JAIN SUTRAS DISCOURSE 3 TRUE KNOWLEDGE🔗

From a Discourse by SPH JGM Bhagavān THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Buena Park, CA, USA March 8, 2007

Namo arihantanam Namo siddhanam Namo ayariyanam Namo uvajjhayanam Namo loe savva-sahunam

Eso panch namokaro Savva-pavappanasano Manglananch savvesim Padhamam havei mangalam

Today's topic is true knowledge. Everybody, every Master, every spiritual person claims what they are teaching is true knowledge. How do we find out what we are hearing is the true knowledge? There should be a scale for satya. There should be a scale for Truth. What is Truth? There should be a clear definition. There should be a clear scale with which we can find out whether it is Truth or not. Mahāvīra is giving the touchstone definition of satya here.

Today we are going to enter into the satya sutra. Mahāvīra is giving the techniques, methods, to find out what you are listening is true knowledge or not through these beautiful sutras.

He will speak to the point, because basically he is brought up without fear. A king is a person who only creates fear in others. He doesn't have fear. He doesn't bother. He doesn't use the socially polite words.

But a person who is poor, or a beggar, or a person who lives in the forest, even if he becomes enlightened, he will not talk the Truth completely. He has to use socially polite words. He can't tell the Truth which goes against the vested interests of the society or the king.

But when a king becomes enlightened he doesn't bother. He says the Truth in the best way. He presents the Truth as it is. Here the best expression is happening, because Mahāvīra was a king. You see, one more thing, when you live a life with wealth and richness you know all the secrets of the human mind. Understand, wealth gathers around you only when you know the secrets of the human mind.

But when a king becomes enlightened he doesn't bother. He says the Truth in the best way. He presents the Truth as it is. Here the best expression is happening, because Mahāvīra was a king. You see, one more thing, when you live a life with wealth and richness you know all the secrets of the human mind. Understand, wealth gathers around you only when you know the secrets of the human mind.

There are many different expressions by different Masters. Consider a person who was a beggar, or one who has never seen the world, who just lived a life in the forest, did meditation and became enlightened.His enlightenment will be the same, butHis expression will not be sharp becauseHis constitution, orHis mind,His inner software is not created based on fearlessness.

One more thing, even after enlightenment, when you settle into the body, when you want to teach, you use the same mental setup, with which you left. You may not have the greed and fear, the mental setup you had earlier, before enlightenment. But, the mental setup will be the same after enlightenment. The software programming will be the same.

Understand, this is an important revelation which you need to understand. Only then you will be able to appreciate the greatness of Mahāvīra's expression.

If a beggar becomes enlightened, he may not have the fear or greed, which he had before enlightenment, but the mental setup of living without possessing anything, or the mental setup of living by begging will be the same. So, he has to use that mental setup only to teach, to relate with the world.

Understand, after enlightenment, you use the same mental setup which you had before enlightenment. Only one difference, after enlightenment, if you want you can use, otherwise you can drop. You may have the freedom, but the mental setup, the software itself, will be the same.

Here Mahāvīra has the best software to express enlightenment - the fearless leader software, through which he can see the depth of the Truth and express it.

There are so many millions of examples I can give of people who did not have anything, renounced the life, and become enlightened. There is another set of people who became enlightened, but did not renounce after enlightenment. For example, Krishna, Janaka, and all these great Masters, who lived as kings, became enlightened, but they continued to live as kings. This is the second kind of mental setup. Such people will express the Truth with more clarity, in a better way than the first group.

The first group examples include all the rishis who lived in the forest and became enlightened. They have not seen the world. So that is the first group.

The second group is of people who lived as kings, became enlightened, but again continued to be as kings. Here the big problem is their teachings are interpreted, experienced, understood by the people who have vested interests.

Understand, when you are talking to your ministers, even if they don't understand they have to listen. But Mahāvīra has no captive audience. Mahāvīra is not talking to a captive audience.

In the case of Krishna, when Krishna is speaking toHis ministers, when he is teaching Arjuna, practically they are captive audience. Even if Arjuna doesn't want to hear he can't escape from Krishna. He has to listen because he is receiving some service from Krishna.

When your boss makes some joke, you have to laugh. You can't do anything about it. In the same way, when Janaka is teaching,His whole court has to listen. They are a captive audience. So the person who is listening, whether he agrees or not, has to listen. So the expression of the complete Truth is not possible.

I don't sit with my ashramites and take these spiritual classes. I give them only instructions what to do. They ask me, 'What is this Swamiji? You are not sitting and talking to us on Shiva Sutras or Jain Sutras and all these sutras.'

I tell them, already you are captive audience. Whatever I talk you have to listen. No other way. In that way the Truth can never be expressed. Truth cannot be expressed to a person who is bound to listen. Truth can be expressed only to a person who has got the freedom to doubt and question, who has got the freedom to doubt.

