You are not an island!
When you experience the blissful chaos within yourself, slowly your idea of yourself as a solid being begins to dissolve.
You start letting go of the idea of separateness from everything, which is the source of all your misery, all your fear.
You are no longer standing against the whole universe!
You awaken to the Truth of your deep connectedness with everything in Existence.
Right now, by continuously seeing yourself and everyone around you as physical bodies, you feel disconnected and separate from everyone and everything.
Maybe in the outermost, physical layer it is true; you are separate – or at least, you seem to be separate.
For example, if your neighbour eats contaminated food, you need not be rushed to hospital!
Only the person who eats it will be affected.
But as you move closer and closer to the core of consciousness, a different picture unfolds.
You begin to see the interconnectedness of everything.
For example, if the air is poisoned, if there is a chemical explosion that releases toxic fumes into the atmosphere, all the people living in that area will suffer - even though they are so many separate bodies!
Already, the idea of your physical boundary begins to dissolve.
When we move inward to the mental layer, you see that even your thoughts affect those around you.
Your thoughts are definitely more infectious than your cold! In fact, people may escape from your cold, but they cannot escape from your thoughts, nor you from theirs.
Who hasn't experienced that atmosphere 'charged with emotions' at a cricket match, a wedding or a funeral, or a spiritual gathering?
Understand, we are continuously connecting, absorbing, influencing one another at the level of thoughts and emotions!
Even the phenomenon of mob violence arises because the emotions of many individuals are so much in tune that they start acting as one entity!
The miracle is, your thoughts can affect not only those in your immediate space, but even those who are far away. When it comes to thought, even physical distance is not a barrier!
If a thought arising from you can touch someone millions of miles away, traveling at the speed of light – can you still see yourself as a limited, physical entity?
In the physical layer, God, you, and I can be represented as three different points in the circle. In the physical level, the distance between us is great.
If you go inward a little to the pranic level, the distance between us is reduced. If you go deeper to the mental level, the distances are further reduced.
When you go deeper and deeper, all three merge into one. You can see that at the innermost point of all these layers, god, you, and I are one.
There is no distance.
That is the Truth even at the gross level!
It is only your perception that causes you to think you are a separate entity.
When you love someone intimately, he or she becomes part of your being.
When you are in love, you get a glimpse of what I am saying.
For the first time, you feel that you are not a separate entity.
That is why being in love gives you such a high!
When you move beyond your individual identity, you experience tremendous joy and liberation. Because deep inside, you know that you are not a separate entity. You are a part of collective consciousness.
Once you become aware that you don't have to defend yourself against Existence, that you are a part of Existence, you go beyond pain, suffering, depression and disease.
WAVE IN THE OCEAN You are part of the cosmic consciousness YOU ARE NOT AN ISLAND!
As long as you try to carry yourself as an individual ego, you continue to suffer in some way.
All the violence you carry, whether you express it externally or turn it upon yourself, is the result of seeing separation where there isn't any.
Be very clear: even your physical diseases are rooted in this sense of separation from Existence!
This is the reason you resist even simple changes in Nature, like heat and cold!
Whatever nature offers, you resist.
During my wandering days, I have seen many sannyasis in the Himalayas living in the extreme cold of the Himalayan mountains, with only the bare minimum of clothing. I myself lived for many months like that. But the body was never disturbed. I never had a problem. The reason is, I never felt that I was different from my environment. I never had the feeling of separation from nature.
It is only when you start thinking that you are different from Nature that you start resisting it.
Because you think that you alone are responsible for maintaining your body, you become obsessed with your health.
What you don't realize is, so many of your physical problems arise out of resisting the natural current!
Understand: at any time, all possible bacteria and viruses are present in the air. At any moment a single virus or bacteria can cause a disease in you. But if you are in total tune with nature, even if the virus or bacteria enters your body, you will not be disturbed!
When you hold on to your body too tightly, even your physical immunity suffers.
When you live as if the whole of Existence is your enemy, it really starts behaving as if it is your enemy. You create a separation and hurt yourself. Remember, Existence is here to guide and protect you, not to destroy you!
There is a very simple practice you can take up now. If you are feeling cold, just relax into yourself. Identify the area where you are feeling cold. Witness that area.
