Vishudhi Chakra🔗

Vishuddhi chakra is located in the throat area. In Sanskrit, Vishuddhi means 'beyond purity and impurity'.

This chakra is locked by comparison and jealousy and it can be made to flower, when we exhibit our individuality without worrying about others, and express fully our capacity, uniqueness and creativity.

We always compare ourselves with others, and more often than not we feel what others have or what they have achieved is more than what we have, and we start feeling jealous. When we are not able to bear others' excellence, we get jealous. Comparison is the seed and jealousy is the fruit!

Comparison and jealousy are both actually non-existent! We create them ourselves and talk endlessly on how to overcome them. This concept can be clearly understood by looking into the very name of this chakra that is Vishuddhi.

Shuddhi means pure. Ashuddhi means Impure. Vishuddhi means beyond both pure and impure. The name therefore means that this chakra can never get impure and hence never needs to be cleansed. That is why, Comparison, which locks this chakra is like a shadow without an object. There is no basis for the concept of comparison. It is purely a figment of our imagination.

We are so busy comparing all the time that we never see things as they are! Our mind is so caught up in comparison that it misses the actual quality of what it sees. We need to drop the comparing attitude to be able to see things as they are.

Now…let us say that you queue up all the people in the world in ascending order of money. You are also part of that queue. Where would you think you would be?

Somewhere in the middle ?

Exactly! You will be somewhere in the middle, is it not? You will not even be able to count the number of people on either side of you in the queue. The people in front of you will be so many in number and the people behind you will also be so many in number.

And the people might have to keep shifting their places also because the amount of money that they have keeps changing every minute! Now, with your thoughts, you have to decide, if you are going to look at the length of queue in front of you and feel jealous or look at the length of queue behind you and feel relaxed and grateful to God! It is in your hands.

You very well know that nothing can be told about where you are in the queue, but the thought disturbs you all the time! We are haunted by a phenomenon that does not really exist! It has got a negative existence!

Let me explain to you what I mean by negative existence. Take this bell here that is beside me. If I want to remove this bell, I can simply take it and leave it outside the room and it will not be here any more, am I right? This bell has a positive existence and so it is possible for me to do this. Now, let us say there is darkness in this room. Is it possible for you to take the darkness and keep it out? No!

But if I bring light into this room, the darkness will disappear on its own, right? This is because, darkness does not have a positive existence; it has a negative existence. Because it has a negative existence, we cannot simply remove it.

In the same way, comparison does not have a positive existence. It exists only in our minds; it happens only when we exercise a certain thought in our mind. Because comparison does not exist in reality, you cannot overcome it by simply asking it to go away. You can overcome it by bringing in an understanding about it in your mind, just like how when you bring in light, the darkness disappears.

The moment you are caught in the cycle of making others' dreams a reality for yourself, you are in the rat race. Comparison and jealousy are nothing but borrowing others' dreams and trying to make it a reality for yourself. It takes Shakti or Power to be in the rat race. Shakti or Power will make your dreams into a reality. But the real achievement is in understanding that reality is actually your dream! To understand this, you don't need power; you need Buddhi or Intelligence.

Power will make your dreams a reality while Intelligence will make you understand that Reality is your dream! Intelligence will make you understand that you are already what you need to be, you just need to wake up to it, and that everything else that you are trying to make as a reality, is only borrowed and illusory!

We are always looking to achieve in the outer world. This is the root cause of comparison and jealousy. People respect you only if you have achieved something tangible in the outer world. Educational degrees, beauty titles, company designations, published papers, bank balances, are all scales that society uses to grade you.

See, first of all, you don't need to be graded by anyone. Place trust in your own intelligence and grade yourself. Of course, there is a lot you can achieve and serve humanity in the outer world. After all, only because of the achievements of science, you are able to hear what I am talking through this microphone today.

But understand that there is a lot to be achieved in the inner world. The outer world achievements are all incidental. They will get you instant name and fame and money. The real achievement is in the inner world.

Center yourself well with acute awareness and simply take part in the outer world activities like a lotus untouched in a pond. Let the work in the periphery go on undisturbed, but center yourself in your Being. You will then be able to perform much better in the outer world, because your inner intelligence will be growing and guiding you in performing and watching the results as a mere observer.

