Ananda Yoga – Path of Ecstasy
Ananda is bliss. Nanda is something that can die out, disappear and is related to suffering. Ananda is that which can never disappear from your being, it is bliss. It is not joy. Joy brings suffering in its wake. Ananda is beyond joy. It is eternal bliss, nithya ananda.
Pleasure is what you feel through your senses based on an outer object; music, a fragrance, a beautiful sight, physical touch. When you meet nature, a mountain, a sea, a forest, you feel joy. When you feel ecstasy without sensory inputs or nature, not even inputs of forms of God, only from your inner core of energy, your atman, without any external input, it is bliss. It can be with no reason. It comes from within. That is Ananda.
Yoga: it's important to understand what yoga is not. Yoga is not physical exercises or breath control; these are but parts of Yoga. Yoga is union; the union with the divine; union with the cosmic power. It is Chitta vritti nirodaha: it's the cessation of the mind, to take it beyond the mind, to be one with existence. The blissful technique to unite your own self with the divine is ananda yoga, using bliss itself to unite.
Ananda Yoga is the path of ecstasy, not the path to ecstasy. The very path, the very travel is ecstasy, not just the goal. Life has no goal, it has only purpose. It is not something you find at the end, you find it all along the way. Living has a purpose. If life is a goal it's a rat race; even when you win this race you are still a rat. The very living is bliss when you go without a goal, only with a purpose of enjoying the path.
You can not look at God as a goal. You can not run towards God. In inner world, logic is very different. Goals are not reached by running towards them. Vivekananda says: Arise, awake, and do not stop till the goal is reached. I say: arise, awake, stop; goal is reached. Zen masters say when you stop seeking you will find it. Seeking makes you tense, it makes you miss your purpose. In a relaxation course you are so tense that you lose the purpose.
I say accept all guilt, all mistakes, and all failures; even if you can not accept, accept that you can not accept. You will then relax; guilt will drop from your mind. Yoga is cessation of the mind. If your mind is tense it can never stop. Only when you relax it can cease. You have to drop goal orientation. If you accept what you are, what is, mind will lose its roots. Mind and bliss are like a daughter in law and mother in law; they can not stay together. When you come and say that Swami, my mother in law does not understand your teaching, be very sure that you have not understood. When mind is, bliss is not. It is either mind or bliss.
In path of Ecstasy the very living is ecstasy. What is bliss path? What is the goal? What is to be achieved? Why are there so many religions, so many cults, so many sects, so many masters, and so many teachings? There are many masters, very few disciples. What is the purpose? It is Satchitananda. Sat is that truth which always exists; chit is consciousness; ananda is bliss. All meditators search for the Truth, that which is permanent. Path of Consciousness is when you surrender yourself to the Master, to the Divine. In the path of ananda, bliss, the start, the path and the end, all are bliss. When your consciousness is surrendered to the ultimate truth the path is blissful, the travel is bliss, and its end is also bliss.
Religion, which is dull and dry, is a punishment. After a long dry sermon the priest announced that there would be a congregation of the Church Board in the next room; soon after when people assembled in the next room, there was a stranger and the priest asked why he was there since it was a meeting of the Board, and only for members of the Board. The stranger replied that he thought it was a meeting for the bored, and since he was bored by the sermon he also came in. That's what mostly religion is; boring.
Religion has become a ceremony, and a ritual forced on people through greed and fear; greed of heaven and fear of hell. Its objective is anti life.
In an ashram in Bharat the Master had a pet cat, which every day came for the puja and played and disturbed the puja. So the Master ordered that the cat be covered in a basket during puja. This practice continued. One day the cat died. Disciples went and got another cat because they thought puja can not happen without a cat. Even after the master's death the practice continued. It became a standard operating procedure. If one day they could not get a cat, there was no puja.
There is a yoga group where the practice takes months to open the chakras through long dry techniques. Those people who practice this yoga, when they came to attend an ASP with me were surprised that chakras can be opened in 2 days. I said these old techniques were designed in olden days of bullock carts; but Ananda Yoga is a jet age technique where things happen at the speed of light.