See you have a freedom, you can doubt me, and you have a freedom you can put the question. You have a freedom to go out. Only to you the Truth can be delivered. Truth can be delivered in its purest form only to a person who is not receiving anything else from a Master.

If you receive something else from me apart from Truth you may be sitting here for that. You can't receive the Truth. You are not qualified to receive the Truth.

Here, the whole thing, if you see, has come in a beautiful way. Mahāvīra is the ultimate category: he was a king who became enlightened and renounced the kingdom. He is teaching sitting on the platform of satya. Only one thing is holding him, satya. He doesn't have any other title, like a king, no.

He is heard by the people just because he is enlightened. See, after enlightenment if you are sitting on the throne of a king, people may hear you because you are king. You don't know why they are sitting and listening. You can't say people are sitting just because you are enlightened. They may be sitting because you are a king. There may be some other reason for you to sit.

In Hinduism during all of our rituals, means the homas, yagnas, we give free food, but I never give free food during meditation programs, because people may be sitting for food. I will not know whether they are sitting there to listen on meditation or enlightenment or for food.

I tell them give free food during yagnas, during rituals, not during meditation. It is a disrespect to meditation. I don't want that. There should not be anything else associated with the spiritual Truth, no.

If you associate anything else with the spiritual Truth the possibility is there the Truth will not be heard properly, it will not be received properly. Here Mahāvīra is talking to people who are not bound to him in any way, who are seekers. One more thing, seekers are the most dangerous people, because you can't bind them, you can't bind them and there is nothing which can bind them.

You can bind them only by love and gratitude. So, you can't even use the binding, it can't even be a bondage. You can keep them together only based on love and gratitude.

Here he is talking to a community of seekers, who are not receiving anything else from him but Truth. They are not there for anything else except Truth, and he is not carrying any title. He has renounced all the titles. So nobody is sitting in front of him because he has got some title, because he is a king of someplace, or he is somebody. No.

People are sitting in front of him just to listen to the Truth. He is a pure being without any personality, without any title. See, the word 'persona' comes from a Greek root. In those days the drama actors would use masks. That mask only is called persona. Personality means the mask which you are using.

Sukabrahma came to listen from king Janaka. Sukabhrama has to listen, because Janaka is a king. Janaka is a captive audience. Whenever a king speaks you can't tell anything.

But, here with Mahāvīra there is no other relationship except the Master and seeker. The purity of relationship is important to maintain the purity of the teaching, purity of the Truth.

And one more thing, Mahāvīra has no vested interest, he is not talking to His people to make them do something. No. There is no ulterior motive. There is no goal.

One more thing, Arjuna was thinking himself as a friend. That's why in Gita he says, 'Krishna, forgive me I thought you were my friend. Hail Krishna, hail Yadiva, hail Shaketi. I called you as Yadiva, by your community name. I called you as my friend.'

Because he was thinking as a friend, so the purity of relationship is not there. You can't deliver a Truth to your friend. You can deliver a Truth only to a seeker.

Here the best mental setup, best software and the greatest enlightenment, greatest experience of enlightenment, and right persons with right attitude sitting in front of Mahvira. So the best Truth is being delivered.

True knowledge is coming out. He is giving us the scale. He is teaching us what is satya and how to find out whether something is Truth or not.

One more thing, even Patanjali, the greatest scientist of the inner world, says 'Apta pramana,' the words of an enlightened being can be accepted as the Truth. So, that can be considered as a scale. If an enlightened being says you can take it for granted it is Truth.

But Mahāvīra says, 'No.' He doesn't even want to say that anything told by an enlightened being is Truth, no, because who knows whether somebody is enlightened or not. God doesn't give certificate. What to do? We don't have a certificate.

So Mahāvīra goes a step further. He is not accepting apta pramana. He is not accepting Vedas are the ultimate Truth, no. Apta pramana is not accepted in Buddhism and in Jainism. In both religions, apta pramana is not accepted.

Apta pramana are the words of the enlightened ones. No. They say everything should be scrutinized. There is no such thing as apta pramana. There is no such thing as words of the enlightened beings, no. Everything has to be scanned. Everything has to be analyzed. He is giving beautiful teachings to find out what Truth is and which is true knowledge.

One more thing, please understand, this true knowledge is like a touchstone. If you use these sutras and analyze all your decisions which run your life, all your ideas which are base for your life you will achieve satya.

If you are established in Truth you don't have to do any spiritual practice. If you understand this one sutra and redefine all your decisions, ideas, concepts about your life, you don't need to practice any spiritual discipline; you are enlightened this moment. All you need to do is redefine all your ideas.