Then automatically, you will stop swaying in accordance with the outer world achievements and feel stability and joy in the center of your own Being. Finding your center is the only way out of this whole cycle of comparison and jealousy.

We have three layers of Energy in us. The first layer energy is from our mind and it is this that we use for our day-to-day activities from morning till night. Once this energy expends, you start feeling tired and irritated if you are given more work to do.

The second layer energy is the emergency layer. It is the energy that arises from your emotions. At the time of emergency, this energy opens out. Say you are walking on the road. If a dog starts chasing you, the fear emotion surfaces and what do you do? You run much faster than the fastest you can run under normal conditions, is it not? Even if you are dead tired, even if you are unable to move a limb, if suddenly a dog chases you, you will run with a different kind of energy. This is the emergency energy - that arises out of emotion.

The third layer Energy is the Being level Energy. This is an infinite source of energy within you, which you don't use at all. This energy layer can be opened and experienced by deep meditation. Whether you accept it or not, you are in connection with all these three layers of Energies. This Vishuddhi chakra holds in it the key to these higher energy levels.

The Vishuddhi chakra is the door through which all these three layers of energy can be opened out, but you are not aware of it because you have not used these layers effectively in a long time.

If you keep this chakra in a cleansed condition, you can scale great heights in the outer world and great depths in the inner world. When you have low self-esteem or jealousy, this chakra is locked. Low self-esteem is a passive manifestation of jealousy, that's all. Jealousy is active while low self-esteem is passive. Both are a result of comparison. With low self-esteem, you feel you are no good and resign yourself to it. In jealousy, you are unable to bear it and start reacting; that is the difference.

Understand one thing: Any self-esteem that you have about yourself that indicates to you that you are lesser than God is low self-esteem, because you ARE God. That is why I say there is no scope to compare yourself with anyone else.

You need to experience the second and third layers of energy hidden in this chakra, in order to understand the infinite potential that is lying hidden in you. This chakra is really the seat of energy for us. When we concentrate on it, we will be able to feel the energy radiating from it.

When you start competing with others, you forget your own self. You forget to strengthen your own Being, which is your actual untapped source of Energy. If you have physical strength and intellectual strength without the strength of the soul, it is of no use. It is only when you discover the strength of your soul, have you touched your life source.

You need to stand up with courage of conviction in your own path. Courage of conviction will happen in you only when you are strongly centered in yourself without comparing with others.

Whether you know it or not, whether you accept it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, you ARE God. This is the underlying basis of the Vishuddhi chakra also – discovering your own unique self and infinite energy.

Ajna Chakra

Ajna chakra is located between the eyebrows. In Sanskrit, Ajna means 'will' or 'order'. The Ajna chakra is known as the Master Chakra.

This chakra is locked by seriousness and ego and it can be made to flower by innocence, simplicity and intelligence, and by shedding all forms of ego.

The Ajna chakra is known as the Chakra Raja – the Master of all the chakras.

This is such a significant chakra that there is no religion that has not worked on activating it. When the Ajna opens, the whole Being enters into a different realm. A whole layer of faculties opens up. That is why all the oriental gods are represented with a third eye in their forehead. The third eye is a symbol for the awakened Ajna.

There is an old saying, that if you die in Varanasi, a sacred city of Bharat, you will automatically get liberated. Varanasi is not just the city as we know it. It is also the region where the vaarana that is the eyebrows meet the naasi, that is the nose, which is the exact location of the Ajna chakra. It symbolically represents the death of ego in the liberated or enlightened state.

The Ajna chakra is concerned with ego, with seriousness, with thinking too much about ourselves and therefore taking life too seriously.

Seriousness is nothing but paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else. It stems from the inability to see that all of life is just a drama that is unfolding every minute. Seriousness is the result of over-expectation from life.

Seriousness closes your mind to the openness and freedom of life. It makes you dull and dead. It curbs your thinking and makes you stick to the familiar patterns that you know all the time.

Science has proved that when you perform a task in a relaxed and light manner, your thinking and decision-making capacity is automatically enhanced. The same task when performed in a serious manner dulls your mind.

When you do something too seriously, when you are too concerned about the result, you are actually not allowing yourself to perform at the optimum level.