The very beginning of Ananda Yoga is bliss. All mystics say God is Satchidananda. Even Jesus says: Be still and know that I am God; he is talking about Truth, the Christ consciousness within Jesus, not about himself. When Masters talk about I, they mean their spirit, not their body. A fanatic group of Krishna devotees called me to a meeting. They asked, do you believe in Gita. I said, of course, it is the ultimate book. They then asked why do you then worship Shiva instead of Krishna. I have a temple to Dakshinamurti in the ashram. Sankara says in Dakshinamurti Stotram: What a surprise, under the big banyan tree a small boy is sitting as a guru, and people who are sitting in front of him are as old as his grandfather; the very presence of the guru destroys all their doubts and negativities. This is true of many Masters like Sankara, Vivekananda, Ramana and others.
I said Krishna and Shiva are the same energy. They said in Gita Krishna says: I am God. I said no, when Krishna says I, he does not refer to the body, the son of Vasudeva, but his super consciousness. I told them to read Anagita, which follows Gita. After the Mahabharata war, Krishna and Arjuna went out together. Arjuna says: I have forgotten all you said earlier, can you repeat. Krishna says: you forgot, oh, but I also forgot. Arjuna says how is that possible? Krishna says the person who spoke to you then was not the Vasudeva Krishna but Parabrahma Krishna. I spoke as the Parabrahman then. Now I am in the normal state. I am now in the Form. Then I was Formless. Gita was delivered as energy.
A disciple asked sometimes you look divine, unfathomable, other times you look like an innocent child. There are two dimensions. Enlightened Masters keep a small thread to keep them selves in the human form. They can come and go. Krishna when he opened his mouth showed the universe to Yashoda. When he closed it he starts eating mud.
Krishna said I shall go back and bring back that memory. That memory is Anagita. When I explained it to the Krishna fanatics they finally accepted that Shiva and Krishna are the same.
When the path is Truth, it is all beyond form. Koran says: I am the Truth. Upanishads say: Aham Brahmasmi. Zen: Very being is Buddha. Everywhere concept of truth is accepted. In this path untruth has to be renounced. No one follows it these days.
In the path of consciousness you have to be devoted. You have to sing songs, be very devoted to practices; these too are difficult for many.
In the path of ananda there are no restrictions, nothing to renounce. Your living, every moment of your life, has to be ananda, bliss.
I was sitting with kids today (this was in a city in the USA). None laughed. I told them a few stories. They never laughed. They behave in such a matured way that I thought I will grow old if I spend more time with them. Every one was talking like an adult. In the US they have forgotten to be kids. I want to take them to Bharat and show how kids laugh and enjoy themselves. I was shocked that they did not laugh. I was bored. In Bharat I went to attend a meeting with kids and I was asked to speak. One kid did not understand what I was saying: he came and pulled my dhoti; he made me stop and pay attention to him. He was clear what he wanted; he acted like a child should. Here in the US they are too cultured. They will become depressed. Depression is the gift of logic to the educated. You even measure your laughter. You start talking to someone only after you have verified who that person is. It is sad. They were all expressionless; they think they are Buddhas; they are Buddhus. They were all asking philosophical questions. Nothing was practical. They learn from adults. They learn from our body language.
I shall give you now three small keys from Tantra to make your life blissful. Forget all your ASP, NSP and Healers' Initiation techniques and meditations; just carry these three keys, that's enough.
First key is acceptance of life; never grudge, grumble. If you accept you will have intelligence to accept life. This is 'Thatata' which is ease, ease of acceptance. A middle aged lady went to Buddha with her son's dead body one early morning, and pleaded: Lord please revive him. Buddha knew what ever he could say would be unacceptable to her. He said go and get a handful of mustard seed from a house where no one has died. She goes from house to house, without finding even one such house. What she is suffering from every one else has suffered too. There is no house in this world where someone has not died.
We worry because we feel others do not worry. If we realize every one has worries we won't worry. We need to see others unhappy to reduce our unhappiness.
When this lady understood this truth she became a nun, a bikku. She said even if you had given my child life, my life would have gone on as usual. Now I am transformed.
Giving life is not a miracle, transforming a person is the miracle.
A boy became a Sanyasi. His elder brother came to take him back. Whenever some one wants to take up spiritual life there will always be problems. If there is no problem then being a renunciate won't suit you. Husband grumbles about wife spending time at ashram. Wife thinks husband will become a sanyasi. Only when there is a problem, you come without telling the other person, only then it is worth it. In Bharat husband and wife both come separately without telling each other and meet at the ashram. Some people do not want to show publicly that they go to ashram, since people may think that they have a problem; they will want to make sure that some other persons they know will not be there; then they will meet them there; that's life.