See, there are only a few pillars on which your life is standing, your life is established - your desires, your idea about yourself, how you position yourself in the inner world.

Understand, I am not talking about how you position yourself in the outer world. That all of you know, it is not worthy! Not only that, it is pure lies. All of you know whatever you may talk about yourself to others, you don't believe that. You may make others to believe but you really don't believe.

Just look inside, you can laugh at yourself. I always tell people, really when you sit alone and start thinking what all you project as you, actually if you really believe what all you project as you, by now you would have become enlightened.

Ramakrishna says, 'Man muk ek karo.' - if you make the mind and the words as one, you are enlightened.

See, any person who does not have depression is enlightened. If you are not enlightened, be very clear, you carry depression.

The other day one of our devotees was telling me, a friend of his had seen a movie and he came and told him, 'I became enlightened from today.' This devotee is a strong intellectual person, he took him to task. Within ten minutes that man 'lost the enlightenment'. He was trying to convince himself for months that he was enlightened. This person took away his enlightenment in ten minutes!

He was only telling others he was enlightened. He himself was not able to believe. If anybody can come and talk to you and in ten minutes you lose your enlightenment, then what kind of enlightenment is it? Either you should have the courage to really believe what you are talking, or talk only what you believe.

See, an important Truth which you should know, sometimes you may radiate enlightenment without even knowing the word 'enlightenment'. I have seen in Himalayas there was a great mahatma, one naga baba. Naga baba means one doesn't wear clothes.

I had the fortune to be at His feet for six months. I was blessed, fortunate enough to be at His feet. He would always be smoking ganja (marijuana). You may think how can a person who is smoking ganja be enlightened? That is what I also thought when I went to serve Him.

You see, traditionally you are supposed to serve elderly sādhus to achieve enlightenment. So, before my enlightenment I was serving wherever I saw some elderly sādhu. I would go and sit at His feet. I would give them whatever food I could beg and collect, and wash their vessels, and do whatever little help I could do.

One thing I was surprised about was I never saw him eating. He had no food and no water. Except ganja, he took nothing else. I was shocked. But he was such a pleasing person. When you went and sat around him you would feel so beautiful and you would feel like sitting around him, because he was so innocent. He was not even aware he was innocent. I never saw him wearing any clothes. He is an avadhuta naga, wearing no clothes and not bothered about anything happening around him in the world. He was just in a high state of samadhi.

One day I asked him, 'Baba, you are such a great person, why are you smoking ganja? Don't you think it is an immoral thing and people will start smoking seeing you? Already they are doing, they only want some reference and support. Especially for a person with arrogance, if you become the reference then he can do anything.'

He said beautifully, 'Fool, you think a big elephant can be tied inside a small hut! I can't live inside the body without any desire, so I have to just dull myself.' Understand, when he said I saw the authenticity.

The other day also, one more person came and spoke to me. He said, 'Swamiji, I am also smoking to put me inside the body.' I told him, ' Do whatever that naga baba is doing, then do this also. The baba doesn't wear clothes, he doesn't eat, he doesn't drink. You also do all those things, then you can justify your smoking. You can't just do whatever you want unless it becomes your experience.'

One important thing, I saw in the baba when he was telling, 'I have to dull myself,' it was an authentic Truth. His mind and His words were the same. Not only that when you lived around him you realized he was established in satya, he was established in Truth, and had no vested interest.

See, if somebody doesn't eat or smoke, if somebody doesn't eat or drink, they would have made a big business out of that power. But I had never seen him making a big fuss about it. If people asked him, 'Why you don't eat baba?', he would say, 'Ah, who will get up and go and cook and eat! Forget about it.' He would not even show that it is a big power. You couldn't even see that ego, that he lives without food and water.

When you are really established in Truth you will not be aware of your own powers. You will only radiate, but you will not know those words.

I asked him, 'What is atmagnana?' He did not even know that word, but he is an atmagnani. He was radiating atmagnana, he was radiating enlightenment, but he didn't know the word.

And he said, 'I am fortunate I did not learn about Brahman. I achieved Brahma gnana because I did not learn those words!'

In the same way, when people asked Ramana Maharshi, 'What is Brahma gnana? What is atmagnana?' He said, 'I am fortunate I did not learn those words before my enlightenment.' Because learning some words may postpone your enlightenment.'

Sometimes learning too many words will postpone your enlightenment. I always tell people, never read any book which is written by an unenlightened person. Don't read anything which is written by an unenlightened person - because you may create words which will stop your enlightenment. You may create a negative software which does not support the enlightenment process.

An enlightened person's words will create a positive software in you, which is constantly inspiring you toward enlightenment. See in the end, all enlightened Masters will be pushing you towards sadhana, towards enlightenment.

