your memory, in your thinking, in your desires, even in your fears, be intense without escaping from this moment*.* That is what I call intensity.

You are asking how to develop intensity. If I give the method 'how', the whole intensity will be lost.

Intensity will increase when you have the desire but not the technique. That's a right way to develop intensity. The moment the technique is given your mind will start working around the technique.

Technique sometimes gives a method to escape for your mind. Your mind will start saying, 'O, I have done the technique, that's all. I know I can only do that much. Nothing else needs to be done.'

In Ayurveda, when we give medicines we say, 'This medicine is not enough. You need to work with this medicine the whole day. So, you need to be intense, telling your body and mind to heal itself the whole day.'

Technique is not like an allopathic medicine that you can swallow and forget about everything. Sometimes the desire should be awakened; the desire or seeking should be awakened towards the inner world. And the person should not use any technique. Only then that seeking will start radiating in every action. The technique should not curtail, stop or reduce your seeking; it should deepen your seeking.

Q: I am already doing some meditation given by some other Master. Can I do the one you gave here?

You are welcome. I always tell people, try to collect the best flowers from all the gardens and make a beautiful bouquet for yourself. You do not have to think, 'If I learn from one source I should not learn from another.' No! It is not like a shop that if you come to this shop, you can't go to the next shop. Go to all possible sources and learn all the best things. Pluck all the best flowers, and make a beautiful garland for yourself.

I always tell people, your ego is such it cannot be broken by one master. Now you need so many blows from so many different directions and so many methods from so many different sources. So, do not think, if I learn from one source I should not learn from another source. No! Learn from all possible sources and raise yourself.

Q: Should we focus on ourselves while doing action, or merge completely in the action? Which one leads to meditation?

First thing, you cannot completely merge yourself in action, or inaction. Your body is made of sattva, rajas and tamas, in similar proportions. Sattva is peace, silence, intelligent energy. Rajas is restless, very aggressive energy. Tamas is feeling lethargy, very sleepy and low on energy. Sattva, rajas and tamas are each 33% in us. After the 33% lethargy is exhausted, you will not be able to be in inaction.

People come and ask me, if I start meditating will I just leave my job and just rest? No, you cannot! I tell them, if you have that fear, just take a vacation, lie down for ten days, you will understand. On the eleventh day you will run for your job.

There is no need to completely merge in inaction either. I can tell you, you don't need to bother about action nor do you need to bother about inaction; all you need to bother about is psychological revolution. What goes on inside of you the whole day is what you need to attend to. You need to put your awareness only on that.

Even though you think you do your actions in the waking state, 80% of your actions are done by the dream state overtaking the waking state. Instead of that, let the 80% of your actions be done by the turiya state overtaking the waking state. That's all you need. There is nothing else.

These are the questions which happen even before you enter. These are hypothetical questions.

Somebody came and asked me, if everybody became a swami how will the world run? I asked him, if everybody dies how will the world run?

He said, 'No, everybody won't die.'

I said, 'In the same way, everybody won't become a swami! That's all.'

Hypothetical questions cannot be answered.

I told him, 'Do not bother. God is not depending on you to run the world! He is not depending on you to create and maintain the world.'

Q: Can we really experience the blissful state after learning?

He is asking: Can we really experience the blissful state after learning these meditation techniques? What do you think I am sitting and doing here?!

The person who creates a formula to reproduce experiences of the outer world is a scientist; the person who creates a formula to reproduce the experiences of the inner world is a mystic. These methods, the techniques which you are going to learn these three days are time-tested, foolproof, created after great research and development by thousands of masters in thousands of years of research and development, and verified and experienced in my own personal life.

So, rest assured... be intense; that's all I am asking of you. That's all you need to do, nothing else. Just be intense, you will see, you will experience what has happened in my very inner space happen in your inner space also.

Q: Is the psychological revolution you refer to sankhya yoga (sankhya-knowledge of Self, yoga-renunciation of action)?

See, the word sankhya and the word yoga, both are two different expressions. Maybe I can say by the word 'psychological revolution' I mean sankhya, yoga, and something more. When you understand these ideas about the dream state, waking state and the superconscious state, every time the low mood or depression or disturbance comes to your inner space, bring this understanding into you.

Use this like a key and allow that psychological revolution to happen. You will see, first of all you will come out of the problem. Even if you come out of your suffering 2-3 times, you will have enough courage and energy to apply these techniques again and again, to evolve yourself again and again.