Of course, you need to make plans, you need to think ahead. But do it with sincerity, not with seriousness. Seriousness is not the same as sincerity. Sincerity is focusing on the task with enthusiasm and youthfulness. Sincerity is giving the task your best without worrying excessively about the result.

When you are serious, you don't enjoy, you don't laugh. How can you laugh when you are serious? They are mutually exclusive. Either you are serious or you are laughing; you can't be both at the same time because the very definition of seriousness is such.

But when you are sincere, you can be laughing and playful. You can continue to do the job on hand in a playful and creative way and the job will get done in a joyful fashion, and because you have finished the job, you have been sincere.

With sincerity, there is no worry, there is only enthusiasm.

One thing that really gets us serious is planning. There are two types of planning. Chronological planning is planning on a timescale. You decide: You will get up at such and such a time, finish your morning routine by a particular time, reach office at a particular time, and get certain tasks done that day at the office. This is alright. It is a practical way to organize your work in a way that can give the best results. This kind of planning with sincere action will take you from happiness to more happiness!

Psychological planning on the other hand, is planning in your head with no relevance to time or space. It is just a constant serious planning going on in your head, over and above the chronological planning. It keeps you thinking that you are serious and dutiful. It is actually nothing but complex negativity being applied to the chronological planning that has already been done. You keep analyzing your plan, and getting into a dull state because all your energy is going in analyzing the plan again and again.

I tell you: Psychological planning is actually a way of postponing happiness, postponing life, waiting for something particular to happen to start enjoying life.

We always think, If I get married, my life will be settled. So let me work towards getting married.

If I have two children, my life will be fulfilled. Once I retire, I'll be peaceful.

It is the attitude - Now I'll be serious, later I'll be happy! In the end, you will be happy neither now nor then. You will lose your capacity to be happy at any time.

Don't harp too much on perfectionism. I tell you: Perfectionism can make you neurotic. Whatever you do, do it wholly, totally. Then automatically, whatever you do will be total and you don't have to worry about perfectionism at all.

Perfectionism never gives you joy, it only fulfills your ego. Even if you feel fulfilled at the end of it, it is only a fulfillment of your ego, never a fulfillment of your Being. Be very clear: Perfectionists are the biggest egoists. They miss the dimension of being total. And know one thing: Totality is possible when you enter into it deeply. Perfectionism is never possible because it is in your mind and your mind keeps changing its definition of perfection.

And one more thing: Have the courage to make mistakes. Serious people are always afraid to make mistakes. Actually I tell you, these people who are afraid of making small mistakes, end up making big blunders!

There is nothing wrong in making mistakes. In fact, by making a few mistakes, you come to know clearly how to avoid making mistakes, because you have experientially understood it. The more you learn from mistakes, the more you know about how not to make mistakes.

Knowing how not to make mistakes is a very important thing. Only then you have seen both sides of it; only then you have explored the two sides experientially. Else, there is always the danger of falling into the unknown side at a critical time when you really can't afford to.

Only one thing: Don't make the same mistake again! Your mind always repeats patterns. Don't do it with mistakes also. Make new mistakes! And move on to better and better understanding!

I am not saying to deliberately make mistakes. That is foolishness again. I am only saying, do things to the best of your intelligence and enthusiasm but without worrying about whether it might be a mistake. The moment you are worried that it might be a mistake, you are worried about your ego getting hurt.

People who are loaded with the past and the future are always worried about making mistakes. They don't know how to laugh spontaneously. They feel that it is their duty to shoulder the past and future and be immersed in it in all seriousness. This is a very highly egoistic attitude. They feel that if they don't do it, there is no one to do it for them.

First of all, there is no need to shoulder the past and future. Just be in the present, that is enough. These people are completely missing the present. They are completely missing the laughter in their lives.

Laughter is that which brings in a ray of Energy from your Being to your body. It totally rejuvenates your whole Self. It can heal like nothing else can. It gives you such wonderful glimpses of the present, which you try to achieve through other difficult meditation techniques. Laughter is the most powerful meditation technique.

You see, maturity does not have anything to do with excluding laughter. But somehow, we feel that when we are mature, we should automatically laugh less. Laughter is such strength because it brings in energy from your core to your periphery.