There is a beautiful book called Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita called in English as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. In that one of Ramakrishna's disciples, Brahmānanda, says, 'If you read Ramakrishna's words in that book every day for one year, I assure you will have the darshan of the Ultimate, you will experience enlightenment.' You will be shocked. How can a person assure, how can a person guaranteed enlightenment in one year?

I tell you, when you read these Master's words again and again, when you listen to these great Masters' words again and again, you create a new software, you create a new mental setup, which reminds you the ultimate Truth again and again, which inspires you towards that higher ideal again and again.

Every day you are again put on the track. You are again inspired to run. You are again given the enthusiasm to take up the journey. It is like an everyday inspiration and it creates a new mental setup.

One year is actually too much time! It is true when you read or listen to the Master's words, one year is enough to create a mental setup which will radiate enlightenment.

It's like there is a light. In every one of you that light is there. In front of the light if there is a wall that light can't shine. If there is a glass that light can penetrate and it can shine. Putting glass instead of wall is reading an enlightened being's words.

As of now you have a big wall in front of your light which is the swayamprakasha jyoti, the self-effulgent light which is inside your being. You have put a big wall. That wall is your mind.

If you just put a glass - the mental setup which can allow that light to express itself, the mental setup which does not block or stop that light from expressing itself - you will see that enlightenment is radiating through your senses, it is radiating through your being.

See, I can't even say enlightenment needs to be achieved. No. Your senses are supposed to be purified, so that that light can penetrate and express through them, that's all.

All of you have it, there is no doubt about it. All you need to do is purify your body and mind, so that you can allow that to express through you, so that you can radiate. Nothing else needs to be done.

The purifying mechanism or the alchemy process - you can't even call as mechanism - the alchemy process is what I call flooding yourself with this Truth, satya.

Vivekananda says, 'Flood your whole being with the Truth. Whatever can be washed away, let it be washed away. The earlier it is washed away, the better it is for you and for the people who are around you.'

See, one thing, if you have a clear idea about what you believe is you and what you talk about you, what you express as you and what you believe as you, you will attract that same kind of people around you and you will live completely at ease.

You see, one thing, there is no such thing as morality. If you have the wrong ideas about morality, only then you need to hide what you are and you need to project what you want and what people want. You need to project yourself as society expects you to be, if you have the wrong ideas about morality. Only one thing you need to understand is just be what you are. This is the ultimate morality.

If you lose some friends because of that, perfectly alright, nothing wrong. It is better to lose your friends than your self. If you present yourself as your friends want you to be, you will lose you. You are more valuable than your friends.

Understand one more important thing, if you start talking about you which is not you, by and by you will get confused about who you are! See, whatever you speak continuously, you start believing that as the Truth. That is the big difficulty.

Take this as a simple spiritual practice and try to do. Just for ten days, again and again tell everybody that you are an honest person, you are a person living the Truth. Just continuously, even if they are not ready to listen, you talk. Just say. After ten days you will really start believing it.

Another difficulty is, whatever you start telling, you start believing. And if whatever belief you had about you already is the same then you fall in tune. This becomes a spiritual practice. But if what you are believing and what you are saying now is different, then there is a conflict between you and You.

Whether to create conflict between you and You or create easeness between you and You is in your hands. Constantly if you say something you will start believing and the difficulty is if your unconscious is already believing something else, you have difficulty and the war starts between your conscious and unconscious.

One more thing, a person who is established in the Truth will not have dreams. All dreams are a fight between your conscious and unconscious mind. Whenever the frequency of your consciousness rises you will come out of your dreams.

The conscious mind is waiting to overcome the dream state and the dream state is waiting to overcome the conscious state. Your life is nothing but the struggle between these two. The moment your conscious mind rests, the dream state takes over and the moment your dream state is exhausted with the material, your conscious mind takes over.

Understand, when the dream state is exhausted because it doesn't have any more material, any more fuel, then the conscious state takes over. If the conscious state has no fuel, the dream state takes over. If both of them have no fuel, then the deep sleep state, sushupti, comes up.

Your whole life is a fight among these three. Whoever is strong, whoever has got more samskaras, they rule you, that's all. If you are suffering without deep sleep, it means your conscious and unconscious, your jagrat (waking) and swapna (dream) states have got too much of samskaras. They are not ready to relax. They are not ready to give space for your sushuputi.

They say, 'Enough, no, we don't need sushupti. We have enough fuel. We have enough of desires. We have enough of anxiety. We have enough of fear to create again and again more and more scenes in front of us.'

One more thing you need to understand, what you see during the waking state: this auditorium, me sitting in front of you, your friends, the chair on which you are sitting, everything is created out of the same stuff in which dreams are created.

