Master's Zen Stick
We were almost at the end of our trip, on our way back to Hardwar. At Joshimath, after master had spoken on the need for love amongst disciples, one or two people complained at how unfairly they believed they had been treated by others. If they expected compassion, they were quite mistaken. What came out was the yoga danda, the Zen stick.
Master uses the Zen stick only on disciples who are close and intimate. It is the yoga danda - the zen stick - used to awaken them. The greatest relationship on earth is the master-disciple relationship. This too along with other relationships has reduced in value and quality in modern times.
In Vedic times there was no word for divorce; even the concept was unknown. Today, a wife is not a wife; she is a girlfriend. A husband is not a husband; he is a boyfriend. Relationships are shallow and superficial. Even a few decades ago in Hindu villages you would hear of couples passing away on the same day. The relationship was so deep it made no sense for one to carry on without another.
In the vows of the Hindu marriage, the commitment to each other is until death. The husband tells his wife, 'I shall be your child in the eleventh year.' He becomes the wife's child. She reaches the ultimate in her purpose by becoming a mother. All enlightened women masters essentially express motherhood. All enlightened men masters essentially express innocence. Paramahamsa denotes innocence.
The experience is sharing, not just receiving or giving. This connotes level difference. Sharing connotes equality. You just share your space. You share the five relationships with master: dasa, sakya, vatsalya, matru and madhura; servant, friend, child, parent and beloved.
The master-disciple relationship is the deepest of them all; it is all these five put together, and more. So many masters are now available all over the place, that it's now a buyer's market, no longer a seller's market as in the olden days. When you open yourself, you get enlightened. People ask who they should follow. I say follow anyone, but follow intensely and open up. Even if he is not enlightened, you will be. ```
Let me repeat one of Ramakrishna's parables.
A milk maid used to come from across the sacred river Ganga and deliver milk to a preacher everyday.
One day she was late and the preacher was wild with anger. 'You delayed my puja,' he shouted.
She said, 'The river was flooding so I could not cross.'
He said, 'I teach people how to cross the ocean of life by repeating the name of the Lord and you cannot even cross the Ganga.'.
She was never late after that. The preacher one day suddenly asked, 'How come you are never late these days?'
'Oh, I did what you taught me,' she said, 'I now walk on the river instead of taking the boat.' The preacher could not believe what she said, and wanted her to show him. He saw that she repeated the name of 'Krishna' and just walked over water.
Then he thought, 'If she can do it so can I'. He started to cross. Suddenly the milk maid laughed. He looked at her angrily. 'Oh, what faith you have, master,' she said. 'You are lifting the corner of your robe so that you don't wet; how can you cross with such lack of faith?'
The depth of the relationship enlightens. But you play a safe game. You don't let go. If you can leave you can live. If you can live you can leave. We believe others are not honest because we are not. All we do is to try and bargain. If you come, I shall come that far. Fight or beg. You know nothing about relationships.
So-called disciples are the problem creators. They create trouble for themselves and for their master. We never go to a master for solution, only for support.
Shankara was on his spiritual wandering. Any potential master had to travel far and wide to know society from different planes. He had taken a vow of poverty and ate only what was given. He stopped at a village liquor shop because he was thirsty. The owner poured out liquor and Shankara drank profusely. His disciples were shocked but decided to follow suit. They then staggered behind Shankara. At another village there was only a black smithy shop open. Shankara stopped there. The owner had only liquid metal and Shankara drank that without a murmur. He then looked at his disciples and said, 'Drink!'
Never try to imitate the master blindly! Do it with great awareness every moment if you wish to.
You will ask, 'Vivekananda smoked, so why not me?'
It's like the Devil quoting the scriptures.
You will go only as far as you can accept; only till your ego is not offended. The moment you are not seated in the front row, it means that you find it difficult to take the master's teaching. So long as your ego is satisfied, I'm your master!
Ramana said, 'People come as disciples, then they themselves become masters.'
Ramana tells a disciple to do self enquiry. The disciple says, 'It is too difficult. Can I do meditation instead?' Ramana says, 'Yes, go ahead.' The disciple comes back and says, 'Meditation is too difficult, can I do chanting'. Ramana again says, 'Yes'. The disciple comes back saying, 'Even the chanting is too difficult. Can I do puja?' Ramana agrees to that too!