Beautifully Krishna says, Uttarayad atmaananam atmaanam avasadayet., Let you raise yourself by yourself. If you raise yourself by yourself you are the best friend for you. If you don't raise yourself by yourself you are the worst enemy for you.

Q: I have learned vipasana, but I am unable to practice it effectively. I am not sure why. Is it that I am doing it wrong, is it a wrong technique for me?

Neither are you doing it wrong nor is it the wrong technique for you. First, you should have experienced the psychological revolution, clarity about you, world, and God. Then, the technique should have been added to you. Without that clarity, if the technique is directly added it leads to boredom, dullness, and naturally, you drop the technique.

I always tell people: any study, any journey you undertake, any book you start reading even if you don't understand a single word, do not skip. If you don't understand and skip, slowly you will see that words which you did not understand will become more and more like a load, and your very interest in reading further will disappear.

In the same way, in the inner journey, without going through the psychological revolution or the understanding, if you just skip the understandings and enter into the meditation technique, it is a problem.

Even when I speak and explain the concepts, I have seen many people sitting and thinking, 'What you are telling is fine; now let us go to the technique, Swamiji.' I have seen people telling me, 'I understand, Swamiji; let us go to the technique.' They think they are very intelligent. They think straightaway the technique can help.

Technique is not an allopathic pill. You need a clear prior understanding because the understanding starts the churning. Then the technique is like an addition for the alchemy process to occur.

Q: When meditating, lots of negative thoughts arise. Will they come to reality?

Don't bother about their coming into reality. You are not that powerful - fortunately. Fortunately, we are not that powerful to project our thoughts into reality. Otherwise we would have created a worse hell than what we are having now.

Fortunately, God did not give so much of energy to us to project our thoughts into reality. If at some time your thoughts have become reality, if you have seen your dreams or thoughts becoming reality, do not use that power; try to divert that energy into your consciousness.

Q: Can we practice different types of yogas?

According to me, truly authentic yoga methods do not contradict each other, they only complement each other. So you can practice different yoga methods. Only thing, do not mix and make your own technique! Practice one method independently, say for 20 minutes and finish it. Then, go to the next; continue. If you mix everything and start thinking, 'I know all these things, I know the core thread, I think I can make my own technique.' That is where you will miss.

Q: You said karma means unfulfillment of desire and experiences. But our elders say that if you suffer from poverty, it is because of karma. Will any soul be willing to experience poverty or illness?

First thing, I want you to be very clear; if somebody is in poverty, they consciously chose it. Please understand, even if it hurts, I have to tell the truth.

Let me give one small incident that

really happened in my life. It is a bit mystical, but I am narrating exactly as it happened. I can say, I can take an oath that I am stating the simple straight facts! You can make what you want to make out of this incident.

In the USA, an autistic child was brought to me for healing. The family is from North Hindu, settled in the USA. The child was about 7 or 8 years. They brought the child to me and asked me, 'Swamiji, he is autistic. Can you please heal him?'

The family is from North Bharat and not a single person in their family or their surroundings knew Tamil.

I put my hand on the head of the child and started healing.

As soon as I started healing the child, the boy just said in village Tamil, with no respect, 'Remove your hand.'.

I was shocked. In the whole family, not a single person knew Tamil. They were shocked and told me, 'There is no way that this child can hear Tamil words, because none of us speak and none of us know Tamil. He is always with us. How could he speak in Tamil?'

I thought maybe some spirit or ghost had possessed the child. I asked him, 'Who is speaking?' He said, 'I am the one in this body speaking. Don't you understand?' he continued in Tamil.

I asked him, 'Why are you asking me to remove my hand? I am healing you.'

He just retorted back, 'I don't want to be healed. It is not your business, just get out!'

I was shocked. He said, 'I do not want to take the responsibility of my life, going through the regular routine. I just wanted a comfortable life with somebody taking care of me. That is why I took this kind of body and mind.'

I said, 'That is ok. You have freedom, but your parents are such nice people. Why are you torturing them by being born to them?'

He said, 'I took birth because they are nice people. So I know they will take care of me. They will not put me in the hospitals or asylums or somewhere else. That is why I took birth in this family.'

This incident gave me a very big opening of clarity. Every soul consciously or unconsciously, knowingly or unknowingly, chooses its place, birth, and lifestyle. That is what we call prarabdha.

When you come down, you choose your body.

This truth may hurt you.

Understand, it hurts because you are not able to tolerate that you chose what you are having now. I tell you, we may choose poverty because it is a big freedom. With wealth, there is too much responsibility; it is a big bondage.