Thata happens when you accept. Accept life as it happens.
The elder brother kept insisting that the younger come back. The younger brother said: what will happen if I come back. We will fight for father's property after sometime. I shall give you all that property now. Take it and go away. The elder brother understood, accepted and went away.
If you do not accept, are things going to change? No. Nothing will change. Wherever you can change you will change.
Next is a conscious decision to live joyfully.
Here's a Su fi story. The great master Abdullah was always happy, in laughter, in bliss. Some one asked him how you are so joyful. Please teach us. Every day when I get up I ask Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah, what do you want today? Joy or Suffering? Mind says I want bliss. I say have bliss. That's all. Disciple says but there is so much suffering. Abdullah said so what? If you suffer does it help? No. If you live in bliss miracles happen in your life.
Never decide for two days; decide only for one day; that day; the next twenty four hours. You know almost always what is happening in the next 24 hours. For most people it is the same thing that happens for the next 24 years; same wife, same house, same children. It is like the radio that is tuned to a particular station. You get what you are tuned to. If you are tuned to bliss you will get bliss.
Next 24 hours accept what ever happens. if some one calls you a dog , bark and show you are a dog. That's Thatata.
The third is this. Abdullah is asked what if the mind chooses suffering instead of bliss. Abdullah says if your mind wants suffering, enjoy the suffering. The problem is the conflict that you have when you want something and you can not enjoy when you get what you wanted. It's like ordering food in a restaurant and not wanting to pay the bill. You do not like the consequences of what you desire. You forget that there will be pain after pleasure.
So if suffering happens, enjoy as it is your choice.
Follow these three techniques, and your path will be bliss and your goal will be bliss.
Paunarip jananaM paunarip marNaM Paunarip jananaI jazro SayanaM [h saMsaaro bahudustaro kRpyaaparo paihmauraro ||
punarapi jananam punarapi maranam punarabi janani-jataare sayanam, iha samsáre bahu-dustáre krupaya' páre páhi muráre.
Repeated birth, repeated death, and repeated lying in mother's womb - this transmigratory process is extensive and difficult to cross; save me, O Destroyer of Mura, through your grace!
Bhaja Govindam 21
Ananda Healing
This article is not an article transcribed from a discourse
Many of us Ananda Healers had taken the process of healing for granted. We had been initiated by an enlightened Master. The Master had told us: "Go forth and heal!" People healed when we worked with them. No other explanation seemed necessary.
Till one afternoon, when one of our most experienced Healers asked a few of us:
What is disease? How is it caused? How is it cured? How does spiritual healing work? What is ananda healing? How does meditation help healing?
Answers were not that obvious as we felt they were. We had to search within ourselves for answers. We talked and through the process we Ananda Healers have consulted our Master, who was possibly sleeping 5000 miles away. Let us tell you what we learnt.
We salute our Master and the Healer who made us think. May their tribes increase!
The human body is like a river. On the surface the river looks the same always. It is sometimes calm and sometimes turbulent, but essentially the same. The water that is in the river is however never the same; it changes every instant.
Our body looks the same from outside. It does grow, but after a point it is always recognizable as the individual. Yet, within the body, the cells, the building blocks that make up the body die and are born every instant. There is no cell that remains the same within our body after six months. We are all rivers, rivers of energy.
Our bones, muscles, tissues and all limbs are made of cells. Our cells are made of DNA structure. These living elements of cells and DNA are intelligent. Our intelligence does not reside in our brains alone; they are distributed in every single cell of our mind body system. The intelligence of our cells is their living energy. Not just the cells, but even our thoughts carry our energy.
No learned person will dispute these points; they are proven facts.
When our energy system is disrupted we are not at ease; we feel dis-eased. Each system of medical healing tackles our diseases in its own unique way. Western allopathic medicine believes in working on specific symptom individually at each body part. If heart is diseased the heart is carefully examined. It is then treated based on tested and tried out empirical methods. Allopathic medicines are all chemicals. These drugs are developed by noticing the effects of plant or herbal cures for similar diseases or by formulating new chemical drugs which are then extensively tested upon symptoms. Even if our diseases are cured by this approach, we are left with the residue of chemicals in our body. These residues may give rise to other diseases.