Understand, let me repeat once more. Whatever you are seeing now: this auditorium, the person who is sitting in front of you, and the person who is sitting next to you, and the chair on which you are sitting, everything is created out of the same stuff, the same stuff out of which your dreams are created.

Now you have a lot of difficulties, 'Oh, for this only I am working from morning until night. No, no maybe this auditorium is created out of the same stuff, but not my house and my car.' No. Whatever you are seeing, whether in the dream or in waking state is created out of the same stuff.

Understand, I am just thinking what words to use to tell you the authenticity of this Truth, because this one understanding will put you on satya, will just put you on satya, the Truth.

One more thing, this one understanding will liberate you from all your anxiety and you will become the best manager. If you know you are creating your wealth, if you know you are projecting and seeing things around you, you can create miracles. You can make miracles happen around you.

See, it is like any slide which is kept in front of a projector light becomes reality on the screen, it appears as reality on the screen.

So, if you want to change the scenes on the screen, going and scratching the screen will not work, or trying to fight with the lights will not work.

Just do a small correction on the slide, it is done. Your life is just like that. The projector light is your consciousness and the slide is your samskaras, and the screen is the life which you are living.

Now you are fighting with the screen or the light beams. You are trying to push the light beam, 'No, no, move, move, move.' But you don't understand, you can't even grasp it. Fighting with the screen is not going to work.

A small story:

One man, fully drunk, came back to his house late at night and fell on the way, but he didn't want to create any sound. So, he came very politely, and silently entered the house, and covered himself with the blanket.

But suddenly he realized that there was blood all over his face. He ran to the bathroom, tried to put on a bandage, put some medicine and tried to dress himself.He came back and somehow managed to sleep.

Next day morning his wife started shouting at him, 'Fool, did you drink and come last night!'

He said, 'Drinking, why?' He started acting as if he didn't know anything and he was innocent. 'No, no, no, no, no. How do you know I drank and came? No. I came a little late, because there was too much work in the office.'

She said, 'No. I can be sure you were drunk.'

He asked, 'How do you know? How can you be sure?'

His wife replied, 'Because you put the bandage on the mirror, not on your face!'

Seeing the mirror, he put the bandage on the mirror. Understand, you working with the outer world is nothing but putting the bandage on the mirror. That is not going to heal you. That is in no way going to help you.

You may have an idea that you put some bandage, you have put some medicine. You may try to sleep with the idea that you will be ok by next morning.

Working with the light beams is not going to help. Fighting with the screen is not going to help. Just do a small correction on the slide. And I tell you, doing a small correction on the slide needs intelligence. That is where the problem starts.

You do not have that much of sensitivity to look into your life and see that you are creating it, you are projecting it. You are expressing it, because you never connected and verified all the outer world incidents and your inner world thoughts.

You neither gave that much time to yourself, nor had the intelligence to connect and see. Connecting and seeing how your thoughts are creating your world is what I call meditation.

People come and tell me, 'Swamiji, in meditation I am getting too many thoughts. What to do?''

Please understand, meditation is not trying to create a thoughtless state. It may happen in the end, but when you sit in the beginning, you will not have a thoughtless state and you are not asked to meditate to immediately get the thoughtless state. No.

Whenever I ask people to meditate, the first thing I expect them to have is thoughts which create intelligence, thoughts which create clarity and the thoughts which give life solutions.

First in the beginning, when you sit with yourself you will have only these things inside you. You will not experience the thoughtless state immediately. You will have pratyahara and dharana. Only then dhyana will happen.

In the beginning when you sit you all your problems will come up and you will start having life solutions. You will have the clarity to solve all your problems.

So I tell people, 'Even if thoughts are not disappearing, don't stop sitting.' Because the first time when you sit with yourself, it is like an appointment with yourself. All the things which need to be settled, all the things which need clarification, all those things will be happening inside you. You will be falling in tune with satya. You will be falling in tune with the Truth itself.

Here, Mahāvīra is giving beautiful sutras, beautiful teachings, to measure some idea whether it is Truth or not. Understand, he is not teaching you to speak the Truth - because if you position yourself in satya, if you are established in satya, speaking the Truth will be an automatic thing. It will become a natural thing for you.

If you are practicing just verbal satya, please understand that is not the ultimate satya. If you are practicing only verbal satya, any time you may escape from it, you may move away from it. Even the so-called Dharmaraja, who is considered to be a great satyavan or one who is established in satya and a great speaker of Truth, has lied.

A small story:

In Mahabharata, there is such a wonderful story. Mahabharata and Ramayana are the great epics of Hinduism. They are still the world's longest poems.

There is a beautiful story in Mahabharata. To kill Dronacharya you have to depress him mentally. Unless you depress him mentally, you can't reduce His power. If you put somebody in depression, they will have shoulder pain and they will not be able to handle their hands powerfully and they can be defeated.