Start looking at yourself and think why you chose what you chose. Maybe that can help you to enjoy and celebrate what you have chosen. Instead of constantly turning your attention and awareness towards cursing and abusing what you chose, if you start looking at why you have chosen what you have chosen, you will suddenly see new things revealing. You will see that you are exactly where you wanted to be. That is the ultimate truth. Whether it hurts or heals, truth is truth. Usually, with a little patience, it heals; it never hurts.

I tell you, karma is unfulfilled desires and experiences. Your lifestyle and everything is straightaway consciously chosen by you.

Your present is the totality of decisions that you made in the past. Your future is going to be the totality of decisions that you are making in the present.

So, if you want, you can consciously alter, rearrange, edit, reduce, delete, or recreate. You have complete freedom.

Q: We always dream because we are away from reality or try to make our dream into reality. If we do not dream, then what is life?

This is one of the worst lies taught to you. Because your universities and schools in the society are not able to teach you how to experience the superconscious state, they teach you the day-dreaming state.

Understand, just because they are not able to teach, just because they compromise, please do not waste your life in dreaming. Let you not miss the truth. Let you not miss the reality. Life can be lived without day-dreaming, and instead, with super-conscious vision.

I always tell people, with day-dreaming, these desires will give you deep restlessness before fulfillment. After fulfilling, suddenly you will see, they just show emptiness.

With the super-conscious life style, the lifestyle of thoughtless awareness, before fulfilling those visions, you are empowered, you are shown the direction. After fulfilling the vision, you experience deep satisfaction.

This is the big difference between life based on day-dreaming and the super-conscious life.

There are only two choices: either you live a super-conscious life or a day-dreaming life. If you are not living a super-conscious life, be sure, you are living a day-dreaming life.

But there is a great fear, 'If I stop day-dreaming, how will I do my next planning? What should my next plans be? How do I invest my time?...'

You can see: if your workers or subordinates successfully convince you that without them your business cannot run, they will then start exploiting you. In the same way, your mind has convinced you that without it, you cannot run your life. That conviction is what I call suffering. That is what I call the root of suffering.

I tell you, when I say that you can live without your day-dreaming, I really mean it.

You may ask, how do I plan for tomorrow? Usually, you are not planning, you are only worrying. And even with your planning, you are only reproducing the past into the future. You are limiting your growth by planning, because you do not have courage to live with your spontaneous vision, with the spontaneous revelations happening in your life.

Constantly you are struggling with your day-to-day planning and your life. Only the people who have the courage to trust their vision and their spontaneity become geniuses.

Please understand, a little courage from your part to enter into the life without day-dreaming can just revolutionize your life. I can say this is what I call 'psychological revolution'.

Just try this for ten days. In ten days, I don't think your whole life will be taken away from you. In ten days, if everything can be taken away from you, then it is not worth having, let it be taken away! So, just try for ten days - life without day-dreaming. Suddenly, you will see the quality of spontaneity.

Because of your planning and day-dreaming, the quality of having visions is suppressed. If you just remove the day-dreaming and have a little courage to experience that quality of creating visions - the quality of living with spontaneity, you will suddenly see that the visionary in you has awakened.

People who live with super-consciousness never fail or miss in their decisions, because the depth of dilemma or the oscillations and mood swings will be much less. When the mood swings and the depth of dilemma is limited, suddenly you will see an amazing amount of energy is saved and the decision making becomes very sharp and straight.

I always tell people, having freedom without intelligence is the worst suffering.

Whenever these thousands of people living in our ashrams around the world don't listen to what I say, I tell them, 'Alright, let them have freedom. That is the worst suffering; that is the worst punishment!' The dilemma itself will kill; nothing else needs to be done.

Without intelligence, when the freedom is given, it will lead only to suffering. Our day-dreaming also is nothing but dilemma. The intelligence is not there, but the freedom is there. That is what I call day-dreaming.

Only kids need to dream to cope with reality. If, even after growing up, we need to dream to cope with reality, we are mentally retarded! We have not grown beyond childhood.

Q: My breathing pattern changed to being deep and slow and I could feel a wave of energy on the face. Is this a blissful state?

I can say this is one of the symptoms of the blissful state. In the blissful state actually the breathing pattern changes and the whole body feels the wave. This is one of the symptoms of the blissful state.

Q: Can the experience of enlightenment be transferred through touch? Can we enter the turiya state under the influence of the Master?