Masters are like a breeze. Masters give you freedom because they trust; but we never believe we are trust worthy because nobody has trusted us.
When you smile, you open your mouth this much for this reason. When someone smiles at you, they are expressing love. But for us, even in an ordinary relationship, we cannot believe the other.
We always play the same game: stretch one hand only that far. Only in a graveyard are you fully secure; except that you are not alive.
When you do not open yourself up even in an ordinary relationship, how can you open up to a master? How can you surrender?
Ramanuja is an upgraded version of Shankara. A disciple asks Ramanuja, 'How can I develop devotion?' Ramanuja asks, 'Have you ever fallen in love?' The disciple is shocked. 'I am a brahmachari, a celibate, how can you even ask?' Ramanuja laughs and says, 'If you cannot love people who you see every day around you, how can you love God who you cannot even see and have never seen?'
All our devotion is escapism. When you cannot love your husband or wife, how can you love God? You can only love your pet dogs. The guru and God also become pets. We love them as long as they obey us. Otherwise they are no good for us.
Modern man can never understand the master-disciple relationship, although it is more solid than all other possible relationships put together. Ramakrishna says, 'A miser's attachment towards money, a chaste wife's attachment towards her husband and a friend's attachment towards a close friend - all these put together and something more is what is devotion, or the relationship between master and disciple; only then you can be really connected.'
When you are really deeply connected, there can be no side effect or after effect except bliss. Bliss is the only thing that can happen in a master-disciple relationship. If there is suffering, it means that the true relationship has not yet happened; you are just playing in a superficial way; you are dating with the master, not really relating with him. Dating is very superficial; you can meet today and drop it tomorrow, but in a real relationship, it is a deep commitment.
You can never relate with the master by superficially engaging with him.
These days only purohits (priests) get married; not couples. No couple knows the meaning of the seven vows that they take during marriage. In the vows, couples swear that when one is depressed, the other will take care as father or mother. Another vow is: except when the other needs you, you shall not force yourself upon the other. You will not suffocate the other.
Only when the relationship is superficial will you suffocate. When the relationship is deep you do not need physical proof of nearness and intimacy. You will be connected even if you are thousands of miles away. Even a husband and wife relationship can be spiritual and enlightening.
When a disciple does not understand or connect, the master uses the stick with love and care, only to those with whom he is close. Using the Zen stick is a very different form of scolding. This cannot be explained by words, intellectually.
If you can feel totally connected, even your husband and wife relationship can become a path to enlightenment; even that can transform you and become a spiritual practice. When you can't relate with people, how can you relate with God? It is impossible. Only when a relationship becomes mature, only in the deeper levels of relationship, the Zen stick is used.
The very word Zen stick reminds me of so many wonderful stories. It is almost as if all these stories are fighting with each other in my throat to come out first!
Anyhow, the zen stick is a gift from the master for your deep trust and love towards him. The great Zen masters used to have a stick, and when the disciple needed to become aware of something, if he was not listening to the teachings properly, he was sleeping in class, or not understanding something, they would take the stick and beat the disciple. It is done with so much love and care, and done only to the people who are very close to the master, towards whom master feels concern and care.
You can't use the stick towards anyone and everyone. They will sue you! Scolding with words is one thing, but physically using the stick is very different. If the physical stick has to be used, what intimacy must exist between the master and disciple! I would say that must be a much deeper relationship than between beloveds! It can never be explained by words or intellectually. Only when you melt into it you can even understand the words or this experience.
In Ramakrishna's life, a sage Totapuri comes to him at Dakshineshwar, on the banks of Ganga and says, 'You seem spiritual and ready, let me teach you advaita - the philosophy if non-dualism.' Ramakrishna says, 'Let me ask my mother first.' Ramakrishna rushes into Goddess Kali's temple and returns and says, 'Mother says 'yes' I can learn from you.' Totapuri is stunned when he sees this man treating the deity Kali as his own mother with no guile.
When Vivekananda asked Ramakrishna, his master, if he had seen God, Ramakrishna replied, 'Yes, more clearly than I see you now.'
