Part 2: Don't Worry, Be Happy!
it has its own properties. The same material has different properties when it takes up different shapes. If we make the iron ore into a sphere or a ball, it becomes very strong, dense and powerful. This is the way shape and compression affect matter.
Likewise, whenever we change the space inside our homes, the energy changes according to the change in space. This is a very subtle concept and we need to understand this clearly. Once we grasp this concept, we will appreciate the great gift of wisdom that our Masters have given us.
Just as the gross elements can be cast into different shapes to hold different energies, Ether can be transformed or molded into a different space and will radiate a different effect accordingly. Vastu Shastra is a science to make the best use of the Ether energy. It is the technique to use 'Ether Energy' efficiently and maximize the energy that is present.
Ether, therefore, can be controlled in a space, and that, in turn, controls those inside the space. The people who are inside the space, their thoughts, affect the Ether in that space, and the Ether in turn affects their thoughts. You may have experienced that when you sit outside in nature; under a clear blue sky, you feel expanded. Your being feels light and joyful. You feel your personality expanding and transforming; you feel bigger and without boundaries. Whereas, when you enter a small room with a low roof, you feel compressed and limited. Your mind does not feel free and your thoughts do not flow.
The dimensions of the room we are in play a major role in influencing our minds and thought processes. Our thoughts play a major role in influencing the place in which we live. A house is not a place where we live; a house is 'how we live'. Vastu Shastra says, 'All that exists in our surroundings, such as people, furniture, all animate and inanimate things, respond to our thoughts.' This has been proven beyond a doubt by a number of pieces of research.
An experiment was carried out by placing three rose plants in three different rooms labeled A, B and C. The plants in these rooms were taken care of in a similar manner and were replaced with a new one everyday. However, there was one major difference. The plants in room 'A', while being watered, were cursed profusely and condemned with the worst choice of words. The plants in room 'B' were given a neutral treatment. The plants in room 'C' were heaped with encouraging words of praise and goodwill. The experiment was carried out by different people, twenty-one times a day, for eleven days.
The result was amazing! It was found that all the rose plants that had been in room 'A' did not survive and later simply died. The plants in room 'B' grew normally but the plants that had been taken care of in room 'C' grew beyond normal expectations and yielded twice as much! Just by the power of thought and word, the very growth and life of the rose plants was affected. So you can understand the extent to which objects in the surroundings reciprocate or respond to thoughts.
In another experiment, equipment (similar to the ECG in a graphical format) that measured vibrations from trees was connected to ten different trees. A woodcutter was asked to earmark one tree with a strong intention of cutting it down. It was found that that tree, alone, showed skewed readings. The other trees read normal. Like this, several experiments have been conducted to show that thoughts affect the animate and inanimate things in the surrounding areas.
The Vastu Shastra postulates that all the thoughts in a house are captured and stored in the Ether space in it. The space is, therefore, not dead or insensitive. It is 'live' energy. These thoughts grow like cobwebs. Then, they radiate the same negative thoughts back to us. Therefore, if the inhabitants of the house harbour repeated negative thought patterns, the cobwebs of negative thoughts will get installed in the space within. What can be seen physically can be cleaned. However, what cannot be seen cannot be cleaned physically. Therefore, whether one believes in it or not, whether one accepts it or not, thoughts are stored in the place where one lives.
People have asked me, 'Swamiji, when I am outside the house, I feel happy and joyous. Whereas the moment I enter the house, I feel depressed.'
The house is Katākāsha, a living space. Grihalakshmi, Goddess of Wealth, is supposed to reside in the space inside the home. Somebody asked me, 'Swamiji, I want joy and bliss to flood my house.' I told her, 'You will find it when you yourself radiate joy and love and shower your love and affection on your children and your husband. Meditate and radiate positive vibrations first, yourself; that is the best way to open your doors to Grihalakshmi.'
She then immediately asked me, 'Swamiji, shall I then do Grihalakshmi puja (offering or worship)?'
Please understand that it is all right to do the puja but what is the use when, after the puja, you come out of the puja room and do an archana to your husband! (archana means prayers. Here it means an outpouring of negative words!)
Puja to Lakshmi and archana to the husband! Will it help? No! It will in no way help. Your thoughts and words continuously energize the house in your presence. Therefore, it is up to you, whether you want to energize it positively or negatively. Unfortunately, most of the time, we are expressing words that are only complaining or expressing discontentment of some sort. Do we ever remember talking positively about our own health or about other people or about our work at home or office? Do we ever recall saying nice things about what is going on in the world, about the beauty of nature or about how wonderful it is to be alive in this wonder filled Universe? No! We release only negative emotions and words within the space where we live, and this contaminates and pollutes the space completely.