If you analyze why you laugh when a joke is cracked, you will understand: A set of logically connected statements is first told to you. When you are clinging on to the logic that has been created, the punch line is delivered and your logic is shattered! At that moment when your logic is shattered, your thinking, your mind is also shattered and you are in a state of no-mind or satori. You are Buddha!

When you are in no-mind, you are in the present. When you laugh, you are in the present because when you laugh there can be no thoughts. When you are thoughtless, you are in the present. When you are with thoughts, you are either in the past or in the future.

Laughter is total and it can simply heal and transform you. It is the best and easily available medicine for humanity.

We always think that we need a comedian or a joke to make us laugh. I tell you: When you start living in the present moment, your very existence will be beautiful and light. Your inhalation and exhalation of breath, the process of bread getting converted to blood in your body, the synchronous happenings of events in Existence, everything will be so beautiful. You will feel so much bliss and you will be ever smiling and laughing. Your whole Being will exude laughter and bliss.

Laughter is the highest spiritual quality. It can lead you to enlightenment! Laughing is a great healing energy. If you laugh at your sickness, you will become healthy. Laughter is a beautiful way of connecting with the Energy of Existence, which is pure healing Energy.

In our meditation programs, we always include laughter and dance. They are the easiest ways to becoming a Buddha! Dance can make you simple and light. Dance like laughter is another easy and enjoyable meditation. When you can dance without a care, you become the dance itself. Energy will then gush from you.

You can dance without a care only if you are free from all your pseudo identities. As long as you think you are someone, you can't dance in joy. Dance is an outward expression of inner joy. And I am not talking about programmed dance where you know which step is going to come next. I am talking about letting go of your so-called identities and feeling the oneness with Existence and dancing with that joy.

The self-conscious ones are the egoistic ones. They are so bothered about what others will say about their dance and so they sit quietly. Again, they are guarding their ego and they are missing the joy of life like anything.

Once in a while at least, in your home, play some music and dance. Simply decide to let go. It can become an intense meditation that can take you beyond your mind and transform you in a way that words can't. Be natural. Be original. The people who comment on your dance are simply missing out on the joy of dance. Don't bother about them. Just dissolve and become the dance itself. Laughter and dance are the easiest techniques to shed your ego and merge with Existence.

Simply put, when you no longer feel yourself as a separate entity, ego has dissolved. When you become enlightened, your ego has ripened and ruptured. When your ego drops, the barriers you posed earlier will disappear and Existence will simply flow through you freely.

When your ego dissolves, you cease to exist and you simply merge with Existence! This is the state of Enlightened Masters. You are a part of Existence, and whatever causes you to think otherwise, is ego. That's all. It is like this: A fish, whether it likes it or not, whether it accepts it or not, whether it believes it or not, is a part of the ocean. It has two choices. It either lives happily in the ocean, or fights with the ocean and still continues to live in it, making its own life miserable.

If you flow with Existence, you will enjoy every moment of your life. You will become porous, sensitive, creative and fluid.

When you are full of wonder for Existence, you can create. On the other hand, when you are full of ego, you cannot create; and even if you create, your creation will be a dead creation. It will be like a plastic rose, which looks perfect but lacks the fragrance and life. When an artist creates out of love, he can give a certain special quality to the creation. If he creates out of ego, the creation is lifeless.

The problem is, we have distanced ourselves so much from Existence, from our source, which lies deep within us. So we need constant reminders about it. You can start shedding your ego by first admiring and appreciating the beauty surrounding you. That itself will start sowing the seed of transformation in you. It will cause you to understand that there is a Life Force mightier than your ego, which is conducting this Universe.

The more you lose yourself to Existence, the more egoless you become. The more egoless you become, the more you lose yourself to Existence.

The Master-disciple relationship is there only for you to lose your ego. When you are alone, you cannot lose your ego. The Master becomes the device, the support, for you to lose your ego. The more you dissolve into him, the more you will be ready to open up and lose your ego. When do you know that your ego is dissolving? When you start experiencing a certain joy that you have not experienced before.

Just look at young children. They are so enthusiastic towards life. They are so loving. Have you ever wondered why you are not so enthusiastic as them? You were like them once upon a time, is it not? Then, where have we lost this enthusiasm and innocence? Come on tell me. Where do you think we have lost this?