Other forms of medicine such as Homeopathy, Ayurveda etc. are more holistic. They take the individual personality into account, instead of treating all of us like a collection of body parts. Very few systems such as the Traditional Chinese Medicine as well ancient kalaripayattu techniques of Bharat go further to look at the body as an energy system. They try to cure the body by unblocking energy pathways and activating them. In some of the more advanced techniques of these systems the mind is addressed as well.
Recently many spiritual healing techniques such as Reiki and Pranic Healing have become popular. They are also effective. These techniques rightly establish a connection between the energy of the Universe that surrounds us and the energy system within us. They attempt to heal by energizing the human body by using the Universe energy through the contact of an initiated healer. Many of these techniques can affect the healer negatively unless precautions are taken. Pranic Healers are told to wash their hands in salt water after healing so that the diseases of the healed do not affect them. Many others involve processes and rituals that divert the mind.
Hindu scriptures talk about the five elements of nature: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Energy of the Universe is etheric energy, the subtlest, most powerful and the most abundant of all energy. We are all an inherent part of these five elements. These five elements are an integral part of us.
Through spiritual healing we recoup energy from own elements back into us. Because of this spiritual healing can never harm us.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM initiates seekers into Ananda Healing System. Ananda healing system is essentially a spiritual healing system. Ananda Healing uses the Universe energy to empower the human energy system to heal itself. As in all the spiritual energy healing methods here also the healer is a conduit for the energy to flow through. However, Ananda Healing has a few major differences from other commonly practiced spiritual healing techniques.
- Ananda healing has no negative impact on the Healer. It has no side effects on the healed. This is the only system we know where the healer is simultaneously healed during the healing. At another level there is a continuous input into one's spiritual path.
- Ananda Healing works at the highest energy level possible, at the nirvanic level, which is the level of cosmic energy. It is possible for the ananda healer to reach this level because the meditation on anada gandha is wordless upon the formless. Other energy healing practices which use symbols and words reach only up to the lower etheric layer of energy and therefore are limited in effectiveness
- Ananda healing has no symbols or rituals to follow. Once initiated just the intent to heal with a focus on one's ananda gandha starts the healing process. Since healing energy is intelligent it does not have to be applied at any specific point. The energy flow stops when what is required for the healing has been received.
- The person getting healed is advised to practice a mahamantra meditation
practice. This meditation connects the mind of the healed person with the healing process and makes it very effective. Meditation moves the mind to a near no thought state so that there is no block to the body system receiving the cosmic energy. In addition the positive energy of the meditation reinforces the cosmic energy that is received by the body. Our body in turn uses this energy to heal itself.
Experiments have been conducted upon THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM at Oklahoma University, USA and at St.Louis, USA recently. These show that during the healing process extraordinary changes take place both in Swami's brain and in the brain of the person being healed. The connection between the Healer, the Healed and the Cosmic Energy is gradually being demystified and explained in modern scientific terms. All spiritual healing, including Ananda Healing, should be used only as a complement to a main stream healing such as allopathy. The Doctor must decide when traditional medicine should be discontinued based on his observation of patient's progress.
Initiation into Ananda Healing is very simple at one level. It is also very complex at another. Ananda Healing capability can only be bestowed upon the Healer by a direct touch of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM initiates the Healer subject to certain conditions of service to others and one's own life style. Healers must agree to heal anyone who approaches them, friend or foe, free of cost. Healers must be vegetarians, non smokers and use no alcohol or other drugs. Ananda Healers are not only initiated into healing, but also into a spiritual path.
Ananda Healing initiation by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM opens the seeker's Ananda Gandha. Ananda Gandha is the point at which all chakras merge finally. Ananda Gandha is in the heart region and is the seat of bliss. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM awakens the Ananda Gandha of the seeker to allow the body to receive and give cosmic energy without any block. This is an experience that is severely limited by words. No Ananda Healer whom we know has remained the same after initiation. A major personal transformation is initiated as well. It is then the choice of the individual to make use of this transformation. At the most passive level one is still a powerful healer. With active practice the healer progresses on one's own spiritual path.