Dronacharya is the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas. Now Krishna wants Drona to be put into depression, otherwise he can't be killed, he can't be conquered. He can't be conquered directly. Physically His power is extraordinary, because he is a teacher. Naturally no student can cross a teacher.

The only way to put Drona into depression is by telling him that His son has died, because he is too attached with His son. That is the only samskara in him which can put him in depression.

He is unclutched, detached from everything else. Putra shoka can put him in depression. The suffering related to His son can put him in depression. That is the only possibility.

Now somebody has to tell Drona thatHis son Ashwatthama has died. If normal people tell him this information he may not immediately believe, he may go to verify.

The only person everybody believes is. He is supposed to be a person who speaks only Truth, nothing else. He is established in the verbal Truth. He speaks only Truth verbally. Everybody believes that. So Krishna wanted Dharmaraja to tell Dronacharya that Ashwatthama has died.

Now when Krishna requested Dharmaraja Yudhishtra, he says, 'No, I can't tell a lie. It is absolutely against my life and my policy.'

Krishna says, 'Alright, we will kill an elephant that is called Ashwatthama. You tell, 'The elephant called Ashwatthama died and I'll take care of everything else.'

Yudhishtra asked, 'How can that happen? If I tell the elephant which has got the name Ashwatthama has died, how can Drona be put into depression?'

Krishna said, 'That you don't bother. When you say the word 'the elephant which has got the name,' I will blow my conch. I will create some noise and Dronacharya will not be able to hear that word. He will hear only the word 'Ashwatthama died.' The moment he hears that word from you he will not go for verification. He will take it for granted and he will believe 100% and he will fall in depression, and we will kill him.'

Yudhishtra agreed. He said ok, because he was not telling a lie. He may not tell a lie verbally, he has not crossed the verbal Truth, but he can't be called anymore a satyavan.

He told the words, 'Ashwatthama ada kunjanaha' - the elephant which has got the name Ashwatthama, has died. At the time the words 'the elephant which is called,' were said, as planned, Krishna blew His conch, shankha, and Drona was not able to hear those words.

Drona heard only these two words, 'Ashwatthama died.' As they had planned, Drona literally believed and fell into depression and immediately lost the power in His shoulders. And he put His weapons down, and he was killed.

But along with that, something happened to Yudhishtra also. It is said that His chariot never touched the ground, it used to always float. Even if Yudhishtra got into the chariot, the chariot would float. The moment he said, 'The elephant called Ashwatthama died and Drona fell into depression and was killed, the story says Dharmaraja Yudhishtra's chariot fell on the ground.

He lost the title of Dharmaraja. Dharmadevi who was holding him till then, dropped him. Then Dharmaraja says, 'How can you drop me? How can you leave me and go away? I did not tell a lie.'

Dharmadevi says, 'No. You might be established in verbal satya, but you are not established in the Truth itself. You did something which is against the Truth knowingly.'

You see you may tell satya, but you should ensure that person understands as satya. You can't tell some word which will not give that same meaning, You can't use cunning techniques. If you do that, you are not Dharmaraja anymore.

And the story says, from that day Dharmaraja's chariot was on the ground. He walked on the ground.

See, actually when you are really established in dharma you live so gracefully, you float. When the story says he did not walk on the ground, I don't think he was flying. It is a metaphysical explanation, that he was never touched by these worldly things. He lived in a different space, where he did not have all the problems.

See now, you do not have the problems which the Hinduism people are facing in Hinduism. There are so many things Hinduismns are facing. Your problems are totally different. It is not that you don't have a problem. Your problems are different, their problems are different.

In the same way, Dharmaraja was never touched by problems of this planet earth. He had problems but only in a different level. That is what they mean by the words 'he was always floating.' He lived gracefully, till he did this act.

Understand, Truth does not mean just speaking Truth by words. It means establishing yourself in the Truth, satya pratishtha. Patanjali says, 'If you are established in Truth you achieve the results of the action without doing the action, for yourself and for others.'

It looks like too big a promise, too good to be true. Let us analyze how it is possible with the words of Mahāvīra. Then we will understand what Patanjali promises is true, not just too good to be true.

Mahāvīra says, 'Nichicala panam matenum musavaiya vivachanum bhasisyavumhiam satcham nitcha otaynadukharum'

Let me give you the translation:

'Being continuously alert, one should renounce asatya and speak only Truthful, honest words. Speaking such Truth is difficult indeed. A true sage does not speak words which can hurt others. Similarly any true person should not speak sinful words, even in anger, greed, fear, or ordinary talk with friends and relatives.'

And he further explains on satya with the next sutras. In the later sutras he gives a scale of how to judge whether something is Truth or not. On satya he has got so many sutras. Then the next sutras are on moksha and brahmacharya. There are so many other sutras, I have selected what I feel as important sutras.