It is possible. From time immemorial, the first gift was always given by the push from the Master. But to stay in that state, you yourself should have gone through the psychological revolution. Ramakrishna was able to give one glimpse to Vivekananda. But Vivekananda had to go through the psychological revolution to retain it. So, the experience can be given, a glimpse can be given by the touch of the Master. But if you need to retain it, surely you yourself have to go through the psychological revolution by living these great Truths in reality.

Q: If a person focuses on his work with intensity does he need meditation?

This is again a hypothetical question, 'If a person focuses on his work...' Nobody can focus without meditation. Actually the question with 'if' cannot be answered. 'If it is…' cannot be answered.

Q: Will meditation at the beginning produce any bad side-effects?

No! Meditation will not produce any side-effect except bliss and health!

Q: Is there any meaning in the dream I am seeing?

There is no meaning even in the world which you are seeing, what more the dreams!

Even the world which you are seeing has no meaning. So, forget about the meaning of the dreams which you are seeing?!

Q: What is the shortcut to spiritual progress?

If you want an honest answer I should say, I don't know. 'I don't know' is the honest answer. Because, according to me, the spiritual life itself is a simple, straight path. See, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. There cannot be any other shortcut. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So, I can say, to live a spiritual life is a straight line. It is the straightest line, the only shortest route.

Q: Please throw some light on what is it that tells me that I had a good sleep in the night.

If you spent more time in deep sleep than in the dream state, in the morning you feel that you had a good sleep or rest. That is the sign of having a good sleep.

Q: Swamiji, there are so many methods of meditation. Which is the excellent method?

I can say I have chosen three methods, three techniques. On these three days, you will be learning the three techniques. Today will be like a preparation, introduction, entering into meditation. Tomorrow it will be a deeper cleansing. And day after tomorrow it will be the deepest level of 'un-clutching' which is experiencing the true self.

Q: Does not living in high intensity cause tiredness?

No. Living in high intensity causes more energy.

Q: How do we know that there are only four states of being? What if there are ten states?

Don't bother about them. If there are ten states, I'll have seven day classes! There are four states, that is why I have three day classes! I think now working on the four states is more than enough. If there are ten states, maybe after you see the fourth state, we can start looking into them.

Q: Many times dreams are considered to be symbols of future happenings. Is this correct?

I don't think your dream should be symbolizing your future. Your future is not that bad or that low that it can be predicted or planned in your dream! It should be predicted and planned in your waking state.

Understand, if your future is predicted and planned in the waking state you know where you are going. If it is predicted and planned in a dream state, where are you heading?! You don't even know where you are heading. I think it is very dangerous. So it is better not to be planning and predicting your future in the dream state.

Maybe now we'll enter into the meditation technique. After that, you can individually come and ask the remaining questions, I will answer. Tomorrow we will enter into the session, working on samskaras. Today we had some clarity and understanding about different states we go through everyday. Tomorrow, we will see how our mind works in the different states, how our samskaras or engraved memories function inside us. We will work on that, study that and go through a meditation technique to remove the samskaras.

Now, we will do a very simple meditation technique, just to prepare you and lead you to the fourth state, turiya state.

What is exactly turiya? I was explaining to you, there will be awareness, but there won't be thoughts. So, now, you are supposed to throw away your thoughts, move away from your thinking system to the deepest silence, with awareness.

This technique is basically from Tibetan Buddhism. Of course in Tantra, it was used in the name of Brahmi mantra; in Tibetan Buddhism they call it Maha mantra. It is a very simple but very powerful technique to go into the awareness with silence. It is going to the thoughtless state with awareness, without thinking but only having the consciousness.

Let me describe the technique. If you can, sit in vajrasana, hands on your knees. If you can't, sit comfortably in the chair. First step: your head, neck and the back should be in a straight line.

Second instruction: close your eyes, not just eyelids. After closing your eyes, stop allowing the movements or visions in your mind. The television of the mind inside you should also be switched off. If you open your eyes you will see the outer world. But if you close your eyes you will see the television inside.

If you just give a little pressure on your eyeballs (through your mind, not through your hands) mentally,… if you just give a little pressure, you will see that the movement in front of your eyes will stop.

Third step: intense humming from your navel center. Understand, the intense humming will stop your mind, the thought flow.

First step is your head, neck and backbone should be in a straight line. The second step is to close your eyes and stop the pictures moving inside your mind. The third step is intense humming for 21 minutes.

The fourth step is to just sit silently for ten minutes. In the fourth step you will see the thoughtless awareness happening in you. You don't have to do anything, it will be happening in you. You will see deep silence, a settled feeling inside you.