Swami Says:
Buddha has said: Healing is expression of your compassion and care towards someone to help them is healing. Healing is restoring physical, mental and emotional well being. Healing can happens at any of these levels.
The system of healing was created by Patanjali thousands of years ago, out of the practices of thousands of great masters who expressed their energies by healing others. According to him there are seven energy centers in our body that control our physical, mental, psychological, intellectual and Being level activities. These centers, also called chakras, are also someway related to our glandular functions. Techniques such as Kirlian photography have established the existence of chakras by photographing the aura or subtle energy field of our body. Diagnostically this technique predicts the onset of diseases six months ahead of other common medical tests. If a person is emotionally affected, depressed, the chakras are very small, size of a button. If the person is happy, chakras expand 60 times or more. Mind is shown to play a major role on the chakras.
Attitude of prayer and meditation create positive energy vibrations that in turn positively enhance energy of the chakras. Each chakra is associated with an emotion. The Heart chakra or Anahata chakra is related to love. Heart signifies love in almost all languages. This is not a coincidence. When you see a loved one after years you feel an emotion at your heart region. Emotion wells up in the heart region. The navel chakra, Manipuraka, is related to worry. Any shocking news affects your stomach first. Ambitious people and perfectionists develop ulcers. If an emotion is abused the chakra gets blocked and creates disease and illness. Discomfort between body and mind creates dis-ease.
Meditation creates healing energy. When a person for whatever reason is unable to meditate, someone else can meditate, create the energy and transfer the energy to the person who is ill.
Einstein says matter creates energy. Scriptures go further and say energy creates matter. Scientists now affirm that energy particles that constitute matter are simultaneously static and moving, and that matter and energy are the same in time and space. If matter, such as a piece of cloth, can be given to another, why not energy? All you need to know is how. Energy can be given and taken. Healing is the science of giving such energy to the ill.
Who can give energy? A person who has realized something beyond body and mind and has realized energy is one who can radiate and give energy. He should have experienced energy within himself. Whether you understand or not, believe or not, experience or not, you are in energy. Who can receive energy? Any one in need can. People with an open mind and heart receive it better. A person who has not experienced his emotional side, whose EQ is low, who does not trust some one would find it more difficult to be healed. People in Hindu villages worship stone idols on the road side or rivers or natural powers with great faith and trust, and get healed.
US University researched 100 patients on the same disease and gave them colored water as placebo; not only the patients but even the doctors were not aware that these were not drugs. At the end of a week a number of patients were cured completely, a number were cured at least 50%. This experiment was repeated in 11 other locations with similar results. They concluded that faith alone with no medical intervention cures a significant number of people.
Imagine, more than one third can be cured by faith and trust. Problem is that all our education denies this; it works on our intellect and starves our emotions. This is actually harmful. Intellectual growth without emotional growth is harmful, dangerous.
Mahabharata: There are three strengths: physical, mental and spiritual. If man has only physical strength or power he will become a thug. If he has only intellectual strength he will be a criminal. Only when a man has spiritual strength in addition, can a person become useful to society. Atomic weapons stored in our planet can destroy the planet earth 700 times. It is because we have developed our physical and intellectual aspects without any inputs to our spiritual side. In Hindu villages temples are the centre point; this was to develop the emotional and holistic development of people.
Sarada Devi says: Live with deep faith, deep trust and deep love. Even if you get cheated you would still live like a God. Without them even if you prosper you do not live your life.
People ask: our ancestors wasted energy by building big temples. Western countries build universities and infrastructure. I said: you do not understand yourself. These temples are the root of our emotional development. They keep us relatively safe from emotional disorders. Only 1% in Bharat is affected by mental disorders. In most western countries 2 out 3 are affected.
If you are open to the cosmic energy you will be healed physically, emotionally. kuruto gaga^a saagargamanama\ vrtpairpalanaM Atvaa danama\ &anaivaihna sava-matona maui@tM na Bajait janmasatona ||
kurute gangasagaragamanam vrataparipalnam athava danam, jnanavihina sarvamatena muktim na bhajati janmasatena
One goes on pilgrimage to the place where the Ganga joins the sea; or observe the religious vows with care; or offers gifts. But if he be devoid of knowledge, he does not gain release-according to all schools of thought-even in a hundred lives.