In that area, don't resist the atmosphere. Don't resist the air. Don't resist the temperature. Just say to yourself, 'I am not going to resist nature. I am not going to resist the temperature. I am not going to resist Existence. Let me relax.'
Make a conscious decision.
You will see the body relaxing, and the idea of cold disappears! You become completely comfortable.
When I say this, people ask me, 'It is alright to practice it here, but what about in real extreme conditions?'
The mind always likes to think of extremes, even if they are never going to happen.
Be very clear that even in extremes, you can do this, if you put your effort into it with totality.
The problem right now is that you don't have that much totality, that much clarity.
If you can totally fall in tune with nature, you can surely be comfortable even in extreme conditions. There are many human beings who do that and so can you.
When you are out of tune with Nature, you are unable to catch the signals that Nature is continuously sending you.
WAVE IN THE OCEAN
A few years ago when a tsunami (tidal wave) hit the Andaman and Nicobar islands of Bharat, it was found that hours before the tsunami hit the islands, all the animals, including the huge ones like elephants, had all moved to safe areas of the island, away from the ocean.
You must have heard any number of accounts of animals and insects being aware of earthquakes and storms beforehand.
What is the difference between these animals and us?
It is their connection with nature!
Because they are in tune with nature, Nature protects them. It sends them signals to prepare and protect themselves! Understand, it is only human beings who have become blind and deaf to the direct signals of Nature.
When you are in tune with the collective consciousness, Nature becomes your friend, and protects you.
Even at your workplace or in society, if you want to be successful, you need to fall in tune with the whole group. As long as you have an idea that you are 'somebody', as long as you want to protect your distinct identity, be very clear, you will be resisting and you will be resisted! As long as you resist the current, you continuously create hell for yourself and for others.
Individual logic dissects and destroys.
Collective consciousness connects and unifies.
The moment you understand that you are deeply, totally, intensely connected to the whole universe, not only do you start experiencing bliss, but you also start living for the first time.
You start opening up many dimensions of your being.
If you disappear into the collective consciousness, you will again and again be protected and taken care of. Not only will you achieve success in the outer world, you will experience deep fulfilment in the inner world as well.
Right now you are stressed out, continuously disturbed, you have to think too much. You have to think so much. There is too much load on this one body and mind.
Instead, you can enjoy so much!
If you disappear into this collective consciousness, you will experience possibilities that you simply cannot imagine! With one body, if you can enjoy so much, imagine what will happen if you have many bodies! This is the experience you will get when you realize you are a part of the collective consciousness. Whatever you think of as you just disappears.
What you really are is revealed.
A small story:
A man was told by a group of people that his wife had fallen in the river and he needed to jump in and save her. He immediately jumped in and started swimming against the current. Everybody was surprised and shouted out to him, 'Hey! Why are you swimming against the current? She would have obviously gone downward with the current.' He replied, 'You guys don't know my wife. Even if she falls in the river, she will fight it like she fights everything else! She will move only against the current!'
Q. If we are all connected at the mental level, why are we unable to read other people's thoughts?
A. You are already doing that, each and every moment! The only thing is, you are not aware of it.
Do you think that all your thoughts are your own?
No!
You are continuously tuning in to the thoughts that are floating around in your environment.
A strong thought is a powerful mental vibration released into the atmosphere. It is an independent entity! Once you release it, you have no control over what is going to happen to it. Similarly, you unconsciously receive thoughts that have been created and released by others.
Usually, you pick up only the thoughts to which your mind is already tuned! When you have repetitive thoughts, you emit and receive those thought waves that are of the same pattern.
It is like this: there are hundreds of electromagnetic waves in the air, but your TV set picks up only the waves of the frequency to which it is tuned. You create your own web of thoughts, and continuously absorb similar vibrations from the environment.
You can see so many instances in history where the same discovery was made at about the same time by people in different parts of the globe and by people who did not even know each other. This is because the ideas are floating in the collective consciousness. The minds that are ready and waiting for the floating ideas will tune in and convert that potentiality into reality!
When you tune in to the law of the cosmos, you go beyond your individual consciousness. You can simply download information from the cosmos and work with it! All supernormal powers like telepathy, 'sixth sense' and the power of prophecy arise from the ability to tune in to the collective consciousness.