In the famous temple of Goddess Kali in Kolkata, Ramakrishna offered conch shell bangles to Kali, which fitted all her hands except the fourth hand that holds the sword with the severed head. The temple priests would always offer the fourth bangle at her feet as it was not possible to fit them. They suddenly saw the bangles on Kali's fourth hand.
Startled, they asked Ramakrishna how this had happened? Ramakrishna told them, 'I asked Mother to put down the severed head so that I could put the bangles on her hand and she did.'
It is the power of deepest love and devotion that makes the stone deity come to life.
Today, even if we see God in human form, we will ask him to show his ID card!
People ask me, 'Are you God?' I say, 'It depends on you.' I can simply prove that you and I are both God. When you open up and you fall in tune, whatever God can do, all that happens through my form - everything can happen through you as well.
The problem is, although we declare we are ready for enlightenment, once the process starts, we are unable to handle it. It is too much for us. Losing our identity and becoming a hollow channel to Existence is too much for us. That is why God gives you freedom to be in bondage.
When the real relationship happens, the small Zen stick will enlighten you. Just the sight of the Zen stick will lead to enlightenment! A disciple was about to touch his master's feet. The master told him to wait and beat him with the stick. He said, 'Let me give you a blow before you get enlightened.'
The Zen stick is like a surgeon's knife: not to kill but to give life; to make you live. master's stick is not to disturb you but to enliven you, to enlighten you.
The Zen stick is the last weapon, the key to enlightenment. After enlightenment, no weapon can touch you.
Our minds fight with the master; if we are in a good mood he is a great master; if we are low, he is useless. It's like fish seeing the moon reflected in a pool. Some say, 'Let's play with it.' Some say, 'Let's kill and eat it.' The celebrating fish are joyful; the battling fish kill themselves.
Master is a possibility; he can be used as a stick to get up, stand up and walk, to realize our potentiality. Master is a promise.
It is like this: the seed is always afraid to break and sprout, but the tree says, unless you break and sprout I can't happen. The tree is waiting for the seed to break but the seed is waiting for the tree to happen. It says, 'How can I trust that I won't die? How can I be sure that I will become a tree? First let the tree happen then I will break.'
Master is the tree who gives courage by saying, 'Don't worry, I was also a seed once, I opened and now I am a tree. You can also become a tree, so open.' He is the assurance, the promise; he gives you the courage to open up, to stand up and start your journey. He gives the courage to make you realize that you can also achieve. Master is an assurance, he is a promise, who encourages you over and over again to stand up, open up and express. Unfortunately, not only do we not respect his words, but we also slowly start thinking*, 'He must have another plan, a hidden agenda. Otherwise why would he teach me all this?'*.
A blind man picks up a frozen snake in the high mountains. A sadhu wandering ascetic warns him not to carry it, saying that when it warms up it will come alive and will bite him and he will die. The blind man is angry and says, 'You want the stick yourself that's why you are asking me to throw it away.'
Whatever the master says, you calculate; you wonder what his reasons are. To be enlightened you need courage to open up to the master.
You can even open up to a master who has left his body, a master who is not living; or to Existence; any form; a tree; a stone; a hill. We just do not allow our being to open up to these forms of Intelligence; to fill us with bliss.
You do not need to ask the guru if you can take him as your guru. If that question arises, he is not your guru. A real master shakes the base, the roots of your doubts. You cannot intellectualize. When you are in the dark, how can you see who is in the light? How can you judge who is enlightened? Just listen to your heart. It has the energy and intelligence to guide you more than your head has.
When enlightened, you are connected to Existence; your inner chattering stops; you are in eternal bliss.
Intellect can take you only that far, up to a point. When you reach that point be ready to fall with trust. You then fall into awareness.
Surrender is greater than intellect which is greater than emotion which is greater than the senses.
A beautiful story from the Upanishads:
For a long time a disciple was serving a master.
Suddenly one day the master calls him and says tat tvam asi, Thou art That, and the disciple becomes enlightened!
He asks the master, 'If enlightenment is so easy why did you delay it so much? You could have given it long back'.