'Being continuously alert, one should renounce asatya.' Understand, being continuously alert means establishing yourself in satya, being aware.

One more thing, if you decide just to speak the Truth verbally, you may do the mistake of Dharmaraja Yudhishtra. If you are established in satya you will never do that kind of mistake.

See, if you analyze this Dharmaraja's incident, that itself shows there was a hidden greed for kingdom. That is why he had to compromise.

See, many people come and tell me, 'Swamiji, I am not a spiritual person. I do not believe in spirituality, but I live an honest life, a moral life. I do good things for others. I speak Truth and live a good life. Is that not enough?'

I tell them, 'No. Because what you are saying is a lie. If you do not have a spiritual base, spiritual seeking, you will never be moral.'

Be very clear, you may think you are moral. You may think you are living a good life. No. You will not even be able to scan and find out whether you are playing cunning games or not with others, unless you are that intense.

Here that is what Mahāvīra says, 'being constantly alert.' When Gandhiji says, 'Till I started my spiritual practices, I never realized I am not perfect in my practice of satya. Only after practicing spirituality, after my spiritual sadhanas, I am able to perfect myself in the practice of satya also.'

Practice of satya needs continuously being alert - nichicala panam matenum . Being continuously alert one should renounce asatya and speak only Truthful, honest words.

Understand, not just Truthful, but honest also. Dharmaraja was Truthful but not honest. He said the Truth but he was not honest. That is why His chariot fell on the ground, it was dropped on the ground.

Honesty means you should be established in dharma. You should be established on Truth. You should not have cancer inside your being. Cancer inside your being means depression. Depression is the cancer inside your being.

See, at least cancer will take away only one life, but the depression will swallow your janmas after janmas. Cancer will not come to your next life. The moment the body is dropped, the disease also will disappear. But the depression is not like that, it will come with you forever.

I always tell people even if you die out of cancer, don't die out of depression. Depression is the worst thing.

If you don't attend anything else also, don't bother, it is ok, but do not allow depression in you. Anything can be sacrificed, but not your bliss, not your joy.

If you are depressed, first thing, even if you lose everything it is ok, but correct yourself. Flood yourself with the Truth and remove the depression from you. Do not compromise this one line. Do not compromise in this one step.

If you compromise with anything it is ok. I always tell people, even my ashramites, that if you compromise on your other vows it is ok.

Sometimes you may miss the ahimsa. It is ok. Sometimes you may miss even the celibacy, even that is ok. Of course I am not telling you to go and do whatever you want! Even if you compromise in those one or two things, or you miss, it is not that big a sin, you can come back. But if you compromise on this one thing satya, you can't be helped at all.

If you compromise on honesty then all the other vows are questionable. If you compromise on this honesty, you are gone, you can't be helped. Then you will allow all other possible negativity to happen in you.

I always tell people, 'To be around me the only one thing is necessary.' I tell all our ashramites, 'Only one thing is necessary, honest relationship between you and me.' Whatever you feel, if you are able to open up, nothing else is necessary. Master's energy is such it will straightaway penetrate you and heal you.

I always tell people, 'If you can, go and talk to the murti of the god or goddesses. If you can, go and sit in front of Mahāvīra and completely open up. Understand, when I say open up, I mean really feeling and telling him, 'This is what I am.' I promise you will be healed.

There was a devotee called Girish Chander Ghosh. He was the father of Bengali drama. He used to go to Ramakrishna but he used to live a different kind of a life - wine and women and what not. Once Ramakrishna told him, 'Go to Ganga and tell her all about your life, whatever you did, and just have an honest relationship with mother Ganga, the river Ganga. You will become enlightened. Everything will be washed away. You will become a mahatma.'

Girish was not able to understand, 'What is this, me going and just talking to a river? How does he think that I will become enlightened? I will become a mahatma, all my sins will be washed away!'

But Ramakrishna says, 'Go and do.'

Girish says beautifully inHis reminiscences, 'I went and told everything to Ganga. Suddenly I felt, now I am not able to see her anymore if I am not able to correct myself. So whenever I crossed Ganga I started feeling that guilt.

Now I know somebody is watching and after a few days whenever I was drinking the Ganga water, I felt the same thing. Somehow, I don't know how it happened, simply the purity happened in me. Now I know I can face Ganga honestly.'

Understand, if you really open up, even with your teddy bear, that's ok. Even with your teddy bear, nothing wrong, but you should have the honesty to open up. You should have the honesty to open up, at least with something.

If you open up in front of a milestone, or in front of a brick, in front of a stone, anything is fine. In Hinduism all milestones are gods! See, in those days the milestones used to be painted with a yellow and red paint, and people started worshipping them.