A flowing river is pure. If it stagnates, it becomes impure and foul. It gets covered with scum. When a person enters such water, he, too, gets covered with the scum. In the same way, the energy inside a house needs to be flowing; only then life in it will be bubbling with joy. If there is negativity in the space inside the house, the energy gets clogged and stagnates, and it affects the people in it. When this happens, you start complaining that, when you enter your own home, your joyful mood takes a dip into an all-too-familiar hole of depression.
- A small story:
Two friends met up after 10 years and decided to have lunch together. They discussed many things, from marriage to career to social life. One of them asked if the other was leading a happy married life. The other asked him a question in reply, 'Do you know what it means to come home to a wonderful wife and two adorable kids who think you are the best father in the world?' The other replied, 'Wow! It must be awesome….' The first man finished, 'It means you are in the wrong house!'
You see, this is how each one feels about the other and the house!
Anyhow, when a Master, who is the embodiment of the Existential energy, enters a house, when he sets foot in a house, he is like the Mahākāsha, a flowing river or open sky that is entering. The enlightened person is the Universe in himself, because there is nothing inside him. He is just a hollow channel for the Existential energy to flow. He has no thoughts, good or bad. He is just emptiness, an open sky. It is through him that the energy radiates.
People ask me, 'Swamiji, how do you heal? Do you chant any mantra or do any sankalpa for the person to be healed?' I do neither. In fact, I don't even consciously think that the person should get healed. I don't even wish for the person to get healed of whatever diseases they might be suffering from.
I just give them the Presence and healing happens! When somebody comes, I just touch them; I allow the energy to flow; I let go of the energy and allow it to do what it wants. The healing happens, that's all.
Master means, a person with no thoughts or with no mind, who is the representative of the Mahākāsha, Universal space. When the Mahākāsha enters the Katākāsha, that is the space in the house, it is simply flooded with energy. It is like a big river entering into a small pool! The dirty pool is simply washed away, cleansed and filled with pure water.
When a Master enters the space where you live, it is simply rejuvenated or recreated. It is said that the Vastu (matter)
becomes Vastu (space where you live). That is why we say, place or matter is different from the space. Remember, the place can be cleaned by a vacuum cleaner, whereas space can be cleaned only by your meditation or by a Master's presence! When people gather too much dirt (negativity) in the space where they live, it can be cleansed or burnt by the Master's presence, in a moment.
These concepts are too subtle to be understood by logic; they can only be understood by examples and by understanding them step by step. Let me tell you, where logic ends, great things begin to happen! Great things never happen by your logic. If they do, then logic becomes greater than God and it can never be.
People ask, 'Swamiji, why don't you prove the existence of God; why don't you prove it by logic?' I tell them, 'When you try to prove God by logic, then logic becomes greater than God!' God is great, because he is greater than, or beyond, logic. He cannot be measured or attained by your logic. These are the subtle truths; they are so profound that they cannot be understood by logic.
It is as simple and as profound as the existence of the sun. Whether you want it or not, believe it or not, the sun will always rise in the East. One may try to prove logically that the sun does not rise in the East, but can that change the existence of the Universal Truth? The sun will always rise in the East. Truths are of two types: evidence based and experience based. The existence of God is the truth that has been experienced by the great rishis.
Whenever an enlightened Master or a spiritual person, such as a saint or a seer, enters a space, the space is simply flooded with energy. Many come to me and say, 'Swamiji, what magic have you done? Ever since you stepped into our house, so many good things have started happening!' I tell them, 'I have not done anything, and that is the magic!'
So many of you always try to do something or want to do something and end up with something different in trying to do something else! But a master does nothing. His presence does everything.
Therefore, whenever a 'nobody' enters the space, i.e. a man who has become the akasha (the ether), the whole space becomes 'spaciousness'. A man who is enlightened is mahaakasha; he is 'without boundaries'. A man who is limited by boundaries is chitaakasha. So, when a chitaakasha becomes a mahaakasha, and enters a kataakasha, the whole space is cleansed and flooded with energy. The 'space' becomes 'spaciousness' and it comes back to its original pure state of life.
That is why it is said, 'Tirtiye kurvanti tirtinah.' When an enlightened person enters a place, it becomes a 'Tirta' (a place of pilgrimage near a holy river). Grihalakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth who resides in the house, enters into such ecstasy, that the place becomes a 'Tirta'. It is also said that, when we go and bathe in the sacred river Ganges, all our sins are washed away. Whereas, when an enlightened person goes to the Ganges and dips, the Ganges is cleansed of the sins! It becomes pure and holy!
This is what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa also said when he was asked why he went on a 'Tirta Yatra', pilgrimage to the holy water spots. Wherever he dipped, the water got purified. Masters descend with the tremendous responsibility of bringing good will to mankind. So they do all that they can, in whatever way that they can, to fulfill this responsibility.