The master says, 'You have to go through the process of maturation and preparation to receive enlightenment, which takes a bit of time. To give enlightenment it hardly takes a second, but to receive enlightenment you need deep trust. Only now you are ready to receive that word. Even if I had given it to you earlier you wouldn't have received it. Only now the relationship has matured'.
To experience the ultimate, you need that deep relation. When that is there, one word is enough to give you enlightenment. A simple stick can change your whole life when the right relationship is there between the master and disciple. If that is not there, even a thousand sticks can't do anything to your being.
I think it is time to stop. May you have that deep, intimate, open relationship with a master. One more thing: when I say the word master you don't have to think of someone with a body; you can relate with masters who don't have a body, who have left their body or directly to Existence. You can relate with a tree, a flower, a rock, a river, a mountain, the sky; you can relate with all these, they are also masters. The whole Existence is a master. Life is constantly teaching us so much in so many ways, but we are so dumb that we close our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and don't allow that intelligence to penetrate our being. Just open up to the master and experience the ultimate bliss. I pray to that Ultimate Energy to help us all open up and experience that Ultimate Bliss, Eternal Bliss. May you be in, become one with eternal bliss, nithya ananda.
Thank you.
The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism ("SPH"), Jagatguru Mahasannidhanam ("JGM"), His Divine Holiness ("HDH") Bhagavan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam, is recognized as the 1008th living incarnation of Paramashiva as per Sanatana Hindu Dharma ("Hinduism") and by His predecessors of enlightened masters and adepts.
The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam is reviving Hinduism as the 1008th Acharya Mahamandaleshwar (the head for all spiritual leaders) of Atal Akhada (ancient apex body of Hinduism), coronated as Mahamandaleshwar (Supreme Spiritual Head) of
Maha Nirvani Akhada (largest apex monastic order) and the youngest Mahamandaleshwar, ordained as the 233rd Guru Mahasannidhanam (Pontiff) of Thondai Mandala Aadheenam, ordained as the 293rd Guru Mahasannidhanam
(Pontiff) of Shyamalapeeta Sarvajnapeetam, ordained as the 23rd Guru Mahasannidhanam of Dharmamukthi Swargapuram Aadheenam, and coronated as the 203rd Emperor of Suryavamsa Surangi Samrajyam.
The Srimad Karana Agama, Purva bhaga, Patala 71, Sakalotpatti vidhi, Sloka 8 & 9 (Sacred Ancient Hindu scripture) declares:
इत्येवं नि ष्कळं प्रो क्तं परं भा वमि ति स्मृतम्।
सृष्टि स्थं लो करक्षा र्थं लो कस्यो त्पत्ति का रणम्।। सा धका नां हि ता र्थं तु स्वेच्छया गृह्णते तनुः ।
In this way (Shiva) who is Nishkala - without any body and parts, who is the Ultimate Supreme Being, who is established in the Creation, who is the Cause of the creation of the Universe, assumes a body out of His Free Will for the protection of the Universe, and for the welfare of the Spiritual seekers and Devotees.
The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam is the reigning spiritual emperor of 17 ancient traditional Hindu kingdoms and the reviver of the most ancient, most peaceful, still-living and long-lasting demonstrable system that shows the possibility of peaceful co-existence amongst people. Following the coronation to establish KAILASA worldwide at the age of 16, for the past 27 years, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam, as the face of the unified Hindus, has been single-handedly, tirelessly inspiring the dispossessed
Hindu Diaspora to reclaim their Hindu centric freedom and stand unified for the centuries-old Hindu genocide.
The 1008th living incarnation of Paramaśiva, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam stands as the unifying force for the 2 billion born and practicing Hindu diaspora worldwide and established the Hindu State, KAILASA for the persecuted Hindus in over 100 countries.
The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam has made resolute efforts towards recognizing and legitimizing the Hindu genocide which has been receiving scant consideration by global leaders and international bodies, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam founded KAILASA Uniting Nations. For the past 27 years, this international body has been responsible in building relations, bridging dialogs, inspiring leaders, uniting nations towards acknowledging the Hindu policies which are universal, life positive as referenced from the ancient text of Hinduism. This is the 'ahimsa' (non-violent) way of bringing acknowledgment to the horrors of the Hindu genocide, the untold facts of the darkest act of mankind on Earth to the most contributing civilization - KAILASA.