Let me tell you, in this whole process of shedding our ego, we are trying to rediscover the child in us. When we were young, we were closer to realizing God. As we grew and became so-called mature, our social conditionings simply marred the child in us.

Ego comes in two forms. The active ego is easy to recognize. People with active ego will behave in a highhanded fashion; they will claim self-importance openly; they will not bend down to people; they will be haughty. This ego is actually easy to deal with, for a Master. He just needs to bang on it a few times and it will break!

Active ego is very easy to recognize. A person with an active ego will not be willing to let go of it even if all his other defenses like money, wealth etc are taken away from him. Active ego can be easily pruned.

But passive ego, is very subtle and cunning. People who have passive ego will pose to be very humble, lacking courage to face people, shying away from taking credit etc. The worst part of this is, they think they are like this because they are not egoistic. The truth is, they are more egoistic than the other lot! They are so carefully guarding their ego from getting hurt by doing all these humble things.

So be very clear: Most often, people think that active ego is the only kind of ego ever present. No. There is something called passive ego, which is what we just discussed, and this is more difficult to deal with.

People with active ego are like a dried and hard twig. They can be broken easily. People with passive ego are like a fresh and green twig. Each time their ego is hit, they bend but don't break. Their ego is so well safeguarded that it becomes difficult to deal with it. Actually, they work very hard to safeguard it, but in a sweet and passive way. Passive ego is more dangerous than active ego.

Whenever you find time, just relax and be aware of everything around you. Listen with your heart to all the sounds happening around you. It may be the sounds of birds, the sound of the calendar in the breeze, the sound of the fan above you, the sound of people around you, or whatever. Just listen with an open heart. Mind you, they are all not distractions. You are flowing with them and so they are not distractions. When you flow with them, they cease to be distractions.

As you do this, you will realize that there is a certain silence, a composite core inside that is actually witnessing all this and you will become more and more aware of that silence inside you. You will get glimpses of that silence in you.

Slowly, you will lose consciousness of your body also. You will only have awareness. You will feel yourself only through your awareness, not through your body or through your mind. Your body will not be numb but you will not be able to feel it, that's all; only your awareness will remain. This can take you beyond your mind if done intensely.

When you break free from the rigid mechanism of the mind, you become fluid, flowing, like a river; then you are intelligent. When you are able to think laterally, you are intelligent. When you are spontaneous, you are intelligent. When it is difficult to challenge you, you are intelligent.

When you know that Life is a drama, you are intelligent. When you understand that Existence is the ultimate Life Force, you are intelligent. When you are aware and conscious of your inner silence, you are intelligent.

When you can smile and laugh spontaneously without applying your mind to it, you are intelligent. When you radiate energy by your mere presence, you are intelligent. When you are not stuck anywhere for a long time, and not easily challenged, you are intelligent. When you can feel your ego consciously, you are intelligent. When you know that you are rich not because of your riches but because of your Being, you are intelligent.

When you recognize a Master, you are intelligent. When you are ready to let go your ego to the Master, you are intelligent. When you play the game of life enjoying every moment of it, you are intelligent!

Sahasrara Chakra

Sahasrara chakra is located on the crown of the head. In Sanskrit, Sahasrara means 'of thousand petals' - from the mystical experience of a lotus of thousand-petal blooming on the crown, when this chakra is activated.

This chakra is closed by discontentment and the attitude of taking life for granted and it can be made to flower by overflowing gratitude and contentment!

If you observe our prayers, you will realize that all of us are actually beggars. We simply ask, ask and ask. Our prayer is nothing but a begging bowl. We beg for material things, for smooth relationships, for power, for achieving our goals, for physical beauty, and what not.

We are all the time asking for something or the other continuously in our minds. In fact we are so much in tune with asking, that it has become an unconscious process within ourselves and we might not even accept that we are asking. We might argue that we are not asking, because we don't see it as asking. We see it as a natural way of life! We have become so involved in it and therefore unable to distance ourselves from it and see it with a fresh mind.