In Hinduism anything you get they will start worshipping. You can see the culture which has dedicated itself for worship. It emphasizes on opening up and feeling connected. If you feel connected even with your teddy bear there is a possibility. At least with somebody be honest, be straight.

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When you feel connected to the great Masters like Mahāvīra, when you sit in front of their murtis and feel connected and open up, and maintain the honesty with them, suddenly you will see they are working on you. Their presence is working on you. Allowing the Masters to work on you is the best way for enlightenment.

Here Mahāvīra is saying, be honest and speak only the Truth. And he is again telling, 'Speaking such Truth is very difficult indeed. It really needs intense awareness. You need to be alert. You need to be aware.'

One more thing, unless you raise the very frequency in which you are staying, unless you raise the very consciousness in which you are staying, you can't be Truthful.

You can't be Truthful, because if you are living in the same mood, you will forget many times that you are telling a lie. Only after telling a lie you will realize that you are telling a lie, because you are habituated to tell lies. For no reason, the moment you open your mouth nothing but lies will come. Just try to record one day whatever you speak. Tell somebody else to record, without your awareness, and the next day sit and edit and tick and see how many lies you told.

You will be shocked, there is no word which is Truth, you are habituated. Even small, small things you plan how to present to get maximum out of this situation. You do not tell what exactly happened. There is an automatic censor system inside you.

The other day a university professor asked me, 'Swamiji, every day you are talking hours together somewhere or other in the world.' If you see the website, there won't be a single day gap. Somewhere or other, I am constantly talking. He asked me, 'I don't see that you use any hints.' Here also only the sutra is there, no hints actually. Only the sutra and translation is there.

He told me, 'Swamiji, I have to speak one hour, means I have to prepare three hours. The same subject I am teaching for years, but every time I have to prepare three hours and I know for sure you don't have time to prepare every day you are speaking. How are you speaking, Swamiji?'

And he told me another thing, 'The moment I finish my lecture, two things happen to me. One, you become tired. Second thing, guilt - you repent, 'I forgot this point, I should have presented in that way.' Tiredness and guilt is always the result after my lecture.'

And not only for him, it is for all speakers. Any public speaker in the end will repent, 'I should have done this. I should have done that.' And he will be tired. Not only the speaker will be tired but usually the audience also will be tired.

He asked me, 'How are you speaking for hours together, Swamiji?' Only one Truth, I don't have a censor system inside. There is no automatic sensor system. That is why I don't feel tired.

One more thing, you have a censor system, because you are afraid that you might tell whatever you are thinking. And you have to prepare and carry notes, because you are not supposed to speak what you are thinking. You are supposed to speak only what you are supposed to speak.

Understand, that is why you carry notes. Your carrying notes means you are not supposed to speak what is going on . You are supposed to edit and present. If you edit and present you will become tired, because such a big process is happening inside you.

First, words will come. You have to edit them and see the hints and connect with them, then speak. So naturally three or four processes are happening inside. You will become tired in one or two hours and the person who is hearing also will become tired.

But in my case I don't have the editing system. I just speak, because what I am speaking has become part of me. It has become part of my blood. It has become part of my inner software. It has become part of my system. That is the reason I can continue, continue, continue, continue. Not only I don't become tired, people who listen also don't become tired.

They suddenly realize, 'Oh God. So many hours passed, what happened?' When you speak without editing, the power of ojas expresses through you. Vivekananda says, 'When I speak I don't have inner chattering. Because of that state when you hear you also will not have inner chattering.'

If I am speaking without editing, without two activities, you will also listen without two activities. The intense tuning will happen when you sit with an enlightened being. If you become honest in the being you don't need to prepare, you don't need to use notes, you don't need to edit.

He says, 'Speaking such Truth is very difficult indeed.' your very inner consciousness has to be raised to a different level. Just speaking the Truth is impossible by you, unless you are constantly being alert.

Maybe you can take this as a small homework, just try. Till tomorrow, try with full alertness. Maybe you can have a small notebook. Whenever you miss, note down how many times you missed. Just try to see. Then you will understand what Mahāvīra means by the word 'being continuously aware.'

If you try just for twenty-four hours, only then you will understand the meaning of the word 'being continuously aware'. Today you need to carry only one message, only one line, 'being continuously aware.'

Please try to experiment with this one idea. Till tomorrow be continuously aware and see how many times you are failing. That is enough. You will learn what Mahāvīra wants you to learn. You will learn what you need to learn. That is more than enough.

Instead of carrying one thousand ideas in your head and not practicing or experimenting with anything, just carry this one idea and experiment with them. You will see the transformation simply happens in your very being.

Let you experience this Truth, achieve and radiate eternal bliss, nithyananda.

Thank you!