KAILASA is an apolitical nation whose vision is enlightened living for all. Towards this goal, KAILASA is the only Hindu nation on planet Earth today bringing legitimacy to the principles of Hinduism. Social principles, economic principles, judicial principles, Hindu medical principles, and Hindu economic principles. KAILASA is The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam's response to humanity's global problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence and global warming and the continuing ethnocide and genocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries.
Over the last 50 years, the effects of meditation and its significant impact on stress, crime rates, violence, political decision making and even war in local and global consciousness is well established. Unfortunately, in the last two hundred years, forcibly we are made to believe Hinduism is a functional principle only for enlightenment and spirituality. It is absolutely dysfunctional for the political, social, economical system. Making Hindu family structure, Hindu social structure dysfunctional is the greatest crime done against humanity.
Sanatana Hindu Dharma has faced both historical and ongoing religious persecution and systematic violence, in various forms including assassination attempts on living incarnations, targeted elimination of Hindu pontiffs through bio war and lawfare, cyberbullying, Hindu phobia, forced conversions, documented massacres, demolitions, desecration and grabbing of worship temples and monasteries, looting of Hindu temples properties, destruction of Hindu educational institutions, elimination of well known Hindu libraries, the gross violation to the freedom to practice the Hindu school of liberated thinking (Sankhya), Hindu schools of living enlightenment (Jeevan Mukthi), gross violations of the right to freedom of religion that includes violations of the right to life, personal Hindu integrity or personal Hindu liberty, mass execution, looting and enslavement.
Hinduism was once practiced freely in over 56 nations across the continent from Afghanistan, Bharat, Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka, all the way to Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia and Indonesia, and in 200 states, 1700 samasthanas (provinces) and 10,000 sampradayas (traditions). Over several centuries the combined forces of foreign invasion, political upheaval, colonialism and religious persecution systematically ended millennia of Hindu Swarajya, or self-rule. Today Hindu temples remain in a few countries but the Hindus who worshiped in them have been ethnically cleansed.
The revival of Hinduism through the civilizational nation of KAILASA globally irked vested interests of atheistic terrorist militant elements, caste supremacist terrorists and other anti-Hindu forces who executed a massive persecution and genocide on SPH and His followers on 2 March 2010 that continued for the next whole decade and comprised of over 70 assassination attempts, over 250 sexual assaults on SPH and his monks and disciples, lawfare of 120 false cases over 10 years, massive hate propaganda in electronic media of over 14,000 hours and print media of over 25,000 articles in 5 years, destruction of heritage properties and the continuing ethnocide and genocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries. Specifically, the lawfare involved:
Delegitimizing SPH by hate propaganda, disenfranchising Him of His civil and human rights, prejudicing Him from fair representation and fair trial
Repeated illegal imprisonment, with brazen torture, custodial assassination attempts, supported by system justification in various forms, including the common processes of bureaucracy, indifference, self-deception, diffused responsibility and has resulted in continued systemic complicity with torture, murder and genocide
Well-planned multi-layer false hate propaganda by the 'fourth estate' media sustained by moral disengagement, leaving the broader public in a state of willful ignorance, motivated denial, out-group victim-blaming, dehumanization and bystander apathy to even genocide.
The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam stands in solidarity with the untold, multi-level - social, political, intellectual, religious, cultural, linguistic, economic, legal, digital persecution done to Hinduism and faced by Hindus and Hindu minorities worldwide for the past several thousands of years continues through the modern day. The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam has been recently acknowledged by the United Nations for the persecution of The SPH and the KAILASA global community, especially the affected women and children.
The KAILASA with de facto spiritual embassies operating across over 100 countries and having presence across the globe as the largest spiritual knowledge source on Hinduism is spiritually governed with the life positive, all-inclusive, universal policies sourced from Hinduism revived by the SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam. Having enriched and enreached more than one billion individuals over the past 27 years the KAILASA raises the voice to protect Hindus, defend Hindus and preserve the Hindu narrative for the world.