When you live with overwhelming gratitude in you, you have found a space wherein nothing else is needed. It means that you have fallen into meditation. Then, you will not worry about anything else. You are on the right track. Your mind is no longer a hindrance to your growth. Your mind has disappeared. The mind cannot step in because you are brimming from your heart. There is no space for your mind. When there is no space for your mind, where will discontentment come from? Discontentment cannot come from the heart. It is purely a product of the mind.

Instead of feeling gratitude towards everything around us, we are asking and questioning all the time. We need to get back this connection with Existence again. Gratitude can help bring back this lost connection. It can help you find your roots once again. It can help you commune with nature, with Existence.

Remember: Life itself is a gift to you! Have you worked hard to get it? Can any of you say that you have worked very hard to earn this life? No! That is why we don't realize its value! We simply take everything for granted – our bodies, our daily food, the beauty of nature – everything is taken for granted. We ask God for diamond rings – but do we thank him for giving us fingers to wear them? With time, even the diamond ring will lose its value to us!

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi tells God: "I am so very intelligent. I gave you all that I had, all my life - full of suffering. You in your compassion gave me in return your presence of Bliss!"

We need to imbibe this sense of gratitude from great Masters. This is the only thing we need to imbibe from them, the rest will be taken care of automatically, because when you imbibe this, the power of coincidence will make things happen for you and Existence will simply shower upon you.

Whether you accept it or not, Existence is taking care of you and all you need to do is, place your faith in it and do your duty with gratitude. You will then be showered upon by Existence.

We are simply not ready to place our trust on Existence! The very quality of trusting the Universe in your Being will make you live like God on Earth! You are missing out on this wonderful opportunity due to your own ignorance and ego.

If we consciously feel a sense of continued gratitude towards the Cosmic Energy, we will be able to feel ourselves being taken care of in its very lap. We will feel ourselves being cradled by this Energy, like a child is by the Mother and whether you accept it or not, this is the Truth.

Gratitude is not any virtue. It has to be your very attitude. You need nothing more than this to feel yourself tuning in with Existence. When you feel only gratitude, you can tune yourself beautifully to Existence, and then Existence will reveal to you its magical splendor. All you need to do then is sit back and enjoy!

There are thousands of programs happening around us. Whatever we tune ourselves to, that we will experience. Now, tuning to any one program is purely our own choice; any one objecting to this? No. You have the freedom to choose the program you wish to listen to, am I right?

In the same way, if you choose to tune yourself with the chaos that is created around you by human minds, you will become chaotic. You will be caught in the never-ending whirlpool of worry, discontentment, dilemma and what not.

Whereas, when you choose to tune yourself with Existence, with the central chord that is running this whole show, you have caught the right thread in all the chaos that is around you and will be free from all these emotions. You will become a beautiful flower that blossoms with a fragrance.

With the earlier emotions, life will seem like an eternal state of discontentment. With the latter, life will become music - the very language of Existence, and you will only enjoy with gratitude all the time. The more you fine-tune yourself with Existence, the more ecstatic life will be.

Discontentment will pull you down, make you heavy and miserable. On the other hand, gratitude and the fulfillment that comes along with it, will make you light and blissful. We all feel discontented because we take things for granted. When you take things for granted, you miss a lot and nothing will make you happy or joyful. I tell you: Never take anything for granted.

When you enter into a space where gratitude becomes your meditation, contentment automatically happens. The normal contentment that we all know always comes with a reason. It is related to something that has happened in the outer world that has temporarily put your busy mind to rest, that's all. When your mind is restful, you say you are contented. Real contentment is not this.

Real contentment is when you feel permanent gratitude towards the benevolence of Existence. Real contentment asks for nothing more. It simply enjoys everything without a reason; it needs no reason. When you reach this state, you will not know what discontentment is all about.

I tell you, just by feeling and radiating gratitude from your Being, you can change the face of planet Earth. All terrorism, wars, religious fanaticism, ill health, poverty etc. can be eradicated by just spreading awareness about the gratitude that needs to be brought out from each person.

When each one feels and radiates gratitude, there can be no war, no hate, no jealousy. All the possible roots for global negativity can be destroyed with just this one feeling, because the reasons for all negativity will simply dissolve with it. That is the beauty of gratitude!

Here we end the discussion about the chakras and now we will move into the structure of Yoga Sutras.